Fifty Posts!? The Journey Thus Far

Oh man! Wednesday!? Boy am I late....

I originally had no clue what to write about this past week. Frankly, I barely did anything in regards to writing. But this is my FIFTIETH post! How could I NOT do something awesome!?

I had a "blah" post written, but this milestone was killing me when I realized I didn't really celebrate it.

So after a long-overdue talk with DarkAngel1326 I got re-inspired for this post.

I'm proud to realize how far I've grown recently. So let's use this milestone as a means to look back at some highlights.

I started this blog over on FanFiction. I had recently returned to the Hey Arnold! fandom and was reading all the fanfiction I could. As I looked through the authors' profile pages I noticed a trend of people leaving writing updates for their readers. I thought this was a brilliant idea, so I started doing the same. After a few months I realized my profile was filling up pretty quick even though I wasn't really updating frequently.

That became the birth of The Rogue's Scribe, back on September 30th, 2010. Well, technically I launched my blog January 27th, 2011, but I backlogged my first 5 posts so they appeared here listed as the month I wrote the entry over on FanFiction.

So 2010 - which was really backlogged from 2011 - had only one post per month. 

My first official post to this blog was also the start of my periodic "Plot Bunnies" postings. It was a thought about writing a story where Helga is the antithesis of herself - sweet and charming to everyone most of the time and then really angry and anti-social some of the time, instead of her normal bully-self with lovesick moments.

The rest of the month was spent talking about my first ever Valentine's Day story; starting with this post  - which also made for two plot bunny posts in a row.

February was also the official start of my participation in Script Frenzy. That would lead to a crazy April tradition. I'll get to that in a moment, but first....

March was the advent of my FanFiction Appreciation Circle, and I made sure to also include it here. I just need to remember to go back and update it every once in a while... :P

OK, now back to Script Frenzy. Last April I spent all my writing free time working on my The Jungle Movie script, which meant avoiding my blog. However, April was probably my most writing-heavy month and I wanted to talk about it. That's when I decided to archive Script Frenzy in diary form. I finished up April in a second post. I then just grouped all of April together as one long post this year after going completely off-line for the month.

May and June of 2011 only had one post each, and neither really spoke of much of anything. May gave my usual excuses for not writing or updating anything. June announced me FINALLY posting the next chapter, gave a bit of a ratings recap for my stories, and then had me ramble on about shows I was watching and webcomics I wanted to work on - none of which were ever actually written.

Then wedding planning hit hard core and I took a massive writing hiatus - both with my stories and with my blog. It didn't seem to really matter anyway, no one really read either.

Then, on October 2, 2011 I finally got to marry my best friend after an 8-year long-distance relationship. So don't you DARE let anyone tell you long-distance never works out. It does if you put in the effort!

Our Wedding Gift from ChibiSunnie

With the wedding and move behind me I could finally re-concentrate on writing. I also started posting my writing up on DeviantArt in hopes of getting more of a readership. 

However, I didn't really get back in to writing fanfiction until I decided to write a one-shot as a last-minute birthday gift. THAT got my creative juices flowing again. That, plus entrance in to the world of Beta Reading. One person quickly became three, and then four, and then five, and then down to three and I'm currently back up to four! Beta Reading is time consuming, and typically keeps me from my own writing. But it's rewarding work and it's fantastic to work with all these other authors. It's also fun to see what others create and know that I'm helping those stories be told. On top of all that, I've made such great friendships through Beta Reading and having my stuff Beta Read. I love all my Beta Writers! And my Beta Reader! HEARTS TO ALL!

December brought on the typical "Winter Depression" in the form of a massive Writer's Funk where I hated my lack of writing, my lack of discipline, and even my fear that I couldn't write as well as the people I Beta-ed for. I was certainly in a slump and lost faith. Then, right at the end of the year, I get a simple review of my story: "please". Such a simple, sad request for me to continue writing. My story DID matter to someone. Even if it was just ONE person, I couldn't abandon them. I added "Write More Frequently" to my New Years Resolutions and looked forward to 2012.

Along with a new year, 2012 also brought a new outlook on everything I did writing wise. Including a blog make-over, as well as the official start of my Sunday Blog Update Days. Although I did fail at first, it was a new weekly deadline that kept me focused and had me write SOMETHING weekly, even if it wasn't fiction. I was starting to really get in to the writing rhythm, my confidence was getting reboosted, I was openingly posting my blog updates on Facebook and DeviantArt - whereas I didn't previously advertise my updates - and my blog posts and stories were actually being read and faved again!

February of this year found me again writing. I worked diligently on a massively long Valentine's Day Story that I wrote as a combo Late Christmas/Thanks-For-Being-a-Sounding-Board-For-My-Chapter gift for ChibiSunnie. At the time it was the longest thing I ever wrote: 11,000 words long. It would soon be surpassed by my latest chapter, but I'll get to that. The task of writing for two background characters was difficult, but my husband supported me, Chibi helped with some ideas, and I got a glance in to the brain of a 9-yr-old boy via advice from Solace of Songs. The story didn't get the greatest response, but seeing how happy it made Chibi was grand enough.

Also, February was when my beta reading progressed to also include original works. In order to do so I set up an as-of-yet-unused account with FanFiction's sister site FictionPress. 

I also battled with another bout of Writer's Funk. This time my concern was with my inability to write ANYTHING SHORT. I had JUST posted an 11,000 word story, and then read drabbles people wrote. Drabbles are stories that are between 100 and 1000 words, and the authors can say as much in them - if not more - as I say in my epicly long stories. Will a publisher/editor ever take on something I wrote if it is so long-winded?

In March I discovered Aliventures and everything seemed fine again. I mainly use the blog to give advice to the people I Beta Read for, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Ali Luke's advice and inspirational posts don't help me as well. Everything she talks about just seems to validate my own writing, and the fact that she's ninja-quick when responding to blog comments really helps with that validation. She is amazing and I have dubbed her my writing mentor - whether she likes it or not! ^_^

Her amazing, awesomeness only increased when I got a personal email from her a couple of weeks back! For someone I'm seriously starting to admire to take notice of me like that just makes me smile! I mean, she had already validated my fanfiction writing and now this!

Let me take a moment to clarify... While in one of my Writer's Funks I felt like I didn't compare to "actual writers" because I "cheated" with fanfiction. I wasn't creating the characters or the setting. I was just parroting someone else's creative. Then Ali commented back that fanfiction is really hard to do well. It's difficult to write in someone else's style, create new situations for the characters, and have it all be in-character and convincing. Since I've had multiple reviewers comment at how amazingly well I've done with keeping everyone in-character, and having my stories feel like real episodes... well, I guess I'm doing a good job after all.

Anyway, Ali really picked me up and made me feel like I was a "Real" writer, and then she validated me even more with the personal email. Writer's Funk turned to Writer's High!

So, yeah, Ali is AMAZING and has a a fantabulous blog and is also a writing coach. So I STRONGLY encourage EVERYONE to read her blog. Even if you're not a writer, some of her advice can still apply.

Well, back to MY blogging.
After reading some of Ali's posts, and some of her guest posts on other blogs, I ended up spending nearly an entire weekend just reading other blogs. That's when I truly discovered something. 

Now, I knew when blogs first came out they were online journals/diaries much like how this one. I also knew that over the years people were making money off of their blogs - I just thought from advertising revenue and book deals for popular bloggers. 

What I failed to realize is that most blogs are now INFORMATIVE. They're like online magazines. I was very outdated with my blogging and that was probably the main reason I don't have much of a following. 

I don't care though. This blog just wouldn't work if it wasn't a journal. Plus, I'm not really an expert on ANYTHING, so I have no clue what I would do an "informative" blog about - perhaps wedding planning after the craziness I went through for mine, but I feel like it would be a short-lived blog. Plus, I already attempted the wedding blog, but more on that at the end.

Still, I wanted input on my blog, and so I asked what you guys thought. On March 4th, 2012 I got my very first blog comment. It was about the font and format of the blog, as well as how difficult it was to read. It kept me a little bit to really listen to the critique, and when a second comment the following week stated roughly the same thing I knew it was time for a change. The rest of March was spent tweaking the layout and finding the "perfect font" - one that was readable, but still looked like it was hand-written. One of the people who commented on the poor readability came back about a month later - after about four font change-ups - and let me know that this font was the winner.

So thank you "It's Like We're Related" for your input and your help in making this blog easier for everyone to enjoy.

I also received my first piece of fanart! I knew it was coming for a couple of months, and I saw the rough sketches, but to see Chibi's finished product was awesome! It was a drawing of a scene that *I* wrote!

Image drawn by ChibiSunnie

And it won't be the only one! She already has at least one piece of artwork planned out for each chapter, as well as some ideas based on the story I wrote her for Valentine's Day. She is awesome sauce!

And speaking of Chibi's Awesome-sauce-ness, March finished off with one of the best things to happen to my writing. After months of being a Beta for other people, I ended up getting Chibi to be *MY* beta reader! She was awesome. She really worked hard on helping me finally post my latest chapter. Even with her crazy-busy schedule of finishing up her master's program at college, she managed to take time outs to help me through my writing. She helped me condense, and work through plot holes, and talk through scenes and dialogue to make them feel more "real". She was amazingly encouraging and made me smile at how much she enjoyed reading what I wrote.

The best part was that she kept me motivated. Knowing how busy she was, I didn't want to waste her time. I also got motivated with each positive feedback I got from her. I found myself cranking out scenes almost daily. I was excited to write again. Plus, the one key element Ali typically talks about was finally there: a deadline. I gave myself deadlines countless times: "I'll have it done by Thanksgiving", "I'll have it done by the end of the month", "I'll have it done by her birthday", "I'll have it done by the end of the year", "I'll have it done by Valentine's Day"... Rarely did I ever keep to my self-appointed deadlines. And when I did keep to them, it was after a mad-dash, last-minute, self-isolation writing frenzy about 24hours before my self-appointed due date.

Telling Chibi when I'll get something to her; telling Ali when I want to finish my chapter; posting a temporary "This Chapter Will Be Up Soon" author's note on FanFiction; it all motivated me to keep to my word. I was now accountable, and I think that's what I needed.

Case and point: I had the event-appointed deadline of a 100page script by April 30th in order to "win" Script Frenzy, and yet I focused on my chapter instead - there by only writing 40pages for Script Frenzy this year.

So April was a good writing month in the fact that after nearly a year-long hiatus, I FINALLY updated my story on FanFiction. A new record with a little less than 16,000 words! The chapter was so long that it didn't fit as one post on DeviantArt. The chapter hasn't had much of a response, but that's to be expected after being away for a year. The few people that DID read it were impressed, plus I actually have the beast done. I count that a success.

April was a crappy writing month in regards to Script Frenzy. I failed. I failed so hard core. I didn't even get to the half-way point in 30 days. I was informed by friends that I didn't "fail" because I at least attempted. Still... let's face it... I failed hard core! I at least learned what I did wrong and hopefully I can do better next year. I will "win" Script Frenzy in 2013!

Finally, April was a good month for blogging. I wrote my first "informative" blog post, thanks to inspiration from the Aliventures Newsletter. I also managed to snag a second follower after she read said post. My first follower - Hebo - was originally following me via my Facebook posts, so I'm not entirely sure how long she has been a reader. She's from some Spanish-speaking country, so the fact that she reads such long-winded posts in English impressed the heck out of me! Love you, Hebo!!!!

However, the second follower is a lovely woman named Kasie. According to her blog comment, she started following on April 19th. It was only two weeks later did she gift me with The Liebster Award! See the pretty picture on the right hand side? Right at the top of the blog? Yup, that's from her. Starting May off right!

So let's show her the love she showed me and check out her blog. 

And now we're finally back to the very merry month of May.

I finally got back in to Beta Reading after my April hiatus. I started off with such a mad flurry of writing that I thought I might get my latest chapter done before the end of the month. With work, the nice weather, cleaning, video/computer games, and Beta Reading... well... the writing got pushed over to "type while on lunch break at work". I'm still progressing, but at a much slower pace. Not sure when the chapter will be up now.

I'm a little upset that I didn't manage to do a monthly writing update like I have planned to do all year, but I am getting better as I progress.

Life is getting better, and hopefully so have I.

It's been a fun ride over the past two years and I'm looking forward to hitting that 100-posts mark in less than a year! I'm excited to see how much more I grow and change.

I've come up with a lot of plot bunnies over the course of this blog.

Want to read them over? Here they are:

• Going In A Different Direction
• The Fluff That Dreams Are Made Of
• The Plot Bunnies Post!
• Liebster Award

How about all of my Author's Notes posts?

• That Took Forever!
• Posts, Thank Yous, Author's Notes, and Timelines
• Epic Author's Notes are Epic
• Another Crazy-long Author's Note

The Current Top Ten Posts?

1. Using Blogs and Birthdays to Procrastinate
2. The Plot Bunnies Post!
3. Cleaning and Brainstorming and Championship Games; Oh My!
4. Castle Fanfiction Devoured More of My Life
5. Script Frenzy Fail Diary
6. Epic Author's Notes are Epic
7. Another Crazy-long Author's Note
8. New Years Resolutions: Take Two
9. Well.... that took longer than expected....
10. Helpful Writing Hints and Script Frenzy Prepping

Finally, before closing out this momentous post, I want to give a shout out to all the great people I met since I started blogging:

• PinkLotus27 - originally BrokenRose24. She was one of the first in the Hey Arnold! fandom to welcome me as a friend.
• ChibiSunnie - a great friend I met while working on my freshmen year of Script Frenzy. We were co-authors and I'm so excited that she's now my Beta Reader. She inspires me and I have no clue how I'd be able to write anything else without her consultation. Plus, she is one of my biggest fans! I can't wait for more fanart!
• Delaroux - the first person I started Beta Reading for, back on November 12, 2011. She got me in to this wonderful "profession" and became another great friend. It pains me that the time difference has kept us from really talking anymore. I MISS YOU, GIRLY!
• DarkAngel1326 - She is one of the main people I still Beta for. We have become such amazing friends and really keep each other going. She is another one of my big-time fans. When I posted on Facebook how excited I was to receive an autographed novel from Ali she responded with:
  
  DarkAngel1326: "Yay! You get an autographed book from your writing mentor!!! I'm just waiting for you to make one so I can have a book from MY writing mentor!"



*whimper* DARKANGEL!!!! <3

• devious.editor - One of the people I Beta for. We haven't gotten as close as I have with the above girls, but we are starting up some dialogues and she still seems like a sweetheart.
• CartoonLover16 - Another one of the people I Beta. Again, I haven't really had much interaction with him and so we're not as close, but he seems like a cool guy.
• Rachel Cabbit - I'm not terribly close to her, but she is an amazing fanfiction writer. She's one of those people that can say so much with just 100 words - amazing! I was so excited when she reviewed one of *MY* stories!
• Kasie Whitener - The wonderful blogger who gifted me the Liebster Award. Thank you, Sweetie!
• Ali Luke - Okay, you HAVE to know who she is by NOW! My writing mentor - whether she wants to be or not! Muahahahaha!

This blog has been such a blessing, and I'm so happy I kept it going - as opposed to my previous failed attempts:

• Obsession Anthology - my first-ever blog. I did moderately alright with it...
• The World Building Project - My second attempt. Didn't get very far with it. It was an attempt to learn world building for Dungeons & Dragons... as well as novels...
• Highland Gamer Wedding - My attempt to journal about my wedding planning; in part to keep as a memoir, in part to help others on their journey. Yeeeeeah... THAT didn't happen...

I love you all so much, I apologize for the super lateness and I probably should have saved all of this for my 100th post... but still. ^_^ I hope this trek down Memory Lane was as fun for you as it was for me. Here's to another 50 posts together!

Yup, It's Procrastination Time Again

So this week went by so fast I nearly forgot today was Sunday - and thus forgotten the blog update.

It's been a crazy week for RPGing and not so crazy for writing. So sorry about that. And sorry that it looks like my earlier prediction of having the chapter up this month isn't going to happen.

I still have my wedding thank you notes to write and my Operation Ruthless video to edit.

This Week's Procrastination List:

• Finished the cover picture for my main Facebook account's timeline. Thankfully my Lyco Rogue account doesn't have Timeline yet, so I still have some time to figure out what I want to do for that.... Maybe something as simple as a promo for this blog....

Anyway, here's the picture. 

Isn't Toothless adorable!? It was a pain in the butt to pixelize him, but he's adorable, no?

Also, the drawing was based on this one by Hirukio

And by "based" I of course mean "blatant rip-off".

• Hubby and I finished watching all five seasons of The Guild. Which sparked two things in me:
1. I want to make my own web series based on the chaos revolving around me and my friends! Buuuuuut, I don't want a "blatant rip-off" of The Guild.... so.... yeah
2. I AM SUPER DUPER MADLY IN TO MMOs AGAIN!!!!!!
Which means I'm once again addicted to a free "baby" MMO called Fiesta Online! Hubby and I got in to the game right around July 4, 2006 or 2007. We played a little more frequently than "casual gamers" but we weren't quite obsessed with the game either... For one reason or another, we stopped playing the beginning of 2009. BUT NOW WE'RE BACK! Whoot! If you have an account - or would like to start one - on the Teva server, just leave a comment below and I'll track you down and we can party together! YAYZ!
• Wednesday and Thursday - rare occasions where Hubby and I have the whole day together - we finally attacked the Back Room - where we've been storing everything we didn't trust in the garage - and slowly worked on turning it in to The Library! It's nearly done! SOOOOO MANY BOOOOOOOKS! Now, to figure out where to put the "non-book" stuff that was back there - like VHS tapes, the inflatable mattress for sleepovers, and a bunch of throw-pillows that we can't put on our couch since it's a rocker/recliner loveseat and the pillows just get in the way...
• Friday we once again played D&D!
• Sis-in-Law turned THIRTY!!!!! The big 3-0. Which means I have roughly 2 years to plan a party for Hubby.... *sigh*
• Work has been KILLER with all the nice weather lately! Stupid working at a grocery store....
• After work-craziness, I wind down with either some Fiesta or another game I recently started re-playing: Leisure Suit Larry. Because I am a perverted woman who likes to play super-cheesy dating sims where the lead is a complete loser but still thinks himself a Ladies Man. Ya know, I'm actually surprised The Big Bang Theory never made an online dating sim starring Howard Wolowitz. Now that he's married off I guess we'll never get one... La Sigh.
• Sporadically throughout the week I HAVE been working on Thank Yous! We JUST got the wedding thank you from my sister-in-law and her wedding was the August before ours, so we have about a month-and-a-half to keep on par with her....

In writing news, I finally got back in to beta-reading. CartoonLover16 sent me a rough draft of his second chapter. He's still working on it on his end, and I'm slowly reading it on mine. With everything else going on this week the only time I have to read his story is during my half-hour lunch breaks. It's a slow process, but I'm about 1/2 way through his chapter. YAY!

Speaking of YAY and Writing.... I got an AMAZING surprise this Monday!

Any repeat readers, as well as those I beta-read for, can tell you that I pretty much SWEAR by the knowledge of Ali Luke at Aliventures.com. Well, last weekend - after talking to Mekonraiba at D&D - I went on a reading spree over at Aliventures.com. I was trying to find anything and everything I could to revive his writing spirit. While there, I made multiple comments on archived posts. 

Now, normally Ali is AMAZINGLY NINJA QUICK when it comes to responding to comments - and I try to do the same here - but she didn't respond all weekend. I didn't really think too much of it. She's busy with her novel's online book tour, the posts were in the archives, and it was Mother's Day weekend.

Then Monday comes around and I find the following email:

"First, thanks so much for the comments.... Also, would you like a free copy of my novel Lycopolis? I think it'd be your kinda thing. I'm looking to get a few more reviews on Amazon, but there'd be no obligation whatsoever to review it unless you felt like it....And if you're happy for me to sign it, lemme know what name you want it signed to (if that makes sense) :)
Cheers,
Ali"

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!
A free, autographed copy of a novel written by a woman I consider my mentor!? I'm not sure if it's because of the frequency that I comment on her blog, or the fact that I'm constantly telling her that I use her posts to help those I beta-read for, or if it's because I openly admit to being as much of a RPG nerd as she is, or if it's simply because she knows me as LYCO rogue... but whatever her reasoning, I am beyond excited!

So, be warned, people... there may be less of my own writing, and perhaps a review here once I get my hands on Lycopolis. If you are interested, Ali has a link for you to download the first five chapters for free.

Also, don't forget to check out the blog itself!

OH! And by NO MEANS am I trying to exploit Ali's kindness by telling you guys about it, so please, PLEASE don't try to con her out of free copies of her book!

I mean, I trust you guys, but I felt the need to stress the above point.

Anyway, that is all for me this week. Now to get ready for another killer day at work... friggen nice weather...

Another Crazy-long Author's Note

Well, it’s been nearly a month since I posted my latest chapter, and I’m finally getting around to the Author’s Notes post! YAY! But before I get in to that, a quick heads up on where I’m at with my current writing.

I’ve been getting longer shifts at work, which means I get lunch breaks. Now, it only takes me about 5 minutes to eat the sandwiches I bring from home, so the rest of the half-hour breaks are spent writing. I bring in my netbook and just get to it. I have almost a full page written so far.

Once I get home, however, I spend the rest of my day watching Merlin on Netflix and working on a pixel-art I’m making for the cover picture of my main Facebook account. I suck at drawing – especially pixel-art which is surprisingly hard, and so it’s a week-long project. Now I just need to think of what to do for my cover picture for my Lyco Rogue FB account. *Sigh*

But in the meantime, here are my extended Author’s Notes. Be warned, this might be as long-winded as the A/N for my Valentine's Day Story. Mainly because – as some of my long-term readers might know – I like to sneak in a lot of subtle jokes and such in to my stories.

We’ll start off with the names in the story. As I stated in multiple previous A/N, since the writers for Hey Arnold! used name parodies throughout the series, I like to continue that tradition. The parodies aren’t meant to be too hard to figure out though, so I’m sure you were able to get that Vanessa’s Boudoir was supposed to be a take on Victoria's Secret. I even included Victoria’s signature pink polka dotted dog and turned it in to Vanessa’s purple striped cat. 

Now, I recently discovered that the dog plush DOES come in a variety of colors and patterns - including stripes - however, the most well known version of the dog is the one with polka dots:

Similarly, one of the shows Arnold watched during his insomnia was “Police” which is supposed to be a parody of the famous reality show “Cops”. The other shows he watched were all from the series itself. 

The last name parody was done in a similar manner as Mickey Kaline’s name. The name of Arnold’s favorite baseball player was created by taking the first and then last name of two Hall of Famers: Mickey Mantle and Al Kaline. Therefore, when I created the song Arnold danced with Helga to I wanted to come up with the singer’s name as well. Over a year ago I decided to merge together two famous singers from the golden age of music: Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, creating the singer Ella Holiday for my story. I felt using Fitzgerald’s and Holiday’s names would instill in the reader the bluesy, jazz, big band sound I wanted to come across for the song Arnold picked to dance with Helga. I’ll talk more about this song in a little bit.

Other names that showed up in the story were derived from the names of people involved in the series. The store Geek Bait being on Bartlett Ave. is a clear nod to Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett. Actually, I went to write a false street name and Bartlett Ave. wrote itself on the paper. I then went back and realized what I wrote! The name of the college Arnold is going to attend – Purdy University – relates back to one of the show’s writers Joseph Purdy. And the university being in Tuckerton hints at one of the show directors Tuck Tucker. Coach Aggie MacNeille’s name was birthed from two related sources. Tress MacNeille is the name of the voice actress who played Arnold’s Grandmother. I then took the first name of another famous character MacNeille voices: a character from The Simpsons, which was a show birthed from the mind of Craig Bartlett’s brother-in-law Matt Groening. On The Simpsons MacNeille is most notably the voice of Principal Skinner’s mother Agnes.

Now, aside from my Original Characters, there was one last person I named: Peapod Kid. As much fun as it is to keep him Peapod forever, it just felt more realistic to give the poor boy an actual name. Based on his looks and speech patterns, I wanted a more sophisticated name, but still being age-appropriate. With his premature deep voice and elevated language it just didn’t feel right to name him something like Josh, therefore I picked Xander. I was originally gonna go with Winston, but I couldn’t remember if there was one already on the show. Plus, Xander is frequently just the shortened form of Alexander, so it felt natural that he could have just as easily gone with Alex, but felt Xander was more his liking. I had also debated with Topher – short for Christopher – and Liam – short for William. Xander just FELT right though.

As for the OCs of this chapter, I admit I stole a little bit from life and the rest from The Big Bang Theory. For instance, Marco’s awkwardness around women is based on the character Raj who is incapable of speaking to women he’s attracted to – which is pretty much every woman except his mom and sister. I didn’t want Marco to be a complete rip-off, plus I needed him to talk to Robyn and around Beverly, which is why he’s toned down to just awkwardness. As for his looks, well, that’s basically the description of one of my husband’s close friends. The boy could be a true looker, but he doesn’t care enough to be one.

Janalee is very much like her The Big Bang Theory counterpart Amy. Amy is socially awkward and desperately tries to get Sheldon – who might as well be asexual – to like her. I thought that was a fun dynamic to play with in the Prom scene. She wasn’t originally like that. Originally she was based on a friend I had in college; in fact, this friend is Janalee’s namesake. However, after watching The Big Bang Theory nearly every night on TBS, the Amy personality crept in and it was too much fun to not keep.

When it comes to names themselves – aside from Janalee whose name was blatantly stolen – I followed suit when it came to the show. That is to say, names that weren’t terribly run-of-the-mill and yet more-or-less “normal” names. I think Hank and Rebecca were the most day-to-day names I came up with.

Speaking of which, for the girl sitting next to Arnold during graduation, I wanted something that would be reminiscent of Rhonda without it being as blatantly obvious as “Rhoda” – which I couldn’t use anyway since it was already used in the "Arnold Visits Arnie" episode. ChibiSunnie can attest to the fact that I was wavering with Rebecca. I didn’t think it was close enough to Rhonda, but I couldn’t think of anything better. She reassured me though:

“I like Rebecca--it's still an R name, but not crossing into that line of ‘too many coincidences, so it's no longer believable as a plausible thing in the real world’ as it would if you had something really similar to Rhonda like Rhoda. Plus, Rebecca is a really common name, so that further makes it believable that this coincidence would happen.”

We both agreed that having Rebecca be the rebellious punk/goth type also explained away the fact that she had the same black hair as Rhonda. So, yay!

As for the tipping point of Arnold’s tango in gym, I wanted his partner to be as similar to Helga as I could make her without it being too heavy handed. Basically, if the gym class incident occurred without any of the proceeding events, it would be believably coincidental. Luckily, I’m dealing with Helga and not Lila, because one is far more likely to find a bunch of blondes in high school than to find a group of redheads. Therefore, having Arnold’s dance partner be blonde wasn’t too hard to do. The trickiest part was for her to have a name that felt like the same style as Helga. Unfortunately, the show already had Hilda, so I couldn’t use that name. The only other thing I could think of was Heidi. Hope it felt the way I intended.

Finally, we have Middlerose. I honestly can’t recall how I came up with the name of the college town Arnold moved to. And it just hit me that I could have had Arnold go to the college I have Miles working at - most faculty students go free. Derp. Oh well, perhaps it just wasn't the "right fit" for Arnold, and he got scholarships so it doesn't matter. That sounds plausible, right?

Anyway, I just recall thinking I want something similar to Hillwood – very nature-centric – but still sounds like a town. With some thoughts thrown about I stumbled upon Middlerose and liked it.

Now for a bit more in-depth stuff.

Geek Bait was one of the hardest things for me. I wanted Arnold to hear the phrase “Geek Bait” – mainly for the song lyric “Every sound I hear is the sound of your voice”, but I couldn’t figure out how to put it in conversation. With a whole bunch of failed attempts I finally came up with it being the name of a store. I then wondered if it would be a comic book, video game, table-top game, LARP, or anime/manga store. After thinking of the different Farmer’s Markets/Indoor Flea Markets that pepper the area where I grew up, I decided that it would be cool to have a strip-mall like that which only included geeky things. Thus Geek Bait – the perpetual convention center – was born… and now I wish it were a real place. It sounds like heaven! Oh, and yes, Wednesdays ARE “New Comic Book” day, much like how Tuesdays are “New Movie Home Release” day and Fridays are “New Theatrical Release” day…

Moving on to the Prom scene, the way I described Janalee as well as Arnold’s mental image of Helga were based on how Helga dressed up in “Dinner for Four”; complete with the up-do and tiara. It just felt very Prom-like. Also, about the song…

I mentioned this in my A/N for my “Lady In Red” chapter, but I wanted to create a new song for my story since all the songs in the show were original. I certainly should NOT quit my day job… 
ever… 
when it comes to song writing. I’m a horrible poet which translates to horrible at writing songs. :P Either way, I based the song I wrote off of the styling of “One Fine Day” – the Natalie Merchant loungey version. Here’s a video using clips from Smallville that I quickly found. The black and white scenes – as well as similar scenes from Lois & Clark:The New Adventures of Superman – were the inspiration for the speakeasy description in both my “Lady in Red” chapter and my “Haunting Me” chapter.

Moving forward to Arnold’s breaking point in gym. First of all, since I missed stating so after the rooftop scene in the “Lady in Red” chapter, I want to state that my high school actually did teach formal dance. We learned Greek and Jewish wedding dances, Boot Scoot ‘N Boogie, The Bunny Hop, Tap, Ballet, and Tango.

In regards to so many girls liking Arnold in this chapter, I felt like I needed to cut the kid a break in the love department – especially after seeing all the fangirls squee over him. Poor Arnold spent his childhood with crush after crush and not a single girl liked him back. I just thought it would be fun to have all these girls pine over him and Arnold is all aloof because he’s unknowingly still in love with Helga.

*cue the “awww” *

Moving on to the finals section. The “inspirational cards” that Miles and Stella gifted Arnold were directly stolen from my own life. For my first ever high school finals, my mom gave me a few inspirational cards to try to help me stay positive. One in particular I still have and now tell a lot of my betas. DarkAngel1326 knows this quote well: “So many people believe in you; make sure you’re one of them.”

Trucking along to the graduation and you have a few more things ripped from my life. First was Middlerose’s school colors, which match those of my college. Then it was the concept of the guys all being in one school color and all the girls in the other. Also, my high school graduation robes truthfully resembled the cheap, plastic “cloth” that is used to make tablecloths for picnic tables. Finally, Hank and Robyn switching caps and the teachers raging over it. 

As we lined up for my high school graduation two of the “anarchist” students decided that they would show off their individuality by switching their caps. They were legitimately threatened with not being able to walk at graduation unless they switched back. 

Aside from figuring out how to get Geek Bait to work, and the actual dialogue associated with the Romeo and Juliet scene – the first draft of that conversation between Arnold and Hank was horrendous! The most challenging part was the epilogue where Arnold talks to Miles and Stella about traveling to Hillwood the very next day to visit Helga.

Originally, I had this very sweet epilogue where Miles and Stella understood and agreed to help Arnold out. They go to the airport and get him a flight on a 4pm plane to Hillwood and they all go home thinking they had one last morning together. But, alas, Arnold can’t sit still that long and decides – in the middle of the night while his parents are sleeping – to cash in the plane ticket and use the money to fund his cross country drive. The end.

Then Chibi burst my bubble on multiple things: mainly the fact that it’s silly to drive for two days straight rather than just wait for 16hrs and see Helga the next day. Plus, the random act of rebellion in regards to cashing in the plane ticket and leaving in the middle of the night like that. Usually Level-headed Arnold wouldn’t do either of those things.

Then I burst my own bubble by realizing something when I reread my first chapter to make sure everything came full-circle nicely. 

I discovered it didn’t.

I THOUGHT I had something to the effect of “Arnold should have just taken the plane…” only to discover this sentence: “…it was almost worth it for Arnold to have purchased the plane ticket.”

That’s right. Not “Take the plane” or “Keep the plane ticket” or something along those lines. In my first chapter I established that Arnold never even HAD the plane ticket in the first place. Whoops.

Back to the drawing board with the whole epilogue. Either that or I go back to my first chapter and retcon the whole thing – which was very tempting, believe me. I now understand why a lot of authors wait until their story is complete before publishing - even online, that way they don’t have to worry about plot holes like this. Especially, since I just remembered another one: Arnold’s graduation party.

I couldn’t figure out what to do with that. I didn’t want Miles and Stella to put all this time and money in to a graduation party – believe me, I know the money and effort that is put in to one of those, especially for an only child. I didn’t want all these family members to schedule to fly/drive out… only for the party to be cancelled because Arnold went on this journey. Also, as much as he loves Helga and wants to be with her… would he really ditch his own graduation party?

Besides that, if Miles and Stella were hosting, why would Arnold expect his grandparents to be home – as established in the first chapter...? 
*sigh* Dammit.
Wouldn’t they have flown out for the graduation? Then extended the stay for the party? They wouldn’t have to worry about the boarders since they all probably would tag along. And if Arnold’s grandparents DID fly out, and had returned home two days later, why didn’t Arnold just join them on the return flight? 

So since I shot myself in the foot with Arnold not having a plane ticket and expecting his grandparents home, I needed a reason for them to not attend the graduation. I didn’t touch upon it in the chapter, but I was gonna do so in the spin-off. 

Oh right! Quick reminder. This chapter became so epic that not everything I wanted in it could possibly fit - yes, 24page chapter and there was MORE I wanted to write! So I'm going to make a spin-off/companion story that turns each scene - i.e. The Prom or The Geek Bait scenes - in to its own full chapter. This way I can do more with my OCs - which will only appear in this chapter unless I revive them for Arnold's grad party - and can include the Robyn/Marco subplot I sort of glossed over.

Anyway, back to what I was saying about Phil and Gertie not attending Arnold's graduation...

Basically, I relied on my high school’s “invitation only” policy for graduation. To make sure there were enough seats, each student was only allowed three tickets. Meaning, three guests. This would make Arnold either mooch a ticket off of someone, or exclude a grandparent – and then there’s the boarders being left alone to worry about. So Arnold ends up donating his third ticket, Miles fails at videotaping the ceremony, and so Stella takes the camera and does a masterful job.

I then had his grandparents make up for the lack of attending by offering to throw the graduation party. Arnold wouldn’t have one for all his high school buddies, but he could attend theirs. Plus, this way the boarders and all the PS118 kids could attend Arnold’s celebration. I then pushed it back to July 4^th so they can have a combined party, and also so they could give Arnold time to attend his friends’ parties – even if he never actually does so.

Then we have the plot error I forgot about until now. In the first chapter, when Helga answers the door she asks Arnold what he’s doing in Hillwood – not expecting him at all in the summer because there are “no birthday visits". Since I hadn’t thought of the graduation parties I didn’t have Helga comment on that instead. Now knowing the whole Independence Day/Graduation party plot point I should have had Helga say “What are you doing here, Football Head? Your party isn’t for another month.” Or something along those lines.

Oh the temptation to retcon!

OK, well going back to Arnold’s traveling and how to fix that. If Arnold never had a plane ticket in the first place I had to figure out how Miles and Stella were gonna get themselves cross-country to Hillwood. Then Chibi and I thought “RV Roadtrip!” It’s just adventurous enough to fit The Shortman Clan. A week-long RV trip to see the sights as they traveled back to Hillwood. Everything was set. Although it might have been as much money and effort to put the trip together as it would a party, for some reason I don’t feel as guilty having Arnold skip out on it. Mainly because I decided Miles and Stella would take the trip anyway – no other way to get to Hillwood – and Arnold promises they can re-do the trip next summer, or at least enjoy the return trip together.

There! Took care of the graduation party, why Phil and Gertie weren’t at Arnold’s graduation, and the reason Arnold didn’t even have the stupid plane ticket in the first place. The last thing was why drive a beaten up pick-up instead of taking a bus or train – or Arnold paying for a plane ticket himself. I think I had those explained fairly well in the chapter, so I won’t repeat myself here.

My final comment on the chapter content itself relates to Arnold's realization that he can't just sit and wait to see Helga:

“When someone realizes they are in love, they don’t wait around to let the other person know!”

Dear lord, the first time I wrote that paragraph I nearly stole Harry’s full speech at the end of When Harry Met Sally.

Granted, the whole clip sort of relates to the story, but if you just want to jump to the speech I nearly plagiarized skip ahead to about 3 minutes in.

Come to think of it… my whole story is kind of a “When Harry Met Sally” crossover. Perhaps someday I’ll do a true “When Arnold Met Helga” story, but I bet there’s one already out there that is really good. If any of you know of such a story, feel free to link me to it, I’d love to read it.

So now we conclude this 3700 word A/N post by stating that this chapter was amazingly appropriately named. The damn thing haunted me for MONTHS. It started about August or September when I went to a club with a few girlfriends of mine and a cover band was playing – one of those Jukebox bands that could play a song from nearly any artist. And they start playing Stabbing Westward's "Haunting Me" – the song I used for this chapter, and the song I had picked out for this chapter since I started the story in August 2010! NO ONE EVEN REMEMBERS STABBING WESTWARD, let alone randomly hearing the song like that! It was very much a similar feeling to Arnold hearing the jazz song at the Prom – just not such an extreme reaction.

Then I start hearing “Life After You” on the radio again. The Daughtry song was the inspiration for the first chapter, and this story as a whole, but after 2010 I pretty much never heard it on the radio until September/October rolled around.

Then a bunch of new songs popped up on the radio that seemed desperate for me to make it in to its own chapter. Gavin DeGraw's "Not Over You" is one such song, another is the song I’m using as the parent to my next chapter – although the song is a year or two old, it has been on the radio a lot again lately.

When I was writing the insomnia/Babe Watch scene I was struck with my own bout of insomnia for the first time in my life… creeeeeeeepy!

Finally, while I was working on the gym/tango scene I saw a Master Card commercial about a traveling couple going out to tango the night away. That day was the first and only time I’ve seen that commercial…. CrEeEeEeEeEpY~!

So, needless to say, I’m beyond glad that I have the chapter figured out, done, and actually pieced together with but one tiny plot hole sneaking through. BOY was it a challenge to create this last chapter using what I gave myself to work with in the first chapter. 
Shot. 
Myself. 
In the foot….

Well, no more flashback chapters. The rest continue on where the first chapter left off. YAY, FULL CIRCLE!

Until next week, my friends. Same Place. Moderately Same Time. ^_^