Day 1493: A New Challenge

I write...a lot. 

For my wonderful regular readers here at Everyday Disney, this probably isn't much of a surprise anymore. You know quite well how I am capable of rambling on for what feels like days about some Disney-oriented topic that probably didn't require a five-page explanation. Alright, so perhaps my blog posts aren't that long, but in the four years I've been writing here, I have discussed my writing more than a few times, and really, things haven't changed much. I'm still writing for Everyday Disney, as well as The Odyssey Online, multiple classes, video scripts, in a personal journal and, for the most part, anywhere else I can find a spot to jot down a few ideas or a quick story. 

But as we start a new month and as I write the first in a new series of blog posts (which I'll explain in a moment), I've decided on a new challenge for the month of February that will encourage me to actually keep up with daily blog posts, tie in my coursework with Disney in a whole new way, and will be, I believe, rather interesting.

I'm going to count every word I write in the month of February, and here's the how and why: 

As I round out my final year at St. Norbert College, I've returned to working toward a degree in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis and am enrolled in a creative writing seminar. It's more or less an extension of a fiction workshop course I took last semester, which reminded me why I love writing in the first place. This semester, we're required to write a few blog posts in addition to our regular writing exercises, which I took as a brand new challenge, figuring it would be fun to really intertwine my coursework with what I'm already doing here. 

And as for the first blog post topic? You guessed it - writing. 

When I really sat down and thought about my writing though, I realized that much of my writing style has been, at least in some way, shape or form, influenced directly by Disney or through some connection to the company. In particular, through reading Anne Lamott's bird by bird, I've noticed a few direct examples of this. 

I write like I'm directing a film. Lamott notes that, when writing, she'll frequently imagine a scene as though it were on film. What would the background look like? How would the characters be situated in the scene? What would they be wearing? What would the lighting be like? In all reality - what would it look like if it were a movie instead of words on a page? When I read this, I couldn't help but smile because thank goodness someone else does this too. Working as a videographer and photographer on the side, I'm always picturing exactly how everything would look as though I were in the Disney studios creating a storyboard to make my work into a movie. 

I also rely on the details, similar to the way Disney-Pixar so carefully creates the shadows and reflections that make films such as Finding Nemo or Cars so realistic. I do my research and ground my works in reality, even if the characters and events of my writing are completely fictional. If I'm writing a piece I want to set in Ireland, I'll search the internet until I find the exact location I'm looking for. If I'm writing a piece on a car salesman in the 1950s, I'll search out that perfect name for his wife, what suit he probably would be wearing and what car he'd be likely to drive. I'll do research to the point where, if you read my piece, you'd probably believe that I'd been to Ireland or actually lived as a 1950s car salesman in a former life (spoiler alerts: I haven't been to Europe and I'm fairly certain I wasn't a car salesman...I think). Anne Lamott discusses this too, only for her the topic is gardening, and she works to insure that her writing is as accurate as the apples that are growing on a tree in the fictional backyard, despite the fact that she has fake flowers outside her own home. 

I write with the knowledge that it won't be the final product. Mickey Mouse, as you may or may not know, wasn't Walt Disney's first hit character, meaning Mickey Mouse wasn't the first draft. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was, and he was stolen from Walt along with his workers just before the creation of the mouse we know and love today. But Oswald taught Walt important lessons, and served a purpose of his own. Our first drafts don't have to work out, because they're just paving the way for the spectacular drafts yet to come. Reminding myself that even the creators of Tangled and The Lion King probably had, as Lamott notes, "shitty first drafts," keeps me going through the day. Maybe I won't get it right in the first draft, or the second, or the third, but if I keep working at it, eventually I'll find my own Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, although, perhaps I should aim for Mickey in this metaphor.

The point here is this, because this blog post is getting much longer than anticipated - my writing is constantly evolving, but no matter how far off track I get, I'm always grounded by the habits and strategies I've picked up along the way, the most important one of which is writing a lot. As I tally up the words that make up blog posts, articles, assignments, and journal entries throughout the month of February, I'm excited to see just how much I'm writing, and to reexamine what I'm writing as time goes on, because I'm sure that, as always, it will be quite the adventure.

Expect to see more blog posts from my Creative Writing Seminar in the future. Each will be tagged with #sncEngl425 if you want to hone in on just those posts - or if you're one of my classmates and don't feel the need to listen to my sometimes lengthy spiels about Spaceship Earth.

Have a magical day!

Day 954: Character Mania

If there was one thing I loved about Disneyland more than pretty much anything else, it was the characters. Alright, so that's a half-truth, because you just can't beat World of Color and Paint the Night (among other things), but the character selection in California is VERY different from the ones we have back at Walt Disney World. So of course I set out to meet as many of them as possible in my short time there, and the results were definitely rewarding.

It took me all of about two hours to spot my first character of the trip, the one and only Queen. When I noticed her meeting in the shadow of the Matterhorn, my inner Evil Regal kicked in and I just had to stop. To be completely honest, between the chilling sounds of the Matterhorn behind us and her rather...cold...attitude, I got a bit of shiver on my spine. I wouldn't call her evil though...just misunderstood. Once a Oncer, always a Oncer. 

Then it was off with my friend Laura to meet a couple of the greates heroes our world has ever known, Thor and Captain America! Thor was a bit put off by the fact that I had my Cap shirt on and wasn't wearing a shirt that had him on it, but I managed to convince him that it was alright and that he should come to visit Florida sometime. After all, it's closer to New York, right? 

Then, over by Cap, I was completely heart eyes. Think Captain America is charming in the movies? You should meet him in person. Greatest three minutes of my life...well...until I met my next character. 

I personally think it's ridiculous that this guy doesn't meet in Florida, so when I saw him after getting off the Carrousel Laura was like "Go, Live your Dream" and I ran over to meet him. Having him sign my autograph book was basically the highlight of my afternoon, especially since because he only has one hand you have to like hold the book for him while he signs. It was a Hooker's dream. 

Now, I'm still not caught up on all the Tinkerbell movies, but heading to Pixie Hollow was pretty amazing. In Florida we can obviously still meet Tink, but the expansion of Fantasyland took away her fairy friends! Rosetta was the cutest little honey-bunch and I just wanted to take her home to be honest.

Of all the characters in California, Oswald was the one I knew I just had to meet. This guy is a huge historical figure when it comes to the Disney company, and the fact that he's finally in the parks and back in our lives is absolutely wonderful. He was SOOOO Cute, especially in relation to the vlog and the camera. Which brings me to my next question...when can we get him in Florida? 

And last but certainly not least, I headed on a 45 minute mission to meet our favorite snowman, Olaf! One of my best friends is a huge Olaf fan, so because she can't meet him in Florida, I figured the least I could do was go and get his autograph for her! He actually doesn't sign regular autographs yet, and instead does a little self-portrait, and Olaf was kind enough to sign one for me and one for my friend! Plus look at how happy we were! Warm Hugs indeed! 

Not bad for five days in the parks though, right? I wanted to see if I could catch Cruella and the Fairy Godmother as well but time just wasn't on my side, so I'll have to save them for the next time! And who knows, by then ALL the Avengers might be there! 

Which character would you most want to meet at Disneyland? Let me know in the comments below!

Have a magical day!

(This blog post was written on September 2 due to the Disney Trip and College Move-In).

Day 749: Disney Haul

I think I come home with more stuff every Disney trip I take, much to the dismay of my parents. But I rather like to think of it as "thinking ahead," since a lot of the stuff I buy is actually for my dorm room or apartment in the future. Because of course I'll need potholders in the future when I have a kitchen and of course they'd be better if they looked like Mickey Mouse's gloves.

But that's not all I got, so I figured I would stop and take a moment to share some of my favorite items I picked up on this last trip:

As always, here's the picture of everything I got, which actually looks like a lot of stuff now that I put it all in one spot, but I think it's probably because of how large the things are, rather than how much stuff there really is. As you can see, I've got some new attraction posters, which you can get in a set of 12 for like $20 at the moment. They're not like super high quality posters, but I'm definitely excited to have them. 

Then we have this little guy. Megan and I admired the Disney Pillow Pets for pretty much the entire trip and at some point decided that one needed to come home with each of us. I settled, eventually, on Stitch, and I am in love with him. I do not, whatsoever, regret buying a pillow pet. And to make it a Disney one yet too! Ha! Match made in heaven! And of course, I'm very excited about my Monsters University hat, which I'm seriously considering wearing for our first day of classes. But we'll see. 

I collect mugs. You know that, I know that, and when someone posted a picture of a resort mug exactly like this a couple of weeks ago, I knew that there was a significant possibility of me coming home with one. So I found the Contemporary mug and bought it on the spot, much to the dismay of my father. Also here you can see the soap I got from Downtown Disney. CaptainSwan much?

While at the World of Disney store, Megan was looking at a couple of different smaller stuffed characters and I remember picking Oswald up, putting him down, and repeating that about three times before finally putting him in my basket. I love Oswald, and since my parents generally collected the different characters over the years, it felt right for him to join the gang. I'm especially excited to meet Oswald at Disneyland. Like you have no idea. 

And finally, no trip would be complete without a new addition to my Spaceship Earth collection. This is another of those things I saw on Instagram a few weeks back and wanted and figured I wouldn't be able to find it. We walked in the Christmas Store at Magic Kingdom on like day two, Mom saw it and it was decided. I picked it up later in the week and now it hangs on my wall next to the rest of the collection. No Spaceship Earth ornament of mine goes into a box for the majority of the year! 

As you can see in that first picture, there's plenty more that I came home with, and I'm sure there will be more in the future. Just wait until Disneyland. I'm pretty sure I'll buy half the store. Thankfully I'm already saving money for that trip (and the D23 Expo! Pins here I come)! It's always so difficult to choose what to get and what to leave because, lets be honest, we pretty much want to buy all of it, right? 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on January 24 due to a busy schedule).