Timothy's scrapbook

[Timothy Mered]

That's about the biggest compliment you could give me. I've had this damn thread in my head for way too long but never got around to write it. Now my hope is to have the ripples of this touch the lives of other characters. Trust me, I am as excited as you aree!

By the bye, I haven't forgotten our thread. I've one with Rosela I need to reply to as well and that one with the orphanage group. Sorry about the wait, my schedule has been quite unpredictable lately.

[Ssezzkero]

And plenty more to come if you keep it up! I'll take on anyone who challenges me as your #1 fan >.>

And don't you worry. Technically I need to be on hiatus, sleeping, but I'm just reading other people's threads instead.

[Yra]

I'm understandably excited and even further interested in Timothy. You're doing the good work with the Ruv'na, and that's super intriguing! I'll be looking for the ripples of this in the future, and still plotting my turn to thread with you.

[Timothy Mered]

I'm understandably excited and even further interested in Timothy. You're doing the good work with the Ruv'na, and that's super intriguing! I'll be looking for the ripples of this in the future, and still plotting my turn to thread with you.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you or the other people I promised to thread with. Again, apologies for being slow, I'll do my best to make it worthwhile. Expect a PM soon (tomorrow most likely).

[Timothy Mered]

Abort! Abort!

Two 180's makes a 360. I've gone -I have had to go- full circle. The Ruv'na plots I had in mind had issues. I tried to do too many things too fast and was creating this mess of a family backstory while I was at it.

That's all gone now. Things are back to normal. Stella Mered is Timothy's NPC mother, Hirem The Strong is his father. Nothing changed.

Well...I removed my Ruv'na solos (one deletion still pending as I can't delete a graded thread), so that is technically a change. it does sting a bit to throw ~5000 words down the drain, but I brought it unto myself and will simply deal with the consequences.

I am still determined as ever to get Timothy into the Ruv'na. The only real plot that relies on this is the Voyage to Abura/Darva with the Syliran Knights. Whatever plots I had for that journey are still feasible if I manage to get Timothy with the Ruv'na before the 34th of Summer. If not, I'll either find a different IC reason to join or simply won't join. There's no point in forcing plots.

Apologies to all whom it might concern. It was an honest mistake. Now, back to the drawing board!

[Aventis]

You're welcome to PM me for help any time c:

[Timothy Mered]

You're welcome to PM me for help any time c:

What about mental support?

Nah, I am fine, I've moved through the sulking stage in approximately 1 hour. Now I am at the point where I am trying to think of good solutions and things to do in the meantime. I am not going to touch Ruv'na stuff through solos again, that's for sure.

[Timothy Mered]

The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows

I am just going to put it up here because, dang it! This deserves attention. As fellow writers I can hardly imagine someone here not appreciating this. Instead of me explaining what The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows is all about, you're better off watching the video. Heck, by the time you've reached the end of this sentence you could have already watched half of it.



If you don't get feels, you're probably dead, or a nuit or something...

[Timothy Mered]

Music Things!

So instead of posting, I've been working on a music piece for a game. It's still rough around the edges and a work in progress, but I thought I'd share for those who bother to read this.

The game is a handglider game in which you're flying around. Not all that exciting really. Oh well.

[Timothy Mered]

Why does a 22-year old male write a 12-year old character?

It’s a question I’ve been asking myself more and more lately. It’s not just some hipster move. It’s not just that there’s a lack of PC children in Mizahar. It’s not because I like creating “cute” characters either. In fact, I kinda dislike characters who are made for cuteness' sake. It's usually easy to spot. All I know is that I find there’s something very appealing about coming-of-age stories. I don’t know why they work, or if they work for everyone the same as they work for me, but I find coming-of-age stories move me the most.

For me, a great part of it is the sense of wonder that comes with writing a younger character. I don't really feel like a grown-up most of the time and quotes like these just hit me:

A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder, so indestructible that it would last throughout life as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

~Rachel Carson.

Part of that may be due to the fact that I have one major regret about my own childhood. Don’t get me wrong. I had a great childhood by all standards. I was happy, I had and still have great parents…but the one thing that was missing was adventure. I was very, very shy and I never got into any sort of trouble.

I know it sounds strange. Why would anyone be unhappy about never getting into trouble? I’d probably share that standpoint if I had ever been in any sort of trouble…but I haven’t, so there’s a very alluring adventurous and mysterious quality to it. In some strange, twisted way, I write younger characters like Timothy because they allow me to live the adventures I missed out on when I was that age myself. Think of this what you will. Perhaps it weirds you out, perhaps you can relate.

The reality is of course that we all have reasons why we make the characters we do. We might not like the reasons for it, but just like most teenagers tend to write super-human characters because they themselves feel a lot of anxiety and insecurity at that stage of their lives, we all have our own set of reasons why we make the characters we do. I am just being honest about mine.

Another major part of why I write Timothy and generally tend to write younger characters is because I am extremely frustrated by the Hollywood portrayal of younger characters. Pick any Film or TV show and you’ll find that kids are played by teenagers and teenagers are played by college students.

Why is this? Can’t we just have a fourteen year old play a fourteen year old? What’s more awkard to watch: two twenty-somethings pretending to be fifteen kissing in a film, or two actual fifteen year-olds kissing in a film? How comes that the first option is more socially acceptable than the latter? Don’t get me wrong: I perfectly understand the laws in place to protect child-actors from being exploited, but I do feel we’ve gone a little too far. Society, it seems to me, is hypersensitive to this kind of thing.

How I would love to see a brilliantly casted 8-year old for the lead of Ender’s Game. How I would love to see an actual 12-year old play Jonas in The Giver. It's not as if these kinds of actors don't exist. Haley Joel Osment comes to mind, and I am also looking forward to seeing Levi Miller in the upcoming movie Pan (and yes, that's the kid in my avatar).

I feel people in Film and TV, and increasingly writers as well, are doing themselves a disservice by pushing through this aging-up policy. The Giver and Ender’s Game were precisely so powerful because the protagonists were so young.

To move back to RP’ing: there is an overwhelming, utterly overwhelming avalanche of 17-year old characters. Somehow, that’s the safe age everyone who wants to play a younger character seems to defer to. I guess I can kind of see why: you can do romance with a 17-year old character without upsetting anyone. To me it is just incredibly boring, in part because these supposed 17-year olds don't really act like 17-year olds most of the time. I have a strong hunch it's just a safety net for most people. You won't get any strange looks if you make a 17 year old character. You might raise a few eyebrows when you write a 10 or 12 year old.

The reason I find this frustrating and somewhat insulting is because I strongly believe younger people are much smarter and insightful than we give them credit for. And honestly, most books I've read that have been translated into film feature young characters! Harry Potter is 11. Ender is 8. Jonas is 12, the list goes on and on. We don't frown upon it in novels.

I don’t really have a bomb of an exit. This scrap is a little disjointed as I am trying to understand why I am so passionate about this subject anyway. It’s not like this issue keeps me awake at night, but at times it just annoys me. Why can’t people in Film, TV, and RPers just come to terms with reality and make their 15 year olds look and behave like 15 year olds?

I mean look at this picture:



The guy is in the 24-26 range (couldn’t find his exact age).

Guess what the age listed on this person’s CS was. (This is not on Mizahar. It's on some other RP site I won't link to because I don't want to slam that person too hard).

17.

Seventeen.

I just don’t get it.

Also, I composed more music: