Word Bank Poem

The 15 random words I need to put in a 15 line poem:
orange, yogurt, ghost, wrap, computer, tuxedo, book, Ron, paper, staple, kangaroo, coffee, beige, crunch, and green.

The day starts with orange yogurt,

With a coffee that has two cubes of sugar.

Read a book about a ghost to pass the time.

Get dressed for the day and see if the grass is green.

Then it hits you that it's Ron's birthday.

Store after store nothing seems good enough.

Maybe a pet kangaroo?

No that won't do.

"Crunch" what just made that sound?

A piece of paper advertising a computer sale.

Off to Staples to get the computer and have it wrapped in gold.

Got the gift now time to get dressed.

The beige tuxedo looks just right.

Gift in hand and dressed for the party.

Leave to be fashionably late.

So there you go! Here's the writing prompt of the month and we'll talk more in December!

Happy Holidays

I hope you all are doing well this November. If you celebrate Thanksgiving I hope that the food and company is good. If you don't, I wish for you to have a low stress week. We will soon be moving into the December holidays which will be filled with jolliness and stress. Although I do believe we all would rather the holidays not be full of stress.

I will be putting up a writing prompt. It will not however be one from the Adventure Prompt Poll. It's going to be something won't eat up to much time. Sadly it's not going to be up the following week because of the holiday. Not to worry it will be up before you know it.

The Poll Is Almost Close

The Adventure Prompt Poll closes tonight at 11:50 and it is a tie. If it remains a tie there will not be prompt this month. I have repeatedly ask you, the lovely readers to vote on the polls. If you have not voted yet I ask that you do so. I don't know if blogger fixed the polls yet but, sometime a vote isn't counted the first time you put it in. You're going to have to reenter your vote so that it is counted. It sucks but it would make me happy if you decide to vote. Remember the poll is in the left column of the blog.

What About Us? Everyone Who Isn't White!

Welcome back for part two of the mini-series, It Sucks Not Being the Default! part one is Half the Population is Women. So I hope that you read that one first. As you get from the title, this is going to be about the portrayal of non-white characters in writing. Now I will try to avoid being too political. The biggest problem (at least to me) that authors have with portraying another race is the fact that they believe the stereotypes apply to the entire race. Now, just to be clear, not all authors have this problem. But if a writer isn't careful, they can portray their non-white character in an offensive way.


This also includes portraying non-white characters a being unintelligent, highly violent, over sexualize, greedy, and poor. It is fine to have characters like this but, to repeatedly portray a race like this is extremely harmful. Because these traits don't apply to any one race. I feel that harmful stereotypes are born this way. The action of one person shouldn't reflect on others of the same race. I will leave it at that because this blog isn't about politics.

So if the author's white, how are they to portray a non-white character competently? And the answer is to interview non-white people. Of course be respectful of the things that they tell you. They have no reason to lie about their life. It would be good to talk to them before you write the non-white character because there's a chance that some stereotypes crept in. Again, I'm not saying that every author has this problem. This is just me trying to explain how to create diversity in an authors' work.

But what if the author themselves are not white? Will they still have trouble portraying non-white characters? Just because the author is not white doesn't mean they can portray their own race correctly.  Also if they're going to have characters not of their race then, they may want to research and interview people of other races as well. But of course, not all authors have trouble with creating a diverse cast of characters.

So how do we get a diverse cast of characters? The easy way is picking random characters out of one hat and their race in another. For a more serious way to get diversity in characters, it will include understanding the culture of different races. This again can be done with research and interviews. But creating diverse characters is easy when you honestly want to portray diverse characters. Doing it half-heartedly upsets the readers and the people of the race the author portrays in their work.

That is it for this mini series and I hope you like it. This is merely me trying to point out ways that could help with writing non-white characters. That being said, I hope you've enjoyed our conversation.

Half of the Population is Women.

I hope everyone is having a nice day today, or it's at least not the worse day ever. If so I hope I'm able to brighten it a bit! This is our second mini-series and it comes in two parts. This is the first part and if you'll like to read the introduction it's called It Sucks Not Being the Default! It lightly touches upon what we'll be talking about. If this is the first time you're here it would be awesome of you to read my other post as well! You can find them in the blog archive. Also in the blog archive is the post A Drama With Comedy Ending in Tragedy it is the first introduction to the first mini-series. You are welcome to check it out. The last thing before I get to the meat of the conversation, be sure to vote on the Adventure Prompt Poll, it's in the left column.


Now we are all aware that there are males and females, yet males are more often than not the main character of the story. I feel that this has to do with the fact that authors learn to write in a male perspective. Until recent history, men were encouraged to get higher learning as well as get jobs and women were encouraged to find a good husband. But that has changed. Women now have more freedom than in those days where their main concern was only to get a good husband. However, that doesn't mean the perspective has changed with the times. Because society treats women as "the other", the female narrative view is alien. The only people who can relate to women is women, right? I don't think that's true. Because if everyone is able to relate to a male character then likewise we can all relate to a female one.

So, how about we look at one of the biggest problems with bad female characters. THEY ARE POORLY WRITTEN!!! As you all may know I hate it when an author doesn't create an interesting character. Even more so when they are the main character. You construct the female character just like a male one. I will admit that there is an element that needs to be addressed with the female character; how the world treats her because she is female. This can be addressed with other characters underestimating her abilities. Such as, being a female in a male-heavy workforce or dealing with being catcalled when she is only trying to get to work. Have no fear this doesn't need to happen all the time. This element helps flesh out the character and it is a relationship that should be shown.

A female character is poorly written when the author shows that they don't care about developing her. The best imagery I can think of is this: A woman continues to walk down a light gray hallway. The echoes are of her shoes and even breathing. Time and again she passes by doors that will lead her somewhere else but she is unable to open them. She is stuck and will remain so. She will walk the same hallway and pass through the different doors. But nothing will change for her. It's not good to have your character stuck playing one note. (Unless that's the point of the work.) A female character needs just as much time and effort in developing them as their male counterpart. Male and female writers can write strong female characters.

 A way to help create solid female characters is to talk to different types of women. Learning about their experiences with the world around them will help with the development of the character. Women are not scary and it helps if you’re respectful to them and listen well. The biggest thing to note is the gender of the character won't be a big problem as long as they are written well. If you hook the reader with the character then it should be smooth sailing.


Well, that is all I have to say on the matter. Part two of the mini-series will next so be looking forward to it. Again, do vote on the poll. It is important to the continuation of me posting prompts. I hope that you have been enjoying the mini series I have a lot of fun doing them. I will be continuing to do a mini-series from now on at least once a month. If that does change I will inform you. As for writing prompts they will happen once or twice a month. That may change if you, my dear readers continue to not vote on the polls. Thanks for reading!

It Sucks Not Being the Default!

Hello, my lovely audience it's time for the next mini-series! I'm sure it's not a surprise to anyone that stories about minority characters being portrayed correctly are few. Why is that? Well, I think it's because authors are taught to write in a male perspective. Here the default of perspective is a white straight male. That is not to say there is anything wrong with this perspective, it's just that there are other viewpoints to write from. Now some would think that it is easier for a woman to write female characters; that isn't the case. Female authors grew up with the same male narrative so some can be bad at writing from a female viewpoint like some male authors.

I believe this applies to non-white characters as well. There are a lot of stereotypes that blur our view of people and we assume that they are like these stereotypes. I personally don't find it a compliment when people tell me that I speak well for a black girl. But back to what I'm talking about. Because of this tradition of writing from the default, writers have some trouble disconnecting themselves from it.

This is where I come in to tell you my thoughts on the matter and ways to get out of such a rut! Well more like how I try to change the perspective myself. This mini-series will be in two parts:

1. Half of the Population is Women.
2. What About Us? Everyone Who Isn't White!

Our talk will be about trying to break the habit of seeing the world just one way and the traps that you can fall into. Hopefully, this will be a learning experience for all of us. Don't forget to vote on the poll you have until the 20th to do so.

Can I Eat Turkey Before I Eat Gumbo

If you don't know what gumbo is just google to find out, but I'm sure we all know what a turkey is. If you don't, then you can google that too. But here in the United States, there is this holiday known as Thanksgiving. We have this holiday to celebrate the Native Americans and the European immigrants putting aside their differences and becoming allies. Since I'm not a Native American and I don't feel like getting all of us depressed; I'll end the history lesson with that. The point of Thanksgiving is for friends and family to get together and spend the holiday with each other and being thankful for life.  Because big corporations can't make money off of happiness, Thanksgiving often gets skipped over for the December holidays since they're more profitable.

What's worse is that you can find (at least in the United States) Christmas related stuff in the summer.  Which is ridiculous because no one is thinking about Christmas in the summer.  There's no effort in just enjoying the season we're in now. I personally think that it harms us. There are many things you can do through out the year without attaching it to a holiday. You can be kind to your fellow man outside of December. I just want to take my time with the holidays and not be forced to feel whatever emotion that the corporations want me to feel. Like the feeling of spending money. Is that to hard to ask? Well for what it's worth lets have a nice November and a good Thanksgiving.

Voting you have to do it.

As, you the readers are most likely aware, I tend to remind you often to vote on the polls that are put up. I recently was notified that the poll doesn't always register the vote. So if you did vote, there is a likely chance that the vote wasn't counted. To help fix this is for you to hit the change your vote option and enter it again. Once you do that it should count the vote this time. I know it's a pain to do but it will make me really happy if you do it! And isn't it better to know that information? But don't think that I'll stop bugging you to vote on the polls.

Adventure Prompt Poll

So round three of the polls is up! Hope you guys remember to vote since voting will be lasting for a while. The prompts:

• Night at the museum is about a youth being in the museum after it closes and they mess around while trying not to get caught by the security guards.
• Oh the choices is about a person finding two objects before them that will decide their fate.
• Captain off deck is about a crew having to face off a sea monster and the captain is no where to be found.

Again don't forget to vote for the poll. It's in the left column. If you haven't already there are two writing prompts up that you can read; Labyrinth and Haunted Amusement Park. If you are new here you can look in the blog archive for my first post The World Cost Too Much! to know more about what type of blog this is. In other news the next post will be put up soon so look forward to it!

Haunted Amusement Park

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"Today on October thirty-first is the third anniversary of High Spirit amusement park fire. The fire broke out late that night. Sadly three people were killed and five were injured by the fire. While most of the big rides are cleared from the site, police do ask for safety reasons that everyone stays clear." The news anchor Jane Field ends her segment.  "Andy make sure you stay away from that old amusement park site, okay. I don't want to go to the police station to pick you up." Andy's mother said. "Don't worry I'll be fine mom. Away I'm going be with Sam since we're both too old to trick or treat." Andy replies.  Padding his pockets Andy checks for his phone and keys. Feeling them he walks to the door unlocking it. "Bye Mom!" Andy walks out of his house.

Making his way down the sidewalk Andy catches Sam waiting at the bus stop. "So are we just going to wander around at night or you know where a haunted house is?" Questions Andy. "I know that Main Street has two haunted houses going on," Sam said. Andy nods his head in a pleased manner. "Well let’s get going!" Patting his friend's arm the two teens head in the direction of the haunted houses. As the two continue their walk they take a wrong turn.

 Neither realizes this until Andy takes the time to look around. Looking around Andy notices that there are no houses around. "Sam, we took a wrong turn." "Well if we go through the burndown amusement park site we'll be back on track." "What about the cops?" "They're never there so it's fine." "Alright let’s go then." So the two made their way to High Spirit amusement park. The field leading up to the amusement park is lifeless. The dry grass crunches under the two's shoes. Just like Sam said there were no cops at the site.

"Do you remember this place being this creepy?" Andy said to Sam. "Well, this place did get burned to the ground. Makes you wonder why anyone came to this place anyway." Sam replies. They walk up to the entrance sign of the amusement park. The words 'High Spirit' are dull from not being repainted in the last three years. The music starts playing first. Slowly it plays like it once did three years ago. It sounds hollow and keeps skipping over several notes in the song. The lights turn on and rest on a dim setting. "Welcome friends to High Spirit amusement park! We hope you enjoy your stay! Remember in fifteen minutes is the main event! Don't Forget To Miss It Dear Friends." a childish voice speaks over the broken music.

The two look at each other. "Why does this keep happening to me?" Andy questions aloud. "Don't know, but we're going in," Sam said while forcing Andy to come along. The two teens walk through the park. The music continues to play brokenly as they walk. Each game they pass by has a spotlight shining brightly on it. Calling the two to come over for a game. But they move, not stopping. The closer the teens get to the center of the park more games have the spotlight flash on them.  It seems that they don't realize that they're destroyed.

The childish voice starts to speak, “Come all who desire their spirit to be put to rest. Here is where you need to be. Life was the final test. Close off from the world we are. Come closer to the center of the park. It's time to depart. For the main event is about to start!" The voice finishes its speech. "Sam, I think we really need to leave," Andy said. Sam gets nervous. "Now that you mention it we should really leave!" "But you're here for the big event! YOU JUST CAN'T LEAVE!" The childish voice tells the teens.

From the shadows, burnt bodies come forward. "Aren't you two going to become part of the park?" The voice continues. "NOPE," Andy says and starts running with Sam beside him. The music speeds up as the teens run out. The childish voice mocking them and the burnt bodies following them through the amusement park. Seeing the sign up ahead the teens run faster. Crossing the entrance the two feel ash hitting their backs. Refusing to turn around they continue running until they get back to the main road.

"I think we're safe now Andy." "Look at us, we have ash all over our backs. It seems the bodies can't leave the amusement park." "Well, that's good. I think we should go home and talk about this tomorrow." "Yeah, see you later Sam." Ending the conversation the teens went home. Andy went straight to his room and changed into his plaid pajamas. Falling asleep a childish voice speaks, "While you ran away from me this time, I know you'll come back. Because you promised to come back to me. Didn't you Andy?"

The Winner in the Halloween Prompt Poll is HAUNTED AMUSEMENT PARK!

Thank you to all the people who voted on the poll. Hopefully we'll have a bigger turn out on the next prompt poll! The Haunted Amusement Park will be up today so I hope you like it. That being said if you haven't already read Labyrinth I hope that you do so. It can be found in the blog archive in the left column. If you're new to the blog, I welcome you and hope you're having a good time here.