Linguistically Related Pet Peeve #1

The nineties were fun, I'm sure, the grunge was a nice touch. I grew up in the nineties after all... However when I decided to read up on some of the poetry from that decade, I came up short. Not as in there was none to be found, (there was an abundance clamouring for my attention) literally as in one-word stanzas and a complete disregard for rhyme and meter.

Yes, I get it.. you are all free spirits, non-conformists without answer to anyone... but then why the heck do you all write in the same, dry, unimaginative monotone, I ask?

Now, admittedly I'm a free-verse poet myself, but I've just one point to make here, poets of the nineties..

Writing it
in
short
lines won't
make
it
poetry, darnit.

To critique the poetry of my childhood decade... what IS this shit?

Character Development...

The Diera (Dee-air-rah) Files..

I've been working on a fantasy character, Diera, for over four years now... she's been a hard nut to crack, but like with most complicated characters, I've often found sketching her works.

When you have a drawing of a character, you can imagine better how their face would change with emotion: does thier face contort or squinch-up when they're angry? would they narrow their eyes or raise an eyebrow to convey suspicion? Are they an honest person, or do they wear a mask??!

I know they say "don't judge a book by it's cover" but it's scary just how much more of your character's personality you can flesh out by simply considering their profile....

Unfortunately, I have long lost my origional (first EVER) sketch of Diera from 3 years ago, in which she is 14 years old... In this origional drawing, Diera had brown-tinted skin, green eyes, and long hair.

Compare this discription to a drawing of her from the start of this year when, in a flash of inspiration, I saw her picking apples with her childhood friend Ayomi. I took this profile of Diera as a child, and composed this sketch, in which she is 9:

(sometimes I like to imagine Ayomi sitting under the tree quietly sketching this, while Diera darted around after the fruit-birds)

Her eyes are still green, at this point in the development of her character, but it was from this image I moved away from the solemn, serious Diera with the darker skin, pointed chin and a narrow face to a more wild, adventure-seeking character; in this version, she has a much wider face and higher forehead, which was a gigantic step on the way to the Diera I work with today.

Below is my most recent Diera sketch, which unlike the previous ones is set DURING the major events of the story (at 17 years of age), rather than before:

I drew alot of this from the previous chlid-drawing, trying to find what definition her face would gain over 7-and-a-half years, and came up with a stronger jaw and brow-ridge, for the determination she has gained over those years.

.

In homage to her mother (whose identity i will keep as my big secret!) she now has fiery golden eyes:

>>

At first I thought her eyes might change with the onset of puberty, but then decided that was a silly notion, and that for her to be born with the golden eyes of an eagle would mark her as the wild, spirited creature she would always be... and what better basis for a prophecy (or doom!) than a child with eyes like that?!

.

This is the Diera I currently work with. A full, true character... nowadays I greet her like an old friend- though the miles she has to run, I'm afraid, are only beggining!

.

.

All for now then,

This is little miss scribble, signing off!

-

Tanith's Escapades- the silent battle for the shiny iPod.

Tomas absently leaned over and handed Tanith half a sandwich, full attention given to the iPod screen.
His eyes were all squinched up in the afternoon sun, and his neon hair lit up like the vegas strip under the glare.
Tanith smiled appreciatively, and took the sandwich from Tom. Her eyes not moving from the pages of her novel.

Erin sat in the tree Tom and Tan were sitting under, glad of the shade. Watching the two she Resisted the urge to grimace.
And to think those two started off practically hating each other.
She shook her head in disbelief, lost her balance, and had to steady herself by clinging desperatley onto the branch in front of her.

Tanith glanced up, squinting in the glare,
"Hey Erin, how about a little personal time eh?"
Erin giggled, and clumsily made her way down, a reply on her tongue faster than a cricketer's reation time.
"yeah yeah, i'll leave you two lovebirds alone shall I? Geez! and you wonder why i keep an eye on ya!"

Tom pulled a speaker from somewhere in his curly fluro mop and looked over at Erin
"Ta Ezza." he noted
With that Erin swished away, turning only to stick out her tongue at the two.

"hmmmm" Tanith said.
"What's 'hmm' Tan?" Tomas enquired, and Tanith made a cross-eyed face at him.
"oh, nothing" she giggled, stealing the speaker no longer in Tom's brain, and sticking it into her ear.
'Gone Away' by the Offspring blared in to her brain, and Tantih took a bite out of the sandwich.

"Um, Tom?"
Thomas shifted to face Tanith, "mmm?"
"why is the sandwhich squashed?"

Tom paused the song and took a chomp of his half of the sandwich.
"well waddaya know," he noted sarcastically "it IS squashed! but Tan, I thought you liked them squashed"

Tanith regarded him for a moment and inclined her head,
"you know me too well, Cooper"
Tom stifled a laugh, and said through a mouthful of stras-and-sauce,
"I suppose you'll just have to kill me now, I know too much!"
Tanith leaned over Tom and un-paused the song
"dont give me ideas"

Tom gently took the speaker from her ear and replaced it in his own.
"oh, don't worry, I wont."

Tanith smiled.
-

copywrite, Leah Petts, 14.11.08