OMG My Readers Are Gonna Make Me Cry!

I logged on to my email today and found that I received a notice from Fanfiction.net. Someone had reviewed my story What is Truly Meant to Be: A Hey Arnold! Musical. I went to check on the review and saw my first anonymous one I've ever received. It simply said this:

12/29/11 . chapter 6

Pleeeeease?

Q_Q..... OMG I nearly broke in to tears! I am SOOOOOO sorry I haven't written anything! I just feel so guilty! I am just suck a slacker! I'm in such a funk and I wish I knew how to kick myself out of it. I just can't believe people like my story enough to wait so long for more. I can't believe my story is good enough that people would actually plead for me to return to updating it.

So, to you Anonymous... I am sorry, I love your devotion, and I WILL work on my story again. Thank you so much for sticking by me, even when I make you wait so long for an update.

Much love and hugs to my readers. It may not seem like it, but you brighten my world and I love you loads.

And Time Flies By... But Maybe Some Writing CAN Be Done

Man, I did NOT think of a good time to get married and move! October is the busiest wedding month! Plus, there's the craziness of packing, moving, unpacking, AND Halloween! Once THAT holiday is over, here comes Thanksgiving, and my family visiting! And THEN Christmas comes marching around the corner, along with the craziness THAT holiday brings... as well as MORE unpacking/organizing the new house, and going down to visit my family. New Years is just a few short days away and I still don't really have much free time to do anything. February has Valentine's day. And March has my sister's birthday and St. Patrick's day. I'll have to check my calendar, but April MIGHT bring Easter... either way, it will DEFINITELY bring my Mom's birthday. On top of that, it will also bring another ScriptFrenzy month! So there goes ANOTHER month of not writing! If May doesn't contain Easter, that MIGHT be the next big break I get. Funny how 1/2 the year has a holiday every month, and the second 1/2 only has Independence Day on the Fourth of July - unless, of course, you're also counting Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.

January seems to be my only reprieve from the holiday season. So I guess I'll have to make the most of it!

I FINALLY got around to skeleton-ing the next chapter. Perhaps I can write it before a YEAR passes... sheesh!

I never heard back from that supposed Beta. Oh well, I *DID* overwhelm her with stuff. On the plus side, Good Old Delaroux popped on by and read my blog, and she gleefully volunteered to be MY beta! haha. ChibiSunnie also stopped by and ALSO volunteered to beta! I love my girls! Unfortunately, they too were just as stumped as me as to how to finish the chapter, but it is as I always say: "You never know where the seed for a great idea might come from!" Saying some of the dumbest things just in passing might be just the direction you need for the lightning bolt from your muse to finally strike you! Just spitballing with those ladies got the juices flowing and I think I finally know what to do with the story! So... YAY!

NOW my only problem is that I dove a little too deep. The chapter as a mind of its own and became its own story! The chapter needs chapters! Normally I would break this chapter up like I did when the Sweet 16 chapter ran long. However, I pigeon-holed myself in to this "every chapter needs a parent song" format, and so I can't really split the chapter up. So now I think I'm gonna do what I tried to avoid before... I'm going to make it a bam-bam-bam kind of chapter. No delays, just in your face "HELLO! YOU NEED TO BE SOMEWHERE ELSE RIGHT NOW!"

I had a subplot all figured out and everything, but having a subplot that is only relevant to one chapter, and centering on OCs that we'll only see for one chapter seems a bit much. I'll spend too much time - and force the readers to invest too much emotion - on a situation and characters they won't see again. INSTEAD! I'm going to eventually write this chapter as it wants to be: it's own story. I'll elaborate on the events that occur, but it has to wait for now. Dear lord, this story births so many plotbunnies! I already have two "spin off" stories bouncing around in my head!

I'm not going to know until I write this bugger how much I'll like writing the chapter the way I must, but it's better than postponing any more, right? Plus Delaroux is finishing up her story Something to Return to. True, she's already being a busy-little-bee and working on ANOTHER story, but perhaps once she's done with this main story I'm beta-ing for I can concentrate on my OWN story, instead of investing so much time in the wonderful Flite11 universe she created!

Delaroux - don't get me wrong, I LOOOOVE living in your world, which is why it's so hard to leave! XD I'm not blaming you, chica, for postponing my writing, I charish every minute with your story, I'm just saying that sometimes a writer finds something so grand they forget about their OWN stuff... ya know? BAAAH! I should have deleted that last paragraph... now she's gonna feel guilty again! *runs away crying*

ANYWAY, I guess what I'm trying to say is... Since the job hunt thing seems to be flopping, I might as well use my time wisely and write. ^_^

You guys never wanted a new chapter, right????

*Sigh*

What is WRONG with me!? It has NEVER taken me so long to write something. Hell, I wrote that birthday gift for BrokenRose24 in like a DAY! And now I can't write a chapter that I've had more-or-less planned out in my head since February!? What is up with that!?

For some reason I'm second-guessing myself. I guess it's an adverse effect to beta reading for such great writers. Speaking of which, quick shout out to Delaroux and her SUUUUPER popular story Something To Return To. As well as Darkangel1326 and her A-MAZE-ING poems.

OK, and now back to me. ^_^

As I was saying, I think the adverse effect of beta reading for these two wonderful women is that I am now second-guessing myself. I know you are your worst critic, but I don't feel like I'm nearly as good as these ladies. I cannot write poetry whatsoever and so anything Darkangel1326 does amazes me. And Delaroux not only writes incredible chapters - which are insanely popular - but she knocks them out in like a day! A day! Her story has NEARLY DAILY UPDATES! She has written more in a month than I've written in a YEAR! Her stuff is intense. She gets great reviews. And although I beta for her - I basically just catch typos and minor plotholes that might sneak through. Therefore, her success is really of no result of my help.

I know fanfiction isn't a competition. I know we're just one big family. I know I have my own faithful readers for god knows what reason. I know when I DO post, I get good reviews. And yet.... I feel like I can't compete with Delaroux.

So now all the groundwork I've laid out in my head over the past ten months is right back out the door. How does Arnold come across this? Why does he think that? How come this doesn't happen? What makes Arnold react this way? Am I putting too much effort in to a chapter-only subplot? So on and so forth.

Back in college when I had difficulties coming up with plots for short stories or scripts that I needed to write for class I would turn to my sweetheart. Granted, he rarely actually gave me ideas, but he would occasionally question my ideas - which would spark more ideas. And he'd question those ideas. Which would help me solidify everything. I needed this sounding board again.

However, this time, my husband didn't really know what to say. No input really. *sigh* I put the word out on Facebook that I'm looking for a beta. I got a girl who offered, but I'm throwing a LOT at her, and she has a life, so it takes her a week or two to get back to me. She did start up the "writer's spark" with some of her questions, but that just got the ball rolling for me to think up even MORE scenarios and questions. She hasn't responded yet.

And so I think I'm back to going it alone. It feels like a daunting task and every time I attempt to work on my chapter I end up on Facebook, or playing Legend of Zelda, or cleaning the house for the holidays. Hell, these distractions have even kept me from properly beta reading for Delaroux.

I did get back on the ball with that one, so maybe this means I'll finally get back on the ball with writing....

....after doing the laundry, and the dishes, and sweeping, and moping, and vacuuming, and cleaning off the dining room table, and doing wedding Thank You notes, and putting up the Christmas tree, and FINALLY getting a damn job!

Dear god I'm never gonna write another chapter...... *sigh*

Yeah, so much for THAT idea...

I don't think I'll make my Thanksgiving deadline for the next chapter of my story. What else is new, right? I never seem to meet my deadlines. I really need to focus more!!! Gaaah!

When I agreed to read Delaroux's story as a beta reader I did NOT anticipate her cranking out a new chapter almost daily! Damn, girl!!! I'm loving her story, don't get me wrong, but it does take up some time to read each chapter and send her my edit notes.

I'm also helping SJohnson911 with his story, and darkangel1326 with hers. Worst part is that I haven't actually had time to read SJohnson's....

It's fun to read them all and to help them. And yet, it's time consuming and it's keeping me from my own writing.

Also, my husband has this thing with quiet - he doesn't like it. He just cannot sit in a quiet room, which makes reading these betas even harder since I'm constantly distracted! I keep telling him that if he plays a video game or music it wouldn't be that distracting. But, instead he keeps the TV on almost 24/7!!!

I have this thing where I cannot ignore anything with a plot. Even if I can't stand it (*cough* House of Payne/Meet the Browns *cough*), if there is a plot to follow, I must do so. Same thing goes for any fan-made music video where the footage has subtitles. The subtitles may only be there because the editor couldn't find footage without the subtitles. The subtitles could mean NOTHING in relation to the music. And yet, the subtitles provide, even briefly, plot points. And so I will ignore the music video and how the footage relates to the music in favor of reading the subtitles and trying to figure out the plot.

It's a disease that I can't seem to cure!!!

On top of all that, my house is still a disaster! Partially because we're still unpacking from the move last month, and so we're tossing things out of boxes, putting them in smaller boxes, and leaving things all over the floor until we have more storage space available. Partially due to the time I'm reading fanfiction, looking at fanart, and discussing things on the Hey Arnold! facebook group instead of cleaning. Mostly due to the fact that the dishes are so piled up that I get discouraged just looking at them... which of COURSE helps me work on whittling down the pile. *rolls eyes*

My mom and sister are visiting for Thanksgiving on top of everything else. Which means I have today, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday to clean like CRAZY! Then, the family will be here Tuesday through Saturday morning - so unlikely I'll have time to write while I'm entertaining. And on top of that, I have the LARP tonight, so there goes like four hours of my day...

And so, my ability to write my next chapter before Thanksgiving fades away. And my husband's birthday is the first week of December. And his best friend moves the same week - so we're helping him since he helped us. And I have to still search for a new job. And get the car inspected and registered for the new state. And I have to get a license and license plates for this state. And I have to figure out Christmas shopping. And I haven't even STARTED on the Wedding Thank Yous (Which SUCKS since my bridal shower was in JULY!!!)

Damn, I have a lot to do. I gave up accepting anyone else to beta read for, and I might have to slow up on helping the three people I have. When will I have time to write!? Wheeeen!?

So sorry, reader. I'll try to get back in to the swing of things soon.

LARPs, Betas, and Birthdays

Well, I have all of my writings up on both Fanfiction.net and Deviantart.com now - only kept about a week to post everything on DA.com. And yet, I'm not that much further in my next chapter. *sigh*

I have a notebook that I keep all of my writing notes in - to make sure there's continuity, plus it's easier for me to outline a chapter in good old pencil. Aaaaaaand.... I couldn't figure out where my husband had packed said notebook when I moved. Unpacking has been a long and slow process - but people keep reassuring me that we're moving about par for the typical unpacking timeframe. Anyway, I finally gave up this past week, and just tore open boxes. Since there still really wasn't any place to unpack them, most of the boxes just got repacked right after I went through them. However, with my husband's help I finally found the notebook! YAY! Turns out it was in a fairly large, fairly heavy box filled with my journal collection. Yes, yes, I actually COLLECT journals. Most of them have nothing written in them, but if there's a really nice journal in a store somewhere I will buy it. I think I'm addicted to journals actually....

Anyway, so now that I have my precious notebook I just need the time to sit down and write out the chapter's skeleton, and then the chapter itself from there. The last time I did this I was able to do both within three days, and so I still have hopes that I can get the chapter posted by Thanksgiving.

I haven't exactly been a complete and total slacker over the past couple of weeks, however. And I don't just mean the non-lazy process of unpacking and setting up my new home - as well as keeping it clean. I mean I haven't been slacking off with my writing.

As I've mentioned in times past, my husband's best friend runs a LARP game. It's based off of the White Wolf MET game Vampire:The Masquerade. Basic premise is that the world as we know it is now a gothic-punk environment where Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Demons, and other such fantastical creatures roam not only free, but rampant. The characters the players portray are typically vampires all part of what's called "The Masquerade" - in short, a means to hide their existence from humans. Chaos will surely ensue and the players all have to find ways to deal with it without revealing to humans that vampires really do exist. It's a bit complicated to get in to, but once you get the hang of it the game is quite enjoyable to play.

Anyway, part of my continued hiatus is due to this game. First, now that I lived in the same area as them - finally - I could regularly play in the LARP and so I needed to create a character. There was a lot of rulebook reading, talking to the hubby's best friend to bounce ideas off of him, and then finally the actual character creation complete with backstory development. And since my character was born during the American Victorian age I needed to do some research on the time.

Another task that I picked up was helping the narrators with one of their essential props for the game session in four days. See, we only play once per month so that it doesn't get too overwhelming, and so the narrators can develop the plot the players will encounter. Anyway, since I'm a brand new player I can't be a narrator, but my husband is. So he and his best friend - the Storyteller AKA Head Narrator - frequently talk about the upcoming plotline, but try to do so without giving anything away to me. Once Senior Storyteller realized that he didn't have the gift to write a fake newspaper article - a key prop/plot point for the upcoming game - he finally caved and let me in on at least the information we'll all be privy to on Friday. We spent over twenty-four hours talking back and forth about what was going on, how the reporter found out about the activities, how much the reporter truly knew, and why the story was written in a specific manor. We also tried to figure out how to insert this fake article in the actual paper to truly bring the prop to life. In the end, I finally got some use out of being on the school newspaper sixth grade through freshman year of college.

Along with helping hubby's best friend with the newspaper article for the game, I've also helped out some fellow fanfiction authors. It started out unintentially, but as of November 12th I am now an official Beta Reader on Fanfiction.net.

The way I stumbled on to this whole new procrastination tactic is thanks to an Asian author on the Hey Arnold facebook group. Delaroux was nervous about her brand new story, especially since I think it's the first Hey Arnold! fanfiction she ever wrote, and on top of that she had started the story when she was twelve. So she posted her first chapter on the Hey Arnold! group and asked for some feedback.

The story was very good, but she did need a lot of polishing. There were typos and some grammar problems. Plus, since schooling is different between Asia and America, she had a lot of school nuances messed up. I didn't want to write all of these negative things right there on the facebook group for all to see - plus, it would have been too long for a facebook comment. I decided to write my rave review on the group's page instead, since it truly was a great start of a story. I then discretely sent Delaroux all of my edits via facebook message. She seemed thankful for the edits and sent me her second chapter to read. Overall the problems I had with the first chapter had diminished in occurrence, and so it was just a few typos and grammar checks that I had to send edit notes for. I also had to go in to great detail about the schooling differences again - not the same differences I sent her before.

Again she seemed grateful for the help, and even had a "thank you" message in her next two chapters. I find it funny that she keeps publicly thanking me for my beta edits, and yet my list of edits become smaller and smaller each chapter. It's to the point where she doesn't really need me to beta for her anymore, and yet it's an enjoyable enough story that I want to read the chapters ASAP anyway. I just wish she didn't write a new chapter practically daily. It would give me time to do something other than read fanfiction.

Even when not helping Delaroux, though, I seem to be maturing in to a full-fledged beta reader for my fellow Hey Arnold! authors. I now have three other people that I'm helping out - although on a much smaller level than with Delaroux. For these other authors I'm more-or-less a sounding board, but helping them research is taxing on my free time. I love it though. Being helpful to these people and reading how much they appreciate the help really makes me smile.

I have done some of my OWN writing too! I know, I know, "why didn't you say so in the first place? This is what we came here for!"

Although I've been procrastinating on my latest chapter, I did segway for a day in order to write a new One Shot. I had a bit of a time restraint, and so I didn't really finish the story as well as I had wanted, and so I may eventually go back and fix the ending of the story. It might be after I'm done with my main fanfic, however, so it will be a while.

The new story, "I Thought You Liked Redheads," was written as a birthday gift for someone I've become good friends with via the Hey Arnold! group. She is basically the front-runner of our mission, the captain that helps organize the unruly masses so that we're organized enough to actually make an impact in our movement to get Hey Arnold! revived - if only for one more movie to tie up all the lose ends. She goes by Helga Geraldine Pataki on facebook, but those on DeviantArt and FanFiction probably know her better as BrokenRose24.

On November 6th she had made a comment about her birthday being the next day. I had no clue when her birthday was, so it took me completely by surprise. She had been in a bit of a funk lately and after doing so much for the Hey Arnold! cause I felt like giving back. Normally, the people on DeviantArt give each other artwork as birthday gifts, but I can't draw. I decided to write her something instead, but it's a lot easier to randomly draw something than to come up with a story that I'd know she'd like. It was then that I scanned BrokenRose's gallery. I figured if I made a story based on one of her drawings it would stand a better chance at being something she'd appreciate.

She had a picture of Helga as a redhead and it instantly spoke to me.

Unfortunately, due to errands that I had to do, the actual time I had to write this story for BrokenRose24 was about seven hours. Yikes! It was rushed and short - a little too short I guess. My only complaint about the story was that it stopped too abruptly. I'm glad people liked the story so much! I've had positive reviews on both FanFiction and DeviantArt. There were 100 hits the first day I posted it on FanFiction. Prior to posting this story the highest hit count I received when I premiered a story was a mere 63, so thank you, readers, for coming back to me after such a long wait.

Now for me to just work on that damn chapter that's been holding me up for half a year!

Productively Procrastinating

OK, so I didn't really get very far with actually writing my next fanfic chapter. I've been distracted with homelife and whatnot.

However, I did outline the song that I'm using for the chapter, so I more-or-less know where I'm going with it. My big thing is figuring out when Arnold hits the breaking point where he HAS to see Helga again.

In the meantime, more and more Hey Arnold! fans are posting fanart up on the facebook group page. And more and more pictures are not only fanart of Hey Arnold!, but also fanart of HA! fanfiction. What's more, these artists don't seem to be drawing fanart for stories posted anywhere other than DeviantArt.com. And so, this leads me to believe that more and more people are reading their fanfiction on DA.com instead of FF.net. This isn't necessarily true for the whole populous, but it's what I'm starting to witness when it comes to the people I follow and know.

Therefore, I had decided to start posting my stories on DA.com as well as FF.net. And so my continued hiatus has been due to me posting on DA.com the short stories and chapters that I already have up on FF.net.

It's a slow process since I have to re-edit while I post - since it's different posting than on FF.net. Also, I had to figure out how to post literature on DA.com in the first place. On top of that, I needed a preview pic, and since I title each chapter I decided my preview pic will be the name of the story. I will then name each deviation the chapter title. I did need that preview picture though.

I decided on using the blue, starburst background used during the end credits of each Hey Arnold! episode. Let me tell you, I couldn't really recreate the starburst, and so I decided to make screencaptures of the end credits, and then edit the staffers' names out. It wasn't that easy of a task, but it was easier than making the background from scratch. I also couldn't get the exact font that they used on Hey Arnold!, so I just used Comic Sans - which is close enough.

Anyway, I only have two chapters of What is Truly Meant to Be posted so far, but I'm off to post Chapter Three now.

Thank you for being so faithful, readers! I love you lots! ^_^

Writing Hiatus Coming to a Close?

Wow.... I've been gone for a WHILE! The whole wedding planning thing just KILLED all writing free-time. I'm hoping to get some free-time soon though, so... YAY! ^_^

For any of my readers wondering why the hiatus lasted so long, I believe you deserve to know...

JUNE - I got the wedding invitations out (ridiculously late in the game, but it turned out alright). I spent a week out of state house hunting with my fiance. We started off attempting to look for apartments since we want to move again in about five years, but no one would even attempt to show us their apartments since we wouldn't be moving in until almost four months later. Next up was the three available houses for rent. One was basically a crack-house, another was way too expensive, and so we ended up with the first we looked at. I then spent the rest of the month figuring out wedding details, such as the florist and the reception decorations.

JULY - Work took over a lot as more employees dropped like flies. There was the Independence Day festivities - including my sister's car dying and so busing her around took up some time. My cousin got married. I had my birthday/surprise bridal shower (yay!) and my fiance visited for a week, and so no time for writing while we dealt with more wedding planning.

AUGUST - More work. More wedding planning - figuring out the last-minute details. My fiance's sister got married (long story, but in the end we're OK with her getting married only six weeks before we did - at least it's easy to remember their anniversary). And then the major chaos comes in! At the end of the month I discover that nearly everything we already had planned for the wedding fell apart! We weren't having normal suits/tuxedos for the groomsmen. Instead we were using Jacobite shirts. And I discovered that the shop I ordered them from (back in JUNE!) still didn't have the shirts - in fact, they never even ORDERED them! Turns out the color I wanted was no longer available and instead of contacting me to ask for a back-up color they just let the order drop! So I had a nearly month-long battle to get the shirts I needed. Next up, we had decided that one of the key components of our centerpieces would be sets of dice; however, my fiance discovered that getting the number of sets we needed would cost an exuberant amount. So I had to rethink what to do for the centerpieces! The craftsman I had be talking to for nearly a YEAR still didn't have our wedding rings ready! The company custom-designing our favors also didn't have the order done yet. And even more chaos was thrown at me... I did get two breaks, however, when my mom took me to a concert and my best friend took me to another one later that week.

SEPTEMBER - A month-long battle with my vendors. Trying to get a hold of them, arguing with them, trying desperately to get my products from them, and finding the money to PAY them! My fiance was supposed to come down to apply for the marriage licence, but couldn't make the drive due to the floodings brought on by Hurricane Irene. The next week nearly the same thing happened! I was getting nervous that he wouldn't be able to come down in time to get the marriage licence application filled out!!!! In the end, he managed to come down for a less-than 24-hour visit in order to get the legalities of the wedding sorted out. I ended up having to cancel a lot of other plans, however, since we had to work non-stop on the last-minute details. I then spent a day in New York City before hitting up yet another concert (I got a lot of them as birthday gifts this year!). All of the last-minute planning and the last couple of weeks before quitting my job just killed my free-time.

OCTOBER - And now we have this month! Well, we had the wedding go off without a hitch (well, a few hitches, but I was so mellow that day I didn't care at all!). Then it was a psuedo-honeymoon with the new husband. Basically, by day we would pack up my stuff for the move, and by night we would slink away to a hotel and enjoy being newlyweds. A lot of stress built up - again - as I feared that a) we wouldn't be able to pack everything in the limited time frame, and b) even if we did - it wouldn't all fit on the truck. Well, we got everything safely up to the new house, and my mom stuck around for almost a week to help organize the new place. However, now my life has been filled with the process of UNpacking, and organizing my new life up here. Not an easy task considering one of the key factors of moving up here was my fiance's social life. His friends ADORE me, and so his large social circle became mine as well. This is normally a good thing... but I can barely go a day without SOMEONE stopping by the house! And so any writing free-time is instead used to entertain unexpected guests. On top of all that, a large majority of this social circle are part of a LARPing group. And so I spent three straight days learning the rules of the game they're currently playing, as well as creating a character for it - and then playing in the game last night!

But now the LARP character is created, I more-or-less know what I'm doing, and they only play the game about once a month so the person in charge has time to bring in more players, create characters, and come up with a storyline.

I'm more-or-less done unpacking. I mean, there's still more to go, but it is now a slow process - basically unpacking just a box at a time until we can slowly raise money for more shelves and/or dressers.

The only other distraction is to finally get back on to the job-hunt. A lot of time will be killed as I look for job, and then more when I finally have one.

However, I do feel like I have the time to write - I mean, I had the hour to write this blog entry, so it's a start! Also, I've been mentally figuring out the next chapter for nearly a year now! Wow, to think that I started What is Truly Meant to Be: A Hey Arnold Musical over a year ago! It's a little embarrassing that I've only written six chapters in a year! Boy, am I a bad author! I'm hoping to pick up the pace this next year....

Anyway, as I was saying, I have a large portion of this chapter already figured out, and so I'm hoping to have the newest chapter FINALLY posted before Thanksgiving! YAY!

Thank you so much for sticking with me over this crazy hiatus.

Slacker McSlackson is Slacking Off!

Boy have I been slacking again. Well, after a few days of pulling my hair out I finally finished my next chapter. It was a bit of a squeeze, but I managed to get it up on Fanfiction.net on May 31st. Still feel bad that it kept me two full months to give my readers another chapter. Especially since it was the shortest one I've written. I also don't think it was all that great..... :-/

It got a lot more reviews than the last chapter however. And they were all positive reviews too, so I didn't go through the "writer's funk" that I did the last time. Funny, a chapter I felt was crappy seemed to impress at least a little. *shrug* I guess I'm a lot harder on myself than I thought. I am starting to convert hard-core ArnoldxHelga shippers in to *Spoiler*. I'm both super excited that I write the love triangle so well as to convert these shippers so easily, but also a little fearful to bring it all full-circle and return to the ArnoldxHelga ship! At this rate I might keep Helga with her new beau, but it just doesn't feel right to do so. At the same time, I'm going to be hard-pressed to prove to everyone that Arnold does deserve to still win Helga's love.... GAAAH! What did I do!?

June 1st my stories had 72 visitors, but 210 hits! Before that the most I had was 73 visitors and 177 hits on April 2nd, right after I posted my last chapter before my Script Frenzy hiatus. Other major days include 62 visitors and 115 hits on Oct 26th when I posted my second chapter "Goodbye to You". Then on Feb 28th I had 65 visitors and 112 hits for the posting of my second chapter of my Valentine's Day story. Finally, there's the 155 hits and 60 visitors for my "I Will Always Love You" chapter posted on March 9th. Either way, my return from my hiatus was met with a large crowd and I thank them all!

I also picked up a few new readers this time around, so I'm super excited about that! Thank you to all my new readers! YAY!

Some of my new readers are from that Hey Arnold forum I spoke of last post. *Waves* Hey guys!!! Thank you for supporting me! We really are like a nice little online family, aren't we!? Loves!

And it's that warm, fuzzy, welcoming feeling I get from the forum that is my downfall. Instead of writing the next chapter of my story - which I've had more-or-less planned out since November - I have been lurking on the forum just waiting for someone to post something so I can comment back... *sigh*

Also, while working some more on Acts 2 and 3 of The Jungle Movie my partner ChibiSunnie brought up InuYasha: Final Act. InuYasha used to be my favorite anime and so, now that I was reminded that the TRUE last season of the show was up online I HAD to go watch it! 26 episodes, 3 days, emotional rollercoaster, and now InuYasha withdrawal!!! Must. Not. Search. For InuYasha. Fanfiction!

I also finally got around to finding and purchasing the next two volumes of Fruits Basket after two years, and so I was hooked on reading them. Only three more volumes to go before I'm done with that series. Will I go through withdrawal like I am with InuYasha?

My fiance is also reminding me nearly daily that I still have the 4th Percy Jackson story to read. However, he told me the story ends in an epic cliffhanger and he still has the 5th book with him - four hours away. I'm trying really hard to wait until the last minute to read that book so that I can go straight in to the 5th one when I visit him at the end of the month. Will I go through Percy Jackson withdrawal as well!?

Then, while writing a post for the forum I discovered that a webcomic I once enjoyed was back from it's multi-year hiatus. I had to go back to reading it, however I couldn't quite remember where we left off and so I had to read the old comics first to remind myself.

Reading webcomics then gave me the urge to start working on my own again, and so at least one night was wasted with that. It probably would have been more, but I only have Photoshop on my desktop and my desk itself is such a mess it's hard for me to get to the computer.

Then there's the search for the last wedding vendor I need: The florist. I also have to finish collecting addresses of everyone from my fiance's side of the wedding guestlist so we can FINALLY send out the invitations. I'm also starting to work on smaller details, like the center pieces and favors.

All these distractions are keeping me from writing. They're also keeping me from cleaning and it's a perilous path to go from my bed to my bedroom door. I REALLY need to organize!

I honestly don't foresee myself working on another chapter any time soon, but I still wanted to give everyone an update on where I am.

Back in the Saddle Again

Alright, well, I've been slacking lately. After the chaos of at least attempting to write daily during Script Frenzy, I needed a writing hiatus, and my poor fanfic readers are the ones to suffer. I promised to give you guys the next chapter of "What is Truly Meant to Be" this month, and I had every intention of doing so towards the beginning of the month. However, here we are past the 1/2 way mark and no chapter. So sorry guys! =_='

When I threw in the towel early on April 30th I picked up the next book in the Percy Jackson series, and I just could not put it down! Three days later that was done! I still couldn't get inspired to write the next chapter, and so my next distraction was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for my Nintendo DS. I played that for a little over a week.

Now that I'm done with the book and the game I'm finally getting around to working on my chapter! YAY! I wrote maybe four pages yesterday before going to work. I was going to continue writing when I came home, but I was distracted by a new Hey Arnold forum that I just joined. I stayed up until about 2am reading all of the posts already up. I didn't even get through 1/2 of them. I went to read more of them today and after about four hours I finally managed to pull myself away so I could write this post and then get back to writing.

I'm both inspired and not when it comes to this chapter. I'm not sure it will turn out too well because of my seemed lack of interest. I had the same problem with my second chapter "Goodbye to You".

I'm still trying to figure out the difference between Arnold's love for Helga and *SPOILER* love for her. They both love her greatly, but differently, and in the end it's that difference that helps Helga make up her mind.... *sigh*

Oh, one more quick thing about the script. ChibiSunnie and I have been working more and more on Acts II and III and so there is more progress there. Now if only I can get the same amount of progress when it comes to my fanfic!

Not much more to update right now, but know that I'm back to writing... slowly but surely....

The Rest of April

OK, so I didn't really blog at all during the month of April because I didn't want to take any precious time away from working on my script for Script Frenzy. And so, here I am, giving another recap of the rest of the month.

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

Gaah, extended shift at work. I was there for nearly twelve hours and so no time to write today. At first I had no fear that I can make the 100 pages throughout the month, but if I have more work shifts like this I'll be too tired to write! I'm still so far behind! I should have about 27 pages by today and I'm still stuck at 5! I've also started to talk to a few other Script Frenziers that live in my area. Script Frenzy has these discussion boards set up for your region for just this purpose. We're all excited about having other Frenziers so close and so we want to all get together, chat, encourage each other, and talk about our scripts. I'm both nervous about going alone to meet people I only know through the internet, and also excited about meeting them!

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

I had an opening shift. And so I had about four hours to think about what I want to do with the plot, but dealing with my sister's attention-whore dog meant I only had enough free time to rework the 5 pages I already had written - my co-writer ChibiSunnie had sent me notes. She's actually a great cheerleader! She seems to love just about anything I write and when she critiques me she always gives me an example as to why it should be reworked as well as her idea of how to fix it. THAT is a great proofreader/editor! Loves to ChibiSunnie! Thanx girl!

SUNDAY, APRIL 10

Another opening shift. I'm sooooo tired ~_~'
I worked some more on the opening scene of the script, but I don't want to send ChibiSunnie any more of the script until I at least have the scene done. I just wish I wasn't so tired all the time, I feel like passing out whenever I start writing. GAAAAH, if I don't get a move on I'll never get to 100 pages! I'm so far behind here!
Originally us local Frenziers were all going to meet up today. I'm glad the plans fell through. I'm too tired to do anything today! Plus I really need to work on my writing and probably shouldn't procrastinate any more by meeting up with people instead of scripting. I'm also a bit relieved because I'm still super nervous about meeting people I only know via the internet. XP They all seem nice enough though.

MONDAY, APRIL 11

Finally a day off! I got some writing done, but I also did a lot of research again to make sure I have my facts straight. I looked up some regional info for Central America and got suckered in to watching more "Hey, Arnold!" episodes in order to get the characterization down.
On top of that, more people chimed in on the Facebook discussion board ChibiSunnie and I set up for this script thing. It's cool to hear what people think of our ideas, and listen to what they envision for the movie. However, I got really thrown off by this one girl that threw in her two cents. She was upset, like, REALLY upset - almost insulted - that Chibi and I are keeping Arnold's parents alive. She strongly believes that his parents should have died in the jungle so as to not degrade the abnormal family Arnold grew up in. She felt that Arnold finding his parents alive would further promote the "Traditional Family" and therefore make kids that don't have this family structure feel bad about it. Also, she felt that it is a depressing message for orphans who really can't have their parents back, no matter how hard they want to find them. I understand where she's coming from - and I mentioned this - however it seems too depressing a message to not have Arnold's parents alive. Plus my fiancé mentioned that Arnold is such an optimistic kid who feels anything is possible and discovering his parents are dead is just too much of a shock to his world view that it would completely change his character: "it would break him; he wouldn't be the Arnold everyone loves." Anyway, I wasn't the only person who felt that his parents should be alive and every time we stated such she would come back complaining that it's sending the wrong message. To me it felt like it was inching towards a flamewar and when I warned as such everyone was like "Um, no, don't overreact". XP *sigh*

TUESDAY, APRIL 12

Putting off writing some more... I'm really getting bad at this! Looking some more at the Facebook discussion page in order to get inspired, someone gave a suggestion for a key point in the script's plot - Arnold confessing that he likes Helga back and kisses her. The girl's suggestion? Arnold is so grateful that they are alive that he kisses her out of gratitude and elation. She also stated that the danger they are in just before the kiss - and therefore the fuel to the fire, as it were - should be a cliff-hanging-of-doom similar to the ending of the Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Of COURSE this then meant I needed to watch this scene to get a feel for it again, especially since I hadn't watched the movie in years. Next thing I knew I was watching the full movie! Gaaah!
I then was going to go straight in to the Direct-to-Video sequel, but my mom asked me if I wanted to watch one of the movies she rented. I could always use more bonding time with my mom - especially since I'm moving out of the house for the first time in October. And so I abandoned the Hunchback sequel - and script writing - in order to watch "Leap Year". At least the movie was worth it. XP
In the end I did manage to at least finish the opening scene - FINALLY.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13

I'm so beyond tired of the messed up way I need to work on the script in Microsoft Word Starter, and so I downloaded the program Celtx from the Script Frenzy website. TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! This program is my new favorite toy! I'm having so much fun working with it and writing the script now is so easy!
ChibiSunnie even came up with a nice solution to the "Arnold's Parents Should be Dead" issue brought up on the forum. She agrees that Arnold's Non-Traditional family should be celebrated and valued. She came up with a crafty way for Arnold and Grandpa to state that they are a family as is, and so even if Arnold can't find his parents he'll still have a family to come home to. Arnold then demonstrates his valuing of his current family by stating that he wouldn't change his life for anything, he just needs to know what happened to his parents.
I was also able to finally get started on the second scene! Dear lord, I'm nearly 1/2 way in to the month and I'm just starting the second scene! I'm starting to get nervous, like really nervous that I won't be able to get everything done. I'll have to write all night and just keep going until I have to go to work tomorrow at 4.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14

I wrote pretty much all morning and FINALLY got some headway on this script - about 10 pages! I finished off the second scene and slid right in to the next scene - which was one I actually had fun writing. Only three scenes in to the movie and I'm already 24 pages in! The pacing is so far off, but right now I'm looking for page numbers. Once May starts I can go back and trim all the fat. I'm still pretty behind though. I should be at about 47 pages by today. I do have tomorrow off, so maybe I can catch up then! I doubt it, but I can try!

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Well THAT didn't work out! Since I had the day off and my work has a "customer appreciation day" sale tomorrow that we are NOT prepared for I thought I'd be nice and volunteer to come in to work to get the place ready for the sale while those who were scheduled can continue with their normal day-to-day. Apparently my co-manager couldn't "handle people today" and decided to hit the "eject button" on her shift - which meant that I was then the acting manager and we STILL aren't ready for the sale tomorrow! It also meant that my "I'll go in for like two hours" turned in to "I'm now stuck for six hours!?" On top of that I had an appointment tonight, and so that killed about another hour or so. I did manage to squeak out about 6 more pages, but I'm not sure I'm going to finish Act 1 before Monday like I intended!!!!

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

OMG! Am I dead!? I feel like I should be. We just barely survived the sale today. I didn't have a moment to breathe before I raced to another appointment - this time with a possible wedding florist. Since I have NO CLUE what I want for my flowers the meeting went super long. I went in to work at 6:30 and didn't get back home until about 7:30.... I was too tired to write anything!

SUNDAY, APRIL 17

Oh thank GOD I have the day off! And I legitimately had the day off this time! I was able to actually crank out some writing today. I was still so tired from yesterday, and I had to again deal with my sister's attention-whore dog, but I still managed to write some pages. I'm getting closer and closer to finishing Act 1!
The other distraction today was that it was the first time in a long time that Mom and I were able to just sit down for a while, and so we did a LOT of wedding planning today! On top of that, I'm visiting my fiancé for Easter this upcoming weekend, and so I have to get as much stuff figured out before Friday so I can talk to him about stuff. Two of the main things are the wedding invitations and RSVP cards as well as our wedding favors - both are being designed by me! Since I don't have Photoshop on my netbook I have to make sure everything is PERFECT before I show him, because I can't make any changes while I'm up there and we need to at least get the invites and RSVP cards printed! We're getting married in October! Anyway, needless to say this chewed up more of my time off.

MONDAY, APRIL 18

I wanted to finish Act 1 before today, and the entire weekend resulted in just four pages being written! Plus I still had to quickly file my State and Local Taxes! Man, I nearly forgot about them! At least I had the Federal taxes done already! At least I got to work on my next-favorite scene: Helga being forced into yet another moral dilemma! I love doing this to the poor girl! You just get such comedic moments when she's forced to do what's right even when she can't stand it.
In a writing furry I was able to knock out about 8 more pages, and so we're now up to 42! Still not where I need to be, but I'm back to a manageable amount of daily pages to still make 100 before the end of the month! So I'm not as nervous anymore. Plus I did finally finish the damn first act! A 42 page Act 1 for a 90-min movie! That is WAAAAY too long, but again, I don't care right now. I'm looking for page numbers right now. I'll trim later!

TUESDAY, APRIL 19

Well, I didn't really get any writing done today. I just don't know where to go now that Act 1 is done! That was the only part we really had figured out - which is probably one of the reasons why it ate up almost 1/2 our script! After work today I spent the evening on the Facebook discussion board to try to figure out what to do for Act 2. Today was also Donation Day on Script Frenzy. The whole program is non-profit, and so donations help run the site, and pay the people who run everything, as well as help fund writing programs in schools. I did my part... by purchasing about $95 in merchandise. At first I was just going to buy a shirt, but then I couldn't figure out which one I liked. So I bought three different designs, and then I bought the keychain, and decided to just go ahead and buy a travel mug too! I also spent some time on the Script Frenzy forum talking to the local Frenziers and attempting to set up a meeting for April 30th to celebrate our Script Frenzy attempt this year.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20

Awwww, Script Frenzy didn't manage to raise the money it intended or needed! I wish I could do more - or just straight donate - but I just don't have any more play money. Anyway, I didn't get any writing done again today. I did my normal 8-hr opening shift today, only to be called back three hours later to do the 5-hr closing shift! I am sooooo tired! ~_~' On the plus side, at least I know the place is all set for me to open again tomorrow... I just wish I wasn't "Walking Death" when I go in.

THURSDAY, APRIL 21

Well, my original plan was to do all of my vacation packing after work yesterday so I could leave for my fiancé’s right after work today. Unfortunately, being pulled back in to work last night means I get to do all of my packing today - as well as all of the last minute wedding stuff to make sure I'm set for my visit. In other words - yet again I don't have any writing done! This is almost a week of me not working on the script! I went from "I'm almost caught up" back to "I don't think I'm gonna make it!" I know I pretty much won't get any free time to write while I'm visiting my fiancé for Easter, and so now I have only four days to write 58 more pages!!!!! Oh, I'm not feeling so good........

FRIDAY, APRIL 22

As predicted, there was no time to write. I spent four hours in a car, spent the next couple of hours cuddled up next to my honey - understandable since I haven't seen him since Valentine's Day. We then went to a LARP his friend was hosting, however the three of us were the only ones who showed up, and so it turned in to three 20-somethings running around a playground while being frozen by the frigged wind. I think we wasted about three hours doing that! I was not in the mood to write anything after that, but at the same time I just kept thinking that I couldn't have better spent that time working on the script! On the plus side, I did talk about the script and was able to get some feedback from the guys. It was nice to hear their encouragement and enjoyment of what I have so far. There was also a really bizarre movie reference that I wanted to include in one of the scenes, but I didn't think anyone would get it, so I kept it out. I had multiple votes to go ahead with the obscure reference, and then when I asked ChibiSunnie she also told me to throw it in. It was fun including it.

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

Today was spent catching up with my sweetheart, hanging out with some of his friends, and a lot more wedding planning. There's not really much else to tell.....

SUNDAY, APRIL 24 – EASTER
My fiancé does the price changes at his local grocery store. This means he goes in to work at about 1am every Sunday in order to update all of the signs and prices before the public comes in for the week - and he doesn't get a break just because it's Easter. And so I was up at about 12:30 with him, and just couldn't fall asleep while he was at work. So I finally found about eight hours of alone time and I cranked out some pages to make up for the week of neglect!
I still wasn't sure what I was going to do for Act 2, and so I just decided - in order to just get page numbers - I would just write scenes I have figured out and I'll link them all together later. I found out that Celtx can shift whole scenes around in the script, and so I planned on doing just that if I decided the scenes I write are actually out of order. I attacked a pretty vital scene that I was inspired to write. I also wrote the Act 2 intro scene. I finally had Arnold and the Gang in the jungle! Hazzah! I also went back and tweeked Act 1 a little. All-in-all I managed to get about 11 more pages written. I had finally crossed the 1/2 way point! Now I just needed to write about 11 more pages each of the remaining four days I knew I had writing time available. It seemed daunting, but at the same time I had been knocking out about 10 pages each sitting anyway. Still unsure if I'll actually make the 100 pages before the end of the month!

MONDAY, APRIL 25

Just like Saturday, I spent the day with my future-hubby and didn't get any writing done, although I did manage to bounce some more ideas off of him.

TUESDAY, APRIL 26

Much like on Friday, I didn't have much time to write. I spent my last few hours with my sweetheart. I drove four hours home. I unpacked. I went to work. I came home and crashed. I did manage to finally get an internet connection so I could post my page count on ScriptFrenzy.org....

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27

Hooray for work drama! I had a huge blow-up with my co-manager and she ended up storming out on her shift - which would be the second time in like two weeks! Anyway, I was not in the best of moods and so I just wanted to veg when I got home - especially since it is my Mommy's birthday and I didn't want to be a grumpy-puss. After work - which I left late from because of my oh-so-wonderful co-worker - I went on a mad dash all over town trying to find my mom her favorite ice cream, which is of COURSE Rum Raisin and is one of those flavors that's "seasonal" for whatever reason! After checking three different places, and driving the entire length of the town to get to the different stores, I finally found the ice cream. Between this, needing a shower to un-gross myself for our birthday outing, and the actual feasting and shopping..... well, there wasn't much writing time available.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28

I finished up the scene I was working on while visiting the fiancé. I also worked some more on that Act 2 opening scene that I also started on Easter. I was only able to add about three more pages though.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29

My last day off of the month. Crunch time. I had some notes from ChibiSunnie which made me completely rework the first half of that key scene from Act 2. I actually don't mind, because the scene completely works better with the rework, plus it extended the scene so I have more pages! ^_^ I also wrote more of the intro to Act 2 scene. Still only have these two scenes, and there is absolutely no way I'm going to be anywhere NEAR done with this script by tomorrow, but maybe I can at least hit 100 pages after all...

SATURDAY, APRIL 30

Well, this is it, the final day. I went to work and intended on writing afterwards, but work ran long - as usual. I then finally did what I have been nervous for all month: met with the other Frenziers. We set up a reservation at a restaurant we can all easily get to, I threw on one of my Script Frenzy shirts that I bought, and stood outside the restaurant trying to nonchalantly show off my shirt so that the others would know who I was. I also spent about 10 minutes trying to connect to a Wi-Fi so I could bring up the profiles of the others so I knew who I was looking for. Finally, I thought "maybe they're inside already" and went in to wait. No one was there yet and it kept about another 10 minutes before SOMEONE showed up - a chick named AWordOrThree. We both waited probably yet another 10 or 15 minutes before finally giving up and informing the hostess that we didn't need the large reservation table after all. We were shown to our booth and we hit it off great! We spent nearly two hours talking about ourselves and Script Frenzy, and then I went on and on about the awesomeness of "Hey, Arnold!" Finally we realized that our parking meters were about to expire and neither of us had any more quarters, and so we had to say our goodbyes.
I got home and finished up my revisions from yesterday. I posted the scenes on Script Frenzy, bringing my total up to 63 pages. I thought to myself that since I didn't have to go in to work until noon the next day I could possibly stay up until midnight and just write like crazy for the next four hours. I still may not make 100 pages, but at least I'd be closer to my goal. I fought with myself for a little while, but I just couldn't get inspired to write. After a month of non-stop writing all I wanted to do was READ. With a few nudges from my fiancé I finally picked up the third book in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series: "The Titan's Curse".

And so, at 8:21pm on April 30th I threw in the towel on my quest to write a 100 page script in just one month. I made it to 63 pages - nearly 2/3 of the way. I'll still be working on the script in the upcoming months, but after a bit of a writing hiatus. Script Frenzy, I will try again next year and I WILL conquer you this time!

Recap Time!

Well, I've been slacking. There have been at least three times that I wanted to blog this past week. I even debated writing each blog post and editing the posting day so that it was like I posted them on time. But instead I think I'll just throw all the posts here. To be fair, I wasn't REALLY slacking this whole time. I've just been using all my spare time to work on my script for Script Frenzy. I didn't take any extra time to blog. My bad.

THURSDAY, MARCH 31

I came home from work and frantically wrote. I actually got a lot done. I had to stop mid-story to take care of my sister's dog and do laundry and yada-yada. I kept up a hurried pace when writing. So much so that I was ALMOST DONE by the time Conan came on at 11. I was distracted by the show - as well as talking to my fiance on the phone. However, I did brainstorm with my fiance to make sure I had the right feel for my chapter. We said goodnight just before midnight, but I didn't need to work until 11:30 the next day, and I just could not fall asleep with my chapter so close to done. I continued writing until about 1am. Sure, technically I posted my chapter on April 1st, but I still like to think that I made it in time. Now I'm free to work on my script throughout all of April without my readers throwing tomatoes at me for making them wait so long until the next chapter.

FRIDAY, APRIL 1

So I was able to post my next chapter sort of by my deadline. I'm just really excited that it only kept me about 3 weeks to write the chapter - my shortest time yet! I'm getting faster and faster XD Sweet! I'm just so super excited about posting on time so I have this entire month to work on my script for The Jungle Movie. I'm actually on such a Writer's High right now! Nothing can bring me down. I just have all this excited anticipation about reading people's reaction to my story. It is my drug! Being with my fiance and reading reviews are my drugs! XD I get this feeling of elation that I cannot come down from. On the super plus side, whenever I work during a Writer's High I'm just so bubbly that I get about three times the amount of tips I normally do. This of course makes the Writer's High even more powerful! *squee!*

SATURDAY, APRIL 2

OK, Writer's High killed. In fact, it was killed yesterday after work. I ran to my computer excited to see the many hits and reviews that I normally find after posting to Fanfiction.net. Instead I found that nearly no one had found my story yet and I didn't have a single review. Granted, I had posted at 1am and the email announcement alerting my readers of the post didn't go out until about 10am, but still, not a single review? Only six hits? Really? And then, finally, after work today I found a review- a bit of a lackluster one. Sure, NintendoGal55 is just as passionate about my chapter as she's been for all of my postings, and I thank her for that, but for my only review to more or less say "GAH XD Helga and *Spoiler*!? I just don't see it. And I don't like how he asked her out! He shouldn't try to replace Arnold!" *sigh* I don't mind constructive criticism, I don't, but I'm just a little bit of a Debbie Downer right now. I'm really worried that no one will like this chapter because of the unconventional pairing. In fact, I think the pairing I presented is even less popular than the dreaded ArnoldxLila pairing! I was so excited about this story and now I'm afraid I'm gonna lose readers because for a month they'll have this hated pairing. In fact, the next chapter I'm going to post is going to continue with this pairing, and so I'm SUPER nervous that I'm going to lose readers! TT_TT - WAAAAA!

SUNDAY, APRIL 3

OK, so I'm still a little depressed with my last chapter. I had a hard time getting myself to do any writing after I was done with work today. I ended up cleaning my room instead. And lurking on the Save The Jungle Movie facebook page. I still have some things to sort out before I start officially writing for Script Frenzy. I'm so far behind already though. I should have 10 pages scripted by today. I just can't get inspired. XP

MONDAY, APRIL 4

Oh boy, another day at my internship with Lou Reda Productions. I'm already in a funk from my apparently ill-received chapter, and now I get to archive footage. Joy. Or at least, I thought as much. Sure, the internship still bored me to the point where I had to blink myself awake - I'm really confused why my supervisor keeps asking me "having fun"? Does he honestly think I'm having fun? Anyway, during my lunch break I checked my email and found a message telling me that I finally had a second review, and it was a happy one!!! First two words "Awesome Chapter!" YAY! My only problem is that this reviewer is the exact opposite of NintendoGal55. Where she is so opposed to the pairing I presented, Knowledge Comes Wisdom Lingers is one of my readers I'm converting away from the ArnoldxHelga ship. She fully accepts the couple I'm presenting, and although I'm glad it is so easy to accept the pairing - which is what I was going for - at the same time I still fear that no one is going to want Helga to get back together with Arnold....

TUESDAY, APRIL 5

More avoiding of the actual scripting. I did a lot of research to review the formatting of screenplays, as well as trying yet again to make a Plot Board - basically a giant board with the plot points scattered across it so I can visually see where the story's going. I also took the time to just sit and look at my story stats for the chapter I posted. As mentioned before, only six people read the chapter the day it was posted. The highest count was 38 people on the second. I had 48 hits that day, so at least some people are re-reading the chapter, I guess that's a good sign, right? The very next day the readers again dropped down to eight. Yesterday only six people read my story, but it was read sixteen times, so again people must be re-reading the chapter, so it can't be all that bad, right? Right? I did get another good review today. Short, sweet, and a new reader. Yet again my fear of writing someone OOC is mildly extenguished. I always enjoy reassurance that I'm properly evolving the character's personalitlies so that they are clearly teenagers, and yet they still feel like the characters my readers fell in love with once-upon-a-time.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6

Finally have some writing done! It's tricky though because my netbook only has Microsoft Word Starter, and so a lot of the formatting I need to do - such as specific margins throughout the script - can't exactly be accomplished. I needed to instead copy and paste a copy of a screenplay so that the margins are already established. The only problem is that I need to do a lot of copy and pasting whenever I need a different set of margins. XP Also, I still don't know exactly where I want to go with a lot of the plot. I only got about five pages in today before I hit a wall. I'll have to work with my writing partner ChibiSunnie to figure out what I'm doing. In the meantime I guess I'll just work on scenes I know what I'm doing with and then thread all of these completed scenes together later. This is the most random way of writing a script! You're not supposed to write them non-linearly like this! XD

THURSDAY, APRIL 7

And now we've come full circle back to today. I spent about five hours yesterday working on my script and I only have five pages done! XD I did spend a lot of time "researching" again. Watching some "Hey, Arnold!" episodes to hear how people talk and see how they dress and see what is already established. I then did a LOT of describing, as well as figuring how to update all of the character designs. I feel that you can go decades with the characters having the same design as day one as long as the characters don't age. "The Simpsons" for example. Poor Bart and Lisa are still ten and eight, and are still wearing the same outfits, even after decades on the air. When "Doug" transferred from Nickelodeon to Disney the characters got a make-over. Whenever Ash Ketchum ages or moves to a new region in order to catch more pokemon he also gets a make-over. That said, I felt that with the "Hey, Arnold!" characters all aging to fifth graders they too needed a waredrobe upgrade. Figuring out what to do with these make-overs chewed up a lot of time. I then spent a lot of time on the STJM facebook page trying to send ChibiSunnie my plot ideas. Well, at least five pages is better than none, right?

And now today I'm working on this blog instead of scripting. To be fair, I originally thought that I needed to be somewhere in about an hour and so I thought blogging would be better than to start up a new scene, only to leave once my muse finally strikes. Anyway, turns out I didn't need to leave, and so I'm off to see what I can write before I need to leave for work in four hours.

Something Tells Me I'm Not Gonna Make It

So after a month's worth of feet dragging, I finally started work on my next chapter. Basically, I finished the Percy Jackson books my fiance lent me, craved to read more, but couldn't, and so I decided to distract my craving with some writing of my own - after discovering that Percy Jackson is the fourth most popular fandom to write about on Fanfiction.net... I might have to read some of those ^_^

Anyway, Script Frenzy starts this Friday, and so today and tomorrow are my last days to try to post this next chapter before my month-long hiatus so I can concentrate on my script writing. On the plus side, I had today off and so I had all day to work on my chapter. The down side? I've been violently ill since last night and so I've tag-teamed the bathroom and my bed all day. I did get the full chapter's plot sketched out throughout the course of my day, but with all the naps I was taking I didn't have time to actually start writing. Worst part was when I started falling asleep while in the middle of scripting the plotline and I hoped I could dream about my story so I knew where to go with it - only to dream about friggen Percy Jackson instead! Fiance has me obsessed!

And so, I battled through bathroom runs and naps and writer's block to at least figure out what I want to do with the chapter. I listened to the song it's based on continuously all day. I then spent about an hour or so researching a second song on the internet. Yup, part of my writer's block was when I realized that I wanted ANOTHER song actually in my story - very much like that pain in the butt song Arnold played while dancing with Helga on her rooftop. It kept me about a month to finally get that song figured out, and I had less than two days to figure out the one for this chapter. At first I thought of a DJ mash-up of songs, like those by DJ McFly. But that would make it worse because - as I mentioned for the last song - I don't feel right using "real world" songs for the "Hey Arnold world" and so I'd have to come up with about 20 different songs, describe them, and mash them together. No chance. I then thought of an audio mash-up such as this one for Boxxy. But then I thought it was beyond creepy for the character to have all of these audio bytes of Helga to mash-up and that the song would come across as more creepy then the grand gesture of love it's intended. And so I was again stuck with what to do. That was about the time I passed out hoping to dream about what to do next, only to dream about Percy Jackson instead. XP

Anyway, when I woke up I was still stuck and decided to just flip through some of my favorite Flash submissions on Newgrounds.com. That was when I stumbled upon this little chestnut. Seeing the first character siting outside Spike's bedroom window playing a simple song on a guitar was exactly what I needed. I didn't need to worry about writing a song! I just needed to have my character writing an instrumental song on his guitar! And then at the end of the flash animation, when Spike held up the signs, it was perfect! Helga can know how he feels by him holding up signs for her to read while his song played on a boombox! It would be like Say Anything!

Now, to figure out the guitar song so I knew the feeling while I wrote. I again hit up Newgrounds since it has an audio portal for users to post royalty-free songs that they write, but it was too difficult to find a song that was just instrumental guitar - let alone a slightly sad song. That's when I changed tactics and went to YouTube.com. A few searches later I found this song by Daniel Cripps. It was perfect. Once I figured that out I was pretty much set. Now, I work from six AM until four PM tomorrow, and so we'll see if I can manage to write anything. I hope to get this done before Script Frenzy starts, but we'll see....

Touching Base and Giving Reviews

It's been a while since I last posted and I just wanted to touch base. As per usual I've been horrible when it comes to writing. After I posted my last chapter and blog post I had every intention of continuing writing that day. However, I was actually interested in getting the skeletal timeline down for the script I'm starting April first for Script Frenzy. That way I can just sit and write because I knew where I was gonna go with it. However, work got in the way. And then my co-manager got sick and so I had to pick up more hours which got in the way. And I was only doing openings and so I was exhausted and wanted to sleep, which got in the way. And then my sister was never around to take care of her dog and so I was the one that played with the needy mutt - which, you guessed it, got in the way. And so I STILL don't have much of an outline done and I'm probably not going to when April comes around. So I'll probably spend the first week or so of Script Frenzy just piecing everything together and then knock out the 100-page script over a weekend or something.

Further distractions took form a day or so after I posted my last chapter. I did something I rarely did - I drank coffee because I was DRAAAAAAAGGING at work. I don't know if it was the fact that I only drank coffee maybe twice before in my life and my body wasn't use to it, or if it was the brand of coffee Subway sells: Seattle's Best, or if it was my listening to a co-worker when he told me that adding a package of hot chocolate mix to the coffee helped make it less bitter, but somehow, for whatever reason, that coffee made me so sick that I actually left work early for the first time. After an hour or so nap I felt a little better, but kept myself bedridden. I wasn't feeling well enough to write, but I was also getting bored and didn't really feel like playing video games. That was when I saw it, one of two books my fiance lent me nearly a month prior and was constantly begging me to read. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

We had seen the Disney movie "based" on the book and he ended up falling in love with the series - even declaring that the author Rick Riordan officially dethrowned his previously favorite author: Orson Scott Card - which also dethrowned "Ender's Game" as my fiance's favorite story and series.

I had been dragging my feet for the same reason I dragged my feet about Harry Potter - the book series was written for children half my age. I'm not sure why this was an issue for me since I've been OBSESSING over "Hey, Arnold!" for the past year and a half - and that series not only ended nearly a decade ago, but was for ten-year-olds. I still play with toys on occasion and watch movies that are aimed at children, so why am I embarrassed to read childrens' books? Not sure, but it was an issue.

Anyway, there I was, sick, in bed, bored, and staring at this novel my fiance has been begging me to read, and so I did. I was instantly drawn in to Riordan's writing, mostly because it so closely resembled my own writing style. If I write similarly, obviously I would enjoy how it was written. Plus, it gave me hope that my writing style could be publishable some day - even if it were for middle-schoolers. Another bonus for Riordan was my love of Greek Mythology. Finally, the story itself was actually really funny, even to the point of me reading passages that I enjoyed out loud to my fiance so he knew what I was laughing at while we were on the phone. I greatly enjoyed the story and even acknowledged my fiance's "I told you so"s.

Well, now I really was in trouble, what little precious time I had at home was spent reading this novel instead of writing my own. Sure, I thought about my own story a little while at work all of those hours alone, but nothing was committed to paper. Also, since I didn't really remember the Greek mythology too well it kept me at least twice as long to read "The Lightning Thief" because I was going through my "reference book" at the same time. Let me explain, sure, Riordan was good at having different mythology references explained. He understood that the average thirteen-year-old wouldn't know who Medusa was. However, a few years ago my fiance - who is a HUGE Greek Mythology buff by the way - told me about this book he had as a textbook in one of his classes: Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton. I have always enjoyed just reading the myths in this book, but now I was using it to get the "full scoop" on the references Riordan used in his story. For example, one of Athena's children starts freaking out around spiders and references Arachne. Riordan has it simply explained that Athena turned Arachne into a spider and that Arachne's children - all of Earth's spiders - always had a grudge against the children of Athena. Reading my "reference book" further explained that Athena was the goddess of crafts and invented the loom, and so when Arachne claimed she could weave as well as - if not better than - Athena, and then proved it in a contest against the goddess, Athena raged against the girl, causing Arachne to become so distressed that she committed suicide by hanging. Athena felt guilty and turned Arachne into a spider so all could appreciate her weaving prowess.

Anyway, my point is that for every single reference Riordan makes in his book, I then spend about twenty minutes reading the myth corresponding to said reference. I've read at least half of the myths by now. Worse yet was that my fiance had also given me the sequel "The Sea of Monsters" to read. He wanted me to bring home the whole series, but I stopped him at two - not thinking I'd even read them. Well, I was able to hold off on the second story for almost a week, again working on the movie script skeleton, but I was really in a reading kick now - especially since I'm actually tag teaming the "Mythology" book and the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series - and I could not be stopped.

Also, my fiance's best friend hosts LARP games, and when I'm visiting for Good Friday through Easter, they will be hosting their Changeling game. Since I'm visiting, I'll be participating even though I've never played this game before and know nothing of the rules or characters. So now I'm reading "The Sea of Monsters", the "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes", as well as the wiki-pages for "Changeling: The Dreaming" - which then leads me to read my book "Irish Fairy & Folk Tales" by W. B. Yeats since the majority of the characters in the Changeling game are based on Irish faerie myths. Yup, reading four things all at the same time, plus spring cleaning, plus wedding shopping now that it's nice enough to go outside again, plus all of the stuff I told you about at the beginning of this post, and so I don't really have extra time to write - another reason I haven't posted in almost a month.

Aside from being busy, I've been uninspired to write the next chapter for one very important reason: I'm not sure how to portray Brainy. He was never really developed in the series and so I more-or-less have to build him a personality for my story. I'm afraid of two things: 1) I'll make him in to a "Marty Stu" and/or 2) people will root for him over Arnold - whom I think I'm already alienating from my audience with my last chapter. Honestly, even I'm not sure how Arnold could possibly win Helga back one last time, and so more feet dragging.

Anyway, my laundry has been done for about an hour now and so I should really get back to that. Sorry to everyone eagerly awaiting my next chapter. I strongly suggest reading any of Rick Riordan's novels. ^_^

Posts, Thank Yous, Author's Notes, and Timelines

Yay! My next chapter is up! And it only took me about six weeks this time. That's a new record! There were nine weeks between chapters one and two, and thirteen weeks between chapter two and chapter three. Sheesh, I'm ticked off at my favorite writers taking YEARS to finish their novels, and I go and take MONTHS to finish simple little fanfiction chapters! Who's a hypocrite? X-P Anyway, I'd like to start off by thanking my readers for their faithfulness and kind reviews. I love watching my hit meter get higher and higher, and for so many to come back after three months - I love you guys! I recently added an appreciation circle to my FF.net profile to thank all of you, but here it is again:

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*APPRECIATION CIRCLE!!*

OK, so I would like to take the time to send out a thank you for all of my readers. You are the reason I keep writing. I'd also like to thank all of you who have either faved me or my story (or both *squee*). Your love for my work - to the point of wanting to go back and re-read it - humbles me and drives me to become a better writer for you. Thank you for your faith in my talent. Finally, I'd like to thank my reviewers. You guys tell me what you think after reading, you are my way of knowing what is working and what isn't. You are my guidance and I appreciate every word of it. You take me in and give me such kind words of encouragement. You drive me to keep writing even when I'm tired from all of my hectic hours, you make me smile when I have a bad day, you swell my ego, you prove to me that I do have a talent that I should master, and finally, you humble me with such phrases as "[This] could well turn into one of those epic fanfictions that has hundreds of reviews!" (Thank you TrulyNonsensical). And now a list of all my faithful readers - those that have reviewed multiple times, faved more than one story, or faved me as an author. I write mostly for you, thank you for staying with me. Stars go to those who either faved or reviewed every story I've posted. You are my superstars ^_^
- Acosta_Perez_Jose_Ramiro* (Thank you for reviewing EVERYTHING I post... you missed a chapter of What is Truly Meant to Be tho.. ^_^) - Annemarie22 (if you review my fluffy V'day piece I Caught You A Star you can get a star! See how nicely that works out?) - Anonymous Latina (Thank you for reviewing every chapter! Check out my one-shots!) - Azure129 - Dotjuh (Thank you for the Author Fave) - Helga G. Pataki (Thank you for the Author Fave) - iHeartPhantomoto (Thank you for the Author Fave) - Knowledge-comes-Wisdom-lingers - KPFan72491 (Thank you for the Author Fave) - Loonytunecrazy*** (Three stars for faving every story, writing a review to every story, and faving me as an author, you ROCK!) - Mony - NazgulNazgul (Thank you for the Author Fave and review) - NicNack4U* (Thank you for faving all of my stories!) - NintendoGal55* (LOL, I love how you listened and went back to my first story. Here's your star ^_^) - SuprSingr (Thank you for the faves and reviews) - TrulyNonsensical (Thank you for the Author Fave) Special love for the following reviewers who really made me smile:
- Acosta_Perez_Jose_Ramiro: I'm always happy to see your name in my mailbox whenever I post something. Thank you for the support. - Anonymous Latina: Thank you for reviewing every chapter of my stories. I love to see what you think of my progress (Also wanting to fave a story twice XD You're awesome) - Knowledge-comes-Wisdom-lingers: I really appreciate you telling me that you had to rush to my most recent chapter as soon as you saw the alert in your mailbox. Even after three months you still needed to know what happened next. Your patience humbles me. - LoonyTuneCrazy: Like I said before, you just rock! I always look for your name when I post something new. - NintendoGal55: I love that you get so invested in my stories. You are the type of reader I write for ^_^ - PokeshippersShadow1: I love that you wanted more of my TJM oneshot. Your faith in my writing for the movie inspired me to do just that for April's Script Frenzy month! - Rachel Cabbit: To receive such rave reviews from an author I admire is mindblowing! And sentences like "The best revelation of Gertie and helga I've read in the fandom" certainly swell the ego ^_^ - SuprSingr: Thank you for constantly reassuring me that I'm staying in character. It's my biggest fear as a fanfic writer. - TrulyNonsensical: Again, thank you for the kind words and the belief that so many others will eventually enjoy my work. - Vanjoygree: As with PokeshippersShadow1, your enjoyment and kind words inspired me to write my own TJM script in April, so stay tuned!

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Alright, now that is out of the way, how about some extended Author's Notes?
As I mentioned both in earlier posts and in the A/N for the chapter itself: the song that inspired me was "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston for the movie "The Bodyguard." It was tricky to translate the song in to prose. If this truly were a musical it would be easy to have Arnold wish Helga farewell and then belt this song out to her. Unfortunately, I can't do that in prose form - at least, not without being flamed or banned from FF.net. Although, if I don't have any other ideas for next year's Script Frenzy I just might redo this whole story as a legitimate musical. ^_^
The big problem I had when it came to writing the song as a chapter was that the song sort of repeated the same ideas: I'll only be in your way if I stayed with you, and so I'm leaving for your own good even though I'm still in love with you, but I'll always remember you and those memories will be so bittersweet; again, goodbye and please don't cry over us because we both know I'm not what you need right now; finally, I'd like to wish you a good life, all your dreams will come true, that you will be happy and joy filled, and most importantly I wish you will find the great love of your life. That was the whole song summed up, and in dialogue it's tricky to make that paragraph a full chapter. I hope I did a good enough job.
Another hurdle was trying to reserve some sympathy for Arnold. I needed to leave the audience with the thought that he still had enough of a redeeming quality for them to still hope Helga takes him back one last time. He broke her heart twice, and I hated making Arnold do that. It would have been so much better if I just left it as Arnold dumping Helga in eighth grade and not returning until their senior year. However, I already set up that Arnold was at Helga's Sweet Sixteen, and from there those two just managed to get back together - IT WAS THEIR OWN CHEMISTRY, NOT ME, I SWEAR!!! X-P Point is that since they got back together at her birthday, but I needed them to be broken up when she was eighteen I had no choice but to write this chapter. DON'T HATE ME ARNOLD, I'M SORRY I MADE YOU SUCH AN IDIOT!!! I just hope I didn't make all of my fellow ArnoldxHelga shippers *SPOILER: Hover Mouse To See*
A final hurdle I had was the fact that I'm actually in a successful seven-year long-distance relationship. Yes, it is hard. Yes, it hurts to want to hold him or kiss him but he's not here. Yes, there are days I wish I could just run home and curl up in his comforting arms. Yes, there are times I get upset because I really need to talk to him and he's not available. Yes, there have even been times where I resent him because I feel like I'm only dating someone in title alone, and I desperately want to go to a bar and flirt and dance with a random guy just to have that interaction. I've even thought about a few of my guy friends who ended up having crushes on me, and wondering if I would have returned their feelings if I never met my fiance. I even miss having that fun in college of just being single and flirty. So Arnold does have valid concerns.
However, my fiance and I talk every night on the phone just before going to bed. We IM, email, and chat via webcam. We visit each other multiple times a year. We even have phone-dates where we sit on the phone while eating similar food and watching the same movie, like in When Harry Met Sally or in The Truth About Cats and Dogs. And finally, we have family, friends, and video games to distract us. It's tough to have a relationship like this, but it's not as hard as most people think. I'm actually a little surprised that people call me strong for being able to hold on to such a tough relationship. My response is that at least I'm not an Army spouse; at least I know my loved one is safe; I could never sleep knowing my beloved was in a warzone. Knowing that long distance relationships DO WORK if you put the effort in to them makes Helga's argument terribly valid, and I sort of hate not having Arnold at least TRY the relationship out.
I even debated redoing the chapter so that he was breaking up with her over the phone. Helga's resentment for being alone would cause them to argue - as Arnold feared they would - and a guilt-ridden Arnold decides to let her go. I didn't like the idea of Arnold dumping her over the phone, however, and so I left it as Easter Monday.
I also want to touch upon one more thing. Thanks to the concerns voiced by one of my readers, I'd like to verify something. Yes, the chapters of What is Truly Meant to Be are all prequels to the first chapter. If it didn't take me months to post an update it might be easier to pick up on. Basically, the first chapter has the pull of Arnold running to confess his love to Helga. We then have the shocker ending of *SPOILER*. I then wanted to show everyone how they got to that point. I wanted to show the journey Arnold and Helga took from him dumping her when they were thirteen all the way up to his love confession five years later. However, if I had placed the chapters in chronological order the fact that Helga's *SPOILER* wouldn't be such a shock.
To clarify, here is the official timeline:
CHAPTER 1: LIFE AFTER YOU Arnold and Helga are both 18 - or Arnold's about to turn 18, depending on where in the year you place his birthday and if he's older or younger than Helga. It is the summer before college and Arnold realizes his love for Helga and races back to Hillwood to see her, only to be surprised at what he finds.
CHAPTER 2: GOODBYE TO YOU The story as a whole flashes back so you can see how Helga and Arnold end up where they are in Chapter 1. This chapter is right after Arnold breaks up with Helga when they were thirteen. Helga is on a destructive bender and Phoebe tries to help her get past the hurt of Arnold dumping her.
CHAPTER 3: LADY IN RED We now jump about three years and it's Helga's Sweet Sixteen party. I used some "Word of God" about the pitched-but-never-made show The Patakis. For instance, Olga moved back home and the Patakis are slowly but surely becoming a little less dysfunctional. They're sort of like The Simpsons now, where the family can be at each other's throats, but the viewer still knows that they truly love and care for each other. Arnold had moved away with his parents right around the time they turned fourteen. Since I had Arnold break up with Helga during the school year, perhaps the Shortmans move over the summer between eighth and ninth grade - a nice transition point, just before high school. Anyway, even though Arnold comes back to visit throughout the year, he still hasn't really interacted with Helga, and so he never really noticed how amazingly beautiful and popular she had become while he was away. Not needing her front to prevent people from teasing her really helped charm her classmates. And recharm Arnold.
CHAPTER 4: I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU A week has passed since Helga's Sweet Sixteen party. Aside from an April Fools prank during Harold's Passover and Easter Sunday itself, Helga and Arnold have spent every moment together. It is now the Monday after Easter and Arnold has to head home with his parents. We know from the first chapter that Arnold and Helga aren't together, and this chapter shows why.
CHAPTER 5: *SPOILER* I think telling you the songs the upcoming chapters are based off of could be a bit of a spoiler, but you can look if you wish. Just hover your mouse over the word "Spoiler". Anyway, this upcoming chapter is shortly after Arnold returns home, so Helga's still sixteen. A certain someone comforts our broken-hearted blond as he tries to woo her away from Arnold.
CHAPTER 6: *SPOILER* Again, if you want to know, hover over "Spoiler". This chapter is sort of an overview of Helga's years without Arnold. I'm not sure if this will be just before the grand return of Arnold that we saw in the first chapter, but Helga would be about seventeen or eighteen here - depending on what I feel like. ^_^
CHAPTER 7: *SPOILER* The last of the "flashback" chapters. We're finally back to Arnold as we see the last days of his Senior year in high school. Something weird is going on around him and it makes him realize that maybe he still loves Helga. By the end of this chapter he's on his way to make that epic trip we see in the first chapter.
CHAPTER 8 AND BEYOND And now we're back to "present day". Chapter Eight will start with Arnold's reaction to Helga's Big Reveal at the end of the first chapter and continue on in chronological order from there. I believe I have about sixteen chapters total for this story. That is, of course, unless another chapter runs long like Chapter Three did and I have to split it up.
OK, I hope that cleared some things up for you guys. Well, I'm running late for work, so I'll hope to see you soon. ^_^