#5, written 5/28/2014 - School and Writing

I'm a terrible liar.

I said I'd post all seven vacation posts consecutively, and I didn't.

Instead, my metronome broke, I decided to film a MV for a cover that I did for this song, I've been working hours on SAT studies (DIE, FUNCTIONS), I've been devouring "The Enemy Within" (which officially became my favorite book aside from the Bible), composing more music, and trying to organize my social life (fail).

Ahhh, basically, life has thrown me a few curveballs recently, and my real life required more focus than this corner of the internet world.  Prioritization, I know; drives me crazy too.

Anyway, I'm back, and I'll try to wrap this short series up in the next two days.

~ ~ ~

"Why do I have to learn math if I want to be an author?"

Yep.  We've all heard that question, if not asked it ourselves.  To be truthful, even I, nerdy, studious, Asian me, have asked the question because - let's face it - I do NOT need to know that negative to plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four times a times c over a times two equals zero to know how to say, "Heart exploding in her chest at every weak footstep, she pelted down the dark street, sweat-matted hair flying behind her within grasp of the man-eating mathbook."

Well, allow me, nerdy, studious, Asian me, to attempt to convince you otherwise.  Here are a lit of school subjects and why you should invest in them in order to aid your writing skills.

#1.) MATH - Math is logic, especially when it comes to Geometry proofs...so...if you haven't taken Geometry yet, they'll say such-and-such at the beginning and such-and-such at the end, then ask you to figure out what such-and-such is in the middle.

Hm.

Even if you haven't taken Geometry, does this sort of mental work sound familiar?

It does to me, particularly at those moments where I know how to begin a story, end the same story, but have no idea what to put IN the story.

Word problems aren't very different; they give you a scenario (about the idiot who buys 64 watermelons and then 27 more) and ask you to put it into numbers.  In the story-world, we have feelings (from the idiot who likes one guy and then likes one more) that we must put into words.  So, really, practicing word problems in math fine-tunes other communication and translation skills for writing.

Also, let us not forget that, in writing, arguments ought to be made to convey emotion or express opinions.  How could you make a logically sound argument if you've not learned to THINK by math?

#2.) SCIENCE - Raise your hand if you ever wrote a story about a hero who could fire an arrow to ridiculously distant targets, then realized that something called "air friction" and "gravity" prohibit such deeds later on in life.  Raise your hand if you ever thought a poultice (whatever that is) could heal everything like Tylenol.  Raise your hand if your written storms didn't cause mud, if your written sun didn't cause sweat, or if your written snow didn't cause frostbite...

...jah...

Enter science the breaker of all setting and mechanic plot holes and maker of true-to-life writing.

#3.) LANGUAGE - I'm sorely tempted to give in on this point.  I hate...hate...HAAATE LANGUAGE STUDIES with a passion.  (If you had asked me before finals week last school year, I would've confessed my unfailing love for Latin...but then I got a 72 on my final and barely scraped by with a salvaged 4.0 GPA.  >_<)  Unfortunately, I'm trying to make an argument here, so I'll just go with the obvious points:

Language studies will help you grammatically and technically.  Didn't know what a deponent verb was or how to use on in your writing?  Now you do~

...along with the Ablative of Accompaniment, of Manner, of Means, of Separation, of Place From Which, of Place Where, of Respect, of Partitive, of Price, of Time When, of Time Which, of Agent, etc. etc. etc.

#4.) HISTORY - Whaaa--?!  Can anyone seriously debate this point?  Ah, well, I'll cover it for the uneducated losers out there.  (Surprise, surprise, history is my second favorite class aside from literature/composition.)

     You read classic novels = You gain understanding of past culture and current culture.  You find general outlines of past world changing events so you know what to include in your own books (that should also be geared towards changing the world, yes?).  You discover a bottomless pit of eloquent sources to imitate.

     You study geography = You gain understanding of setting.  No more unrealistic guesses as to what Pakistan might be like; now you know.

     You learn about significant dead people = You gain inspiration for characters.  (For example, take Brion from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of Britain.  Brion's king wanted venison and told Brion to hunt for some, but he couldn't find any.  Fearing his lord's disdain, he cut out a piece of his own thigh, cooked it, and gave it to the king who said it was the sweetest meat he had ever tasted.  True story.  Maybe.)  Also, talk about inspiration for names.  You'll never have to look at baby naming sites again.

     You nail down those annoying dates = You gain an understanding of how long things - wars, feasts, and changes - really take.

~ ~ ~

I hope that that got you at least a little pumped up for your education...?  Maybe you're too desensitized with summer, though, you swimming, texting, lemonade-drinking zombie.  (=.=  Asians get no summer break.  *pouts*)  Ah, well, think about it when school comes up in a few months.

Do you have any other school subjects that help you with your writing life?  Tell me about it in the comment box below!

DOWN WITH COMMON COR--

I mean...

Write on!

Clove
Favorite part of day 5 on vacation: eating double dark chocolate ice cream.  Worst part of day 5 on vacation: getting sent out from the beach due to weather.