Resolutions

I suppose I should really update this today, so I'll blog about New Year's Resolutions. But since this is a writing journal, then they are going to be related to writing.

1. Write on a regular basis. That includes updating here at least twice a week once Hollidailies is over and working as often as I can (with schoolwork and everything else) on other ongoing writing projects.

2. Get to know some of my minor characters better and their relationships. I'd really like to focus more on Emiko Takahashi... because she's important.

3. Finish at least one large piece (either Snapshots or Once Upon an Alternate Universe or the chess story I've been thinking about). Snapshots would likely be easiest because I've already written a lot of that.

4. Finish the short-term projects I have. This includes the piece where Kiran comes to stay at the Liu house (and gets involved with the debate club), the Christmas Eve story I've been sort of working on, the incident where Wilson is teaching a physics class and decides to use a rather interesting method to keep his students awake and the more recent piece with Hideaki and Emiko.

5. Delve deeper into the relationships that first generation has (or had). I'd love to write a piece with the Maplewood students. And not just a short piece that's a page long, but something real.

6. This may be the wierdest one of them all, but I'd like to find a fellow writer whom I can critique and who will critique me (well, my writing).

7. Just because seven is a much nicer number than six, I'd like to develop Seven McAllistair a bit more as a character and find out where he fits in... if he does. By extension, same kind of idea with Aislynn Celeste.

And those are my New Year's Writing Resolutions. Happy 2009, everyone!

Quick Update

I won't be writing any more of the Christmas Eve story tonight (unfortunately), but I wanted to talk some about what I've noticed about my characters and how stories flow... something that came to mind as I was drafting the next piece in a word document. I'll probably finish that and get it uploaded tomorrow or Sunday or something like that. And this was because I was working on Christmas presents and then I got busy with some other stuff. Like socks.

Anyhow... in the Christmas Eve piece, the main character is technically Sharpe, though it changes POV several times. When I was writing Sharpe's parts, they were a lot more reflective and less rushed. There hasn't been any dialogue with him; no one knows for sure what he's thinking and people certainly know less of what he's saying.

When I've been writing Michael (and Kiran), there is a lot more dialogue and the story actually moves along. But it loses some of the individual touch and reflection that Sharpe brings along. Kiran's nearly as talkative as Scott is.

And to go read where Kiran first meets the group, read this story. She also meets Sharpe later on in that piece; I haven't written it yet. You get a bit of Michael's narration in that piece. Just so you know... Riverdale's mascot is a knight, Michael (and Scott and Sam) all live on Chestnut Avenue, Sam wasn't talking about Evan Saunders... Scott has no sense of direction whatsoever, Ackerman got fired and re-hired over the summer thanks to something that happened with Sharpe (that'll be fun to write!), and Victoria Chapel and Evan Saunders date throughout high school. Oh, and Sharpe's favorite color is purple.

I can't wait to write more of that and I'll be bringing in the idea of the Debate Club and a plot idea for writing that. It should be fun. And I can't wait to write about why Ackerman was fired and how he got rehired over the course of about two months. Silly administration...

Sharpe's Relationships - Adults

These are just a few of the relationships Sharpe has... I just felt like outlining a few for you guys. Hopefully you already know who these characters are, but I provided brief notes on who's who. All these characters are adults during the RHS-timeline; maybe in another entry I'll look through various interactions with students.

Candace Pruitt: Candace was Sharpe’s high school chemistry teacher and she’s now the vice principal at RHS, where Sharpe teaches chemistry.
The relationship between Candace and Sharpe went from being the typical “faculty member being fed up with student” mixed with a little bit of respect to more of a friendship between equals. Candace was originally the one who got Sharpe involved in the SAT (students assisting teachers) program at Maplewood and she was the one who pulled a few strings to get Peter to hire him, despite his less than satisfactory record.

Jennie Alton: Jennie is Sharpe’s “little sister”. She works part-time at Maplewood and is a continuing studies student in the evening.
Jennie and Sharpe have an extremely close relationship and she knows more about him than probably anyone else does. He refers to her as his sister (and she calls him “her brother”), even though they are not biologically related. Their friendship is closer than that of Sharpe and Mandie.

Laura Clarkson: Laura is the biology teacher who is originally from Texas. She appears to have a crush on Sharpe, which he doesn’t return.
Laura and Sharpe really have a love-hate relationship. He hired her because they needed a biology teacher who was at least halfway competent (Josiah Alton was moving to administration) and Laura has always been curious about Sharpe. Somewhere along the line, the curiosity turned into a one-sided romance. I’m still not sure what’s going on there; it’s a storyline that I really haven’t explored much yet.

Shaun Ackerman: Shaun is the PhD. history teacher at RHS who especially enjoys causing controversy in his classrooms. He graduated from Maplewood in 1987.
Interactions between Ackerman and Sharpe are, if nothing else, fun to write. They are also incredibly difficult because they interact like Captain Picard and Q from Star Trek TNG do. Not only do they co-run the Debate Club (that must be interesting), but my suspicion is that they knew each other when they were students at Maplewood. Ackerman is incredibly religious and Sharpe is... not.

Hugh Avery: Hugh is the math teacher (and former physics teacher) who is friendly and personable. He graduated from Maplewood in 1983.
Hugh Avery is friends with everyone on the staff team, but he’s one of the few staff members who actually chooses to interact with Sharpe (versus a forced interaction). He and Sharpe became friends during the 2000-2001 school year and since then, they have been playing a series of (harmless) practical jokes on one another. Not that anyone would believe Avery if he said anything...

Jonathan Liu: Jon is Michael’s dad who graduated Maplewood in 1985 and is a pastor at the local church.
Jon sort of served as a casual mentor to Sharpe while they were in high school (during Sharpe’s freshman year). In essence, they lost contact for several years (more of this is detailed in Snapshots), but now that Michael is a student in Sharpe’s homeroom...

Tetsuya Takahashi: Sharpe’s former classmate, now a local politician and a member of the school board.
I should dedicate an entire entry to what’s happened between Sharpe and Takahashi, but in short, they went to school together. They were in the same homeroom. Sharpe made a snide remark at Takahashi’s expense and Takahashi took offence; things just escalated from there. Now, they are coldly civil to one another and Emiko Takahashi is in Sharpe’s homeroom so things are about to get interesting again...

Aislynn Celeste: Aislynn is the graduate student who works with Hugh Avery in the after school math program, Operation Numbers.
Aislynn and Sharpe confuse one another... they're both a lot more alike than either knows and yet they won't be finding that out the easy way. I'm really looking forward to writing more interactions between them because Aislynn's curious as anything about other people (naturally this extends to Sharpe) and Sharpe is puzzled by Aislynn, especially after observing how she interacts with Hugh Avery.

Forum Philsophorum and Other Clubs

This entry is dedicated to a brief history sketch of the RHS Controversial Issues Club, otherwise known as Forum Philosophorum.

Staff Advisor: Sharpe
Secondary Advisor: Shaun Ackerman. Occasionally Josiah Alton will step in and assist in moderating debates.
Years of Operation: Fall 2000-Spring 2002. Students lost interest. At this time, Sharpe was the only staff advisor.
Fall 2005-Winter 2005. Stopped by administration (Peter Screwtape) due to "controversial content", which turned into a huge yelling match.
Some Known Student Members: Michael Liu, Emiko Takahashi, Samantha Adams, Kiran Shasthri, Evan Saunders.
Oddly enough, the list of known members does NOT include Tyler Martin, Marie Wilson, Scott Adams and a number of other prominent characters. Tyler doesn't like debate, Marie really doesn't like Sharpe and Scott just doesn't want to do it.
Purpose: To provide students with the opportunity to discuss and debate controversial issues, including but not limited to the following: religion, ethics, technology, politics, war, social justice and many, many other things.
AKA: The "Debate Club" (Emiko Takahashi)

Other Clubs
This isn't a complete list, but here are some of the other clubs around RHS...
Film Club: Staff Sponsors: Anthony Wilson and Hugh Avery (duh). Looks at various films, both contemporary and historical.
Student Council: Staff Advisors: Josiah Alton and Candace Pruitt. Elected student government.
Media Productions: Staff Sponsors: Becky Rodriguez and Laura Clarkson. They write and edit the school newspaper and put out the forms of media on campus.
Writing Club: Staff Sponsor: Julia Perry. Students gather to improve their writing skills and occasionally talk about books. Sam is the president of the Writing Club during her junior and senior years of high school.
Operation Numbers: Staff Sponsors: Hugh Avery and Aislynn Celeste (and also Jason Hartley). These are a group of students who spend time working with low income students and finding ways to make math and science more interesting and fun.
Chess Club: Staff Sponsor: Sharpe. Group of students focuses on developing chess strategies and competes in local tournaments. Assisted by Alan Harrison (2005-present) and Candace Pruitt.
Technology Club: Staff Sponsors: Amy Kerrington and Jason Hartley. Helps maintain school club webpages and focuses on other forms of technology.
Student Service Club: Staff Sponsors: (various, but it has included Jennie Alton). This is a group of students who do community service. Marie Wilson helped start it during fall of 2003.

NB: Most clubs have two staff sponsors, particularly those that are larger or require more organization or, in the case of Forum Philosophorum, deal with controversial issues.
Sharpe is probably the only staff member who is the main sponsor for two clubs. However, since the Debate Club (using Emiko's words) was not in existence for a few years, this is not very surprising.

And now for a bit of a treat...a snippet from a Forum Philosophorum meeting... (Kiran's POV, third person)
MPAA Rating: G. Sharpe's being his typical self.
Characters: Kiran, Sharpe

A dark haired girl raced through the courtyard. She was wearing loose pants, a shirt and a sari wrapped around her. It was trailing in the wind as she ran; she hoped she wasn't late. It wasn't her fault, really. She had been talking to another student when she realized that two o'clock was quickly approaching.

Her dark skin blushed as she nearly ran into the person who she least wanted to see at that moment: Mr. Sharpe. The arrogant chemistry teacher had already blatantly told her that she wouldn't be allowed to take most of his advanced classes, despite the fact that her transcript proved her quite capable. She had a theory that it was just because he wouldn't stand for anyone with religious convictions in his classroom and she had set out to prove that here.

"Miss Shasthri," a cold voice spoke as she took a moment to straighten herself up. "It is very nice of you to come. What, praytell, brings you here on such a fine afternoon?" The voice was sickly sardonic and Kiran could feel her heart sinking.

"Sorry, Mr. Sharpe, but you didn't say I couldn't join the philosophy club," she replied with a smirk. "So, if you'll give me one of those paper things to fill out..." Sharpe's glare was intense. "...please."

Sharpe lifted an eyebrow as he held his pointy stick out towards her. "Well, it will be interesting to see how well your religion holds up," he sneered. Despite this, he handed her a paper to fill out and she set to work answering the questions.