pt. 24

“Did you see that?” Edith stared up at the sky.

“See what?!” Rose started to calm down.

“The pink in the sky!”

“Unicorn farts?”

“What?!”

“I used to have a pet unicorn, she was nice, she farted streams of cotton candy….” Rose started to cry. “She died a few years ago, leaving me to continue her business at the bakery and ballet studio!”

At this point Edith’s head felt like it might explode at any second, she had seen it happen before, it was not pretty. She started to sneak away, hoping Rose wouldn’t see her, and she would have made it if something cold hadn’t grabbed her arm and suffocated her until she passed out.

Scotty rushed to the library, feathers trailing behind him. He burst through the front doors and ran straight to the back of the building. The librarian shook her head and hissed.

“What’s wrong with that kid?!”

“Don’t ask me,” Indigo panted, she was tired from chasing Scotty. “He’s been like this since I met him, but it’s not like him to rush into a library of all places.”

“Pardon?!” The librarian looked offended.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with a l-library!”

“Little girl, you may not know this, but knowledge is power and I have more knowledge than you could imagine!” The librarian slowly started taking on a ghost-like figure and screamed. Indigo covered her ears as tightly as she could and the twins who had been following walked into the building, blinked once, immediately turned around, and left. As soon as the librarian started to calm down and assume a more human-looking form indigo asked, “You’re a banshee?!”

“Yeah, so?!” The librarian hissed.

“Nothing, i just wasn’t expecting it….”

“Learn to expect things, it may save your life.”

Indigo was confused by this but she didn’t question it, she knew this would make the librarian go into an extensive monologue about making choices and growing up and what it means to be a parent, she did NOT want that talk again, ever since then she has been afraid of birds and even more afraid of bees. As she thought of all the possible horrible scenarios that would play out, Scotty ran up to her and shoved a book in her face. There was a swarm of tiny pigs on the cover with the title: Surviving a pocalypse! Tips to make living through the pig apocalypse as comfortable as possible!

“What?!” Indigo questioned Scotty’s sanity.

“Look at page 56,798, part 784, paragraph 78!”

“Woah! Too many numbers!”

Scotty quickly flipped through the book and pointed to the section he was talking about. This is what it read.

The Pocalypse, a large attack of swarming Piggi, small flying pigs, is symbolized by sudden flashes of pink in the sky over the region the next attack will take place. The Piggi use this as a survival tactic and seem to have discovered that it is easier to feast on human flesh, their favorite food, when the prey is already deceased. In order to kill their prey the Piggi will sharpen their fangs over a period of three months and dive bomb their “unsuspecting” prey and tear their flesh to shreds. This is known to happen in more than one region at once and more than once in each region.

“What does this mean?” Indigo asked, looking concerned.

“The Pocalypse is coming!” Scotty cried dramatically, like usual.

GIVEAWAY!

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life stories: We don't like you!

When i was around five years old, I was OBSESSED with Dora! One day, my mom told me that we were going to go see Dora. She was apparently visiting a nearby civic center and my mom thought it would be fun for me. So we went to go see Dora, i got all decked out in my Dora outfit, complete with pink shirt, orange shorts, and Dora sandals!

Now, there is one thing you should know about my family growing up, we were encouraged that Spongebob was bad. okay, maybe not bad, but my mom didn't like the show and the apparent message being portrayed in the show, so i grew up knowing that we didn't like Spongebob. So, of course, Spongebob just so happened to be Dora's friend. Which made me upset. So, what little 5 year old me does, is I walk over to Spongebob and say, "We don't like you!" everyday since then, i wonder if the person in that costume still remembers me 😅

pt. 23

Edith’s mind was filled with crazy thoughts. The sun seemed to laugh at her ignorance, people were dying, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. The fairy queen was dead, and her village didn’t even know about it, she should probably tell them, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. She gained motivation by remembering how she had felt when the queen in a kingdom she was visiting had died, everyone was so distraught. That was the deciding factor in her mind that forced her to see what she saw next.

She flew to the fairy village hoping to see everyone doing their everyday business with big toothy smiles on their faces, but what she saw was the exact opposite. The entire environment had changed in an instant, and what lay before her was like nothing she had ever seen. Thousands of bodies lay at her feet, some were missing limbs, some had empty eye sockets, like a hoard of goblins had attacked. That became Edith’s theory, goblins were turning hostile again after hundreds of years of peace, they were turning back to their violent tendencies. Some of the trees were singed, evidencing to dragons having joined in the fight. Edith stared in horror at the charred bodies of Hilaria and Sebille. A small tear trickled down her cheek, she had known Sebille for years, and even though they never kept in contact, Edith still remembered them playing together when they were in their late fifties.

As Edith flew around the scene, she heard a kind of shriek. Her ears perked up and she instantly followed the sound. Eventually she came to a small building that had somehow been left untouched, and was in perfect condition. Edith slowly walked inside so as not to startle anything, but the bell on the door rang anyways. A figure standing behind the counter of this somehow perfect pastry shop perked up and jerked around, spatula held firmly in her hands and pointed towards Edith.

“Who are you?!” The fairy girl cried as brownie batter dripped from her spatula.

“Hello, don’t be afraid, my name is Edith, I’m here to help.”

“Really?” the girl dropped her arms and tilted her head like a confused puppy. “That’s cool.”

“Sure…….”

There was an awkward silence between the two as they both stared at each other, waiting for the other one to say something first. Then Edith spoke.

“Have you seen what happened outside?”

“Huh?” the fairy tilted her head again.

“Nevermind, but you know, you’re all alone now, you can come with me if you want.”

“Umm, okay?” she licked her spatula and shivered at the amazing taste.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“You can can call me Maddy-Rose, Rose for short, i guess…” she smiled.

“Great to meet you Rose, come on!”

Maddy-Rose grabbed a giant bowl of brownie mix and flew out the door after Edith, licking her fingers. When she made it out the door however, she dropped the bowl, which then proceeded to shatter on the forest floor. Rose stared and the bodies of all her friends, family, and customers. She covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming and tears started flowing down her face. She could not believe her eyes.

“Did you do this?” she asked Edith who turned to look at her.

“What?”

“Did you do this?!” Rose started turning bright red.

“What are you talking about?!” Edith pleaded.

“You kill my friends, my family, destroy my home, and you have nerve to try to take me away from the only place I know?!”

“No!”

“Then what is this?!” Rose growled as she held up a small arm to show Edith, she then proceeded to almost vomit.

Edith tried to argue but noticed Rose staring at the sky. She looked up and saw what looked like a meteor shower of pink racing through the sky.

Their humble beginnings, creating backstory. writing tips #3

Backstory is a very important part of any story. it explains maybe what was happening before the story starts, and it can also be a way to explain why a character acts the way he/she acts, whether they are always happy or always isolated from anyone else.


when writing a backstory, you want to have 3 core elements.

1. some sort of conflict
2. some sort of explanation (why the villain is the villain and such.)
3. and think, how does this fit into this story?

There are many ways to portray backstory, through someone telling a story, through a secret diary, maybe an ancient spirit reveals the past, there are so many unique options!

But, backstory can be extremely difficult to create.

and when you add it you have to be extremely careful. Unless your plan is to reveal everything, the villain's origin, purpose for evil, why they hate the main character, etc. And it's never wrong to add a few funny cliches every once and a while ;)
Now, there isn't much to be said about writing backstory, just know that you can never go wrong with planning out ahead of time, i learned that the hard way.
Backstory also depends on your characters family line, if some of them are related, it's important to add that into a backstory somehow, especially if it is between the villain and main hero/character.

pt. 22

Scotty’s dreams were filled with strange things, birds without feathers, giant yellow pill bugs, and flying pigs. Scotty woke with a start, pigs with wings were terrifying.

Scotty stood up and looked out the window, only to see a small horsefly whinnying at him. It might have wanted hay, but Scotty didn’t have any on hand at that particular moment, but when he went to get dressed, he noticed that his entire closet was filled with hay. He knew who was responsible for this. With glaring eyes he got dressed, stomped down the stairs, and out into the village. A shadow ran in front of Scotty, making him jump, then he remembered, it was just the twins.

“Jack!” Scotty shouted, ignoring the confused stares of his onlookers. The shadow jumped to stand in front of him and started to laugh.

“I can’t believe you fell for that!” It giggled.

“Yeah, that was super easy!” A little girl, who randomly popped out from behind the shadow. In front of scotty stood two twins, a girl and a boy. Their names were Jack and Jackie, they were village thieves and pranksters. They both had short chocolate brown hair and maple leaf eyes. Their skin was a nice butterscotch caramel kind of color but they had markings of their hands that made them jet black.

“What was easy?” Scotty asked the two giggling masses of destruction. They both just stared at him with blank stares. Jackie held up a mirror and Scotty’s scream rang throughout the village. There standing in front of him was a terrible reflection. It was covered with feathers and more hay. Out of it’s ears stuck two flags that read “I SUCK” in big bold letters.

“While you were asleep we poured glue and feathers on you, i can’t believe you didn’t notice!” Jackie  cackled.

“Yeah! And I stuck those flags in your ears after you walked out the door!” Jack smirked.

Scotty’s cheeks turned red like he was about to explode when someone poured a bucket of water on him from the roof of his house. He looked up only to see Indigo, smiling and waving at the giant chicken that had stolen Scotty’s body. He couldn’t stay mad, so he started to laugh along with everyone else. Until he saw something pink flash through the sky like a shooting star.

pt. 21

“So Scotty, what do you think of that girl?” the queen started winking at her son, who was slowly turning pink.

“MOM!”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that, i think she’s a nice girl and, well, you never know….”

“Goodbye…” Scotty stood up and walked up to his room. He sat down on his bed and stared out the window. The night sky looked average, or as average as it could get.

The moon glared down at the puny mortals that crawled the earth. The moon was more of an introvert than the sun, it tended to hate going to work the night shift, then again, no one does. That’s why the sun tricked the moon into taking the second shift so it could go partying with the other planets and such.

Scotty wondered how this could possibly be possible. But his brain complained that it wasn’t ready to comprehend the science needed to understand the universe, so instead, it convinced him to fall asleep.

Edith started to turn red with rage. She formed a fireball in her hand as her nails grew into long claws.

“How could you do that?!”

“I do what I want!”

“What?”

“You know, i never even liked Scotty!”

“What?!”

“Yeah, he’s too weak, that’s why i tried to have him killed,”

“You what?!”

“Yup, but then i had to bring him back to life because i needed him to trust me,”

“Wait, this seems extremely cliche…”

“And i see great potential in him, which is why, wait what?”

“You know, like in a book when on of the heroes is going to face the villain and instead of simply killing them the villain just monologues about their evil plan and stupid stuff like that?”

“What?”

“Oh, how the tables have turned, now you are the confused one!”

“Wait, what’s happening?”

“You just revealed you evil plan to me!” Edith let out a menacing laugh.

“Oh really? You think that I am the villain?”

“Well aren’t you?”

“Edith, this isn’t fantasy, this is real life, there is no good guy and bad guy, only us, people (and some elves, dragons, goblins, etc…..).”

“But what about all the terrible things you’ve done?”

“Just ask my siblings,” Nick took a small pouch off of her belt and opened it, when she did several voices escaped.

“Dalilah seems like the best sister in the world! I’ve been told of how sweet she is!” A teenage girl's happy voice exclaimed.

“I’ve never met her, but I’m sure she’s a great big sister!” a little girl’s voice happily complimented.

“She sounds bossy, but who am I to judge someone I’ve never met!” a boy said.

“Delilah is a great girl, i am so glad i adopted her.” An adult woman exclaimed.

“Delilah was always such a happy girl, she would always smile and help anyone who asked, I’m so glad she’s related to me, and her mother, bless her soul, would have been proud.” the proud sound of a dads praise cried.

Nick closed the bag and hooked it back onto her belt. Edith stared at her with shock.

“Was that your family?”

“Some of them…… That was my step mom, she always thought i was the perfect child, heh, I didn’t like her very much, she stole my dad from me, he didn’t even remember i existed for awhile, so i ran away and caught what they said in this bag…”

“But, how did Peirson and Vulpine know who you were?”

“My father described me in great detail to them, and added his mental image of me into their minds so that, if they ever see me, they would know who i am. The youngest in the family is Daisy, she’s only 100 years old.”

Edith glared at Nicole.

“What?!”

“You convinced them into believing you were a good person?! How could you do that to your family?!”

“I didn’t make them, they chose to! Unlike you, they could see past all my mistakes and see me for who i truly am!” Nicole growled and then evaporated.

Edith watched her enemy explode and tried to comprehend what had just happened. Was Nicole, deep down inside, a good person? Could she truly be changed? Why was Edith staring into the sunrise like she was in a sad movie? She didn’t know, but she didn’t care either.

life stories: BRACES! :(

if you are planning on getting braces any time in the near future, i suggest fully reading this story. if you already have them or have had them before, i feel your pain, seeing as i just got them.
Braces are cool. That depends on your perspective. Think of your favorite food, if it's something liquid like pudding, applesauce, etc. Congrats! You might survive two whole years! if the food is something crunchy, chewy, or any sort of bread, congrats! you may go insane! bread is not suggested during the first month of having braces and i can understand why. I tried having chips with my lunch the day after i got them, i made it through one chip before the reality set in, I would just have to wait. Popcorn and gum are probably the most popular foods that people can't have with braces.
My journey so far with braces isn't a long one, but it is certainly interesting.
It all started on January 28th, 2017, the day i got my spacers. It had been about a week since we had gone in to find out if our insurance would pay for me to become a brace face, and we had set appointments. I got my spacers that Saturday and had jello for lunch.
Finally, when Tuesday arrived, we set out to our home school group so i could make it to at least one class before we left. Sadly, i had to leave in the middle of my acting class so we could make it to my 11:00 appointment. when we arrived at the office my mom signed me in while i say down in the lobby to read. The appointment was nearing and i started to get nervous that my dad wouldn't make it. Then it happened, my name was called, I'm pretty sure my blood pressure, if represented by some sort of light saber, would have shot through the roof. I was brought to the room where they had done my spacers and i sat in the chair. My mom kept smiling at me until my dad walked in. by the time he got there, i was already getting my spacers removed and metal bands fitted around my teeth. The experience of it all wasn't painful, it was more weird. If you have sensitive teeth you may be uncomfortable, but all in all, it didn't hurt a bit. On January 31st 2017, I looked into the mirror to see my new, colorful smile.

pt. 20

When they got into the open air they started off towards a large mountain which Edith recognized and halted.

The queen looked back at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“No! We can’t go and see hyer! Are you crazy?!” Edith growled.

“Probably, but i need to see her!”

After a few minutes of Edith trying to keep the queen from going to see Nicole, her efforts soon failed and she followed Tatiana to the top of the mountain. Edith landed and started to sweat.

“Oh wow, looks like she’s not home! Okay, we’re leaving now! Come on!” she tried to fly off but the queen grabbed her by the tail. Edith growled and turned back to elf.

They stood there for a good fifteen minutes, waiting for Nicole to suddenly appear.

Just as they started to give up they heard a familiar voice from the darkness followed by a figure walking out of the darkness, carrying an armful of small glass bottles.

Yeah, Dargoth, be good, I’m going out I-” she turned to look and Tatiana and her bottles crashed to the ground.

“D-Delilah, is that really you?”

“M-Mom?” Nicole ran to hug Tatiana. They met in the middle and connected in a loving hug. Edith was astonished.

“I thought i would never see you again!” Tatiana cried.

“And I hoped to never see you again.” Nicole sneered.

“What?”

“Too bad wishes don’t come true.” She thrust a knife covered in a black liquid into her mother’s back. Nicole stepped back and watched. Tatiana’s eyes went black and her hair became gray and thin. Her skin started to wrinkle and fade and her nails fell off making blood pour from the openings. Edith was no longer astonished. The queen shriveled up and turned to a dust statue. Nicole grinned and blew on her, the dust blowing away in the wind.

Art

Sorry I'm late guys (I know i didn't mention a time but to me, I'm late, bear with me please!).
so i now present you with a few art pieces i have made.

sorry it's sideways, i can't fix it.

you can find a video of me making this on my YouTube channel, TheArtsyPuglet.

thanks for viewing! i hope you enjoyed seeing some art and if you want more leave it down in the comments and answer this question, Who's your favorite artist?

Building character, how to make heroes and villains, writing tips #2

Creating characters is by far, the most difficult thing to do when writing a story.

when you want to create a character you need to make sure that they aren't OP (for those of you who don't understand video game terms, that means Over Powered.). Readers want to be able to relate to the characters they are reading about, characters like hiccup (from How To Train Your Dragon)

(yes, the books, not the movies, everyone knows that him in the movies is completely unrealistic....)

or someone like Hermione Granger, a smart character who studies a lot (from Harry Potter)

 (yes, i know this is the movie version but i couldn't find a picture of her from the books.)

or maybe the kind of character that provides comic relief is tough situations like Zaphod Beeblebrox (from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.)

Villains are also extremely difficult to make, why are they evil, what do they want, who are they trying to defeat?

do you want a serious villain, focused on killing the main character like Voldemort (from Harry Potter)

or a funny sort of villain like Princess the Destroyer (from Bad Unicorn.)

Now, when creating a character you want to first think of their appearance.
normally an author would say, "No! you start with their personality!" and that's also true, you must keep their personality in mind when designing their looks. Are they constantly happy and bubbly? for that you will want to use bright and pastel colors like pinks, yellows, whites, greens.

are they dark, mysterious, or even the villain? then you might want to use dark colors like dark reds, blues, blacks, grays, and other deep colors, unless you want the villain to not be obvious.

also, does you character have some kind of minion?

not that kind of minion! (*cough* copyright *cough*)

companion?

and does your character have any close friends?

(no more pictures provided, i have already gone past the point of no return.)
 (okay, that was cheating.....)

try to keep all these points in mind when making an interesting character.
I hope some of this helps you, and keep and eye out from the next tip!
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!

Fern pt. 1

Here is another story I've been working that i thought you might like! ;D sorry if there are any grammar errors.

The sky glittered by the stars in the dark night. The moon was full. A dark shadow dashed through the juniper bushes and berries fell onto the fur of the shadowed creature as the bush rustled. The creature entered a clearing where three people were standing, chatting.

“finally you're here,” one of the people said.

“yes at last! we have waited too long this time,” another said.

“yes i know i am sorry” the animal replied, growling.

“oh please! don’t nag her!” one of the women cried and it started to snow as she sobbed.

“oh come on! not this again!” a man said and his hair burst into flames. melting all the snow around him.

“oh! that hurts!! please stop!” the woman cried even harder. ice formed underneath their feet the animal slipped, fell, and yowled in pain.

“alright! cut it out both of you stop that right now!” another man commanded, then slipped.

“fine fine….” the man with fire hair sighed

“i can’t help it.. i hate animal cruelty..” the crying woman sobbed and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief.

“alright enough secrets guys, i have something to tell you,” the animal said suddenly the animal melted and reformed in the shape of a woman “i’m leaving,” the woman blurted out.

silence. there was no response from any of the people. then the silence was broken.

“no!! you can’t leave us!” the person who had cried, gasped.

“she is right Nareen, you can’t leave after all this time” another man said he had huge boots upon his feet and large gloves for making earthquakes. “you already signed a lifelong contract”

“well that is of no concern to me” Nareen growled, turning into a wolf “i can shred it just as quickly” “but.. but then you’ll die! i can’t have you die!! you’re my friend!!!” the woman started to sob again

“oh hush Erin this does not involve you” Nareen hissed, becoming a cat  “nobody can stop me from leaving. contract or not,”

“that's not true this involves me completely! you don’t know what's best for me! you are not in charge of me! you guys are my only friends and if one of you leaves then so do I!” Erin protested then blushed. she had never raised her voice or stood up against anyone. but she felt pretty confident.

Nareen took the form of a fox and dashed off towards the forest from which she came. looking back she saw the sad looks on her friends faces. even the man with fire for hair looked upset. I never thought he could be sad. Nareen thought switching her glance to him. she felt guilty. but this was her decision. it was done. she had left. Nareen left behind everything she once knew for her own happiness. at last she reached her destination. It was a small  hole to squeeze through especially if you’re expecting young.

“i’m home!” she barked. and a dark shadow crept out from underneath a patch of ferns.

“at last.. i thought you left me” another fox sighed with relief

“oh you know i’d never do that. even if i wanted to keep the pups for myself you know i would tell you first,” Nareen replied brushing her tail along the muzzle of the other fox. tickling him harshly.

It had been two full moons since Nareen left her friends and she was getting weaker. until the day came. She yowled in pain. the pups were coming.

“quick get Phoenix!!” Nareen yowled flinching again “she’ll know what to do!” and male fox dashed out of the cave and ran through the forest. only a few minutes had passed until he re-entered the cave with another fox behind him.

“oh Nareen how i’ve waited for this day to finally come!” the third fox gasped she picked up a large leaf that she had brought. Phoenix trotted over to Nareen, who was lying on her side, and unwrapped her leaf package. herbs fell out and tumbled into the cracks in the dirt floor.

“oh im so sorry about that!” Phoenix stammered “i really should be more careful,” she picked up some of the marigold and yarrow that she had dropped and set them beside Nareen.

“now just breath. and eat some poppy seeds,” Phoenix commanded, nudging some seeds over to Nareen’s eye so that she could see them. “they will ease the pain,”

After three hours of hard struggle finally a little head poked out wriggling vigorously. soon followed by its body, the first pup was born. as soon as it was fully into the world Nareen gave it a quick lick and then passed it to the male fox, he too licked it to help it breath. soon another came. then another, and another. on and on they came out, ready to greet the world. there were seven in all.

“here, smell these,” Phoenix barked as she nudged some freshly picked poppies toward her “you need to rest,” Nareen sniffed and let darkness claim her.

five days had passed since the pups were born. four sons and three she-foxes. the oldest was a son. he was called Bird. the second oldest, a she-fox who was called Crystal. then there was Oak, another son. then Wren another she-fox. the next oldest was a son named shrew. after was the last son, named Storm for the color of his fur. then the youngest was Fern because after she was born she was pushed by Oak through the ferns and onto the muddy ground.

Nareen watched as her pups play wrestled over the dirt floor.

“now stop that both of you! you know that when you play you must play outside!” she barked at Bird and Shrew, who, as soon as they heard their mother’s voice sat as straight as they could.

“yes mama,” they barked back in unison. they stood up trotted over and licked their mother respectfully on the ear and then dashed outside as quick as they could.

“hey! wait for me!” storm shrieked and bounded after his brothers tripping as he went.

after eleven full moons had passed Nareen took her pups to the clearing where she had left her friends so long ago.

“tonight you each are eleven moons old. there is something i must share with you.” she started

“what is it?!” Oak barked

“is it nice?!” yowled Wren

“maybe it's nice maybe it's not you just have to wait and see.” Nareen snapped at her interrupting pups.

“today is the day you must make a choice.”

“but what choice?” Bird asked

“yeah you never told us about this before!” Shrew pointed out. “why did you never tell us before?”

“because you were too young!” Nareen growled these pups where getting on her nerves. “now you are ready. the choice is… do you choose to either stay here with me as a fox OR you can go out and live life as a human. its your choice,”

there was no response. only horrified stares greeted her speech.

“well? we don't have all night you know,” Nareen barked, starting to get annoyed again.

“but mama, excuse me i don't mean to be rude,” Wren started “but why would we want to leave? i mean it's not even like it's possible for foxes to turn into humans,”

many nods greeted her response, the pups thought she was right. Nareen cleared her throat, ready to strike back.

“ah you may be right dear Wren but that's also not true though you did fight well. it is possible to become a human because i am a human,”

many gasps greeted this. Nareen stared out at her terrified pups with an angry glare.

“mama do we have to choose tonight?” Crystal asked. Nareen was sure that her other pups were wondering the same thing but they weren't brave enough to speak up.

“yes you must choose tonight,” she replied “you have until midnight,” she stalked off toward the den.

all the pups came home at one time ready with their decision. “well have you decided yet?” Nareen growled she was starting to get a little annoyed with her pups again.

“yes mama we have decided,” Bird stepped forward to speak for his younger siblings.

“who wants to tell her?” silence none of the pups truly wanted to break their mother’s heart so none spoke up.

“very well i’ll tell her,” Bird replied to the silence “mother we have decided to leave.”