Writing: Outlines

When I write stories, I love having an outline already planned out.  I find it really convenient.  I've only started using them in the past year or so, and I think it's really helped.  I never write a story now unless I already have an outline written out.

Depending on the story, the outline may be really detailed or just have a brief sentence for each chapters.  The outline for the story I'm writing now isn't very detailed at all, but one I'm currently planning is going to be much more detailed.  The story I'm writing now has four main characters whereas the future story is going to follow many different characters.  Obviously, with all of the additional characters I need a more detailed outline.  One problem with having so many characters is keeping track of what each of them are doing at all times, especially in relation to what the other characters are doing.  That's why I love having an outline.

I haven't actually begun the outline for this future story yet.  All I have are some ideas floating around in my head.  When I do begin the outline, I believe it will take a long time to complete.  I want to make sure that I have what each character's doing and all times down before I begin the process of actually writing.  It may take a lot of work, but it will make the actual process of writing a lot simpler since I won't have to figure all of that out then.

I love outlines.  Since I've started using them, it's made writing stories so much easier.  I always know how the story's going to pan out.  Of course, I always end up changing some things while I'm writing but having the outline there is very useful.

If you're a writer, do you like to use an outline?

Beauty and the Beast

This post is about my favorite Disney movie of all time:  Beauty and the Beast.  I can't remember a point in time where I didn't love this movie, although I don't think it was always my number one favorite.  I think the Beast scared me a bit as a child at the beginning of the movie, but I loved the story.

I joke around now that this movie forshadowed my future love of werewolves (I think they're awesome).  The Beast isn't really a werewolf, but he's kind of werewolfish.  Maybe he's the reason I like werewolves.  Who knows.  Besides his werewolf-like characteristics, the Beast is probably one of the favorite male leads in a Disney movie.  He's not like the typical Disney prince, and I love that.  I think (although I may be wrong) that he's the only Disney prince that we ever see a bad side too.  As far as I can think of, all of the others are only portrayed in a postive light.

Belle is also my favorite Disney princess.  This is, of course, helped by her love for reading.  Other than that though, I love that she's so independent.  She doesn't marry Gaston even though every other girl in town would love to.  She sees that he's an arrogant jerk and turns him down.  She also stands up for herself against the Beast.  To me she's the bravest and most independent of all of the Disney princesses.

I also love the message of the movie.  I love romance stories, and this is my favorite of all of Disney's.  In most of the Disney princess movies, I feel like the romance is unrealistic, but I don't feel that way about Belle and the Beast.  They actually had time to get to know each other and develop romantic feelings for each other.

Plus, all of the other characters are amazing.  I love all of them.  I even find Gaston amusing (if highly irritating).

What's your favorite Disney movie?

Leaving for Two Weeks

This post is to inform everyone that I'll be gone for the next two weeks.  Sunday morning I'm going to Ohio with some people from my church for a mission trip.  We get back from that next Saturday, and I'm leaving for Hoosier Girl's State the next morning.  I may get a post up that Saturday night, but I wouldn't count on it.  More likely than not, I'm going to be way too tired to worry about a blog post.

I've been writing some posts and scheduling them to post over the course of the two weeks.  So far I have four posts, and I'm going to try and get some more written today.  They'll just post randomly over the two weeks I'm gone.  I'm trying to space them out a bit.

I hope everyone has a good two weeks while I'm gone.  It's going to be so weird being cut off from everything.  I won't even have my phone for the first week.

Funniest Disney Quotes

It's time for another Disney post.  This time it's a more light-hearted topic.  I'm going to list some of my favorite funny quotes from Disney movies.  These were only ones I could think of at the time.  It's entirely possible that there are some great ones I missed.  I kind of searched around places online to try and find ones that I'd forgotten about.

1. From Lilo and Stitch:

Hula Teacher: Lilo, why are you all wet?

Lilo: It's sandwich day. Every Thursday I take Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich...
Hula Teacher: "Pudge" is a fish?
Lilo: And today we were out of peanut butter. So I asked my sister what to give him, and she said "a tuna sandwich". I can't give Pudge tuna!
[whispering]
Lilo: Do you know what tuna is?
Hula Teacher: Fish?
Lilo: [hysterical] It's fish! If I give Pudge tuna, I'd be an abomination! I'm late because I had to go to the store and get peanut butter 'cause all we have is... is... stinkin' tuna!
Hula Teacher: Lilo, Lilo, why is this so important to you?
Lilo: [calm] Pudge controls the weather.

2. Mater from Cars, "I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park."  I love Mater, and pretty much all of his lines.  He'd probably make it on here multiple times, but I'm going to try and just put one for each character and/or movie.

3. Dory from Finding Nemo, "Es-cap-ay thats funny, it's spelled just like Escape."  Dory's also one with a lot of great lines, such as the "Just Keep Swimming" song and when she's speaking whale.

4. From Mulan:

Mulan: My ancestors sent a little lizard to help me?

Mushu: Hey! Dragon. Dragon, not lizard. I don't do that tongue thing. 

5. Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Man's Chest, "I've got a jar of dirt!  And you can't have it!"  This will probably be the only quote from a non-animated movie.  That's probably my favorite part from all of the Pirates movies.  I'm one of the few who actually enjoys those movies.

There are a lot of hilarious Disney quotes, but I think I'll end if there.  What are your favorite funny quotes from Disney movies?

Top Disney Villians

I'm a big Disney fan.  Most kids watch Disney movies growing up, but I doubt I'm ever going to outgrow my childhood completely.  I still get in sentimental moods where I go back and re-watch shows and movies I loved when I was little (and, I'll admit it) still love today.  Disney is at the top of the list of movies I loved as a kids.  In this post, I'm talking about my favorite Disney villians, in no particular order.

1. Scar from The Lion King.  The Lion King is one of my all time favorite movies.  It would probably make any top disney post in some form or another.  "Be Prepared" is one of my favorite Disney songs.  Scar is just awesomely evil.  I hate him.

2. Ursula from The Little Mermaid.  I have a love hate relationship with The Little Mermaid.  There are things about it I love and things I absolutely hate.  Ursula is one of the things I love.  She's a wonderful villian, and I love the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls."  (Can you tell that I typically love songs sung by the villian?)

3. Jafar from Aladdin.  Jafar is one Disney villian that actually creeped me out as a kid.  He terrified me.  He just looks evil and creepy to me.

4. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.  I'm actually not a huge fan of Sleeping Beauty, but Maleficent used to scare me to death.  She looks like a stereotypical witch with her green face and horns.  I think that may have been one of my reasons for hating the movie in the first place.

5. The Queen from Snow White.  I was just as terrifed as her as I was of Maleficent.  I also wasn't a huge Snow White fan, and again, I think it might have been because of my fear of the Queen.

6. Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations.  She also scared me a bit.  The thought of killing dogs to turn them into fur coats was absolutely terrifying to me as a kid.  (It would be now too if I actually heard of it happening.)

7. Captain Hook from Peter Pan.  Captain Hook didn't scare me as a kid.  In fact, I found him funny.  I was always really amused, and I remember thinking that he was really stupid.  I loved him and Mr. Smee.

8. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.  Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie of all time.  Gaston always annoyed me.  Other than the fact that he tries to kill the Beast, I've always hated arrogant people and his constant attempts to get Belle to marry him annoy me.  I do like the song they sing in the pub.

I think those are my picks for top Disney villians.  Some were chosen because I thought they were amusing and others because they actually scared me as a kid, but all of them are the most memorable villians to me.  What are your favorite Disney villians?