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....

Job Exchange Complete

Alright. My first official Tuesday Update Day. Let's see how long this sticks, huh? It does feel weird doing this on a Tuesday, since this is just about the first one I've had off since 2012... Anyway....

I finished up at my old job on Saturday, so Sunday was my first day of my first full week at full time at my new job. I'm excited! I'll still have less free time now that I'm working 40hrs, but I don't need to be at work until 9:30 most days, and so I have a little bit more time in the morning; assuming I don't just allow myself to sleep in....

Since I've noticed that I tend to be most creative first thing in the morning, I'm hoping this little extra time before work will mean I can change my writing hour to right after waking up. Right now it's at the start of my evening; transitioning between work, and catching up on Facebook, and spending time with Hubby, all before our evening get-togethers or shows. More often than not, I ignore the alarm in order to steal a few more minutes in this "unwinding" time. If I set it up to write as soon as I wake up, I'll be more likely to actually do it. In theory. We'll see.

I'll also have a lot of down-time at work. It's either Feast or Famine there; Drought or Flood. While I'll still be using a lot of that time to learn my new job, I am probably going to steal some of that time for reading or writing. We'll see how this job change affects my overall writing productivity.

In the meantime, I did actually steal some time to write throughout the day yesterday. It's not much, and I'm not terribly happy with it, but it's something. Not everything is going to be gold and diamonds, but it's still keeping me practicing. So, that's something, right?

I worked on another Phfylburt challenge, one that I once again forgot about. This is a bit of a sad theme, but I'm hoping that now that I'm settling in to my new job I'll be a bit more focused. My memory will return with any luck. Anyway, after a poke from Phfyl that I was again late, I spent yesterday's down time focusing on how to complete the challenge. It would also mean that I would have SOMETHING to read at Writer's Group tonight. I have something else sort of mentally planned since I want it for Sunday's D&D session as well, but in case I run out of time tonight, I at least have this.

Phfyl's challenge was to imagine an extravagant backstory for a random person I saw throughout the course of the week. Yesterday a woman came into the store to finish paying off her purchase. I've seen her a few times at my old job, and I was around for her sale earlier in the week. She always intrigued me a bit, and so I figured "who better for this challenge?"

Sad to say, it seemed a bit disjointed when I was done. There are two things about this woman that intrigue me, and I couldn't seem to either focus on one or tie them neatly together. I think I have a semi-good base, though. Maybe if I get stumped in the future I can come back to this and try to develop it more.

That's what's really killing me, I think. Phfyl put a cap on how long this character backstory can be, and I can't get as in depth with it as I normally do. I couldn't really make her as complex as I like to build my characters. I couldn't psychologically develop her to sort of explain her contradictions. I couldn't even develop her enough to think of a decent title, so I just went with her name.

"Contessa Germaine"

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I get every third Sunday off - for the foreseeable future, at least - and so I decided that these Sundays will be D&D Day. Makes it easier than trying to struggle through prepping every week, and then squeeze a game in between when I get off at 4 and when Quarthix's fiance starts work at 10. Thing is, it's been about a month since we last played, and I still don't really know what I'll be doing. I've been struggling so much with transitioning out of my old job that I just didn't have time, as evidenced by my April blog posts. Well, this Sunday is D&D Day, so I need to really crack down on what I'm doing.

I've got an idea, as I mentioned a few paragraphs up, and I'm hoping to be able to develop it a bit over the week. I'm not sure if Phfyl will give me a new challenge now that I sent him my answer to his last one. I also don't know if Writer's Group is going to give me a prompt to work with. Either way, along with the broad strokes I'm painting in order to get prepped for D&D Day, I have one or two "behind the scenes"...er.... scenes that I have in mind. I kind of want to write them out, in part to have more writing practice, in part so that I have more of the world around the player characters developed. With any discipline I should have at least one of those scenes ready for next Tuesday's update.

Alright, so everybody send me some good juju or something, I'm hoping this job switch will help me out with stress relief, better income, and more writing opportunities.

And Another One Gone... Another One Bites The Dust

Goodness, it's been a little while, huh? Sorry about missing last week. Working two jobs has left me a bit winded and scatter-brained. I even had to ask a co-worker one day what the date was. It kept me a good ten minutes after she told me for it to register that it was also my mother's birthday! I was going to say something in last week's post, but... well... there wasn't one...

So here's a belated for my mom:

And Mother's Day is this upcoming Sunday, so here's a preemptive for that:

And for good measure, May 3rd happens to be Teacher Appreciation Day:

Mom teaches toddlers, so I think she should get some extra kudos...

I could keep going because today also marks me and Hubby being a couple for 13yrs! Married for 5 in October, but still... TOGETHER for 13yrs! Woah.

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

Alright, back on topic here.....

So, yeah, the days sort of folded in onto each other until I completely lost track. Also, as I think I mentioned before, Thursdays aren't going to work for me anymore for updating. I'll be in at work by 9:30 in the morning, and stay there until 8 at night.

HOWEVER, there is a silver lining. Unlike my old/current job where I GENERALLY got the same days off, but it wasn't guaranteed, at my new/current job I will ALWAYS have at least Tuesdays off - except for situations in which someone calls out or requests a Tuesday off.....

The second day a week that I'll have off is sort of randomized, but at least I'll ALWAYS have Tuesdays off - barring the above exception. So, guess what day will now be my normal update days!

Granted, I'm wicked late today - almost didn't make it - and I did say I'd give you a heads up before the official switch, but I did have to work the old/current job today, and deal with some other things that were sort of thrown along the wayside over the chaos-week. Everything should be settling down after Saturday, though, when I'll ONLY be working the new job.

In the meantime, last Monday I was in a minor-panic because I didn't have anything new to read at Writing Group. Phfylburt had given me a challenge that I had until the 1st to work on, but I was desperate for inspiration, and so I ran with it.

The challenge was to write "the next" paragraph for the last story I read. In other words, extend the book by one more paragraph. It was odd to complete something that the author already said was at the perfect stopping point, and so I'm not entirely sure how well I did with this. Not many at the writing group have read any of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," much less the fourth installment: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." Because of that, no one - not even Phfyl who also never read the series - could really critique what I wrote. I did get some feedback along the lines of "this sounds really good" and "I love the imagery" and "it seems like a great stopping point." So there's that.

Also, me being me, I couldn't conclude my continuation in just one paragraph; not neatly anyway. Which means I went on for a couple of brief paragraphs. I also read the last two or three paragraphs of the actual book to create a good lead-in. My group couldn't quite tell where Douglas Adams stopped and where I picked up, so I guess that's saying something too, right?

As can be expected, given the nature of the challenge, the prompt is very brief and contains spoilers. However, if you already know how SL&TFATF ends - or the previous book "Life, the Universe, and Everything" - or don't care about spoilers, feel free to read my continuation here:

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: Extended Edition"

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Chaos ensued this week as I struggled to work two jobs for the first time in my life. Thank God it's only for two weeks; I have no clue how people do this for a living! Without the added panicky push of needing something to read during writing group, I didn't bother with writing. I just wanted to curl up on the couch with Hubby when we had our few precious hours together.

Not only did this result in me not writing much more than six short paragraphs for the above prompt, but I didn't bother with the Hey Arnold script with ChibiSunnie, nor did I read anything.

It was closing in on the last day of April, and I never even picked out a book for the reading challenge. Eventually, Hubby sensed my stress on the subject and ran into our library for a book. At this point I was pretty much just left with "Can read in one day" and so I picked "Coraline."

I LOVED the movie when it came out in 2009. I never heard of the book it was based on; I just saw a teaser trailer, loved the animation, already was a fan of both Focus Features and Laika Entertainment, and was excited that the director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" Henry Selick was directing his adaptation of the book. So, I was following it before it was released, and obsessively sat on its website playing the games and bonus features. I was even a member of GaiaOnline at the time, and loved the special games they created on the site to promote the movie.

So, YA novel be damned, I wanted to eventually read this book. I've actually owned it for so long that I don't recall where I got it from. I think it was a hand-me-down from celestialTyrant.... Seems like a book he'd be interested in too. Well, Hubby thought it was about time I finally made good on my self-promise. I sat myself down on Saturday, and made sure I had that darn book read before midnight!

It seemed an easy enough read. About 160 pages, thirteen chapters, one full-page illustration each chapter, large font, 1.5 line spacing, and simple language intended for children as young as eight. Didn't help, though, that Cyhyr and Ronoxym had their baby shower the same day, and I also had to work, and Ron came by to hang a bit after the shower..... Still, I was determined. So, as much as I would have loved to hang out with Ron, or seen his and Cyhyr's place for the first time to help her put all her new goodies away, I locked myself in my room and read.

I have to say, this is one of those rare times where I believe the movie improved upon the source material. The novel was good, and I agree with the reviews that it can be super creepy for kids. Heck, the illustrations by Dave McKean are the stuff of nightmares even as an adult. I found myself flipping past them as fast as I could.

However, maybe due to more allotted length to spend with Coraline in the movie, I felt her character - and the other characters, for that matter - were underdeveloped in the book. Plus, I missed the characters Wybie and his grandma, who were both apparently written for the movie. I think those added characters really added a nice depth to the story. On top of that, you could really sense Coraline's temptation to stay in the Other World when you watched the movie. In the book, on the other hand, she didn't seem all that impressed or tempted right from the get-go. The Other Mother cooked dinners Coraline actually enjoyed. That was pretty much it for the book version.

I liked what the Beldam did to the Others in the movie; it fit fairly well. However, I do say that the creatures at the end of the book did seem a lot creepier. Part of me is glad that the movie versions were still creepy, but tamer. Another part of me is sort of curious about how they would have looked in a visual media, that wasn't McKean's drawings. *Shudder*

The Exploration Game seemed better developed in the movie, but I liked what Coraline was searching for better from the book. The ending in the movie felt more intense, suspenseful, and dangerous. A fairly similar ending in the book, on the other hand, seemed a bit lack-luster and anti-climactic.

Now, all this said, I still very-much enjoyed the book. It is a good read that I would recommend to anyone who wanted a creepy tale to flip through. I just feel that the movie was a touch more skillful at telling the story, especially when it keeps fairly close to the book, and the parts where it deviates are - in my opinion - improvements. Each page I read just made me want to the watch the movie all the more. In the end, that's exactly what I did: snuggled up with some tea and watched me some Coraline in a blackened house.

Alright, so let's see my progress in this reading challenge, shall we?

Challenge created by Modern Mrs. Darcy

Now, let's remember that all of those books are flexible.

"Life, the Universe, and Everything" is currently checked off as "read at least once before" but could also be shifted to "published before born" if I end up re-reading something else, and don't have another book for the latter category.

Same can be said about "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" which is currently marked as the "abandoned" book.

"Coraline" is currently in the "Read in one day" slot, which takes out the self-help 15pg mini-ebook I read in January. However, I could, if I so chose, shift it to "Meaning to read" or even "Owned but never read."

My May book is going to be "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. It's a continuation of the "Ender's Game" series, and also my book - in theory - for the "picked by spouse" category. Hubby loves Orson Scott Card and the Ender Saga. Technically, if I wanted to shift SL&TFATF, I did once read the first chapter of "Speaker for the Dead" and got bored. This could be another "abandoned" book, however, I'm older and more mature now. My tastes have broadened, and so I'm hoping to enjoy this book as much as Hubby does. I'll have to let you know at the end of the month.

Achievement Unlocked: Adulthood

Woah. This week zipped by! I didn't even register that I missed my blog update. Sorry about that, guys. It's been a busy adult-filled week.

Friday a buddy came over to help me catch up with cleaning the house.... but proceeded to accidentally break our toilet. Saturday Goob took us out to a game and comic book store, and then to the Asian Market. It was so neat, and Sweet Potato Kit-Kats are now my new favorite thing! I did feel like I should have worn a sign that read "Tourist" though.... After the market I had to run back out to go clothes shopping so that I had something business-casual for an interview. Sadly, this is like a two-hour job for me.

Sunday was Hubby's overnight, and I had to cover for a co-worker, so I was also at work in the morning; not nearly as early as Hubby, but still. That flowed right into finishing up some cleaning and Game Day! I didn't have anything prepared for D&D aside from a brief list of interactions that would maybe take an hour or so. Instead, we tried out the new games we bought Saturday with the store credit Hubby got for trading in some Magic cards.

Monday was "Finally Get The Toilet Fixed" day, along with a few errands and some wedding planning with Spink. Tuesday was a fun-filled day of work, and then quick throwing myself together for the job interview, elation that I was given the job right after the interview, informing my current job of my two-weeks notice, and struggling to vote in the primaries. But the fact that I "struggled to vote" is a political thing I don't want to get into.....

Wednesday I was at work most of the day, had a few more errands to run, and then I was reminded that with the chaos of the weekend I never got around to the writing challenge that Phfylburt gave me for Sunday. The challenge? Write a rave review for a movie I can't stand. Well, I had to be completely honest. That wasn't going to happen. First of all, I don't really hate movies. Secondly, the few I do hate I either haven't seen them in over a decade, or I stopped watching before the movie was done. I couldn't really write any sort of a review, let alone a "rave" one, unless I rewatched one of these movies. Not happening. So, Hubby suggested I watch a movie I avoided because I ASSUMED I'd hate it. Alright. I was game.

So Hubby put on "The Interview" - which is still on Netflix, thanks, Netflix! - and I was actually surprised. It's not going to be a go-to movie for me, but it was a LOT better than I anticipated. So, I was able to find some legit high points, and used those for my review. Although, it did pain me to purposely leave out the low points of the movie....

Phfyl seemed impressed, but he also wants to go back over with a fine-toothed comb in order to give me a better analysis. Eh, anything to help me improve, I guess.

His next challenge? Write the next paragraph to the last book I read. It's an interesting challenge, but always stumps me. The book ended. The author felt it hit its conclusion. I have to now be like "Nope. Just one more paragraph. And then it will be done, for realsies." I guess it wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy to do....

Anyway, back to my whirlwind week. Thursday - when I SHOULD have posted this update - started with a doctor's visit I have been avoiding for FAR too long. Turns out there was nothing for me to be nervous about, so YAY! I then had to race home and chug water so I was ready for my first ever urine test. Joy..... It was for a mandatory pre-employment drug-screening test. And the nurse/lab tech had NO humor. Thursday then chugged right along with Hubby and me doing grocery shopping as soon as I got home, which was interrupted by my current job's HR rep personally handing me a store gift-card as a reward for hitting a certain level with the wellness position. To clarify, everyone in charge of wellness that hit that level got the same reward, so I didn't just get free money for being awesome or whatever. Still, I was the only one out the 14 stores this HR rep was in charge of for the second year in a row, so that was cool. It also may have prompted the rep to both wish me good luck on the new job, and practically beg me to not leave. That was a nice feeling. Plus, ya know, FREE MONEY for groceries! We went on a splurge which meant grocery shopping kept nearly 2hrs. Finish the day off with laundry, and absentmindedly forgetting that a blog post needed to be written.

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by Birdman, Inc.

Friday was more work, a quick house invasion by Quarthix and his fiance, and then when the two of them and Hubby ran off to Friday Night Magic, I ran off to do more clothes shopping so I had an appropriate wardrobe for my new job. That took close to three hours this time. I'm so good at this.

Once home again, I balanced my checkbook, contacted David's Bridal to let them know I wasn't going to make the 7-day cut off to pick up the bridesmaid gown that arrived - that was an ordeal - and spent a little bit of time with Spink when she dropped off a few more bridal party dresses for me to store.

Yesterday was work and then out with friends all day, concluding with Ronoxym and Cyhyr hanging out with us at our house until pretty late. Then crashing for a few hours before Hubby's overnight shift.

Which finally brings me to today. Chaos has followed me all week. The only thing I have written - aside from maybe a post or two over on X-Future - was that "rave review" challenge from Phfyl. I haven't even figured out anything for today's D&D session. Soooo, that will be interesting....

Also, with the new job I will now be at work for close to twelve hours on Thursdays, so I will once again be shifting my weekly update day. No clue what I'll be shifting it to, but I'll be sure to let you know before it officially happens. Keep an eye out for that.

I really wanted to find something to talk about today to make up for missing Thursday, but truthfully, I just don't have anything. There was no writing. No brainstorming. No vague intention to focus on such-and-such story. This past week has purely been focused on this new job and all the other adulting stuff that came with it.

I didn't even focus on my Script Frenzy project at all. Haven't chosen a book yet this month, let alone read one. Creatively, this month has been a bit of a wash. How is it going by faster than February!?

So sorry, folks. I wish I had more for ya. I do have the challenge Phfyl gave me, along with the writing prompt for the local group: if your main character were to write you a letter, what would it say? I'm not entirely sure I can actually do the local group prompt since I don't have a story I'm focusing on, let alone a main character, but I could possibly have the challenge from Phfyl done for this Thursday......

My life will be non-stop chaos for the next 14 days or so, which will make being creative interesting. But, we'll give it a shot. Until then, my apologies once more for zoning out this week.

Productively Writing Nothing

Ever had one of those weeks where you worked your butt off and still managed to accomplish nothing? Yup. That was me.

I told you last week how I was working fairly diligently on populating Ashitar for the Sunday D&D session, as well as building more of its history. Well, Friday I spent the better part of TEN. FLIPPIN'. HOURS. working on this project. I did some research before work. I did some more during my lunch break. Some more while waiting for Hubby to get out of work. And I kept going from the moment I got home until I nearly passed out on the couch. I didn't even realize I wasn't getting anywhere or missing out on more productive things, such as actual writing or at least cleaning the apartment.

I had stumbled upon the D&D Wiki page on town-building - which I would have gone to first if I had thought about it existing - and just set up camp. I went through all the charts and percentages and algorithms on this insanely-long page. I set up spreadsheet charts with their own algorithms built so all I have to do is input the population next time. And what did I accomplish with all of this?

I know how much of the population is male vs female. How many are able-bodied adults vs children, elderly, and infirm. I know how many are elderly, and how many of THEM are male vs female. I know how many are infirm, and again the sex-split within that category. I know how many children are boys, and how many are girls. I know how many are teens, which is only 13-15 in the D&D world since you reach adulthood at fifteen. I know how many children are 3-13, and how many are toddlers or infants. I know how many are any given race between human, elf, half-elf, halfling, dwarf, gnome, and half-orc. I also know the professions found in Ashitar, and the breakdown of how many of each profession there are.

Do I know anything of any significance? Like the names of the important players in the town? The layout of Ashitar? The names of the Assassin's Guild or Thieve's Den? The names of the pubs they hang out in? Any "quest givers" for the party? Nope. Not a clue. At least, not when I was done "working" on Friday.

A whole lot of studying, planning, and work focusing on entirely the wrong things. That's me!

I don't recall why, but Saturday was also a bust. So here it is, Sunday. Everyone was coming over to play, and I have nothing to work with. I got done with yet another overnight shift close to two hours before my husband would be done, and so I sat in the break room and just worked. I doodled out a VERY rough city map. I scribbled down every possible Quest Thread that I could think of. I came up with rumors that would be going throughout the place. I was on fire! I felt accomplished when Hubby showed up in the break room to let me know he was done.

I was even more amazed when I found out that he got his work done about an hour early, and I had accomplished all of that in around 45minutes! Whoo! I guess first thing in the morning IS my prime creativity time. I miss having my Sunday Insomnia writing sessions.

Unfortunately, it ended up being all for naught. My main quest giver felt her world crumbling around her and acted with emotion instead of thought. She meant no harm, but it put a couple player-characters on the defensive. Which lead them to irritate her since she interpreted their defensiveness as disrespect. So now Hubby and Quarthix's characters believe the human baroness racist against all non-humans - Hubby's an elf and Quarthix is a dwarf - and wish to have little to nothing to do with her. Meanwhile, she doesn't want to be in the same room with these disrespecting people. The likelihood that I can get the three of them together for her to offer a paid quest seems difficult, and so that has been my challenge this week: find a way to get them to all play nice.

Well, on top of that challenge already, Hubby's character convinced another to be a bit naughty, to say the least. See, our friend Goob has a bard for a character, which means he has a lot of Charisma that he can use for, say... bluffing someone. Hubby's character reminded Goob's character that the Baroness said that she wanted them out of her sight, and that she "didn't care where they went, as long as it wasn't in the same room as her." He used this wording to convince the bard that this would mean she wouldn't mind them checking out the mansion's coffer.

Goob's character used his bluff to convince the simple town guard sent to escort them that he should give them a tour of the mansion first; starting at the mansion's coffer.

In reality, I should have just said, "The guard knows better. You cannot bluff him about this." However, I'm new to DMing, I was tired from working the overnight and not napping before game started, and so I just rolled to see if the guard believed the bard. Alas, he not only believed him, he thought it was an order from the Baroness. He faithfully lead the party down to the coffer, where Hubby's character skillfully thieved two out of the three jewels resting in the safe. Again, I should have been like "NO!" but....

So, not only do I have to smooth things over between the Baroness and the party so they can get their main quest-line from her, but I have to make everyone too stupid to realize that the jewels magically disappeared from the coffer about the same time these strange people - who were already disrespectful, in the Baroness' eyes - were in the mansion. Oh yeah, and Hubby cleaved one of his stolen goods, a black pearl, in half in order to set them into the eye sockets of the black dragon skull he is turning into a helm for Quarthix's dwarf. So, naturally, either the dwarf never sets foot in Ashitar again - which sucks since I was planning on having it be the party's home-base for at least another six quests or so - or he can't wear his helm anywhere near town for fear of someone recognizing the black pearl. Hubby claims it will be fine because it will look like TWO black pearls, when only one was stolen. Still..... It's bad enough Quarthix kept some of the Baron's rings when they found him dead in a dungeon. He was smart enough to take those off before seeing the man's widow, but to hide those AND the black pearl dragon helm? I don't know how to convince Quarthix to have his character stay at Ashitar; aside from going "I'm the DM and I say you have to stay here!"

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by Birdman, Inc.

So, yeah, it's been a fun week trying to figure all of THAT out. So it didn't really leave me much extra time to, ya know, WRITE.

Which was interesting come this past Tuesday when I went to my writing group. Not really anyone had anything to read, which was even more awkward. When I joined the group back at the end of October, I met a woman who had managed to not only finish writing a 50,000 word book during NaNo, but she polished and published it as well. She and her husband both had medical issues that kept them from working, and so they were both "retired". Apparently, when I met her in October they were in the final stages of selling their house and moving into an RV instead. I then didn't see her again until this past Tuesday because she and her husband were spending the winter traveling the US; visiting family across the country and taking in historical sights.

Since she had made her triumphant return the previous Saturday, not many of us had seen her yet. We spent most of the evening asking her about her trip, and how she's coming along with her next story. Seems the "next story" that she was trying to get published back in October was now "three stories ago". Well then.

To be fair, she IS retired and had really nothing better to do while on the road for hours on end, so I guess I really shouldn't compare. Plus, if she was able to keep that NaNo pace of write for a month, and then spend the next month polishing, it's believable that she was able to crank out three more over the winter. Still. It's hard for me to not compare. To not be dumbfounded by her productivity. To not be proud of her, but still a bit envious that she's so successful while I can't even figure out what ONE story I want to make into a manuscript.

Anyway, we all gushed over her, which apparently was making her a bit uncomfortable, and so she kept trying to redirect us back to why we were there: writing. What were WE up to while she was gone? Well, DFL and Keaton confirmed that they were very slowly chugging along on their respective stories; the same ones that this woman already knew about. Red then informed the woman about the story she's been working on since our one writing prompt in November: the woman off her meds and planning a homicidal bender. She then read the latest section to us. It had a really nice twist. We talked about her story for a bit; her concerns versus what we thought was really good about it. Once we all seemed to have said what we wanted to, we moved on to a relatively new member.

She had made an appearance once before at the start of the year. Since she knew the new gentleman that had joined in March, I assumed she too had shown up at least once in those two meetings I missed. Making this her third or fourth group meeting.

When she first attended a few months back, she commented about how she wrote clinical papers for a living, and so writing anything creative was a challenge for her. Well, this week she talked about this great 6hr retreat she went on last Saturday, and how she was planning on doing the same thing every Saturday for the near-future. Whatever it was that went on in that zen-like retreat atmosphere must have worked its charms, because what this woman read was beautiful. She had such great imagery, and such a simple but powerful tale. We went on for a little bit about her work. How she was improving, what phrases really struck us, how the story made us feel, so on and so forth.

Then came my turn. I confessed that I was world-building this past month. I then explained to the woman who went before me what I meant by world-building. Once the mini-lesson was concluded, I brought up Welcome to Ashitar to read to them. While there were many discussions with the other works read, the only reactions I received when I was done were "Wow, that was very detailed" from the woman who wasn't sure what world-building was, and "Ashitar and Boar's Tusk Inn remind me of Bree and The Prancing Pony from Lord of the Rings, and that's a good thing." I took both as encouraging remarks, but not really much to build off of, and not the "keep going" energy that the other two writers got.

Not really sure what my take-away will be from this week's meeting.

Finally, it is April, which would normally mean:

Originally an event sponsored by the Office of Letters and Light
The people who run National Novel Writing Month

I've contacted ChibiSunnie. She's going through her notes, and I'm going through the script we have so far for our fan interpretation of the "Hey, Arnold! Jungle Movie". Boy, is it rough.

I've been lamenting lately that for me practice never seems to make perfect. The more I try to make a dish, the more often I seem to burn it. I play video games and strategy games more and more, and seem to get worse at them. As if "beginner's luck" is the only chance I have at winning, or at least not dying endlessly. I've been crocheting for over a decade, and yet my crafts seem to be looking worse instead of better. And then there's my writing. I never seem to see an improvement.

Then I look back at this script, and think that maybe everything in that last paragraph is just in my head!

Kind of makes me scared, though, to know that about four years ago I thought this was good writing. That I showed skills. That I could really go places with my writing. Only to look back on it now and go "Holy Hand Grenades! Did *I* write this!?" No wonder I never won contests, or get much of a fan-base.

It's encouraging to know that I AM improving, but at the same time, it's discouraging to realize that I really am not as good as I think I am. What about now? Am I still crap now, but just don't realize it yet? Is this why everyone else in our group gets a full discussion going about her work, but I just get a couple quick comments before moving on?

I'm in my head again, I know, but it would be nice to know if either I do have a future in writing, or if I still have a LOOOOOONG way to go before I'm good enough to get a decent reader fanbase.

I look at some writings my friends post. They fancy themselves fantastic writers, and I just sort of facepalm. Then I wonder if it's the same for me. Do I make others facepalm when they read my works? Do they silently go "Oh, honey, no. Just, no..." as well? Or am I being too hard on myself? Getting too far into my own head? Do I really have the potential I always thought I had?

I guess those are the things all authors ponder at some point. The real challenge, is either finding the answers, or not caring what those answers are.

World-building Counts as Writing, Right?

Well, here I am at the end of the first week of April. Seven days down, twenty-three to go. Want to know how much script-writing I've done? None. I haven't even unburied my external hard-drive that has the script on it. Haven't talked to ChibiSunnie yet. Haven't even rewatched episodes of "Hey, Arnold!" in order to get back into character. I forgot how crazed April has become.

It's not so bad this year since I don't have to worry about Easter - thanks to it coming stupid-early this year - but the month still starts off with my niece's birthday.

I wanted to have Disney's Rapunzel in this image since that was the party she had,
but apparently all other 3yr old girls are having Disney's Frozen parties still...

It was a chaotic weekend. Between work, the party, yet another unexpected Overnight shift, and Hubby and I getting sick, there was no time really to do anything. I even had to cancel my D&D session for the weekend. Worked out for me though, because I had nothing planned.

Still don't, really. That's the writing I've been doing this week instead of working on actual productive things like my Script Frenzy fanscript with Chibi, or just generic fictional prose. I mean, it serves a purpose, and I'll eventually use it for Gyateara, and I need to know this stuff for my game, and it's still being creative. Still, I wish I had advanced some story somewhere.

Instead, the best I have is further development of my original D&D merchant town of Ashitar. Although, I have to admit - while some facts were already established in my posting last week - I like how much of the background, particularly between Baron Gringroso and his lord Count Keenhale, I was able to come up with:

The Gringroso family were faithful bannermen for Count Keenhale and his family for generations. Due to duty, obligation, as a reward, or a way to keep the Gringrosos fealty - I haven't decided yet - Count Jarvine Keenhale gave Greggor Gringroso a bit of land in his county. It was deemed a bit of a slighting at first because the land wasn't previously populated due to how dangerous the surrounding terrain was. The treacherous Neergreve forest choked the west and south sides of the land. The deadly Razor Beast mountain range loomed along the east and north ends of the property. The plain in between was very nice, but the likelihood of survival was slim.

Still, the Gringroso prevailed. They were tough as nails, and set up their keep with a few faithful servants. They survived a few winters before the first brave travelers happened upon them. Merchants trying to get to and from the Outaka Sea had to cross the Razor Beast. Greggor Gringroso gave them shelter as they either prepared for the long journey, or recovered from it. As thanks, they not only sold the Gringroso's their wares as a discount, but also made sure to spread word of this way station.

Soon a few brave merchants - escorted by adventurers - traveled over the Razor Beast instead of around it; in order to cut their journey from sixteen days to a mere three. Greggor then commissioned for a travel route to be cut through Razor Beast in order to help more merchants brave the mountain with a straight path to the port town of Golden Shell.

Years past, and merchants crossed paths, sold their wares to each other, and soon realized how many truly stopped at the Gringroso estate for shelter. A thorp sprung up around the keep as merchants stayed in order to earn coin from the other travelers. The hamlet rapidly grew into a thriving merchant town, spiraling ever further outward as it expanded. Eventually, it ran smack into the Razor Beast along two sides.

Marauders and monsters threatened the town, as well as some of the more wealthy merchant houses. The six main houses thought themselves the true founders of Ashitar since it was their parents and grandparents settling below Gringroso's keep that allowed the town to form in the first place. They each wished to be the mayor of Ashitar, but the rightful landowners - the Gringrosos - were in the way. Each family - both separately, and as a pooled effort - attempted to assassinate Greggor's sons and grandsons, and this tradition continues to this day.

While trying to crush assassination attempts, Mikhail Gringroso - Greggor's eldest grandson and then-current mayoral baron of Ashitar - also had to deal with the town expanding so far out that it was enticing monsters to leave Neergreve and attack. He had a wall built around the forest boarder; using the natural expansion into Razor Beast as the other half of the wall. It didn't help much. Ashitar became too large, and too dangerous. The economy crumbled when travelers reverted back to their sixteen-day paths in order to avoid the dangerous Neergreve, Razor Beast, and Ashitar.

Eventually, Mikhail sent out a call for new adventurers to come to Ashitar to protect the city and the travelers, but first he needed to beg Javine's grandson Ronan for a loan in order to pay for the adventurers' fees. Over the years the Keenhale family grew bitter of their bannermen and baron. While they required the Gringrosos to pay taxes to them, the Keenhales wished they were the ones who were able to develop the bustling Ashitar. Part of Ronan wanted Ashitar and the Gringrosos to fall so he could have a kinsmen revive the city as their own. However, he knew how it would look to his other bannermen, and if no one were as successful as the Gringrosos the revenue from Ashitar would be lost. Begrudgingly, Ronan gave Mikhail the life-giving loan.

Mikhail was able to revive Ashitar to its once-before glory days. It swelled inside its walls again, and began to spill outside the protection of its barriers. Now it is Mikhail's son Edvard who is mayoral baron. And Edvard who has to now deal with the assassination attempts, the monster invasions, and the anger of Count Marcus Keenhale - Ronan's eldest - about his family's loan not being paid back yet. Edvard is trying to teach his young son about what makes a good baron, but the boy is only twelve and is quick to lose focus. Young Brianan can't imagine being in charge of over 3500 people, but he may have to figure it out sooner than he thought.

I've come up with some other stats about Ashitar, although I'm still tweaking them....

• Ashitar is about 3.3 square miles within the walls, with some of the newer businesses spilling out onto the sparse clearing between Ashitar and Neergreve.
• Ashitar is about to celebrate its 70th anniversary of its founding; although the Gringrosos owned it for another five years previous.
• The tight swelling of the large town created an insanely-tight population density, for medieval-style development, of about 1000 people per square mile, including elderly and children.
• The whole town population is 3,544 people including 2,356 able-bodied adults, about 154 elderly, and average of 50 sick.
• Men make up 53% of the adult population with 1249 able-bodied.
• There are also 983 children.
• The town is protected by a capable Captain of the Guard, his three lieutenants, 60 city guards, and a ready-militia of 177 additional men, making up 241 of the able-bodied adults.
• The Assassin's Guild - either named Shadow Knives, Nightwalkers, or TBD - has 27 members.
• The Thieve's Guild has 119 members. Name still TBD
• While still subject to change, the six main merchant houses are in charge of the following trade: Silks and other fine "orient" products, fur and game, grain, lumber, gemstones and ore, and the brothel manager who secretly does slave trading as well.
• The brothel has a few assassins within it's doors; black widow lovers. I'm still deciding if the brothel itself or just this sisterhood of assassins should be called Seducers of Purity.

So, as you can see, I have been doing a lot of research and world building. I just wish I had more actual writing to show for it. I also still have a long way to go before I'm ready for these sandbox-players to run around Ashitar on Sunday.

The largest bit of writing I've done this week was on the X-Future board. I finally got back to my Brotherhood character Trish, whom I hadn't played in about a year. Hubby set her up with an abandoned propane tanker left on an equally abandoned dock. She had fun spending an hour destroying the truck before exploding the tank. I'd share it, but Trish is a pyrophile, and so it definitely boarders soft-core as she.... er.... enjoys herself during the destruction. That, plus that woman's sailor-mouth gives her a firm Mature - and NSFW - rating. Either way, it was fun for me to write, and others seemed entertained in reading.... I mean, I'm no E.L. James, but still. I'm hoping the part of her destroying the truck, and not just the end paragraphs, were amusing as well. I'll have to ask for further feedback from the other players.

Well, it's creeping ever closer to noon, so I should probably wrap up. I might have some NPC character creation and other such D&D-related things to share next week. I'm hoping to also have added at least SOME pages to the fanscript Chibi and I started about four years ago.

Finally, Some Writing!

Wow, I never went back and wrote a blog post last week. Sorry about that. Not intended. It was just a crazy week, and Wednesday proved too full a day for me to write my post ahead of time, and Thursday I was at work all day. I had all intentions to write the post when I got home on Thursday, or while Hubby was out on Friday. As per usual, things didn't go as planned.

I guess it was for the best, though. I really would have hated to write "I didn't write anything" in yet ANOTHER long-winded, excuse-filled post. Which was one of the reasons I didn't go back to write a post last week. I ended up using that time to actually write some fiction! Egads!

Before my first game as the DM, I had created a bit of a backstory for the tavern the party met at, as well as the town it was associated with, even though it was on the outskirts. It kept me nearly a month to go back to it, but last weekend I finally took the time to sit my butt down and finish the darn thing. Due to the nature of how the story evolved - first tavern, then town, then surrounding area, etc - there is an unproportional amount of time spent talking about this one establishment. I still need more info on the other businesses, the people, the Assassin's Guild, the Thieve's Den, the baron and his family as well as their relationship to the count, etc. In the meantime, though, I feel it's a good start, without it being as overwhelming as my Sandikir culture write up last year.

Also, last year someone commented that not all the Sandikir words seemed to connect to each other in order to make a coherent language. I get that. I'm far from a linguist. I can barely master my native tongue, I can't seem to figure out any other languages - even though they are all comparatively much easier than English - and so knowing language enough to create a believable one is a bit out of my wheelhouse. At some point I'll have to figure out how people were able to come up with their own languages so that I can do the same. That's probably decades from now, though.

The reason I bring this up is that I'm sure I'm going to have a similar issue with this story. I took a variety of approaches to name multiple different things - from landscapes to gods to familial names to business names, etc - and it might seem a bit disjointed from each other. My defense? I took the American approach to things. We're a melting-pot of cultures and languages, and we steal from those cultures and languages all the time to create a diverse environment. You might drive down King's Street, turn left on Rodero Drive, pass Lopatcong Road, and finally park on Lafayette Boulevard. That's four different cultures smooshed together on one simple road trip. They may seem so disconnected, but it works for a diverse culture like America. So, I'm just going to assume the majority of the countries and cultures in Gyateara will be built "melting pot" style.

"Welcome to Ashitar"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

I had made sure to finish up this little story, edit it, and post it on DeviantArt as well as FictionPress all by Easter Sunday. Which reminds me. I missed last week's post, and so I also missed this:

I would normally also wish people a happy Passover at this time, but apparently that's still about a month away. Strange that the two celebrations can be so separate from each other when The Last Supper was a Passover meal.... Anyway....

After a bunch of confusion, it was brought to my attention that I unintentionally missed the last local writing group meeting. I had missed the one due to being sick. Then, the Tuesday after visiting my sister was supposed to be the next meeting. I thought that were the case, but I was so - is there a term for "jetlag" when you were just driving four hours away in the same timezone? - that I lost track as to whether it was one or two Tuesdays previous I was sick. Hubby was just as confused, I guess, because he also thought it was still an "off" week. So, last Tuesday I was all set to go to the meeting - although I didn't have anything to really read aside from the incomplete form of "Welcome to Ashitar" - only to get an email stating it wasn't the right day.

The local paper was apparently just as confused as I was, because they had also printed that the 22nd was the next meeting; exactly what I had thought. There was a big email debate as to whether or not the journalist was correct, how we all go the schedule confused, and whether or not we should have meetings three weeks in a row - in case some newbies showed up. Eventually it was decided that the librarians would inform any newcomers of the mix-up, but the meeting would still just wait until this past Tuesday.

The confusion did give us all a great writing prompt, though. So, after a month of no writing group - due to accidentally skipping a second one - I came back a bit triumphant. Not only did I have "Welcome to Ashitar" finished for a read-through, but I also had the writing prompt completed as well:

A newcomer to a writing group gets the dates wrong, and is invited to "another group" that is meeting that night at the library.

We had some very interesting responses to this prompt. Keaton wrote about two boys in a post-zombie-apocalypse traveling twelve miles to a neighboring community in order to join a writing group. They come across a cult-like community of segregation between the sexes. Men and women are never in the same room - aside from a mother caring for her son, or the process that leads to a woman becoming a mother in the first place.... - and the boys happened to have shown up on the WOMEN'S writing group night. Keaton didn't get to the point where the boys were officially invited to join another group, but the men of the village welcomed them into the community messhall for dinner.

DFL was having some computer frustrations over the past couple of weeks - after her computer was forced to upgrade to Windows 10 - and so her character had the same frustrations, only to have her day punctuated with the news that her group was cancelled for that night. She was then offered a knitting or computing group to join for the night since she was already at the library. The character opted for the computing group in hopes of learning how to better deal with her own computer. She discovers that the room was filled with middle-aged, blue-collar or retired citizens all just as frustrated with the Windows 10 upgrade, and so they were plotting to build a bomb in order to threaten Microsoft. The story was actually so amusing to picture. I almost wish this was in some sort of visual format for me to watch.

Red had continued a prompt from when I was sick: three randomly selected elements worked together. We had done similar prompts in the past. Her three elements were a parrot, Hurricane Irene, and "Something in the pocket". She hadn't made it to the pocket bit, but the rest of the story was intriguing. A young Au Pair is trying to persuade her young ward to make two large changes in his life. The first is to visit either his mother or father; both in different prisons after being caught as drug-runners during the chaos of Hurricane Irene's clean-up. The second would be to switch from homeschooling - which he had done his whole life - to joining the public high school now that his education surpassed what the Au Pair was qualified to teach him. The parrot element had the family pet mimic important background conversations in order to give both the audience and Au Pair the insight into the kid needed to help him with these transitions.

The final member of the group this past week was apparently a new member as of the meeting I accidentally skipped - if not the one I was sick for. The first "regular" man in our group. It's nice to have the new perspective, especially with us women trying to write males. It would be good for us to have an actual male opinion on whether or not we're writing men "correctly".

I'm under the assumption that he was the one that offered up the "writer on the wrong day" prompt, and he used it beautifully. The lead-in to the mix-up seemed a bit unnecessarily long, but his depiction of the main character was fantastic and humorous. He then gets to the miscommunication, and has his character come across an eccentrically gaudy woman of questionable sexual morality. I pictured the woman perfectly, and every line of description had me actually laughing out loud. Most of us were, actually. It must have really reassured him to hear the laughs he wrote in.

Me? Well, I got a couple of chuckles, but not nearly as many as I thought I wrote in. I don't know if it was a matter of my verbal delivery, the way I delivered it on paper, if it's only amusing to people of my demographic, if it was amusing but not laugh-out-loud so, or if it just wasn't as funny as I thought. Either way, the new gentleman in our group stated that he could picture everything well, and it got his attention. I guess that's something, right?

I think everyone was more focused on trying to learn alongside my main character. I had him stumble upon a group of people using the library as a staging location for their Boff group. For those who don't know, Boffing is Live-Action Role Play using foam weapons to act out fight scenes, and usually set in a High Fantasy setting; so people are generally in Medieval or Renaissance style clothing. No one in the room knew what Boffing was, and so as my secondary character Jenn quickly explained to my main character Ian, the room seemed just as interested to know. Keaton even asked a few follow-up questions on Boffing in general.

All-in-all, everyone seemed to want me to continue the story, which was also reassuring. I stopped it where it could be a nice one-off, but it was also open ended enough to lead into more chapters. I'm probably going to focus more on Gyateara for the near future; build up more of Ashitar so that my players have something semi-substantial to run around in. However, I will give continuing the Boff Group story some serious thought.

Until I get to the point of continuing the story, it will wait patiently in my Anthology. Although, I'll probably have to remove it as a chapter once I decide to make it a story of it's own. Oh well, crossing bridges once I get to them and all.

Like I said, in the meantime, you can find it here:

"Everything for a Reason"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

I also managed to finish "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" yesterday, giving me my second or third - depending on how you're counting - book completed for the reading challenge. Let's check out that list again, shall we?

Challenge created by Modern Mrs. Darcy

Alright, so I have a few "Schrodinger Books" right now, in which they are simultaneously two different categories until future information leads me to which category they're actually falling into.

Both "Life, the Universe, and Everything" and "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" can fill the "published before you were born" category. LU&E can also fill the "already read at least once" category while SL&TfAtF could also fill the "previously abandoned" category. If I read one more story that can fill the "published before you were born" category, and only that one, I'll shift the other two into the other categories. Otherwise, I'll have to shift either of those Hitchhiker's Guide sequels into that publication category if I read something else for a second time, or another book I gave up on; such as books I should have read in school. ALL THE SCHRODINGER BOOKS!!!!

Now to figure out what I'm going to read next. Also, tomorrow is April First. Not only does that make it April Fool's Day, but it also makes it the first day of the now disbanded Script Frenzy month. Considering Nickelodeon announced a few months back that they were FINALLY greenlighting The Jungle Movie - after the fans fought for it for nearly a decade - I feel like perhaps I should reach out to ChibiSunnie, and we should finally finish our own version of the movie plot before Nickelodeon releases the official one.

So, I must make a few decisions: what to read, what to write, and whether or not to try out Script Frenzy on top of my other fiction writing.