The Never Ending Naming Struggle, and Other Writing Bumps

Wow! Super short post this week! Sorry about that...

Well, to start, my wrist is still killing me. It keeps feeling better, and so I don't think about it or the brilliant idea of getting it checked out. Then I go back to work and it starts throbbing again. It REALLY killed me yesterday because it was the first time I worked two days in a row after injuring myself. The next three days are going to be fun with three back-to-back-to-back work days. So much for injury recovery. Thank god for ace bandages, ice, and wrist braces.

Needless to say, the injury held me up a bit when it came to doing much this week. However, I managed to magically injure my wrist at JUST the right angle that it doesn't seem to really affect me while I'm typing. Not sure if it goes the other way around, though: I'm not agitating the injury while writing.

Hand writing hurts like the dickens, though. So I've only done a few notes and scribbles while on work breaks. Nothing terribly too major sorted out there.

I was determined to not go another week breaking my New Years Resolution of "No more than three Zero Days in any given week". So, I focused on more researching. Specifically, I focused on Canon Reworks naming. I even started up a little spreadsheet for it and everything. I have the Marvel canon character name, the code name, and some new name options along with what they mean. I haven't gotten so far as to try to tackle the new code name issue quite yet.

Jamie "Multiple Man" Madrox is definitely Cody, but I still need to come up with a new last name. Might just flip open the phone book on that one...

I personally still like Margaret for Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde, but Hubby isn't budging on his dislike of the name. So, I'm trying out a few more options there.

James "Logan/Wolverine" Howlett will most likely be named Mateo, but I'm not 100% on that yet. On the one hand, I really like the uniqueness of the name. You don't see a lot of Latino characters with that name. I also like that it almost has a Japanese flavor to it too. On the other hand, people may not know how to pronounce the name. I know that Phfylburt had that issue at first. Because of that set-back, I'm leaning towards more easily-recognizable names like Ruben and Ramon. Not sure they fit his gruffness like "Logan" does, though.

Amara "Magma" Aquilla is now Hawaiian, and so I found a Hawaiian name that means "fire": Keahi. Much like Mateo, I'm a bit concerned that people will stumble when they come across the name, and that tends to jettison readers out of the immersion in to the story. However, the fact that BabyNames.com only had ONE name listed for "Hawaiian meaning Fire", and Amara is almost a non-existent character who is rarely spoken of by name, perhaps having a name like Keahi isn't so bad.

GAAAH, I don't know! I'm so hesitant at deciding on something definitely. I guess it's a fear due to the fact that I know I'm still so bad at this whole "naming" thing! I mean... come on....

HOW.  DO.  I.  TITLE!?

I did get some actual writing in, though. As I mentioned last week, Ronoxym and Cyhyr thought Devon sounded whiny in a monologue I wrote for him. See, in the current version of Please, Let Me Explain, Willow tells Devon that even if she believed he was innocent it wouldn't make things better; it could actually make things worse. Then later in the story, Devon again pleads with Willow that there must be SOMETHING he could do in order to prove he was innocent. This time Willow agrees; mostly to shut Devon up and to ease her own curiosity. I only JUST realized that both Devon's plea and Willow's agreement COMPLETELY ignore her earlier argument that finding out he was innocent would make things worse for her. I needed a new reason for Willow to listen to Devon so the story could stay on the track Ron set up for it. It's bad enough I derailed it majorly once.

Well, my solution was for Devon to point out that knowing the truth DOES suck and CAN make things worse, but he's now broken too. She wasn't the only one affected, and she's not the only one who would have regrets after discovering the truth. The difference is that he was forced to learn the truth and now has to live with the consequences. Willow needed to grow up and face the truth as well, regardless of how much it would hurt. It's supposed to be this angry snap back at Willow to suck it up. It was supposed to be a way for Willow to realize how childish and selfish she was being, and agree to follow through with Devon's plan. INSTEAD, Ron and Cy just felt Devon was whining in his little Emo Corner about how he hurts too. I'm hoping my rework fixed that. Although, I feel he went a bit over-the-top aggressive in this updated version. Eh, we'll see. Still waiting for Ron's response.

Speaking of Ron, he has today off, and so maybe we'll be able to get some writing work-shopping done. However, he's sort of all over the place lately. So, the first task would be to get him to focus on just one project.

Ironically, I'm getting a bit off-focus myself. Since I've been mentally blocked when it comes to X-Future, and I'm on hold with advancing PLME, I've been bouncing between menial researching for X-Future, more brainstorming for Gyateara, and actually thinking about working on What Is Truly Meant To Be again. Now, let me stress that there's no guarantee that I'll be doing any actual writing on the next chapter any time soon. Still, the fact that the wheels are grinding again after a two year hiatus isn't too shabby. We'll see where I end up going with that.

I'm also jam-packed with work compared to last week, so who knows how much writing I'll be able to get done. Still, I'm going to try my hardest to focus and really push myself more towards writing daily again. At the very least, I should be researching something every day.

I really need to get the new names for the Marvel canon reworks. Maybe that should be my goal for next week...

My Muse Keeps Getting Hit With A Giant Flyswatter...

First off, an update.

Just before my blog went live Phfylburt did indeed give me a "legit" answer as to why he did what he did. I debated going back and editing my last post, but figured it would work better if I used it as an update in this one. It sort of ties in to what I want to say.

I'm going to try to avoid spoilers, sorry if something slips out. Take comfort that it will probably be a good year or so before I get to this part in the X-Future story, and so maybe any spoiler hints I accidentally slip will be forgotten by then.

Anyway, it seems that the underlining reason for Phfyl to do what he did was indeed simply "boredom". On three levels: He felt that with things the way they were he was in a rut, took the tale as far as he could and it was time for him to do what he did, and his number one reason? He was just flat out bored with what he had.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I at least have an understanding; a reason. However, I'm still royally pissed off, and maybe even more so. Maybe it's because while HE was in a rut with everything and bored with it I was able to see so much more potential. I could have gone off on my own and ran with so many ideas if he had just turned everything over to me instead.

Plus, I'm tired of all the rage-quitting.

Sure, he's still on the boards, but he's just one of many - actually, most at this point in time - that just threw their hands up and said "This is boring me, nevermind."

Granted, for him this might be what he needed to revive his spirit in the game and move forward with more fervor. A way for us all to jumpstart the game again with his added interactions. For nearly everyone else, however, it means dropping out of the game completely and killing our momentum. It's hard to do a role-play-game with only two regular people, one moderately frequent player, and two players that sporadically show up to play.

If we don't get more players - or more players back - we might as well just call the game.

That enrages me more than anything because it would just be about par for the course for me.

As a teenager I started up fanfiction writing, although it wasn't in the traditional sense. I would mentally role-play scenarios that would be fanfiction if I ever got around to writing them down. The closest I got was joining an online RPG like X-Future. It was a Batman RPG.

They already had a player for the character I both really wanted and really knew well: Selina "Catwoman" Kyle.
Thankfully they had an opening for another beloved character of mine: Harley Quinn.

Problem being that this was back when I was still new to role playing, and even newer to role playing online. I don't like stepping on people's toes when I role play. I don't write in absolutes in most cases. While most would write "She punched him" - making it a definite that the swing connected - I tend to spin it as "She swung at his jaw" - leaving the option open for him to dodge or otherwise counter the punch. It actually annoys me that so many on X-Future write in absolutes....

Anyway, since Harley was generally just a glorified Joker Henchman, I didn't like doing too much without Joker's player directing me. I came in mid-plot and didn't want to ruin what they had set up or where they were going with it. Sure, it got Joker a bit mad because back then I could only go on the internet about once a week, and when I updated it would a simple sentence or two, but we got by.

Then the guy who was playing Batman graduated college and couldn't play as regularly anymore due to his work. He passed the character off to someone else who also didn't play regularly. Next thing I knew we don't have a game any longer, just when I was starting to get the hang of it and was able to post significant actions.

Now the same is happening here it seems. Although we aren't dependent on one central character - Batman - we are still dependent on people who don't update frequently at all and hold up the board. Add in the fact that we have fewer and fewer players - mostly due to the same rage-quitting Phfyl essentially did - and we REALLY rely on the handful left to be active. At least if there were about 30players it wouldn't matter too much if people weren't on frequently. There was always someone else to interact with.

So, yeah, Phfyl, I'm pissed at you rage-quitting and shrinking our ranks some more.

Wanna know why else I'm pissed? Why this feels about "par for the course"?

Because whenever I find something that gives me any sort of momentum, any sort of drive, anything that sparks my passion for writing.... it gets squashed. Hard.

I was excited about writing on the Batman board and was thinking of actually writing out the fanfiction I've been mentally writing for years. After the board died I lost the desire to keep going with writing Batman stuff - especially after apparently sucking so hard-core as Harley. Clearly I didn't know the characters as well as I thought.

I was excited about becoming a journalist, and even more so about actually interning at the local newspaper during my senior year of high school. That is, until the editor wanted me to just do police blotters. That's it. My entire internship was walking down to the police station, gathering their reports that were redacted for public knowledge, and typing them up. She put NO effort in to taking me to actual stories in order to show me how it's done. No effort to actually educate me on how to be a reporter.

I gave up on journalism pretty much then and there.

I was excited to be a Creative Writing dual-major, and then I met my professor. No matter how passionate I was with my writing, no matter how excited I was to turn in something, no matter how much drive I had to get my story told... there he was repetitively telling me I wasn't cut out for writing.

While I still had to turn out scripts like a machine for all of my Broadcast Media courses - and then again while with a production company, I didn't write leisurely for about six years.

I got in to Hey Arnold and started writing for leisure for the first time since college. I was passionate about my stories and while What Is Truly Meant To Be is left unfinished, I was still turning out one-shots fairly frequently. Then I moved, and somehow lost most of the DVDs I had of the Hey Arnold series. Then the rights for Netflix to air the show expired. Finally, the drama within the fandom finished off my drive.

I still love the show and do eventually want to go back and at least finish WITMTB, but that desire to write from that source material is gone.

Ali Luke gifted me a slot in her online writing group Writers’ Huddle, and that got me going again too. I'm still a bit nervous about passing anything over to the critique section since it is mostly fanfiction of fandoms people aren't all that aware of, but the community is great. It was welcoming and I was getting great advice.

Then the laptop thing happened, and I don't really read things online anymore. To be fair, this one is on me...

I thought I would be able to solve the internet issue for interacting with other writers by creating a local writing group where we can either meet in person or on Skype. No screen-reading or eye-strain required. But that fell through after just two meetings.

I had a spark; an almost ITCH to write when I had that back and forth with Ronoxym, but then he fell off the planet.

And now the board. X-Future. My last drive to keep me writing. It's dying too, and Phfyl's post last night is just killing it all the faster. Especially since the only real dive for me to keep going with Lia was to interact with Phfyl's characters more. Actually, Willow just had a nice connection too, and Crystal was heavily involved with Phfyl's characters. So, essentially his big play last night stopped my ability to do that much more on the board. Whole plotline potentials lost.

My only drive left with X-Future is to drop the board entirely and just focus on it as a webcomic. Reboot it. Start it over. Don't transfer anything over except for the characters and maybe some of the more key plot points. Maybe just converting it completely in to our own universe, like I've been slowly working on.

The only thing THERE is that it feels a bit like cheating. Even if I do have Hubby, Phfyl, or even Ron join in on the collab, there's still about fifteen characters that aren't ours. I'm sure my friends wouldn't really mind, but it feels like cheap fanfiction. You're taking someone else's characters and creating your own story with them, but the characters are designed from your friends' imaginations; not a well-known piece of work. So, it's fanfiction, but with the drive to call it "original work"....

Oh, and then there's that whole "I can't draw" thing stopping the webcomic process....

So it might be unfair to Phfylburt that all my anger gets pooled and then spilled over on to him, but he's just the latest out of a long list of writing opportunities lost and muses murdered.

Then - on a more personal level - there's the fact that I don't really have that large of a social circle. I'm getting older, and while most of my friends are younger and the whole "they're getting married and starting families" trope isn't true quite yet, they are still not visiting as much.

The Bard spent the past weekend with us, but except for playing the LARP we haven't socialized with him for MONTHS before that... his birthday I think. Sucks since he and Ronoxym apparently talk every day.
CelestialTyrant has always been a bit "flaky" due to his job, but we see him even less after he had to more-or-less "reboot" his career. Once a month if we're lucky.
Omnibladestrike frequently uses the "I'm exhausted after work" excuse. Understandable; we've used it too, but still....

Cyhyr doesn't visit without Ron, and he doesn't visit due to working two jobs. I'm still a bit bummed that we somehow missed his one day off a few weeks ago...

So Hubby and I are more-or-less isolated except for any online socializing we do. In other words: Facebook and X-Future. So the possibility of losing X-Future is super hard on me. It's not only a large source of writing muse for me for nearly two years, but it's also one of my main social networks. A bit pathetic, I know, but there ya have it....

The final thing that I think affected me so much was Phfyl's writing itself. Two fold here.

On the one hand I have to admit how envious I am of him. As I mentioned in my last post, I have to give him credit for making me care so much for his characters and loving every plot he came up with. Nearly everything from this man was gold to me. He'd come up with a character and I instantly was like "MY NEW FAVE!" He'd come up with plot devices and twists, and I'd be beyond excited for him and Hubby to enact them. As much as I'd hate the trauma he'd put Kinney and Lincoln through, I still loved the updates. I loved seeing the character development. I loved going "OH SNAP!" as his tale took a new direction.

Then he shocked and kind of disappointed me. As I said in my earlier update, it felt lazy and cheap. He had a great opportunity he could have taken and didn't seem to even think of it. Actually, it may have been hard to remember since the role play has dragged out, but in-game something major happened a week or two earlier that he never explored. There was an interaction with Willow and some character development that he ignored.

The fact that he said he was bored enraged me because there was so much there that he could have worked with and he didn't seem to see it.

Here I'm struggling to come up with a muse of mine own and he ignored so many of his. If only I could have written for HIS characters or using HIS plot lines I'd be set. I guess that's the fanfiction writer in me.

Which brings me to the second reason why Phfyl's writing affected me so much.

What if all of this means I'm really NOT cut out for writing? I mean, seriously? Every time I have something that inspires me, something that drives me, something that is my muse it dies on me. I can't seem to be inspired unless there's an outside catalyst of some sort, even if its just a source material that I can write fanfiction for.

Think about it. I was inspired to write again by getting in to fanfiction. My "original" stories based in Gyateara are birthed out of source material I have to now manipulate: Legend of Zelda, Fable, D&D, Inu Yasha, and Vision of Escaflowne. My greatest drive to write something was the X-Men forum. Even then, a lot of the one-shots I've written were my characters interacting with another player's character based off of what recently happened on the board. Then there's the story where I'm literally just converting the board in to a narrative. Even on the board itself I need an outside source to inspire me; a catalyst such as Hubby creating an event, a character interacting with me, or something another character does somehow affecting mine, etc.

The strong "itch" to write was because something Ron wrote sparked my muse. Even now I'm using HIS story to rekindle my writing.

So what if I can't do this alone? What if I can't find a story that is wholly mine that grabs me and drives me to write? What if the fact that my muse is killed so frequently means I don't have the passion to write that I thought I did? If I was really meant to do this why can't I seem to push myself to do so? Why don't I have the discipline Cyhyr or Phfyl have?

Even if I could find a way to write without an outside source or catalyst, would I be able to write characters as compelling as Phfyl does? Plots as engrossing? Would I ever be able to evoke emotion as strongly as Phfyl did with me? Would a reader hate me as much as I hate Phfyl if I had pulled the same stunt he did?

I guess this whole blog post just sums up to one thing:

I'm sorry I dumped so much on you, Phfylburt. I'm sorry I'm so enraged at you for seemingly no reason. I'm sorry that I've made you feel guilty for your decision - even if I do still think it was a moronic one.

Clearly I have some of my own things to try to sort though and figure out.

Lent Gives Me Non-Zeros (And Other Awesome Happenings)

I want to start out by saying a huge congratulations to my best friend.

My friend since way back in elementary school gave birth to her first born on Monday. He's absolutely adorable and I can't wait to meet him in person. She and her husband did good.

I'd like to follow that up with a nod to my kid sister.

She celebrated her 25th yesterday! My best friend is a mom and my sister is a quarter-century old. When did that happen!? When did I get old enough for this!?

Well, aside from those two awesome bits of news, I have some of my own. Partially thanks to Lent, I managed to accomplish a Non-Zero week! That's right, kiddies, a full week!

Okay, so, for those who still don't know, I got the idea of the Non-Zero day from an old classmate of mine when she found the idea on Reddit and posted about it on her blog. This has been my philosophy ever since. I now live my life aiming to do SOMETHING daily - even if it's just writing a quick sentence or do five minutes of research - that will advance me towards the goal of becoming a professional writer.

It may not seem like it too much with the Non-Zero days I've done this week. None of them really push me towards writing that masterful manuscript that will be my break-out hit. However, it does get me in to a writing routine, which is something I'm desperately lacking. It gets me practicing and learning daily. It may still be another five years before I have a manuscript ready for print, but these Non-Zero days get me better prepared for that day than how I was previously living.

First up, as I mentioned, this new boost in writing is partially thanks to Lent. See, I've noticed lately that I spent pretty much all day on Facebook. I have at least twenty people on my list for getting notification, and I check those notifications as soon as I get them. I then putz around on the site while waiting for someone to do something on it. I also stay practically shackled to the desktop - since I don't have a data plan on my phone - in case someone hops on and wants to talk to me through Facebook Messenger. I crave human interaction, and so those IMs and notifications are like a drug to me.

I was truly addicted.

I noticed how unhealthy that habit is - on more than one level - and so I decided to cut down my use of Facebook. I now more-or-less stick to roughly and hour or two a day. Still a bit much, but I need at least that in order to catch up with all those notifications. Anyway, now that I'm not spending my day latched to Facebook I need to kill time; keep me occupied so I'm not tempted to open up the website in order to fill that social void. Thankfully, that's what writing is for!

So, how did that work out in to a week of Non-Zero days? Well, the first two days were kind of minimalist in that regards. I worked more on the snippet I have in the works with Nys and Willow talking to each other. Well, it's more of an argument between the two. Anyway, I got maybe half way through the story last Monday before I hit a brick wall. I just couldn't get things flowing. It's the same reason I haven't finished the Lia and Ripley snippet. I just don't really know either Nys or Ripley well enough to have them in my head. Since I'm not Cyhyr - the "Director" writer - I have difficulties just writing what I want them to say and have it still sound natural; unscripted. I need to have the characters in my head and "talking" to me so I can feel the natural flow of the conversation.

I mean, I have Ripley SORT OF in my head since I do know him at least a little bit. Hubby kept him sort of simple since Ripley hasn't really developed in his head yet. He's a laid back surfer who struggled to live on the streets for three years; causing him to become violent. He then had his anger channeled by becoming one of the security guards of the campus. He learned discipline and realized he enjoyed helping people, so much so that he's going to school to become a psychologist. He's easy for people to talk to and quite lovable. However, this tends to result in people taking him for granted as someone there to help them through their troubles; ignoring that he has troubles too. I already have a Lia/Ripley snippet up where Ripley drops the "psychologist" persona and becomes a lovesick teen. The current snippet I'm working on is kind of similar, but I can't find the trigger to get him to drop his facade. It was so much easier the first go....

And Nys? Well, Ronoxym doesn't really do much with Nys, and so I don't really know her too much. I do know that she's a lot more like his fiance Cyhyr than Ron will admit. That made things a touch easier. I just sort of pictured how Cyhyr would react in a similar situation. I basically wrote fanfic about my friend.

That being said, I did advance the snippet some more last Tuesday, and then went in to a writing sprint last Wednesday. I finished and managed to send it Ron to review. He let me know that he does have some rewrites, but he never got around to writing them.... It's been an official week now. I'm giving him until the next blog post to send me revisions. Otherwise, I'm posting it as-is in X-Future: Snippets, dropping the link in this week's update on Sunday, and then the revision/collaboration version we write will be its own thing.

I might do that anyway. It would be cool to see the differing versions. Ronoxym needs to do the same thing with the Devon/Willow story we're working on. I'm sure people would get a kick out of his solo version of the story versus the one we end up with once done. Especially since my derailing his story easily added ten pages to the tale... whoops....

Anyway, as of Monday I also sent the Nys/Willow story over to Cyhyr to betaread. Who better to let me know if Nys is in character than her inspiration?

No updates from her either.... So, no updates on the Nys/Willow or the Devon/Willow stories as of yet. Bumming me out, but once those two aren't so busy I should get something. It gave me time to work on other things while waiting. However, I'm still in that mentality that I can't really focus on any other stories until the Willow ones are done and posted. I guess it's the idea of closure. I need one story completed before I can move on. Odd, considering poor What Is Truly Meant To Be hasn't been updated in about a year... oof....

Anyway, after sending Ron the snippet on Wednesday I spent the rest of the week working on and off with yet another Trish snippet. Yup, the one I commented on last week about her getting off injured reserves. I have the whole thing played out in my head, but I also now realize that it's a bit visual heavy. Definitely would be more entertaining if I could film it. So I have the basic skeleton of all the action and everything written out, but I still need to figure out how to write it so it's entertaining in a written media.

Once I hit THAT wall I moved on to another project yet again. I wanted to have SOMETHING up for you guys this week, and so I decided that I'd convert more solo-role-play-sessions in to Snippets. This most recent one was Willow doing a private training simulation out in the woods of Mount X. Though it doesn't necessarily push the overall story forward, it will probably still end up as its own chapter in X-Future: The Second Generation Begins. However, the role play only happened three months ago, therefore it will easily be another year or so before I get to the point where the chapter will fit in the story. In the meantime, I decided to drop it in to the Snippets anthology. I'll probably remove it once it's a chapter in TSGB, but I'll cross that bridge and all that. Until that time I can try to get some reads where its at now.

I'm not entirely sure who would read it though. It is just overflowing with spoilers. And so those who are reading TSGB might not want to read it in order to avoid getting slapped with the results of a LOT of plot twists. Those that don't care about the spoilers because they're players on the forum - and therefore already know everything - already read it as the original posts. I didn't really change much when I switched it over to narrative due to how I write on the forum in the first place. Then there's the group that aren't players - meaning the story is new to them - but they also don't care about spoilers. Out of that small group I have to now weed out the ones who are offended by foul language since the story has a bunch of it.

In other words: I'm not expecting a lot of reads for this snippet.

Still, if YOU wish to read it, you can here:

"Training with a Mind of Its Own"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

I actually had everything all set to have this up on Saturday, and then work on this blog post on Sunday. However, I was missing talking to people online now that I had cut back my daily Facebook intake. I decided to try out using Skype as my go-to messenger over the weekend. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, and so I'm now on Trillian. I highly recommend. I've been super happy with it over the past few days.

Anyway, while I was trying out Skype on Saturday AngelBlood666 actually tracked me down. We proceeded to IM each other for the next TEN HOURS or so. It was awesome talking to him about just normal life stuff as well as touching a bit on writing. I feel like I've connected him on a new level now.

So, AB666, feel free to hit me up whenever.

The only downside was that I was pleasantly distracted from my converting of the Willow snippet. I did do some role playing on the forum and very slowly converted the snippet; it just took me too long to finish the story for me to also have time to write a blog post. Add in the craziness of Monday and Tuesday, and that explains this mid-week posting.

Well, the Non-Zero Days continue on, and I have a project in the works to help even more with this goal. I'll let you know more about that in Sunday's post.

Until then!

Check Out My Notebooks...

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

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

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

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

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

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

But that's not all!

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

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

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

Anyway, I want to show you guys something:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Hundred Post Trek... finally....

For my Mom who is celebrating 18yrs Cancer Free!
CONGRATULATIONS, MOM!

WOAH! Three week hiatus!? What the heck happened there!? I in no way intended to just stop posting anything in June! Holy Crow!

Honestly, I just haven't really been feeling "writing" with all the craziness going on at work this month. Add in that I wanted to do sort of a "recap" of the past 100 posts I had on this blog - as a sort of celebration of the milestone - and the fact that it kept me about nine hours to do THAT.... well....




So, sorry, guys, that the "temp post" lasted for so long!... Yeah, that's REAL temporary... *sigh* It seems to be part of the new trend this year....




Anyway, I had a presentation for Corporate back on the eleventh, and so that Sunday and Monday were used to finish up preparing for that - which is why I didn't have the post in the first place three weeks ago. I also had this training program on that Wednesday. So even though my Tuesday and Wednesday work days were more-or-less easy days, they still took up too much time for me to work on my blog post to take that temp post down mid-week as intended.

Thursday was my day off that week.... and it was spent doing everything but what I wanted to do... damn socializing.




Friday and Saturday was back to the old grind stone. That Sunday I TRIED really hard to get this post up. I swear I did. But, as I just stated, it was a much larger undertaking than I originally realized. So I worked on it for about four hours before passing out, and then just didn't have time to get back to it. The rest of the week was spent between more crazy hours at work and taking care of Hubby who had this real bad stomach virus. Add in that we've been VERY SLOWLY role playing the X-Men prom over on the forum all week - as a way to celebrate the game being a year old - and well.... *shrug*

Last Sunday was again found me working on this post for hours on end just reading all the old posts and figuring out how to best highlight them. Still, I wasn't able to get the post up in time, and it had to be pushed back one more week. Monday found just about the entire herd of our friends - minus poor Omnibladestrike - invading the apartment the majority of the day. The rest of the week was split between work, cleaning, and packing to visit my Mommy to celebrate being Cancer Free for 18yrs!

So how about we do what I should have done nearly a month ago... HAVE A FLASH BACK POST! YAY!

The first weekend of June marked my 100th post in this blog!
And then I celebrate it by not updating for nearly a month....

Anyway! To honor the milestone of 100 posts, let's take a look back through the past few years, shall we?

A little over a year ago I hit my 50-posts milestone and did pretty much the exact same thing I'm doing today. So, if you'd like to see how my blog started and how the first half went, you can read all about it here.

Let's move on from that point, shall we?

I'm actually surprised that even with my disappearance in April as well as numerous "temp posts", that it kept me only a little over a year to write the second fifty posts needed for this milestone!

Really, not as much changed over the second fifty posts compared to the first fifty. My blog, I believe, has more-or-less come in to its own. However, there was one major change.

The addition of a new page.

Before I get to that though, let's go back through the past year, shall we?

June 2011 and my fifty-first post had me talking about my love for my devoted readers, my realization that I could actually make money with fanfiction, and an increasing bond with Ali Luke which includes becoming Facebook buddies! YAY! I also discovered that I had won a Hey Arnold writing contest. It would be the only one I won this year, but it didn't stop me from entering every one of them. More on that later.

I also started tweeting about my blog updates, as well as making sure to post announcements on both my Lyco Rogue and main facebook accounts. Really focusing on promoting myself and my blog. Because of this I saw a spike in readership. In fact, while I was still at only three followers back in September, I now have seven listed and I know at least three more who read this blog regularly but aren't following me through Blogger itself. So, if you're one of those people that started following me since last June, I thank you for sticking with me and a super belated "welcome".

I think the most important part of last June was the creation of a major part of my life. Both my inspiration and my distraction when it comes to writing. The thing that takes over most of my life and has been present in nearly every blog post that I've written since.

The X-Men Forum RPG Hubby created: X-Future.

The RPG has distracted me from working on What Is Truly Meant To Be - sorry about that to my faithful readers - as well as also opening up so many new dimensions to my writing. It has turned me in to a slacker - never updating any of my stuff - but also a more productive writer; having me either constantly on the forums continuing the story there by interacting with others, or inspiring me to write little side scenes while I'm away from the computer. It has introduced me to four very different personalities by way of my four characters Lia, Willow, Trish, and Crystal. It taught me how to better work with an ensemble cast of characters, as opposed to my three in WITMTB; out of which I only really seem to focus on one at a time. I've also started to "hear" the characters in my head.

The obsession with the forum also resulted in many lost hours on both DollzMania and Photoshop in order to design each of the characters created for the game; mostly because I have a hard time picturing the characters as anything other than the people playing them. The past two weeks Hubby gave me yet ANOTHER means of creating a visual representation of the X-Men forum. Admittedly, this is another reason this blog is so late, as well as why everyone was at my place on Monday. Hubby recently purchased the Xbox360 game WWE '13 where there is a VERY comprehensive "custom wrestler" creator. As of this post we have created:

• Chayse - Hubby's main character
• Willow - My secondary character who has more-or-less taken over as my main one
• Ripley - One of Hubby's secondary characters
• Lia - My main character who's quickly falling behind Willow
• Trish - My Brotherhood of Mutants character; my most complicated and tied favorite with Willow
• Warbash - One of Hubby's Brotherhood characters who surprisingly turned out VERY charismatic in the game... that needs to be translated over on to the forum...
• Screwdriver - Hubby's main Brotherhood character
• Graham - Another of Hubby's main Brotherhood characters
• Devon - Cyhyr's fiance Ronoxym's main character who switched to the Brotherhood
• Nys - Devon's traveling companion who begrudgingly joined the Brotherhood to stay with him
• Oswald - Ronoxym's secondary character who is still with the X-Men
• Hunter - One of our friend's characters
• Joyce - Another friend's character
• Colette - celestialTyrant's new character. Yes, he's cross-playing.
• Penumbra - Another of Hubby's characters
• Luke - Omni's character

I think that's everyone..... We still have like 8 more characters to create, and possibly three more NPCs that aren't used all that frequently.... So... about 2/3rds of the way through them??? It's fantastic, but I've killed so many days with this! It takes at least an hour to create each character since you can completely construct their face and adjust the size of just about every individual body part: chest, stomach, legs, toes, neck, etc.

And then once they're created, you can customize the outfits, the entrances, the theme song played during the entrance, and the move sets they use while wrestling.

Anyway, I'm off topic. Back to recapping the past year. See? Even now the forum derails me!

So, sticking with the same post as the introduction of the forum, I had a new kind of Plot Bunny post. I listed a huge Plot Bunny Farm of ideas when it came to Hey Arnold-themed fan-made music videos. I haven't touched an editing system since I completed the video for work - more on that in a bit - so no progress there, but it was still a bit of non-X-Men creativity. And, to be fair, I did have three story plot bunnies at the bottom....

The second half of last June saw two things. One: The start of car troubles that didn't get taken care of until March. Two: Me obsessively watching Gambit clips from all the different X-Men cartoons, as well as collecting Gambit/Rogue fanart online. My true obsessing over the forum really started when Hubby used Chayse to woo Lia; resulting in me getting the same butterflies as when he started courting me. Whenever I had a crappy day at work, or felt inadequate about my writing, or just felt "blah" for whatever reason, I could just hop on to the forum and get all warm and fuzzy. It totally is my drug!

Finally over to July and the Daily Writing Challenge. Every day of July there was a new Hey Arnold themed writing prompt and 24hrs to write a story based on said prompt. I only managed the first 14 days, and even then there were a few that I didn't quite hit. You can find the anthology of the challenges here. Eventually - whenever that would be - I plan on going back and doing the challenges I missed.

Well, even if I never completed the DWC, it did help me break through writer's block that had been clogging up my story for a little while. It was nice to get back to writing and enjoying it. Reading all the positive feedback on both Fanfiction.net and DeviantArt.com really helped push me to keep going. One of the people who routinely gave the positive feedback - aside from my two biggest fans ChibiSunnie and DarkAngel1326 - was someone who found out about me because DA was his Beta Reader, and I guess she talked me up. Thus I became friends with the equally awesome writer AngelBlood666. Sadly, much like me, I don't think he's updated anything lately. I should check in on that. He was awesome at coming up with really crafty stuff for his challenges. Don't believe me? Check them out.

July also saw an influx of fanart of.... well... ME! Chopfe - who was CartoonLover16 when I posted last year - had tons of fun drawing fanart of my LycoRogue online persona. As much fun as it is to get Chibi's fanart of my story, it's mindboggling to get fanart of myself.




The second half of July saw a lack of inspiration. As I already mentioned, I wasn't able to finish up the daily challenges because life became crazy preparing for my birthday - which was kind of epic because it was the first time I received gifts from on-line buddies! You guys all rock!

But back to the lack of inspiration... People stopped posting as frequently on the X-Men game, which cut short a large portion of my writing. Add in a Safety orientation video that I edited for a corporate presentation at work - boy was THAT fun - sprinkle in some life drama, and I just got behind the writing 8-ball with little hope of getting back out when it came to regular writing.

Instead, August saw me continuing with no inspiration aside from a few blips on X-Future. Although, I did start seriously thinking about somehow adapting the game in to a story - be it webcomics or prose online novels or the like. It would be a thought that would turn in to an urge that increases each passing month. Eventually I'll do something about that nagging thought....

I did also start expanding my number of fandoms by rewatching more and more X-Men cartoons, and then Extreme Ghostbusters, and finally finding a large fandom-mash-up story I had come up with back when the Xbox game Fable first came out. On top of that, I participated in another Vampire: The Masquerade roleplay. So I had to create a new character for that. There was a LOT of brainstorming going on in August. Just.... no actual WRITING.

After a month of not really doing ANYTHING productive by way of writing, I just gave up and cracked open my copy of Lycopolis that Ali sent me. It was an enjoyable read, even if it did confuse me a touch. Once I finished it I made sure to add a review on her book's Amazon page.

Having not written anything for nearly two months had gotten to me - which I guess goes to show that I AM meant to be a writer if I get so depressed when I just don't write anything. *shrug* Anyway, my first "emo-post" of the past year wasn't intended to be such. I was commenting about how great it was to see DA and Omni writing again. I then mentioned CT giving me a novel adaptation of a cartoon I used to love. From there I somehow managed to turn all "What if I never make it as an author?" Not sure how I got to Self-Doubt Central, but there it was. I was then FLOODED with messages on facebook and on my phone to try to cheer me up. The massive influx of "You can do it!" resulted in my next September post: A thank you note for you guys, my readers.

September found me again beta reading after a season-long hiatus from the task. It was through this activity that DA introduced to me - and then I you - her original story idea entitled Of Blood and Honor. Throughout the months since, I have commented on her advancement on OB&H. I've also commented on my confusion, curiosity, excitement, and envy of her actually "hearing" her characters as if they are separate people talking to her. I have recently discovered what that's like - but that's another thing I'll bring up in a little bit.

Along with introducing you to DA's original fantasy story, I also introduced you guys to my world of Gyateara, or, as I called it back then, my massive hybrid crossover story. One last introduction that occurred in September was for my D&D character Amara. Both Gyateara and Amara would get a few more mentions in my blog as the year clicked along.

Aside from working more on Amara's backstory - a project that had been in the making for nearly as long as I had been with my husband - September brought yet another distraction. So, there was X-Future and all things X-Men in June, my birthday and more X-Men in July, Hubby playing Persona 4 took up a lot of August, and now September leading in to October was being taken over with the anime Soul Eater.

October was also Hubby and my first year wedding anniversary. Thankfully, DA started up her own blog, so my readers could read her posts while I was on vacation. I also received an un-official anniversary gift from Ali by way of her gifting me a membership to her online writing community Writer's Huddle - which just so happens to be in open membership again for anyone who wants to join. It's been a fun community and I really need to spend more time there, as well as do more than just hang out on the forums; even if they are very helpful. Chopfe had also offered for us to collab on a webcomic, but I never figured out what the story would be. Whoops....

But, all-in-all, October seemed to be at least moderately productive, at least, when it came to PLANNING things. Executing them on the other hand.... Well... it kept me all month of brainstorming to get my Halloween Writing Contest entry done. So many starts, stops, rewrites, and all out starting-from-scratches. But, even with all the chaos, the entry was done. That's all I really cared about. If you want, you can read it here.

November was my first ever attempt at National Novel Writing Month. I gave myself three goals:

1. "Win" NaNo by writing a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and 30th.
2. Post at least one chapter on this blog every week so you lovely folks could see my progress.
3. At the very least hit Half-Nano by getting to the mid point of 25,000 words

I accomplished the second two goals at least....

• Week One
• Week Two
• Week Three
• Week Four
• Final Week

I finished NaNo with 25,360 words and seven chapters. The story isn't getting much love, but it's a super rough draft due to the hurried writing of NaNo, so it's to be expected. If you're curious, you can check out "The Race For Destiny" here.

After all the writing I did in November, I didn't do much in December. Instead I focused on two non-writing projects. The first being working with Chibi on a Hey Arnold animatic music video for the Maroon 5 song "One More Night". This project ended up being sort of short lived because of the second thing I was working on all month: Crocheting Christmas gifts.

I also got a very encouraging letter from my uncle; sadly, he seems to be one out of only two of my family members who seem to routinely read my blog/writing. Or, at least, only two ever SAY ANYTHING about my blog/writing.... Oh well. Point is, he was excited about getting published himself, and so he passed along the book with his chapter in it, as well as a few positive comments about my NaNo story. Hey! I found at least one person who read it!




The new year brought in new distractions by way of the video games Kirby's Epic Yarn and the Professor Layton series. It also brought in a list of resolutions; of which I haven't kept ANY of them.... crud....

Well, okay, so I sorta-kept some of them. I did hold a two-month long Weight Loss Challenge at work, so both Hubby and I lost some weight and are TRYING to eat healthier.... it's not working too well, but we're TRYING... that counts, right? I've also been writing more steadily thanks to the forum, but more about that later.

The rest of the resolutions?



Yeah... little to no hope on those...




January did have another plot bunnies post as I tried to figure out what to write for the Hey Arnold Valentine's Day writing contest. Thanks to Chibi, that list of like 30 options was narrowed down to my Brainy Daydreams story idea I went with. My issue was then trying to figure out EXACTLY how the daydream would work. I spent at least one week packing to move to a new apartment and figuring out exactly what I wanted to write.

Along with attempting to finish up the story for the writing contest, finally finishing my chapter for WITMTB after working on it off and on since July, and trying to stick with the new resolutions, I also started up that Handy Links page in January. It was brought on when I was looking for crochet patterns over December for all of those Christmas gifts. I kept finding blog pages that were nothing more than link archives for other places that held the actual pattern. If there was something like that for crocheting patterns, why not one for helpful tips for writers?

Quick special shout out to both Chibi and DA for sending more links to add to that Handy Links page! Thanks a bunch, ladies!

Anyway, I haven't really gotten any feedback on the new page - most likely since I haven't updated it in like three months - so I'm not too sure what everyone thinks of that new page. I'm assuming it's appreciated. If you have any comments or criticisms, just let me know in the comments section. Super duper thanks.

February Hubby and I moved in to a new apartment, I had my sister-in-law's baby shower, and my netbook died on me. So I've been stuck with working exclusively on my desktop since then. I think this is part of my problem when it comes to writing motivation and my blog posts being delayed.

I can no longer hide in my room, or go outside to enjoy the weather, or run to the library or some other distraction-free area. The new apartment also doesn't have a hook up for our washer and dryer, so we have to go to the laundromat. So that's more time where I COULD be working on SOMETHING, but no portable computer hinders that ability. I also find I write better when I'm comfortable: aka reclined/lying down. I can't do that at the desktop. So, here's hoping for a new netbook for my birthday, or Christmas, or for our anniversary. Either that, or I somehow get a better job so I have the money to buy one myself.

Anyway, aside from Chibi helping me punch out that WITMTB chapter - after a nine month wait - she also helped me finish up my writing entry for the Valentine's Day contest. It's not as beloved as my other stories, but it's probably because it's a Brainy+Helga story with Arnold as the villain. Regardless, I enjoyed working on it and think it's a fun read.

Although I believe I DID improve on my scores from the Halloween entry, I still didn't place with my story. Chibi, on the other hand, received second place for a second time in a row! Not too shabby for someone who had only written those two fanfictions.

Her 2nd Place Halloween story can be found here.

Her 2nd Place Valentines story is posted here.

After finishing the Valentines Day contest entry I got to work on my latest chapter of WITMTB; ya know, in order to maintain the whole "Update once a month" resolution I had set for myself. Well, although I had the chapter plot scripted out before the end of the month I have YET to actually WRITE it. 

Fantastic.....

However, just about Valentine's Day itself I received a HUGE boost to my writing. For the first time ever I witnessed someone posting about MY story in the Hey Arnold facebook group! She was asking others what stories they were reading and then she mentioned that she was reading WITMTB and that she'd highly recommend it! Cool beans! Now, for me to get back to using this positive feedback as MOTIVATION TO WRITE! Sheesh.....

In the meantime, talking to both Omni and DA about their respective world buildings in February, I was re-inspired to work on Gyateara more; as well as make it the world that Amara's story would be based in as well - just on a different continent. Sadly, that motivation to world build died quickly when I realized just how horrible I was at naming things. It was pathetic! Oh well, I'm sure I'll pick it up again once I have free time to do so....

At the end of February a coworker and new friend signed up for X-Future with his wife. The new players/characters as well as the new desire from these people to play resparked the life of the game. No one had posted in months at that point. Hubby had instituted a 2yr time skip and no one really knew what to do. Having these new players completely revived the board and the game. It also got me back in to my obsession. Worse/best part is that at least the coworker is just as addicted as me when it comes to the boards, so I always seem to have someone to interact with; making it even harder to leave the game alone.

March was odd in the fact that I was both massively stuck behind writer's block once again, and I created one of my favorite and most complicated characters: Trish.

She was birthed from me obsessively listening to "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)" by Fall Out Boy. She was originally created so I had a character who wasn't so reserved and restrictive of her pyrokinetic powers; as well as a foil and possible Brotherhood romantic interest for Devon. However, as I created her she slowly became more than just a fun new means to still interact with Devon. She became the first character that I ever wrote who actually "spoke" to me. Like, this girl legitimately ARGUES with me. It's fascinating, intriguing, and a bit weird. Now I kind of understand what Delaroux and DA meant when they said their characters were constantly talking to them.

Her backstory was the longest and easiest for me to write because it was like hearing her telling it to me. Then, when I tried to set her up as a playful romantic interest of Devon - who ended up unofficially getting Nys instead - Trish turned in to a psychotic who actually despises Devon and is instead in love with Devon's father. It's to the point where I mentally pictured a scene where Trish tried to lure Devon in - to of course literally backstab him - by flirting with him and Trish REFUSED! I pictured Devon on a couch and Trish curling up next to him and playing with his hair. As soon as her fingers ran through his locks once, Trish jumped off the couch, shuddered, and started yelling "Eww! Ew, ew, ew! I- I can't! Ug! I think I just threw up a little. I can't. This is so gross. I need a shower," and then stormed out.

I had a slightly similar instance while working on The Race for Destiny in which Connor randomly explodes with this anger I didn't know he had and storms out of the scene; leaving me staring at the screen and going "uh... Connor? I kinda need you for the rest of the story. How the hell am I supposed to work you back in????" However, Trish is almost like an actual voice that I hear.

March, however, also had Willow start "talking" to me as well. With the forum being restarted, Willow was just a lot easier to use to interact with everyone. She became my main character and she drastically developed throughout the month's play. This all accumulated in "The Week of Feels. One of the players killed off his character and it hit Willow a LOT harder than I thought it would. I spent a full week of almost non-stop writing just working her through the pain and anguish of losing the friend, and then finding out that a family member could be a villain, and that she has feelings for Chayse - who also had feelings for her, but was still dating Lia. 

The apartment was quickly filled with a chorus of me and Hubby yelling "What are you doing!?" to our characters as we wrote, but they totally took over. We were like weird mediums for these characters to just flow from our brains to the screen with no filtering. It sort of freaked both of us out as we realized our characters were both "real" and "separate entities". 

Either way, it was a massively fun time for my writing as the writer's block was torn down and I wrote daily!

It was because of how much fun the writing was, plus getting at least four people - including myself - either choked up or crying while reading everything I wrote, that my nagging thought of converting the game in to a story became an overwhelming desire. I started and stopped about five different projects I have in the works, but I do plan on finishing all of them at some point.

I WILL eventually have:

1. A thread set up on the board where each post is sort of "Last time on..." to highlight the key things that have been going on. This way new players or players that have been away for a little bit know what's currently going on and what the main plot points were without having to spend HOURS going back and reading EVERYTHING.
2. A prologue written explaining the world of X-Future; what we deem Earth-11616. It's a merger of the Marvel classifications of the X-Men Evolution continuity of Earth-11052 and the main comic continuity of Earth-616
3. Write out Willow's tale on the boards as prose
4. Write out Lia's tale on the boards as prose
5. Write out an anthology of scenes that I've written for the X-Future characters; not necessarily focusing on just one character.

Another fun thing in March was my introduction to my favorite character on the forum: Lincoln. He's awkward, geeky, and has a split personality that we recently found out is named Darwin.

Final thing that occurred in March was Cyhyr starting up her own blog as well. So, if you haven't done so yet, you should totally add both hers and DA's blogs!

Here they are once more:
DA's blog
Cyhyr's blog

April brought with it the birth of our adorable niece! I haven't really done much writing since then....

What I HAVE been doing is crocheting like crazy to try to finish a baby blanket for the kid. She might get it before she's five...

 April was also when I first started being able to FINALLY role play as Trish on the board. It's been a fun ride with that one. There are a lot of times where Ronoxym will be visiting and we both start glaring and yelling at each other as Trish and Devon. It's a fantastic interaction.

Here is sort of what goes on in my apartment:

Me: I can't have her do so on the forums, but just know that Trish is flipping you off so hard core right now. Double deuces.

Ronoxym: Yeah? Yeah!? Well, Devon's doing the same thing right back, sister!

April also had my characters so talkative - mostly Trish, but whatever - that I had written a few little scene snippet one-shots. I haven't done so yet, but another item on my list of things to do is create an anthology of these scenes so you guys can get a look in to these characters, I have a writing outlet, and a way to get further in to the psyche of my characters with stories done off-forum.

I also helped beta-read a quick one-shot for Delaroux, had Cyhyr help, and then became terrified of having Cyhyr beta any of my stuff! Holy crow, that girl is just....

So, the end of my solitary April posting I did a bit of emo-writing again, commenting about my concern about whether or not I'm cut out to be a professional writer.

May was mostly taken up with me pretending to participate in an online writing class.

Holly Lisle hosts an online course on "How To Write Flash Fiction That Doesn't Suck". I found out about it through a fellow member of Writer's Huddle and decided to give it a whirl. And by "give it a whirl" I of course mean, "didn't really participate at all".

 

Anyway, seems that Holly restarts the three-week program after the end of each one, so this is a constant thing that people can participate in. If you want to try it out but it's not open because it already started, give it a week, or two, or the full three, and she'll open it back up again. Even if I didn't actively write anything for the course, the information is still good. I recommend it. 

Anyway, so May was me messing around with that as well as me having the realization that my one side-character Crystal could be a super major catalyst for plot/character development in the game. Hubby's still working on the details, as well as whether or not my realization will come to fruition. Regardless, it was fun concocting that plot device and really get the gears going. 

WHOO! That's pretty much it! The journey thus far. Does this long post help make up for the month hiatus? MAAAAAAYBE?

Anyway, I did notice on my trip back over the last 50 posts that I haven't accomplished a few things and I need to work on that...

1.  I never did post that "inspirational" post I commented on back in like February/March. I'll have to get cracking on that.
2. I never did post Amara's backstory. I really need to have Hubby look over it so I can post.
3. I never finished ANY of my X-Future ideas and should work on finishing at least ONE
4. I never did send those wedding thank yous.... I had them all done by the year anniversary and then something happened, they got shuffled and I misplaced them before mailing them. I then wrote a "Christmas Letter" explaining everything that happened our first year of marriage and apologizing for not sending the thank yous. I had intended to send the thank yous with the letters.... and then things again got shuffled and misplaced. Then we moved and the letters are all blocked towards the back of our spare room we will EVENTUALLY turn in to a library. Trick is finding the time to finish unpacking so I can get to the letters.... I'm such fail.  
   

So, here's hoping I have appeased you readers with this hour-long read, and perhaps I'll get back to my weekly updates again.

 

Hopefully.