Talons - Writing

One of my passions, one I've had ever since I could write, is writing. Here's where I store my writings, then; not all of them, necessarily, but a lot of them. Sorted by category.

Fiction [stories and novels; fantasy and otherwise]

• Death Before Death: A short story from Romeo's point of view set towards the end of Romeo and Juliet. This was a homework assignment in high school. It's extremely melodramatic and should be fined for ellipses abuse.
• Memory Lane: Yes, it's a Digimon fanfic. Hush. It was also my first good angst-fic, and I still like it, despite the overdramatic air and the overuse of ellipses. In an alternate universe, Takeru (TK) died, and Yamato (Matt) is still struggling with the aftermath.
• Phoenix Heart: The very first novel-length story I've finished, one of very few. I wrote it in 9th grade, so it was either written in 1999 or 2000 (or perhaps both). It's not very good. Centered on a roleplaying character, Tyrona Starfyr, in an original fantasy RPG setting, Shadow Star. It's the tale of her knighthood, battles, bonding, training, coronation, and romances. (Externally linked because I am not going to reformat that whole hulking story.)
• Stolen Song: A short songfic (story intertwined with poetry) that started as a Redwall fanfic that I later rewrote as a stand-alone story. There's still some mistakes, but overall it's good, and it got me 3rd place in a university-wide writing contest.
• Vengeance Quest: My pride and joy. It's a Redwall fanfic about an original character, Riala Goldentail, on a search for revenge for her father's death. It was written from 1998 to 2004; from when I was in 7th grade to the summer after my senior year in high school. It's never been edited and never will be; it's a record of my writing progress. Whenever I feel down about my writing ability, I read this novel and realize "Hey, I improved that much in six years; I can be as good as this or that author someday". Also externally linked; the thing is 185 pages long. No way I'm reformatting all that.

Nonfiction [essays, articles, and editorials]

• Animal People: Descriptions of animal-people I know offline, with a prosaic "frame" so I could submit it to my creative writing class. Eventually I'll write something up on every animal-person I know, and I'll post that in the Feathers section, but it's nowhere near done yet. This one is a good length for a short essay piece, and the prof loved it, so I figured I'd post it.
• Ask Me Why: A rather bitter and overly melodramatic ramble on depression and self-harm, from back when I used to cut. Older piece.
• Hero's Quest: I wrote this partially for myself and partially for a Redwall e-zine. It postulates what it might be like to be a character in a fantasy epic - what it might really be like.
• Monster in the Basement: Exploration of my own mind, and probing into the shadows therein.
• That Strange Madness: What love means to me, what I believe about love, and the patterns of my expression of love.
• Writer's Fire: I felt like the fire had disappeared from my words; that I'd lost the heart of writing. This was partially angsting on my part, and partially an attempt to show myself that yes, I could still write; I still had my touch.

Poetry [poems, poetic prose, lyrics]

• Beautiful Nothing: Writing while depressed; a depiction of my low self-esteem.
• Birdpanic: A depiction of the sort of panic that I associate with birdness.
• Burn Into Life: A poem about passion, and the passionate people I admire, and phoenixness.
• Carapace: This is about a few people in my life, people with thick walls and many masks.
• Circling: An older poem, but I still like this one. It's got interesting imagery and a nice rhythm.
• Guardian, Challenger, Guide: A devotional song - you could even call it a hymn of sorts - that I wrote to Anpu. One of these days I'll record the music for it.
• Headspace at the End of the Leash: Writing on the submission side of dominance and submission.
• Headspace When Holding the Leash: Writing on the dominance side of dominance and submission.
• Meanderings of Love: Four poems in a series on love, and coming to terms with it.
• Memories: Angsty post-break-up poem from a while ago.
• Mindlessness: An illustration of the chaos in my mind when it goes on overload. I suppose you could call it a panic attack of sorts.
• Soul Spider: Yet another poem on depression. I wrote a lot of them during that period of my life.
• Storm Trapped in Stone: We had to write a sestina in my creative writing class one summer at college. This is what I came up with.
• Soul Portrait: A poem about the juxtaposition of bird and human.
• To Fly: I volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center for a while. There's a peregrine falcon there who's missing half a wing. Sometimes she'd stare at the sky through the mesh of her cage and flap and flap... it struck a chord, and this came from it.
• To Lands Where Spirits Glide: This was for a poetry contest. It had to be about the ocean and had to have at least 3 stanzas consisting of 3 to 6 lines each. For some reason I kept thinking along the lines of Celtic ballads/tales/dirges, and that got me thinking about funeral barges. I actually created a very strict structure for this poem; it was fun to try to fit such a rigid structure.
• Warning Label: A poem about myself and my seeming contradictions.