That Took Forever!

Well, I finally completed my super-uber-fluffy Valentine's Day story! I really did intend to post the second and final chapter just a day or two later - not two weeks later! As I mentioned in my last post, I had an opportunity to write while getting my hair dyed, but stupid me didn't think to bring my netbook with me. I then waisted more time staring at walls when I ended up waiting for about an hour and a half for my laser hair removal treatment. The whole treatment takes about ten or fifteen minutes, and I never thought I'd wait for so long for my appointment; resulting in me yet again leaving my netbook behind. Because of this I decided to bring the thing EVERYWHERE with me.

And yet I lost another two hours of possible writing time. I just started an internship with a production company. I brought my netbook with me - as I have now decided to do - and yet I thought it would be unprofessional to bring it in with me. I then sat and literally did nothing but people watch for two hours because the company had no clue what to do with me! I wanted to run out to my car to grab my netbook so I could at least write, but I also didn't want to seem unprofessional! Gaar! Don't care, the damn thing is coming in with me when I go again tomorrow.

Anyway, with all of these missed opportunities, coupled with long hours at work - and then throw in my sister's dog randomly jumping in to bed with me and trying to climb over my netbook keyboard - meant that I only had an hour or so to write each night.

But I did manage to finish, and I posted yesterday. My next battle was the fact that I posted the story at like four or five PM and yet the email alert didn't go out until one-thirty AM. What's up with that, FanFiction.net?

OK, so now how about some talk of inspiration? I know I touched upon it in my Author's Notes, but I also promised to go more in depth here. First of all, let's start with the show Frasier. I loved, loved, loved this show! Anyway, in the episode "Visions of Daphne" the character Donny proposes to Daphne. Even though this moment was heart wrenching because Niles was there to witness he proposal and Daphne's acceptance, I still melted over Donny's speech and loved the fact that he referred to the engagement ring diamond as a star he caught for Daphne. I have yet to find another scripted proposal so sweet. I secretly wanted my future fiance to propose to me in the same manner.

In a way I got my wish. My fiance is really big in to astronomy and so for his birthday I bought him one of those stuffed animals that come with a code for you to register a star. Well, he decided he didn't want to register his name on the star his stuffed animal gifted him. Instead, he wanted to use the star for his proposal. He planned to register the star with the name "[LycoRogue] will you marry me" and then show the International Star Registry printout to me. I would then read the star name, realize the proposal, cry, and shout "yes I'll marry you!" Just like Arnold, however, his proposal didn't really go as planned.

He hadn't registered the star ahead of time because he wasn't sure he could predate the star name and he wanted the registry to have the date he proposed printed on it. However, the website wasn't working well on the day he wanted to propose. It kept glitching and freezing on him. I was in the living room with his parents - it was Father's Day - and I heard him slamming things upstairs. I kind of wish he wasn't so irritated prior to proposing to me, but it is what it is. Well, he finally got the star registered - at least he thinks so - but then the registry form wouldn't print. We still don't know if the star was ever officially registered, but we like to think it is, and that's enough for us.

After all of the frustration he ended up coming back down to the livingroom and his parents left us alone. He knelt down and - just like Helga in my "realistic chapter" - I instantly figured out what was going on and starting smacking him in the shoulder. He explained what he planned and I still cried at the thought.

He then told me that he not only registered the star in the Cassiopeia constellation because of our love for the movie "Serendipity," but also because I had the same freckle pattern on my arm as the character Sarah. For those who don't know the reference, towards the beginning of the movie the male lead Jonathan notices that the female lead Sarah has a freckle pattern on her arm that looks like the Cassiopeia constellation. Just like Sarah, I too had no clue I had this constellation on my arm until he pointed it out. It was just so sweet that he noticed something so tiny! Anyway, it just made the proposal so much better! I debated having Arnold register the star in a constellation Helga's freckles resembled, but I then thought that freckles were Lila's thing, and so I left it with Helga's zodiac sign.

Well, just like Helga, I never actually answered the poor boy, I just kissed him, shoved my hand in his face, and yelled for him to put the ring on. He teased that he wasn't sure what my answer was, and so I finally, officially said "yes" and proceeded to call him "My fiaaaaaance" for the next hour or so.

So, aside from Donny's proposal to Daphne inspiring my first chapter, and my fiance's own proposal inspiring both chapters, I also had a third inspiration: Niles Crane. Going back to the Frasier OTP of Niles and Daphne, my last inspiration was the episode "Niles Proposes to Daphne." In this episode Niles plans this extravagant evening so Daphne's proposal is the most magnificent night of her life. However, things go array when Daphne announces that she has the flu. Niles decides that just the two of them cuddled next to the fire is the perfect moment and proposes without all of the fanfare he originally planned. This inspired my ending of Arnold proposing even though he couldn't play off the illusion that the engagement ring was a fallen star.

Well, I believe that is the extent of my Author's Notes.

As for my return to my chaptered story, I'm working on the skeleton plotline today, and possibly starting to write the next chapter tomorrow after I'm done with the internship. If this week goes like the last two did it might be a little before I get the chapter up. I'm sorry for anyone who was waiting for it. If I hadn't stopped to work on this fluffy story I might have had the next chapter up by now. Anyway, any ArnoldxHelga shippers should get that box of tissues ready, because I have no choice but to break those two up again in the upcoming chapter. Sorry.

Where Does the Time Go???

I'm so annoyed with my writing availability right now! I really wanted to post my "realistic" chapter for my Valentine's Day fluff piece a day or two later. It's now over a week later and the story still isn't done!

Between work, wedding appointments, impromptu social events, and taking care of my sister's overly-needy dog, I've only had about an hour or so to write every day, making this chapter's writing process a long one. And the longer I take writing this, the longer it will be until I can get my next chapter for my main story posted. GAAR! I just want to post this chapter already!!!!

The thing that really kills me is that one of the days this past week, I was getting my hair dyed. I had an hour wait before they even started, and then I had the hour or so of them dying my hair and me just sitting around. I COULD HAVE BEEN WRITING!!! But I decided last minute to go get my hair dyed right after work, and so I didn't think to bring my netbook with me. Then, the very next day I went to one of my laser hair removal appointments. There is no point in bringing the netbook since 1) I'm blindfolded so I won't get blinded by the laser, and 2) the whole thing takes maybe fifteen minutes. However, I didn't anticipate waiting over an hour and a half for them to finally get me in to my appointment!!! I COULD HAVE BEEN WRITING AGAIN! Nope, instead I had to spend both days staring at the walls - because I didn't want to read a four-month-old issue of Glamour - and humming along to the same radio station I'm stuck listening to while at work! Such wasted days!

I have tomorrow off, and so normally I would be able to finish my story with all of my free time. However, I just recently got a volunteer position with a local production company and so I'm now spending my weekdays off there. In theory, the company office is only open until five, and so I might be able to write after that, but it never seems to work out when I'm done with my actual work at four. I wouldn't hold your breath that I can get any writing done any time soon. We'll see.

Be My Valentine

So my super-fluffy Valentine's Day themed one-shot is posted! Actually, it was posted yesterday, so yay for posting ON Valentine's Day! I just wish i was able to post it earlier in the day than noon. Oh well.

I was nervous that I wasn't going to post it on time. It's difficult to get on to the internet at my fiance's house. I ended up uploading the story on Saturday before I left to visit him. This way if I could get on the internet I wouldn't need it for a long time in order to upload and edit the story. This is a great thing about FanFiction.net, I can upload the story without posting it to the public.

I'm so excited that fifty-seven people read my story - and apparently greatly enjoyed it - on Valentine's Day. Best part is that it had sixty-three hits, which means the story was re-read six times. I even had two great reviews and one story fave yesterday. Coupling that with being with my sweetheart all day and Valentine's Day was great!

...And I'm Done!

I did it! I finished my super-fluff story! But I'm not going to post it yet! Not until Monday.

I didn't think I'd be finishing the story today, honestly. I opened the file and read what I had written and I didn't know where to go. Well, I knew where I WANTED to go with the story, I just didn't know how I was going to get there. Plus, I had work in a few hours, and so I wasn't sure I would have the time.

Then, suddenly, inspiration struck. I went on a writing frenzy and voila, the story was done! I didn't even realize how quickly I completed the story! I love when the stories just flow out of me like that! But OMG the fluff!!! XD

I can't wait until I can post it on Monday!

My Muse Must be on the Steelers' Offense...

Alright, so the Big Game is actually more entertaining than I originally thought, and so no fiction writing will be done tonight after all. I don't have to go in to work until 4pm tomorrow, and so perhaps some writing will happen tomorrow. Most likely won't write anything on Tuesday since I have an appointment after work. Perhaps more writing late in the evening, but probably not.

I'd like to also use this time to announce my official participation in Script Frenzy. The basic idea is to write a 100 page script or screenplay in just the thirty days of April. It is kind of a sister project to NaNoWriMo. This is another event I might participate in, however I might skip out on NaNoWriMo this year - I'll get to that in a moment.

Anyway, back to Script Frenzy. I've been writing scripts for class projects since high school - even going as far back as ad-libbing skits for class reports in middle school. I took a scriptwriting class in college as well as multiple video production classes. I wrote a few local commercials for clients of the production house I used to work for straight out of college. I also have a freelance scriptwriting job with a radio-drama audiobook company. Finally, instead of thinking in words like most prose writers, I think in images and camera angles. All-in-all, even though I'm a storyteller at heart, I believe my medium is more scripting than prose. Therefore, when I saw the link to the Script Frenzy event on the NaNoWriMo website I knew I just HAD to participate! I had to practice my craft. Considering that, back in college, I frequently wrote twenty-some-page scripts within a week or so, I have no fear that I can hit the 100 pages within the month time limit. My biggest concern is figuring out WHAT to write about. I may cheat a little and try to figure out what I'm going to script prior to April 1st. In fact, I debated just re-writing a script I wrote in high school and had been meaning to re-write anyway, but that would be cheating a bit too much, so nevermind! X-P The only real downside is that I will probably not write any chapters at all for my fanfic while working on my script, and so my poor readers will have to wait at least a month for another update - unless I stockpile a chapter to post in April.

Now, going back to my reasoning for not participating in NaNoWriMo this year. Mainly, it is because I'm getting married the first weekend of October. I've been in a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend for over 7 years, and the longest we've had together was about 14 days straight. As of November of this year I think I might still be entranced with the idea of seeing my sweety daily and too pre-occupied to write. Besides that, I'll be moving to a new state right after the wedding and so I'll be getting settled in. Now, the fanfiction I'm currently working on is already at about 23,000 words and I'm not even half way! So hitting the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 would be easy for me. The trick is doing so all within the month of November - especially since it's kept me almost half a year just to post THREE CHAPTERS! Who knows, perhaps I'll be able to participate after all, but I'll just focus on Script Frenzy for right now.

And the Story Goes "Fluff, Fluff, Fluff"

Well, I started my fluffy Valentine's Day story. I'm not going to tell you what I ended up going with, but I will say that I'm holding off on the Phil and Gertie story and the Wedding story until I have the time to do another chaptered story.

I've had some fun working on this fluff piece. I'm still finishing it up - I had to do some researching while writing yesterday, but I wasn't going to post it prior to Valentine's Day weekend anyway. I really enjoy going all goofy and sweet! It' s such a lovely change of pace from the downer story I'm currently working on.

My only fear is that I'm making it too fluffy. It might be so sweet people will get toothaches from it. Also, it's not very realistic for things to go so wonderfully. My story is so fluffy it's like the love-child of Marshmallow and Cotton Candy made love to the spawn of Cotton Balls and a big fluffy bunny. My story is the resulting grandchild of such massive fluff.

I have already taken care of this problem; fear not. During my hours alone at work AGAIN today I devised my solution. My original one-shot will become a two-chaptered story. Definitely posted by V'day will be my Super Fluff chapter. The more-realistic version of the story will then shortly after be posted as the second and final chapter of the tale. Whether or not I post the realistic version by V'day will depend on my writing availability in the next week. Perhaps, depending on how exciting the Super Bowl turns out to be tomorrow, I'll write in between the commercials. ^_^

The Fluff that Dreams are Made of

Yesterday I had to work about four hours alone again - the joys of opening! YAY! And so I was able to ponder more fanfiction writing.

I wanted to take my day off tomorrow to write - so as to not keep my readers waiting forever this time. However, I don't really want to post my next chapter yet. Valentine's Day is coming up, and three things occurred to me. One, I'd be lucky if I could write the next chapter in time to post by Valentine's Day. Two, even if I could finish the chapter by V'day I'm not too sure I'd want to post it. It's kind of an anti-valentine's day chapter, and I wanted to post something fluffy. If I had completed the last chapter the way I originally wanted to - instead of breaking off the ending and making this new "break up" chapter - then the next chapter WOULD be Valentines-y. I don't think I could get two chapters done in time, especially when I'm visiting my fiance for V'day. Anyway, this led me to my final thought. Perhaps I'll put my story on hold for right now and write some Valentine's Day fluff one-shot!

Now the question becomes, what do I write? I had a few ideas bouncing around in my head yesterday. First was to do fluff on a couple I don't see too often -in fact, the character's aren't even listed on the FanFiction.Net Hey, Arnold! character drop down menu. I wanted to write a story about Grandpa "Steely" Phil and Grandma "Pookie" Gertie a la "The Notebook". Although I do want to write this eventually, this wouldn't be a one-shot, so I slotted it away.

Next I was thinking of something else I don't see too often - Helga and Arnold's wedding day. This idea seems promising, and yet it also feels like it would be a cute fluffy chaptered fic. Perhaps I'll just write the ceremony as a one-shot fluff piece for V'day and add chapters around it later. A possibility.

I then back tracked a little to think of maybe a fluffy story about how Arnold proposed - or maybe the dominating Helga was the one to propose! This is another possibility, and this one would actually be a one-shot!

Back tracking even MORE I thought of writing about Helga and Arnold's first date. It would be awkward and adorable and filled with all those "firsts". Perhaps they could even have an uninterrupted kiss! But then again, they would only be ten and so how much heart-fluttering could I give my readers?

What if I did an AR fic in which I rewrote either the infamous April Fools Day Tango or the Valentine's Day Dueling Dates scenes as if they happened when Arnold and Helga were teenagers instead of nine. How would everything go differently? Would everything go differently? The great thing about the show is the fact that these kids did things that teenagers would normally do, but it still seemed natural that nine-year-olds were doing them.


So anyway, these are my Valentine's Day fluffy story ideas. Perhaps you have an opinion on which one you'd like to read? If so, tell me in the comments! Take care!

Going in a Different Direction

OK, so I don't usually have enough time after I'm done with work to write daily. This is one of the reasons I take so long to post new chapters - each chapter is completed in one day. I usually put off so much to just sit and write that I take a mini-break after posting the new chapters. For about a week I just focus on things I neglected in order to write - laundry, wedding planning, answering emails, packing up holiday decorations, etc.

During this mini-hiatus I also tend to either think up the plot of upcoming chapters or I even think of plot lines or scenarios for future story ideas. Today was one of those occasions in which I thought of a concept for a new story. I'm not sure if I'll do anything with this, and even if I do it will be after I'm done with my chaptered story - unless I have writer's block and need to work on something else to get the juices flowing again.

Anyway, I'm a manager at work, and this is very strange to me. I'm still in my twenties - granted I'm in my MID-twenties, but still - and so I'm still used to listening to authority figures; not BEING the authority figure. Therefore I have a hard time reprimanding my staff. Unfortunately, today was one of those days where I needed to confront an employee and write her up. So, during the four hours I was at work by myself and waiting for her to show up I was trying to psych myself up for the confrontation. I kept imagining myself snarling and growling. I kept reminding myself about how much she screwed up and crossed a MAJOR line with me. I got myself so worked up that I nearly started throwing things. This chick wanted a bitch? I was going to SHOW her a bitch! She had the kitten before, and now she was getting the rabid pitbull! Yeah! Pitbull! Snarling pitbull! She was going to think again before messing with me! And then she showed up.

In my head I kept reminding myself of what she did. I kept telling myself that I'm done trying to be the girl's friend. I'm done being nice and having people walk all over me because of it. Remember, she lies so frequently I wasn't sure if she knew how to tell the truth anymore! I was mentally set. And then I heard myself tell her promotional information she needed for today's shift.

Sure, I was cold, matter-of-fact, and stern about it. I wasn't friendly - it was a start - but I wasn't this badass pitbull I was trying to be. Worst yet was that the confrontation about her behavior didn't occur until the end of the shift. *sigh* I'm a pussycat and I can't avoid it.

Alright, now ready to find out what the hell this has to do with fanfiction???? Well, focusing on my main fandom at the moment - Hey, Arnold! - I had to chuckle at the fact that I was acting fairly similar to Helga G. Pataki, just reversed. She could spend HOURS psyching herself up to be nice to Arnold, to finally show him a new side of her, to finally state exactly what was on her mind. And yet when the crucial time comes - even if she reminds herself of her goals just a second before - she reverts back to what she knows and becomes the bully everyone is used to. Same concept, except I reverted back to the friendly people-pleaser everyone knows. I then thought how much fun it would be to write a story focusing on the conflict between wanting to act one way and then - at the last second - reverting back to the usual default setting. This coupled with the fact that although both Helga and I are Tsunderes, I'm more dere-dere to Helga's tsun-tsun, and also thought it would be fun to show the conflict from a dere-dere's point of view.

Train of Thought chugged along to make me think of inverting Helga to write this story, and then I thought of the canonical anti-Helga - Gloria. How many people actually write fanfiction staring Gloria? It would be such a new take! I just needed an anti-Arnold for her to go all tsun-tsun over! I was thinking maybe Arnold's polar-opposite cousin Arnie. Would it seem too AU or AR to write a Gloria and Arnie fanfic? Basically, I would completely invert the dynamic of the traditional HelgaxArnold romance story. Should I just make it AU/AR and keep Helga and Arnold? Just stuff to think about.

I also thought about an OC I was creating for the sequel I'm planning for "What is Truly Meant to Be: A Hey Arnold Musical" (like I said, I had four hours alone - I had a lot of time to think about fanfiction...). I thought of maybe making her be my Dere-Dere Tsundere character who needs to psych herself up to lash out at Helga, but I'm not too sure if I like that. I'm also nervous that the OC will end up as a Mary Sue, and so I think I'm going to need a Beta reader by the time I'm ready to create her.

FINALLY I actually did think of a few things for my current story. A few lines and images for my sixth chapter (I'm currently working on Chapter 4). I also thought about a LOT of things to thread together the basic plotline of my seventh chapter. Now if only I could back-track and figure out what to do for the NEXT chapter (instead of two or three chapters down the road X-P).

Anyway, this is my current progress. What does everyone think?