Essential Question

I've only come up with two ways to phrase this question, but both ways sound like they aren't enough to me. The one is "How does one get a story with illustrations published?" while the other one is "What is the best way to modernize a fairy tale and get it published?" Either way, it doesn't sound good and it doesn't seem like enough.

Week 4

It's hard to believe that it's already week four but that's not the point of this post. We're suppose to talk about how we spent our class time today and something that we learned about our topic and that's what I intend to do.

For how I spent my class time, I looked at some of the sites that I already found. A lot of them are about what you have to do in order to get published because I was having trouble understanding that whole concept for a while. I'm still a bit confused about that but I have a better understanding of it now.

A lot of it is just about how if you don't have an agent and you send your manuscript directly to a publisher, more than likely it won't be read because it will end up in the "slush pile". What a slush pile is, it's pretty much the manuscripts that are sent to them by unpublished authors or authors without representation of an agent. In the end, if someone wanted to get published, it's easier to get a literary agent but it's not impossible to get published without one you just have to do your research to find the right place to send it to.

I also learned that this is going to cost a lot of money if I do get the chance to send it to a publisher and they say they are going to publish it. I'm sure, even with an agent, it would still cost a pretty penny.

Looking for stuff

So I started trying to look up student writers to see if I could find anything about people modernizing fairy tales but my search has come to a dead end. There are like tons of pages with tons of irrelevant links.

With key terms, I'm stuck. I have three words and I can't think of any more and their due on Friday. AHH.

There's not really any more development about where I'm at with my project other than that.

This Celtic Ring Of Inspiration is not helping

I'm not stuck but at the moment, I have like no idea what to look up. I've looked up stuff on Fairy tales and I've looked up stuff on publishing. I'm not really sure what to do now. I think I'm just anxious to actually start and not just do research. I'm not really sure.

Oh and for my explanation for my very random title; I went to the renaissance festival on Saturday and found a ring and the guy said that it was the Celtic Ring of Inspiration. There was also a little thing that described what it meant and everything and it said it was for writers and artists and stuff. So, knowing it was just folk lore, (hah, there's some irony for you,) and knowing it probably wouldn't help me or anything, I wasted $35 on it. Guess I did it because I needed something to cheer me up.

Now, back on topic. I have no idea what to do at the moment. I'm thinking I should probably look up things on editing since thats a big thing with writing a book and maybe I should find some stuff on how likely it is for a student writer to get published especially if she pulls the sympathy card of "I'm doing this for my graduation project would you pretty, pretty please publish it for me, if it's any good that is." I'm hoping it will be good. I don't know.

Getting somewhere?

So while I was looking around websites and stuff for research, and I found a site that mentioned a lady that took multiple aspects of different fairy tales and merged them all together. I'm kind of thinking I'm going to do that now because it would be a lot of fun. I'm just back to scare one about what stories will I take and put together and how am I going to put them into modern times.

Mrs. Savido told me and this isn't a direct quote cause I'm a tad forgetful, but I have to figure out how it's been done before and by who and why I want to try to modernize a fairy tale. So far I only know why I want to because,well, that's easy. I want to try to modernize a fairy tale because when you think fairy tale, you usually think knights in shining armor riding a white horse to save a princess from a witch and or dragon guarded tower right? Well, I really don't like that because not all fairy tales are like that. I want to keep the princess idea but make them modern princess. No prince needed in order to be saved. I want to keep the princes though but make them somewhat dim and maybe not as handsome. I want to change the horse to a rusty old bike that the pedals fall off of. I want it to be different. I want to change all these things but I want to keep it the same. By same, I mean that I don't want what their purposes to be changed. I still want it to have that fairy tale like feel to it.

I'm probably crazy for thinking I can do this, but I really want to try. Since I was little I loved fairy tales and since the forth grade I've been dedicated to writing. My forth grade teacher even tried to get one of my stories to an editor and published before. Mrs. Savido and Ms. Watson are both really lost on why I'm doing this project. All I can say is, I'm doing it because it's what I love. I say that I love photography but when it really comes down to it, I love writing and fairy tales much, much more. I'm a dedicated writer even if I don't finish things I start writing. I don't finish them because I get blocked but I've picked up things that I started like three years ago and started working on it again because after I reread it, I thought of more ideas to go along with it. In the long run, things get done. For this, I'm going to have to work extremely hard to keep on track. I am dedicated to this project as much as people think I'm not.

Now, after all of that babbling, I have to report that I still have only one key term but I have more sites. After I look at them some more, I'll add them to my link list.

I'm getting a headache

So all of this is giving me one big headache. Like, I know where I want to go with my project, I just don't know what to do to get to it. Like seriously? Is all this research really necessary? I mean, I can understand that you have to do research, but like really, 2 years of it? Just sitting around trying your hardest to find the information that's not even out there? I don't know. This has all just become one big headache.

This would all be so easy if it wasn't like an individual thing then there wouldn't be so much pressure, maybe there would be more, I don't really know but I understand why it's individual. People cheat and cheaters sit around and do nothing while other people do the work and then they get a grade they definitely don't deserve.

As for key words, I still only have one that means something to this project. I'm sure there will be more, I'm HOPING there will be more since there has to be like 10 of them.

My only word is modernize.

Modernize: make something more modern: to change something in order to make it conform to modern tastes, attitudes, or standards, or be changed in this way. (Verb)

1 down, only 9 to go.

I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but it is. It really, really, REALLY is. Ugh. I want to build a time machine so that I can just skip over all of this.

Key Terms and Sites

So I came up with one key term and found three sites between today and yesterday. I don't think that's much progress, but it's something. I've finally narrowed it down to twostories that I think I can modernize and they would be The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Little Red Riding Hood. I haven't really made much farther than that. I think I'm going to look up different versions of each story and see how other people have written it before. I know there's so many different versions of both of those stories so there's going to be a couple of different plot lines that go along with them. I want to be able to take one of the plot lines and modernize it without it losing anything which may be a little hard considering the characters could be walking around with iPods. So I don't want to lose the story but I want to make it my own so I don't know. I guess after I find the different versions, I'm going to start a first draft. It's going to come along. I'm making that a promise to myself.

I lost count of how many days its been and I'm out of creative titles

So I'm just kind of finding links that have to do with my topic. I'm sticking with my idea to modernize a fairy tale. Which one I'm doing, I have no idea yet. I'll figure that out soon. At the moment, I'm looking at sites that have to with publishing. I've found like two, but the one was just about how you NEED an agent to get anything accomplished and I don't think I really have time for that and considering I'll probably never write a book after this, I really don't need an agent.

Actually Starting Something

So today, we actually starting something. NO MORE BABBLING! Well maybe some. See, we have to start looking up sites that we can use to help us research our topics and since I haven't settled on an idea, though I'm leaning more one way than the other, I'm going to have a hard time looking up sites. Either way, I'm going to have to look up stuff on photography so that's not bad, but with the way I'm leaning, I have to look up stuff for writing and copyrights and stuff like that which is a waste of time if I don't do that project which I most likely will.

Um, that's pretty much it but I'll probably end up editing this like another five times.

This Graduation Project is Driving Me up a Wall

To answer a few questions, and probably stir up a few more, I never trashed the photography idea. I just had no way to make it involved. I honestly don't even know where this fairy tale idea came from, but just the thought of that and how those kinds of stories are usually illustrated made me think that that was a way to make photography involved.

With fairy tales being limited, I don't see how that could possibly be when there are so many different fairy tales and so many different ways to tell them. I plan on taking one, one that I really know and really love, and modernizing it. It goes along with one of my life goals, to become a published author.

To answer another question off of that last little bit; I do intend to try to get it published. Try is my key word there.

The project, I guess, could be about what it takes to be a published author but then again, why does it even have to be about something? Why can't it just be about something we feel passionate about?

That's all I have to offer for that.

I was told not to roll out the photography idea now so now I'm kind of back to square one where I don't know what to do. I mean I have to talk to Ms. Moye about what I could do with photography but other than that, I have nothing with that.

Gold Award is like a Graduation Project

So the Gold Award is a lot like a Graduation project. It takes a ton of work and it takes a lot of community service. Now the only reason that I'm bringing this up is because I was asked to explain what it is. That's pretty much it for my explanation though because the stupid thing changes like constantly.

We were told today to start looking at stuff for our projects. That's were I get stuck. I have my idea but my question is still left unanswered. I don't know whether or not if I have to deal with copy write laws or what. When I figure that much out, everything will be a lot easier to do.

I've narrowed my options for which story to work on down to four.

• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses
• Hansel and Grethel
• Sleeping Beauty or Briar-Rose

That's pretty much all I've done so far. As soon as my question gets answered there will be more, but for now. That's all I can do.

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LittRed.shtml#4 :Little Red Riding Hood
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TwelDanc.shtml :The Twelve Dancing Princesses
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/HanGre.shtml :Hansel and Grethel

Nothing has really changed

So nothing has really changed for my graduation project. I still like my current idea, but I'm waiting for someone to tell me that I can't do that. In the mean time though, and this is if I can still work on my current idea, I have figured out a way to incoperate my Gold Award Project with my graduation project.

I was told by someone, I'm not really sure who (I know it was Shannon or Alyssa) told me that we couldn't use our Gold Award as our graduation project which is understandable since we're working on it as a group. BUT, we all have individual parts to our projects and I'm planning on using part of my individual part for my project. I'm not quite sure yet how it is going to work, but I know that I have to talk to the librarian at my public library that's in charge or the activities for the kids and teens. I'm planning on talking to her tonight, but I know I'm going to have to talk to her a lot after that.

I don't know. It was a library and it had to do with books. I know I'll have to incorporate stuff from my project, (graduation,) so that it counts and everything but other than that, I really don't know.

Um, for not having much to say, I said a lot, but I think that's about it.

Graduation Project Idea

So I didn't completely trash the photography idea, but I've thought of a way that I can make it active. I think. See, I was thinking, since I like to write a lot too, why not take a fairy tale and rewrite it with a modern twist. You know, kind of modernize it.

Problems

• I have problems with finishing things that I start writing. Like I can start something and then be like "Um, no, this isn't working for me.
• I have no idea where to go with it if I would actually even finish writing it and got the pictures.
• And last but not least, do I have the attention span to actually do this?

So as Mrs. Savido was talking, this idea actually came to me, and, as much as I might get in trouble for not paying attention, I had to write it down before I lost the idea. When the idea of modernizing a fairy tale came to me, I was like "What fairy tale do I know and love well enough to actually make a rewrite?" Well so far my list consists of ten stories.

Stories

• Cinderella
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Snow White
• The Goose Girl
• Rupunzal
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Frog Prince
• Hansel and Grethel
• Sleeping Beaty or Briar- Rose

Now that I have this idea, and I've written it all down, I just thought of something. I would have to deal with copy write laws wouldn't I?

First Post

So we started our blogs today for our Graduation Projects, (obviously if I'm typing this.)

I guess we're just suppose to put what we completed on the project and everything but we haven't really started to anything yet except try to figure out what topic we wanted to complete it on. That's about as much as I got done too. I mean, I know I want to do something with Photography and I know that's broad and I have to narrow it down a bit, but I have no idea what how I'm going to do that yet. I was thinking something with landscape photography or portraits since those are the two things that I'm really into at the moment, but it's so hard to choose.

I'm leaning more toward landscape since, at the moment, it's my favorite kind of photograpy, but I have like no idea where to go after that. If I do portraits, I have the same problem, and I'm still not really good with those. Thank god for Digital Photography.

There are honestly so many other things that I could do with photography though and it just confuses me more. On top of that, I'll soon be adding my Gold Award work so it's like doing two graduating projects at the same time. Oh well. Guess that's what you get for being a Girl Scout and a junior in high school. Or at least a junior in City High.