Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The early masterpieces of Abbey.

I can't wait to be a mother simply because I LOVE the way kid's brains think. I love the stories kids come up with... I was reminded of this while watching some BoredShorts videos last night... They are probably most known for their Kid History/Kid Snippets. They have a newish show, however, called Kid Masterpieces. They are children's stories read by a distinguished elder:


It got me thinking about my early stories... and I though I'd share a few of them with you! (Don't worry, I'll take out the spelling errors, for there are many.)

The first one is called Book 1 Princess Cassidy. Judging by the hand writing and the story content, I'm guessing I was around seven or eight when I wrote it.

Once upon a time in a far away land, in a castle, in a hallway, in a room, a Princess Cassidy lived. She was a unicorn with a golden horn. Such an elegant, beautiful horn. One day, she went out for a walk in the garden. Then she found herself out of the garden. She went through a bush into...

I'm not sure what happened, but I never finished the story. (This one was complete with a period after each word).
Next is The Tia Book. Tia was our first dog. We got her from my aunt and she was only with us for a year before we had to put her down. This one was written about the same time... when I was seven or eight. This one I dictated to my mom who wrote it out for me.

Once upon a time there were three dogs. A big dog, a medium-sized dog, and their team leader was Tia, the small dog. Do you know what their names were? The big dog was called Rainbow Bluey, the medium-sized dog was named Smart Reddy, and their team leader was just plain Tia.
One day they got lost in the forest. Then the team leader, Tia, saw light! They went to the light and there they saw big dogs, little dogs, medium-sized dogs, fat dogs, skinny dogs... it was a whole dog festival!
So they at last got to a place where people would give them food.
Then their team leader saw a little black poodle that looked sad.
The other guys of the team leader Tia, said, "Why are you looking so sad and worried?"
"Because this poodle looks sad," answered Tia. "What is your name?"
"Well, my mommy didn't name me much, just Alexander P.," said the black poodle.
"Why don't you come with us?" asked Tia.

This one wasn't finished either... Did Alexander P. go with team leader Tia? The world will never know.
Next is Abbey's Dog and Cat Book. This one is probably from when I was six or seven. Possibly five... but I doubt it.

Dogs and cats. I love them.
I wonder how dogs and cats think?
I like dogs and cats because Mommy is allergic to cats, but I don't mind.
Dogs and cats can't go to church, but they can stay at home or in the car.
Dogs and cats can't read books, but we can read books to them, and mouse books to cats and kittens too.
I wonder if dogs and cats can ride the school bus?
I wonder if dogs like mice and cats like bones?
Dogs and cats can't write, but we can draw pictures for them.
Remember to put a collar on your dog and cat. Put your name and phone number on it.
Goodbye.
See you later, Alligator.
After awhile, Crocodile.
I love you.

Here's some stories out of a writing prompt book that I wrote when I was eight.

Underwater Adventure
I put on my scuba gear and jumped into the sea. As I was going down, I saw an octopus. I said hi. To my amazement, he said hi back.
"(indistinguishable word) this talks. Shh," said the Sea Queen. She was a real mermaid and her horse was a sea unicorn. It was really just a sea horse that was gigantic with a horn.
After meeting everybody and having tea with the Queen and a ride on her sea unicorn, it was time to go. I said bye and left.
The end.

The First Day of School
The first day of school was going well until the hamsters got loose. We chased them down the hall! Where did they go? Ahhh! They were in the closet! I got one!
"Help! Help!" cried a young girl. She was on the floor crying. The hamsters were stampeding on her so I helped her.
"Josh! Josh!"
"What? What? The hamsters!"
"Josh, they're in the cage."
"I must have been day dreaming."
The end
(Not a true story)

Balloon ride!
I bought a bunch of balloons, and suddenly I started up. It was scary. I had to hold on tight.
I saw a whole bunch of birds. They popped the balloons and I went down, down, down and landed on a great big bird.
I rode on it for awhile. Then it dropped me into the neighbor's pool.
I had quite a wild ride today. First on the balloons, then the bird and the air. It was a wild ride.
The end.

Space Adventure
One night an alien invited me to a party at Rigaly Hall. There were all sorts of animals there. We were on a different planet. The name was something like Super California Surfer Expert On The Ocean.
Well, about the animals. There was a giant slug with two front arms. It's name was Jabba the Hut. And there was a Wookie named Chewbacca. And a guy all dressed in black. His name was Darth Vader, King of Bad Guys. He had a red light saber.
Then suddenly I was in bed. It was all a dream.
The end.

The one above had some really cute spelling errors... Wookie was Woky and Darth Vader was Dark Veder. He didn't have a red light saber, but a red life savr.
This next one is called A Bad Day for Mr. Johnson. I'm not sure exactly when I wrote it... but it was sometime between 2007 and 2010.

I was right there in the classroom when it happened: the teacher ripped his pants. Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Ginie the hamster. You could say that I'm the teacher's pet. Ha ha ha. O.K., enough funny business. Back to the story.
It was Wednesday, 1 p.m. sharp when it happened. Mr. Johnson ripped his pants. The class was doing math when the teacher dropped his chalk. He bent over to pick it up and his pants ripped.
Personally, I thought his purple and pink polka dotted shiny underwear was funny. Everyone in class wanted to laugh, but they knew better.
Lucy took her school books and used them as pants to bring him to the principal's office.
Mrs. Langly, the vice principle, gave him some pants that were Principle Jacklin's. They were too big, but they would do for now. Then Mr. Johnson went home to change.
Oh, I forgot to tell you something. The principal always keeps an extra pair of pants in his office.
When Mr. Johnson came back, he told the class that his mom made him wear that underwear, and anyway, his wife didn't have any other clean underwear because she had just had their first child.
At the end of the day, he thanked Lucy for her help and, of course, she said, "Oh, no problem, Mr. Johnson."
So that's the end of our story of the bad day for Mr. Johnson. Come back some other time for another story. I'll be here!

This next story is one of the stepping stones to get to my Daniel and Varina stories. It's about me and my cousin (the one who plays Minecraft and likes Star Wars). It was written in 2009, judging by the hand writing. (Reading it now, it reminds me a lot of Get Smart, which I hadn't even heard of yet in 2009. Also, my apologies to Herge for stealing some of his characters...)

Priceless
By Abbey
Prologue:
"Agent 24kqs4? Agent 24kqs4, over."
"Yes? This is agent 24kqs4 speaking. Is that you, boss? Do you have a new mission for me?"
"Yes, Agent 24kqs4. I have a new mission for you. The famous Castafoire Emerald has been stolen. Go to her house and snoop around. Go, Agent! Go! And don't forget, I don't want you to be seen. Over."
Outside under a big open window:
"Ahhh! (A note on the side of the page says "Tell everyone when agent 24kqs4 says 'ahhh,' he's falling) This is not going to work. Oh, hello Abbey (Abbey is my friend, she can't talk). What are you doing here? Oh, the boss sent you to help me. How kind of him!"
"Woof woof!"
"Oh look, Abbey! It's a little dog! Let's keep him! Maybe he can help us get in this window."
"Grrr. Woof!"
"Ouch! He bit me! A rope, good idea, Abbey. Still, let's bring the dog with us. He might bark and give us away if we leave him down here. I will call him Spot because he has a large spot on him."
"Agent 24kqs4, are you there? Is Abbey with you yet?"
"Yes, she is, boss. What do you want?"
"I just found out that the priceless emerald is hidden in the house somewhere. Good luck agent. I have to go."
Inside next to a big vase:
"Well, Abbey, we're inside. Better start looking for the emerald. You head that way. I'll look around here, with Spot. Now let's see... If I were an emerald, where would I be? Good idea, Spot! In the vase! Ugh, uh hu. There, I'm up! Hey! Ho! Spot, stop shaking the vase! Ahhh! Bad dog, Spot! I fell in! Ow! I sat on something sharp. Let's see, where's that flashlight... Here it is. Lights on. He, he, he. Oh! The emerald! Abbey! Abbey! Come help me out. I found it!"
"Found what? Who's in there?"
"Who's that speaking?"
"I am Madame Castafoire's butler. And oh! Here comes Madame now."
"Who's in there, Nestor?"
"I don't know yet, Madame."
"Who's that? A new maid servant?"
"No, that's my sidekick, Abbey. She can't speak."
"Oh. And who are you?"
"I am Agent 24kqs4. I work for the spy agency down the street. I was sent here to find your emerald. Now, if the Madame would be so kind as to let me out of this jar, I can ask her if the emerald I sat on is hers."
"Oh, yes, of course! Nestor, let him out."
"Woof, woof."
"Hello, Spot, Abbey. Nice to see you again. Hey, Spot, give me that back! Spot!"
"Agent 24kqs4? Come in, please."
"Yes, boss?"
"I forgot to mention, if you see a small white dog with a brown spot, don't take him along. His master wants the emerald."
"Too late, boss. He just got away with the emerald."
"Oh? Well, that's too bad. I'm sure Madame Castafoire will be sad about that."
"Oh, no actually," says Castafoire. "It's a fake."
Epilogue:
"So that's what she meant by priceless," said Agent 24kqs4. He was having coffee with Abbey and the boss.
"Help! Help!" a voice cried from outside. "A dog just stole my diamond!"

I didn't realize until I started typing the story out that the first "he/she said" doesn't come until the very end... xD
This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote in 2009 about the 6-traits of writing curriculum.

I had the honor of visiting my friend's school last year. She had the 6-traits (of writing) hanging up in her classroom. I asked her about them and she said she wasn't studying them! Can you believe that! Not studying 6-trait, yet have them hanging in your classroom? Personally, I think everyone should study the 6-traits (and the Constitutional Convention). Because of 6-trait and one of my favorite book series, I have chosen the career of an author (for now). I owe a tremendous lot to 6-trait.

Obviously I owe a lot to the Constitutional Convention, too. What in the world does that have to do with anything? xD My mom and I laughed so hard when I read that to her last night.
And finally (I've saved the best for last), a story entitled Life is Good as a Pea. I have no clue when I wrote this, but it was more than three years ago.

Life was good as a pea. When I was young, I lived in a pea pod. It wasn't so crowded then. My mom fed me and my brothers and sisters sugar through out belly buttons until we got fat. Once we got fat, it was stuffy and real crowded. I wanted to get out of there and see the human world.
One day, my dream came true. We were picked. It was fall, when all fruits and vegetables get picked. We were very green and round. We were very eatable also.
The human picked us. Then she opened our pods and put us in a bowl. It felt good to get out of the stuffy pod. Pretty soon, there were more peas in the bowl until it was almost to the top. Then there were no more peas to put into the bowl. She put us in the freezer to save us for later.
Brrr, it was freezing in there. I was glad my brothers and sisters and other peas were there to keep me warm.
One day in the winter, the nice lady fed us to her family. I am telling this story from inside the nice lady's stomach. Life is still good in her stomach. Maybe I'll write another story once I get digested.
The end.

WOW! Talk about a plot twist! Actually, that's often how my stories end up... You start reading it and it's just a nice story (informative too - the peas getting fed sugar) and then at the end it's like, BLAM! They got eaten.

It's fun to look through old writings... You can see the Then and Now parallels. When I was younger, four elements were in nearly every story I wrote. Once upon a time usually started the stories... and everything ended with "the end" even if it was a report or a serious paper. It took my mom ages to break me of that habit, especially since I wasn't too keen on breaking it. Often I would put in "oh, I forgot to tell you something" at least once into the story as well. And "one day" is as common as "oh, I forgot to tell you something."

There are several other "chapters" of my earlier writing that perhaps I'll go into one day... One is the effect the Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter had on my writing. You have no idea how many unfinished Warriors stories I have lying around. One actually got finished, tapping out at 25ish (written) pages, the same number of (typed) pages that After the Twelfth Night was on it's first draft! (To be fair, the first draft was only Part 1. The other two parts didn't come until NaNoWriMo 2011).
The other chapter is my first finished "book" that was longer than five pages long. Someday I'll type it up (it's about 16 pages) and post it here... but not tonight.

Do you have any early writings you would like to share? Or any funny writing stories from when you were a small kid? How about things you did in your writing as a child, but don't do anymore (other than spelling mistakes and such)?

Live long and prosper!

1 comment:

  1. A bad day for Mr. Johnson sounds a lot like a story I wrote for Writing class you, T, and I were in.... ;D

    ReplyDelete