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.