Being Creative Without Writing

After the winners were announced for the Halloween themed contest, a comment was made that there would be a Christmas themed contest as well. Here we are, a week in to December, two weeks from Christmas, and there has been no further mention of the contest. I guess the idea was dropped.

This means December is a nice break from the frantic writing I did last month. As of yet I haven’t written another word for any sort of fiction. It’s a nice break, but it’s also a little sad that things are still on hold. This doesn’t mean I haven’t been creative, however, it just means it is through different mediums.

First up, ChibiSunnie and I are going to be working on a fan video together. Ever since I first heard the song “One More Night” by Maroon 5 I’ve had this nagging idea that it’s a perfect song for Curly and Rhonda. The problem though is that the song is too “mature” to use clips from the show. It’s almost mandatory to use images of Curly and Rhonda while they’re in their 20s. Alas, there are no such clips aside from a brief glimpse of Adult Rhonda in the episode “Married”. I thought I’d be able to put the thoughts of the music video out of my head since it’s impossible to piece it together. I thought I would maybe turn the idea in to a story instead. After all, that is how What Is Truly Meant To Be started out – an idea for a music video that I couldn’t make, so I wrote the first chapter instead. I then continued the idea so that each chapter is now basically a music video in prose form.

Yet, I still couldn’t get the music video out of my head whenever I heard the song. In fact, the video slowly developed more and more. That’s when Chibi volunteered to help me out with this task. She’d draw images that fit to the shots I had in my head, and then I’d edit them together as an animatic. How could I turn down this offer? Thing is, the offer came during my writing frenzy, so December was the first time I was able to actually start seriously thinking about it.

I’m maybe half way through the song, writing out detailed notes in the way of prose so Chibi can “see” the footage that’s in my head and then she can decide on the image(s) she wants to draw to fit. I already have a pencil sketch storyboard from Chibi. We’re booking through this project! However, the amount of time it will take for her to draw everything out and then the time needed for me to edit it all together; I’m assuming we won’t premier the video until the summer. We’ll see.

Anyway, the idea is to have our video play out sort of like this Maroon 5 animatic video for "Payphone":

Sorry, this video is the original lyrics, not the clean radio edit... :-/

There’s more creativity this month than just that. Namely my Christmas gifts. Hubby and I have so little expendable cash; even $5 for a gift feels like a lot to us once multiplied by the amount of people we want to give gifts to. I thought we weren’t going to be able to give anyone anything, but then I found my tote of yarn. When I say tote, I mean one of those 35 gallon totes overstuffed with spools of yarn. For a little while about four years back I was addicted to buying spools of yarn simply because I liked the color. After finding the tote I decided I would crochet gifts for Christmas. It won’t cost anything besides my time.

Oh boy, will it take time! I’m not done with my first craft yet and I’ve already spent about fourteen hours on it. Basically, while Hubby is playing Fable III or while we’re watching our Prime Time shows I’m on the couch crocheting. I’m getting so stiff, and the craft I’m working on now isn’t coming out quite how I had planned. But hopefully the labors of love will be recognized. I know that one of my favorite childhood Christmases was the one where my parents made all of our gifts due to a similar problem Hubby and I are in this year.

All of this isn’t to say that I’m not writing this month. The likelihood of me doing any significant writing is slim, but it’s not impossible. I did open up chapter 8 to reread what I’ve written so far, as well as tweak a thing or two so it’s at least edited and ready. While I’m on break at work this month I might manage a little more of the chapter in 15min spurts.

I also have had Omnibladestrike’s latest chapter sitting in my email for about two or three weeks now. He patiently waited for me to finish up NaNo, but now the poor guy is on hold because of the above projects. I’ll most likely edit his story first before continuing on my own chapter, so I’ll keep you guys posted on that.

Before I leave, though, I want to share one more thing in regards to my story. Early this week Chibi finished off yet another piece of fanart! She skipped over chapter 4 because she was just too excited about drawing this scene. I absolutely love the fanart she’s done, and she’s got plenty more planned! 

The best part? Check out that redhead by Patty on the left side. Does she look familiar? I’ll give you a hint:

Yup! Chibi totally included me in the crowd! So awesome!

CHIBI, HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT YOU ARE TOTAL AWESOME SAUCE!? CUZ YOU ARE!!! :D