So I posted my last update super late again, but this time
it wasn’t because I was slacking on my posting of the chapter. I had both of my
new chapters up at about 11am. This meant I had an hour to post my weekly
update here. That should be plenty of time for normal bloggers. Not so much for
me since I’m so long-winded. However, since I’ve been writing these diary
entries at the end of each day all I had to do was copy from Word and paste
here on Blogger.
And then all hell broke loose.
Ever since January’s start of the weekly updates and new
formatting I’ve instituted, I’ve been slowly learning HTML code. For almost a
month now I’ve been writing only exclusively in HTML because it was easier and
faster to write the code ahead of time; instead of going back through and finding
all the places to add all my links and all of those yellow underlines so you get more info when
hovering over with your mouse. For about a month this tactic worked. I thought
I was slowly mastering HTML.
Boy, was I ever wrong! This past week when I tried posting
everything I wrote at least half of it got erased because some line in one of
the codes was off, and everything written after that bad code got deleted. I
battled for almost four hours – Hubby sleepily rubbing my back to help calm me
– before finally getting the post up. Didn’t even bother announcing
via twitter or my Facebook account.
I was too ticked and I didn’t have time. I was already running late for work.
By the time I got home, celestialTyrant was hanging out with Hubby and we
stayed up until 11pm playing Super Mario Bros. Wii. So, the day that is
normally fantastic for my writing availability ends up being a day I crash my
writing streak. *sigh*
NOVEMBER 12TH – MONDAY
Hubby coerced me in to watching Highschool of the Dead
before work. So there goes three-some hours I watched TV instead of writing. I
then did my shift, which ended up being longer than it’s supposed to be because
no one else took out trash the entire work day and so the trash bags were piled
up higher than the container could handle, and the bags were stuffed heavier
than they could handle, so I’m doing a balancing act trying to get these bags
to the back. Meanwhile, at least two bags ripped on me when I tried to lift
them. Awesome.
By the time I got home all I wanted was a shower, late night
dinner, and watch my Monday night shows.
Therefore, I go from a super-awesome writing streak to yet
again going days without writing. I need to seriously tweak some things in my
life if I’m going to get a proper writing rhythm down.
NOVEMBER 13TH – TUESDAY
After wasting my Monday evening checking in on Facebook and
DeviantArt in search for the winners of the Hey Arnold Halloween contest, I
started off the day nervously checking once more.
Sadly, as predicted – especially catching all those stupid
typos – I didn’t even place. I’m hoping to one day read all the other entrants
in the contest, since I’ve now seen all the pictures entered. Sadly,
ChibiSunnie didn’t place with her picture, which I thought showed so much more
attention to detail and creativity than any of the other drawings – no offense to
the other contestants. However, the winner and runner up were very well
executed in their own right. I think they demonstrated more mastery over the
art than Chibi – cleaner; more polished.
Here’s the runner up:
And here’s the winner:
And here’s a refresher on what Chibi’s looks like:
Although Chibi didn’t place with her picture, she still took
SECOND PLACE WITH HER STORY! XD Hazzah!
For a girl who claimed she couldn’t write prose; for a girl
who never wrote prose outside of school work; for a girl who never wrote any
fanfiction before; for that girl to get second place WHEN I DIDN’T PLACE AT
ALL…. now THAT is saying something! And it should be saying it pretty loud and
clear to all of you self-doubting writers.
NEVER DOUBT YOUR SKILL TO TELL A COMPELLING STORY!!!!
You
are always going to be your worst critique and doubt how good you are. However,
you’ll never truly know until you get those words out there and see how people
react to it.
SO STOP DOUBTING YOURSELF YOU SILLY PEOPLE!
Also… this story holds the lesson of
“LISTEN TO ME WHEN I
TELL YOU THAT YOU’RE GOOD, DANG IT!” :-D
Yes, that goes for ALL my writers – as well as my readers
here that might also write, but haven’t let me know so I could read their
works. *hint, hint*
But there’s also a flipside to this lesson. And that is how
to bounce back from rejection.
Yes, I was “graded” by “my peers” – the administrators of
the Save The Jungle Movie Hey Arnold group – and not a publisher or
professional editor. Yes, my career didn’t sink or swim with this contest. Yes,
my story wouldn’t be “otherwise published” or “made money” if I had won. And
finally, No, Craig Bartlett – the show’s creator – was not a “secret guest
judge” for the contest and therefore my lack of winning was not him telling me
that I suck at writing episodic-style stories. So, aside from not getting my
name announced and not receiving the autographed book – which I would have
given to Chibi anyway if we actually did collab on her gourd scarecrow story –
nothing changed in my world.
But not winning still stings. Knowing that at least two
other stories were better than mine – when I only know
of five submitted stories total, including mine – is a bitter taste. Although
having my name announced as a winner isn’t a groundbreaking achievement, it
still could have been. My name could have finally been out there as a fanfic
writer. I could have actually gotten more of a following. And there’s that
nagging “what could I have done better if I had time to proofread” question –
as well as the “should I have gone with one of the seven other ideas bouncing in
my head” quandary.
I’ll admit that I tried to psych myself up. I tried to tell
myself to just focus on my NaNo story now that I knew the results. I tried to
tell myself that it didn’t really matter because I still have a faithful
following regardless. I tried to tell myself that I could just start breeding
plotbunnies for the Christmas contest coming up next month. Yet I still got in
my writing funk and couldn’t shake it. Rejection – no matter how tiny – stings
and all writers have to learn how to deal with it in their own right.
But enough moping! I say we celebrate those who properly
beat me out of my prize!
Well, now that I’ve done almost an entire blog post just about the contest…. Let’s get back to the NaNo updates, shall we?
As I mentioned above, I was in a funk. I TRIED to concentrate on my NaNo story,
but I just couldn’t really get in the mood to write. I punched out about 600
words – which is better than the NOTHING I’ve done the previous two days – and
then stalled.
Part of the stall, however wasn’t because of the funk. It’s
because I got to a part where I need to write a prophecy. I know prophecies
tend to have significant years and that certain significant events usually
occur on significant anniversaries of other significant events. All this said;
I went to my handy dandy word document where I wrote down the backstory
timeline of the world of Albion – well, the current era of Albion at least. But
as I read through it I realized I based my dates too much on the ages I wanted
key players to be when main events happened, but didn’t put any thought in the
years between the events. For instance, the events of the main story take place
73 years after the main villain is born, 33 years after the cornerstone event,
and 26 years after the main antagonist is born. These main events should
definitely have more of a significance in the years passed between them. I
tweaked and tweaked and tweaked for about two hours and still wasn’t content in
how everything turned out. Such a waste of a day!
NOVEMBER 14TH – WEDNESDAY
I just could NOT get started on my writing again until I had
that timeline figured out. It was driving me bonkers! Working and re-working
the timeline in my word document just wasn’t working. I needed something more
visual than that.
So I got some of the multi-part continuous printer paper
that we have stored with our D&D resources. I only had four sheets to work
with, so I divided the full sheet in to four rows
and 27 columns – each column just barely wide enough for half a sticky note.
Although I knew most spaces would be blank, some of the events were moveable by
a single year or two, so I needed exactly the count of 100 years. I then wrote
down all of the important points of the backstory on half-widths of sticky
note, and proceeded to place them on my gridded out timeline.
I started with the timeline I had after fussing with it
yesterday. I then tweaked and adjusted so years were more significant to each
other and people didn’t seem insanely old in the grand scheme of things.
Creating world backstory is HARD WORK! Sheesh.
The construction of the grid, plus writing out the events,
and shifting everything until I was satisfied took a total of about two hours! Either
way, I feel accomplished and I think this visual representation was a LOT
easier for me to navigate so I could progress faster. I’ll have to keep that in
mind for future endeavors – although I sort of always knew that… I mean, I need
to stop and draw nearly every character I’ve ever created to get them fully in
my head. Same for house layouts. When I did the Halloween story last month I
stopped for a few hours so I could research normal layouts for rowhouses, then
take the rough layout of the Pataki home – which ALWAYS changes if you pay
attention, I don’t think even the creators knew the layout – and finally
compiled my own layout for the Old McKinney house. Even though the reader
didn’t really know much of the layout, *I* needed to in order to continue my
writing. u_u boy am I pathetic…. :-P
Well, I sat waiting for Hubby at work – similar to what I’m
forced to do on Sundays when he does the price changes – and in my two hour
wait I managed to finish off chapter 4. So even if I’m still over 9000 words behind, I’m at least hitting my secondary goal of
at least one chapter completed each week. It’s only Wednesday, though. Perhaps
I can get a second one done again.
NOVEMBER 15TH – THURSDAY
Once a year in November, Americans quit tobacco use for at
least 24-hours in an attempt to have it kickstart a lifetime of being tobacco
free. As the Wellness Champ of my store, one of my job duties required me to do
SOMETHING to promote the day. Thus I spent about four hours of my own time to
organize. That’s my OWN TIME, unpaid, at home, while CT was visiting last
night. I put together Quit Kits with a whole bunch of information and goodies
for people attempting to quit today, I made a promotional poster, and I
“laminated” some anti-smoking posters using transparent contact paper. This
resulted in me listening to the guys while they played Mario Party 8, but I
couldn’t join in… :-( It also resulted in me not writing another word for the
rest of the night. So add another 400 to the tally of how far behind I am.
As for today, I woke up bright and early to get ready –
dressed professionally and whatnot. I set up one of those sample carts they
have at grocery stores; I plastered it with the anti-smoking promotional
posters and the Quit Kits. I called it the “Propaganda Cart”. I then stood by
Customer Service all day while every single smoking employee avoided me like
the plague. I did give away seven of those Quit Kits to customers, so I guess
it wasn’t a total wash.
By the time Hubby and I both finished with work, did some
quick shopping, and picked up Chinese food – Hubby had a craving and some extra
cash in his paycheck - it was roughly seven when we got home. We ate dinner,
watched our Thursday shows, and I didn’t write a friggen word! So much for
catching up.
NOVEMBER 16TH – FRIDAY
Both Hubby and I had to be at work bright and early today,
but I did notice before heading in that I had a Facebook message from one of
the admins of the Hey Arnold group that hosted the Halloween contest. She sent
me the grade sheets five of the admins filled out for my story; even
though PinkLotus27 kept saying there were nine judges. Unfortunately, I had to wait until I got back home
at about four before I could see what I got. I averaged out to having roughly
an 84% on my story. Not too shabby in the grand scheme of things, but still not
good enough to have placed. Now I’m super curious what Chibi got for her story,
as well as what she and Chopfe got on their drawings.
The thing that really got me though were the conflicting
comments. How am I supposed to improve on stuff like that? Some people told me
that everyone was in character for the most part, but I slid Arnold out of
character a little here and there – which I’m inclined to believe; I’m horrible
with keeping the stupid football head in character. Others told me that I had
everyone dead on the entire time and that it was like they were reading an
episode. Then there were some comments stating that I did the transitions
perfectly, and others who said they were a bit “robotic” and “rushed” –
whatever that means.
Another thing that got me was that I lost points in
originality! The main reason why? Because I purposely wrote the story to play
out like an episode. I ended up losing points in originality because of that!
One of the judges even commented that I lost originality points because I wrote
an urban legend which “has been done”…. Um… the rules said “Halloween-themed,
ghost story, or URBAND LEGEND”. Since I purposely avoided them doing something
on Halloween specifically – a refreshing twist I would think – I therefore HAD
to do either a ghost story or urban legend in order to fit the criteria. I then
lost points for it? Worst part? I thought my story was a GHOST STORY and not an
urban legend at all. :-P
I do have to say though, that Hubby was adorable. Yeah, I
was a bit bummed out when I saw exactly what my marks were – and the comments
that went with them. However, I tried shaking it off. Again, this is an
inconsequential fandom contest. If I can’t brush off this “rejection” how can I
handle publishers telling me no? Hubby on the other hand – who hasn’t read the
story yet, mind you – started raging. “What are these people’s criteria for
judging? Why is grammar part of the grading when most of these people speak
Spanish? How can some of them say something like ‘You did great with your
transitions,’ and then give you 14 out of 20 in that category? It makes no
sense! How can they possibly think your story wasn’t original? Who else thought
to write like an episode? That’s unique!” The overly protective and defensive
comments continued. I think he got more riled up than I did. I kept trying to
remind him that he hadn’t read the story yet and so most of the comments COULD
be very valid, but he wasn’t hearing that. He’s adorable and I love his
support!
Anyway, after the Contest Grading Raging, Hubby and I
quickly got ready for our Vampire LARP. I personally wanted to skip it since I
was still so far behind on my NaNo writing, but we haven’t played in about
three weeks, and since I was in the fight scene we were finishing today if I
didn’t attend I would sort of screw it up for everybody. Especially seeing as
how “everybody” ended up being Hubby, his BFF who runs the game, and Omnibladestrike.
There was no way they’d be able to do anything with any fewer players.
Considering the last time we played I sat around twiddling
my thumbs for about an hour or so while we were waiting on Omni to show up –
time I COULD have spent working on that Halloween story – I decided to bring my
netbook with me this time. Perhaps I could get some writing done.
Nope. For the first time like…. EVER… when it came to LARP
we actually started up more-or-less on time. Yes, we again had to wait on Omni,
but BFF had something planned for one-on-one with my character and his, so we
just played that out.
I did manage to type out forty words before he decided to do
that quick scene…. So I got SOMETHING typed today. Does that count?
NOVEMBER 17TH – SATURDAY
Another semi-worthless day.
Did my normal wake up early for work thing. Got out of work
super early – 11:30am – and hung out with Hubby and the guys. If you haven’t
noticed, it’s now become a thing for the guys to crash my home on Saturdays.
Since Cyhyr and her boyfriend can no longer make their weekly Monday visits
it’s nice to have this new weekly social get together – even if I miss out on a
lot of it due to work and them playing Magic.
Anyway, I caught up on my massive amount of Facebook
notifications – since I hadn’t checked FB since reading the grade sheets – ate,
and waited around downstairs for a little bit. Since Omni and CT were both at
the house we were gonna continue our Super Mario Bros. Wii game and try to beat
it today. Instead they Magic-ed.
At about 1:30 I gave up and went upstairs to write. I
managed a little over 900 words before passing out. Whoops. Well, fully refreshed,
I woke up when I got called back downstairs so we could play Mario. That lasted
until about 11pm. OMG, I’m so awesome with this “Don’t be sociable for just one
month; just write, everyone will understand” thing, aren’t I? :-P So….. yeah….
So much for catching up on that word count today as well.
NOVEMBER 18TH – SUNDAY
Alright, so, admittingly, considering how long this one post
is, if I did give up on the diary blogging and just stayed offline throughout
November – like I do in April – I probably would be a lot farther in my story.
I just spent an hour updating this blog post, and I’ll probably spend another
hour fighting with the formatting like I did last week.
Anyway, I had a sandwich and a nearly-full mug of coffee
chillin’ next to me first thing this morning. So I once again attempted to
conquer my story. Especially since this boring thing is four chapters down and
STILL in the exposition phase. We haven’t even started the epic tale of them
searching for the jewel shards, meeting the antagonist,
or finding out the secrets of Connor’s past.
I did manage to at least tear through today’s 1667 words
while I was awake via shots of my mug of coffee. Woke up at 2am to bring Hubby
in to work and have been up since! Sheesh! To be fair, though, between this blog
update and a lot of time doing more research – I really need to stop doing that
- I only wrote for about two to three hours in the six I had available. Still,
that just demonstrates that if I get my act together and find two uninterrupted
hours I should be able to at least avoid falling farther behind. I mean, if I
keep up the pace of 1667 words per day from now on out I’ll only hit 33,487
words, but it’s better than stopping at my current 16,513… right?
I’m just super nervous about this upcoming week. The house
is a disaster. There’s crap EVERYWHERE. The dishes are all in the sink. So I
have at least one full day of cleaning to do, but I’m working every day until
Friday – yup, that includes working Thanksgiving. We’re hosting Thanksgiving on
Wednesday, which means I have Monday and Tuesday to clean – like THAT’S gonna
happen! @_@ We also need to fold and put away laundry as well as packing for
our trip to PA for Thanksgiving with my family. We’re going to attempt to head
down to PA after I’m done with work on Thursday. We’ll probably miss the
Thanksgiving dinner my mom is making, but we can have leftovers! Then I’ll
spend time with my family on Friday and probably won’t have any writing time.
Saturday is the extended family Thanksgiving gathering. Sunday we’re heading
home. That’s pretty much an entire week that I don’t foresee any writing time!
I’m hoping to at least finish Chapter 5 so I have that new chapter for you
folks next Sunday, but who knows.
So, I guess I just need you guys to wish me luck and we’ll
see how well I do next week.
For my fellow Americans – I sound like such a politician – I
wish you a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving.
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