All the Zeros!!!!

Define Irony: After deciding to push harder to avoid "Zero Days"; having an entire week of them....

I'm not entirely sure what happened. I'm not entirely sure where this week went. I didn't have too many work hours this week. I did cleaning, but not as extensively as I would have liked. I played video games a bit again this week, but it was for maybe a grand total of three hours all week long. I barely watched any TV since I'm not big in to the Olympics - I know, I'm like the only person on the planet - and so all of my normal shows were reruns.

The only justification I have was that I was reading. Even so... where did the week go!?

As I was falling asleep on Friday I had a nice long mental interaction between Lia and Ripley, so yesterday morning when I was waiting to start my shift - I got my schedule screwed up and showed up a half-hour early - I wrote. Broke out the "Lia" journal for the full half-hour; writing with no trouble. The conversation is far from done, and so if I can kick this sluggish fog my head is in I'll work on that some more today.

But that and the work on this post is all the writing I've done. How did that happen!?

Ronoxym had been pulling a lot of 14-hr days this week, and so he's been drained too. Since he has yet to continue Devon's side of the collab story, I haven't even worked on that. I feel like the gang is also waiting for me to continue on the forum, but neither Lia nor I know how to respond to what's posted... and so I keep tapping my pen on the table and ponder.

The closest I've come to doing anything constructive - aside from that blip I started working on yesterday morning - was typing up another Snippet. Even so, I didn't do much writing. I had already written it as a solo-session on the forum about mid-January. I went back to re-read it to see if I could think of anything to do with Trish; since I haven't played her in about a month. I enjoyed the story enough to drop it in to the Snippets anthology with a few tweaks. Sure, editing it and messing with the formatting on both FanFiction and DeviantArt kept me about two hours, but there really wasn't any active writing involved.

Still, if you'd like to read - and haven't yet - here are the links:
"Confessions" on DeviantArt
"Confessions" on FanFiction

Oh, and anyone who read the story on DeviantArt and was wondering, yes, druidlockcooke is Ronoxym. Also, I'd like to note that in comparing the views for this anthology on both DeviantArt and FanFiction, I get a lot more views of my writing over on DeviantArt. I'm glad I decided to go ahead and start posting stories on there too, instead of just sticking solely with FanFiction.

So, I failed once more to write for 8hrs this week. It's a bit late now to change my goal for the Writers’ Huddle Winter Challenge, but I think after the challenge is over I'll just set my goal to that "Non-Zero Days" idea. Because I've noticed that while I may not hit 8hrs of WRITING per week, this past month I've been doing a lot of RESEARCHING and PLANNING that I need to get under my belt in order to move forward with some of my stories. Mostly stuff to further help convert X-Future in to an original universe, as well as world building Gyateara's universe.

Plus, every author will tell you how crucial it is to read daily. I know I've commented on this - as well as why I don't read daily - more times than you guys care, but I felt the need to do so at least once more. Maybe I can give myself some slack and count reading towards my "Non-Zero Day" as long as I do so "actively".

What do I mean by that? No, not read it aloud like I did this past month; more on that in a moment. I mean make mental notes while reading. Notice the titles of chapters, and try to mentally calculate how they were formed; something I desperately need work on giving my horrendous ability to name things. Make mental notes - or even physical ones; something a lot of writing blogs suggest - on passages I really enjoy, and then figure out why I enjoy them so much. Basically, allow myself to be swept away by the story - the way you should be with a good book; dive in head first in to the tale - but also mentally note in the back of my mind to later ANALYZE what I read.

THAT is one of the main reasons writers should also be avid readers. Seeing how others were successful in the career you want - or have already - allows you to learn and grow. As long as you take the time to reflect on what you read after the fact.

What did you like about the tale? What didn't you like? Was there a twist or an angle that you wouldn't have thought of? Did you enjoy it? How was the pacing? Or the wording? The voice of the narrator? Would you have changed any of it? If so, how? Was there a challenge the characters faced that is similar to one you can't get your characters out of? How did this author handle that challenge? Could your characters do something similar? Does that help with your writers block?

Basically, get in touch with your inner, annoying, high school/college English/Literature teacher. You don't have to think LONG about any of those questions. You don't have to write an essay. You just need to reflect to the point of growth. However - although I may be too lazy to ever actually follow through with this - a lot of professional writing advice includes literally taking notes while reading. So, go ahead and jot down that passage that you really love - or hate - or a chapter title/opening line that you got a kick out of. That way the next time you're stuck you can go to that notebook, flip through your notes, and see if anything sparks an idea.

Perhaps writing similarly to a passage you really enjoyed, parodying a line that made you crack up, or rewriting a passage or character you couldn't stand will help you break through whatever is blocking you.

So, I'm definitely going to be counting "active/reflective reading" towards my "Non-Zero Days".

Let's backtrack a bit now. First up: reading aloud. So, I mentioned previously this month that I wasn't feeling too well, and so Hubby tried to make me feel better by reading Rick Riordan's "The Mark of Athena" aloud to me. By the time I was healthy-ish again my husband was re-invested in the book - which he had already read on his own a year ago - and so I continued reading the rest of the book aloud to him. We got so in to this habit that we instantly jumped in to the most recent book in Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series: "The House of Hades".

We spent the last week reading that intense book. The downside to reading aloud snuggled up next to Hubby - perfect for emotional support during really intense scenes/chapters - is that it DID take about a week to read. Normally, a book this good I would tear through in a day or two. CelestialTyrant actually did just that; he picked up "The House of Hades" on Wednesday, didn't sleep, and had it finished Thursday.

So now Hubby, CT, Ron, Cyhyr, and I are all anxiously awaiting the last book of the series - "The Blood of Olympus" - to come out in October. OH, THE SPECULATIONS ON HOW IT WILL END!!!!

*ahem* Anyway....
Reading with Hubby really got me in to active/reflective reading for the first time EVER in regards to leisure reading. Perhaps it was because I was semi in that mindset to begin with; wanting to learn more from Riordan's work. Perhaps it was because I had someone beside me that I could instantly turn to and discuss with. Perhaps it was simply the act of reading aloud.

I was picking up on things I only noted in passing - and quickly forgot since I didn't discuss them right away with anyone - while reading Riordan's other works. Things like how awesome his chapter opening lines were. Here are some examples from "The House of Hades":

Opening line of the entire book:
During the third attack, Hazel almost ate a boulder.

More gemstone opening chapter lines:
When they reached the ledge, Annabeth was sure she'd signed their death warrants.
Leo spent the night wrestling with a forty-foot-tall Athena.
Annabeth literally stumbled over the second Titan.
Percy was relived when the demon grandmothers closed in for the kill.

And that is only about 1/2 way in to the book. So many great gems. He set up every establishing chapter with an amazing opening line like the above. For the first time I actually paid close attention to that. I'm still not sure I can create lines that awesome, but I at least have a set bar to aim for: that "wait... what!?" element.

Other things I noted were the words he used. The characters were dealing with a LOT more Greek and Roman monsters in these last two books, and so the Greek and Latin was EVERYWHERE. Man, is that hard to read aloud. And these are legit languages! I couldn't imagine reading Lord of the Rings aloud with all the Elvish, Dwarven, and other such langages. So... note to future self... if I'm going to have characters speak non-English, don't do so too frequently without some sort of pronunciation guide in the back....

Christopher Paolini did that with the books in his Inheritance Cycle. The backs of his books held a glossary of non-English words - Elvish and Dwarven mostly - as well as how to pronounce them. Riordan has a glossary as well: to define the Greek/Roman terms. He doesn't include a dictionary-like pronunciation though... So Hubby and I sort of sounded most of the words out. If we ever decide to read these books aloud to our future children we NEED to figure out how those words are properly pronounced first!

Riordan also threw in about half-dozen words that even *I* didn't recognize, and these are books typically aimed at fifth- through eighth-grade students. I made a note of that for sure. It was like he forgot for a moment who his target audience is. Ronoxym does that a lot too: elevated vocabulary.

Me? I guess it was the training from working on school newspapers for nine years, but I stick with the journalism rule of thumb: write at a fifth-grade comprehension level. In the United States, most of the population can comprehend at least up to a fifth-grade reading level. Because of this, the journalism rule of thumb is to not write more advanced than that; this way the story can be understood by just about anyone.

Sure, I may throw in some college-grade words now and again, but for the most part I stick to that rule. My language may not be as fancy as Ron's, but it's readable without a higher education or a dictionary sitting beside you.

Another thing I really sat up and took notice was the fight scenes; something I'm not very good at. I did the same thing while watching episodes of Ultimate Spider-Man on Netflix with Hubby. Know what I noticed? Injuries. Knock outs. The heroes not winning the fights all the time.

I know that it's boring to have your protagonist(s) win every battle, and easily at that. I know there needs to be struggles, challenges, and possible defeats. Yet, when I write fight scenes the majority of them are "struggles" simply because the protagonist can't quite figure out where the weak spot is.

I write fight scenes the same way I play video games; namely Legend of Zelda. I have the character(s) run around dodging attacks until a strategy to defeat the villain(s) forms. The worst my character(s) get is the worst I allow Link: getting tossed aside or minor injuries/bruises.

I don't allow things like broken ankles when walking is crucial. I don't have any character's sides slashed open with blood gushing out while in the middle of sword fighting. I never think to have a character struggling to stay awake enough to escape while slowly dying of poison. The idea of plowing down hundreds of enemies with an arrow shot through the left bicep is foreign to me. Yet all of these things happen in Riordan's books; sorry about the minor spoilers, by the way.

In Ultimate Spider-Man the supposedly indestructible Power Man had his arm broken in one episode and his leg gouged in another. Spider-Man himself had been knocked unconscious or electrified nearly every episode. They never suffer nearly as much as Percy Jackson and his crew, but they still get their butts handed to them multiple times.

I guess, even though I'm great at emotionally scarring my characters, I'm not as good at physically doing so; poor Amara not withstanding. I need to learn to let my characters get beaten up. Let them lose. I just need to figure out how to either a) get them to recover fast enough to not get killed, b) bring in back-up to protect them from getting killed without it seeming deus ex machina, or c) get the enemy to escape/not want to kill the downed character. Then there's the little-used option D: let the character die.

To be fair, few months back I did allow Trish to get really banged up in a simple training obstacle course. So I guess I'm sort of learning....
For anyone not sure what I'm talking about - but would like to - the Snippet can be found here:

"Trying Out The Obstacle Course"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

So, to recap this really long post: no, I didn't succeed in writing for 8hrs this week; yet again. No, I barely got any writing in aside from the two hours to write this post and another half-hour while waiting to start work yesterday. No, I didn't even succeed in this week's mini-challenge to "Do Something Different With Your Writing", considering I didn't really do ANY writing...

But I DO have this blog post up; and on a Sunday again, no less!
I did finally do something that most writers find essential for their careers: reading. And I did so ACTIVELY, too.
So, I also LEARNED this past week. I absorbed what others do differently than me in things I struggle with. Hopefully, with something to aim for I can therefore improve. I GUESS you could stretch and say that's something different with my writing...
Finally, I did some more researching and development for X-Future and Gyateara to become original tales.

All-in-all a Zero-Week that was still surprisingly productive.

Trying to Cut Back "Zero Days"

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! Especially to every single one of you, my readers, who are my Valentines! You show me so much love and patience, and I want to take this time to really thank you guys!

As far as writing goes, this was just a dead week. A week of "Zero-Days". Unless you're big on Reddit, I'm sure you're at least a little confused.

Well, my one friend from college found a Reddit comment a user named Ryan wrote to try to help out another user - Max - who was feeling way down. This comment is pretty much self-help gold. So much so, that I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan gets convinced to at least start up a blog; if not write a self-help book.

Anyway, she wrote a more succinct and slightly easier to read version for her own blog; mostly quoting Ryan with a few add-ins of her own: How to Start Loving Your Unmotivated Self.

The real key point in the whole article/comment that hit home for me was the idea of "Non-Zero Days". Days in which you put at least the slightest bit of effort to push yourself forward towards your goal; whatever it is. Obviously, for me that would be being a professional writer. Therefore, Non-Zero Days would be any day I do SOMETHING that will help me get closer to being that professional writer.

Did I write something today in order to help hone my craft? Did I work more on the research needed to world build for a possible future story idea? Did I work more on a manuscript or another chapter for the fanfictions I have going on? Did I do more work in finding a way of converting X-Future in to an original tale? Did I read any books or articles that will help me on my way to turning writing in to a career? Did I search for a new job opportunity that would either get me closer to writing professionally, or allow me enough free time to do so when I'm not working? The list goes on.

Unfortunately - and a bit ironically - after reading that article and deciding to really push for Non-Zero Days, this whole week more-or-less became one long chain of Zero Days.

I started off alright. My cold - while sticking around like a stubborn mule - is a lot better, and so I didn't spend most of my week in bed. Yay! However, there WERE two nights in which Hubby and I fell asleep at about 8:30, woke up at about midnight, stayed up another hour or so, before actually going to our bed. Odd nights.

Anyway, so I started off pretty good. I had this blog up on Monday; which meant it was a Non-Zero Day. Then the week sort of melds together. I can't remember if it were still Monday, or if it were Tuesday - but I know it was the beginning of the week - I went back and did the mind-map mini-challenge for last week's Writers' Huddle Winter Writing Challenge.

It's all about converting X-Future in to a stand-alone thing. As you can see, it's a bit jumbled. It's one of the reasons I am not a fan of mind mapping. I try to start off small and confined so I have room for more ideas, but there always seems to be more ideas than I have space to put bubbles. And then - as seen with my "Magic" section - I tend to change my mind as to how I want things to connect. The lines get crazy. Some things overlap categories too and I don't have the space to either rewrite the idea at the different categories or connect them via two lines. I just generally don't like mind-maps.

But I still did it! I caught up on last week's mini-challenge and I had been writing. I was on a roll that I could be proud of. Ronoxym even started up a Google Doc for our now collaborative story about Devon and Willow. So, I read through that, added some comments, rewrote some of the parts I did, and mentally planned out how we would publish it online for you fine folks to read once we're done. Sadly, Ron has been busy and super worked to the point of exhaustion, and so he hasn't written anything further; which halts me. So, let's hope for an easier work week for him so he can finish writing and I can keep working on this project too.

Speaking of this project, I was talking to Ron's fiance Cyhyr about the whole collab thing. I still feel so guilty that Ron's original story - which he had completely planned in his head, but ran out of steam writing it which is why he only sent me the first half - got so derailed when I did my "rewrite". I stressed that it wasn't truly a "rewrite"; that I found nothing wrong with what Ron had, it just didn't feel right to "Willow" and that's what inspired me to write my own version. And then I sort of did it again by writing my vision of how the story would continue when Ron had Devon confront Willow at her dorm room. Seems Ron had the conversation going differently, and so my continuation again threw him off. I also made Devon sound too whiny in my version. Whoops.

Anyway, so I was telling Cyhyr that I was sorry I shanghaied Ron's story, but she was actually elated that I did. Apparently not only is Ron's writing great Muse Fuel for me, but mine is the same for him. The different perspectives of the same tale really make us re-evaluate how we pictured it all going down. Since Willow is my character and Devon is his, neither of us truly knows how the other works. I THOUGHT I had a fairly good handle on Devon - being a fanfiction writer and all - but, as I mentioned before, that was proven wrong when "Devon" complained about me making him sound too whiny. So this collab thing really helps both of us out.

Both of us are now writing more frequently because as soon as one of us responds to the story the other one instantly jumps on the Writing Wagon to either rework the scene or continue on; the characters totally driving the conversation when doing so. Most occasions we credited our quick responses with something akin to the characters going "OH HELL NO! That is NOT how I sound!" or "Really? THAT'S your comeback!? Well, listen here, because I've got one HELL of a rebuttal for that!"

Ronoxym is greatly appreciative of the rewrites I do since he feels it really helps improve his original tale. I love his continuations of the story because I'm legitimately interested in where he was planning on going with it; plus, how it inspires me to write. Cyhyr loves my involvement because it actually kick's Ron's butt in to gear when it comes to writing. When he comes home he apparently starts work on Devon's half of the story, and she loves that he's getting a writing routine down. Something apparently both Ron and I have in common.

In fact, we have a LOT in common when it comes to writing. We both write more when we're inspired as opposed to setting a routine and forcing our way through the blocks until we get to the good parts. We both hear the characters in our heads and have our stories frequently derailed by them. We actually discover more about our characters by giving them free rein. We're kind of "lazy" writers; fitting the activity in when everything else is done - if we're not too exhausted at that point. There's other similarities, but that should give you the idea.

Cyhyr is sort of the opposite of the above. She does the whole "read a book AND get writing in" thing that is suggested for novelists. For me, it's either one or the other, and so reading tends to get shoved to the side so I don't feel bad about not writing for days. Cyhyr also carefully calculates every scene ahead of time to make sure it works perfectly for what needs to happen with her novel. Her characters never derail the scene. She always makes sure to schedule in writing and work other things around it. She's definitely set to become a professional writer. No Zero Days for that girl.

As I told her, she is like a director of her novel; knowing the full script, the exact blocking, and figuring out every set before starting anything. Her characters are actors to tell her story. On the flipside, Ron and I are like mediums channeling our characters. They aren't there to tell our story, we're here to tell theirs. It's messy. It's usually character-driven, as opposed to Cyhyr's plot-driven stories, and it's usually long-winded, large epics. Mostly because it takes an epic for a character-driven story to have enough happen in it to create a story arc....

Realizing this helped me understand why I'm so bad at writing drabbles, poems, and other short-format tales. Even my one-shots and "short stories" are easily 5000 words long. I focus more on the character and how they react emotionally than focusing on a plot that can be written out in 500 words.

I'm sliding off-topic here.

My point is that Ronoxym and I are so similar in our writing styles, and the fact that we seem to inspire each other to write like no one else can; not even Cyhyr or Hubby. I joked that it's because Ron is actually my writing Wonder Twin. Cyhyr and I joked about that some more before I realized that I just needed to go ahead and make Ron that as his Valentine's day card this year!

So... for Ronoxym:

May we always inspire each other, but also learn to inspire ourselves.

Also... Cyhyr wants me to poke you in to submission until you start working more on your NaNo story about angels and demons and the like... she's SUPER interested in the concept and wants to be able to read it already!!!!

Okay, so - given how long this post is getting - it may seem like a lot happened this week. A lot of Non-Zero Days with my blogging, mind-mapping, new determination thanks to an article, and mini-self-discovery while chatting with Cyhyr. Unfortunately, that was only about three days out of the week.

The rest of the week consisted of those random early evenings, tiring days at work, reading, general laziness, and dealing with the insane winter weather - I think we're up to 2.5ft of snow now? Not including the mountains of snow drifts where it's all getting dumped when shoveled/plowed?

I should give myself some slack; forgive the Past Me - as that one article stated. I did do a lot in regards to planning out stuff - both the world building of Gyateara, and removing X-Future from the Marvel universe - which is different for me.

But I didn't write a Valentine's Day story this year. That could have chewed up a lot of writing hours too. I'm just not inspired to write something. Should it be Arnold/Helga? Phoebe/Gerald? Helga/Brainy? Lia/Chayse? Nix/Annika? Connor/Natalie? A new/original tale? I have no idea...

This week's mini-challenge was to "do something new". To do something you've never done before. Ali donated blood for the first time in her life. I'm sorry to say that I didn't really try anything "new" this week. Hubby tried to find loopholes: "You've never tried to convert a fanfic in to an original before", "You've never read 'House of Hades' before", "You could try out playing League of Legends." I might be tempted to do the last one before the day is out just so I do have SOMETHING new, but the others just didn't feel right to count. The League of Legends one doesn't really feel right either since I've WATCHED him play the game tons of times... but maybe it's different to PLAY it for the first time....

This upcoming week's mini-challenge is to "try something new when writing". I'll have to figure out what I want to do with that. It's mostly an idea to help us try things we've been avoiding for whatever reason - maybe we feel we're not good at it - and broaden our horizons. Although I have done it before, I'm not very good at fight scenes, so I may try that. I could maybe try writing something that is plot-driven instead of character driven. I could try writing an informative blog post instead of a journal-like one.

I've done all of these before, but I'm not that good at them. They aren't really "new" but they are writing styles I need help with. As for something truly "new", I'll have to think about that...

Hack, Hack, Wheeze, Wheeze. Oh, What a Miserable Week it is....

Another late post. Although, I HAVE been posting on Mondays since I started to post again. So, maybe I'm posting on time and my new "update day" is Mondays? Honestly, I can't recall the last time I was scheduled to work on a Monday, so maybe it would work best in my favor to just shift over a day....

Anyway, I did have every intention of posting yesterday. I was geared up and everything.

Then the sickness struck again.

Monday I was all excited. I had written for two hours, posted my blog update, and I worked on world building research the entire time I was at the laundromat. Tuesday I was flooded with writing ideas for that one-shot I told you about last week. The one that Ronoxym sent me on the first.

When I had sent him my little bit that was inspired by his story I actually really threw him off.

Ronoxym: I've kinda hit a wall, so I'm muddling it over for a bit while I work through this spot to get it where I want it to go.... I was going to chain your version of the end (because, yeah, it does seem more like Willow's actions.) and circle it back to my original idea.... I'll make it work. It's gonna be fun and exciting. I'm also seeing some major emotional agony in it, which is not normal for my writing, so I can't wait to get to sit down and see where the characters will tell me to go.

Sorry to have thrown you off so badly, Ron!

See, the issue I threw at Ron was that he needed Willow and Devon to further interact, but at the end of the scene I wrote she had stormed off in anger. So Tuesday I had all of these ideas on how to bring Willow back to the scene.

It was fantastic. It was a bright day - even though a storm was supposed to hit within 24hrs - and I was actually bubbly and energized. The fact that I also was highly inspired to write may or may not have had anything to do with my mood. I'm actually still trying to figure out the Chicken/Egg about that. Am I in a good mood and energized because I'm inspired to write, or am I inspired to write because I'm in a good mood and energized?

I'm way off topic.

Anyway, so I thought I was in a good spot for my Writers’ Huddle Winter Challenge goals this week.

But then the coughing started.

I kept poor Hubby up most of Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning I was lightheaded, but could keep the coughing mostly in check with meds. Thankfully the winter storm meant that there were barely any customers. A shift of nothing but cleaning and not worrying about speed or getting worn out taking care of people. Score!

I was still exhausted when I got home and didn't really do much writing as I started my road to mending. Thursday both Hubby and I had off and so I didn't budge. I stayed curled up either in bed or on the couch while mindlessly watching movies/TV shows to keep my mind off my throbbing head. Friday I went in to work, felt miserable, and came home about nine hours later. I once more curled up in bed and pretended the world wasn't out there. Saturday: same thing, only my shift was a short 5hrs.

Then I didn't move for about 48hrs. I spent the weekend under about three blankets, cursing that the medicine wasn't really doing anything anymore, downing gallons of water to try to ease the cough, and tag teaming between sleeping and reading "Mark of Athena." Actually, it was pretty adorable. Aside from maybe 10 chapters, Hubby and I have been taking turns reading the book to each other; mostly him to me since I can't go 10min without hacking.

It's really hard for me to not run to the couch, curl up, and finish the last 100pgs or so.... but Hubby and I took this journey together this far.

Anyway, so my week was shot thanks to this cold. Awesome.

I did get another two hours of writing in yesterday. I woke up refreshed, and - aside from feeling like a hairball was lodged in my throat - I had no coughing fits/issues. I then wrote in that blue "Willow's Journal" I showed you guys last week. I had finally figured out not only how to bring Willow back in to the scene, but to also get the story full circle back to how Ron finished the original tale. Apparently he was able to figure it out too and had sent me the next section later that day.

Hubby came home from work at about noon and we had lunch together. He snuggled next to me to read more of the story, and then passed out after being at work for about twelve hours. I tried to nap with him; but it didn't work too well as my hacking finally kicked back in.

If I was able to sit at a computer and write this post yesterday I might have actually hit my goals for this week's challenge. Oh well, maybe this week I can finally make it!

The thing I didn't have any chance of getting accomplished was the mini-challenge Ali had presented to the group: make a mind-map.

I showed off my mind-map about Amara before, but here's a refresher so you know what I mean by "mind-map":

Now, for my world building of Gyateara I wanted to have an original pantheon of deities. I created the world as kind of a merger of the games Dungeons & Dragons, Fable, and Legend of Zelda. Therefore, I brought with them the pantheons of those games as a starter:

• D&D Greyhawk Campaign Deities
• Fable Deities
• Legend of Zelda's Four Goddesses: The Golden Goddesses and Hylia

If I was going to have Gyateara stories be original instead of some form of fanfiction I needed to remove these ties. So, while I was at the laundromat I intended to mind-map my own pantheon based loosely on the collective of the above 20-some deities plus the main 12 Greek/Roman gods. The extent I got was to list each of the Greyhawk gods and the domains they ruled over.

I was going to attempt again yesterday, but I ended up getting too caught up in reading to stop and accomplish my goal.

The more I think about X-Future the more I feel like this could be the story that grips me enough to really jumpstart my career, even if that jumpstart means a collective effort with Hubby, Phfylburt, and Ron.

So my next mind-map idea was to find a way to "Fifty Shades" our "Twilight fanfic". Need clarification? Alright, so, for those who don't know, the (in)famous "Fifty Shades of Grey" book series started off as Twilight fanfiction posted online. So many people enjoyed it that... well, here I get fuzzy on the details, either E.L. James decided to give it a shot and brought it to a publisher, or someone with publishing connections got in touch with her. Either way, the only way it could be published would be if it wasn't fanfiction. So James worked some magic to shift her characters to originals instead of Edward and Bella, shifted the setting out of Forks, Alaska, and dropped the vampire theme. "Fifty Shades" was then born.

So, why not do the same with X-Future? X-Men is our "Twilight" - very loosely speaking - and X-Future is the fanfic. I just need to drop all blatant ties to the Marvel Universe - which doesn't really play THAT big of a roll in the story - and it could stand on its own as an original story. Best part is that there are tons of non-Marvel shows/movies/books that have teenagers with supernatural powers, so I don't need to worry about taking THAT part out of the story; since the powers IS the backbone of a lot of stuff.

The mind-map's goal was to help me come up with a new universe backdrop that X-Future - the name also needs to be changed - could cozily drop in to. I'm actually so excited by this idea I just might do this mini-challenge this week on top of the new one Ali will come up with.

I'm actually so excited by this that I'm just going to work on that now! Until next week!

Check Out My Notebooks...

Delayed yet again. I know, what else is new, right? My Sunday schedule was so wonky today. I went in to work an hour earlier than I normally do on Sundays, plus Hubby didn't leave work until after noon, and so I only had two hours to do anything with today. I also got out of work late, was exhausted, and so I practically passed out once the Super Bowl ended.

The plus side was that I had more than two hours of sitting in the dining area of the grocery store as I waited for Hubby to get out of work. I was able to participate in Ali's mini-challenge for the second week of Writers’ Huddle's 2014 Winter Writing Challenge. Second time to participate, actually. The mini-challenge? Get a notebook. Namely, to help focus your writing by having a journal, binder of loose-leaf paper, notebook, or mountain of post-its - which is what ChibiSunnie uses - that is focused on just one writing project.

I actually already had my writing organized like that. Although I prefer to just type everything - my handwriting is horrendous, my hand cramps up easily, and I can shift and file things easier on the computer - I have way too many writing projects bouncing around my head at the same time to NOT be organized.

I have an old college binder filled with folders that are each dedicated to either a different D&D character of mine, or a different D&D-based writing idea. I have one folder for my second-favorite character: Arianna Snow. I have one for my main character Amara, whom I want to eventually write a series of stories around. I have a folder for all the work I've been doing with world-building Amara's country of Kerizmar; which has become just one country within one continent upon Gyateara - you might recall that is the world I based my NaNo story on in 2012. I have a folder for a never-written Avatar: The Last Airbender/D&D crossover story. Finally, I have a folder to hold all of my past Vampire: The Masquerade character sheets.

I have another - even larger - binder set aside for all of my X-Future stuff. I have a folder for each of My Girls: Lia, Willow, Trish, and Crystal. The Willow folder is overflowing and the Crystal one is empty... sorry, chica. I have another folder for any thought that pops in to my head as a possible future plot device. I have since converted most of the folder's contents in to a "Writing Prompt" thread on the forum for any member - including myself - who can't figure out where to go next with their characters. One folder is for scenes that I free-write. Most of these have become part of my X-Future: Snippets collection. The last folder is for any story ideas I come up with that doesn't center on just one character. This mostly holds notes on the dynamics between characters or has notes on multiple characters on the same page.

The binders and folders help a lot when I get inspired and the only things I have available are random pieces of paper: napkins, paper towels, backs of expired coupons, backs of flyers, etc. The binders each also have a stack of loose-leaf paper in them, so I can easily write on that and then quickly file the page away in to the appropriate folder.

But that's not all!

I also have two really nifty clipboards. I'm definitely going to pick up more when I have the opportunity. These are the thick, plastic clipboards that open up in to a compartment.

Boy, do I stuff those things to the brim with notes! Although the above pictures are the sales pictures of the Saunders SlimMate storage clipboard, I do indeed have the blue and pink ones. The blue one is dedicated to even MORE world-building. A bunch of examples of fantasy maps - such as Middle Earth - as well as the current map of Kerizmar, and a bunch of info on the population of Kerizmar is stored in that clipboard. Further research/info on Gyateara as a whole is in that folder I mentioned earlier. The pink clipboard is where I store my notes on What Is Truly Meant To Be.

Oh, while I'm touching upon that. This past Thursday I received a note on DeviantArt which simply said: "do more hey arnold fics plz." I haven't touched WITMTB in about a year! For shame! I really should do more "Hey, Arnold!" stuff. Maybe all of this X-Future stuff created enough of a step-back that I can get re-inspired once I dive in to WITMTB. Likewise, perhaps working on the next chapter will give me enough of a break that I'll be refreshed enough to keep going with X-Future: The Second Generation Begins.

Anyway, I want to show you guys something:

That first picture has a page - front and back - that contains the start of the next chapter. Not skeletoned, but actually written out. It's a start, but it's better than nothing, right? The next picture has the contents of the clipboard emptied out; all of my notes on the story as a whole, on the chapter in particular, notes written along the margins of the lyrics of the song I'm working on, and a few timeline notes. The notebook I'm holding is where I write out the skeleton of each chapter before I move on to actually writing out the prose.

Side note: I'm actually listening to the song for the next WITMTB chapter as I write about getting back in to it. The song is set up on a randomized playlist. I guess The Fates want me to continue too.

Alright, well, now that you know how I organize my writing, how about we go full circle back to how I participated in Ali's mini-challenge twice this week. The first time was using the X-Future binder at the laundromat this Thursday. I wrote the entire 1.5hrs I was there; working on what Willow would do next on the forum.

You guessed it, yet ANOTHER really big catalyst happened involving Devon. So I had to get in to Willow's head. Even she had no clue what to do; how to process everything. It was interesting to just free-write in order to get her raw emotions out in a fluid movement. We were both sort of surprised with the result. It wouldn't be the only time. I'll get to that in a moment.

The second time I used the notebook idea was - as mentioned - while waiting for Hubby to get out of work. I was sitting with nothing better to do for over two hours; thankfully I thought ahead.

Not only do I have the two binders and the two clipboards, but I also have six notebooks. Well, I have a LOT more than just six notebooks - I have a full bookshelf's worth - but I have six that are solely dedicated to just one thing.

The green notebook is for all things Lia. The blue is for Willow. Trish is in the red notebook. The gray one with the dragon is for Gyateara and all things D&D campaign related. The blue and gold one is set aside for Amara. That last blue patterned one is just a catch-all notebook.

That last one is what I had on me Sunday. One page had notes for this blog post. Then I wrote two more where I delved in to a few structure questions I had about Gyateara - namely the two drastically different god pantheons. Granted, the same can be said about Earth's religions. The key difference is that in Fable, Legend of Zelda, and D&D - all games that Gyateara's world building is based off of - the gods aren't religion; they're fact. There are actual relics of the gods. There's proof of their existence. There are no "atheist" D&D characters, just ones that refuse to bow/pray to any of the gods - whom they acknowledge at least exist.

If the gods are just as real as any other entity in Gyateara, why are there different pantheons? I think I have that key question figured out, but this post is already getting long, so I'll save that for next week perhaps.

So now let's backtrack once more to the other time that Willow and I were stunned by the result of a free-write. The Bard's birthday was Saturday, and while Ronoxym was over to celebrate we broke off and he told me about this story he had been concocting in his head while at work. The story consisted of Devon trying to explain himself to Willow. Late Saturday he sent me the beginning of the story via forum PM. I love it. I'm excited to see how he plans on ending it. However, it might be a while since I think I threw him off his game.

See, I read through it once and was like "wow" but some of Willow's lines felt off. Her voice wasn't quite right. Willow herself was like "that's close, but not exactly how I'd react..." Curious, I decided to go back through his story and break off where Willow told me "that's not right". My ending was completely different to the later half of his story. Let me remind you that he cut off half-way, and so it was the second quarter of the story that I derailed.

Originally I just assumed that a few lines would be changed, but Willow completely flipped the script. There was a LOT more emotional anguish than intended or expected. I guess I should just pick up my crown as the Emotional Anguish Queen. I sent my free-write back to Ronoxym to see what he thought. He enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting him to take my version as a "rewrite", but it got him rethinking his story. So, now I'm not sure if the second half of his story that I'll eventually get will be what he originally had in mind, somehow works of what I wrote, or some hybrid of the two.

Perhaps once he's done I'll be able to talk him in to allowing me to post it as an X-Future: Snippet either under his name or as a collab. I'll keep you posted in that.

I've been doing a lot of collaborative effort in writing straight-up prose lately. First the above example between me and Ronoxym. Then there's the great way that Hubby, Phfylburt - Lincoln/Kinney's player - and I play off each other when coming up with plot ideas for X-Future. I don't know, it just makes me want to jump ship on the forum and just start up an X-Future-based webcomic with these guys. We still would need an artist though since between the four of us we MIGHT be able to draw a couple of stick figures...

I feel like that's my future. I feel it in my gut. You know how a lot of authors say that you should practice your art frequently, but you may not become famous until you get a story that takes hold and lets you it needs to be told? Maybe X-Future is at least the stepping-stone for that - being a collab effort and all.

I just picturing that in the next ten years or so we'll have a webcomic based on the X-Future story thus far and the universe; maybe even considered a canonical universe by Marvel! How awesome would that be!? And it would all be thanks to Hubby's idea to start the forum and Netflix having the rights to X-Men: Evolution to spark everything in the first place.