Awesome Weekend of Awesomeness

Okay, this weekend has been awesome!

To start, in honor of "Miraculous Ladybug" season 2 coming out in the US, I did indeed post the first chapter of "Peeping Tomcat"! You can find it at one of these three locations:

On FanFiction      On Archive Of Our Own       On DeviantArt

The story hasn't even been up for a week yet, and the stats have already been pretty cool. It may be far from a massively popular story, but it certainly is one of MY most popular stories, and at the fastest rate as well. It pays to write for an actively popular fandom.

Anyway, as of this posting, the stats for the story are:

FFN: 457 views, 28 faves, 52 followers, and 7 reviews
AO3: 420 views, 33 kudos, 7 bookmarks (followers), and 2 reviews
DA: 13 views, 1 fave, but no comments

Total Results: 890 views, 62 faves, 59 followers, and 9 reviews

The comments have all said the same variation of these top three sentiments:
  1. This is really good.
  2. How will this develop? / I can't wait to find out more.
  3. You have the characterization spot on / Adrien's insight is awesome

So, yay!

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Two of the Fanfiction.net reviews were by guests, so who knows how many more people are "following" the story without doing so officially through the websites? As for DeviantArt? Well, not many still go to DA for fanfiction, and if they do read stories there, they rarely go for 6800+ behemoths. So, while it's a bummer, I get it, and I'm still excited that ANYONE was willing to read through it, let alone favorite it.

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Another really cool thing? The twelfth episode of the second season, "Captain Hardrock", premiered world-wide on Friday, along with the American premiere of the first half of the season via Netflix. So I got to watch the latest episode "properly" through Netflix, instead of waiting for someone to post it on YouTube.

Now, for whatever reason, season 2 has been focusing on Adrien's daily piano practices. Out of the twelve episodes, we see Adrien at home in four, and in all four episodes, either Gabriel or Nathalie reminds and/or orders Adrien to go practice his piano. On top of that, in the twelfth episode, Adrien is performing in front of his father to show his progress. That's when we get this interaction:

Gabriel: I suggest you rehearse your piece some more. You'll play it for me again later today.
Adrien: But, Father, you promised I could attend my friends' concert.
Gabriel: Not after THAT performance you've just given. Which was probably due to THEIR influence. You need to refocus, Adrien.

I just fangirl squealed so much while watching that scene, because it just made my story even MORE perfectly in character. One of the initiating conflicts for "Peeping Tomcat" is Gabriel grounding Adrien. Gabriel notes that Adrien's latest photo shoot seems sub-par, and his piano skills aren't as advanced as they should be if he were practicing properly. Gabriel blames these "shortcomings" on Adrien's focus on his friends, and grounds his son until Adrien learns to properly prioritize for his future.

Kinda close, huh? I just added more sticks to the fire for mine. Not too shabby, considering I wrote the scene months ago! So cool! I guess I was on the same wave-length as the show's creators.


Oh, and speaking of the most recent episode, I love the character of Luka! He was teased a year or two ago, but finally showed up in the "Captain Hardrock" episode.

Even though the creator of the show Thomas Astruc stated that we'd see more of the character Lila, and that the new character Kagami would be a potential second love interest for Adrien, we've only seen those two characters in one episode each. So it's probably unlikely for us to see more of Luka, but I hope we do. I mean, according to one of the colorists for the show Feri González, people "are going to fall in love with [Luka]." And she's right. He's adorable. Also, just for funsies, here's the concept art Feri did of Luka:

Check her out at:
twitter.com/daferisae
instagram.com/ferisae

Now, while I definitely didn't see Kagami as a love interest for Adrien - she seemed more of a fencing rival and friend - Luka definitely has potential.

I'll always want Adrien and Marinette together, but if it's going to take seasons to get there, I wouldn't mind more Marinette and Luka in the meantime. I mean, at the end of the episode it's hinted that Marinette might have a bit of a side-crush on Luka. Right when she might have been finally growing a side-crush for Cat Noir too... dang....

But that might also mean that Luka will pop up more if there is going to be more romantic conflict for Mari. Hmmm. Maybe I'll indulge with some Lukanette fanfiction in the future....

Lukanette? Maybe Earring Babies? I don't know what the coupling will be called, but a lot of people have been calling Adrien/Kagami the "Ring Couple" because they wear similar rings on their right hands, and Luka has gauges that resemble Marinette's earrings. So....

Okay, yeah, back on topic.

To quick recap: I posted "Peeping Tomcat" finally, got a good response for it, and have been itching to post the second chapter. Which is appropriate, considering the second chapter is called "itch" and talks about the same call for instant gratification. I also commented on how cool the latest episode is, and how I fangirled about the "accuracy" of my story thanks to a scene in the latest episode.

But "Peeping Tomcat" isn't the only story I posted this week. I had that Willow story going on as well, the one I was going to post either way last week to make sure I had one new posting each month.

"Don't Mess (an X-Future Snippet)"

On DeviantArt      On FanFiction      On FictionPress

Now, this little snippet hasn't been getting much love, but I get it again. It's not quite fanfiction. It's also not quite original. It lands in that awkward chasm of All-OC fanfiction. Not the most wanted genre, especially when the snippets are too short to include any canon characters that might pull people in.

Either way, I'm proud I wrote it and posted it. I like the subtle way I showcased both Penumbra's and Willow's powers. I didn't state exactly what was going on, or that they were using their powers. I hope it is as easy to comprehend not knowing the characters as it is for me, who does know. Well, as always, feel free to constructively criticize any of my works.

Since I briefly talked about Willow, how about we talk about another character with white and blue hair:

Parzival addressing the whole of OASIS in "Ready Player One"

I didn't know about this book until two summers ago, when a co-worker found it at a garage sale, and bought it for my birthday because she figured I'd like a book about gamers. I loved the book pretty instantly, and shortly after found out it was being made into a movie. About a year ago I started FINALLY seeing trailers for it, and I was ecstatic! Since the release date was announced some time in... the fall, I think?... Ronoxym and I have had a standing date that we WOULD go to see it together, since he was just as much of a fan of the book.

Well, along with the awesomeness of the second season of "Miraculous" finally coming to Netflix, and finally posting my story, this weekend kicked butt because Ron and I finally had a chance to go see "Ready Player One." Hubby and Cyhyr came with, after dealing with stupidly excited spouses for over a year. It was a lovely double date. The movie was awesome, but, even though the author Ernest Cline wrote the screenplay, the co-authorship of Zak Penn, and probably the influence of the studio, really changed a lot of the plot. The movie had the same basic FEEL of the book, and the generic over-arcing plot and subplot are still there, and the movie was still an incredibly enjoyable action-packed romp. But it took surprisingly more liberties than I would have expected, given the author penned the screenplay as well.

Then again, Orson Scott Card helped write the screenplay for "Ender's Game" and that turned into a bit of a disaster. I guess even when the author is involved, you can only do SO much to adapt a book to screen, which makes movies like "Harry Potter" and the BBC mini-series version of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" all the more rare gems. On the plus side, I also think it means it is a LOT harder for the author to be upset about the theatrical direction the story went. They probably sucked it up and went "yeah, the main theme/feel of my story is still there. I'll let you change it" as opposed to authors who simply sell the rights and then don't have any voice on how their little darlings are altered.

Well, regardless, I still highly suggest giving "Ready Player One" a watch, and I'm definitely getting it once it comes out on DVD.

Another bit of awesomeness aside from the TV show update, my story getting love, seeing a movie I have been waiting to watch for years, and an awesome night out with Ron and Cy? While bringing up "Miraculous Ladybug" on Netflix, I noticed that "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" has ITS second season up as well. Both "Unfortunate Events" AND "Miraculous" updated with their second seasons on the same day!? Yes, please!

I've already gone through both shows' second seasons over the course of the weekend....

I was at that awkward age when the books came out where I was much older than the target demographic, but I was also still young enough to care what others thought of me reading a children's book series. I enjoyed the movie, though, and absolutely LOVE the series, as evidenced by the binge watching. So, I'll have to track down the series and add it to my "must read" list.

At this point, my "must read" list is very much like my Netflix and anime "must watch" lists. For every one I take off the list, I add about five more.


I need to start picking up the pace to try to get through books faster at least.

It's a good thing that I'm starting to do that already. It kept me until yesterday, so two days more than two books in one month, but I finished off Ali Luke's Lycopolis trilogy.

My apologies to Ali Luke. I had her third book "Dominion"
mistitled on my challenge sheet, and I didn't even notice
until she pointed it out last month. I will go back and
correct my earlier posts this year.

As for my thoughts on "Dominion"? Well.... honestly, I didn't really connect with it. Objectively, when I reflect back on the story, a LOT went on, and each individual scene was intense. However, as I reflect back on my feelings of the story, it seemed slow, and I was disconnected. I did struggle a lot with it being an e-book that I had to read off my laptop; not the best way to read something via the Kindle app.

So I'm going to hold my official judgement until I get my hands on a paperback copy. I'll see if a re-read using my preferred medium changes my views. I will say, though, that "Oblivion" is definitely my favorite out of the three thus far.

I also still want to write screenplay adaptations of the books. See first hand why changes and liberties need to be made. See if maybe I could keep a script closer to the source material than even Ernest Cline or Orson Scott Card could. Then again, I won't have any Hollywood influence or pressure, so perhaps those two gentlemen originally had the screenplays VERY close to the source material.

The real trick is going to be the screenplay for "Dominion". Mostly because a lot of the story deals with an abstract supernatural surrealism that plays well via prose, but it is hard to really create imagery for it. Probably one of the reasons why I felt disconnected from this third installment. I have a very hard time comprehending and connecting with something I can't mentally picture.

On the plus side, though, in my attempt to understand the abstract concepts Ali presents, I've sort of pictured how it could be portrayed on screen. The next challenge will be to write out my thoughts on how it is shown visually without going overboard. It is not the screenwriter's job to fully dictate to the actors and/or director how things should look. I need that happy balance between giving the director a concept, a direction, to work with, while still leaving individual interpretation possibilities. Let the director use their own imagination to potentially come up with a better visual even I could think of. They are the professional and know better than I what could work, and what possibilities are available.

Perhaps a series of projects for next year, after I've completed the WIPs I already have going. It will give the trilogy time to settle in my head. See what parts really stick with me when I do my re-reads.

I'm now free to move on to my re-read of "Ready Player One" to truly remind myself how the story went, and see how much was actually changed, versus what I THINK changed, based on my failing memory. I like the idea of the re-read happening so shortly after watching the movie, too, before the movie version fades from my mind.

One more bit of awesomeness to finish off my weekend.

This past Sunday was Easter, and so I got to spend some time with my in-laws, as well as my sister-in-law's in-laws. Normally, since I see that side so infrequently, I don't really connect with them. I was more involved in conversations this go, which was nice, but the big thing is the time spent with my niece and nephew. Particularly my nephew, who actually clung to me for a little bit. Loved it!

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Even better? My niece's birthday is this week. Hubby and I are going to have to miss her official party, but the plus side is some one-on-one time once we figure out a good time to visit to celebrate the big day.

Another one we'll have to visit is celestialTyrant, who is hitting the big 3-0 this week! Such an amazing week!

It's been a good weekend, and it's already shaping up into a good week. I just need to fight the urge to post the second chapter of "Peeping Tomcat" early....

Questions Plague My Life

A full week of just the new job is under my belt. It turned out to be a weird scenario in which it's equal parts great and horrible for my writing. I've become lazy, and instead of still getting up at about 7am in order to write and have ample time to get ready before work, I've opted to just stay in bed and snuggle my husband for that extra hour before whining about having to climb out of the covers in order to start my day. I need to work on this. Otherwise, the "write first thing in the morning" concept is a complete wash.

Work is either Feast or Famine; Flood or Drought. While it could also arguably reflect on the basic concept of a Commissions worker, I mean customer flow in this case. I hope that's ALL it refers to, actually, for obvious reasons, because even with just one or two customers a day my coworkers are still bringing home at least $400 paychecks. Not much more than minimum-wage, but still more than what I was making at the retail job.

Anyway, my point is that we'll go about five out of our eight-hour day with no one in the store and virtually nothing to do but sit and wait. The other three-hours, while sprinkled throughout the day, could then have about seven people show up at once. It's a bit insane.

While it's a bit jarring to have a writing flow - or reading, since it seems to be the only way I'm getting my books read from now on - interrupted abruptly by a customer, the fact that I have so much time to think and write is pretty cool.

The other downside is that, aside from dialogue that I can quickly scribble down more-or-less the way the conversation flow would be, I'm not a fan of writing out prose by hand anymore. There's something textual about writing on a computer. I know most writers probably think in the reverse, that there's something special about writing by hand. However, for me, when I get into something I type with fury, and I can get my ideas down fairly quickly. I can't write as fast as I can type, at least, not if I want to be able to understand my handwriting when I'm done. Plus, when I'm in my writing furies I tend to grip my pen or pencil super tight with my excitement. It literally pains me to write something I'm excited about if I'm doing so on paper. The pen/pencil digs into my finger, my knuckles and wrist cramp up, my shoulder tightens, it's not a fun experience.

So, when my Handy Dandy Netbook isn't available, I tend to stick to bulleted lists and Q&A. By that, I mean I write out all the questions I have about a project, and slowly try to tick away at a possible answer. It may lead to more questions with more answers and so on and so forth, but it help build the story.

At the end of my week, I had a pile of bulleted lists and Q&A sheets, but no actual writing. I truly don't know if I should call the week successful or a dud. Especially since a lot of my scribbles were for a D&D plot that was again derailed by my darling husband this past Sunday's game, and the rest of said scribbles were me just remembering where I was in creating the X-Future reboot.

Yup, back on that again. I was actually a bit embarrassed with how the Contessa story turned out. While Phfylburt ended up enjoying it, he had the same concerns I did with the story, and nothing else. What was the point in reading it to my writing group if they, like Phfyl, were simply going to critique the same issues I already had with the piece? Even if they had advice on how to fix it, I'm really not planning on ever going back to it.

So, when all was said and done, I ended up whipping out an old X-Future Snippet to read: It Is So On!

It received mostly good reviews. There were also some valid critiques that I never thought of before, so thanks to the group on those. There was also one main thought among the group: I do really well with mostly dialogue writing. I have to admit, it is my strong-suit.

One of the newer members - she actually signed up last year and disappeared over the winter; kind of like me over at Writers’ Huddle - even asked if I thought about writing screenplays. I admitted that it was one of the things I went to school for, unofficially. She also commented on the fact that I talked about wanting to do a graphic novel when the meeting first started. She stressed that maybe that's the path I should stick with, since, while the prose is still good, it felt like it really wanted to be more visual. I was also informed that if the script is written well enough, a publicist would pair me with an artist, so there's that. Kind of makes me want to try my hand at the X-Future script again...

In truth, it REALLY wanted me to try my hand at the X-Future script again. If I wasn't working on the now-moot plot for my D&D campaign, or doing ACTUAL work, I was trying to hash out more of the world-build for X-Future's reboot. One of the other responses that I got to "It Is So On!" was that I didn't necessarily need to give the group the verbal lead-in of "these are the children of X-Men/Brotherhood mutants living at the Xavier Mansion, these are their powers, and this is the plot lead-in as to who these people are and why they're at each others' throats." They felt it was fairly stand-alone, and that it didn't automatically scream out "X-Men Rip-off." Then again, most, if not all, of those in attendance don't really know comic books, and if they do the knowledge is from the Marvel movies....

Point is, it was encouraging to hear them all tell me to stick with these characters, and to try my hand at scriptwriting some more. True, most of them are novelists, but there are a few poets in the group, and it would be exciting to everyone to have a screenwriter added to the mix. I just need to figure out how to read a script aloud for critiquing.... seems awkward.

Now, the downside to these critiques is that I've come to realize that I'm not exactly the best at prose. I mean, I've always known I wasn't the BEST, but how much I need to improve is a lot more than I originally thought.

I don't like big blocks of text. You probably picked up on that since most of my paragraphs, while probably capable of being grouped together more than they are, are only about five sentences long. My dislike of large blocks of text, which, to me, seem daunting, boring, and slow down the read, leads me to also break up dialogue. I may write mostly in it, but I can't have a monologue go on. How often does that happen in real life? I mean, come on.

The issue, however, is that I don't just have other characters interject to keep the dialogue short and quick, I also have the character put in physical pauses. She'll say something, pause, and then continue her thought, but in that pause she moves. People do this all the time. Who stays still? Ninety-percent of communication is non-verbal. People give facial reactions, shift their weight or position, fall into a physical tick like playing with a ring or tapping a foot, or they gesture with their hands or even their whole body. We are constantly in motion, and I showcase this in my writing.

To my writing group, and perhaps every reader I've had, it's a bit excessive. While they admitted it may move smoother on paper than it did verbally, they were beginning to lose track of where people were in the story. Willow was sitting, then standing, then sitting again. Then she wrestled with Nys a bit, and so Nys was now sitting. And they get up into each others' faces before pushing the other down into a sitting position. I can understand how this can be a bit overwhelming to mentally keep track of if there aren't any actual visual cues to follow.

I think in images, and so I'm constantly blocking out my characters' movements; keeping mental track of who's moving, and how long it's been since a character last moved. Constant flow. Constant movements. It may make sense in visual media such as comics, movies, TV, or plays. Probably doesn't make sense in things like prose.

Writers are supposed to find some happy medium where their dialogue SEEMS realistic, but edits the realism down so it's a bit easier to read and follow. For instance, count how many times you say "um" or "like" or "uh" or anything along those lines. I'm sure you do so more frequently than you think. What about misspeaking? Using the wrong word? Being repetitive in your speech? Losing track of where you were, or being interrupted, and so you start the sentence over again? How about stuttering?

Now think of how many times you witness any of that honest-to-God, true-to-life speech in novels. Not much, right? Unless it's crucial to the characterization or plot, or in some cases, joke, all of that extra stuff that we naturally mentally weed out of conversations writers have to consciously weed out of their dialogue. I tend to leave a bit more in than most to give it a sense of realism other writers don't have, but apparently that's not the best writing option....

Point is, while most writers just have to edit down reality to make their dialogue SEEM real without the mundane and convolution of actual speech, I need to do the same thing with the non-verbal. True, people may move a lot while talking, but it's probably best if I just let the characters talk and let the reader picture whatever movement they want.

It's going to be tough for me, though, because if a writer doesn't specifically state that a character moves, I barely picture movement, and so limiting myself will be tricky.

Coincidental to my decision to try my hand at scripting again, Phfylburt gave me a challenge - due this upcoming Saturday - that seems right up this alley. Namely, an All Dialogue challenge.

Phfylburt: You have to write a scene in which two siblings steal money from their parent's wallet....The entire thing must be done using only dialog...The scene should show them setting up for the miniature heist, performing the act, and the getaway. It is entirely up to you if they get away successful or if they crash and burn. No limitations on the length, so you don't need to worry about that.

It definitely feels like a fun project, but, as per usual, I haven't started because I'm stuck in my own head. Ask most writers and they'll tell you that the ideas are the easy part, it's the execution that's hard. The actual writing of the thing. While my numerous incomplete projects can attest to that, at the same time, I feel like I may be meant to be a ghost writer, because for me the execution is the fun, exciting, easy part. It's those damn ideas that keep me blocked.

This challenge for instance. I haven't started because I need to figure out more information:

• What age are the children?
• Are they even children in the colloquial sense? Or are they already adults, such as in their early 20s?
• What sex are the siblings? Both girls? Both boys? One of each?
• Will their sex affect how they perform the theft, or why they need the money?
• Which parent are they stealing from?
• Why are they stealing?
• Are both siblings willing parties?
• Is one manipulating the other? Are both being blackmailed/hazed into the stunt? Is this a dare?
• How much are they stealing?
• What makes them think they'll get away with it?
• WILL they get away with it?
• What danger(s) might they come across on this mini-heist?
• How do I portray that via only dialogue?

I think I get too far into my own head. I did the same thing with Phfyl's "Link breaks the silence..." prompt and the "Write [a]...backstory for a random person you saw..." prompt. Backtrack further and you have the Writers' Group prompt of "Salesman/saleswoman, New York City, and Where is the time capsule?" Generic ideas that let my mind wander are actually really tough for me. If I were instead given something specific like "A Vietnam Vet is startled awake by his wife he nearly choked to death via PTSD-induced sleepwalking" and asked me to write the scene, I could do so fairly easily. My only questions would be "what triggered the act?" and "Has this happened before?" but I could more-or-less figure those out quickly.

Maybe that's why I stay with my crutch of fanfiction writing. Everything is more-or-less spelled out for me already. The environment, the characters, the personalities of the characters, and the basic idea of the antics they get into; the way that world works. It involves very few questions that I need to answer, and so my mind can just focus on the writing.

Honestly? I have no clue how to work on this tripping block so that my mind doesn't go into overload when I'm forced to do something original with little to no direction. Hell, even my main writing question proves how much guidance I need: How Do You Figure Out What To Write About For Your Manuscript?

I can't get anywhere in my writing because I don't even have an idea for a manuscript. One college friend has a basic story idea about young adult twins that just went off on their own in New York City. Keeton in Writers' Group obviously has her story concept of "Buster Keeton" and working around that. DFL in the same group has her pre-historical, "age of Babylon" story. Red stumbled upon her murder-revenge psycho story via a writing prompt that stuck with her. And the man that now comes to the meetings - let's call him PI since that's his profession - has his spy mystery novel.

It's weird to go to group meetings and have everyone else read a new part of their manuscript, asking for help on it, and I'm just reading random stuff that I wrote. None of it connects to each other. None of it - like Contessa last week - really, truly matters to me. They're just exercises to work my muscles, not the actual marathon I'm training for. It's rough not really getting much feedback on what I read in group, and even less helpful when the critiques I do get are on things I'm either never going to continue, or never attempting again.

The concept of me being a natural script-writer though.... that was a good bit to point out....

Joy. Look at me, finding yet another writing hurdle, and no clue how to overcome it. I don't even know if it's worth going to Writers' Group or jumping back on to the long-abandoned Writers’ Huddle and commenting about this roadblock. This realization that I can write with ease, as long as I have a very specific guideline handed to me, whereas actually coming up with plots stumps me for years on end.

Maybe I could become a James Patterson co-author...

In all seriousness, though, what could anyone possibly say for advice if I did decide to ask them? Aside from "keep practicing" or "Yeah, I've been there" or "Which is why writing is tougher than people think" what on earth could anyone say about my issue? If/when I figure this out on my own, what could I possibly say to the next struggling writer?

I know part of it is "Wait for a story to grab you so tight it won't let go and you HAVE to write it," but how much longer do I wait? I've wanted to be a writer since I was, like, nine or something. I went to college to become a writer. I had set out to have my first piece published by the time I was about thirty. Fast forward almost two years, and I still don't even have that Grand Manuscript Concept to work on. If I just passively wait for a story to hit me, when will I get that inspiration? This year? Next year? Five years from now? As I'm telling my kid a bedtime story? When I retire and can spend all day just thinking about stories?

I can't wait for inspiration to strike, because every day that passes I fear a bit more that I'm not supposed to be doing this. Which is a painful paradox, because the only reason it pains me to think that I'm not a writer is because I'm obviously a writer! It doesn't keep me up at night to know that maybe I'm not some great athlete. I KNOW I'm not some great athlete. I came to terms with that when I was in elementary school. I KNOW I'm not a great artist, and so, while I lament not being able to draw what I see in my head - would make things a lot easier for me - I also don't fret over my pathetic stick figures. My heart ACHES at the concept of dying without ever publishing anything, which PROVES that I'm supposed to be doing this!

Yet, that paradox continues. My perpetual struggle of days passing me, making me think that I should give up because I'm not cut out for this, quickly followed by an ache and welled up eyes at that prospect; proving to me that I HAVE to write. I just need to figure out what.

The eternal struggle: What

What am I good at writing? What genre pulls me in the most? What characters in the ether are calling for me to bring them to life? What story will both be fun for me to write, and for someone to read? What story do I have inside me that hasn't been told already? What in/about the world do I see differently than others?

I'll add these questions to the ones above about Phfyl's challenge, I guess. Suppose I should try to see if I can answer some of them, at least, the ones for the challenge due on Saturday....

Year In Review Part 3: September-December

I was hoping these would all be posted in quick succession; most likely all three on Wednesday. However, I didn't anticipate how long it was going to take me to write these posts. Which, seriously, is kind of silly. I SHOULD know by now how insanely long it takes me to do ANYTHING writing wise. Anyway, realizing that I'd be hard-pressed to post all three on Wednesday, I attempted to do one after the other - Part 1 on Monday, 2 on Tuesday - and have this one posted Wednesday as a way to conclude the series and properly set up 2015.

Well, it's now looking like I'm following Ronoxym's posting schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Or, at least, I WOULD be, except yesterday turned out to be a disaster between fighting with computers and Hubby working a split-shift. Either way, I don't think I can keep up this momentum, especially if I want to write something other than this blog. So, starting this upcoming Wednesday, I'm back to my normal "Wednesday at noon ET" updating deadlines.

Okay then! Let's finish up this backtracking through 2014, shall we?

SEPTEMBER
September actually had a lot more writing breakthroughs than I recalled. For starters, I managed to get over quite a large hurdle in regards to the X-Future reboot. Over the summer - with some help from Ali Luke and Writers’ Huddle - I was able to figure out that the webcomic reboot would be a near-future cyberpunk environment, and the iconic Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters would be a school/orphanage combination campus. I figured out that mutants would be called "Glitches" in my world, but I just couldn't figure out the issue with the crucial Danger Room element. It kept me stuck nearly all summer. For those who don't know what the Danger Room is, the long and short of it is that it is a large room that Professor Charles Xavier used to train his X-Men. He did so through the use of physical perils, and later with solidified holograms. Anyway, it was hard for me to figure out how to use the concept of a room with both holograms and physical obstacles - used to train mutants - without it seeming like a direct Danger Room ripoff. September brought me the epiphany of The Arcade instead. Both this bit of world building and something that Omnibladestrike confided in me made me remember an article I read years ago. An article written by someone I recently began to follow for writing advice, but someone I had no previous knowledge of when I first found the article. A concept of being able to "steal jewels to make your own crown": How to (Legally and Ethically) Steal Ideas by Holly Lisle.
While coming up with The Arcade, I also came up with a new original character: Geoffry "Fidget" Wilkins. Months later, and I'm still not really sure how Fidget looks. All I know is that I keep seeing a gangly little guy with red hair whenever I try to picture him. The big thing though, aside from just breaking through the roadblock of "what do I do for the Danger Room?", was that it sparked the start of my ability to rewrite the few Marvel canon characters that I needed for X-Future. I started off rewriting Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde and Logan "Wolverine" before also including Jamie "Multiple Man" Madrox and Remy "Gambit" LeBeau. After sending MASSIVE amounts of questions, suggestions, options, and rewrites to both Hubby and Phfylburt, I managed to get a large chunk of each of these characters rewritten. I was also able to use the character rewrites to help me figure out a new backstory for Phfyl's character Lucas Kinney; since his original backstory would be WAY too complicated, and involved far too many Marvel elements. I'm proud of the progress I made this month with X-Future, but there is still much to figure out. I need to get back on rewriting canon characters; as well as get started on converting other characters like St. John "Pyro" Allerdyce or Amara "Magma" Aquilla.
Also in the world of X-Future, my co-worker and friend Spink started role playing on the boards. It wasn't much, and the holidays killed the momentum, but it got me to play Lia for the first time since June. So, there's that. The fact that people were on X-Future again also resparked my desire to work on the next chapter of X-Future: The Second Generation Begins. However, the chapter I had posted the previous December was the last one based off the posts I already had organized. Working on the next chapter meant I had to once again go through all of the posts and try to organize them according to post date and time; this way I could figure out - chronologically - what happened next on the board, and then weed out the parts that don't affect over-all story. It was such a daunting task that I gave up on it after about a week. I need to bite the bullet and go back through them all; getting the next chapter up before the summer - hopefully.
Everything that happened in September also got me thinking enough to write two more semi-informative posts.
The first was about my Bite-sized Chunks Epiphany. Namely, that I could possibly write a 90,000-word manuscript within a year, simply by adding about 250 words a day to the story. That's about a half-hour of writing every day! I'm already fifteen days behind on this, and I'm most likely not going to get started any time soon because I still have to world build for my two main ideas, but it's comforting to know that I COULD do it once I have everything figured out.
The second post was in response to an article I had read about procrastination: Why Writers are the Worst Procrastinators. I felt the article went a bit off-topic on occasion, but I dismantled it a bit and brought out the parts I felt truly did explain why writers procrastinate so badly. You can check out my take on the subject here: Procrastinate to Avoid Fear

OCTOBER
I started the month by writing another response post aimed at a different article about procrastination. This one I actually really enjoyed and took it to heart; a concept I frequently reference in everyday conversation: Why Procrastinators Procrastinate.
I then concluded the month with one more response post. This one started off as an agitated, six-page essay about how the author Laura Miller was horribly wrong in the majority of her article condemning NaNo. Thanks to ChibiSunnie's suggestion, I decided to tone it down a bit, and then posted my response to Miller here; explaining why NaNo was actually a fantastic idea. Bookended by the article responses, I spent October working more on the X-Men canon character rewrites. I also worked on a new X-Future: Snippet. I was struggling to figure out Lia's mindset about certain things, and so I had a conversation between her and 2-feathers-and-a-stone's character Sasha. After waiting a week or two in order to see if Feathers would give me any notes - mainly whether or not I kept Sasha in character - I added the last snippet of the year. The other bit of writing came after I introduced my readers to Lottie. She's my latest vampire for the Live Action Role Play that I participate in. I had decided to use Lottie for my NaNo story this year, and so I had also started researching Southern United States during WWII in order to get more info for Lottie's backstory.
On a more personal level, October was the start of me HATING Tuesdays. Corporate has been cutting back available hours at work, and so my boss had to cut back on morning help once a week. Tuesdays are his best option since he has to have paperwork and other red tape taken care of on Mondays, Wednesdays are a large delivery day coupled with a weekly promotion for our department, and Thursday through Sunday is crazy busy with weekend shoppers and setting up for another weekly promotion. On top of that, Tuesdays and Mondays tend to be the slowest days of the week. While I get his reasoning of cutting back and not giving me any help Tuesday mornings, Tuesdays are a lot busier than he gives credit; especially since he NEVER works Tuesdays so he doesn't know more than what the sale numbers tell him. Tuesdays are crazy busy for one person to handle, and I always come out exhausted and run ragged. It wouldn't be so bad if I still had Wednesdays off to write and recuperate.
So, my posts began to miss their noon updates at this point. I was working Wednesday mornings more often than not, and I couldn't even try to write and schedule my posts on Tuesdays because I was so exhausted and zoned out. It just created a steeper slope on an already downward spiral for my writing.

NOVEMBER
NaNo time! Well, for a week at least. It was a struggle to get anything going. I was originally really excited about writing Lottie's story, and figured I could use the bi-weekly games as inspiration for the next part of her tale. However, the last game we played in October resulted in Lottie barely doing anything aside from stand in a corner. Then Game was either cancelled or shifted around, until we only had one session the Saturday before Thanksgiving. What I was hoping would give me inspiration all month had dried up. Work also got crazier due to the holidays, and so the free time I had to write was limited. Not only that, my writing sessions also routinely turned in to "pass out with the netbook on my lap" sessions. I managed to get one chapter up within the first week of NaNo - just as I wanted. However, it was only about half the word count I should have had at that point, and I just didn't find time to continue any further.
I became stressed and depressed as more days slipped by where I couldn't write anything. NaNo became more of a hated chore than an exciting and fun experience. Finally, Hubby convinced me to just give it up. I felt like a failure in doing so, but - as stated here - it was the best decision I could have made, and I'm grateful for Hubby convincing me to stop. Writing returned to something that was greatly fun and stress-relieving for me. Plus, with more character development for Lottie freely flowing again, I realized why her story was so hard for me to write. I had a great CHARACTER concept with Lottie, but I didn't really have much of a PLOT concept. Yes, I had plans for her life, but I didn't have a way to walk her along that path. How would this event help bring her to that one? So, I'm not sure if or when I'll be going back to that story. I know that it needs a complete revamp, even the first chapter. Introducing people to about a dozen characters in one short chapter is just too overwhelming.
While I didn't get very far in NaNo, ironically I was able to get Cyhyr to pull the trigger and get on board. In the FIRST DAY of November she was able to write more than I did throughout the week! Not too shabby for someone who was going to let another November pass her by. I never did go back and see if she ever did more than that one-day writing sprint. I hope she did. Anyway, November just isn't a good time for most of the people in my online writing group Struggling Writers' Society. Between college and the holidays and workloads picking up due to the holidays, NaNo in November is a horrible idea. So I decided to start up a poll on the forum for the group to see what month would be better for us to attempt to write 50,000 word manuscripts. Not many of the members we have actually joined the forum - even now - and so at the beginning of the month I redid the poll on the Facebook group. There are only three votes, but it seems like August might be the best bet. So, either our version of NaNo will be in August - like how April is still Script Frenzy to me - or a delayed Camp NaNo, since I believe the real summer addition is in July.
So, aside from more brainstorming and character developing, I didn't really write in November. I instead decided to use the month to get a head start on the crocheting projects I had lined up for Christmas gifts. Didn't work as well as planned. I ran out of yarn for my mother's gift, and so we had to change gears for that. I just could not for the life of me figure out the pattern for my sister's gift - and I even found three similar patterns that I also struggled with - and so she ended up with something we had stashed away for her birthday in March. I had to quickly change gears for my bestie and her son - my godson - because I didn't even have time to START their gifts. We justified me not making Phfylburt's gift(s) since he lives in another state, and we can always just finish for his birthday instead - besides, he didn't send us gifts so we didn't feel as guilty. We then justified not making celestialTyrant or The Bard their gifts by stating a) they don't really celebrate Christmas anyway, and b) Hubby ended up making them Christmas treats as gifts instead. What I DID manage to finish up, though - after working all through November AND December - was the giraffe I was making for our niece, and a fairy for Spink.
So, November was a bit of a wash - I didn't NaNo, I didn't write recreationally, nor did I get my long list of crochet projects completed - but it was also a learning experience. Giving up on NaNo allowed me to really learn and grow; I now understand the importance of patience and really building the world/plot around characters. November was also a good month because it was the start of Hubby and I really building great friendships, and finally having "couple" friends to hang out with; much like we used to with Ron and Cy. November was when Quarthix started stopping by nearly daily, him and his fiance coming by weekly for Sunday Football, Spink and I really hanging out, and us becoming better friends with Spink's fiance - who was actually Hubby's friend to begin with, and we met Spink through him. Hubby and I also finally got around to watching Game of Thrones which would later inspire both of us.
I finished the month with a nod to a tradition my mother started when I was a child. She would post a cardboard, bare tree on the wall of our house and we would each be given enough construction paper leaves to write one thing we're grateful for each day throughout the month of November. By Thanksgiving the tree would be overflowing with our blessings. Well, I didn't have a tree or leaves, but I did write a list of things I was grateful for; blessings that helped me shake my growing depression away, even for a little bit.
My Giving Thanks Tree
I think the most impactful part of this whole exercise was what I wrote for November 25th:

The growth I've made with my writing over the year. From day to day it didn't seem like much, similar to watching a child grow, I'd wager. However, when I think back to everything I've learned since January, I really have changed to a more mature thought process and perspective. I've struggled, but grew with each struggle. I now have a better idea of what I want to do during the upcoming year.

At the end of the year I had already forgotten that. I already forgot the growth I had made, which is why I went on this Year in Review journey in the first place. It is good to know that, at least for a brief time, I had truly seen the year as it was; a year of not much actual writing, but of great growth, learning, and development.

DECEMBER
For the first time in about a year, I had a vivid dream. It was nothing that I could really use for my stories, and it was too weird and disjointed - perfect for dreams - to be a stand-alone story. However, it was nice to witness my imagination have free rein. There's something about my mother's house, I guess. I used to remember my vivid dreams at least once a month. Since I moved out of my mother's house - even when I went to college - I haven't been able to really remember too many dreams. Maybe once or twice a year. Yet, whenever I'm visiting my mom I almost always seem to remember my dreams again.
While it wasn't a true vacation for me - I had to do a lot of driving, and I was obligated to do a lot of visiting while spending Thanksgiving with my mom - being away from work and home for almost a week was enough to recharge my batteries at least a little bit. After Hubby's birthday concluded my mini-vacation, I was actually chipper at work the next day. While I focused more on the crocheting in order to get them done in time for Christmas - back when I thought I was going to get more than two projects done - I was once again inspired to work on writing too. Getting away does a world of good when stress and monotony drags you down.
Using some money he got for his birthday, Hubby bought season 2 of Game of Thrones, and we devoured the show in one day! Much like he did when we went on an X-Men TV show binge a few years back, Hubby used his love of Game of Thrones - both the world and the struggle for central power - to finally do what I had been begging for all year: start up a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. He created five main families that all the players would either be a part of, or a bannerman for. Much like how he has people roll in to their parentage on X-Future, Hubby had us roll in to our families for this campaign. I happened to be the eldest child of the ruling family.
My character Airis Castilien is a pompous brat hungry for power, but knows she has to be patient and tactile in order to get it as a woman. Funny thing about Airis' name. Originally, when Hubby was reading off names from the generator he found, he pronounced it "Air-ess", and I picked it simply because it nearly matched the pronunciation of "heiress"; which seemed too fitting. However, we are now discussing that with a last name like Castilien, her name might actually be pronounced "Air-ee"; very French-like.
Anyway, Hubby spent the first half of December building his world for our Game of Thrones-inspired D&D game. I even gave him one of my nicer notebooks recently, that way he can keep main things - such as city names and main family trees - organized in a permanent place. Between witnessing Hubby do his own world building, studying the maps included with the GoT DVD sets, and watching the EPIC title sequence, my own desire to work more on Gyateara was rekindled. We also recently purchased the GoT board game - thanks to some Amazon gift cards for Christmas - and so the whole thing is basically Risk played out on the main continent of Westeros. Which means I have a huge and more detailed map of the main setting for Game of Thrones. I have something else to really research for my own world building. Awesome! Plowing through the 3rd season earlier this month didn't hurt matters, either.

Using the generator Hubby found to help him world build really helped me too over the past month. I love it, and swear by this thing!
Fantasy Name Generators
I also had a bit of a confidence boost when I found out that George R.R. Martin - the writer of A Song of Ice and Fire; the book series Game of Thrones is based off of - has been writing these since '91 and is still only about five books in; working on the sixth since 2011. I also finally officially committed to the world name of Gyateara. It was always a placeholder that I just happened to fancy, but felt it was a bit heavy-handed. "Oh, you took the Greek and Roman words for Earth - Gaia and Terra - and mushed them together; changing out some letters? How crafty..."

However, after really thinking about world names from successful shows, movies, and books they were based off of, I felt more confident in Gyateara. I mean, it's no worse than Pandora, Terra, Middle-Earth, Gaea, or Westeros.
I don't know if it was the world building in general, or if it was my realization that this world I'm working on IS Gyateara, or if it was simply because of watching Game of Thrones, but I became inspired to work on another of my Divine Legends. However, it turned out to be more than just another story about the Gods of Gyateara. I ended up creating a whole people and culture based on the story I was working on. I was so entranced by this concept that I even missed an update week in December because I was too busy working on it. The people I created were based off of the Dothraki from GoT. I ended up writing in a way I never have before: like a tour guide talking to the reader, but not truly in first person. There was a LOT of research in to wolf anatomy, as well as a combination of my own mind and the generator for coming up with my own original Sandikir terms. All-in-all, when I was done it was definitely too much for The Divine Legends, and so I created a new anthology specifically for this story and others I might make similar to it: The People of Gyateara.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Throughout the year of 2014, I managed to write five new short stories to include with my X-Future: Snippets. I had four original stories written this past year. Three created my first original series anthology - The Divine Legends - the fourth needed that second original anthology: The People of Gyateara. I hammered out a chapter during NaNo. I also shortly worked on a collaborative story with Ronoxym; Please, Let Me Explain. I'm really hoping he'll start that back up again.

So... for a year that I thought was pathetic in regards to writing, I managed to write and post nine short stories, one chapter, and 13pages of a collab story. I also did a decent chunk of world building for the X-Future reboot idea. Not too shabby after all!

I also started up my own writing group twice; doing a bit better the second time around. Plus, most of my posts started with "I had no clue what I was going to write about because I didn't do much writing this week" but I always found something to talk about and ended up with about 1000-word post. Just proves that I am indeed a writer and I can always find a story; I just need to motivate myself to get to typing.

It was a trying year and one I'm glad I'm past. However, I'm also happy that I ended up doing a LOT more writing than I thought I did. All-in-all 2014 was actually a fairly good writing year. Go me!

Year In Review Part 2: May-August

For those who missed what I'm doing here, I was super bummed out about my overall writing performance in 2014. I had hoped that I did better than my poor memory can recall, and so I went back through my 2014 blog posts. Must say, I was right. It WAS a better year than I remembered, but not as good as I had hoped. Either way, going back through all of those posts was a bit more of an undertaking than I had originally thought. So I ended up running out of time before I could make up for the dinky New Years post I published, then I failed to hit my first official Wednesday Blog Update of 2015. However, I DID manage to get my post up finally on Monday.

Major project, indeed. The post was becoming so long that I had no choice. Sure, you all have dealt with epically-long posts before, but this was a multi-page beast. I ended up breaking it down in to three four-month parts.

So, without further ado, here is part two of my recap of last year.

MAY
While the first four months of the year actually went a lot better than I recalled, May was definitely the point where I started sliding downhill. All, in part, due to Phfylburt. In 2013, most of my writing was focused on the X-Future boards. I was either obsessively on the boards roleplaying, or I was working on theX-Future: The Second Generation Begins, or I was writing another piece for X-Future: Snippets. Sure, the holiday season sort of killed role playing like it did in 2012, but I was still consistently on it; reading it; prodding people to continue to play. Then Phfyl became board one night and did a major thing with one of his characters. I shook me to the core for some reason. I was dumbfounded with disbelief. I actually wept. I also raged about the whole thing in my blog; making poor Phfyl feel way more guilty than he ever should. He apologized "in person" via Skype, and we've been better friends ever since.
What Phfyl did on the board became the main driving force for me to work on converting X-Future in to an original webcomic. This way I could have control of the story - for the most part; I took on Phfyl and Hubby as co-writers - and I could avoid the stunt Phfyl created on the boards. Given that Ronoxym has also been having writing troubles lately due to his inability to use Devon like he wants, I think including him on the X-Future reboot might help his inspiration as well. Either way, I've done a lot of world building and character development for the X-Future reboot over the past nine months, and it is all thanks to Phfyl just royally pissing me off.
That being said, I also haven't really been on the X-Future boards since... the roleplay itself is dying... so here's hoping Hubby has an idea of how to revive it now that the holidays are once again over.
Now, as I stated, May was largely spent trying to reimagine the world of X-Future. I started off wondering if we could just straight convert it in to comic form; similar to what I'm doing with TSGB. However, there seems to be a larger likelihood that Marvel finds X-Future and sends us a cease and desist, then it is likely that they take X-Future in as canon. Not to say the later wouldn't be flippin' awesome! Imagine, a dinky Play-by-post-role-play-turned-webcomic becomes accepted as Marvel canon: making the story universe of Earth 11616 a real thing!
Anyway, fearing the higher likelihood of the C&D - as well as people calling it out as glorified fanfiction - I decided to make it a completely original world. We barely involve the Marvel universe and characters anyway. At most there are about seven Marvel characters that I have to rewrite as originals. The trick was figuring out the world to tell the story in. Throughout the course of the month, I bounced between four different world concepts: near-future cyberpunk, fantasy, cyberpunk fantasy, and no-powers. Phfyl actually gave me the idea of "no powers" in July, and was really pulling for that concept, but Hubby and I decided we liked the Near-Future Cyberpunk setting best. The real drive for that setting was the categories and terms for the mutants that Hubby and I came up with.
The reboot wasn't the only good that came from a bad-place this month. I had hit a point where I questioned my writing talent. It seemed like everyone else could find inspiration within for their writing, but I needed some sort of outer catalyst: X-Future, working with Phfyl or Ron, fanfiction, even collabing with AngelBlood666 - something that only lasted for a week; need to get back to that. As I said though, even this downfall has a silver lining. When I bounced back, I ended up writing - in my opinion - a nice pep-talk post.

JUNE
Writing got even worse this month. My "No Zero Days" mantra fell to the wayside, leaving me with not much happening, writing wise. Well, aside from officially picking "Glitches" for my original term for mutants and "Hacked" for mutates.
I hadn't touched Trish since finishing up a session with her in January, and so I attempted to write a Trish/Devon fight scene. I got about a page or two in, but never finished it. Honestly, while I kept attempting to write shorts, I haven't done anything with Trish in about a year. I'm so upset about that; I loved this character.
I tried to respark something by writing up recaps of the X-Future board for ChibiSunnie. That way she could read the Snippets since she would have all the info she needed. I had hoped that it would also help bring back my drive to work on TSGB again. I didn't get very far with the recap, and haven't touched it since - a reoccurring trend in 2014, it seems.
I also fell in to a funk while world building Gyateara. I found some of my old notes from back when I first started building one of the countries in Gyateara; notes from about 2004. One of the things I included in with the notes were articles talking about pitfalls screenwriters and authors tend to fall in to while world building. Instead of using this info the way I originally intended when I printed out the articles - a means of warning of what to avoid - I instead stared at this pack of papers; terrified that if I hadn't already fallen in to those pitfalls, that I was going to. I once more lost faith and halted all writing.

JULY
My father-in-law had Frankensteined my netbook back to life, which allowed me to partially revive my desire to write. Especially now that I can sit on the couch or in the bedroom and write. Sadly, this didn't up my beta-reading or my visiting Writers’ Huddle at all last year. I need to fix that for this year... in the meantime, I officially decided to revive my failed attempt at a local writing group. I have a lot of online writing friends who may not have the spare cash to be able to join Writers' Huddle, and so I decided to go ahead and start up my own. We jointly decided on the new name for the group: Struggling Writers Society. I spent a lot of time - and even posted late one week - putting together a forum, but people seem to mostly stick with the FB group. We didn't do too much last year, but I'm trying to get people more active this year.
While I was working hard on my own writing group, I did go back to Writers' Huddle for help on the X-Future reboot. I was still struggling to figure things out at this point. The people at WH helped me realize that my passion was for the cyberpunk near-future setting, and they - well, mostly Ali Luke mostly for this part - helped me figure out how to rewrite the key part of the Xavier Institute. Phfyl and I then whittled down the cast of characters down to about twenty; quite a feat with a starting list of over forty.
Chibi started up her own blog, but, much like Ron, she didn't get too far in to it before her getting nervous about her writing halted her. So, please stop by her blog and give her your thoughts. Even if they're critiques, I'm sure they will help encourage her.

AUGUST
The world was rocked by the death of actor/comedian Robin Williams. I posted a blip after his death pleading for people with Depression - or any other mental health issue - to reach out for help. Suicide should never be an option.
I had a huge list of stories that I needed to work on; haven't even started any of them. They included a Trish/Devon story, an stories about what Lia, Willow, and Chayse did over the summer break time-skip on the forum. All on top of TSGB, rebooting X-Future, Gyateara world building, and trying to convince Ron to work on the Devon/Willow story more.
With my writing stopped for months, no one really doing anything on the X-Future boards, and stress from work just piling up I fell in to a mild depression that pretty much lasted the rest of the year, aside from a few Highlight Days. One such day resulted in a bit of an epiphany: Mental Arthritis.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A much shorter post compared to Monday's Part One. Sadly, this only means that I really didn't do much writing in this middle portion of the year. I had some breakthroughs in the X-Future webcomic idea, but that was pretty much all I did for four months. Not too bad if I was working on it consistently, but sadly I wasn't.

I know that the last part of this Year in Review series is going to be just about as short, and that saddens me. When I worked on the first part I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of work I had forgotten I had done in those first four months of 2014. Then the summer hit, and then the craziness of holidays - Halloween through Christmas - and I just couldn't get myself back on the horse.

I need to learn from this. I need to keep this drive going past April. I need to push myself to stay consistent with my writing year round. I hope I'm starting right by posting this at noon on a Wednesday, as I promised I'd do.

Year In Review Part 1: January-April

Image by Nabhan

Enjoy your fall, 2014. I'm not sad to see you go.

It was a really rough year, and not just for me. My Facebook has been filled with people joyfully saying farewell to a "bad year," and I've had at least 3 customers say the same. So... here's to hoping 2015 is better!

Not the best of starts, though: a skipped blog post right out of the gate, and already up to a handful of Zero days. To my credit, however, it wasn't for lack of trying; it's for lack of time - and my epic ability to be long-winded.

See, I tried to find SOME good that came out of 2014. I wanted proof that it was at least a good year for my writing. True, not as good as 2013 was for me, but maybe proof that I made SOME improvement. I know I really went gung-ho on my X-Future reboot, and that I also did some world-building for Gyateara again. However, I also knew that I didn't post as many stories as I had hoped, that I gave up on NaNo, that most of my posts this year were confessions that I didn't write much, and that poor X-future - the PBP game - sort of fell to the wayside.

Still, I wasn't sure how much I could trust my failing memory, and so I wanted to go through and do a sort of "year in review" to get the truest image of how 2014 went for me.

It kept me until 11:15am this past Wednesday morning to finish re-reading all of the posts I put up the past year...

The notes I have are four-and-a-half pages long! A much larger undertaking than I had originally imagined. So large, in fact, that this is going to be a multi-part post. I'm hoping this important recap for me is at least interesting to you. I also hope that so many posts going up so close to each other will make up for me missing last week and having a dinky thing up for New Years.

So, without further ado, let's get started on this journey together, shall we?

JANUARY
Last year started off with Ali Luke starting up a Winter Writing Challenge for Writers’ Huddle, and "yelling" for me to join. It didn't go as well as planned. More often than not I missed my writing goal and I only completed about half the weekly challenges that Ali set up. The high hopes of the new year were already failing me. However, I did post the X-Future Snippet "Wings". I also talked about the last The Second Generation Begins chapter "Something I've Never Seen Before". Although, that chapter was actually written and posted at the end of December. Which means I haven't touched TSGB in over a year....
On a more positive note, though, I had learned that right around Christmas my mom and sister talked to my eldest cousin. Turned out that he's one of my readers. He had told them that he loved what I wrote, even if he didn't really understand any of it. Apparently he said virtually the same exact thing when my family saw him for Christmas this year. I'm paraphrasing here, but according to my mom and sister he told them something to the effect of "I still don't understand what she writes, but it's amazing! She's so good!" Honestly, I'm not sure how he could know I'm "amazing" if he doesn't understand what I'm saying - plus I'm a bit bummed because I thought I was fairly good at writing so that everyone can understand; I'll have to improve that - but I appreciate the compliment. I also love that he reads my stuff at all; especially since he gets so lost. Anyway, my mother also apparently gets easily lost. I guess I geek it up a lot more than I thought. I told her that I place links everywhere so that if someone doesn't know what I'm talking about they can go to the link, but she stated "the blog takes too long to read as is to be bothered with also reading the links explaining things".

Fail!

FEBRUARY
For one of Ali's weekly challenges during the Winter Challenge, I showcased the different notebooks I use in order to organize my writing based on what subject I'm working on. While I used the Willow and Lia ones briefly, the only one I routinely wrote in all year long was that teal and white spiral notebook: my "Catch-All" that I bring with me wherever I go. That thing has notes about blog post ideas, character reworks for the X-Future reboot, character designs for Vampire LARP and D&D, and Gyateara world building. LOOOOOTS of scribbles. Sadly, even though I've been using it all year, I'm not even 1/2 way through the notebook. I need to work more on that. I need to write more frequently. It's just I only ever seem to really use that notebook while on my breaks at work, and they haven't been as productive as I would have liked this year.
This month also started off - literally, it happened on the first - with Ronoxym excitedly sending me the start of a story he had brewing for a little while. It's a tale of Devon and Willow interacting after a horrible miss-communication had ruined Devon's life. Ron sent me the first half of his story and was going to send me the second the next day; when he wasn't so tired. However, his story sparked my inspiration and I couldn't go to sleep. I wrote my version of his story from Willow's POV, but it turned out completely different. I didn't mean to shanghai his story or to send him my version as a re-write, but he liked it so much he decided to keep what I did. It was a struggle to direct the story back to where he was taking it, and it converted a simple little story in to a 13+ page tale that isn't even done yet.
Well, Ron and I work off each other so well that we decided to collaborate. However, once he got the story back to where he was originally going with it - and therefore I can't do anything without him since I have no clue where we're headed - that's when work got too much for him. He stopped updating the story in March and hasn't touched it since; aside from a few edits. I've periodically gone back to edit as well, but I desperately want Ron to come back and finish the tale.
I'm afraid it's not going to happen though. The drive isn't there anymore. The reason why he wrote the story in the first place is now moot on the X-Future boards. As much as I'm trying to get him to finish because I believe it's a really good story and/or I can use it as a tale in the comic reboot, I don't know if that's enough to get him started up again.
Regardless, I decided to put up the first part - where I completely derailed him - for you guys to see what I've been so excited about all last year. We never came up with a title other than "Devon convincing Willow" and so I chose "Please, Let Me Explain." I'm also breaking it down in to chapters, so below is the first chapter: "At the Cell".
Oh, who knows... maybe people posting here - or on the story itself - about how much they want it updated will light a fire under him to finish.

"PLEASE, LET ME EXPLAIN"

"At the Cell" On DeviantArt          "At the Cell" On FanFiction

While I was on the "my character interacts with Devon" train, I also whipped together the Trish snippet: "Confessions"

Geez! February sure was a stuffed month last year; surprising considering how short it is comparatively. On top of everything I stated above, I also discovered the concept of "No Zero Days" last Valentine's Day. I failed more often than not for the rest of the year, but I always kept the concept somewhere in the back of my mind. I tried to get SOME sort of writing-related activity in every day - even if it was simply brainstorming - in order to avoid "Zero" days of doing nothing towards my writing goal. A lot of people seemed to really like this concept when I introduced it here. A few people at Writers' Huddle commented about the concept in a forum thread. However, it was in April that I got the biggest kick out of Ali linking to this blog - and the No Zero Days post specifically - in her own post: 17 Ways to Make the Most of Your Writing Time – Even When It’s Limited. The No Zero Days concept - and her mention of me - are under #7: Don’t Set Unreachable Targets. I'm so grateful that I inspired her, and that she used it to inspire others, and that I've had more readers since then. AWESOME!
I concluded February with the first real drive to convert X-Future in to the webcomic reboot. I had been thinking about it and itching to do it for a while, but 11 months ago was when I really caught the bug.

MARCH
Finally moving on to a new month! It was a good month, too. I started it off with a full Non-Zero week. That means I did SOME writing every day of it! Try as I might, I already hit four Zero Days this year - this past Sunday and Monday, and again Friday and Saturday - so having 7 straight days of writing is still quite impressive to me. During the month I also managed to write and publish two more X-Future Snippets:
       Training with a Mind of Its Own  and  It is So On!
I rode this "I want to write" high by deciding to start up a local writing group. I was so excited about it, too. Sure, I'm a member of Writers' Huddle, and I love that. However, as welcoming as they are over there, it's still a bit intimidating to talk about my writing with people I don't really know; especially ones that seem to have far superior skills. Plus, I didn't have my netbook back, and so it was hard for me to read anything on the computer. On the other hand, Ronoxym and I had an awesome back-and-forth going. Then I noticed that being able to talk to people in real-time - such as Ron, Cyhyr, and Phfylburt - worked fantastically for my brainstorming. It just seemed a logical choice to set up a way for me and my three local writing buddies - Ron, Cy, and Omnibladestrike - to meet in person and talk in real-time about our writing. Build and feed off of each other. Grow together. Omni named our group "Writers Block." Sadly, Writers Block seemed to be what hit our little group. We met in person once and then on Skype the following week. We haven't met again since. HOWEVER, I do have a Map Making Party date with Omni on the 17th.
In March I was also excited to see that Ron and I feeding off of each others' writing momentum urged him to finally create his own blog. He only had two posts before giving up on it, but he did post again last Wednesday. Funny, isn't it? I missed my Wednesday update and he finally restarts his blog then...
Anyway, his writing shorts that he posted on the blog just kept inspiring me to write. Not just for X-Future, though. I had a strong urge to work on Gyateara some more. I started to finally put my nose to the grindstone when it came to figuring out the pantheon. I got a digital copy of the Deities and Demigods D&D handbook and used it to start figuring out the gods of my world.

APRIL
Finally figured out a few myths about the gods of Gyateara. I gathered them up and published my first original story; allowing me to finally do something other than read on my FictionPress account. For The Divine Legends I had three tales: an overall "world creation" story, a follow-up story focusing on one of the goddesses, and a revised version of the Four Sisters story I had created for my NaNo project a few years back.
Up until April, I had attempted to keep my posts at weekly updates at noon on Sundays. Hubby would normally be napping, and so it would be a nice time for me to just sit and write. Plus, I used to have insomnia while he was at his overnight shift, and so I could work on my blog then too. However, as the years went on I began to sleep again on Sunday mornings, and the time between when Hubby finished work and I went in to work kept shrinking. It became more of a hassle to update on time. On the other hand, Wednesdays became the perfect time to make up for my missed Sunday updates. Hubby had to go in to work first thing in the morning, I usually had Wednesdays off, and I discovered that I have the most writing drive right after waking up. As of April 2014, I officially switched my updates to Wednesday at noon. Of course, Irony is never far away, and as soon as I decided to switch my update time I started getting scheduled first thing Wednesday mornings too, and I no longer work Sundays...

April started the real craziness of work. We had a lot of people quit or retire or get fired. We dropped down to a skeleton crew, and we haven't really gotten anyone new since. Nearly a full year of working with barely anyone. It's stressful, and a bit of a powderkeg with the same people working together all the time. It's exhausting and really took its toll on me the rest of 2014. Namely, I really stopped writing on my work breaks; opting to instead just veg out in the break room. I'm hoping work improves enough - or I get a different job - so this stress doesn't spill over on to 2015.
Because of this issue I've been really drained and my writing dropped. To start, I didn't even bother attempting Script Frenzy this year. For those who might not know/remember what Script Frenzy is, it is a program that was held by the people in charge of National Novel Writing Month, except the goal is to write a 100pg script in 30 days instead of writing a 50,000 word novel. Unfortunately, not too many people were participating and/or donating to the program, and so Script Frenzy itself got cancelled. I still aim to still keep Script Frenzy as my April writing goal, but if anyone else is interested, NaNo now has a Script option if you wish to write one in November.
I did manage to keep SOME sort of writing going in April, however. I focused more on my desire to convert X-Future in to a comic, and I did a bit more world building of Gyateara. The bit that surprised me the most though was that I managed to stumble upon writing a sort of informative advice post that actually helped out a few of my readers.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Wow! I'm actually super glad I went back through my old blog posts! I was a lot more productive in 2014 than I recalled.

Just in the first four months of the year, I added 4 new shorts in X-Future: Snippets, and I started up my first batch of original work in The Divine Legends - with three more short stories there too. I started up a collab with Ronoxym and got up to about 13pgs of that story before it died off. I inspired Ron to start up his own blog; which he abandoned, but did just restart a week ago. I started up a local writing group - which quickly failed, but I have more to say about that later on. I also managed to write a couple of informative posts that actually helped people with their own writing; one so much so that I got a nod on Ali's blog. I discovered No Zero Days and have taken that practice to heart.

Now to see what I learned and accomplished in the second third of 2014. Part II coming up ASAP.