Productivity Up 300%, But Still Nothing To Share....

This past week has been both productively awesome, and complete fail. I'm going to start with the complete fail so that I can end this thing on a high note.

As I mentioned last week, I had completely lost the writing prompt that the local writing group had given out. I had read the result of a prompt that Phfylburt had given me instead, and had some nice critiques on it. I then wrote down the new settings writing prompt, and had every intention of working on that, the previous prompt, and/or the new challenge that Phfyl gave me.

I ended up doing none of the above. It kept me literally until midnight on Sunday for me to send Phfyl the resulting work for my challenge. Even then, it was only an outline of what I wanted to do. Not a bulleted one, I wrote each paragraph out so that all I needed to do was add detail, dialogue, and some polish. Still, the outline was about four pages long, I didn't really hit upon the actual prompt until the last two paragraphs - which lead Phfyl to believe that I just tagged them on as an afterthought just to say I followed the prompt - and the four pages that I had were pretty craptastic.

I was kind of all over the board. The problem with the prompt was that it was semi-vague and on a topic I'm sort of obsessed with: "Link finally breaks the silence about Zelda and Ganon." A fun prompt, for sure, but I don't think Phfyl understood how broad of a spectrum he painted for me.

First of all, which Link would be part of this expose? Between all of the games, only some of them have the "same Link" in another adventure. The rest are either reincarnations, descendants, or some weird combo of the two. All in all, there are about a dozen different Links I could use, and each one has his own thoughts on the matter. In some games, Link is clearly in love with Zelda, and Ganon is the embodiment of all things evil. Some of them, Link and Zelda are best friends, and Ganon is an evil that Link must stop before he actually fully forms; meaning Link can't really HAVE an opinion on Ganon aside from "He's someone I wanted to make sure I didn't meet." Other games, Link is simply a very loyal knight to the crown, and Zelda is little more than his sovereign that he'd do anything to protect. There are games where Zelda is a damsel in destress, and I'm sure Link is probably just as irritated with having to save her as Mario gets over Peach. On the other hand, there are games in which Link couldn't have defeated anyone without Zelda's help. Some games Ganon is a dark shadow in the background, pulling the strings, but doesn't interact with Link enough for him to form an opinion. Other games he's simply a power-hungry thief from a semi-troubled background.

So, which Link is going to "break the silence"? How do I choose?

Then there's the tone of the story itself. Do I go dark and serious? Having it written like it's a true expose after crawling along in the dark, seedy underbelly of Hyrule? Do I have it set up like a talk show in which his opinion of Zelda and Ganon are just "hard hitting" questions the host asks? Is Link at a convention-like discussion panel, and he actually keeps dodging the question when the fans ask him about Zelda and Ganon? Are Link and Zelda having a nice dinner at the castle and Link just snaps?

Then there's the tone of HOW he breaks the silence. The running gag in the fandom is that Link is a "silent protagonist" because you never hear him say more than his famous grunts; with the exception of a few games where he'll say simple commands such as "Come on" or "Stop". This is done in the programming portion of the game to have the player connect more with Link, as well as speed up the game because you don't have to listen to him relay over things you played through. Eventually, I'm sure the programmers purposely kept the games that way just to keep the gag of Link being "silent".

However, the characters in the game DO learn things from Link. They found out his name, his mission, and answer questions that will help him figure out his quest. Sure, some of the time it's because Link's companion does most of the talking to get the information across, but more often than not, it's because the player already knows the answers/questions that lead to the NPC's response, and so it's just skipped over, commonly by a quick fade to black to skip over Link relaying things over.

So, Link clearly ISN'T a mute, he's just a man of few words, and the few he does have are usually stolen by his traveling companion taking the conversational lead. Now the question becomes, does Link just speak with no problem and makes a straight joke about not holding his tongue any longer? Is he a man of few words, and so his thoughts on Zelda and Ganon are quick and to the point? Does he attempt to speak his mind, only to be cut off by his traveling companion - and if so, which one? Same issue as "Which Link" above. Does he not have to say anything at all because the traveling companion does all the talking for him; knowing him and his thoughts on the matter so completely after their journey together?

Part of me wanted to go semi-humorously by having the whole series of traveling companions that Link had ever had switching off interrupting him as he tried to speak about Zelda and Ganon; each one THINKING they knew his answer, and he'd be in the background getting angrier about each interruption. Eventually he'd explode, tell them to shut up, and that he wanted to speak for once. Then he'd conclude with something short and sweet, such as "Zelda is a great friend, strong person, and fantastic ruler. Ganon - on the other hand - is the embodiment of evil, and I hope he just stays gone for the rest of time!"

Hubby suggested that it would be fun if the interviewer(s) would ask Link a question, and he'd simply answer in shakes of the head, head nods, shrugs, coy glances, and finally his signature "Hyah!" The best part would be the interviewer(s) accepting these as legitimate answers to the tough questions, and move on to the next one.

Like I said, there were SO MANY POSSIBILITIES with this prompt, and I just couldn't narrow down which one I liked best. So, at about 10pm Sunday night, while already exhausted from being up since 7am the day before - I had a 2hr nap or so sometime in there, but I ended up covering for someone on the overnight shift - and I hadn't written a word for this prompt.

I ended up - in my tired haze - writing some weird combination of all the options; see which one would stick. It was a daytime talk show, and Link was cut off from answering a question by his fairy traveling companion answering for him. This lead the hostess to bring out all of the other companions Link had ever had - which ended up being something like eight characters - I then had them all argue among themselves, and wonder why Link didn't recognize them. However, with such a large ensemble, it was hard to give really any of the companions enough dialogue or action to warrant them being in the story. It was just a jumbled mob of a mess. Eventually, it was revealed that Link didn't recognize anyone aside from the first fairy - there were four fairies in all - because this wasn't the same Link that had traveled with each of them. Link was then given the Fierce Deity Mask from the game Majora's Mask, and it sort of channeled all of his past lives - going with the reincarnation fan theory - until it arrived at the Original Link; the one whose soul would eventually be trapped in this reincarnation cycle of  "Save Zelda/Hyrule, eventually die, become reborn only if Hyrule/Zelda will be in peril again in the near future."

Original Link - who isn't truly in-game canonical, but is introduced in a manga in the back of the Nintendo-sanctioned book Hyrule Historia - talked about how he died to save his country - "his" like how Americans say the United States is "our" country; Original Link wasn't the king - and its people from destruction, creating the floating island Skyloft, which is featured in the first chronological game Skyward Sword. He's a bit bitter about the whole thing, and he keeps referencing to Zelda as her original form:

The goddess Hylia who placed his soul in the reincarnation cycle before shedding her divinity to do the same as the human Zelda.

He still cares for, and respects Zelda, as well as the land he once called home - originally called The Land of Hylia - and so, while a bit bitter about only being reincarnated and called upon when the land is in danger, he is also a bit glad that it is him that can insure the land will always prosper.

As for Ganon? Well, Original Link again only really knows the man in his original form: a monstrous demon that eventually reincarnates as the male Gerudo Ganondorf. He also knows Ganon to not only be corrupted by the demon's powers returning in attempt to seize the Triforce, but also as the entity that eventually corrupts others while waiting to be reincarnated or released from his trans-dimensional prison.

The story goes from light-hearted and a bit jumbled to quickly dark before an abrupt end. Needless to say, Phfyl had some concerns about the story.

I reassured him that I was fully aware that it had no focus, and so I've been periodically using the week to try to figure out what to do with it. I think I'm going to stick with the darkness of Original Link and his thoughts on reincarnation and the like. I just need an explanation as to how the interviewer is able to talk with Original Link, who has been dead for Hyrule's equivalent of probably 2000 years - if not longer - and who has been reincarnated about a dozen times.

It's Thursday, and I again have nothing. Phfyl tried to have me go on hiatus while I figured this story out, caught up on my two writing prompts for the local group, AND work on my six-week challenge for Writers’ Huddle. I wouldn't let him. I was determined to stick with his prompt challenges, as well as challenge him too. I just didn't expect his Legend of Zelda challenge to be so simply complex that it took me over two weeks to figure it out....

Needless to say, because it's kept so much time and effort to try to figure out Phfyl's challenge, I haven't given either of the setting prompts from the local group any sort of thought. Further fail.

But what about those positives I said I had?

Well, I went on to my online friends writing group - Struggling Writers Society - to ask them their opinion on what to do for the Writers' Huddle challenge. I gave them the same list of options I posted here last week. Cyhyr suggested I do a combination of all of them. There were six open writing projects, as well as an option to write x-amount of words per day/week. So, she proposed that I aim for about 500 words per day during my daily writing hour. She also offered that I work on the first open project I listed, but only for the first week of the challenge. By the end of the week, I would have roughly 3500 words added to that project; a decent push forward. Then the second week of the challenge I'd do the same thing, but with the second project on my list. So on and so forth until I had 3500 more words for each project I listed.

It would give me a chance to push each project closer to completion, allow me to work a variety of stories to keep it fresh, as well as have me figure out which story is calling out to me the most. That way I know which one to try to tackle and complete in the months following the challenge. Plus, it was a happy compromise so that I wasn't stalled while trying to figure out which direction to go in.

I had a few more suggestions from a couple other members, but I think Cyhyr's advice was the one that stuck out the most for me. However, Phfyl did had a valid point when he advised that I don't try to compromise by working on all six projects more-or-less at the same time. It would be hard to switch off from one project, and get my mind in the proper place for the next one. It might work well for Cyhyr's husband Ronoxym due to people with ADHD thriving in multi-tasking projects, but Phyfl was right, I don't think I could switch between story concepts so quickly and still be inspired to write something of value by the end of the week.

Besides, two of the projects consisted of me world-building, and so I'm not entirely sure WHAT I would write to total 3500 words by the end of the week. Most of the world-building would consist of research, map-drawing, scribbling down notes, and possibly a character profile or two; like what I did over the summer. MAYBE I would add more to The Divine Legends or The People of Gyateara while working on the Gyateara world builds, but there was no guarantee. Plus, with only one week to work on the project, I had to be certain that I could get inspiration to strike during my daily writing hour. Otherwise I'd spend the hour trying to figure out ANYTHING to work on for the build, and then get annoyed with myself when I either didn't get anything accomplished, or I had to take up even more of my already stretched-thin time.

And as for Please, Let Me Explain? Well, as I mentioned last week, I feel like I'd be stealing the story from Ron if I just went and wrote the rest of it without him, especially since we agreed that the part he added on to the back of the outline - in other words, all the stuff that still needs to be written - needs some reworks first. If I were to just go ahead and write the ending the way I picture it based on what he wants the story end-game to be, I feel like he wouldn't have any input at all. Just me slapping my own ending on to his work. I dunno. It doesn't feel right. I need us to at least jointly finish the outline until it's something we agree is best for the story. From there I'd be less hesitant to write out the ending and then send it to him for notes. Then again, as I pointed out last week as well, I'm still waiting on notes for the last thing I sent him for this story.

I guess that's karma for ya, considering my average beta-read-notes-return turn-around is like a year....

Alright, so three out of the six projects were pretty much a no-go. There was still the option to now spend TWO weeks on each project, so I went to Hubby for advice. Do I spend two weeks each to knock out roughly 7000 words towards the next few chapters of What Is Truly Meant To Be, X-Future: The Second Generation Begins, and X-Future: Snippets?

His advice was to stick with the 500-words per day minimum while keeping my daily writing hour - which he has made sure I followed through on - but to also listen to Phfyl and focus on one story. Since out of the three remaining projects - the final one actually having three sub-projects in and of itself - the only one I was truly ready to work on again was TSGB, he suggested I just stick with that.

So, as of right now, that's my aim. We have two new members to the X-Future board, and they promise to be VERY active players. If this board takes off again like it did in the "good old days" then I have no hope of catching up.

Therefore, my goal for the Writers' Huddle challenge is to write every day for an hour, making sure that I don't stop - even after the hour has past - until I get at least 500 new words written. So far, so good. Starting Monday, I've written every day from 4-5pm, and I've averaged about 650 words per day. However, I was completely in a groove yesterday or something, because I jumped from about 1300 words to over 2400!

I'm also focusing solely on TSGB, with the aim to have a new chapter written each week. If I break the scenes down enough, none of them should really need much more than a week to write, even if it means writing more than 3500 words per chapter. This shouldn't be much of an issue, given my current week, which should have the 3500 words written by the end of tomorrow's session.

It won't be much in the grand scheme of things, but I would be about six-chapters closer to closing the gap between TSGB and where we currently are on X-Future. At the very least, I should get tantalizingly close to the major event that caused the two-year time skip. Then the fun will be to continue the next TSGB book - I'm planning on ending the current one just before the time skip so it's not 100 chapters long - as well as Devon's spin-off story.

So, while I am complete fail when it comes to the "weekly" challenges that the local group or Phfyl have given me, in regards to continuous writing and the Huddle's challenge, I'm on my A-game! This also means that I've been able to start up that chain of "No Zero Days"; double win!

I also managed to get in some more reading time this week. It's down to the wire in regards to completing a book this month, but I should be able to make it. Especially since this is an "off" week for football while everyone prepares for the Superbowl next week. I could use my normal football-time to read! Whoo!

I still haven't read a piece of fiction that would qualify for any of the 2016 Reading Challenge categories, but I did read Ali Luke's self-help mini-ebook a few weeks back. For now I think I'll qualify that as my "read in one day" book. Hopefully later in the year I'll be able to crank out a novel in fast enough time to truly read a "read in one day" novel as well. Which would then give me a baker's dozen of books I read, since "The Throne of Fire" doesn't qualify for any of the challenge's categories. Still, I was determined to finish this dang thing! Even if it almost literally kept me a year to do it!

If anyone wants a refresher on the challenge, it was presented by Modern Mrs. Darcy, and the challenge list is as follows:


I have to say, while I feel weird keeping myself on a semi-strict schedule, Ali's suggestion to do just that has really helped me out. I still give myself a little bit of wiggle room by having my work schedule and writing hour be the only things I actually have strict time frames for, I have kept myself on a timer. No more than 2hours on any given activity.

Even if I feel like spending 10hours actually scrubbing my home down ceiling to floor, I know I'll then exhaust myself, miss snuggling the husband, and be mad I didn't read/write/Facebook/do something with the finances.

So, no matter what I am doing, I cut myself off usually after an hour, but I allow up to two in order to finish up any loose ends.

Facebook: hour, next. Figure out finances: hour; next. Watch TV with Hubby: two hours; next. Write: hour; next. So on and so forth. Granted, it's also been a chaotic week with me outside the home doing a hundred errands, and so the apartment is a sty. Still, my writing and reading are up, I have a bit more energy, I don't feel like I'm slacking off a lot, and imagine the time I will have for cleaning after the out-of-home chaos settles!

Speaking of, I have been working on this post for nearly two hours, so it's time to move on to a new project. Sorry I didn't have a new story for you guys after all this week, but I'm well on my way for a new "The Second Generation Begins" chapter, so there should at least be that next week. Perhaps I can end the chapter a day or two before my deadline and use those days to work on the other prompts I've got backed up. We'll see.

Catch ya next week!

Deciding On A Writing Challenge Goal

I still haven't really been doing too well with the “No Zero Days” commitment. Since my last post, I've written nice LONG posts over on the X-Future Play-by-Post game, so I guess that counts. But that was all on Monday night. Last Thursday, after finishing my post, I more-or-less finished up my weekly challenge from Phfylburt. We exchanged on Sunday, and Tuesday I edited it based on his notes before posting it online. I haven't really done any other writing except that.

Although this week has flown by so fast it FEELS like I've written much, much more. I was actually a little proud at how many times I've set myself aside to write, and a bit excited to write this post. Then I reflected on the week, and I realized there really wasn't much to say. How did that happen?

I haven't even read much more of the book I'm working on, although I really need to step it up a notch in order to get done before the end of the month. Recently I have been using my “reading time” to research more for my upcoming D&D campaign. Too much on my plate; not enough hours in the day to dedicate the right amount of time and effort to each project, I guess.

I've been trying to remedy that. I really have. Hence all the challenges I've been taking on – I'm still waiting for Ronoxym to send me his challenge for me – in order to add accountability to my writing. Get me doing it more frequently.

I even hopped back on to Writers’ Huddle in time to sign up for the 6 week winter writing challenge. Problem is, I don't know what to challenge myself with. Others can work on their manuscripts, or blog posts – since most others do professional, article-style blogs – or the like. Me? I have so many projects pulling me in so many directions, I don't know where to go.

Do I continue off of the summer challenge and work on the X-Future reboot some more? If so, what part of the reboot this time? I don't really have any other characters that I need to remake into original incarnations. I could attempt world building some more, or work on research so I'm set in April to keep working on the comic book script. But research seems more of an “on my own time” thing, not something to work on during a 6 week writing challenge.

Do I continue world building Gyateara? That's a strong possibility, but I've been banging my head against the wall for years now. Maybe working on the D&D campaign will really help me out, but right now I'm stuck on culture builds and pantheon creations and possibly creating my own monsters; let alone naming everything. Still suck at that.

I could take the bull by the horns and just finish off Please, Let Me Explain by myself. Then I could send it to Ron to read over and edit to more of what he was thinking. I mean, I have the outline of what he wanted to do with the story. But he hasn't even gotten back to me yet about whether or not he wants to include the new character I created – let alone get notes back to me about how he'd look – and so I don't know if moving forward without him is a good idea. Is it enough of a shove to get him back on track with the story? Or am I just stealing it completely from him? I still want this to be OUR story, not my story inspired by his.

I might have to break out some DVDs and binge-watch a bit to get back in character, but I haven't touched What Is Truly Meant To Be in YEARS. I could use the next six weeks to work on that.... Honestly, I don't have a counter against it aside from being stale when it comes to the story. This might be an actual option.

In the same regards, I went through pains to try to get myself set up to work on X-Future: The Second Generation Begins without terribly too much effort to figure out the next series of posts I'd need to look up. So, I could always work on that some more. Especially with the forum so stalled for the past year. It will still take me months, even years to catch up, but I can close that gap if I work on X-Future's story.

Speaking of. I do also have Lia and Ripley's summer in New York City from a year or two ago to write, although I honestly don't recall where I was going to go with that story. There's also the Willow and Chayse in Japan tale from the same time period. Hubby gave me a great play-by-play of how their summer went down, but it seems like such an epic undertaking, and I really don't want to start up ANOTHER chaptered story before finishing up ANY of my current ones. Finally, there's the confrontation between Trish, Devon, and Nys. I might work on that one. I haven't been able to write Trish in over a year – minus some small posts on the forum – and so that might be fun. However, I was looking forward to maybe collaborating that battle with Ron too. The only thing is that with how painfully slow PLME has been getting written, maybe working with him right now isn't the best idea – unless it's in person and we can crank it out in more-or-less one session.

Then there's still that story that DFL sent me, as well as the result of the last prompt. She couldn't attend on Tuesday, and so she emailed all of us her story to read. That's a little more than 100pgs to read. I could have myself read about 17pgs each week in order to chip away through the beta read. However, much like the researching issue, is this really appropriate for a WRITING challenge? I mean, I get people who are putting editing as their goal, but they're at least editing their own stuff. Which means they are still being creative by coming up with how to alter what they already have on the page. I can't do that. It's DFL's story. I can give her notes, but I'm not doing anything actively creative....

I could always go for the age-old challenge of writing x-amount of words per day or week, excluding what I write for this blog. Possibly excluding what I write for the X-Future forum as well, although that IS fiction writing... The only snag there is that I'm not sure what is a reasonable amount of words for me to aim for, since I generally don't write daily, as much as I'd like to. I could focus more on that 4-5 writing hour, perhaps. My goal being to not get distracted during my daily writing hour, and to not skip any. That's a thought.

Gaaah! I don't know which one to pick. I'm going to have to harass Hubby a bit to see which he thinks is the most do-able for me, or the one that would best benefit me at this time. I could also send a call out to ANY of my writing groups to see which one they think I should do....

I can't even make a decision on what my writing challenge is going to be. This is a promising start to the year.

Alright, well, forget about what I'm failing at. How about some positives? Such as the story I wrote using Phfyl's prompt, for instance? His challenge for me last week was to take a song and write a news article based off of it. I had to listen to a lot of songs last week before I finally heard one that really clicked with me.

I ended up going with Iggy Azalea's song "Black Widow" featuring Rita Ora.

Based on the song, I had this inspiration of a news report of her ACTUALLY loving him like a black widow spider. Namely, consuming the head after sex. It was twisted, but I haven't written something like that in YEARS; pretty much since college, or even high school. It was fun to tap into that dark side of myself again.

I was a bit concerned, though, because I haven't attempted to write any sort of article, even a mock one, since I dropped off of the college newspaper in 2003. I needed to shake a lot of rust off, and I know I didn't get it quite right. For one, Keaton brought up a good point that based on the time I established the article coming out - namely, the next morning - I have too much information. The reporter had about two hours tops after catching wind of the incident to write something up before the paper went to press for morning delivery. There was no way the reporter could have gotten so many quotes from the next door neighbor and a local barista at about 3am. On the flipside, if I were to change the article's opening to the murderer being sentenced, there would be plenty of time for the reporter to get the information, but now the article "feels too short." Keaton suggested turning it into a sort of expose about the black widow killer, similar to the Serial podcast series. I don't know if I want to put that much effort into this quick project though. It might be fun, but I have enough open projects to start up another one.

Anyway, with that critic in mind, for those who wish to still read the story, I have it posted on DeviantArt and FictionPress, as per usual.

"Gonna Love Ya Like A Black Widow, Baby"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

Now, I do want to add that I did put a mature filter on the story on DeviantArt, and a trigger warning on both versions of the story. There is some suggested sex, semi-descriptive gore, and implied violence towards a dog. I know some people are sensitive to that stuff, and I have recently learned how important trigger warnings are to such things; as ways to prevent people from reading or seeing something that would greatly affect and upset them.

To be honest, though, unless it's blatant stuff such as the above, it's unlikely I'm ever going to use trigger warnings again. I am sorry for people who are deeply affected by things and need trigger warnings to know what to avoid, but in truth, something greatly affects SOMEBODY. You can't figure out what is an emotional trigger for everyone. I don't mean to be insensitive about it, it's just the fact that I hold true.

On that pleasant note....

I still need to get to writing the challenge Phfyl gave me for this week, however I think I'm overthinking it. I have about five different scenarios on how to go with the concept, and I'm not sure which to go with. I do know that I don't have the time to write all five...

I also have both the newest writing prompt from the writing group as well as the one I lost from last time - they informed me what it was. So, I have a BUNCH of writing to get to still, as well as the reading I've been avoiding for whatever reason.

I guess I should get started then. I'll have Phfyl's prompt for me up next week, and I might attempt to have at least two of the local group's prompts done for next week too. Should be interesting to see what I can crank out. Finally, I'll have to have my goal figured out by Monday, and so I'll let you guys know what I decided on.

Daily Timelines, D&D, and World Building. WHOO!

Well, here I am again! Blog post number three this year already! It may seem a bit much, but I did comment that I had a lot to say after feeling like I missed the last week of December. True, I did post on like the 28th or something, but that was to try to catch up with the week before. To me, I missed a week, and now I caught up with it. Plus, even if this is only technically the second week in 2016, it never hurts to have a head start on that 52 post count. If I slack somewhere later, I'll be covered!

Now, with two blog posts this week so close to each other, I'm sure you're probably thinking that I'm back on the ball with this writing stuff. Eh, you may be right, but at the same time, yesterday was yet another Zero Day for me. I got up, patched up some work pants, went in to work at 9, back out a little after 5, did some quick shopping, had dinner, and then it was off to FINALLY go see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." I then spent the rest of the night reading through every fantheory, review, and meme that I had been avoiding for hope of dodging spoilers.

Actually, now that I wrote that last paragraph like that - vague play-by-play of how I spent my day - I want to quickly check in on my "read in one day" book. Ali Luke had sent me an advanced copy of her super short e-book "Time to Write", an updated version of her earlier e-book "How to Find Time For Your Writing." It's only about 15 pages long, and kept me less than an hour to read - with me pausing to think about what she was proposing, as well as analyzing the book as a beta reader. Best part? It's a free e-book for anyone who signs up for her blog's newsletter; a helpful email once a week with informative tidbits on writing.

She still has to do a quick touch-up polishing and get a proper cover finished, but otherwise the book is done and will be ready for her newletter recipients soon. I highly recommend it to any writer who is having difficulty either finding time to write, struggling to make writing a priority, or even trying to shut that inner critic up long enough TO write. She has quick 2-page chapters about different reasons why people may struggle with sitting down and writing, as well as a simple exercise to try. When I say simple, I mean it. One exercise is to find 15minutes a day - that's it, you can even use your work breaks or lunches - three times a week. Write during those 15minutes. Then there's another challenge to change up your writing location: find a new one, or get noise-cancelling headphones, or find music to get you in the writing mood/drown out everyone else around you, or use an exercise ball as your chair, etc.

One challenge - which is what lead me to talk about this in the first place - is to jot down the timeline of an average day - or few, if the schedules are drastically different - in order to see where you spend your time, and if you could maybe cut in some writing. Sometimes, you don't realize you have the writing time - even those 15minutes - until you see it on paper.

Here's the example she gave in her book:

Here’s roughly how Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays currently looks for me:

• 5.45am – get up, shower, dressed, breakfast
• 6.30am – get kids up, changed, dressed, breakfasted, ready to go out. Drop Kitty at pre-school and pop to the shops with Nick. Play with Nick for a bit.
• 10am – Kids’ nanny arrives and I head upstairs to work. Brief lunch break around noon.
• 1.25pm – head down to take over from the nanny. Play with kids, normally take them out somewhere, then come home to prepare tea around 4.15pm.
• 4.45pm – teatime
• 5.15pm – Paul takes over on the kids and I have fiction writing time! :D
• 5.45pm – run kids’ bath, pop away any laundry
• 6pm – bathtime, stories, bedtime
• 7pm – cook dinner, eat dinner, and watch a bit of TV or chat to Paul
• 8.30pm – housework and mindless web surfing
• 9.30pm / 10pm – bed

... Pre-kids, my routine looked something like this:

• 7.30am – get up, breakfast, mindless web surfing
• 9am – work, with maybe a trip out to get groceries mid-morning
• 1pm – lunch break with Paul, maybe watching TV
• 2pm – work
• 6pm ish – Dinner (Paul cooked) :D
• 7pm – shower, washing up, TV, board games
• 10pm – mindless web surfing
• 11pm – bed

I have to admit that her pre-kids routine does look very familiar to me. So, I'm going to try to see if maybe I can make my life a bit more structured without kids forcing me to do so. I'll most likely fail miserably, but I can give it a shot.

Right now my schedule is:

• 6:30a - alarm goes off and I hit snooze a million times while snuggling the husband
• 7a - Finally work my way out of bed, groom, and grab a quick breakfast while checking in on Facebook
• 8a - Work
• 2p - This varies from day to day, but the average is that I leave work by 2, possibly get some shopping in, head home, grab lunch
• 4p - Definitely home except for extremely rare days. Usually plopped in the living room with Hubby; Netflix and snuggling while checking in on FB some more.
• 6p - Stomach starts growling; ignore it for another 1/2hr or so, finally cave and grab dinner; I'm generally distracting myself with more Facebook or DeviantArt.
• 7p - Get one or two episodes of CSI:NY in - thanks to Netflix - while having dinner
• 8p - Primetime shows or football. If neither are on/new, it's more Netflix & Snuggle
• 11p - I go "shoot! It's late!" and head to bed
• 11:45p - ACTUALLY make it to bed

As you can see, writing is no longer a general part of my scheduled day. Used to be all those "Netflix and Snuggle" parts - which seems to make up at least half my day - were still productive because I was crocheting gifts. Now that Christmas is over, I need to wean myself back off of the TV and get back to being productive.

For starters, I need to get back to having 4p-5p being my daily writing hour - with the rare exceptions for days like yesterday where I was at work until after 5p. For the most part, 4p-5p is just a time-void where I'm mindlessly watching TV while catching up on Facebook. It's generally after I'm home and able to have some unwind time, but before people would come over or our Primetime shows/football would start - Sunday excluded. Plus, it has a nice hour-long buffer before my bi-weekly writing group meeting, so that I can still make it to the meeting on time without cutting the session short, and I can have the session run a little long without being late to the meeting.

I've also started using the time while I'm home and Hubby's at work; such as now while I'm writing this post, actually. The house is quiet, and I don't have distractions. I do feel a bit unproductive still because I could also use this rare alone time to clean, work on finances, search for a better job, or even exercise. Heck! I could use this equally rare time where I have control of the TV and game systems to start up a game; I haven't played something myself in MONTHS, excluding my handheld games.

Nope. I'm using it for writing. I partially feel bad about it, but it's priority fixing. I can work on finances and job searching and cleaning with Hubby home. I can fight the siren's call of the TV while working on those chores. My writing, however? Even with headphones in, the gleam of the TV calls to me. I have to not have the TV on at all in order to write, and Hubby needs it on as background noise at the very least. We need to work on having a radio or something that we can have on as background noise instead....

Anyway, if Hubby's home, then I have to hide away somewhere. Not a bad option, but that either leaves me with sitting on the floor in the library, or snuggled in bed... which tends to lead to me falling asleep while writing lately.

So, writing while Hubby's at work - at least for an hour or so - and then hiding myself away between 4p and 5p. Seems like good options, we'll see how sternly I stick to them this time. The "Writing Hour" thing did work for a little while. Once Hubby knows the routine he usually shoos me away to make sure I stick with it.

There's still all that extra time though. Again, I really need to have us cut back on all the endless Netflix & Snuggle dates, and be more active/productive. More structured. As I mentioned in my earlier post this week, humans are actually fairly simple, and sometimes you need to revert back to how things were when you were a toddler. And toddlers need structure. They need to know what activity is next, when it will be, that it will be the same pattern daily, and that there's little to no "free time" where boredom or mischief can set in.

Even as adults we need that. Sure, it's out of necessity, but think about your friends, family, or even yourself after becoming a parent. Life HAD to become more structured, and with that, the new parent is surprisingly a lot more productive.

Structure leads to happier, healthier, and more productive lives. Now, to get Hubby on board so he doesn't unintentionally disrupt my new call to order by beckoning me to the couch to snuggle for seven hours straight.

But enough of that! I have been moderately productive with creative stuff, and I had every intention of talking about THAT today.

I'm becoming a Dungeon Master, or DM.

Two of my co-workers, who are planning on joining the X-Future game, are in a small D&D playgroup. The one co-worker asked Hubby to help him design a dungeon labyrinth. Hubby did, and the month it took to build it and come up with the traps in it, and all the discussions the three of us have had on the dungeon has really REALLY brought up my craving to play some D&D myself.

Sprinkle in that Hubby's been playing Skyrim, with is basically D&D the Video Game. The call for me to play this game is strong, and yet I'm sitting in Limbo with it.

For one game, a friend of a friend is supposed to DM, but life got crazy and he hasn't even thought of the campaign yet. All we have are the basic structures of the characters we built for a game that may never happen. Another game had Spink and her fiance asking Hubby to run it. He's still trying to figure out what he wants to do for that game. Then there's Hubby's Game of Thrones inspired game that he started over a year ago, and hasn't really done much with; no inspiration. Finally, there's the game that was sort of impromptu when we went to Mouse and Bear's house one day, but with our car out of commission, who knows when we'll be able to get to their new place and have the campaign continue on.

FOUR. Four games that I COULD be playing, but I am not. I lamented this. Then people suggested that if I wanted to play so badly, why not run a game myself? I have willing players that are waiting for a DM too. I'm a bit hesitant due to my inexperience with the game, but with Hubby as my co-pilot, my gift for storytelling, and four players just as inexperienced with the game as I am, it might work. I just have to remember to start simple and then work up to the heavily complex world that I've been drafting in my head.

Namely, Gyateara. True, I've been building it as a grand setting for multiple High Fantasy novels, but it was always about creating a new D&D realm as well. I want to be able to work my way up to the point that Skyrim and other Open World games are. You are the main character, but in the grand scheme of the world, you're not really important; at least, not at first. Wars are fought around you without you impacting them much one way or another. Raids happen that aren't meant to be random encounters, you may not even get there in time for it to be an encounter at all. Towns are ransacked before you can return to them. NPCs retire to a safer location before you get all the information out of them that you could have. The fortune-telling beggar ends up simply dying of hypothermia before your quest is done. The world keeps spinning with or without you. I LOVE this aspect of the Elder Scrolls games, and I am dying to be a skilled enough DM to be able to run a campaign setting like that one day.

For now though, I have to keep it small and simple as we all learn together. Which means that along with Ali's book, and making my way through "The Throne of Fire", I have also been setting aside some time to read the Dungeon Master's Guide cover to cover - although it specifically states that it's a reference book and isn't expected to be read as such - in order to learn how to do this task.

It's a great way to get my mind going again. Brewing up some plots and story ideas. Get the creative juices flowing. A lot of writers and Hollywood Big Wigs actually used to play D&D for this exact reason. Even if you don't self-identify as a geek or nerd, I do suggest finding a playgroup and joining in on at least a few sessions if you feel stuck. It's a great way to shake off some rust and have you think creatively while on your toes.

I even finished off 2015 with finally creating a map of Gyateara. It's a preliminary one and I already have some notes on how I want to alter it, but it's a start. Sadly, even after avoiding drawing a world map for years out of fear of just recreating Earth, I somehow still managed to do just that. Stupid subconscious having me create something familiar to me.

Anyway, here's the first map of Gyateara, remember, it will change, but I'm not sure by how much:

Please excuse the folds in the map....

I don't have any of these continents named, and I only have the pantheon structure figured out for about 5 of them, and so that's part of the issue that I need to work out. I have been having some fun with it though.

The equivalent to Europe will have a Greco-Roman pantheon; much like the original pantheon designed for D&D. The island grouping along the top of the page is made up of a pantheon of four goddesses, maybe one or two minor gods as well, and is structured pretty much identically to that of the Legend of Zelda games. It's also an off-shoot of the Greco-Roman pantheon.

I was wondering if the basic structure of Norse mythology is unique enough for a pantheon stylized off of it to be at all different from a Greco-Roman one, or even a war-driven one such as the Aztecs. So, I'm still debating having one of the continent pantheons be stylized Norse.

There will be an Asian-inspired continent with 12 gods, much like the Chinese zodiac. I was also debating having Japanese culture - since it is so distinct and even separate from the rest of Asia - as its own pantheon. I'd focus on the yokai, or even one centralized god - Budda-equivalent - with the yokai as his servants that helped him in the Divine War and in building his continent.

One of the smaller continents will have a pantheon inspired by the Native American beliefs and lore. One of the other island groupings will possibly be an off-shoot using other native beliefs such as the Mayans, Incas, Aztecs, Inuits, and Native Hawaiians. Since these beliefs can be drastically different from each other - Aztecs and Mayans, for one - I may reserve these smaller, more centralized beliefs for the different island groupings in order to have enough pantheon diversities for all of the continents.

The Africa-inspired continent will have a combination of an Egyptian-stylized pantheon, as well as one focused more on the tribal beliefs of the jungle sections of Africa. Namely, a pantheon made of people with animal features and a structured hierarchy. Then there will be one focused on anthropomorphed animals such as Anansi the Spider.

I'm thinking that continent in the center that looks like Africa and has a second continent attached to it might work. The one side will be "Egyptian" inspired, where the gods are all half-animal people, and the other side will be "tribal" inspired, and the gods will all be humanoid animals. The gods will create beings in their image; tweaking the agreed upon human structure that is seen across the entire globe.

The "Egyptian" gods will create creatures such as centaurs, lamia, merfolk, harpies, D&D Driders - also known as an Arachne, and to a lesser extent - mainly because they're so important to Egyptian lore - the sphinx. Whereas the "Tribal" gods will create creatures such as kobolds, gnolls, kuo-toa, catfolk - in all their variety - and minotaurs, which I define as humanoid bulls instead of half-bull half-human. Although, I guess you can make the same argument for harpies... maybe it's because minotaurs have the animal head and harpies have a human one?

Like I said, I've been having fun with this.

So, I guess I'll have to see what other inspiration learning how to DM and watching Hubby play Skyrim will bring. I'll be sure to keep you posted.


**EDITING NOTE: Soooo, um, it was brought to my attention that the term "Netflix and Chill" is not as innocent as I had thought.... I have since gone back and changed all of them to the "Netflix and Snuggle" that Hubby and I actually do...**

2016 Resolutions and Accountabilities

Alright, so I didn't manage to get to writing this as early as I had originally intended, but I'm determined to have it done before the end of the day so I can do my normal weekly update on Thursday and still manage to get on track to having 52 updates this year.

Speaking of which, that's what I wanted to talk about in this post: 2016 New Years Resolutions.

Pretty much every one of them are going to be the same as last year's, but this time I'm doing more to make sure I stick with them. A lot more accountability.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week

I'm going to attempt to do the "Don't Break The Chain" concept of marking a calendar. Thing is, I need the calendar first. "Don't Break The Chain" and "No Zero Days" is basically the same concept. The thought is to do something productive daily that works towards an overall goal. Each day you accomplish this - a non-zero day - you mark your calendar. After a little while you'll see a chain of days that you managed to do the task you set out to do: write, draw, sing, exercise, clean, etc. It's added motivation to see that chain of "x"s - or whatever it is you use to mark the calendar - add up each day. You really don't want to "break the chain" by having a day not marked off. It's kind of weird to say this, but it's the same concept as marking a toddler's "potty chart" whenever they use the toilet instead of their diaper. They get excited about the number of stickers they get, and they are disappointed when they can't get one because they didn't use the toilet.

Humans are simple creatures, and at times I feel like I need to just go back to those original tricks of "training" toddlers in order to help me break my bad habits. I've been sort of fail so far this year due to being sick, and so I'm hoping adding the "Don't Break The Chain" concept will help keep me disciplined.

In the meantime, I have some challenges to keep me writing. First is the fact that the local writing group gives out prompts at the end of each meeting, and I try to write off of those prompts in time to read it at the next meeting. It's been going well so far.

Second is that Phfylburt and I have a challenge set up for each other too. He's switched over to wanting to draw daily to improve that skill. So every Sunday we are now giving each other challenges/prompts. The following Sunday we exchange what we did that week given the prompt/challenge. Then we repeat the process by issuing each other a new prompt/challenge.

I'll go more into this a bit later.

Resolution #2: Read At Least One Book A Month

I wanted to make sure that I get this one this year. So, I started off by using my sickness downtime to crack open The Throne of Fire yet again. I managed to put a bit of a dent into it too. I'm aiming to have this book FINALLY done before the end of the month so that I can also manage to sneak in a book that I can "read in one day." Why one day?

Much like with my first resolution, I've made sure to include a challenge for accountability sake. The challenge was put out by blogger Anne on the site Modern Mrs. Darcy. The long and short of it can be found in this picture she created:


Now, just having the challenge and saying I want to do it is a start, but I've learned that I never tend to follow through with anything unless someone else can check in on me. So, my mom, Spink, and Cyhyr are all joining me. On the first of each month we are going to do a check-in to state what book we read and under what category of the checklist it was for us. This way we're not restricted to finding a book we'll all read as a typical reading group would, but we all still get the benefits of talking about the book we chose.

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week

Tweaked the wording of this a little from last year. I want to be a more active member again. I was doing so well for a while, and then again dropped off the face of the Earth. I have to be honest, part of me doesn't want to click on that link to go back to the forums because I know I have a lot to catch up on, and it'd daunting. But little bits here and there to slowly catch up shouldn't be too overwhelming. Baby steps. So, I'm tasking myself to rejoin the forum community by the end of this week. The accountability will be forum members seeing me active. The trick is going to be remaining active once the chaos of November and December swing by again. I just need to see if I can get one or two of them to send me FB messages asking me if I'm still alive if I haven't logged in after a week. I think that might do it.

Resolution #4: Complete At Least One Writers' Huddle Module

Last year I did the MasterClass, and I still pull from it all the time. It has really reshaped the way I look at certain things in regards to writing. Knowing how much it can impact me, I'm really going to try to get through one of the modules on Writers' Huddle.

In fact, Ali Luke just put up a new seminar about beating both procrastination and writer's block. That sounds right up my alley! She also just sent me an advanced copy of her book on basically the same subject to beta read. Now, to find a way to make myself accountable so I don't slack off on this again....

Resolution #5: Beta Read And Return Notes Within A Fortnight

As I just stated, Ali just sent me - this morning, actually - an advanced copy of her book on finding the time to write, with hopes that I can beta and get some notes back to her. That's actually the next thing on my To Do list after finishing this post. I'm hoping it will work well with my other resolutions to keep me on the straight and narrow when it comes to writing discipline.

I also have to get around to reading DFL's story that she sent me a little over a month ago. It didn't seem like such a big task at first. She wanted me to read her backstory for her characters. I was figuring it was something like Amara's; about 4 or 5 pages long. Instead, it turns out that her "backstory" is actually her "original story"; the first story in this saga that she wrote a few NaNoWriMo's ago. The whole document is over 100 pages. Not the "sit down and get through it in one day" reading I was expecting.

So I've put it off. Something that is not fair to DFL at all. As a means to try to correct this wrong, I'm going to push myself to get through at least one scene every two weeks so I have something new to bring to her at the bi-weekly meetings. I only have one week this go, though, since our meeting is next Tuesday night.

From this point out, I'm going to try harder to actually do right by the people I beta for. Get them their notes quickly. Especially after hearing how quickly James Patterson can manage this task. Once more, though, I feel I need some way of holding me accountable, and I don't think it's going to be via complaints. So far I've dealt with some saintly patient writers....

Resolution #6: Have 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2016

I dropped the first part about "six items of prose published" because with all of these challenges keeping me away from zero-days, I should have something new to post every week. The trick is getting around to writing my weekly blog posts. So, this year I'm going for the big 5-2. I've come close, but I haven't actually done it yet. Perhaps this will be the year. Then, maybe 2017 will be the year of me posting an update at the same time and on the same day every week.

Alright, so those are my resolutions this year, with added accountability to try to get me to actually succeed with them this time. How have I been doing so far?

Well, for the Non-Zero Days, I've been "meh". I wrote on the 4th in order to have that dog story ready for the meeting on the 5th. I wrote my blog post last week. I'm working on this post today - and I started it yesterday - so there's that. Plus I worked on the challenge that Phfyl gave me. I have been doing other story-related things lately, but that's all the writing I've been doing.

Speaking of Phfyl's challenge, I promised last week, as well as earlier in this blog, to showcase what I wrote. Keep in mind that I'm not a poet, and this is VERY rough. As Phfyl put it:

Phfylburt: It did feel like a first draft and that it was kind of simply scratching the surface. It also didn't feel complete, like it could have used two or three more lines. Of course this is all subjective, so take it as you will.

He prefaced with a lot of nice things about the poem, which shocked me since I still think I suck at it. I'm with him, though, it does feel like a first draft. However I don't have a clue on how to edit a poem. Prose you can see where you can add description, or cut it, or add/cut dialogue, or where you can use a better word. Poetry? I dunno. Too "unstructured" for me, I guess. Kind of like how I'm not a fan of the "Open World/Sandbox" games like Elder Scrolls where you can go anywhere, do anything, or be anyone. I need more guidelines.

Alright, enough dawdling.

Inner Critic
Inadequate
Everyone else has their plan
What is mine? Where am I headed?
What’s going to grab me; drive me?
Self-doubt
We all have it, and I need to conquer it
I can do this.
I need to do this.
This is me. Why can’t I find me?
Push through. Always pushing through.
Focus on the good. Focus on the positive.
Still, I feel so behind; just trying to catch up.

Want to know a fun bit of trivia about this poem?

The challenge was "write a poem (lets say simply twelve lines) describing nothing. It can be in whatever form you would like."

I interpreted that to mean that I wasn't allowed to describe anything. Phfyl MEANT for me to literally describe "nothing." He wanted to see what I would come up with in poetry form as I described the essence of "nothing"; however I saw it. The real fun part about this whole misunderstanding was that when he read my poem he thought that I had followed as intended, except that I was describing what it felt like to think of yourself as nothing.

I guess that is partially true. Maybe a part of my subconscious figured out what Phfyl was going for and decided to point me in that direction. So, the poem ended up having me describe what it was like to feel like nothing, while avoiding describing anything at all.

Huh....

Well, my latest challenge is to write a news report based on a song. I'm still trying to figure out what song to use. I've also sent out a query late last night to see if Ronoxym wanted in on these challenges in order to stay on top of his reading/writing. He hasn't replied as of this posting. I hope he is willing to join in on this, because I have a great challenge in mind for him!

I'm now off to read Ali's book, which I might be able to qualify as my "read in one day" book for this month. I'm hoping to get another post in this week on my normal Thursday update. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

New Year; Sick Me

Image is Leave The Past Behind And Welcome The New Year
by NaBHaN

Goodness, it's been a little while. Sorry about that. Not the best start to the new year, huh? In all fairness, however, the delay in my update is mostly due to the fact that I got hit with a wicked cold on the first. I barely had anything to drink, and I stopped at about 10pm, and so no snickering that it was a hangover.

I was battling a nasty head cold around Christmas, got over it around the 28th or so, and then got hit with an even worse one on the first. If I wasn't drugged up so I could get through work, I was fast asleep in bed. At least, that's how I spent the first three days of the new year. Monday was the first day I ventured out of bed for any decent amount of time outside work.

I had the intent to use the day off to work on my blog, which may get yet ANOTHER update day change given the frequency I've had to work on Thursdays vs the frequency that I've had Mondays off. However, I also had my bi-weekly writers group meeting on Tuesday, which I hadn't even started working on the writing prompt for.

I wanted to include the links to the prompt in this week's update, and so I tasked myself to finish that first. Problem was, I wasn't really sure where to go with the prompt.

We collectively pieced together a very vague character. Keaton likes our prompts to be as vague as possible so that she and DFL can each use the prompts to write another snippet for their overarching novels, which are fairly different from each other. I get it, but every once in a while I'd like for a very specific prompt and see how each of us tackle something that seems so black and white.

Anyway, the prompt this time had us tackle a character with two motivations, two conflicts, and a random extra element.

The extra element was that we had to include a dog somehow. Instantly, I knew I wanted to write the story through the dog's POV. I figured it would be fresh and unique. Then, I heard Keaton's story with a dog as the narrator. Hmmm. I guess that's yet another way the two of us are similar.

What were the other components needed for the story? Well, the two conflicts were a rival and the loss of something. The two pieces of motivation were recognition and money. Everything else worked fine with my idea of a dog POV, but money? Why would a dog want money? Keaton actually added that as part of the narration. "They say I'm supposed to want money, but I'm a dog. What would I do with money?"

Me? I had to go to my number one sounding board: Hubby. It was his suggestion that the dog is a show dog bringing in lots of winnings, and that his motivation for recognition and money is actually translated to him wanting to win more competitions. The rival could either be an up-and-coming younger dog that could take his titles away, or even a new pet at home that changes the family's focus to a more playful animal instead of the well-behaved and well-trained champion dog that is the narrator.

Great ideas. I loved it. Got the gears going. And then I thought of the Disney movie "Oliver & Company". Much like how "The Lion King" is Disney's animated animal version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "Oliver & Company" is Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist"; for those who didn't know.

The reason my mind went to the Disney version of the tale was because the company turned the character Georgette into a pampered and prissy prize-winning poodle. She hates that Jenny Foxworth brought Oliver into Georgette's home; taking away the love and pampering that she felt she deserved. She had a rival: Oliver. She was feeling loss: Jenny's love, Winston's time, pampering, etc. She wanted recognition: all the family's attention, and the proclamation that she was all the family needed. She even was a dog that had a reason to want money: it was spent to lavish her with the finer things in life, plus, as a show-dog, she was bringing in the money.

I tried to write it so that the fact that Georgette and Dodger's gang were all dogs, and that Oliver was a cat, was hidden. However, I forgot one key thing. If you aren't in the mindset of "Oliver & Company" you may pick up on the original text of "Oliver Twist". Which means my crafty "you won't pick up on this right away" would shoot me in the foot as people picture the original classic and still be confused where the dog would come into play. Whoops.

That's sort of what happened at the group. The other three women that typically show all have children about my age, and so in their mind the story was the classic. Whereas the classic Dickens writing always bored me - I know, I know, shun me now - and so I appreciated Disney's take on the story as a way of introducing me to the classic tale. To me, Oliver is a orange cat, Dodger is a Jack Russell Terrier with a red bandanna, Fagin is Dodger's beloved homeless owner, and Georgette is a pampered poodle.

Anyway, if you wish to read my story, you can find it on DeviantArt - with some typos, sorry about that - and on FictionPress. Yes, it is a fanfic, but it's part of my writing prompts anthology, and so I kept it with the others on FP.

"The Queen of This Castle"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

Now I need to focus on the next prompt we put together. It was a generic setting we each threw one component into. Keaton was wondering why I said it was generic, and frankly, it's again what I said before, she tries to have something broad enough that both she and DFL can use it in their main manuscripts. It's not a bad thing, but she needs to understand how vague these prompts are because of that.

Our setting is Coming Back From A Funeral at Dusk on a Saturday during the Winter months. It's specific enough to be considered a prompt; most prompts on say LiveJournal are just one word like "Peace" or "Spring". However, she wouldn't allow me to throw in things more specific such as "snowy winter" or "rural vs city" or "unattended funeral." She felt it was too restricting. As it stands, DFL's story in the desert can still work. Winter doesn't have to mean cold or snow or even the winter holidays. It just means the three months where there is the least amount of natural light due to the Earth's location in relation to the sun. Also, she can have the funeral be as bustling or unattended or sorrowful or joyfilled as would be appropriate for such ceremonies in 10,000BC. Meanwhile, Keaton can use the same prompt with Buster Keaton in NYC or LA or writing his post-apocalyptic story-within-a-story of two boys in a semi-rural area during a zombie attack.

Me? I'm still seeing where this prompt takes me. Seeing as how I still don't have even an idea for a manuscript to work off of. X-Future definitely translates better into a more visual medium, and so a TV/Netflix/Hulu/webseries or a comic book series would work best for it. It still needs a manuscript, but not the prose/novel that I was aiming for. I'm also still attempting to work on my Gyateara world build, and so I'm nowhere near actually writing any stories in that world.

There has been some deaths on X-Future, although, I don't recall if we ever established a day of the week for any of them. The one I'm thinking of was definitely in the late summer/early fall months, so that might not work. Then again, we never did comment about the deaths that came just before the initial 2yr time jump. That happened just before winter break. Not quite winter, but with the rummaging through rubble, the actual funeral service(s) may not have taken place until late December/early January. I might be able to do that. This way I'm not the only one just writing random prose unrelated to each other.

Then again, I may just stick with what I've been doing. Who knows what stories may come to life with these prompts. Red, for instance, may go back to an earlier prompt with this setting one. She had a character who was going mad after her boyfriend left her, and now she's plotting to kill both him and two people in her past she felt wronged her. We were all talking about how much fun it would be for her to use this funeral prompt as a continuation. I said I wanted to see how the narrator kept her composure at the funeral so that people didn't realize how excited she was about the death.

Also, back when I did the daily prompt challenge for "Hey, Arnold!" fanfiction, I actually had a few related prompts. It just seemed perfect to have one continue the story left from a previous prompt.

Hopefully, it won't take the full two weeks to figure out what I'll write. Either way, if I don't have it ready by next week I will certainly have it done the following one.

In the meantime, I have another challenge. Phfylburt is in the picture again. With his new little one, although she's apparently very easy going, he hasn't had the time or inspiration to write lately. However, he's always wanted to learn how to draw, and he has just enough time to practice that daily. He's been a bit mad about slacking off, though. So I issued him a challenge.

He would give me a new writing prompt every Sunday, and I would give him a new drawing challenge. The following Sunday, we will exchange what we did, and issue another challenge for the week. Technically speaking, he's supposed to show me at least five different drawings he's done throughout the week, but as long as I get the drawing I requested, I can let the others slide.

Now, poor Phfyl thought he was easing me into this new challenge set-up. Thing is, he asked me to do one of the most challenging things for me: poetry.

I used to write poems a lot in middle school. Looking back at them, I've realized they're terrible. My college ones weren't much better. The ones I attempted to write for Helga in my "Hey, Arnold!" stories are just as bad. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I can't stand vague, thought-provoking writing. I don't want a pretty simile about your soul and the colors of the rainbow when you meet different people. I want to know the location of every battle scar on that 6' 2" Puerto Rican man with cocoa-bean brown eyes, brunette hair so deep it appears black, and a crooked smile due to his previously broken jaw.

Every time I attempt poetry it always seems like a pathetic forgery. Like someone telling you they'll make you a fabulous Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and then plops a Tofurky in the center of the table; worse yet, the tofurky is barely shaped to look like an actual bird.

If this isn't bad enough, the challenge is to write a 12-line poem that describes nothing. NOTHING! No description! WHA!? Hit the ground running, I guess. Sink or swim. Well, the point was to challenge each other in order to better them. So he swung hard without even knowing he did.

It may not be pretty. It may not be poetry. But by gum, I'll have a 12-line poem ready to post here next week! I just need to write it still....

Because of my illness-induced impromptu vacation, I actually have a lot more to talk about. However, this seems to be getting a bit long. I'll save it for next week, or perhaps an extra blog post to try to get me up to 52 this year!

Oh yeah! I never officially stated my resolutions for this year! Yup. Definitely need to work on another post. Now that football's regular season is over and the playoffs have started, I should have more of my evenings free. That should open up some more time for me to write and sneak in that extra post. However, Ronoxym and Cyhyr are supposed to visit on Saturday. And my nephew's baptism is Sunday. Still, I'll try to get something ready for Mondayish. So, keep an eye out.

I'm also going to use my first post of 2016 to yet again plug the fact that you can fave my blog and/or join a mailing list. The mailing list simply drops this blog right into your email for ease of access. Plus, you don't have to worry about maybe missing a post since my update days are never set in stone. I swear that's it. You won't get any promotional mail from me or Blogger. You won't get any spam. We don't send out your email address to anyone. Just a simple: "You've Got Mail: The Rogue's Scribe Updated; here it is!"

Sound good to you? Then just go to the right side bar; you'll have to scroll back up to the top. Do you see my "About Me"? Good. Right above it is the option to input your email address to join the mailing list. Simple as that. Then the blog will be delivered right to you like a faithful Sunday morning paper.

If you want to fave my blog and just check in on it via your Blogger dashboard, simply set up a Blogger account if you haven't yet. If you are on Google+ you have an account already. Simply go to Blogger and it will bring you to your dashboard. Scroll down a little bit and you'll see "Reading List." From there you can add new blogs. You simply click "Add" and then drop in the url of this blog. You can then choose whether or not to follow me anonymously before clicking "Follow." You're done! You can now just log back into your Blogger dashboard, go down to Reading List, and read the latest entry of this blog and any others you are following.

You can also include my blog in your RSS feed; basically the same thing as favoriting it on Blogger. For those of you who don't know what an RSS is, then don't worry, the other two options work fine. For those of you who do have one, just above the option to sign up for the email is a place where you can subscribe to my posts, the comments, or both via your RSS. You can subscribe via NetVibes or My Yahoo!

One last way to stay up to date with this blog. I post on Twitter. I don't really do much else on Twitter any more - I'm addicted enough to Facebook to add Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or Pinterest - but I do post when I update my blog. It's as simple as following @LycoRogue.

Alright, I really should get some work done, either on the funeral prompt, my poem, or some of the cleaning I need to do around here. Catch you guys next week, and have a happy new year!