Inspirational Video Games : Visiting Minecraft

There's a video game that I play with my brother called Minecraft. The gameworld is comprised of thousands upon thousands of blocks. They could be ore or wood or stone or dirt, or any of a hundred different types of blocks. By applying different tools to different blocks, you can mine and harvest the blocks to get items like silver or wool, tools like axes and shovels, food, or any of a number of resources. The Survival Mode of the game involves consistent hunting of chickens, cows, and pigs for food, as well as farming, mining, building, and defending yourself against hostile mobs like creepers and zombies that come out at night. It is exhilarating and educational, like the novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, where a teenage boy survives a plane crash in the middle of an uncivilized area of Canada, and must learn to survive the wild using only his hatchet. By mining and collecting blocks, you have the ability to build yourself a house, a farm, domesticate and breed animals, and even create railroads. My brother found these amazing renderings of creations built on Minecraft Survival Mode-- absolutely breathtaking.

Every block had to be mined from the ground (or trees) and placed individually.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

"Shut up!" Indo shouted as he launched himself at Cot. Cot went down immediately, his back and pants instantly soaked from a deep puddle, while Indo swung his leg back and kicked him hard in the rib cage.

"Stop! I'll shut up! Get off me!" Cot begged mercy as his sides locked up with pain, but Indo was angry. No one insulted his father, not to his face. He kicked him again. He wouldn't let this kid get off easy. He knew the rules.

"My dad is not a murderer! If I hear you say that again, you won't still be living!" After a third and final kick, Indo turned and stomped several feet away toward the end of the alley.

NaNoWriMo Strategies : Divide & Conquer

This month, I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. The original NaNoWriMo, in November, is an annual online gathering of amateur and professional novelists, coming together to work on a common goal: to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Camp NaNoWriMo is a summertime adaptation of that goal.

This would be my second attempt at a formal NaNoWriMo competition, although I have challenged myself to write longer fiction several times before. On my previous endeavors into novels, I've gone into the process in the same way, and I came out all dried up. I didn't like my story anymore– my plot was messy, my characters were boring, the message and themes were undefined, and I had no motivation to even begin the editing phase. This month, I hope to do things differently.

Camp Nanowrimo!

This year, I'm participating in Camp NaNoWriMo! The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of August!

By sponsoring me, you'll be supporting a world-wide campaign to inspire amateur writers and novelists to write through programs like NaNoWriMo.org and Camp Nanowrimo every year!

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Usually, it happens every November, but Camp Nanowrimo offers the opportunity to write with a community of writers during the summer months too! Nano allows you to track your progress and your friends' progress throughout the month and encourages you to finish writing 50,000 words by offering amazing winner goodies! Nanowrimo is a completely free, non-profit organization, and depends on donations to keep running, growing, and inspiring young writers like me!

Click here to sponsor me: StayClassy!
Click here to read more about Nanowrimo, and Camp Nanowrimo!

Thank you for any support you can give! If you can't give anything, thank you still for taking the time to learn about this great program. Just the moral support helps!