Little Red Riding Hood - Revisited!

So, I had a little exercise to do for my writing course. I had to write two 150 word scenes from the fable, Little Red Riding Hood. One I had to 'tell' the scene, the other I had to 'show' the scene. Not too sure how successful I was, but here you go. ;)

Little Red Riding Hood - Telling

Little Red Riding Hood walked along the long path that meandered through the woods. She spotted some flowers growing at the edge of the tree-line and paused, crouching down for a closer look.

Her mother had told her explicitly not to stop on her way to her Grandmother’s house, but her instructions were now forgotten as she placed the basket loaded with goodies on the ground. She proceeded to pluck some of the flowers from the grass and inspect them with an innocent happiness.

Suddenly, she jumped to her feet as she was surprised by a voice behind her.

‘What are you doing out here all alone, little girl?’

She picked up the basket on the ground and turned around. Her mother’s second piece of advice was now also forgotten – ‘don’t talk to strangers’.

‘I’m on my way to my Granny’s house,” she said cheerily.

(Word Count: 145)

Little Red Riding Hood - Showing

The woodsman craned his neck, his eyebrows furrowing together. His fingers held onto the warm wooden handle of his axe loosely as his eyes took in the sight before him. The flimsy looking door to the cottage stood partially open and he crept towards it, knees bent, weight on the balls of his feet.

His breath came more quickly and he could feel the prickle of sweat beading on his forehead. His head jerked to the side as his over-strained hearing picked up a low, rumbling creak in the inky darkness. The knot in his stomach tightened as he took another step forward, engulfed by the blackness that blanketed the interior of the cottage.

‘Help.’ The whimpering cry seemed to crawl up his spine before entering his ears, his heart skipping a beat.

The weapon in his hand felt heavier than before as he raised it before him, his muscles tensing.

(Word Count: 151)

Thorny Path Chapter 7

I posted up chapter 7 of Thorny Path last night. Woot!

Even though I'm suffering pretty badly with jet lag this time around, it doesn't seem to be affecting my writing too much. I think I made a little slip up at the end of the chapter, but it's nothing too huge, and it did sort of fit in with the mood of that scene.

Going to start on chapter 8 now. :)

I wonder if I have the right balance of action and fluffiness now... *shrugs*

Thorny Path Chapter 6

Yep it's that time again. A new chapter of Thorny Path has been finished and posted up for your viewing pleasure. ;)

Things get more action-y, with Mamoru indulging in one of his favourite pastimes, and Haruka collapses! :O I had to bump the rating up to M as Mamoru was... well, Mamoru. It happened a bit sooner than I had expected, but ack well, what can you do when a story writes itself? :P

Flying back to Sweden tomorrow, so with all the travelling and the recovering from said travelling, I may not have a new chapter finished for the next few days. You never know though! :D

Thorny Path Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of Thorny Path has been uploaded! Well, technically, it was posted up last night, but my memory failed me again, and I forgot to post here. >.>

This chapter has no MamXHaru interaction. :( Well, I needed to get the plot sort of kick-started, so I concentrated on developing that. So, Mamoru's in some scenes we're more familiar with. I think that's a good thing... right? >.<

Anyway, I'm still failing at updating Entwined. I probably won't get a chance now until I get back to Sweden. :<

Thorny Path Chapter 4

Whoo! Chapter 4 of Thorny Path is completed and posted up! Go me! :D

I really enjoyed writing this chapter, even though there wasn't any action in it, which is one of my favourite things to write... hmm, what's wrong with me? Am I turning soft? :o Oh oh, but Mamoru did draw his weapon, so that's got to account for something, right? There's a lot of thought dialogue in this fic, a lot more than I usually put in my stories, and it's rather difficult to know if I'm doing it in a way that's true to the characters. I mean, you don't get to see a lot of the characters' inner thoughts in the manga, because of the type of media it is, so their true inner selves are difficult to see, and thus portray. Meh, I'll just chalk it down to artistic license. That usually works. :P

I also got some more of Entwined chapter 14 written. It's coming along... slowly, but surely. >.>

Thorny Path Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Thorny Path is up!

Was a little bit later than I had planned, but was still a heck of a lot faster than my usual updates. :P

I just realised, the main character is a blind swordsman who kicks ass, but I've written three chapters where he hasn't kicked anyone's ass yet! Amg! In fact, he's not even drawn his weapon yet. >.> Must remedy that!

Will try and get Entwined chapter 14 finished in the next day or two. :)

Thorny Path Chapter 2

I posted up chapter 2 of Thorny Path last night. That surely must be a new record for me. Two chapters in one day! O.o

I'm also in the middle of writing chapter 3. That should be finished by the end of the day, and will be available for reading online tonight... hopefully.

The story's only had about 20 hits so far, which isn't all that surprising, sadly. I wonder how I could get the word out about the UDDUP manga so more people can start reading it, and enjoying its awesomeness? :O On a brighter note, I have 2 fantastic reviewers already, who actually put an effort into their reviews instead of the usual 'update plx' and no more. Thank you, you two! You know who you are! :D

As for Entwined. I'm about halfway through chapter 14. I'll probably finish that chapter before writing any more of Thorny Path, but it shouldn't take all that long. :)

Back to the grindstone then! :D

New Fan Fiction

Yes, I know, I probably have too much on my plate already, but I just couldn't help myself. >.>

I've just posted the prologue up for my new fan fiction called Thorny Path. It's based on the Until Death Do Us Part manga, which is sorely under-read I might add! It is also extremely poorly represented, fan fiction wise, which was a contributing factor to me writing this now.

The story is based around the manga's two main characters - Mamoru and Haruka. In the manga you can tell a romance is bound to bloom between them, but Haruka is only 12 at the start of it, so I'm using some artistic license to move my own story on in years a bit to make the romance a bit less... icky. :p It is first and foremost an action story though, so expect lots of kick ass swordplay and general awesomeness. ;)

Now to finish Chapter 14 of Entwined, so I don't feel too guilty. :P

Small Passage of Fiction

Well, I just received the marks back from my first assessment for my writing course. It was less than I had hoped for at 76%. There were several parts to the assessment, the passage of fiction being the second part. I'm going to post it here for you to read. :)

Lost Hope

The day had finally come. All the trouble, the hardships, the intensely difficult training; it had all been for this day.

Vera lazily surveyed the room. She barely took note of the furnishings. The bed she had slept in the night before was still unmade, the twisted sheets attesting to the restlessness she had been feeling for several days now. She paused as she noticed her reflection in the full length mirror that was hanging on the wall beside her.

Unconsciously, she tugged at the hem of the silky blouse she was wearing, smoothing the material. Her eyes trailed upwards to her face. What she saw there startled her. Fingertips gingerly probed the smooth skin of her cheeks, tracing a line to the corner of one eye. Why was her skin damp? She saw her fine, blonde eyebrows knit together in a frown and her eyes widened as the memories came flooding back to her.

Oh yes, it was that day. The day that was supposed to fulfil her life’s wishes. The one she had been working towards since before she could remember. Yet, all she had dreamed of, all she had hoped for, had been blown away by a single piece of news. Fresh tears rolled freely down her cheeks.

It was gone.

____________________

Vera stepped out of the hotel room, closing the door behind her. No matter how upset she was, she couldn’t let it show outwardly. Her hands trailed to her hair, yet again, checking it was all in place. It had refused to sit flat, so she had twisted it all together and pinned it behind her head in a loose bun.

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for the day ahead of her and turned to walk the few feet to the elevator, almost barging straight into the front of an expensive looking, crisp white shirt in the process.

Practically leaping a step backwards, she bit back the scathing remark that was to be aimed at the wearer of the shirt - a slender, dark haired man of perhaps thirty years of age. Full lips curled into a smirk.

“I didn’t mean to startle you, Ma’am.” His voice held a gravelly tone to it, putting Vera immediately on edge.

She groaned inwardly at her own reaction. She had been in a daze for the better part of the morning, so much so that she hadn’t even noticed the man approaching her.

“It’s fine,” she mumbled dismissively. She really was not in the mood for any kind of human interaction at the moment.

She offered a half-smile, more out of politeness than any real sincerity and moved to walk past him and towards the elevator. The lingering scent of stale tobacco and something she couldn’t quite identify reached her senses as they passed each other. She mused over it for a moment before dismissing it.

“Vera Layton, yes?”

She paused at the sound of the gravelly voice again, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. Turning, she saw the man had taken only a few steps in the opposite direction.

“Who are you?” she asked, somewhat suspiciously.

That smirk was back on his lips. “Apologies for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Alec Kale.”

His hand slid into his suit jacket and he fumbled about until he found whatever he had been looking for. He flashed a toothy grin as he pulled out a small yellowing envelope.

“I believe this’ll be of interest to you, Ma’am.” He waved the envelope in front of him for added effect.

Vera stared blankly at the object in his hand for a moment, before her gaze shifted to his face. The grin had faded and he met her look confidently. She had no idea who this man was or the reason for his sudden appearance, but she presumed it was no coincidence that he was here now, on this day, after the news she had been given earlier.

“Very well, Mr. Kale. I’ll hear what you have to say.”

His lips twitched slightly, and Vera presumed he was trying to suppress that annoying smirk.

“Good choice, Miss Layton.”

He strode over to her, his immaculate leather shoes thudding softly on the carpeted floor and offered her the envelope.

Vera grasped the yellowing paper, but as she tried take it, Alec tightened his own grip. She glanced at the man’s face, half scowling. His head was cocked slightly to one side, all traces of humour had disappeared from his features.

“I hope you’re ready for what you’re about to discover, Miss Layton.”

(Word Count: 761)

Entwined Chapter 13

Woohoo, I finally finished Chapter 13 of Entwined! Oh yes, and posted it up too! Clicky here if you want to take a look. ;)

Wow, that sure took some time, huh? Sorry, sorry. Initially, I wasn't too happy with it, but after re-reading it and tweaking it a bit, I'm sort of okay with it now. Not very encouraging, eh? >.>

Ack well, now to get started on Chapter 14! :D

NaNoWriMo

If you've not heard of it before, this post title's probably got you wondering what I'm smoking, right? Well, not to fear! It's only tobacco! Anyway, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's being running for a few years (not sure how many exactly) during the month of November. Basically, it's a challenge to write a 50,000 word (or more) novel from scratch within the space of that month.

The idea is to simply just write and not worry about content too much, or editing. That comes in December. :P The only reward if you reach the goal, is some downloadable certificate, but I think the sense of accomplishment you would get is a sufficient reward, amirite? Anyhoo, here's a link to my profile page, and you can go and sign up from there or read more, etc, if you're interested!

I'm at 11,545 words at the moment, so it's going not too badly. Fingers crossed for me! :P

Oh, and Entwined Chapter 13 is almost finished. Go me!