Characters In Search Of A Plot

*coughs* NaNoWriMo. Right. *brightly* Moving on!

NaShaRiNoWriMo, or, Shameless Ripoff of Star Wars and Other Stories of Less Note

This will likely go nowhere, as I am prone to writer's block, whimsy, and random attacks of irritation. But in the spirit, I believe I shall try. To aid in my first attempt to do NaNoWriMo, I shall enact the following measures:

1) Accept 15,000 words rather than 50,000 words as a goal. I'm a first-year teacher; I have other stressful ways to ambitiously spend my time.

2) Shamelessly steal from popular fiction, so as to avoid the worst of writer's block.

3) Copy/paste from a Word file so as to have double copies of this...

4) Procrastinate on doing this as an incentive to improve lesson plans.

And now, to posting!

Irony

Institutional learning demands that we cease to use
rote filling out of forms; we must encourage creative
originality:
now, go fill out these forms in approved fashion, and
yawp along with everyone else.

The Youngest, Part Two

(Part One here.)

The queen mother was not satisfied with these odds, however. "Here," she said, "take this honest woodcutter's son with you, and treat him kindly. And if he should win the prize as his kind are wont to do, let him do so, and rejoice that you yet live and have the hope of another of the princesses." The young prince knew the wisdom of accepting his mother's gift and did so gladly.

On Poetry

Earlier work reprinted again, but I like to reference it often enough that it's worth reposting. This was from LJ, so I know that it was Wednesday, August 20, 2003 (aren't dates wonderful?) Combined rant/thought experiment.

The Youngest - Part One

And from January 2007! 

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a king, his loving queen, and his three lovely daughters. And the strange thing about these daughters was this: they had learned that the youngest of three sisters is bound to be the fairest, sweetest, wisest, and most fortunate, in turn binding her elder sisters to a life of jealous ill-nature and an unhappy end. The sisters thought this unfair, and so took it in turns to be the youngest, each in her turn becoming the jewel of the family while the other two contentedly awaited their turns and enjoyed being fair enough, sweet enough, wise enough, and fortunate enough. But their secret they told no one, for fear that the charm would break.

Let Grow

This is actually a song I wrote in the summer of 2007 - but I feel like posting it now. :)

So easy just to be
Content to always just be me
And just to say,
"I've always been, will always be that way."
But I'm content with less than your perfected plan
Content to be much smaller than your love and life demand

I'm learning to let grow
Dive into a brand-new life
I need to get to know
Leave my dreaming daze behind
I need to chase my dreams and live
For you, for me, I need to give
Let my smallness go
And let you grow...

So hard to be this way
Aching to change, but longing to stay
I need to see
How strange will this change be for me?
But I've already found that your unfolding plan
Can make much more of me than I yet can understand

I'm learning to let grow
Dive into a brand-new life
I need to get to know
Leave my dreaming daze behind
I need to chase my dreams and live
For you, for me, I need to give
Let my smallness go
And let you grow...

However I've fallen, if you say to fly
I'll follow the call and I'll take to the sky

So easy to forget
That I may be small, and yet
To limit you
Would be more than my limits can do
To bind you to my poor inadequacy
Is limiting you in unlimiting me

I'm learning to let grow
Dive into a brand-new life
I need to get to know
Leave my dreaming daze behind
I need to chase my dreams and live
For you, for me, I need to give
Let my smallness go
And let you grow...