New Years Resolutions: Take Two

Boy am I doing great with resolutions already! I completely missed last week! I did have every intention of posting last Sunday so that Sundays would be "update day." I completely zoned out though, and when I attempted to make up for it on Monday I just got focused on how insane my last post looked with all those pictures. Yet, at the same time, I miss not being as expressive here as I can be on DeviantArt. I was thinking of swiping the emoticons from DA, but they specifically state on their website that the emotes are just for DA.... and I don't want to go around and have copyright issues with anyone.

So then I thought about making my own emoticons. That is damn hard to do if you don't want to just make simple smiley faces! And I was attempting to make Hey Arnold! emotes since the one forum needed them anyway. I am decidedly NOT good at making emotes! I spent pretty much all of Monday attempting and the end result was NOT good. Perhaps I'll try again soon with just regular smileys....

The rest of the week was consumed by Legend of Zelda. My husband and I received the latest game "Skyward Sword" for Christmas. I'm dying to play it, but my husband joked that I can't start "Skyward Sword" until I finally beat "Twilight Princess." And for some reason I agreed to this... All I needed to do was go through the last dungeon and beat the game boss. I mean, that kept me like an hour to do! The issue, however, is that I never "completed" a Legend of Zelda game before. Meaning, I've never had all the side quests completed and I never bothered with the optional dungeons. I was determined to "complete" the game "Twilight Princess" however! I wasn't going to enter that last dungeon until I had the optional dungeon done, collected all the gold bugs, found all the heart pieces, and killed all the poes to collect their souls.

And that's where it got annoying. With the wonderful cheating world of walkthroughs I was able to easily find the last of the heart pieces and the golden bugs that I needed. However, since I played the game on and off for nearly SIX YEARS it was hard to remember which Poes I did and did not find. I went through the walkthrough checklist and I THOUGHT I got them all, but still remained about eleven short! After two days of tagteaming video walkthroughs by ZeldaDungeon.net and double checking the same spot in the game - which occasionally meant I had to go back through the dungeons I already completed - I FINALLY found the last damn Poe!

By Thursday - after working almost non-stop since Tuesday - I FINALLY beat the damn game! I was now satisfied enough that I could now get started on "Skyward Sword!" YAY!

Friday came, and when I was done with my cleaning spree to make up for the neglect my house got this week, my husband was ready to go to a second week of "Friday Night Magic" at the local comic book/gaming store. Basically, every Friday the store will host a gaming night for customers to sit and play the card game Magic: The Gathering.

My husband LOVES this game and hasn't been able to play much since we got married - finances being what they are. So when his one friend offered to lend him cards to play with the man was like a kid on Christmas morning.

I agreed to go with him to a tournament last week. BIG MISTAKE! I ended up stuck at the shop for SIX FRIGGEN HOURS. I enjoy my husband's friends, and I'm in to a lot of gamer stuff, but I just don't get in to the card games like Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon, etc. So while he was in the forever-long tournament, I was off in the corner with my netbook. Sadly, there was no wifi for me to use, and so I couldn't blog while I was there. I attempted to work on my story some more - you know, work on that "write at least once a week" resolution - but it was so noisy I couldn't really concentrate. I ended up playing computer games like "Diner Dash", "Plants Vs. Zombies", or "Skip-Bo".

For this past Friday's tournament I decided to download a whole bunch of fanfiction on to my netbook so I could casually read while I was at the store. I'm not sure why I even bother - the chairs aren't comfortable, I was cramped, I was hungry, and it was too noisy to do much of anything besides computer games again. My only reasoning for going with my husband is that it is the only time I really socialize - unless you count when his friends randomly invade our house. At least this time I was only at the store for about four hours. At that point I got so hungry I gave up and went home. My husband's friends drove him home another three hours later!

Upside: Two weeks in a row my husband won the tournaments and so the store owner joked about making him a crown as "King of Magic"....

Anyway, this week was shot when it came to blogging AND writing. Boy is 2012 starting off terrifically.

Well, I'm on now. Posting on "Sunday Blog Update Day". So it's a start at my second swing to stick to my New Year resolutions. If I can just get past my blockade as to how Arnold didn't know Helga was dating anyone I just might be able to finish up this chapter that's been plaguing me.

In the meantime, I'll be doing more beta-reading for DarkAngel1326 as she ventures away from poetry and in to the land of fanfiction prose. I'll also try to ween myself off of the addiction to all the role playing Delaroux does on facebook in her discussion board....I'd link the board, but it got pretty hard core pretty quickly - crime syndicates, murder, prostitution, demons, sex.... it's racey....

I'm hoping for a positive post next week... we'll see.

2012 New Years Resolutions and Starting Fresh

Well, a Happy New Year to you and yours!

Image by SilentReaper

I am hopeful that 2012 - with it's obvious lack of wedding planning and packing/moving - is a LOT less crazy than 2011. Don't get me wrong, all in all, 2011 was a great year and 27 seems a great age. However, all the chaos kind of messed with my writing abilities.

So the new year means starting fresh! And I had a nice start! This morning I woke up and was inspired to work on my fanfiction!

Yeah, you heard me! I worked on my writing! Was so inspired I actually wore my ScriptFrenzy shirt! Granted, I didn't actually work on the ACTUAL story, but I still worked on the skeleton and fleshed more of it out.

OK, to sound a little less like a slacker, let me start off this year by letting everyone know how I work when it comes to at least this story.

1. I decide where I want to go with the next chapter, and then I find the song I'll use as the "parent inspiration". Basically, in drawing sense, I get a reference for the chapter.

2. Next, I use the lyrics to get a broad view of the plotline that I want for that chapter. I try to interpret the lyrics in prose form and usually write out next to each lyric what it could mean in the story's prose.

3. I then take these notes and start threading them together to get the actual timeframe of the story. This lyric will refer to THIS part of the chapter, and this lyric will refer to THAT part of the chapter, etc.

4. Once I know where I want to go with the chapter - and make sure that at least most of the lyrics are represented - I start up on the true skeleton of the chapter. I start fleshing out the details. This is when I whip out the handy-dandy notebook...

....not THAT notebook....

....and I write out the broad overview of the chapter.

5. Once my skeleton is complete and fleshed out I finally take out my netbook/sit at my desktop and actually START WRITING!

Yeah, yeah, I know....

Anyway, this is when I take my narration in my notebook and I actually plug in dialogue and go in to the details of everything. I then polish it up and the next thing I know... it's done!

Anyway..... since it IS a new year, I decided to start fresh. My main resolution is to write more. To work on my stories - or really ANYTHING - at least once a week. To do weekly updates here. To just.... WRITE! I am so determined to actually finish this story before 2013. I started it August 2010 and so I think that would be more than enough time! Well, I worked a little on my story this morning, and I'm writing this update, so far the resolution is in tact!

The other fresh start is the new look I have for this blog. I've read more blogs lately and they look pretty swank. A lot of them bring in interest with pictures - hence all the ones above. Also, I use a LOT of emoticons when I'm writing things on DeviantArt.com, and so it just seems blah when I can't use the emotes anywhere else. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that DA specifically requests that people don't use the emoticons outside of DA, I would have them plaster those adorable emotes all OVER the place here!

I'm not sure if I like the pictures though. It takes a while to find them and they just take up a lot of space.

Well, I now know at least two people read this blog, and so my last bit to spruce up this place is to tweak who can leave comments. Now you don't need to be a member of Blogger.com in order to comment. So please, I'd love to know what you think of my posts. Are they helpful? Are they amusing to read? Is there anything I can do to make the read more enjoyable? Just leave a comment below!

Love you, guys, and HAPPY 2012!!!!

OMG My Readers Are Gonna Make Me Cry!

I logged on to my email today and found that I received a notice from Fanfiction.net. Someone had reviewed my story What is Truly Meant to Be: A Hey Arnold! Musical. I went to check on the review and saw my first anonymous one I've ever received. It simply said this:

12/29/11 . chapter 6

Pleeeeease?

Q_Q..... OMG I nearly broke in to tears! I am SOOOOOO sorry I haven't written anything! I just feel so guilty! I am just suck a slacker! I'm in such a funk and I wish I knew how to kick myself out of it. I just can't believe people like my story enough to wait so long for more. I can't believe my story is good enough that people would actually plead for me to return to updating it.

So, to you Anonymous... I am sorry, I love your devotion, and I WILL work on my story again. Thank you so much for sticking by me, even when I make you wait so long for an update.

Much love and hugs to my readers. It may not seem like it, but you brighten my world and I love you loads.

And Time Flies By... But Maybe Some Writing CAN Be Done

Man, I did NOT think of a good time to get married and move! October is the busiest wedding month! Plus, there's the craziness of packing, moving, unpacking, AND Halloween! Once THAT holiday is over, here comes Thanksgiving, and my family visiting! And THEN Christmas comes marching around the corner, along with the craziness THAT holiday brings... as well as MORE unpacking/organizing the new house, and going down to visit my family. New Years is just a few short days away and I still don't really have much free time to do anything. February has Valentine's day. And March has my sister's birthday and St. Patrick's day. I'll have to check my calendar, but April MIGHT bring Easter... either way, it will DEFINITELY bring my Mom's birthday. On top of that, it will also bring another ScriptFrenzy month! So there goes ANOTHER month of not writing! If May doesn't contain Easter, that MIGHT be the next big break I get. Funny how 1/2 the year has a holiday every month, and the second 1/2 only has Independence Day on the Fourth of July - unless, of course, you're also counting Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.

January seems to be my only reprieve from the holiday season. So I guess I'll have to make the most of it!

I FINALLY got around to skeleton-ing the next chapter. Perhaps I can write it before a YEAR passes... sheesh!

I never heard back from that supposed Beta. Oh well, I *DID* overwhelm her with stuff. On the plus side, Good Old Delaroux popped on by and read my blog, and she gleefully volunteered to be MY beta! haha. ChibiSunnie also stopped by and ALSO volunteered to beta! I love my girls! Unfortunately, they too were just as stumped as me as to how to finish the chapter, but it is as I always say: "You never know where the seed for a great idea might come from!" Saying some of the dumbest things just in passing might be just the direction you need for the lightning bolt from your muse to finally strike you! Just spitballing with those ladies got the juices flowing and I think I finally know what to do with the story! So... YAY!

NOW my only problem is that I dove a little too deep. The chapter as a mind of its own and became its own story! The chapter needs chapters! Normally I would break this chapter up like I did when the Sweet 16 chapter ran long. However, I pigeon-holed myself in to this "every chapter needs a parent song" format, and so I can't really split the chapter up. So now I think I'm gonna do what I tried to avoid before... I'm going to make it a bam-bam-bam kind of chapter. No delays, just in your face "HELLO! YOU NEED TO BE SOMEWHERE ELSE RIGHT NOW!"

I had a subplot all figured out and everything, but having a subplot that is only relevant to one chapter, and centering on OCs that we'll only see for one chapter seems a bit much. I'll spend too much time - and force the readers to invest too much emotion - on a situation and characters they won't see again. INSTEAD! I'm going to eventually write this chapter as it wants to be: it's own story. I'll elaborate on the events that occur, but it has to wait for now. Dear lord, this story births so many plotbunnies! I already have two "spin off" stories bouncing around in my head!

I'm not going to know until I write this bugger how much I'll like writing the chapter the way I must, but it's better than postponing any more, right? Plus Delaroux is finishing up her story Something to Return to. True, she's already being a busy-little-bee and working on ANOTHER story, but perhaps once she's done with this main story I'm beta-ing for I can concentrate on my OWN story, instead of investing so much time in the wonderful Flite11 universe she created!

Delaroux - don't get me wrong, I LOOOOVE living in your world, which is why it's so hard to leave! XD I'm not blaming you, chica, for postponing my writing, I charish every minute with your story, I'm just saying that sometimes a writer finds something so grand they forget about their OWN stuff... ya know? BAAAH! I should have deleted that last paragraph... now she's gonna feel guilty again! *runs away crying*

ANYWAY, I guess what I'm trying to say is... Since the job hunt thing seems to be flopping, I might as well use my time wisely and write. ^_^

You guys never wanted a new chapter, right????

*Sigh*

What is WRONG with me!? It has NEVER taken me so long to write something. Hell, I wrote that birthday gift for BrokenRose24 in like a DAY! And now I can't write a chapter that I've had more-or-less planned out in my head since February!? What is up with that!?

For some reason I'm second-guessing myself. I guess it's an adverse effect to beta reading for such great writers. Speaking of which, quick shout out to Delaroux and her SUUUUPER popular story Something To Return To. As well as Darkangel1326 and her A-MAZE-ING poems.

OK, and now back to me. ^_^

As I was saying, I think the adverse effect of beta reading for these two wonderful women is that I am now second-guessing myself. I know you are your worst critic, but I don't feel like I'm nearly as good as these ladies. I cannot write poetry whatsoever and so anything Darkangel1326 does amazes me. And Delaroux not only writes incredible chapters - which are insanely popular - but she knocks them out in like a day! A day! Her story has NEARLY DAILY UPDATES! She has written more in a month than I've written in a YEAR! Her stuff is intense. She gets great reviews. And although I beta for her - I basically just catch typos and minor plotholes that might sneak through. Therefore, her success is really of no result of my help.

I know fanfiction isn't a competition. I know we're just one big family. I know I have my own faithful readers for god knows what reason. I know when I DO post, I get good reviews. And yet.... I feel like I can't compete with Delaroux.

So now all the groundwork I've laid out in my head over the past ten months is right back out the door. How does Arnold come across this? Why does he think that? How come this doesn't happen? What makes Arnold react this way? Am I putting too much effort in to a chapter-only subplot? So on and so forth.

Back in college when I had difficulties coming up with plots for short stories or scripts that I needed to write for class I would turn to my sweetheart. Granted, he rarely actually gave me ideas, but he would occasionally question my ideas - which would spark more ideas. And he'd question those ideas. Which would help me solidify everything. I needed this sounding board again.

However, this time, my husband didn't really know what to say. No input really. *sigh* I put the word out on Facebook that I'm looking for a beta. I got a girl who offered, but I'm throwing a LOT at her, and she has a life, so it takes her a week or two to get back to me. She did start up the "writer's spark" with some of her questions, but that just got the ball rolling for me to think up even MORE scenarios and questions. She hasn't responded yet.

And so I think I'm back to going it alone. It feels like a daunting task and every time I attempt to work on my chapter I end up on Facebook, or playing Legend of Zelda, or cleaning the house for the holidays. Hell, these distractions have even kept me from properly beta reading for Delaroux.

I did get back on the ball with that one, so maybe this means I'll finally get back on the ball with writing....

....after doing the laundry, and the dishes, and sweeping, and moping, and vacuuming, and cleaning off the dining room table, and doing wedding Thank You notes, and putting up the Christmas tree, and FINALLY getting a damn job!

Dear god I'm never gonna write another chapter...... *sigh*

Yeah, so much for THAT idea...

I don't think I'll make my Thanksgiving deadline for the next chapter of my story. What else is new, right? I never seem to meet my deadlines. I really need to focus more!!! Gaaah!

When I agreed to read Delaroux's story as a beta reader I did NOT anticipate her cranking out a new chapter almost daily! Damn, girl!!! I'm loving her story, don't get me wrong, but it does take up some time to read each chapter and send her my edit notes.

I'm also helping SJohnson911 with his story, and darkangel1326 with hers. Worst part is that I haven't actually had time to read SJohnson's....

It's fun to read them all and to help them. And yet, it's time consuming and it's keeping me from my own writing.

Also, my husband has this thing with quiet - he doesn't like it. He just cannot sit in a quiet room, which makes reading these betas even harder since I'm constantly distracted! I keep telling him that if he plays a video game or music it wouldn't be that distracting. But, instead he keeps the TV on almost 24/7!!!

I have this thing where I cannot ignore anything with a plot. Even if I can't stand it (*cough* House of Payne/Meet the Browns *cough*), if there is a plot to follow, I must do so. Same thing goes for any fan-made music video where the footage has subtitles. The subtitles may only be there because the editor couldn't find footage without the subtitles. The subtitles could mean NOTHING in relation to the music. And yet, the subtitles provide, even briefly, plot points. And so I will ignore the music video and how the footage relates to the music in favor of reading the subtitles and trying to figure out the plot.

It's a disease that I can't seem to cure!!!

On top of all that, my house is still a disaster! Partially because we're still unpacking from the move last month, and so we're tossing things out of boxes, putting them in smaller boxes, and leaving things all over the floor until we have more storage space available. Partially due to the time I'm reading fanfiction, looking at fanart, and discussing things on the Hey Arnold! facebook group instead of cleaning. Mostly due to the fact that the dishes are so piled up that I get discouraged just looking at them... which of COURSE helps me work on whittling down the pile. *rolls eyes*

My mom and sister are visiting for Thanksgiving on top of everything else. Which means I have today, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday to clean like CRAZY! Then, the family will be here Tuesday through Saturday morning - so unlikely I'll have time to write while I'm entertaining. And on top of that, I have the LARP tonight, so there goes like four hours of my day...

And so, my ability to write my next chapter before Thanksgiving fades away. And my husband's birthday is the first week of December. And his best friend moves the same week - so we're helping him since he helped us. And I have to still search for a new job. And get the car inspected and registered for the new state. And I have to get a license and license plates for this state. And I have to figure out Christmas shopping. And I haven't even STARTED on the Wedding Thank Yous (Which SUCKS since my bridal shower was in JULY!!!)

Damn, I have a lot to do. I gave up accepting anyone else to beta read for, and I might have to slow up on helping the three people I have. When will I have time to write!? Wheeeen!?

So sorry, reader. I'll try to get back in to the swing of things soon.

LARPs, Betas, and Birthdays

Well, I have all of my writings up on both Fanfiction.net and Deviantart.com now - only kept about a week to post everything on DA.com. And yet, I'm not that much further in my next chapter. *sigh*

I have a notebook that I keep all of my writing notes in - to make sure there's continuity, plus it's easier for me to outline a chapter in good old pencil. Aaaaaaand.... I couldn't figure out where my husband had packed said notebook when I moved. Unpacking has been a long and slow process - but people keep reassuring me that we're moving about par for the typical unpacking timeframe. Anyway, I finally gave up this past week, and just tore open boxes. Since there still really wasn't any place to unpack them, most of the boxes just got repacked right after I went through them. However, with my husband's help I finally found the notebook! YAY! Turns out it was in a fairly large, fairly heavy box filled with my journal collection. Yes, yes, I actually COLLECT journals. Most of them have nothing written in them, but if there's a really nice journal in a store somewhere I will buy it. I think I'm addicted to journals actually....

Anyway, so now that I have my precious notebook I just need the time to sit down and write out the chapter's skeleton, and then the chapter itself from there. The last time I did this I was able to do both within three days, and so I still have hopes that I can get the chapter posted by Thanksgiving.

I haven't exactly been a complete and total slacker over the past couple of weeks, however. And I don't just mean the non-lazy process of unpacking and setting up my new home - as well as keeping it clean. I mean I haven't been slacking off with my writing.

As I've mentioned in times past, my husband's best friend runs a LARP game. It's based off of the White Wolf MET game Vampire:The Masquerade. Basic premise is that the world as we know it is now a gothic-punk environment where Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Demons, and other such fantastical creatures roam not only free, but rampant. The characters the players portray are typically vampires all part of what's called "The Masquerade" - in short, a means to hide their existence from humans. Chaos will surely ensue and the players all have to find ways to deal with it without revealing to humans that vampires really do exist. It's a bit complicated to get in to, but once you get the hang of it the game is quite enjoyable to play.

Anyway, part of my continued hiatus is due to this game. First, now that I lived in the same area as them - finally - I could regularly play in the LARP and so I needed to create a character. There was a lot of rulebook reading, talking to the hubby's best friend to bounce ideas off of him, and then finally the actual character creation complete with backstory development. And since my character was born during the American Victorian age I needed to do some research on the time.

Another task that I picked up was helping the narrators with one of their essential props for the game session in four days. See, we only play once per month so that it doesn't get too overwhelming, and so the narrators can develop the plot the players will encounter. Anyway, since I'm a brand new player I can't be a narrator, but my husband is. So he and his best friend - the Storyteller AKA Head Narrator - frequently talk about the upcoming plotline, but try to do so without giving anything away to me. Once Senior Storyteller realized that he didn't have the gift to write a fake newspaper article - a key prop/plot point for the upcoming game - he finally caved and let me in on at least the information we'll all be privy to on Friday. We spent over twenty-four hours talking back and forth about what was going on, how the reporter found out about the activities, how much the reporter truly knew, and why the story was written in a specific manor. We also tried to figure out how to insert this fake article in the actual paper to truly bring the prop to life. In the end, I finally got some use out of being on the school newspaper sixth grade through freshman year of college.

Along with helping hubby's best friend with the newspaper article for the game, I've also helped out some fellow fanfiction authors. It started out unintentially, but as of November 12th I am now an official Beta Reader on Fanfiction.net.

The way I stumbled on to this whole new procrastination tactic is thanks to an Asian author on the Hey Arnold facebook group. Delaroux was nervous about her brand new story, especially since I think it's the first Hey Arnold! fanfiction she ever wrote, and on top of that she had started the story when she was twelve. So she posted her first chapter on the Hey Arnold! group and asked for some feedback.

The story was very good, but she did need a lot of polishing. There were typos and some grammar problems. Plus, since schooling is different between Asia and America, she had a lot of school nuances messed up. I didn't want to write all of these negative things right there on the facebook group for all to see - plus, it would have been too long for a facebook comment. I decided to write my rave review on the group's page instead, since it truly was a great start of a story. I then discretely sent Delaroux all of my edits via facebook message. She seemed thankful for the edits and sent me her second chapter to read. Overall the problems I had with the first chapter had diminished in occurrence, and so it was just a few typos and grammar checks that I had to send edit notes for. I also had to go in to great detail about the schooling differences again - not the same differences I sent her before.

Again she seemed grateful for the help, and even had a "thank you" message in her next two chapters. I find it funny that she keeps publicly thanking me for my beta edits, and yet my list of edits become smaller and smaller each chapter. It's to the point where she doesn't really need me to beta for her anymore, and yet it's an enjoyable enough story that I want to read the chapters ASAP anyway. I just wish she didn't write a new chapter practically daily. It would give me time to do something other than read fanfiction.

Even when not helping Delaroux, though, I seem to be maturing in to a full-fledged beta reader for my fellow Hey Arnold! authors. I now have three other people that I'm helping out - although on a much smaller level than with Delaroux. For these other authors I'm more-or-less a sounding board, but helping them research is taxing on my free time. I love it though. Being helpful to these people and reading how much they appreciate the help really makes me smile.

I have done some of my OWN writing too! I know, I know, "why didn't you say so in the first place? This is what we came here for!"

Although I've been procrastinating on my latest chapter, I did segway for a day in order to write a new One Shot. I had a bit of a time restraint, and so I didn't really finish the story as well as I had wanted, and so I may eventually go back and fix the ending of the story. It might be after I'm done with my main fanfic, however, so it will be a while.

The new story, "I Thought You Liked Redheads," was written as a birthday gift for someone I've become good friends with via the Hey Arnold! group. She is basically the front-runner of our mission, the captain that helps organize the unruly masses so that we're organized enough to actually make an impact in our movement to get Hey Arnold! revived - if only for one more movie to tie up all the lose ends. She goes by Helga Geraldine Pataki on facebook, but those on DeviantArt and FanFiction probably know her better as BrokenRose24.

On November 6th she had made a comment about her birthday being the next day. I had no clue when her birthday was, so it took me completely by surprise. She had been in a bit of a funk lately and after doing so much for the Hey Arnold! cause I felt like giving back. Normally, the people on DeviantArt give each other artwork as birthday gifts, but I can't draw. I decided to write her something instead, but it's a lot easier to randomly draw something than to come up with a story that I'd know she'd like. It was then that I scanned BrokenRose's gallery. I figured if I made a story based on one of her drawings it would stand a better chance at being something she'd appreciate.

She had a picture of Helga as a redhead and it instantly spoke to me.

Unfortunately, due to errands that I had to do, the actual time I had to write this story for BrokenRose24 was about seven hours. Yikes! It was rushed and short - a little too short I guess. My only complaint about the story was that it stopped too abruptly. I'm glad people liked the story so much! I've had positive reviews on both FanFiction and DeviantArt. There were 100 hits the first day I posted it on FanFiction. Prior to posting this story the highest hit count I received when I premiered a story was a mere 63, so thank you, readers, for coming back to me after such a long wait.

Now for me to just work on that damn chapter that's been holding me up for half a year!