Happy Birthday to Me!

Tis my 28th birthday today! Whoo! ^_^

So sorry I didn't update yesterday. Mommy and Sis were visiting over the weekend for my b'day and prior to that I was cleaning the house so I haven't really been on the internet since Thursday. Plus I wanted to purposely wait until today for one key thing:

MY BIRTHDAY CARDS FROM CHIBISUNNIE AND CARTOONLOVER16!!!! <3

Chibi drew me as a HA! character with my favorite characters throwing me a party! Whoot!

I look so goofy! XD Like a Dr. Seuss character or something! HAHA!

I feel so special! I love my cards! I see other people get cards on DeviantArt for their birthdays, but this is the first year I got any cards and they are awesome! <3

I knew Chibi was drawing something for me - she asked a bunch of questions to best figure out how to draw me, but I didn't know CL16 was going to draw something for me. So I was excitedly waiting for Chibi's picture, and then pleasantly surprised by CL16's. ^_^ YAY!

Then I go on to Facebook and get a message from DarkAngel1326 letting me know that I had four gifts coming my way! The first gift was a little scene that she wrote me based on something we were joking about when talking about ideas for her one story Keep Love In Your Heart. I had told her that my deceased dad would "visit" by messing with electronics in the house, so we joked about Arnold thinking his loved one was "visiting" and would therefore profess his love to the electronic. Sooooo, my first gift was a scene about Arnold professing his love to a toaster while hugging it to his chest... only to be caught by his parents! It was kinda fluffy and super funny! I'm so proud of my lovely DA! <3

My second gift from DA1326 was the first volume of the Familiar of Zero novel. I don't have the time to read it yet, but it looks awesome and she hopes it will help with my crossover that I started during the writing challenge. ^_^

She wanted to "perfect" the next two gifts before sending them to me. So she started off with the following hint...

Me thinks Arnold is figuring something out!

A few hours later I finally got gift number 3:

EEEEE! XD <3 My favorite scene in the series!!!!

Still waiting on gift number 4... But I'm about to explode with excitement! ^_^

Mommy also got me a whole bunch of Muppets stuff and made me an ice cream cake so I got a whole bunch of good stuff! YAY!

As for the writing.... well... not such good stuff.

As I said, I wasn't able to write anything over the weekend because my family was visiting. Prior to that I was on a cleaning frenzy. Due to the daily writing challenge I was working on, I was completely avoiding all household chores... soooooooo.... yeah, my house was a sty.

Also, I had something pretty kick butt thought up for Day 16's "When Worlds Collide" - only for my computer to derp up and completely lose the file; even though I was frequently saving. Q_Q So I sort of rage-quit the challenge....

Anyway, I debated picking back up the challenge tomorrow and just punch out days 24 through 31 daily. However, the drabbles will be posted on my fanfiction story in order, so if any of the story ideas end up being related I'd rather just do them in order. So I'm probably going to continue on hiatus until August and just restart up at that point... OOOOR, I will start back up tomorrow, but back on day 15. *shrug* Still not sure yet.

Well, my 27th year was a good one for writing, so let's see together if Age 28 will be even better! ^_^ YAY!

The Creativity Well is Drying Up

It’s been really hot lately, and aside from a few drizzles, we haven’t had any rain since Independence Day. The best part of that is I don’t even know if my town got the rain. Hubby and I were visiting a friend for the holiday and he lives about forty-five minutes away. And even so, the rain only seemed to last the ten minutes it kept me to walk back to his house after picking up drinks from the gas station. Hubby felt horrible about sending me out for the drinks, but I actually quite enjoyed the refreshment of the rain… plus my clothes weren’t soaked, so I was still able to comfortably sit around our friend’s house.

Anyway, my point is that my yard isn’t the only thing drying up. I’ve had a few different times where I had to skip over the daily prompt because I just couldn’t think of anything. The first day I had to do this was for last week’s prompt of “Serenades in the Moonlight.” I had written a couple of scenes in “What Is Truly Meant To Be” where Helga is serenaded in the moonlight, and so I couldn’t think of anything new. In the end I ended up posting the opening of my fifth chapter. So that’s the first prompt I have to go back and do eventually.

The second prompt was from this week: “Shooting Star”. Again, I wrote a scene in WITMTB where Helga is watching a meteor shower, and then there is the story I wrote for Valentine’s day 2011. “I Caught You a Star” is only two chapters long, and both consist of Arnold and Helga watching a meteor shower. I didn’t want to go literal with the shooting star thing after three scenes where I did just that. I had a few other ideas on mind, using shooting star as a metaphor; I just couldn’t get them to work. After talking to DarkAngel1326 I helped her figure out her prompt, and she helped me think of an idea. I’ll once again be doing a literal “watching a shooting star,” but it will be with a new character and a lot more emotional I think. I just didn’t have the time to sit down and write it before the deadline.

I also have the prompt “Of Blood and Honor” where I started writing a continuation of my “Spellbound” prompt, but I started the action way too ahead of the scene I wanted. In the 24hr-writing timeframe allotted by the challenge, I didn’t have enough time to actually get to the scene where “Of Blood and Honor” would be evident. I ended up posting what I did have, but the scene has nothing to do with the prompt that birthed it. Soooo that’s another one I need to go back and work on. I already started, but Arnold’s voice seems horribly off. I’m probably going to reboot my reboot.

Besides all of the missed prompts, I don’t really think that the stories I wrote this week were as good as the ones I did last week. So I’m a little “eh” about everything. Then there is the X-Men RP that Hubby set up. I haven’t really done anything on there since I started the daily challenge, but then again no one else has really been on either. This is the downside of his friends. They get really excited about a game, get really in to it for a couple sessions, and then they fizzle out. The ones that were super excited and still super involved in the game also couldn’t play. One has been crazy with work, and the other just moved.

Regardless, I haven’t really been inspired to do anything with either of my characters – that is, except for designing them more. I spent about four hours in Photoshop messing around with creating the dolls. I’ve also worked more on designing the floorplan of the Xavier Institute based on how Hubby shifted things around for our game.

But let’s get back to writing. I mean, that IS what this blog is about and what you guys care about.

Well, recently my mom again teased me on Facebook about needing to get started with using my talent. I told her that I was: the daily challenge. She made some other comment about how good of a writer I am, blah, blah, blah. Then I teased that she couldn’t possibly know that since she hasn’t actually read anything I’ve written since middle school. She complained that it was because in high school I wrote all these dark, gruesome horror stories. To which I stated that I’ve been all happy and fluffy since I met my husband, and so I haven’t written a dark story in about a decade. I then sent my mom the link to my FanFiction profile. She claimed she was going to read my stuff, but she hasn’t said anything yet. Who knows if she’s read anything. *shrug*

However, if YOU, dear reader, want to read the stories I've written for the July Daily Challenge, you can find them all here. The only exception is of course Day 12 since I wasn't going to post an entire 2-chapter story... You can find that here.

And if you prefer to read my works on DeviantArt, you can find them all here.

Now to keep myself busy with today's challenge and cleaning my house to get ready for my mom and sister visiting this upcoming weekend!

Writing Spirit Renewed

Behold the power of the Daily Challenge!

I go from two weeks in a row where I am not inspired in the least and haven’t written a single word to a week where I am spending most of my free time writing!

Last month the Hey Arnold Creative Ideas group on facebook presented a 15-day challenge. Every day a new art theme was presented and everyone participating had 24hours to draw something Hey Arnold related using that day’s theme.

Now, I have difficulties drawing stick figures, so I clearly wasn’t going to participate in the drawing daily challenge, but I really wanted to.

Then comes an announcement that there will be a writing daily challenge for the month of July. Now THAT I could participate in! No whining about Writer’s Block! Who knows when I’d have an opportunity like this again? I was going to participate!

Not only do I post "on time" on my DeviantArt account, but I also then post in an anthology that I created specifically for this challenge. Every day I update with a new "chapter" - each chapter is the previous day's writing prompt. So feel free to follow along! ^_^

So far - aside from a hiccup on the sixth where I just couldn't think of anything - it’s going much better than Script Frenzy, and I think that’s because of four reasons:

1. There is something new to write about each day. I don’t have to sit and think of a long story – as naturally as that comes to me. Instead I can just sit for an hour, write a little blurb, and be done with the challenge for the day. Granted, it's been more like "Write for 20minutes at a time throughout the day and write 3000 words" but you get my point... Plus, the new daily topics keep me from getting bored with what I’m writing.
2. I actually know of others participating and I get to read what they wrote every day. It’s great to see what others come up with, see their stylings, and it’s a fun way to relax: just sit and read short fanfiction. The stories that are coming out of this challenge are so awesome! It makes me super excited to see what other people are going to post next.
3. Because this large community is all participating and posting daily, that puts pressure on me to continue participating and posting daily. Granted, no one is going to be “You suck! You quitter!” – it actually goes more along the lines of “Awww, it’s too bad you didn’t continue…” but still. However, reading everyone’s positive feedback and writing “I can’t wait to see what you come up with next” is such an addicting feeling. I need more of this in my life when it comes to writing – and especially when it comes to exercising!
4. Finally, I find it easier to continue with this because my oh so darling DarkAngel1326 is the one who is in charge of the challenge. She randomly selects writing prompts from a LiveJournal post and then sends the prompts our way. She then gets gloriously and ironically stuck on what to write and is usually one of the last people to post something – so it’s fun to encourage her on the day to day. Which means that if I’m poking at her to write I can’t be a hypocrite and I need to write alongside her – which brings us back to point number 3.

So I have been on a bit of a writing frenzy and it's all thanks to DA1326! Another thing that's thanks to her is my new catchphrase: Tsunami of Awesomeness!

On the third she was going on and on about how great my stuff was and how hers blew in comparison. Obviously I didn't agree with her, but that's our way. ^_^ So in our "argument" we had this little banter:

DarkAngel: "I think [I have an idea that's] kinda original, but, at the rate you're going, you'll blow me out of the water."

Me: "I'm sure I won't blow you out of the water..."

DarkAngel: "You're right. You won't blow me out of the water. You'll create a tsunami of awesomeness and drown me out with your amazing prose."

XD DA, you're just too cute and I'll glomp you if I ever meet you in person! <3

I've also met a new buddy thanks to the challenge. Seems our little writing community has a "Pay It Forward" policy... I beta for DA, she then offered to beta for Angelblood666 - I'll get back to him in a second - and HE offered to beta for someone in the Creative Ideas group I mentioned above. I'm sure in a month or two she'll offer to beta for someone else, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, back to AB666. He and DA have been chatting a lot, and she offered to beta for him. Apparently, throughout their numerous daily talks my name comes up time and again - and with strong encouragement to read my works! *blush* So AB finally reads what I have and gives me these rave reviews each time!

I then see that DA posted my Daily Challenge "entry" in the Creative Ideas group for everyone there to see. This I should be doing myself, but it feels weird for me to promote myself like that. Even when people leave the "What fanfiction should I read" question I NEVER mention my own works - I'd prefer others saying "You should check this out!" Anyway, so she posted my story and here comes AB with yet another shining review!

We then started talking via the facebook group and the next thing you know, we're in each other's heads. For the July 7th prompt he almost wrote a story that would have closely resembled mine, and I nearly wrote one that would have matched his!

He really is a sweetheart and a great writer. He's new to the game and needs lots of encouragement, so go check out his stuff and let him know what you think. Here, I'll even link you to his page again.

So there is lots of "win" going on with this challenge.

• I'm writing again, and consistently.
• I'm excited about writing again!
• I may not be updating "What Is Truly Meant To Be", but I AM updating daily for my readers.
• I'm slowly learning how to write Drabbles.
• I'm getting daily Writer's High from all the kind reviews of my stuff.
• More people are discovering my writing thanks to DarkAngel posting it in the Facebook group.
• I'm challenging myself even more than the challenge itself because I'm purposely trying to think outside the box - that way I can avoid writing something similar to what everyone else will write. It's fun to add to the challenge, as well as fun to write for characters I never would have thought of if I just went with my original instincts of Helga and Arnold. I AM writing a lot of stories using the Johannson family though....
• I'm making new friends!

Speaking of which... I'm also becoming stronger friends with CartoonLover16. I'm not sure if it was because of my post a few weeks back, but he's become very vocal lately and I love it! He comments all the time here and on my stuff on DeviantArt. He also has three more drawings featuring my avatar.

I again seem a touch scary here... hehe

HAHA! Yes! And I AM surrounded by freaks on a nearly daily basis! XD

But I think this one is my favorite:

HAHA, I love my expression! That's so me! XD

Personally I think he's getting better, don't you?

The only thing left to talk about is the X-Men RPG Hubby started up a few weeks back. Every now and again we get a small group of us on at the same time and we have some great fun, but for the most part it's been kind of dead this week. People have work, or don't know if they can handle the RP on a forum, and I have the writing challenge. 

Still, the "crazy antics" that we DO put our characters through makes me want to turn it all in to a comic series. I just need someone who is capable and willing to draw out the scenes as I convert them in to a script. ^_^ Any takers? HAHA!

Well, until next week!

Why Am I Bothering?

Well, as predicted, not terribly too much happened by way of writing. I'm gonna try to get better at that this month.

The car drama came full circle:

• Car problem was an easy fix
• Car problem is gonna take $200 to fix
• Car can't be fixed for another week
• Car gets fixed with a simple hose replacement for free
• Car runs fine until I'm at Mom's
• Car's "Check Engine Light" comes back on....

Well, it at least survived the four-hour drive back home and it's not stalling every time it goes idle, so it will have to do for a little bit. Hubby did win some money when we all went to the casino by my mom, so we at least have the money to fix the car - hopefully. ^_^

I then got super cranky because Writer's Block hit so hard that I couldn't even finish roleplaying one night... I literally just put the computer away, turned to Hubby, and said "I can't think of anything".

Since then, I'm still a little iffy when it comes to creativity, but I'm at least doing SOME roleplaying, which means SOME creative writing. It's a start, right? I also finally decided on enough stuff about my secondary character that I could start roleplaying with her, and as of right now she's sort of my primary - since I can have some fun with her.

I also spent the week working more on the visual aspects of the game to help everyone better understand where everything is.

And unfortunately, that is all I have for this week... Here's hoping I have more to talk about next week, these short blogs are getting kinda lame. :P


Fun little side note: I surpassed 2000 hits this week. That's kinda cool considering that means 1000 hits in like 3 months. ^_^