Productively Procrastinating

OK, so I didn't really get very far with actually writing my next fanfic chapter. I've been distracted with homelife and whatnot.

However, I did outline the song that I'm using for the chapter, so I more-or-less know where I'm going with it. My big thing is figuring out when Arnold hits the breaking point where he HAS to see Helga again.

In the meantime, more and more Hey Arnold! fans are posting fanart up on the facebook group page. And more and more pictures are not only fanart of Hey Arnold!, but also fanart of HA! fanfiction. What's more, these artists don't seem to be drawing fanart for stories posted anywhere other than DeviantArt.com. And so, this leads me to believe that more and more people are reading their fanfiction on DA.com instead of FF.net. This isn't necessarily true for the whole populous, but it's what I'm starting to witness when it comes to the people I follow and know.

Therefore, I had decided to start posting my stories on DA.com as well as FF.net. And so my continued hiatus has been due to me posting on DA.com the short stories and chapters that I already have up on FF.net.

It's a slow process since I have to re-edit while I post - since it's different posting than on FF.net. Also, I had to figure out how to post literature on DA.com in the first place. On top of that, I needed a preview pic, and since I title each chapter I decided my preview pic will be the name of the story. I will then name each deviation the chapter title. I did need that preview picture though.

I decided on using the blue, starburst background used during the end credits of each Hey Arnold! episode. Let me tell you, I couldn't really recreate the starburst, and so I decided to make screencaptures of the end credits, and then edit the staffers' names out. It wasn't that easy of a task, but it was easier than making the background from scratch. I also couldn't get the exact font that they used on Hey Arnold!, so I just used Comic Sans - which is close enough.

Anyway, I only have two chapters of What is Truly Meant to Be posted so far, but I'm off to post Chapter Three now.

Thank you for being so faithful, readers! I love you lots! ^_^

Writing Hiatus Coming to a Close?

Wow.... I've been gone for a WHILE! The whole wedding planning thing just KILLED all writing free-time. I'm hoping to get some free-time soon though, so... YAY! ^_^

For any of my readers wondering why the hiatus lasted so long, I believe you deserve to know...

JUNE - I got the wedding invitations out (ridiculously late in the game, but it turned out alright). I spent a week out of state house hunting with my fiance. We started off attempting to look for apartments since we want to move again in about five years, but no one would even attempt to show us their apartments since we wouldn't be moving in until almost four months later. Next up was the three available houses for rent. One was basically a crack-house, another was way too expensive, and so we ended up with the first we looked at. I then spent the rest of the month figuring out wedding details, such as the florist and the reception decorations.

JULY - Work took over a lot as more employees dropped like flies. There was the Independence Day festivities - including my sister's car dying and so busing her around took up some time. My cousin got married. I had my birthday/surprise bridal shower (yay!) and my fiance visited for a week, and so no time for writing while we dealt with more wedding planning.

AUGUST - More work. More wedding planning - figuring out the last-minute details. My fiance's sister got married (long story, but in the end we're OK with her getting married only six weeks before we did - at least it's easy to remember their anniversary). And then the major chaos comes in! At the end of the month I discover that nearly everything we already had planned for the wedding fell apart! We weren't having normal suits/tuxedos for the groomsmen. Instead we were using Jacobite shirts. And I discovered that the shop I ordered them from (back in JUNE!) still didn't have the shirts - in fact, they never even ORDERED them! Turns out the color I wanted was no longer available and instead of contacting me to ask for a back-up color they just let the order drop! So I had a nearly month-long battle to get the shirts I needed. Next up, we had decided that one of the key components of our centerpieces would be sets of dice; however, my fiance discovered that getting the number of sets we needed would cost an exuberant amount. So I had to rethink what to do for the centerpieces! The craftsman I had be talking to for nearly a YEAR still didn't have our wedding rings ready! The company custom-designing our favors also didn't have the order done yet. And even more chaos was thrown at me... I did get two breaks, however, when my mom took me to a concert and my best friend took me to another one later that week.

SEPTEMBER - A month-long battle with my vendors. Trying to get a hold of them, arguing with them, trying desperately to get my products from them, and finding the money to PAY them! My fiance was supposed to come down to apply for the marriage licence, but couldn't make the drive due to the floodings brought on by Hurricane Irene. The next week nearly the same thing happened! I was getting nervous that he wouldn't be able to come down in time to get the marriage licence application filled out!!!! In the end, he managed to come down for a less-than 24-hour visit in order to get the legalities of the wedding sorted out. I ended up having to cancel a lot of other plans, however, since we had to work non-stop on the last-minute details. I then spent a day in New York City before hitting up yet another concert (I got a lot of them as birthday gifts this year!). All of the last-minute planning and the last couple of weeks before quitting my job just killed my free-time.

OCTOBER - And now we have this month! Well, we had the wedding go off without a hitch (well, a few hitches, but I was so mellow that day I didn't care at all!). Then it was a psuedo-honeymoon with the new husband. Basically, by day we would pack up my stuff for the move, and by night we would slink away to a hotel and enjoy being newlyweds. A lot of stress built up - again - as I feared that a) we wouldn't be able to pack everything in the limited time frame, and b) even if we did - it wouldn't all fit on the truck. Well, we got everything safely up to the new house, and my mom stuck around for almost a week to help organize the new place. However, now my life has been filled with the process of UNpacking, and organizing my new life up here. Not an easy task considering one of the key factors of moving up here was my fiance's social life. His friends ADORE me, and so his large social circle became mine as well. This is normally a good thing... but I can barely go a day without SOMEONE stopping by the house! And so any writing free-time is instead used to entertain unexpected guests. On top of all that, a large majority of this social circle are part of a LARPing group. And so I spent three straight days learning the rules of the game they're currently playing, as well as creating a character for it - and then playing in the game last night!

But now the LARP character is created, I more-or-less know what I'm doing, and they only play the game about once a month so the person in charge has time to bring in more players, create characters, and come up with a storyline.

I'm more-or-less done unpacking. I mean, there's still more to go, but it is now a slow process - basically unpacking just a box at a time until we can slowly raise money for more shelves and/or dressers.

The only other distraction is to finally get back on to the job-hunt. A lot of time will be killed as I look for job, and then more when I finally have one.

However, I do feel like I have the time to write - I mean, I had the hour to write this blog entry, so it's a start! Also, I've been mentally figuring out the next chapter for nearly a year now! Wow, to think that I started What is Truly Meant to Be: A Hey Arnold Musical over a year ago! It's a little embarrassing that I've only written six chapters in a year! Boy, am I a bad author! I'm hoping to pick up the pace this next year....

Anyway, as I was saying, I have a large portion of this chapter already figured out, and so I'm hoping to have the newest chapter FINALLY posted before Thanksgiving! YAY!

Thank you so much for sticking with me over this crazy hiatus.

Slacker McSlackson is Slacking Off!

Boy have I been slacking again. Well, after a few days of pulling my hair out I finally finished my next chapter. It was a bit of a squeeze, but I managed to get it up on Fanfiction.net on May 31st. Still feel bad that it kept me two full months to give my readers another chapter. Especially since it was the shortest one I've written. I also don't think it was all that great..... :-/

It got a lot more reviews than the last chapter however. And they were all positive reviews too, so I didn't go through the "writer's funk" that I did the last time. Funny, a chapter I felt was crappy seemed to impress at least a little. *shrug* I guess I'm a lot harder on myself than I thought. I am starting to convert hard-core ArnoldxHelga shippers in to *Spoiler*. I'm both super excited that I write the love triangle so well as to convert these shippers so easily, but also a little fearful to bring it all full-circle and return to the ArnoldxHelga ship! At this rate I might keep Helga with her new beau, but it just doesn't feel right to do so. At the same time, I'm going to be hard-pressed to prove to everyone that Arnold does deserve to still win Helga's love.... GAAAH! What did I do!?

June 1st my stories had 72 visitors, but 210 hits! Before that the most I had was 73 visitors and 177 hits on April 2nd, right after I posted my last chapter before my Script Frenzy hiatus. Other major days include 62 visitors and 115 hits on Oct 26th when I posted my second chapter "Goodbye to You". Then on Feb 28th I had 65 visitors and 112 hits for the posting of my second chapter of my Valentine's Day story. Finally, there's the 155 hits and 60 visitors for my "I Will Always Love You" chapter posted on March 9th. Either way, my return from my hiatus was met with a large crowd and I thank them all!

I also picked up a few new readers this time around, so I'm super excited about that! Thank you to all my new readers! YAY!

Some of my new readers are from that Hey Arnold forum I spoke of last post. *Waves* Hey guys!!! Thank you for supporting me! We really are like a nice little online family, aren't we!? Loves!

And it's that warm, fuzzy, welcoming feeling I get from the forum that is my downfall. Instead of writing the next chapter of my story - which I've had more-or-less planned out since November - I have been lurking on the forum just waiting for someone to post something so I can comment back... *sigh*

Also, while working some more on Acts 2 and 3 of The Jungle Movie my partner ChibiSunnie brought up InuYasha: Final Act. InuYasha used to be my favorite anime and so, now that I was reminded that the TRUE last season of the show was up online I HAD to go watch it! 26 episodes, 3 days, emotional rollercoaster, and now InuYasha withdrawal!!! Must. Not. Search. For InuYasha. Fanfiction!

I also finally got around to finding and purchasing the next two volumes of Fruits Basket after two years, and so I was hooked on reading them. Only three more volumes to go before I'm done with that series. Will I go through withdrawal like I am with InuYasha?

My fiance is also reminding me nearly daily that I still have the 4th Percy Jackson story to read. However, he told me the story ends in an epic cliffhanger and he still has the 5th book with him - four hours away. I'm trying really hard to wait until the last minute to read that book so that I can go straight in to the 5th one when I visit him at the end of the month. Will I go through Percy Jackson withdrawal as well!?

Then, while writing a post for the forum I discovered that a webcomic I once enjoyed was back from it's multi-year hiatus. I had to go back to reading it, however I couldn't quite remember where we left off and so I had to read the old comics first to remind myself.

Reading webcomics then gave me the urge to start working on my own again, and so at least one night was wasted with that. It probably would have been more, but I only have Photoshop on my desktop and my desk itself is such a mess it's hard for me to get to the computer.

Then there's the search for the last wedding vendor I need: The florist. I also have to finish collecting addresses of everyone from my fiance's side of the wedding guestlist so we can FINALLY send out the invitations. I'm also starting to work on smaller details, like the center pieces and favors.

All these distractions are keeping me from writing. They're also keeping me from cleaning and it's a perilous path to go from my bed to my bedroom door. I REALLY need to organize!

I honestly don't foresee myself working on another chapter any time soon, but I still wanted to give everyone an update on where I am.

Back in the Saddle Again

Alright, well, I've been slacking lately. After the chaos of at least attempting to write daily during Script Frenzy, I needed a writing hiatus, and my poor fanfic readers are the ones to suffer. I promised to give you guys the next chapter of "What is Truly Meant to Be" this month, and I had every intention of doing so towards the beginning of the month. However, here we are past the 1/2 way mark and no chapter. So sorry guys! =_='

When I threw in the towel early on April 30th I picked up the next book in the Percy Jackson series, and I just could not put it down! Three days later that was done! I still couldn't get inspired to write the next chapter, and so my next distraction was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for my Nintendo DS. I played that for a little over a week.

Now that I'm done with the book and the game I'm finally getting around to working on my chapter! YAY! I wrote maybe four pages yesterday before going to work. I was going to continue writing when I came home, but I was distracted by a new Hey Arnold forum that I just joined. I stayed up until about 2am reading all of the posts already up. I didn't even get through 1/2 of them. I went to read more of them today and after about four hours I finally managed to pull myself away so I could write this post and then get back to writing.

I'm both inspired and not when it comes to this chapter. I'm not sure it will turn out too well because of my seemed lack of interest. I had the same problem with my second chapter "Goodbye to You".

I'm still trying to figure out the difference between Arnold's love for Helga and *SPOILER* love for her. They both love her greatly, but differently, and in the end it's that difference that helps Helga make up her mind.... *sigh*

Oh, one more quick thing about the script. ChibiSunnie and I have been working more and more on Acts II and III and so there is more progress there. Now if only I can get the same amount of progress when it comes to my fanfic!

Not much more to update right now, but know that I'm back to writing... slowly but surely....

The Rest of April

OK, so I didn't really blog at all during the month of April because I didn't want to take any precious time away from working on my script for Script Frenzy. And so, here I am, giving another recap of the rest of the month.

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

Gaah, extended shift at work. I was there for nearly twelve hours and so no time to write today. At first I had no fear that I can make the 100 pages throughout the month, but if I have more work shifts like this I'll be too tired to write! I'm still so far behind! I should have about 27 pages by today and I'm still stuck at 5! I've also started to talk to a few other Script Frenziers that live in my area. Script Frenzy has these discussion boards set up for your region for just this purpose. We're all excited about having other Frenziers so close and so we want to all get together, chat, encourage each other, and talk about our scripts. I'm both nervous about going alone to meet people I only know through the internet, and also excited about meeting them!

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

I had an opening shift. And so I had about four hours to think about what I want to do with the plot, but dealing with my sister's attention-whore dog meant I only had enough free time to rework the 5 pages I already had written - my co-writer ChibiSunnie had sent me notes. She's actually a great cheerleader! She seems to love just about anything I write and when she critiques me she always gives me an example as to why it should be reworked as well as her idea of how to fix it. THAT is a great proofreader/editor! Loves to ChibiSunnie! Thanx girl!

SUNDAY, APRIL 10

Another opening shift. I'm sooooo tired ~_~'
I worked some more on the opening scene of the script, but I don't want to send ChibiSunnie any more of the script until I at least have the scene done. I just wish I wasn't so tired all the time, I feel like passing out whenever I start writing. GAAAAH, if I don't get a move on I'll never get to 100 pages! I'm so far behind here!
Originally us local Frenziers were all going to meet up today. I'm glad the plans fell through. I'm too tired to do anything today! Plus I really need to work on my writing and probably shouldn't procrastinate any more by meeting up with people instead of scripting. I'm also a bit relieved because I'm still super nervous about meeting people I only know via the internet. XP They all seem nice enough though.

MONDAY, APRIL 11

Finally a day off! I got some writing done, but I also did a lot of research again to make sure I have my facts straight. I looked up some regional info for Central America and got suckered in to watching more "Hey, Arnold!" episodes in order to get the characterization down.
On top of that, more people chimed in on the Facebook discussion board ChibiSunnie and I set up for this script thing. It's cool to hear what people think of our ideas, and listen to what they envision for the movie. However, I got really thrown off by this one girl that threw in her two cents. She was upset, like, REALLY upset - almost insulted - that Chibi and I are keeping Arnold's parents alive. She strongly believes that his parents should have died in the jungle so as to not degrade the abnormal family Arnold grew up in. She felt that Arnold finding his parents alive would further promote the "Traditional Family" and therefore make kids that don't have this family structure feel bad about it. Also, she felt that it is a depressing message for orphans who really can't have their parents back, no matter how hard they want to find them. I understand where she's coming from - and I mentioned this - however it seems too depressing a message to not have Arnold's parents alive. Plus my fiancé mentioned that Arnold is such an optimistic kid who feels anything is possible and discovering his parents are dead is just too much of a shock to his world view that it would completely change his character: "it would break him; he wouldn't be the Arnold everyone loves." Anyway, I wasn't the only person who felt that his parents should be alive and every time we stated such she would come back complaining that it's sending the wrong message. To me it felt like it was inching towards a flamewar and when I warned as such everyone was like "Um, no, don't overreact". XP *sigh*

TUESDAY, APRIL 12

Putting off writing some more... I'm really getting bad at this! Looking some more at the Facebook discussion page in order to get inspired, someone gave a suggestion for a key point in the script's plot - Arnold confessing that he likes Helga back and kisses her. The girl's suggestion? Arnold is so grateful that they are alive that he kisses her out of gratitude and elation. She also stated that the danger they are in just before the kiss - and therefore the fuel to the fire, as it were - should be a cliff-hanging-of-doom similar to the ending of the Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Of COURSE this then meant I needed to watch this scene to get a feel for it again, especially since I hadn't watched the movie in years. Next thing I knew I was watching the full movie! Gaaah!
I then was going to go straight in to the Direct-to-Video sequel, but my mom asked me if I wanted to watch one of the movies she rented. I could always use more bonding time with my mom - especially since I'm moving out of the house for the first time in October. And so I abandoned the Hunchback sequel - and script writing - in order to watch "Leap Year". At least the movie was worth it. XP
In the end I did manage to at least finish the opening scene - FINALLY.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13

I'm so beyond tired of the messed up way I need to work on the script in Microsoft Word Starter, and so I downloaded the program Celtx from the Script Frenzy website. TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! This program is my new favorite toy! I'm having so much fun working with it and writing the script now is so easy!
ChibiSunnie even came up with a nice solution to the "Arnold's Parents Should be Dead" issue brought up on the forum. She agrees that Arnold's Non-Traditional family should be celebrated and valued. She came up with a crafty way for Arnold and Grandpa to state that they are a family as is, and so even if Arnold can't find his parents he'll still have a family to come home to. Arnold then demonstrates his valuing of his current family by stating that he wouldn't change his life for anything, he just needs to know what happened to his parents.
I was also able to finally get started on the second scene! Dear lord, I'm nearly 1/2 way in to the month and I'm just starting the second scene! I'm starting to get nervous, like really nervous that I won't be able to get everything done. I'll have to write all night and just keep going until I have to go to work tomorrow at 4.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14

I wrote pretty much all morning and FINALLY got some headway on this script - about 10 pages! I finished off the second scene and slid right in to the next scene - which was one I actually had fun writing. Only three scenes in to the movie and I'm already 24 pages in! The pacing is so far off, but right now I'm looking for page numbers. Once May starts I can go back and trim all the fat. I'm still pretty behind though. I should be at about 47 pages by today. I do have tomorrow off, so maybe I can catch up then! I doubt it, but I can try!

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Well THAT didn't work out! Since I had the day off and my work has a "customer appreciation day" sale tomorrow that we are NOT prepared for I thought I'd be nice and volunteer to come in to work to get the place ready for the sale while those who were scheduled can continue with their normal day-to-day. Apparently my co-manager couldn't "handle people today" and decided to hit the "eject button" on her shift - which meant that I was then the acting manager and we STILL aren't ready for the sale tomorrow! It also meant that my "I'll go in for like two hours" turned in to "I'm now stuck for six hours!?" On top of that I had an appointment tonight, and so that killed about another hour or so. I did manage to squeak out about 6 more pages, but I'm not sure I'm going to finish Act 1 before Monday like I intended!!!!

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

OMG! Am I dead!? I feel like I should be. We just barely survived the sale today. I didn't have a moment to breathe before I raced to another appointment - this time with a possible wedding florist. Since I have NO CLUE what I want for my flowers the meeting went super long. I went in to work at 6:30 and didn't get back home until about 7:30.... I was too tired to write anything!

SUNDAY, APRIL 17

Oh thank GOD I have the day off! And I legitimately had the day off this time! I was able to actually crank out some writing today. I was still so tired from yesterday, and I had to again deal with my sister's attention-whore dog, but I still managed to write some pages. I'm getting closer and closer to finishing Act 1!
The other distraction today was that it was the first time in a long time that Mom and I were able to just sit down for a while, and so we did a LOT of wedding planning today! On top of that, I'm visiting my fiancé for Easter this upcoming weekend, and so I have to get as much stuff figured out before Friday so I can talk to him about stuff. Two of the main things are the wedding invitations and RSVP cards as well as our wedding favors - both are being designed by me! Since I don't have Photoshop on my netbook I have to make sure everything is PERFECT before I show him, because I can't make any changes while I'm up there and we need to at least get the invites and RSVP cards printed! We're getting married in October! Anyway, needless to say this chewed up more of my time off.

MONDAY, APRIL 18

I wanted to finish Act 1 before today, and the entire weekend resulted in just four pages being written! Plus I still had to quickly file my State and Local Taxes! Man, I nearly forgot about them! At least I had the Federal taxes done already! At least I got to work on my next-favorite scene: Helga being forced into yet another moral dilemma! I love doing this to the poor girl! You just get such comedic moments when she's forced to do what's right even when she can't stand it.
In a writing furry I was able to knock out about 8 more pages, and so we're now up to 42! Still not where I need to be, but I'm back to a manageable amount of daily pages to still make 100 before the end of the month! So I'm not as nervous anymore. Plus I did finally finish the damn first act! A 42 page Act 1 for a 90-min movie! That is WAAAAY too long, but again, I don't care right now. I'm looking for page numbers right now. I'll trim later!

TUESDAY, APRIL 19

Well, I didn't really get any writing done today. I just don't know where to go now that Act 1 is done! That was the only part we really had figured out - which is probably one of the reasons why it ate up almost 1/2 our script! After work today I spent the evening on the Facebook discussion board to try to figure out what to do for Act 2. Today was also Donation Day on Script Frenzy. The whole program is non-profit, and so donations help run the site, and pay the people who run everything, as well as help fund writing programs in schools. I did my part... by purchasing about $95 in merchandise. At first I was just going to buy a shirt, but then I couldn't figure out which one I liked. So I bought three different designs, and then I bought the keychain, and decided to just go ahead and buy a travel mug too! I also spent some time on the Script Frenzy forum talking to the local Frenziers and attempting to set up a meeting for April 30th to celebrate our Script Frenzy attempt this year.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20

Awwww, Script Frenzy didn't manage to raise the money it intended or needed! I wish I could do more - or just straight donate - but I just don't have any more play money. Anyway, I didn't get any writing done again today. I did my normal 8-hr opening shift today, only to be called back three hours later to do the 5-hr closing shift! I am sooooo tired! ~_~' On the plus side, at least I know the place is all set for me to open again tomorrow... I just wish I wasn't "Walking Death" when I go in.

THURSDAY, APRIL 21

Well, my original plan was to do all of my vacation packing after work yesterday so I could leave for my fiancé’s right after work today. Unfortunately, being pulled back in to work last night means I get to do all of my packing today - as well as all of the last minute wedding stuff to make sure I'm set for my visit. In other words - yet again I don't have any writing done! This is almost a week of me not working on the script! I went from "I'm almost caught up" back to "I don't think I'm gonna make it!" I know I pretty much won't get any free time to write while I'm visiting my fiancé for Easter, and so now I have only four days to write 58 more pages!!!!! Oh, I'm not feeling so good........

FRIDAY, APRIL 22

As predicted, there was no time to write. I spent four hours in a car, spent the next couple of hours cuddled up next to my honey - understandable since I haven't seen him since Valentine's Day. We then went to a LARP his friend was hosting, however the three of us were the only ones who showed up, and so it turned in to three 20-somethings running around a playground while being frozen by the frigged wind. I think we wasted about three hours doing that! I was not in the mood to write anything after that, but at the same time I just kept thinking that I couldn't have better spent that time working on the script! On the plus side, I did talk about the script and was able to get some feedback from the guys. It was nice to hear their encouragement and enjoyment of what I have so far. There was also a really bizarre movie reference that I wanted to include in one of the scenes, but I didn't think anyone would get it, so I kept it out. I had multiple votes to go ahead with the obscure reference, and then when I asked ChibiSunnie she also told me to throw it in. It was fun including it.

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

Today was spent catching up with my sweetheart, hanging out with some of his friends, and a lot more wedding planning. There's not really much else to tell.....

SUNDAY, APRIL 24 – EASTER
My fiancé does the price changes at his local grocery store. This means he goes in to work at about 1am every Sunday in order to update all of the signs and prices before the public comes in for the week - and he doesn't get a break just because it's Easter. And so I was up at about 12:30 with him, and just couldn't fall asleep while he was at work. So I finally found about eight hours of alone time and I cranked out some pages to make up for the week of neglect!
I still wasn't sure what I was going to do for Act 2, and so I just decided - in order to just get page numbers - I would just write scenes I have figured out and I'll link them all together later. I found out that Celtx can shift whole scenes around in the script, and so I planned on doing just that if I decided the scenes I write are actually out of order. I attacked a pretty vital scene that I was inspired to write. I also wrote the Act 2 intro scene. I finally had Arnold and the Gang in the jungle! Hazzah! I also went back and tweeked Act 1 a little. All-in-all I managed to get about 11 more pages written. I had finally crossed the 1/2 way point! Now I just needed to write about 11 more pages each of the remaining four days I knew I had writing time available. It seemed daunting, but at the same time I had been knocking out about 10 pages each sitting anyway. Still unsure if I'll actually make the 100 pages before the end of the month!

MONDAY, APRIL 25

Just like Saturday, I spent the day with my future-hubby and didn't get any writing done, although I did manage to bounce some more ideas off of him.

TUESDAY, APRIL 26

Much like on Friday, I didn't have much time to write. I spent my last few hours with my sweetheart. I drove four hours home. I unpacked. I went to work. I came home and crashed. I did manage to finally get an internet connection so I could post my page count on ScriptFrenzy.org....

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27

Hooray for work drama! I had a huge blow-up with my co-manager and she ended up storming out on her shift - which would be the second time in like two weeks! Anyway, I was not in the best of moods and so I just wanted to veg when I got home - especially since it is my Mommy's birthday and I didn't want to be a grumpy-puss. After work - which I left late from because of my oh-so-wonderful co-worker - I went on a mad dash all over town trying to find my mom her favorite ice cream, which is of COURSE Rum Raisin and is one of those flavors that's "seasonal" for whatever reason! After checking three different places, and driving the entire length of the town to get to the different stores, I finally found the ice cream. Between this, needing a shower to un-gross myself for our birthday outing, and the actual feasting and shopping..... well, there wasn't much writing time available.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28

I finished up the scene I was working on while visiting the fiancé. I also worked some more on that Act 2 opening scene that I also started on Easter. I was only able to add about three more pages though.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29

My last day off of the month. Crunch time. I had some notes from ChibiSunnie which made me completely rework the first half of that key scene from Act 2. I actually don't mind, because the scene completely works better with the rework, plus it extended the scene so I have more pages! ^_^ I also wrote more of the intro to Act 2 scene. Still only have these two scenes, and there is absolutely no way I'm going to be anywhere NEAR done with this script by tomorrow, but maybe I can at least hit 100 pages after all...

SATURDAY, APRIL 30

Well, this is it, the final day. I went to work and intended on writing afterwards, but work ran long - as usual. I then finally did what I have been nervous for all month: met with the other Frenziers. We set up a reservation at a restaurant we can all easily get to, I threw on one of my Script Frenzy shirts that I bought, and stood outside the restaurant trying to nonchalantly show off my shirt so that the others would know who I was. I also spent about 10 minutes trying to connect to a Wi-Fi so I could bring up the profiles of the others so I knew who I was looking for. Finally, I thought "maybe they're inside already" and went in to wait. No one was there yet and it kept about another 10 minutes before SOMEONE showed up - a chick named AWordOrThree. We both waited probably yet another 10 or 15 minutes before finally giving up and informing the hostess that we didn't need the large reservation table after all. We were shown to our booth and we hit it off great! We spent nearly two hours talking about ourselves and Script Frenzy, and then I went on and on about the awesomeness of "Hey, Arnold!" Finally we realized that our parking meters were about to expire and neither of us had any more quarters, and so we had to say our goodbyes.
I got home and finished up my revisions from yesterday. I posted the scenes on Script Frenzy, bringing my total up to 63 pages. I thought to myself that since I didn't have to go in to work until noon the next day I could possibly stay up until midnight and just write like crazy for the next four hours. I still may not make 100 pages, but at least I'd be closer to my goal. I fought with myself for a little while, but I just couldn't get inspired to write. After a month of non-stop writing all I wanted to do was READ. With a few nudges from my fiancé I finally picked up the third book in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series: "The Titan's Curse".

And so, at 8:21pm on April 30th I threw in the towel on my quest to write a 100 page script in just one month. I made it to 63 pages - nearly 2/3 of the way. I'll still be working on the script in the upcoming months, but after a bit of a writing hiatus. Script Frenzy, I will try again next year and I WILL conquer you this time!

Recap Time!

Well, I've been slacking. There have been at least three times that I wanted to blog this past week. I even debated writing each blog post and editing the posting day so that it was like I posted them on time. But instead I think I'll just throw all the posts here. To be fair, I wasn't REALLY slacking this whole time. I've just been using all my spare time to work on my script for Script Frenzy. I didn't take any extra time to blog. My bad.

THURSDAY, MARCH 31

I came home from work and frantically wrote. I actually got a lot done. I had to stop mid-story to take care of my sister's dog and do laundry and yada-yada. I kept up a hurried pace when writing. So much so that I was ALMOST DONE by the time Conan came on at 11. I was distracted by the show - as well as talking to my fiance on the phone. However, I did brainstorm with my fiance to make sure I had the right feel for my chapter. We said goodnight just before midnight, but I didn't need to work until 11:30 the next day, and I just could not fall asleep with my chapter so close to done. I continued writing until about 1am. Sure, technically I posted my chapter on April 1st, but I still like to think that I made it in time. Now I'm free to work on my script throughout all of April without my readers throwing tomatoes at me for making them wait so long until the next chapter.

FRIDAY, APRIL 1

So I was able to post my next chapter sort of by my deadline. I'm just really excited that it only kept me about 3 weeks to write the chapter - my shortest time yet! I'm getting faster and faster XD Sweet! I'm just so super excited about posting on time so I have this entire month to work on my script for The Jungle Movie. I'm actually on such a Writer's High right now! Nothing can bring me down. I just have all this excited anticipation about reading people's reaction to my story. It is my drug! Being with my fiance and reading reviews are my drugs! XD I get this feeling of elation that I cannot come down from. On the super plus side, whenever I work during a Writer's High I'm just so bubbly that I get about three times the amount of tips I normally do. This of course makes the Writer's High even more powerful! *squee!*

SATURDAY, APRIL 2

OK, Writer's High killed. In fact, it was killed yesterday after work. I ran to my computer excited to see the many hits and reviews that I normally find after posting to Fanfiction.net. Instead I found that nearly no one had found my story yet and I didn't have a single review. Granted, I had posted at 1am and the email announcement alerting my readers of the post didn't go out until about 10am, but still, not a single review? Only six hits? Really? And then, finally, after work today I found a review- a bit of a lackluster one. Sure, NintendoGal55 is just as passionate about my chapter as she's been for all of my postings, and I thank her for that, but for my only review to more or less say "GAH XD Helga and *Spoiler*!? I just don't see it. And I don't like how he asked her out! He shouldn't try to replace Arnold!" *sigh* I don't mind constructive criticism, I don't, but I'm just a little bit of a Debbie Downer right now. I'm really worried that no one will like this chapter because of the unconventional pairing. In fact, I think the pairing I presented is even less popular than the dreaded ArnoldxLila pairing! I was so excited about this story and now I'm afraid I'm gonna lose readers because for a month they'll have this hated pairing. In fact, the next chapter I'm going to post is going to continue with this pairing, and so I'm SUPER nervous that I'm going to lose readers! TT_TT - WAAAAA!

SUNDAY, APRIL 3

OK, so I'm still a little depressed with my last chapter. I had a hard time getting myself to do any writing after I was done with work today. I ended up cleaning my room instead. And lurking on the Save The Jungle Movie facebook page. I still have some things to sort out before I start officially writing for Script Frenzy. I'm so far behind already though. I should have 10 pages scripted by today. I just can't get inspired. XP

MONDAY, APRIL 4

Oh boy, another day at my internship with Lou Reda Productions. I'm already in a funk from my apparently ill-received chapter, and now I get to archive footage. Joy. Or at least, I thought as much. Sure, the internship still bored me to the point where I had to blink myself awake - I'm really confused why my supervisor keeps asking me "having fun"? Does he honestly think I'm having fun? Anyway, during my lunch break I checked my email and found a message telling me that I finally had a second review, and it was a happy one!!! First two words "Awesome Chapter!" YAY! My only problem is that this reviewer is the exact opposite of NintendoGal55. Where she is so opposed to the pairing I presented, Knowledge Comes Wisdom Lingers is one of my readers I'm converting away from the ArnoldxHelga ship. She fully accepts the couple I'm presenting, and although I'm glad it is so easy to accept the pairing - which is what I was going for - at the same time I still fear that no one is going to want Helga to get back together with Arnold....

TUESDAY, APRIL 5

More avoiding of the actual scripting. I did a lot of research to review the formatting of screenplays, as well as trying yet again to make a Plot Board - basically a giant board with the plot points scattered across it so I can visually see where the story's going. I also took the time to just sit and look at my story stats for the chapter I posted. As mentioned before, only six people read the chapter the day it was posted. The highest count was 38 people on the second. I had 48 hits that day, so at least some people are re-reading the chapter, I guess that's a good sign, right? The very next day the readers again dropped down to eight. Yesterday only six people read my story, but it was read sixteen times, so again people must be re-reading the chapter, so it can't be all that bad, right? Right? I did get another good review today. Short, sweet, and a new reader. Yet again my fear of writing someone OOC is mildly extenguished. I always enjoy reassurance that I'm properly evolving the character's personalitlies so that they are clearly teenagers, and yet they still feel like the characters my readers fell in love with once-upon-a-time.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6

Finally have some writing done! It's tricky though because my netbook only has Microsoft Word Starter, and so a lot of the formatting I need to do - such as specific margins throughout the script - can't exactly be accomplished. I needed to instead copy and paste a copy of a screenplay so that the margins are already established. The only problem is that I need to do a lot of copy and pasting whenever I need a different set of margins. XP Also, I still don't know exactly where I want to go with a lot of the plot. I only got about five pages in today before I hit a wall. I'll have to work with my writing partner ChibiSunnie to figure out what I'm doing. In the meantime I guess I'll just work on scenes I know what I'm doing with and then thread all of these completed scenes together later. This is the most random way of writing a script! You're not supposed to write them non-linearly like this! XD

THURSDAY, APRIL 7

And now we've come full circle back to today. I spent about five hours yesterday working on my script and I only have five pages done! XD I did spend a lot of time "researching" again. Watching some "Hey, Arnold!" episodes to hear how people talk and see how they dress and see what is already established. I then did a LOT of describing, as well as figuring how to update all of the character designs. I feel that you can go decades with the characters having the same design as day one as long as the characters don't age. "The Simpsons" for example. Poor Bart and Lisa are still ten and eight, and are still wearing the same outfits, even after decades on the air. When "Doug" transferred from Nickelodeon to Disney the characters got a make-over. Whenever Ash Ketchum ages or moves to a new region in order to catch more pokemon he also gets a make-over. That said, I felt that with the "Hey, Arnold!" characters all aging to fifth graders they too needed a waredrobe upgrade. Figuring out what to do with these make-overs chewed up a lot of time. I then spent a lot of time on the STJM facebook page trying to send ChibiSunnie my plot ideas. Well, at least five pages is better than none, right?

And now today I'm working on this blog instead of scripting. To be fair, I originally thought that I needed to be somewhere in about an hour and so I thought blogging would be better than to start up a new scene, only to leave once my muse finally strikes. Anyway, turns out I didn't need to leave, and so I'm off to see what I can write before I need to leave for work in four hours.

Something Tells Me I'm Not Gonna Make It

So after a month's worth of feet dragging, I finally started work on my next chapter. Basically, I finished the Percy Jackson books my fiance lent me, craved to read more, but couldn't, and so I decided to distract my craving with some writing of my own - after discovering that Percy Jackson is the fourth most popular fandom to write about on Fanfiction.net... I might have to read some of those ^_^

Anyway, Script Frenzy starts this Friday, and so today and tomorrow are my last days to try to post this next chapter before my month-long hiatus so I can concentrate on my script writing. On the plus side, I had today off and so I had all day to work on my chapter. The down side? I've been violently ill since last night and so I've tag-teamed the bathroom and my bed all day. I did get the full chapter's plot sketched out throughout the course of my day, but with all the naps I was taking I didn't have time to actually start writing. Worst part was when I started falling asleep while in the middle of scripting the plotline and I hoped I could dream about my story so I knew where to go with it - only to dream about friggen Percy Jackson instead! Fiance has me obsessed!

And so, I battled through bathroom runs and naps and writer's block to at least figure out what I want to do with the chapter. I listened to the song it's based on continuously all day. I then spent about an hour or so researching a second song on the internet. Yup, part of my writer's block was when I realized that I wanted ANOTHER song actually in my story - very much like that pain in the butt song Arnold played while dancing with Helga on her rooftop. It kept me about a month to finally get that song figured out, and I had less than two days to figure out the one for this chapter. At first I thought of a DJ mash-up of songs, like those by DJ McFly. But that would make it worse because - as I mentioned for the last song - I don't feel right using "real world" songs for the "Hey Arnold world" and so I'd have to come up with about 20 different songs, describe them, and mash them together. No chance. I then thought of an audio mash-up such as this one for Boxxy. But then I thought it was beyond creepy for the character to have all of these audio bytes of Helga to mash-up and that the song would come across as more creepy then the grand gesture of love it's intended. And so I was again stuck with what to do. That was about the time I passed out hoping to dream about what to do next, only to dream about Percy Jackson instead. XP

Anyway, when I woke up I was still stuck and decided to just flip through some of my favorite Flash submissions on Newgrounds.com. That was when I stumbled upon this little chestnut. Seeing the first character siting outside Spike's bedroom window playing a simple song on a guitar was exactly what I needed. I didn't need to worry about writing a song! I just needed to have my character writing an instrumental song on his guitar! And then at the end of the flash animation, when Spike held up the signs, it was perfect! Helga can know how he feels by him holding up signs for her to read while his song played on a boombox! It would be like Say Anything!

Now, to figure out the guitar song so I knew the feeling while I wrote. I again hit up Newgrounds since it has an audio portal for users to post royalty-free songs that they write, but it was too difficult to find a song that was just instrumental guitar - let alone a slightly sad song. That's when I changed tactics and went to YouTube.com. A few searches later I found this song by Daniel Cripps. It was perfect. Once I figured that out I was pretty much set. Now, I work from six AM until four PM tomorrow, and so we'll see if I can manage to write anything. I hope to get this done before Script Frenzy starts, but we'll see....