I hate how she always tells us that the stories we write have to be in a certain way that she deems correct. I hate that she limits our freedom. I hate that she does not help me fix plot holes, correct grammar/spelling or edit my work in any way that helps me. All she does is see how close it gets to her ideal of a short story. Well, let me tell you something:

Some stories don’t need to have a plot (e.g. Ulysses by James Joyce). 

Not everyone perceives the climax the same. Climaxes come in all shapes an sizes. Maybe it’s just paragraph or five chapters. Maybe there are more than one. And often it varies from reader to reader (e.g. was the Battle of Hogwarts the climax? Or when Harry died? When he killed Voldemort? You decide). 

The structure can change. You don’t need to have the Aristotelic concept of  “beginning-development-ending” in every story. There are some stories that begin at the end (e.g. Crónica de una muerte anunciada by Gabriel García Marquez). Some stories are within other stories (e.g. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley). There are all kind of formats. 

But the structure isn’t everything. You can have the perfect structure and still tell a pretty lousy story. (Won’t be giving examples for this one). 

And plot isn’t everything either. She always says “the plot is the most important part”, but is it? Is the plot of Hamlet or Macbeth the most important part?

You don’t need to save words. You can use complicated phrases if you want to as long as they are comprehensible. It’s not a race to see who can use the least amount of words to tell a story. If you need to cut things, cut them. But cut them because you don’t think they are necessary, not because you think you’ve talked too much. Like, have you even seen Les Miserables or Tale of Two Cities? 

You can write more than one page at a time and it can be great. You don’t need to spend two months writing a 10 page story if you don’t want to. 

And, lastly, “perfect” is not the same as “good”. You can have a story that follows the rules 100% of the time and it might still be bad. Know them. Then, break rules. Smash them. Run your car over rules. I don’t care. Do what feels good, what sounds good and what makes you proud of your work. 

It is, after all, creative writing. 

My biology class makes me seriously suicidal. It’s just… I hate it. 

I just realized how much high school affected me: I can’t even post a picture on Instagram because some people from school are still following me, so posting it makes me feel anxious. 

Last year I noticed a cute boy stared a me during class. I started talking to him, and it went well. Things happened, and we ended up making out. After that he would give me mixed signals. I never wanted anything too serious, but I felt like he did. At the same time, he would do things that hinted he wanted the same thing as I. 

I was so over whelmed, I had to ask him. I guess that freaked him out. We stopped speaking. We don’t have class together anymore, but I bumped into him at the computer lab. He started talking to me, and I pretended I was chill. This was a casual conversation. At the end this happened: 

“Hey I need to - “

“What do you think of the science tests?”

“- leave.” 

“Oh,” I say and suddenly remember that he has a Kindle and that I want one. “Wait. Um… You have a Kindle, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you show it to me?” 

“Um… Yeah.”

“I mean, if you’re bussy… You can leave.”

“Um… I have class.”

“Oh. That’s fine, then.”

“Yeah… I’ll show you another time…” He says slowly walking away with an awkward smile on his face. 

 And I may be overreacting, but I feel like I finally had shrugged off the “I’m a clingy bitch” vibe. This conversation may have enforced that idea. 

I’m not living the life I want to live, but I don’t even know what kind of life I want.

I remember when I started using Instagram, every one of my photos would say something like “I like Tumblr better, but Instagram’s for pics. whatevs.” And I thought it hurt Instagram or something, and I was so freaking cool for using Tumblr instead. But now it’s like “wtf. If you didn’t like Instagram, why did you even bother using it?” 

moscowdiscow:

dorites:

moscowdiscow:

dorites:

that scene in the second Harry Potter where Harry has no bones in his arm is probably the most disgusting use of cgi

that wasnt cgi they literally removed daniel radcliffes bones for that scene

I hope he got them back

they didnt have the budget to put them back in so for the rest of the movies in the franchise they used cgi to make it look like they did

(via alrightevans)

So, I was watching Step Sisters and it got me thinking. 

I’m from Central America. We have, of course, traditional clothes among other things. These are only worn by indigenous people, and it is often deemed as highly inappropriate or degrading to wear them if you are a ladino (someone who has more European than Mayan heritage, or that has become integrated into the ladino social sphere). 

Often Americans come and buy those clothes and wear them freely. I have no idea how the community feels about this, but I can tell you about how ladinos feel. You will later realize why this is important. Once I asked a girl, “so… Why do you think it’s seen as degrading to wear traditional clothes for us, but it’s fine when Americans do it?”. She did not hesitate when she answered “Well, because for them it’s fashionable. When we wear them we look like indias”. I understand that some of you will not understand how rude this was, so I will explain. Here, to call someone indigenous Indian is an insult. In fact, to call anyone an Indian is an insult because it is often related to the negative stereotypes of Mayan culture. The comment has the same social impact as a white person saying, “I’d never eat fried chicken, people would think I act like a  negro” (please excuse the slur, I only say it so that you will understand the social impact and not out of hatred). 

Anyway, we have assessed the way ladinos often see Mayans as second class citizens and refer to them freely with slurs. Moreover, I hope you can see what this says about cultural appropriation. Something as simple as everyday wear can be a cause for discrimination in some people and be called fashionable in others depending on how high on the social scale they are. In this case, their light-colored skin or nationality. 

That’s cultural appropriation. Even if Americans don’t do it out of spite or because they are aware of the social implications that this has. They are not expected to understand the social sphere of a country that they have not lived in for very long or that they did not grow up in. 

What isn’t cultural appropriation? When this doesn’t happen. It’s not cultural appropriation if all races are equally recognized in what they are doing. For example, here Mayan dishes are enjoyed by everyone. Ladinos cook them. Mayans cook them. And for the most part, people really enjoy them. It’s not hurting anyone because no one is being discriminated for eating one type of food. 

I know most people don’t really care about other countries, and with all that’s going on in most countries, I understand. But I think it’s good to know that things that affect you do affect others, and I hope you can learn and somehow use this information to make yourself a better person.