My Muse Apparently Has Purple Hair

I'm not sure if I should be proud or disappointed in my efforts....

On the one hand, I only managed two writing sessions this past week: one I wrote only 626 words, then the second was a last-ditch effort to make up my word count, but even that ended with only 1592 words. Within the middle third of the Writers’ Huddle Summer Challenge, I was aiming for five writing sessions at 700 words each, at least. That means I should be writing about 3500 words per week. I managed 2218. This far into the challenge I should have written 12,000 words overall. I have managed 9035 - excluding what I write for this blog - over the course of four weeks. That means I'm 2965 words behind where I feel I should be.

Yesterday started the final third of the challenge; the point where I wanted to be able to write 1000 words per session; five times a week. Anyone want to guess how many words have been written thus far? Give yourself a gold star if you picked zero!

NuaNia Facebook Sticker
by PRANEAT

Yeah, no... don't give anyone any gold stars! This is getting pretty bad!

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

I did manage to write SOMETHING though. So.... yay? Gold stars after all? Having nearly 10,000 words by the end of a month is still exciting, right? I mean, that was my whole goal for July's Camp NaNo. Plus, it's still 9000 words more than I had before. It got me something to post here last week. It allowed me to finish up my Camp NaNo project. It made sure I didn't completely slack off after a writing fury. Also, writing 2200 words this past week can be mildly impressive when taking into consideration that I was focused on organizing with my mom all last week.

So, yeah, I didn't get as much writing as I would have liked, but I did accomplish this:

I mean, I accomplished a LOT this past week. It just wasn't really in the writing department.

Still, as I keep saying, considering the limited time I had this week, I'm still increasingly impressed at the amount of writing I did do. Especially since I also had a party to attend right after work on Saturday, and Friday, when I meant to catch up on writing, I ended up passing out on the couch instead.

Ya know what? Give me that gold star after all! I could have dropped writing completely this week, and instead I put in the effort of writing at least SOMETHING.

OK, that may have been a bit much, but... eh.... encourage good behavior, I guess.

My short-blip of a writing session I managed on Friday before I passed out isn't really much to read, but it's writing practice. It's not supposed to be my magnum opus. It's mostly stream-of-consciousness and inspired by the agonizingly boring Thursday evening I had, followed by an equally mind-numbing Friday; probably why I passed out in the first place.

So, if you want a quick read about my thoughts on days seeming unbearably long, you can check it out below.

"Time Must Be A Toddler"

On DeviantArt            On FictionPress

As for my last-ditch writing session? Well, it was Sunday, I needed to check in with Writers' Huddle, and I didn't even have 700 words under my belt. I needed to try to get something else down on paper.

I had finished the Devon/Trish story aside from editing. Granted, once I get the fight scene figured out I'll probably add words there, but at the stage I currently am I know I'd be subtracting words; not adding them. Plus, Mouse is in a writing flow and didn't want to disrupt it by stopping to edit her July project. I can't fault her that. So we pushed back our writing exchange. Helps me too, because I can now focus the last two weeks on prepping for Quarthix's wedding as well as going full-throttle on this writing challenge. This does mean, though, that I'll have to back down from my original promise to have the edited Devon/Trish story up by the end of the month. Unrealistic thoughts, that.

However, I'm not doing another writing challenge next month. So, by the end of SEPTEMBER I will have it up. Poke me relentlessly if I delay again.

Anyway, my point is that I didn't have any more writing to add to the Devon/Trish story right now. I'm still largely inspired to work on my fan-novelization of Varekai, but I want to save it for my NaNo this year, and I already "cheated" a bit by writing one of the chapters. I have to resist writing more before November. I need to spend my time writing notes on what I want the narrative to be. THAT is what I can do before November, but no more chapter attempts. No "cheating."

So that's two projects I'm interested in, but I'm trying to avoid right now. The next big project I want to try to work on is the "Hey, Arnold!" fan-script for "The Jungle Movie" before the actual one premiers on Nickelodeon in November. The problem there is that I don't really remember what ChibiSunnie and I have thus far, which means I have to take the time to read through it first. I didn't have time to do that and still get my writing in. What other writing project could I work on?

With the excitement of TJM, I've actually been feeling What Is Truly Meant To Be again. The problem there is that it's been so long since I've touched that story that I would desperately need my notes to remember where I was headed next, and they're buried somewhere under all the other notes I've made for more recent stories.

Perhaps I could finally get to my Miraculous fanfic. Problem with THAT, though, is that it's been a few weeks since I last saw the show, which means not having the characters predominantly in my head anymore. It also means that all of the "reveal moments" I thought up while watching the show are overpowered by all the "reveal moments" I've seen in fancomics or read in fanfiction. A lot of them are really good, and I kind of want to incorporate a lot of elements from each of them. However, there's a lot of elements that I also wasn't the biggest fan of; giving me the challenge of "I can do better."

Being so determined to get it "juuuuust right" means planning. Planning means time. I didn't have that. I spent an hour trying to get it mapped out in my head, and it ended up with me wasting my writing time doing anything but writing.

No. It was about 10pm on Sunday, I only had 600-some words for the week, and I didn't have time to search for notes or reread anything or rewatch any shows or plot anything out. I needed to write. Now!

I went back to "A Writer's Book of Days." I'd write three writing prompts if I needed to! Except I wasn't inspired. I already struggled for a day to work on "The Longest Day" which is why I missed writing anything after work on Thursday. I saw the next prompt was "Write about a shade tree" and nothing came to me. Nothing. No inspiration in the slightest. I didn't have time for this! I needed to write!

I racked my brain. I needed my Muse to talk to me, and quickly. There must be SOME story I wanted to tell that didn't need prep-work. There must be SOME tale that I didn't need to wait on. There must be SOME inspiration waiting for me to find it.

And there was.

Jolene! Glorious, beautiful, broken Jolene! I haven't touched her story since, what, January? Mostly because I couldn't handle the heartache of writing more of her story. But now was the time. I needed her. I had her story planned out. I knew what needed to be written for the next chapter. I had her in my head a lot lately due to some of the music I've been listening to the past few weeks. I missed her. Now was the time.

And I wrote.

I wrote nearly 1600 words before Hubby knocked on our bedroom door. It was midnight, and we should be going to bed. Mildly defeated that I only wrote about a third of the words I wanted to this past week, I submitted and put the laptop away.

Still, I'm back on track with Jolene. The next time I need to write and inspiration alludes me I will again turn to her. In fact, until I can think of something worth writing about a "shade tree," Jolene will probably be my focus for the last two weeks of this challenge.

Slowly but surely, I will have all my WIPs completed.

Read to Write: Spark of Inspiration

Before I get going on this week's post, I want to send out a belated birthday wish for one of my high school friends who hit the big 3-0 yesterday!

Happy Birthday, Stargazer! I'm sure your son is making you
feel equal parts young and old right now. :D

Alright, back to business.

I have spent the week keeping myself busy with things that could possibly be RELATED to writing, but actual writing was not done. Again. This is getting tiring.

I'm at a point where I'm mentally blocked again. I want to just write things. I want to spend my downtime at work frantically scribbling off pages and pages of ANYTHING prose. Instead, whenever I sit at work and go "OK, I'm taking my fifteen-minutes-a-day to write.... NOW." I then spend it scribbling in the margins as my mind goes blank. I'm still not entirely sure if it's due to a lack of inspiration, or an overload of it.

I hopped back on Writers’ Huddle late last week. I haven't been on in MONTHS, and I felt that this dry spell is precisely when I would need the group again. While chatting in the forums, I jotted down all the projects I either have in the works, or planned in the back of my head. There's quite a few....

1. "Please, Let Me Explain" is the story I'm co-writing with my friend Ronoxym, but he disappeared in November. The story is about his character Devon returning to the Xavier school after seemingly abandoning it to their enemy. He tries to win back the trust of my character Willow, but she's not biting. He convinces her to use her telepathic powers to read his mind to prove he isn't lying, but when she does so his Id takes over and manifests itself as a sort of Tour Guide through Devon's brain to keep Willow from finding out his deepest secret: murdering a man in cold blood because Devon believed the man had murdered Willow and the rest of the kids at the Xavier school.
2. "X-Future: The Second Generation Begins" is my conversion of the X-Future play-by-post role play game story into novelized narrative. I was passionate about this project at first because I love the majority of the story that came out of the gameplay. However, the task has become so daunting that I rarely put in the effort to try to continue it...
3. "X-Future: Snippets" are simple little one-shots of the X-Future characters to help me character build, work through headcanon that wouldn't work as legit game-canon, or get back into character for the game. I haven't touched this project in a little while either. Everything I think of for the game characters I almost instantly place in the game itself.
4. "Glitches" is my reworking of X-Future into an original work, most likely a graphic novel series. I'm not decided on the title yet, but instead of "mutants" or "gifted" or "super humans" or whatever else Marvel and the MCU has used, I'm going with the term "Glitches" since their mutations are "glitches" in their DNA. This is the project that grips me the most, but it still has a lot of world building and character building that I need to work on.
5. "The Divine Legends"/"The People of Gyateara" are two stories dealing with my high-fantasy world building, but I'm just soooo bad at coming up with original versions of D&D gods and mythos and populating a world.... I've been working on Gyateara since, like, 2009.... >_<
6. "What Is Truly Meant To Be" is a "Hey, Arnold!" fanfic I started around 2010 and sort of abandoned. I do wish to finish it, I just need to find time to rewatch the show in order to re-immerse myself in the source material in order to stay in character. This story is about Arnold, upon graduating high school, realizing he's still in love with Helga. However, when he returns to his childhood hometown to confess his love to her, he discovers that she's now dating her long-time admirer Brainy, whom I believe I renamed Ian. Arnold struggles to deal with losing Helga, while Helga is torn between her current love for Brainy/Ian and her lingering love for Arnold.
7. "HA! Midsummer..." I don't even have a crafty title yet. It's another "Hey, Arnold!" fanfic idea. Yes, idea, I haven't even started writing this one yet. The concept is a HA! crossover with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I really liked this idea since the show itself seemed to mimic The Bard's weird love square: Arnie loves Helga, who loves Arnold, who loves Lila, who loves Arnie.... It's trying to figure out which "Hey, Arnold!" characters best fit the rest of the play's cast that's been snagging me.
8. "A Huntress' Love" or something like that.... Sorry for the pathetic title, I suck at those.... This is - surprise, surprise - another fanfic idea, this time focused on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson universe. I once saw a tweet back and forth between Riordan and a reader asking about what would happen if one of the maiden huntresses of the Greek goddess Artemis fell in love. The thought of an Artemis huntress falling into the greatest Taboo of her mistress really stuck with me. I even wrote out an outline for this tale for my "Master Class with James Patterson" webinar series I did last fall. Trick is, I still haven't even developed the two main characters for this tale. I know the one is a huntress and the other is a demigod. Beyond that? Nothing really.
9. "Lottie's Tale" another one where I never really even thought of the title, this is just some BS placeholder working title. Anyway, the story is based on a vampire character I created for a live-action role play game I was part of. The concept is that Lottie is on a mission to track down the vampire that killed and diablerized her sire, in other words, ate the vampire's soul; the vampire equivalent to cannibalism. While slaughtering her way through vampire clans, she also follows subtle clues as to why her husband went MIA in WWII, clues that hint that perhaps he's still alive after all. All of this is chaos enough, but poor Lottie is also struggling with the fact that decades of being a vampire, especially an overly murderous one of her own kind, is whittling away at her humanity.
10. "Best Served Cold" similar to the above story, this one is about another vampire character I created for game. This one has Neghya - pronounced Nia - on the hunt for the vampire that violently raped her and mutilated her before turning her into a vampire all as punishment for embarrassing and wronging him in the most grievous of ways in his eyes. He wanted to literally take everything from her, and then hoped that she wouldn't reawaken before the sun had ashed her. Neghya has no clue about the world she was dumped into, and must learn how to control her new vampiric powers while trying to track down her Sire.
11. "The Race for Destiny", again, I'm sorry about the terrible titles.... This is a NaNoWriMo story from YEARS back, and it's one of the first stories I had set up on Gyateara. A woman from Earth is magically teleported onto Gyateara and struggles to find a way home. In the meantime, the locals believe that she's a prophesied Chosen One of the main four goddesses of the country. The goddesses each pick a Chosen One that best personifies her favored.... we'll call them personality traits for want of a better term.... and if the Chosen Ones come together, or if one person wins favor with all four goddesses, then they will gain the ability to unlock the divine sword Destiny from its chamber. I know, the sword's name is lame, I plead youth ignorance.... Anyway, any who wield Destiny would have the blessing of the Goddesses, and could use the sword to either bring great prosperity and peace to the land, or drive the country into immense destruction and despair; depending on the wielder's heart. Unfortunately, a villain that could very well bring upon the world this great destruction had managed to win favor of two of the goddesses: strength and strategy. The girl from Earth, who was believed to win the Goddess favor of love, and a young man possessing the Goddess favor of valor, must work together to beat the villain in order to unlock Destiny and finally return peace to the young man's world. Oh, and I bet you can already guess that the two main leads hook up; causing the girl the struggle of wondering if she wants to even return to Earth; cliche....

I feel like there's more I'm forgetting, but you get the idea by now.

So.... yeah... my block is not for want of ideas, it's most likely for want of a direction to go in. Right now I'm scattered all over this above list. Whichever I'm in the mood for, I guess, a little X-Future here, some more world building there, maybe sprinkle in some fanfiction.... You get the idea. It's not a good way of doing things at all. The lack of focus is hurting me more than anything. I just don't know where to aim my focus, since I don't know what story is calling out to me.

Of course, the one that's pulling me the most is the one that not only has the second-to-most world building to do, but also presumably has no conclusion. It's meant to be a comic series. While comics, especially web comics, do run their stories and eventually end, there are more like the main staples - Superman, Batman, X-Men, Captain America, The Avengers, The Justice League, Teen Titans, Fantastic Four, etc - that are still running about half-a-century later. With different writers and illustrators, yes, but they're still going. Heck, even TV shows like The Simpsons are the same way. What if "Glitches" is actually a success? That would be awesome, but there would also presumably be no end in sight. No goal to really work towards, just the telling of the story of characters that I love until they stop telling me their stories anymore.

A sweet sentiment, but not one that really helps me out in whittling down that above list. Sad thing is that most of that list are 20-some chapter novels. Nothing quick to finish off so that I have at least ONE completed long project. The closest I have to that is "Please, Let Me Explain" which should be about seven or so chapters long. Problem is, I can't finish it without Ron, who's been very MIA. I can't really blame him. He's working the overnight shift now, and is prepping for his first-born's arrival next month. Still, both he and Phfylburt; I miss reading their writing, because it always sparked my own creativity. So, yeah, it's kind of selfish of me that I'm bummed at their lack of writing lately. Is that wrong???

Anyway, people on the Writers Huddle forum suggested that I needed to ignore writing for a bit, and find other creative outlets: walking, drawing, watching movies, playing video games, or reading books, that sort of thing. Doing so might spark my muse again. Can't say that they're wrong.

Since I haven't been using my downtime at work for writing, I've been using it for reading. Seven days into this month - but in all reality, let's not count today yet since I literally started writing this right after waking up today - and I'm already 236pages into my book for the month. I'd be nearly done with "Speaker for the Dead" if I was reading that this month instead of last. As it stands, however, I am a little shy of half-way through my current novel.

I decided to just go ahead and read "Xenocide" by Orson Scott Card. That way Speaker and its characters were still fresh in my mind. I'll use the book to check off the "Owned but never read" category. I mean, technically, HUBBY owns the book, but what's his is mine and vice versa, right? So it counts as me also owning it and never reading it for nearly five years, right? Yeah. I'm going with it.

Much like in Speaker, Card starts off each chapter with a little intro side-story sort of thing before getting into the meat of the chapter. Unlike in Speaker, Xenocide's intro bits aren't nearly as distracting. They are conversations between two unnamed characters. Having read Speaker recently, I recognized the "voices" being used by the two characters, and was able to figure out who is speaking before each chapter starts. It still gets a bit confusing because sometimes the two characters themselves have similar voices, while distinct in relation to the voices of the rest of the book characters, and so it's a challenge to figure out who is saying what in the conversation. A couple of passes and I think I have them sorted out, though.

I really am enjoying the story. Each chapter adds more presumably impossible challenges instead of ever conquering any, and so the stakes just keep getting higher and higher, and the "correct" path becomes harder and harder to see. It follows the theme present in all the Ender Saga books I've read so far, and possibly every story Card ever writes; I haven't read enough of them yet: be empathetic to everyone, because everyone believes their way is the only correct one, and just because those beliefs conflict doesn't mean either is wrong.

I must admit, Card's language is a bit more elevated than I'm used to, and my vocabulary isn't exactly extended enough to understand some of the words he throws in - truthfully, if I wasn't at work, I'd probably have a dictionary on my lap as I read - and he still tosses in untranslated Portuguese a lot. So, yeah, my eyes sort of glaze over in spots. Still, the majority of the story is engaging because it deals so much with the Human Condition and inner turmoil of the characters; something I enjoy greatly. There's just something about Character-driven plots instead of Event-driven plots that really calls out to me. Maybe it's because I'm a people person. Maybe it's because my calling really should have been some sort of therapist or counselor. I did really want to do something like a minor in Psychology in college because it both intrigued me, and it would help with creating more believable characters. Had to drop the idea though because my workload was too much to finish in four years. I might have to go back and Annex a few Psych classes some day.

Sorry, tangent. The point I'm trying to convey is that while the mystery of Speaker, quickly followed by the love of the characters, really drew me in for that story, the real hook for Xenocide is just the characters. How will they handle, and hopefully avoid, their impending doom, or the massive burdens they bear? Is xenocide of SOME species inevitable in order for the other species to survive? I mean, there are at least five species at stake, and who knows how many more Card is going to throw in before the story's done. So many nagging questions and challenges I'm waiting to see results for! At the same time, though, reading Xenocide is making me think more and more of the events of Speaker.

Which brings me full circle: read to write. The more I read "Xenocide" the more I think about the background events of "Speaker for the Dead": what exactly happened during the twenty-odd years it kept the Speaker to get to Lusitania? We know the broad strokes; the basic history. We know the essentials of what happened, but what about the nitty gritty day to day? How did that history play out?

It was late yesterday, and I didn't get very far, and so I don't have anything to post and share, but I did start writing a fanfic about that very subject: what was the day-to-day turmoil on Lusitania like while they unknowingly waited for the Speaker? I don't want to give any spoilers away, and so I'll actually be writing two different versions of this fanfic. One will have the actual character names in true fanfic fashion. That one will be posted on FanFiction.net when I'm done. The other version will be the same exact tale, but with original names. That way when you go into the story cold, you won't know which characters it's talking about. This version will be posted on DeviantArt.com and FictionPress.com when I'm done. Fair warning, though, in order for this tale to work I still need to keep the key fanfiction elements of the character interactions. So, if you read even my "spoiler free" version, if/when you read Speaker you will get the spoilers anyway. Or at least, it should come to you based on the interactions of the characters; you should be able to plug back in who is supposed to be who. In that case, should I bother removing the names????? I'll have to figure that out before officially posting.

Well, I have a lot to do, especially if I'm going to have that story written up in time for Writing Group tonight. I hope to have it all set for the rest of you to read next week. With any luck, more writing inspiration should strike too, and not just more character/plot builds for my D&D campaign like this past week.

Too Many Bunnies

"Peace For France" by Jean Jullien

First and foremost, I want to say that my heart is with all of those in France. It was heartbreaking to hear the news of the terrorist attacks there. Still having vivid memories of the September 11th attacks here in the United States, I can only imagine the shock and fear the French are dealing with. However, I also know the strength that comes out of tragedies like this. So, stand proud and firm, France. We are with you in your time of need.

I'm also going to get a bit political here, so please bear with me. It is a shame that the Muslim community – a generally PEACEFUL people – has always had to face some sort of persecution and ridicule. It's also a shame that because of extremists – like Crusaders or Zionists – the whole Muslim community faced extreme hate, fear, and prejudice after the September 11 attacks. Even worse that they are just barely shaking off the stigma from that, only to yet again be blamed as a whole for the atrocities a small extreme committed. My heart and prayers are with you all as well.

May France and the Muslims weed out the evil that infects them, and may they find peace. In the meantime, may the world understand that a whole is not always the sum of its parts. Just as your whole body isn't a disease simply because you have cancer in a part of it, a whole community is not evil simply because a part – that the rest cast out, by the way – creates so much violence.

On a completely unrelated note. Today, the third Thursday in November, marks the Great American Smokeout. An event promoted by the American Cancer Society, where Americans are asked to give up their tobacco vice for the day in hopes of taking the first step towards quitting. If you're thinking of quitting, check for hotlines and other sources in your area for help.

In the US, the hotline is:

1-800-227-2345

Or go to the following sites: 

www.Quit.com

www.smokefree.gov

Alright, enough of that. Let's get to why you're here: my writing.

I was determined to have this post up on time this week. It's killing me to have to work Thursdays now that I determined they are my new update day. Happens every time. I watch to see when I regularly have a day off, change my updates to that day, only to then have to work it every following week.

Once again I used first thing Sunday morning for writing time. I updated on the X-Future boards, and then I finished up my writing prompt for the writing group. Thing is, DFL sent out an email reminding everyone about the meeting this upcoming Tuesday, while also including the writing prompt for those who weren't there last time. The writing prompt is different in the email. Maybe she came up with a random one to make up for the fact that there were people that weren't there to eat some Dove chocolates?

Well, actually there's two prompts to choose from. The first one is to use two Dove messages: Lend an ear, and a chocolate." as well as "Wing it!" The second prompt option is the quote "The difference is, I lie for a living." Since I am already done with the prompt I had, perhaps I'll again have two to read off. Maybe I'll work on one of these prompts so I have something new to post next week too. I'm not completely determined to do so, but it would be a fun practice. Keep your eyes open for those possible updates to Writing Prompts: An Anthology.

In the meantime, you can check out the current update based on the Dove chocolate prompt “Learn something new with an old friend, and rock a bad hair day.”

"The Power of Pink"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

My anthology updates are now one crime scene from the perspective of a possible suspect, one fanfiction about a crime lab show, and one semi-autobiographical story about a Murphy Day.

While I do like having the variety in order to test the waters with an assortment of narrators and styles, I hate that I've lost focus. I wrote a variety of things for the MasterClass too. Aside from Please, Let Me Explain, I haven't had any real focus on one story in a while. Honestly, that really bothers me.

The last writing group session, as I mentioned, was more socializing than actual discussion of writing. Myself included, no one really critiqued anything that the others read. Granted, it's a bit easier to critique something when you can see it and mull it over, and so it's a bit hard to critique based solely on listening to a passage, especially when it's just one listen. Add in that none of us are the greatest orators and tend to trip over what we're reading. So, yeah, it's a bit rough to pick up on things to critique, but still. How are any of us going to grow if the only point is to meet up, socialize, hand out a prompt so it's still writing focused in some regard, and then part ways for two weeks?

I figured, “Well, maybe if I bring something there specifically to talk about...” only to realize I have nothing. I don't have a spot where I'm blocked because that involves me actually being actively writing something in the first place. As I pointed out in the last update, I have an ever-growing Plot Bunny Farm, and I lost focus on which bunny to cultivate next.

I'm just too fixated on PLME still. I NEED this story to be completed. Or, at least have the massive middle section figured out so I can upload it. I haven't updated that story since March, or something like that.

But when I pretty much blew a shotgun-sized hole through the outline Ronoxym wrote, he had to go back to the drawing board, and I haven't heard from him since. The worst part is, now I'm obsessing over Devon.

I think I'm annoying my husband, because I see the potential for Devon, and so now nearly every male character we see IS him. Any time there's a male character whose well-intentioned actions are misinterpreted as villainy: Devon. Whenever a male character is trying to convince a female one that he's “not that bad”: Devon. The male character shows an interest in fire, or refers to himself as a pyro? Devon. Heck, ever since his heel turn, one of the characters from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reminds me so much of Devon, and Hubby doesn't see it at all. Granted, the character embraced his villainy eventually, and he can definitely kick way more butt than Devon could, but I still see so much character similarity. This guy is what Devon could be if he embraced his villainy, or, if the character remained as loose and fun but returned to being a hero – or at least anti-hero – it could be what Devon would eventually mature into. Hubby still sees the guy more of a Screwdriver; another of our original Brotherhood of Mutants character, similar to Trish. However, Screwdriver has a complete bloodlust that the Agents character doesn't seem to quite possess, so he lies somewhere between Screwdriver and Devon, I guess.

Point is, I'm seeing Devon everywhere. And anything brings me back to PLME. Even songs. There's one or two out on the radio right now that makes me think of Devon and his anguish while trying to show Willow he's not evil. I can't get the character or the story out of my head.

AND WE'RE AGAIN PAUSED!

Maybe that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll focus on my interpretation of the ending based on Ron's goal for the story. Send it to him. Maybe we can find a happy medium between the two, or it can at least inspire him to redo the ending his way. Something to get this back on track, so we know where we're headed. Once that's figured out we can go back and edit the middle section, and finally post that at least. Ya know, before spending another seven months working on the next part of the story.

As of right now, we have the two chapters I already posted. The third one could really be three in and of itself, but there's no natural stopping and starting point since it all happens as one really long scene. The fourth one is relatively small, but I can't get to it until we finalize the third chapter, obviously. Based on Ron's outline, I can see the end of the story having another three chapters or so. Which means the finished project SHOULD have about seven chapters, at the rate we're going. A possible sad ending as well, which could possibly spin off into a sequel story, but let's not go counting chickens before this story's hatched.

I just need to get Ron writing again! I wish we either lived closer to each other, or I had a reliable car. I'd be stopping by his place at least once a week for writing sessions; drag his wife Cyhyr in too, since I haven't heard mention of her doing any writing since she started her job. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda. Unfortunately, he still lives something like forty minutes away, and so I can't poke him into writing as much as I'd like.

It is what it is.

Still, I don't know if the physical group I go to is of the right audience for me to bring the outline of PLME to them to ask for advice. Which leaves me with the original conundrum of figuring out what I should bring to the meetings to get assistance on.

I could bring my list of plot bunnies and see what takes. Then again, I tried forcing myself to write something for MasterClass, and I STILL haven't even finished figuring out the names of my characters for that Percy Jackson fanfiction. There's that, I guess. Maybe try working on that story a bit more and bringing that? I did say last week that I've got an urge to go back and rework my NaNo project from a few years ago. Perhaps that? Or work more on the rebooting of X-Future into a comic? I also have the option of continuing X-Future: The Second Generation Begins. Or writing Devon/Trish's fight scene. Or working on Willow and Chayse in Japan for their summer vacation. Or Lia and Ripley in New York City for THEIR summer vacation. Lots of X-Future options. Then there's still world building for Gyateara. Lots of possibilities, but only one passion: Please Let Me Explain.

GAAAAAAAH!

I need to figure this out. I hope to have something more solid to focus on along with my writing prompts next week. Let's see how that goes.

Getting Closer to My Writing Group (And 7 Deadly Sins)

Sorry for yet another late post. My last day off was the 2nd, and even then I spent the entire time battling the mess I call “home.” So, I haven't really had a day to sit and unwind in about two weeks now. I'm boarderline homicidal rampage mode. To calm the beast, Hubby has had me snuggle with him: Netflix and Chill. It works wonders for destressing me, but it's crap for my productivity.

My place still has that wonderful “recently ransacked” look, and my mind can't really form anything cohesive enough for me to call “writing.” Worse part is that my day off – FINALLY – is Sunday; Football Day. So, you can bet I STILL won't get anything accomplished. Then it's again Full Steam Ahead, until my next day off: again, Sunday. Then chugging along until Thanksgiving and visiting my family out of state. Followed by Hubby's birthday, as well as Spink's birthday spent at David's Bridal looking at bridesmaid dresses for her wedding. Sprinkle in rush jobs on my crocheting projects in order to get them done by Christmas, and productivity for the remainder of 2015 looks grim.

Not all is lost, though. While I failed at my New Years Resolution to go through one of Ali's webinars, I DID do the MasterClass instead. So, there's that. I do plan on still going back and doing Ali's modules, but that might have to wait a bit more. I've also made sure to not allow myself to slack off completely. While I'm not doing NaNo this year, I DID just join a writing group. I need to write at least every other week for that, so that's something to make sure I don't completely fall off the writing wagon again.

Speaking of which, Tuesday was my second go at the local writing group. Spink and the two guys from the college didn't attend this time, but neither did two of the “regulars.” On the plus side, that gave me time to start figuring out what to call them when I refer to them here.

My friend's mom has vibrant red hair, so until I come up with something better, she's Red. “Future Me”, as I referred to the one woman, is laser-focused on her novel about the silent movie actor Buster Keaton – so much so that even the writing practices HAVE to somehow relate - so she's Keaton now. The last woman – who was actually the first one to introduce herself last time – claims that no one person is in charge of these meetings; we're all on equal footing and may run the group if we have something we want to share. However, she's the one who sends out the group email reminders, and seems to be the one that directs the conversation whenever there's a lull. So, she's basically our de facto leader. As silly as it is, until I think of something better, I'll refer to her as such: De Facto Leader, or DFL for short. And thus I yet again showcase my amazing naming abilities.

It was a lot more of a relaxed and social environment this past go. We each read off what we wrote for our writing prompts, and then I asked DFL how she was doing on her NaNo story.

THE WOMAN IS ALREADY PAST 27,000 WORDS!

Day 10 out of 30, and she was already well over half-way to the 50,000 word goal! I can't even to 25,000 in a month, and she's surpassed that by the tenth day of the event! The Worst/Best part? She didn't even take the full ten days! She spent the first week writing out an outline and finishing up some quick research to prepare herself for the story. That way she wouldn't get stuck throughout the month. Then she wrote over 27,000 words IN JUST FIVE DAYS! That's about 5400 words per day. I struggle with the recommended 1667 words per day in order to “win” NaNo. Which, in and of itself, is an odd fact considering I typically write 1000 word blog posts...

Anyway, she stated that this was the first time she had an outline set up before working on a story, and it worked wonders for her. Further proof that James Patterson was on the money while preaching about outlines.

I commented as such, and added that he feels so strongly about starting with a solid outline, that he spends about four months just writing one. Going back through, tinkering the story, adding suspense, adding details, cutting scenes or characters that don't work. Essentially perfecting the story before a word of it is written. It really helps with the revision process as well because you don't get stuck with a character or passage you really love and don't want to cut. The outline should be considered a vague story in and of itself. The reader should know exactly what happens, but without the details or dialogue.

Well, after I was done going on and on about Patterson and his love of outlines, Keaton kind of rolled her eyes and grumbled about how OTHERS write his stories; not him. Well, that's true, but only SORT OF; based on the Co-Author lesson from MasterClass. She didn't seem to really want to hear the counter-argument, though, so I let it drop.

Thing is, he does spend a lot of time on the outline. It truly is the story in and of itself. Then he passes the outline over to his co-author who adds the meat to the bones of the story he created. The details are added in and the dialogue is written. That doesn't mean he doesn't write the stories, though. Nor does it mean his co-authors aren't just as skilled. It's not a matter of them writing the story and then having him tag his name to it in order to sell more copies. Nor is it him passing the story off to someone and then stealing credit at the end in order to avoid doing work. He puts in all the effort in the start. They put in the effort in the middle. They work together in the revision to make it a blend of both of their efforts. And I'm not just assuming as much, the co-authors interviewed stated just that.

Saying they're not true co-authors is like saying the director and script writer aren't equally involved in a movie. Granted, in that case it's the director who gets most of the credit and is the name that sells the movie, and they DO tend to have more involvement just because of everything they need their hands in, but still. The script would be nowhere without the director to bring it to life. The director wouldn't have that movie to tell if a script writer didn't write it first. They both are equally important to the story.

As are both Patterson and his co-authors.

I think I also took some offense to that because it's so similar to how ChibiSunnie and I work. When we co-write stories – or that Jungle Movie fan-written script – it's usually Chibi coming up with the fantastic ideas and the over-all outline of the story. Then I take what she wrote and I run with it. I plug in the details and the dialogue to bring it to life. At no point is this HER story with me just hopping on to pick up the slack. Nor is it MY story since she never wrote a word of it in the actual prose/script. It is BOTH our story with equal effort put in.

Alright, enough of that.
*Hops off High Horse*

While attempting to change the subject off of James Patterson, DFL passed out some Dove chocolates to everyone. For anyone who hasn't had them, the Dove brand has something amusing, sweet, or inspirational written on the inside of each wrapper. DFL thought it would be brilliant to use these sayings as our writing prompt for this week. Keaton wrote down what everyone had, and we agreed that you could use any of the prompts that anyone at the table got, as well as write using as many prompts as we wanted.

I had already interpreted that what we were doing was finding a way of combining the two wrappers we each got in order to write a short piece, so I basically ignored what everyone else's were. Mine were “Learn something new with an old friend” and “Rock a bad hair day.”

At first I was going to go with something to the extent of two mothers who gave up on how they looked; pulling their long hair back in ponytails and messy buns just to get it out of the way. They decide one day that they need some “me time” and set up an at-home spa day while the kids were off somewhere for the weekend. This “spa day” leads to them attempting new hairstyles by cutting each others' hair; it doesn't end well. They proudly rock the bad styles because at least it's something new and exciting, and they never really cared about their hair anyway.

I may still write that story, but when I started up the prompt at the library I ended up writing something much more autobiographical. I still put a creative spin on it, though, so it's more “inspired by” something that really happened to me. I'm still working on it, so I don't have it to share today. Next week, kiddies.

In the meantime, I DO have the prompt from the last writing group session. Or rather, the prompts. I managed to write both Sunday morning after dropping Hubby off at work.

This first one is what I thought of, and started writing while at the library that first meeting. I hit a bit of a hiccup and switched to the second version before coming back to finish up.

"Fashion Gone Bye"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

When I read my prompts off to Hubby, he joked that “Where's the time capsule?” is a question asked by a drug dealer to some punk he's beating up. I really liked the idea and was going to run with it. However, I couldn't find a way to explain that “time capsule” is a name of a drug without it seeming spoon-fed to the reader. That's when the FanFiction side of me kicked in, and I realized that maybe my binge-watching of “CSI: NY” was exactly what I needed for this prompt, especially since the place I got was New York City. Perfect!

Hubby was watching another episode after I decided to got to bed leading into his Sunday overnight shift. I heard the muffled sounds of the characters describing what they figured out in the lab, and the dialogue just hit me. Granted, it's probably not the best in the world; a bit rushed, but that's because it was really hard to write in prose instead of a script, and I tried to limit myself to the page or two recommended for easiest reading while at the group.

Anyway, I polished it a little bit Sunday super-early morning before work.

"Memory Tap"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

It's not much. Between the two of them, I think I wrote about 1800 words. Still, I was the only one who had to relatively distinctly different stories based on my one writing prompt, so there's that.

Now to just get some more actual writing done! I do have some posts on X-Future I need to respond to, and maybe poke Ronoxym into working on our outline a bit more. Then again, I have had the NaNo spirit hitting me a touch, and nudging me to open up “A Race to Destiny” again. See where I can go with that. Maybe I should start with reworking the outline and the backstory lore so it's not so blatantly “Fable meets Legend of Zelda; now with more InuYasha.” Hubby and I also just finished up a quick Netflix-exclusive anime called "The Seven Deadly Sins" and I sort of want to do something based on that.

Each Holy Knight that made up the squad known as "The Seven Deadly Sins" has a mark of a sin on them; represented by a different animal. Having never read the manga, this is all I know:

• Wrath is the Dragon Sin
• Greed is the Fox Sin
• Sloth is the Grizzly (bear) Sin
• Envy is the Serpent Sin
• Lust is the Ram Sin
• Gluttony is the Boar Sin

The anime never introduces you to Pride - something that annoyed the heck out of me, but they at least acknowledge it at the end of the season - and I don't recall them mentioning an animal we weren't introduced to. So I'm not sure what animal is supposed to be connected to Pride. Lion, I'm assuming. All the more reason to dislike not meeting him; lions/great cats and foxes are my favorite animals.

Most of the characters didn't seem to portray either the sin or the animal they were linked to - although we were shown a little bit why Wrath, Greed, Sloth, and Envy had their sins - but I still really like the concept. Also, there are five main races - or "tribes" - in the world of "The Seven Deadly Sins", which also appeals to me. There's obviously the Human race, but there's also the Fairies, Giants, Demons, and Goddess. The Lust character comments about each one of the five Sins present at the time being from a different race. Interesting note, which leads Hubby to believe Lust is from the Goddess clan somehow... the actual race is never mentioned, but it is poked at on occasion.

Point is, I really like the idea of people being marked by an extreme character trait. Each Sin was dubbed so based on a crucial, defining part of their past where they themselves felt they failed the most. That if they had conquered that "sin" back then, life would be a lot different and better. It's their greatest regret; their cross to bear. Another way to look at it, is a Fatal Flaw. I also like the idea of it being symbolized by an animal that seems to perfectly portray that fatal flaw. Dragons, for instance, are almost always thought of as beings of wrath and rage. Foxes do seem quite greedy, although, I'd peg that more as an American raccoon. Boars, or pigs in general, are obviously very gluttonous, etc.

I'd really like to try my hand at this concept myself, but I need to find a new angle for it. There's already so many animes centered around the Seven Deadly Sins, or that demons/The Devil isn't really evil, or animal possession. It's hard to find a new angle. I know it's out there, though, because another manga/anime always seems to find it.

Either way, another one to add to the Plot Bunny Farm. Geez, lots of writing possibilities bouncing around in my head. Perhaps I'll start bringing them up at the writing groups.

No promises on getting the blog update up on time next week, but I should have a prompt for you at least. Catch ya then!

MasterClass Week 2

I did it again. I'm up at the crack of dawn because I again forgot to write this last night; knowing I'll be at work during my noon update.

I'm still getting used to my new work schedule, and said new schedule is really throwing me off my game. I keep losing track of which day of the week it is.

Maybe I need to change my weekly update schedule again. Or maybe I should embrace being up at 5am to write. Although, I'm not going to lie, even if I were still awake at this hour, I'd much rather be snuggling up to my sleeping husband.

But that's neither here nor there.

To start, I completely forgot that I haven't posted my chapters on DeviantArt yet. Whoops. Sorry to anyone who prefers to read them there. I really REALLY need to remember to do that this week so I can post those links next update.

Honestly, I forgot both due to my work schedule throwing me off, and because I've been mostly focused on my MasterClass lessons.

I faithfully followed the writing schedule that I set up for the first assignment. Every day between 5 and 6pm. Granted, what I was doing wasn't prose-writing, which is what I think James Patterson meant for us to do - even if it was a series of writing exercises to keep our skills sharp - but it was still an hour a day dedicated to working on my assignments for these classes. I skipped yesterday because I ended up being at work off-and-on for nearly 12hrs of the day, but aside from that, I'm still working on my writing daily between 5 and 6pm.

For the second assignment, my Plunny farm ended up including 9 ideas and is now 9pgs long. Most of the ideas - as I stated last week - are missing that key drive. That catalyst that sends the protagonist on a specific story. They're great ideas for something like webcomics and TV shows, though. They have that potential for a lot of stories. That might be the issue. Not that I can't think of a catalyst for a story, but because I can see the potential of twenty stories and don't want to lock it down to just one. That, and each story potential would be a short-story in and of itself; a novela if that. So the overall book would be an anthology of these small "daily" plots that these characters encounter. Sort of like publishing a fictional diary.

Anyway, I'm wandering off topic.

I did manage to come up with a plot at the 11th hour. My only hesitation is that it is back to my fanfiction roots. I don't know what it is about me that I can't seem to come up with the starting story spark on my own. I always seem to have to piggyback off of someone, be it fanfiction writing, "stealing" Ronoxym's story, or having Hubby give me the story inspiration. That's actually how I survived my college classes. I had a production class that needed me to write scripts for mini-movies, and an actual script-writing class at the same time, and Hubby suggesting story ideas was the only way I could write enough different scripts for everything.

Granted, it's usually a small thing that I'm piggybacking off of - fanfiction it's the characters or world, but not the actual plot; Ron's story it was my character telling me the story was being told wrong; Hubby's suggestions are usually "What if" scenarios - and then the inspiration strikes, and I'm off and running on my own. Such is the case with my most recent inspiration.

Still, it bugs me that I can't seem to get that spark without an outside source....

I'm wandering again, sorry, it's now 6am, but I'm still half-asleep I think.

So, the plot idea I came up with at the last minute. It's actually something that's been bouncing around in the back of my head for over a year now. Back then, when I posted on Twitter that I had updated my blog, I would then spend close to an hour backtracking and reading all of the Tweets that Rick Riordan posted over the past week. Although I'm still curious as to what he's up to with his writing, I just don't have the energy to dedicate that much time to Twitter lurking any longer.

Anyway, while I don't recall the actual wording of it any longer - and there's really no way tech-illiterate me could probably find the conversation any more - the basic spark of inspiration for me happened more-or-less as follows:

• One of Riordan's followers asked a What If about a Huntress of Artemis - teenage girls that swear to remain maidens forever, and in exchange are granted eternal youth and the Greek goddess Artemis' protection. What if one of them fell in love with a boy?
• Riordan's answer was more-or-less "Artemis would probably kill them both; the girl for breaking her oath and the boy for 'seducing' her." Granted, those weren't his exact words do to Twitter's character restrictions, but based on the overall conversation, that was the gist.
• I sat there reading his response and thought "What a neat story concept! Someone should write that!"

And so write it I am. A year later. Well, probably close to 18months later; I'm not sure how long the MasterClass is going to be...

Now, I failed miserably at this when I was posting my progress over on Writers’ Huddle, but let's see if I do any better at writing a CONCISE plotline that is ONLY 3-5 sentences long, and please ignore the name placeholders of Huntress and Male until I figure out their actual names:

1. Huntress has faithfully followed Artemis - and kept her oath - for over 300 years, but that all changes when she meets Male - a demigod that lives/hunts in the same area Artemis is currently residing - and the two fall in love.
2. When they can't resist their feelings, Huntress and Male flee from an infuriated Artemis, and search for Aphrodite in hopes that she'll protect their love.
3. They are overcome by Artemis and her followers, but Huntress manages to best the goddess in battle; sparing Male's life, but losing the grace and protection of Artemis.
4. Huntress - now without the magic that gave her youth - is rapidly aging back to normal; which is almost 350yrs old.
5. Male and Huntress make it to Mt. Olympus - currently stationed celestially above NYC - but Huntress dies of old age in Male's arms while they pleaded for the gods' help; Aphrodite still thinks she can be saved, though. 

There! Did it! Vague, but only 5 sentences! For the extended 11-sentence description of the story that I posted on Writers' Huddle, please see below:

Huntress is one of the followers of the Greek goddess Artemis; a follower is a teenage girl who retains eternal youth as long as she keeps her oath of forsaking men in order to remain a maiden for all time, otherwise she will be put to death. After over 300 years of loyal service, Huntress has the ill-fate of falling in love with Male; a modern-day demigod who happens to live/hunt in the same area Artemis and her huntresses are staying. After failed attempts to part ways and ignore their love, Huntress and Male flee to NYC where the Greek Gods have moved the celestial residence of Mt. Olympus; in hopes of getting Aphrodite's patronage and assistance in breaking Huntress' oath. Huntress and Male are hunted down by Artemis - who feels betrayed even though Huntress hasn't technically broken her oath yet - and the two must battle their way across the United States. Somewhere in the south east corner of the US, Huntress and Male come in contact with Aphrodite, who informs them that she does favor them, but only because she has a soft spot for doomed star-crossed lovers; she won't help them. Soon after, the two are overrun by Artemis and her huntresses. Huntress manages to best Artemis in battle after making a deal that Male would remain safe if Huntress wins; Artemis announces that Male will be unharmed, but she also will no longer gift Huntress the same protection as her faithful followers. Huntress' oath is revoked, but so is her eternal youth; she is aging at an alarming rate, so she and Male must now race to Mt Olympus in hopes of stopping the aging before she dies and turns to dust due to her birth being about 340 years prior. Aphrodite - curious about how far the two's tale can go - petitions for them to have an audience with Zeus, who holds up Artemis' punishment. Huntress dies in Male's arms, but pleas from Aphrodite and Hera allows Male to return Huntress alive and to her teenage self if he can prove his love. He does in a simple act (TBD), and their love is forever protected by Aphrodite.

I have a LOT of work ahead of me in building this story; mainly because I have no clue about ANY of the locations I want, or why it takes so long for them to make their way cross-country. Riordan makes things "simple" by having his characters - Percy Jackson, et al, as well as the Kane Siblings from his other series - unable to use planes or cars for whatever reason; usually age and lack of adult supervision. So they must race against time while struggling to work cross-country on magical teleportation or flying crafts, hitchhiking, ill-fated bus rides, or simply walking. I'll have to see what I can do.

But that's the point of this week's assignments! The suggested three classes for this week were "Research" and "Outlines" - which was a 2-part series since Patterson believes this is by far the most important step to writing a novel.

He stated that he typically spends about 4-months working on perfecting the outline, and the outline goes through about six drafts in that time. That way, if something isn't working, it's a lot easier to go back and rework an outline than it is to write out a 400pg story and realize huge chunks of it aren't working as you go through the second draft of it. According to Patterson, if the outline is done right, authors will be able to write the actual novels faster, and have a lot less revision when they edit the second draft; they may even end up going through fewer drafts of the manuscript before it's ready for print.

Obviously, if your characters decide mid-write that they want to take the story someplace else, you pause, go back to the outline, and rework that before you follow your characters.

Anyway, I think Patterson's views on how important the outline is - much like a blueprint when building a house - can be best summed up in this quote from the first Outlines lesson:

“It's not mechanical, because that's creative. That is a book. It is a book called 'an outline'. And if that book is great- you outta be able to sell your outline to a publisher if it's done the way it should be done.”

I'd like to think I have a fairly good handle on writing detailed outlines; as showcased in this old blog post explaining how I write each chapter of What Is Truly Meant To Be. Now to see if I can put it in action for this new story.

If I'm even using this fanfiction idea. I did have SOME original ideas in my Plunny Farm, but I just couldn't think of that once-and-done story. When I shared some of them over at Writers' Huddle, one of the Huddlers threw out some plot-starter suggestions for each of them. Really kind of helpful. Also, I still have to chat with Spink - either later today or on my day off tomorrow - to really solidify which concept I'm running with.

So, while I'm pretty certain that this fanfiction idea is going to be what I use as my "project" during this MasterClass, it IS still open for debate. I'll keep you posted on that, as well as my further progress, next week.

Story Revivals and Master Classes

I oopsied, and I'm paying for it right now.

Once again, I lost track of what day of the week it was. So, while I was home alone for five hours while Hubby was at work last night, I neglected to write this post. Then, at about 10:30 last night, I remembered that today is Wednesday, and that I'm working 8-3:30. Whoops.

So, I forced myself up at 5am so I can make sure that you folks have a noon update. But my eyes are still half-closed, I'm yawning, and I don't have the time to edit this before heading in to work - yes, it takes my that long to write these things - so please forgive any typos and bad grammar.


Let's start off with the important part, the conclusion of my August Goal Challenge on Struggling Writers Society, and thus the end of my summer writing challenges. It was tough to try to squeak everything in, but Monday was my day off this week. Given that it was also the last day of August, I locked myself away in my Writing Nest I created last week and typed all morning.

Set this up in my library when I typed last week's post.

When all was said and done, I actually ended up with TWO chapters. The chapter I was originally intending was a little with Chayse and Lia at first, and then about 80% Chayse and Nix, concluding with Chayse getting in trouble with his mom as well as Nix and Annika heading out for a date.

While I'm not a fan of the majority of the chapter following Chayse's POV, only to hop over to 3rd Omniscient for the last 500-so words while sticking with Nix and Annika. However, them running off for a date seemed like a natural end, and a nice segue into their date chapter. At the same time, Chayse getting in trouble with his mom took on a bit of a life of its own as I embellished the solo role play Hubby had between Chayse and Kitty. Over 2000 words later, I decided it was probably best to break it off into its own chapter.

Plus, even though there's some POV-Hopping when Chayse leaves and I stay with Nix and Annika at the end of the intended chapter, for some reason it fits the flow to stay with them. Cutting back to Chayse for his solo thing felt disconnected even though the majority of the chapter was his POV anyway.

So, there are two back-to-back Chayse POV chapters now. Oh well.

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

In the end, I finished off August with something shy of 9,000 words written. Not nearly as exciting as Cyhyr or Mouse hitting 30,000 words, but given that I haven't written actual prose since about April, I think it's a nice wing-stretcher.

Another snaffu that I hit is that FanFiction hasn't been allowing me to properly log in the past two days. I managed to post my chapters on August 31st perfectly fine, but now I can't get back in. I keep getting some error message about no servers available. I can still read stories - including my own - perfectly fine, I just can't get into my FF dashboard to upload, edit, or post anything that I write. Weird.

Anyway, the reason I realized that was because at about 10pm - apparently my realization hour - on Monday I remembered that I had posted the new X-Future: The Second Generation Begins chapters up on FanFiction, but I had neglected to post them to DeviantArt as well. I spent roughly the next forty-five minutes editing the chapter. See, I still haven't learned how to upload prose as if it were a picture file on to DeviantArt. A lot of authors have done this so that you scroll through a PDF or something. Very professional because it's like an ebook.

Like I said, I haven't figured that out yet. Mostly because I'm just computer literate enough to survive in this digital world and know a few tricks to impress my mother with, but I'm computer illiterate in most things beyond "basic". So, I haven't figured out how to save my Word Doc as a PDF that I can then upload to DA.

Because of this, I have to post things the hard way, by entering text into a box and then adding all of the formatting things - such as line breaks - via HTML. One of the most annoying formatting edits I have to do is redoing all the italics that I put into my story. They don't transfer over at all with a simple copy-and-paste. So I have to then re-read the whole story and try to find all the parts I had italicized.

I tried something new this past time. I scanned my story, stopped just before an italic, copied, pasted, put in the HTML, wrote the italicized word or sentence, and then copied the next section of text leading into another italic.

Since the first chapter had a LOT of Chayse thinking, it also had a lot of italics. It kept me roughly 45 minutes to get it all formatted.

And then I derped.

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker

by Birdman Inc

I brought up the preview to make sure the edits worked the way I wanted them to, but when I went to close the preview, I hit the wrong box and closed out the entire document. It doesn't auto-save. It doesn't ask if you're sure you want to close. It doesn't warn you that you'll lose everything you didn't save. It just complies, and closes the window.

Nearly an hour, gone. Never to return, and with nothing to show.

I was kinda ticked at that point and gave up for the night.

Problem is, now I can't get back into FF so I can copy my chapters, since FF won't let you copy a story you're reading. A great way to prevent plagiarism, but an annoying feature right now. So, when I'm done with work today, I have to again unbury my external hard drive - I have one of the older "My Book" models that's about a pound or so, and kind of clunky; not an issue when it's forever still next to a desktop, but annoying when attached to a moving laptop - so I can access the original files that I had used to post to FF in the first place. At least I know I have access to them. I can even attempt to save as a PDF one more time before going through the stupid HTML edits again.

In the meantime, you can check out the latest chapters - as well as the rest of the story - on FanFiction.net:
 > Bro-Bonding
 > You're in Trouble, Son!

Yes, I'm well aware that I still suck at coming up with titles....

I'm also aware that my story's voice, style, and detail have all evolved since Chapter 1. It's a fanfiction I started over 2 years ago; I'm not worried about it. Just enjoy the evolution, I guess.


*cracks knuckles*
Alright, and now for some super exciting news. The news I meant to tell you guys last week, but COMPLETELY forgot until about 10minutes before I had to publish the update.

So, my awesome mother did a thing.

There is this site called MasterClass. It has all of these mini-courses about tons of different professions, and they're taught by professionals in said career. Right now, there are three available classes: Acting taught by Dustin Hoffman, Tennis by Serena Williams, and the one my mother found for me. Writing taught by James Patterson. In case my mother wasn't quite amazing enough for finding this for me, she also paid the sign-up fee as an early-anniversary/Super-Early Christmas gift for me.

So, the Monday before last week's blog, I excitedly watched the first four videos - as directed by the "class syllabus". I was just too excited to wait any longer to open my gift, so to speak.

These classes are awesome! Patterson is a really down-to-earth guy who is playful, funny, personable, a joy to listen to, and you can tell he really cares. Yes, I know there are skeptics out there that might think "Yeah, he's paid to care," but he also does donate millions of dollars towards literacy programs, such as funding libraries and book donations to schools and the like. I legitimately think this man cares about both literacy and the up-coming aspiring writers.

Plus, the guy is inspiring, and has so many great quotes!

Here's a few I made sure to copy, and then I posted them on my FB:

• "It took me into my forties before people really believed in the kind of fiction I was writing."
  This is actually really comforting for someone in her early 30s who hasn't even finished a manuscript yet.
• "When I got out of school, I started working at an ad agency... but I've been clean for twenty years now..."
  This one just made me chuckle. I absolutely loved my time at the production house right out of college. In fact, aside from maybe my brief stint at a movie theater, I think it's my favorite job I've ever had. I guess it just depends on the ad agency you fall into, and what sort of advertising you do...
• "If you had to tell me your story in ten minutes; fifteen minutes. Figure out a way to tell me that story in fifteen minutes, and that will be the core of your story.... There's the story. You should be able to tell that story, I would think, in ten or fifteen minutes, or less."
  I'm fairly certain - based on context surrounding this quote - that he meant verbally telling someone. Either way, it's a good rule of thumb; especially for someone long-winded like me.

I also want to state that I am dumbfounded by a factoid that Patterson threw out about himself. Apparently, when he was in college, he was reading 10-12 novels a week. A WEEK! NOVELS! I can't even get myself to read 10-12 novels a YEAR and he was doing so A WEEK! Geez! How the heck!? Speed-reader, much?

Anyway, back on topic...

The video classes are only about 10minutes long, and so it's real easy to tear through them. As I mentioned, there's a sort of "class schedule" that MasterClass posts. A suggested schedule on how many videos - and which ones - you should watch per week.

Yes, per WEEK. I'm assuming most who take the classes put 10minutes of their busy schedules aside three or four times a week in order to watch a class. Then, on their "off" days, they spend the 10minutes or so they would be watching a class, and use it for the "homework" provided with each lesson.

I was too eager and watched all four suggested for Week 1 in one sitting. Whoops.

On top of that, I've been so preoccupied with finishing up the August Goal writing challenge that I didn't bother with any of the assignments.

So, now that it's September, and the challenge is over, I'm bothering now.

Assignment #1: Create a writing schedule and fill it out on the week-long calendar provided.

Well, I intended on doing these classes Monday nights, which would mean the week would be Monday through Sunday. Given that it's Wednesday - which would be when NORMAL people would watch the second video - and I only came up with my schedule last night, I feel like I failed a bit. However, I did CREATE the schedule. It didn't say anything about actually following through with it.... #Loopholes.

Anyway, I'm writing now, first thing in the morning, to make up for not writing at all yesterday, and I wrote like the Dickens on Monday to finish up my challenge. So, maybe consider this first assignment only semi-failed?

For the rest of the week, at least - and hopefully spilled over into next week, I'll have to check my work schedule - in the hour between 5pm and 6pm I shall be writing every day, again, ignoring yesterday and Monday.

We'll see how a consistent writing schedule works for me. It hasn't in the past, and that has been one of my biggest pitfalls in the world of writing. I really REALLY need to learn how to discipline myself enough to get a steady writing schedule, even if it isn't a daily routine.

Alright. So, Assignment #1 is done; sort of.

Now on to Assignment #2: Create 3 raw ideas - either new, or ones I've been playing around with - and write them down somewhere.

In other words, I have to start physically creating a Plot Bunny Farm. The ideas have to be physically written down. Either by hand on some hardcopy - index cards, notebook, looseleaf in a folder, etc  - or digitally - word doc, folder names for future documents, spreadsheet, MS Paint Thought Maps, etc.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be trickier than I gave myself credit for. I have a few Works-In-Progress that I could use to build the Plot Bunny Farm, but it feels a little like cheating, I think. So, I figured I'd attempt some new ideas. It's hard to transition away from ideas you've been brewing for years in order to "magically" come up with some new ones for an assignment.

Worst part is I discovered I'm pretty good at coming up with a neat story environment/world, and I'm also pretty good at coming up with interesting characters. What I'm surprisingly bad at is coming up with actual PLOTS. Beginning, middle, and end. Done. *dusts off hands*

I have Amara. She's a D&D character that evolved into a High Fantasy story character that evolved into one of the many stories I have based in the world of Gyateara.

I have Amara's backstory, physical description, personality, and life goal all mapped out. What I DON'T have, is a specific story arc for her. "Amara does whatever she can to try to find a way to banish the human part of her soul so she can become fully Elvish." Great life goal to give her drive throughout a story, but that in and of itself isn't a plot.

Jump over to my Vampire: The Masquerade character that I attempted writing a story for this past NaNo. Same deal as with Amara: backstory, description, personality, life goal, but no plot. That's the main reason I abandoned the story. "Lottie is on three simultaneous quests: hunt down the vampire that killed her sire, as well as as many of his clansmen as she can; find out what happened to her husband when he went MIA in WWII; find a way to retain her humanity." Three great starts to books. I can write one based on any one of those goals, let alone all three at the same time. However, there's no PLOT there. What is the fighting force against her?

Then you have the idea I was going to attempt for Script Frenzy. A story similar to Pixar's "Inside Out", but instead of the "little people living in your head" being personified emotions, it was an author's characters literally living in her brain. Fun world concept, but there's no plot there.

Then you have X-Future - and it's reboot I've been working on - which is simply "Teenagers with powers struggle in a world both trying to co-exist with them as well as destroy them. Chaos ensues."

I can go on. This past week I thought of about four more characters like Amara and Lottie, and three more world concepts like the "Inside Out" one or X-Future.

You know what that probably means I'm good at? Serials.

I can probably write comics or TV series. I have characters with vaguely specific goals in life that they're working toward, and each strip/episode is a different little plot that either fights against that goal, or helps lead them to it. I have a fun world that readers/viewers might enjoy exploring, and they can with each new strip/episode which is another "slice of life" in that world.

However, my inability to come up with solid PLOTS does not bode well for me as a novelist....

So, I'm still working on that Plot Bunny assignment.

The final assignment I have for the next time I watch more classes is this.

Assignment #3: Write a plotline out - preferably based on one of the three Plot Bunnies from Assignment #2 - in 3-5 concise sentences. Once the plot is fleshed out, send it to a good, but brutally honest friend. If they want to know more about the story, then you have something you should commit to. If not? Then go back to the drawing board and see if you can tickle their fancy next time.

My NY Bestie Spink volunteered to be my "Brutally Honest Friend" for this assignment. Now to figure out what to tell her....

Well, that's it on my assignment list and my feelings on my writing MasterClass for the week. Plus, I need to wake up Hubby so we can get ready for work....

Keep an eye out for my list of Plot Bunnies, as well as my 3-5sentence plotline next week.