Happy Halloween!

A Happy Halloween to everyone!

Those of you that were in the path of Hurricane Sandy’s Frankenstorm, how did you fair? Is everyone alright? Dry? With power?

As promised, I’m giving you this last blog update before I start on my grand journey in to the chaos known as National Novel Writing Month – or NaNoWriMo for short… NaNo for those of us that are super lazy. Are you reading this on my normal Sunday Update Day instead of Halloween when it was posted? Were you out of power/internet until now? If you answered “Yes” to the first question but “No” to the second, was it because you didn’t know I updated? You can make sure you read my posts the day I publish them by following this blog via blogger – I can let you guys know how if need be, just drop a comment below – signing up for the email updates – they’re not spammy and just drop the post conveniently in an email – follow me on Twitter @LycoRogue, or follow me on my facebook page. I’m actually thinking of also starting up one of those Fan Pages or whatever on Facebook. What do you guys think?

Anyway, I think I made progress with some of my planning for my upcoming story. It’s still the awesomely lame working title of “Massive Hybric Crossover Fanfic” but at least my female lead finally has a name: Natalie Myers.

I’m also in the process of filling out the Writing Checklist bullet points brought up in Larry Brooks’ StoryFix blog post. I think I’m doing pretty well. I’m confident so far that I can at least crank out a few chapters in the next month – even if I don’t make that 50k word goal.

This brings me to my next great announcement: My Personal NaNo Goal.

I will still blog during the month! I’ll do the Diary updates like what I do for Script Frenzy, but it will be during my weekly updates instead of my normal end-of-the-month one. Also, I am aiming to have at least one new chapter done by the time I update each week, so aside from knowing how I’m doing you can also read my horrendous updates! It won’t be pretty, but it will hopefully keep me accountable when it comes to my writing.

Finally, before I leave, I'm beyond psyched to announce:
CHIBISUNNIE HAS POSTED HER VERY FIRST STORY!!!! I personally think she did so well and that I've got some competition in this Halloween contest. ;D

Go check out my awesome beta's work and let her know what you think!

Legend of the Gourd Scarecrow

The Story is Finally Done!

Oh man, this week flew by so fast I legitimately can't recall what I did.... I only have the chaos of Friday and Saturday in my head.

I remember being annoyed with myself on Tuesday and Wednesday because I had about seven or eight hours alone in the house and I accomplished NOTHING. I didn't do chores. I didn't write. I didn't even continue playing Fable so I had more to think about for my story next month for NaNo.

I honestly can't recall what I actually did on those two days. I know I continued pondering my Halloween Contest entry. One of those days I think I actually spent about five hours putting together a "creepy music" playlist so I had background music to inspire me. How do I spend five hours putting a playlist together that only has 18 songs!? Sheesh! My tunnel vision is HORRIBLE! Do they have meds for this reverse ADD? They should... I lose HOURS of my time and don't know how!

Thursday both Hubby and I had the day off, but I don't recall how we spent most of the day. I know I sat next to him on the couch for an hour or two scribbling out a rough outline of how my story would go - after spending all week harassing him and poor ChibiSunnie about what I should do. At around three I gave up and decided to use the good pre-hurricane weather to mow our lawn. I figured, "The grass needs to be cut anyway, and the exercise and quiet might help me think."

That quickly blew up in my face. I mowed three quick strips of the grass and nearly tossed the darn thing. The wheels or the actual reel-blades were rusting and giving off this high pitched squeak that was grating on me. After storming through the house - which apparently scared the daylights out of my husband - we both went to the store to pick up our paychecks and some WD-40. This, that, and the other thing happened in regards to people talking to us about work-related topics and we didn't get home until almost an hour later.

I was now ticked because I hadn't accomplished anything - even chores - throughout the week and I didn't have enough sunlight to mow the entire yard with our reel-mower. I still mowed the large section of the grass next to an apartment complex next door. It's silly that we have the property, actually. We have two trees with insanely low-hanging branches - which scratch me up like crazy when I try to mow under them by the way - cutting off this patch from the rest of our property. Plus, the apartment complex has a strip of grass maybe two feet wide and that's it. Why our landlord doesn't try to break off this part of the land and attempt to sell it to the apartment complex is beyond me, but I hate cutting something that doesn't even feel like my lawn.

Anyway, I go to mow under the empty trees without a care that I didn't rake first. One - I just wanted the grass done and didn't feel like I had time to rake. Two - I figured I could just mulch the leaves like I would with a gas-powered mower. I soon realized that I don't have enough horse-power in me to actually tear up the leaves and all they did was clog the mower. That meant I couldn't actually cut anything. So a little more stomping around before spending an hour raking leaves - and now grass clippings - in to a huge pile. I didn't even reach the trees where I actually wanted to rake before I ran out of sunlight. I did have one of the apartment tenants comment about the huge pile. Sheesh.

Friday I got in to a battle with my department manager, and was run ragged by the herd of people at the deli in preparation for the hurricane that's supposed to hit on Tuesday. I also stayed later than scheduled to wait for Hubby to be done with work. Originally I was going to use that time to FINALLY get to my story so I wasn't waiting until the last possible second to write it. I ended up using that time to work on stuff for my Wellness Champion position at work. I did manage to write a little bit during my lunch break - about a page's worth - so that was something.

When we got home I instantly changed in to crappy yard work clothes and headed out to get rid of that pile of grass and leaves. I raked the pile, as well as the leaves I intended to rake the day before, in to an old tote I had from our move. We now have a huge pile of leaves by our driveway because I have no clue how to dispose of the compost. At my mom's house you line the curb with it and a truck comes by to collect everything. We don't have that service here.

The intent was to finish the yard work - screw the mowing on "our side" of the property, no one notices the tall grass but us - by the time dinner was done and then write the rest of the night. Then Hubby reminded me that we had the LARP. I'm still so use to it being once a month that this new every other week schedule throws me off every time.

I really need to remember to bring either my netbook or an actual paper notebook with me whenever we do LARP and just lock it away in my car when we're playing. I should know by now that we won't actually start playing until an hour or so after we're supposed to - usually waiting on players to gather or update their character info. I wasted two or three hours that I could have been writing. Flarg....

Saturday was my Last Chance day. I went to work, got almost nothing accomplished because of yet another pack of customers fearing the worst with this hurricane, wrote a little more during lunch, and then dragged my tired butt back home to a house full of guys.

Granted, I was the one who invited everyone over. I figured if I was done writing we could all hang out, if not then Hubby could play Magic: The Gathering with the guys - a game I have no interest in - while I write so he wouldn't be bored. I then "sequestered" myself in my room with a couple sandwiches, a bag of M&Ms, and two bottles of water. Aside from a few bathroom breaks, I was in my room writing like a nut for SEVEN HOURS!!!

I felt a little guilty since Omnibladestrike brought his laptop and wanted me to maybe help him out with the next chapter of his story. At the same time, Chibi wrote her first fanfic - YAY - for the contest and wanted me to beta read it; which I didn't have time to do. I hope she does well. I still need to beta the story anyway. She wants it nice and polished up before posting on DeviantArt. I have off tomorrow, so aside from massive dish washing and laundry - in case the impending hurricane knocks out the water supply - I guess I'm beta reading as well. YAY! :-D

Anyway, the Drop Dead Line was 11:59pm Central Time, October 27th. I finish my story and submit it at 11:30pm ET. I'm just as bad as when I wrote that birthday story for PinkLotus27 last year. Seven hours, sending it to her right about 11:30 my time, which meant she had an hour or so her time before her birthday was over. Nearly identical situations! XD
Major difference is that "I Thought You Liked Redheads" is one of my shortest stories due to the limited time and my Halloween story was able to make it to 6,000+ words and 11pgs. Let me remind you that the minimum it needed to be was 2500 words. I feel sorry for the judge(s).

I'm also a little ticked off at myself. Since inspiration - or opportunity - didn't hit until the last possible moment, I was still finishing up my story, in bed, next to my poor husband who was trying to get a few hours rest before going in to work at 1am. I felt so bad about keeping him awake - but he didn't want me to leave the bed - that as soon as I concluded my story I just sent the dang thing. No proofreading. No editing. First draft and submitted to the contest. There are only three rules to the contest: 1) 2500 words minimum, 2) must be "Halloweeny", and 3) PROOFREAD! Admittingly, I probably wouldn't have proofread anyway. After staring at a screen for 7hrs straight - yup, laptop came with on the potty breaks - my eyes were killing me.

Once Hubby was at work and my eyes were a bit rested up I went back through and found a typo - I used a singular noun instead of the intended plural - in the THIRD SENTENCE. There were three or four typos in the first page alone! I think I had about a dozen throughout the whole story. I don't think my story is going to do so good in the contest after all. *sigh* Oh well, at least I tried, right?

Chibi's drawing for the contest - she did one story and one picture to put in each category - is amazing so I hope she wins! Sorry, Chopfe, I know you entered as well, but hers is just.... WOW... so much detail! She hasn't posted the picture at the time of this update, but be on the lookout. If I find the time I might go ahead and do a Halloween Post this Wednesday! If I do I'll be sure to include Chibi's picture as well as other pictures and writings I can get my hands on that were submitted in to the contest. I'll also announce - if I know at that point - who won the contest!

In the meantime, you can read my entry either on DeviantArt or over on FanFiction. This is the first draft with the typos edited out. I'm probably going to update both once Chibi gets me her notes, but I wanted to have them available for you guys to read now if you so chose. I'm going to try - depending on when Chibi has time to beta - to have the edits done and up by that Halloween post. That is if I have time with work, the hurricane, and Halloween itself to write one.

Given that Thursday starts National Novel Writing Month I'm certainly going to try to squeeze that last blog post in on Halloween. I'm still not sure if I'll be blogging during the month of November.

Regardless, I WILL have one more post before I go in to writing craziness, be it Wednesday or Sunday.
Love you all! Have a safe and happy Halloween and take every precaution you can if you're in Hurricane Sandy/Frakenstorm's way.

Catching Up and Hating Halloween Stories

Boy do I officially suck! I was so all over the map lately. When I posted my “temporary post” last week I never anticipated that I would never go back to replace it! So I guess this is Catch Up Week.

So let’s backtrack and review the month so far.
October 1-4 Hubby and I were on a mini-vacation to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. October 3rd I became an official member of Ali Luke’s Writer’s Huddle. The first week of October I also decided to participate in a Hey Arnold Halloween contest over on DeviantArt. I now sort of regret that decision….But first… Writer’s Huddle…

October 8th and 9th I sort of tinkered with my Writer’s Huddle profile and checked out the site.
Wednesday the 10th I had the day off and Hubby was at work. The house was still clean from our mad scrub down before our trip, so I had no chores. A perfect set up for me to get lost for hours in writing. Instead I got lost for hours on Writer’s Huddle. I ended up spending a full 7hrs straight on the Huddle’s forums, reading and responding.

Seven hours straight! As in, I didn’t even stop to eat….

I am such a forums junkie. I have always been this way with every forum I’ve been on. I make sure I’m a prominent presence on them all. I lose HOURS just reading, responding, and refreshing to see if there’s any new posts. I lost hours at the Huddle, I lost hours on the X-Men RPG, I lost hours on the short-lived Hey Arnold forum, I lost hours on the forum for the webcomic Game Destroyers, and I lost hours on the forums of the MMO “DragonFable”. What most people do on Tumblr, I do on forums. Ali herself had to stop by my main facebook account and “yell” for me to get off the forums and go eat something!

So anyway, that was Wednesday.

Thursday I spent almost literally the whole day mowing our stupid lawn with that stupid push mower. I started wearing a pedometer at the beginning of the month and push myself to get to that 10,000 steps per day mark. It’s relatively easy to do while working a Deli. Anyway, this 10k steps goal is because it’s the rough equivalent to walking 5 miles a day which in and of itself is like working out the 1/2hr a day recommended. Well, I hit that 10k mark just mowing my friggen lawn! In fact, I hit about 11k mowing and 13k the whole day. That means I walked over 6miles on Thursday! I was in NO mindset to write anything that day.

Friday was the bi-weekly get together for the vampire LARP. So I didn’t really write anything more that day when I only had about four hours at home, but I did talk things over with Cyhyr. It didn’t really help matters because it was just broad generalities when it came to writing and NaNo coming up next month.

Saturday I researched TONS of urban legends and ghost stories, as well as watch all of the “halloweeny” Hey Arnold episodes to really try to nail down what I wanted to do for the contest. I have a word document filled with notes and bullet points. Nothing seems to really work though. Nothing seems to feel “natural” if you get what I mean.

Last Sunday I wrote to ChibiSunnie to see if she could help me out. I also sent a note to my sleeping husband for him to respond to once he was awake. I was really hoping that they could help me really figure out what I could do for this contest.

I’m trying to keep the story True-To-Show. Therefore I want to keep them nine and I want them to follow the traditional formula used for the “creepy” episodes:

• Kids are bored/at a sleep-over 
• A ghost story is told (usually by Arnold’s Grandfather – or in one case Arnold after his grandfather told HIM the story) 
• The kids go to check out to see if the story is true 
• The kids find “proof” that the story is true, but the “proof” is logically explained away 
• Everyone is convinced the ghost story isn’t true, but then the ghost reveals itself to the viewer – and in some cases, one of the characters as well. 

 My main issue is that I don’t know how to create a ghost story. I had a handful of ideas bouncing around, but none of them seemed to work.

• Urban take on the Blair Witch 
• The kids hear about the Witch of Elk Island, and it turns out to be the author. Not sure if I like this though since there's already the Wheezin' Ed myth about the island and I have to set up that this story takes place before the "Crabby Author" episode so Arnold doesn't realize it's Agatha.  
• There's a run-down industrial district with a shack snuggled in the middle of all the buildings. So the legend goes that a witch lives there. The companies tried to buy her out, but she refused to move, so they built around her and she cursed them all, which is why the buildings are now all vacant. Little "eh" about this one too. 
• Regardless of which angle I take with this, I sort of want it to play out like "Ghost Bride" in which the "proof" is just people pranking, and I want Wolfgang and Ludwig to team up to scare Arnold's group. Then the real witch will scare the 5th graders as they laugh about how the 4th graders were so easy to scare. 
• I dunno, I’m just not really feeling these… 
• The school is haunted 
• The school hosts a haunted house for halloween and the kids hear a tale about a janitor (or something) haunting the school. 
•  Again sort of want the 5th graders to prank Arnold et. al and then come across the real thing. 
• I sort of want this to go along the lines of the halloween episode of Ouran High School Host Club with the bravery test. 
• The kids have been at the school after hours already, so would they really fall for a "ghost haunts the school" if they haven't witnessed this before???? 
• I think this is the most plausible to write…. 
•  Haunted Hay Ride 
• Arnold's class takes a field trip to a farm and it just so happens to be Arnie's 
• Who is going to tell the ghost story about Arnie's farm/town? Doesn't seem like something Arnie would do.... 
• There was a hay ride in "Arnold visits Arnie" and a carriage ride in "The Headless Cabbie"... would it be too overdone if I did hay ride again???? Or is it just "The Haunted Farm"? 
• Not sure what the "haunting" would be about... 
• Not really feeling this tale…. 
•  The Midnight Man 
• Was going to do a parody of The Midnight Channel from Persona 4, but couldn't figure out how. 
• The Midnight Man is a Pagan game. 
• You turn off all the lights, light a candle, write your full name on a paper, prick your finger, and let a drop of blood soak in. Place the paper with your name on the floor in front of the door. Knock on the door 22 times in time with the ticking of the clock. The 22nd knock must occur at 12am. Open the door, blow out the candle, close the door and immediately relight the candle. Now the goal is to "survive" until 3:33am by avoiding the Midnight Man. You know he's near when it gets chilly, there's a low whisper, the candle goes out, and he appears in front of you. You must relight the candle within 10 seconds to ward him off, otherwise throw down a circle of salt around yourself and stay within it until 3:33. 
• Checking to see if the Ghost Bride is true was sort of a dare and so doing stupid dares like this and Bloody Mary seem to be in-canon. I just need a better way to do this. No 9 year old will prick their finger and run around the house with a lit candle to avoid being tortured to death.... 
• I could possibly do something with this idea…. 
•  The Escaped Convict In The Woods 
• Based off of how we freaked out this one girl in my Girl Scout troop when we all stayed at a hostel on a white water rafting trip. 
• My girl scout troop (split in two vans) were driving down the highway towards the hostel and turned off in to this rural town. The hostel was along the Appalachian Trail, and so we drove down these rural back roads. Meanwhile, a thunderstorm came in, making it mad dark even though it was only about 6pm in May. That’s when we turned off the main roads and on to a well-driven dirt path in dense woods. The “driveway” to the hostel was easily 2 miles long, and windy, and dirt/gravel, and flanked by insanely dense forest that created a tightly-knit canopy. The canopy blocked out even MORE light, making the drive pitch black except for when the lightning struck. 
• We pass through a large, stone wall/fence that lined the entrance to the hostel’s property. The wall looked worn down – as if it were built in the 1800s and never cared for. As we continued down the road we passed a burnt down utility shed, but the stone skeleton of the structure almost looked like it could have been a mausoleum. Two other girls and I started joking about how the building used to house a vampire. As our discussion started to freak out another girl in our van, we switched the conversation over to the more-likely scenario of "have you heard about the escaped serial killer that's supposedly hiding out in the Appalachian?" The lightning flashes, “things” (tree limbs, animals, whatever) moving in the woods with the limited visibility, and the feeling that we were in “the middle of nowhere” just made everything creepier. 
• We get to the hostel and it’s this insanely old farmhouse that used to be part of the Underground Railroad. We enter the hostel through the basement/lower front door. Because of how old the hostel was, going through that door took us through this long, narrow hallway lined with rock walls and an unfinished floor. Once we climbed the stairs to the main portion of the hostel it looked like a warm, cozy farm house. Very welcoming. But up until that point it was MAD CREEPY. 
• I was going to switch up the creepy farm house for a family cottage/cabin in the woods. Grandpa Phil never took the boys there before because when he got the boarding house his twin sister Mitzi got the cabin. Now that Arnold helped the twins reconcile, Mitzi allowed Phil to use the cabin. 
• I wanted to have at least Helga, if not also Curly, with the group pranking everyone a la “Ghost Bride” episode, but I couldn’t figure out a reason they’d be out in the middle of nowhere. Arnold wouldn’t have invited either of them on his sleepover/camp-out with the rest of the guys. 
• Chibi suggested an overnight class trip to get everyone to a hostel, but then I’d have too many characters to worry about. It’s a great idea and I might use it someday, but this feels like it would easily lend itself to a multi-chapter story and I don’t have enough time to write that much. 
• This, among other things that I thought of but didn’t list here, is nice and creepy in person because the ATMOSPHERE is what’s creepy. It gets people thinking, doubting, and freaking out. However, there really isn’t a story here…. 

Pretty much all I’ve done this past week was mentally try to figure out what to write. Every free moment of the day was spent bouncing around all of the above ideas – plus others that I’ve dropped – to see what I can do with any of them. I’ve watched Hey Arnold episodes to get in the mood to write. I’ve researched more scary stories. I also tried using a technique I learned via the Writer’s Huddle forum: The Secret to Writing 4,000 Words A Day. Namely: Daydream whenever possible.

Oh, and on Monday, October 15th I officially set up my NaNo profile. So go ahead and send me a Writing Buddy request if you’re NaNo-ing too! 

Anyway, here I am, 6 days from the contest deadline and I STILL haven’t even decided on what to write yet. I have no clue if I’m going to make the contest deadline, let alone polish the story up enough to actually win. And since I’m spending all month working out the logistics of my Halloween story I haven’t continued playing Fable, which I was trying to finish so I was more prepared with my “base story” for NaNo. So I’m flying blind there too. Still haven’t really figured anything out – including a name – in regards to my female lead for the Super Massive Crossover Hybrid Story. 

On a sidenote, Chibi linked me to an AWESOME interview one of the Hey Arnold fandom members had with the show’s creator Craig Bartlett! It’s two hours long, but I listened to it while doing house work, so I suggest you take the time to listen too! You can find it here. Soooooo much awesome stuff there! 

Chibi and I are actually super excited because of two things in regards to scripts/TJM. 1) Craig’s scripts would be roughly 2pages/minute of screen-time, which means where I was with our fanscript was actually about right-on time-wise, instead of INSANELY LONG like we originally thought. 2) Craig just sort of thought “The Green-eyed people can live in a place like that and even have a hidden city that’s probably in the crater of a dormant volcano.” When I had to figure out where the GEP hidden city was I placed it inside a dormant volcano! So both the volcano thing and the “on the write page count track” thing really made us think that perhaps our fanscript was kinda spot on! So now we’re rejuvenated about the whole endeavor and will try to pick it back up again come January. In the meantime, Chibi has the script thus far and is figuring out any tweaks we should do and where to go from where we left off. I’m just SUPER interested in getting this done and sending it to Craig as a “thanks for the inspiration” sort of thing. Sure, he doesn’t read fanfiction – and probably makes super sure not to read TJM fanfiction to avoid being influenced in case he ever got the chance to make the movie – but maybe…. maybe he’ll read ours if we snail-mail it……….. 

Speaking of Craig Bartlett acknowledgement and praise, I want to give a shout out to the awesome Chopfe who excitedly posted this status on October 12:

Chopfe: Craig Bartlett, the creator of the Nickelodeon cartoon HEY ARNOLD, liked my picture of Crime Inyy. There are no words to describe how awesome that is.

And here’s his awesome picture that got such high praise: 

 

And so now I’m off to again ponder how I’m going to manage this story before this upcoming Saturday… wish me luck. Any advice would be welcome.

October = Super Writing Month?

As predicted, my vacation got in the way of me actually doing any sort of writing. That’s not to say that October is going to be a slow writing month. Au contraire, I think I’m going to be awfully busy writing this month!

Let’s start off with some super awesome excellent news. Ali Luke is going to be dropping the “un” from her title of “unofficial mentor”! Well, so to speak. A little over a week ago I received the Aliventures newsletter. She announced a new e-book she wrote – I instantly downloaded it since it’s free to newsletter subscribers – as well as the re-opening of her online writing workshop Writer’s Huddle. As much as I would like to participate in this – and thought about joining since I discovered Ali earlier this year – I still couldn’t afford the $20 a month to join. Literally as I was calculating how I could save to participate the NEXT time Ali opened up Writer’s Huddle I get an email from her. She offered me a free membership to Writer’s Huddle!!!! I guess it was an unintentional anniversary gift since the site re-opened the day after my wedding anniversary!

Now, I don’t particularly like to advertise to the world that I keep getting this free stuff from Ali –her novel and now a slot at Writer’s Huddle – because I don’t want my readers to harass her in to giving them freebies as well, or otherwise assume she’d give them out. The girl does need to make money, so these freebies are just AMAZING to get as gifts! Therefore, the only reason I AM talking about these gifts from Ali is because I am incredibly thankful and I want to make sure she knows. Plus, they are kind of big deals with regards to my own writing, so I consider them relevant.

So, to again show my thanks to Ali and to really try to help her out for her generosity, please, if you have any interest and the spare cash, sign up for Writer’s Huddle! I’m LycoRogue over there too. I haven’t really had time yet to really sink my teeth in to everything available, but if Ali’s involved I’m sure it’s worth it!

Personally, I’m using her advice/tutorials as well as the forum to accomplish two things.

1. I’m trying to revive the writing motivation and discipline I had with Script Frenzy. Granted, I didn’t really get far in the actual SCRIPT, but having the forum and other people to work with made a world of difference my first year at Script Frenzy. And this year the writing discipline took shape as me writing a chapter for my story. If all goes according to plan, the info and forums will both help me work on my current Hey Arnold story, as well as maybe help with my original story about Amara.
• Apparently Writer’s Huddle really helps out people wanting to participate in NaNoWriMo, so let’s see how that works out. I just might participate this year…
2. I’m hoping to find out information not solely on how to write, but how to make profit off of it. Perhaps on the forums I’ll make the professional connections I need to one day go from amateur writer to professional author.

So here’s hoping everything works out according to plan.

Big news number two is that I’m finally done with Amara’s backstory. At least, I’m done writing it so far. I need Hubby to look it over and see what he thinks about everything. I put a LOT of detail in to her sixteenth year – the year with the big life event I just thought of a few months ago. The rest of her life has maybe a paragraph per five years. I might add more detail to the other years, or I might take out some detail with regards to the “new” life event. Not sure yet. Again, we’ll see what Hubby says. So Super Writing Month might FINALLY have Amara’s backstory posted! Whoot!

Big news number three is that – depending on how this month goes and what happens with Writer’s Huddle – I just might join NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. If I do then this will be the first year I do both Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo. I doubt I’ll achieve the novel writing goal – since it’s been two-plus years and I still haven’t even hit the half-way point in What Is Truly Meant To Be – but it will be fun to try! So I’ll be spending the next month brainstorming on what to write next month. Any suggestions? Original story? Fanfiction? A story about Amara? Work on that massive hybrid crossover fanfiction story? Stick with Hey Arnold? Let me know your thoughts either in the comments below or on my facebook page!

Big news number four is that there is a Halloween-themed contest over on DeviantArt for the Hey Arnold fandom. There will be two winners, one fanartist and one fanfiction author. You can do pretty much whatever you want as long as it’s Hey Arnold related and somehow relates to the Halloween theme: it takes place on Halloween/they’re dressed up, it’s a ghost story, it’s an urban legend, it’s a generic scary story that can somehow relate to Halloween, etc. I’m still doing some “research” to figure out what I want to write, but I think I’m going somewhere down the middle between Urban Legend and Scary Story. Hubby suggested staying “true to show”, aka – keep them 9 and have it be “scary” but also humorous so it isn’t too suspenseful. Not sure if I’m going that way or if I want to try to make a legit scary story… guess we’ll see. Either way, the prize for each of the winners is a Hey Arnold book autographed by the show’s creator Craig Bartlett. I think it could be a really cool added bonus if Craig himself chose the winners!

I mean, I won the one Valentine’s day contest and received Premium Membership on DeviantArt, but I also think I may have been the only writing entry…. Soooooo….

There you have it. A whole bunch of inspiration, motivation, and discipline awaits me this month. Although this past week didn't see too much writing advancement, perhaps I'll have something to finally show you guys next week!

VACATIONS!!!!

Sorry, folks. But this is your update for this week.

Lame, I know, but bright and early tomorrow Hubby and I will be trekkin' back to my home state for a four-day mini-vacation/2nd honeymoon. We'll be kicking it up real classy like by staying in the same bridal suite we had for our wedding. We shall be eating year old lemon cake with blueberry frosting. There will be endless cuddling.

SO HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO MY WONDERFUL, SEXY, LOVABLE BEST FRIEND AND HUSBAND!

This past week was filled with frantic Wedding Thank You writing - before hitting that dreaded "year later" deadline - as well as massive cleaning frenzies and other such household chores. I also Beta Read a chapter of Keep Love In Your Heart for DarkAngel1326 that she sent to me LAST WEEK... so, sorry to her readers. That was totally "my bad".

Speaking of DA1326... she JUST started up her own blog about her writing. Check it out! Check it out! Check it out!

Also, Chopfe pitched me an idea of a collaborative webcomic. I'd write the scripts and he'd draw. He originally pitched "The Adventures of LycoRogue" since he's having insane fun drawing my "persona". So now I'm wondering A) should I go with this venture? It does sound like a lot of fun! and B) what should the comic be about?

Do you, my readers, have any thoughts? My little bag-o-tricks so far is...

1. Lyco with her crazy antics and adventures - what Chopfe pitched... not sure where to go with that though....Perhaps somewhere like here?
2. My everyday insanity portrayed through Lyco. Sort of similar to Junawashere's "My Life" comics. I think this is the one I'm leaning towards the most...
3. Completely forgetting about the Lyco persona. Starting from scratch with a fresh batch of characters as they go through the craziness my playgroup goes through during our D&D sessions. I was thinking of having it portrayed sort of similar to this Dead Alewives sketch - staying mostly in the "D&D world"  but then switching to the "real world" when people break character. Having never played, Chopfe is a little weary of this option.

All of this equates to me being mad busy preparing for our trip and not doing anything on the writing side of things. Not sure if I'll get any writing done this upcoming week with four days being spent snuggling with my hubby, but we'll see.

Now off to quickly pack before I need to scurry to work.

Soul Eater and Amara

This week has been a full one. Long work hours again. Another Massive Cleaning Day - as per usual with my lazy butt. FINALLY getting to those friggen wedding thank yous. Working on Amara's back story - which I'll get to in a moment. Watching my newest obsession - Soul Eater.

Yup, another anime has devoured my week.

Soul Eater is about three students at an academy run by Lord Death the Grim Reaper. The academy pairs up Magic Weapons - humans that have the ability to transform in to weapons - and Meisters - humans who can wield these weapons.

The seven main characters are:
Maka, the daughter of a powerful Meister and Lord Death's personal weapon Spirit the Death Scythe.
Soul Eater, Maka's partner - a Scythe.
Black Star, the last of a clan of assassins.
Tsubaki, Black Star's partner who can transform in to multiple ninja weapons as well as a katana.
Death The Kid, the son of Lord Death who has OCD and is obsessed with symmetry.
Liz and Patty, Kid's partners - "twin" pistols; they're really just sisters, Liz being the older one.

However, the one that I love the most is Crona!

Although even in the manga Crona's sex is still ambiguous, the anime seemed to imply that Crona is male, so I'm going to lean in that direction.

Anyway, Crona is the tragic, emotionally, physically, and mentally abused child of one of the villains of the series. He is the Meister of Ragnarok the Demon Sword, which was melted down in to Black Blood and then transfused in to Crona, therefore creating a symbiosis between Weapon and Meister.

Crona was never socialized and was routinely kept locked away in a room with just the bullying Ragnarok as company. Because of this Crona's catchphrase is "I don't know how to deal with... [insert situation here]." The way "he" says it in the anime is just too adorable! I just want to glomp "him" so badly! All "he" really needs is human compassion! Hubby better be warned that if I ever see a Crona cosplayer I just may glomp him/her...

Throughout the anime nearly every character has an "OMG, are they gonna die!?" moment. However, the only one that made me tense up and tear up a little bit was Crona's moment! I was huddled next to Hubby, clinging to the blanket with the hood of my sweatshirt pulled in tight. I was a mess!

I love nearly every character, and I was routinely heard saying "OMG, I heart [insert character name] so much!" However, Crona just tugged at my heartstrings. "His" speech patterns, mannerisms, tragic backstory, and gloomy disposition just make me love "him" the most out of the entire cast.

LOVE YOU, CRONA!

*ahem*

Moving on....

So, aside from grinding through insanely long Thank You letters - it's been about a year since the wedding, a simple "thanks for the toaster" won't suffice at this point - I've also spent my work breaks typing up Amara's backstory some more.

There's a key part of Amara's tragic life that cropped up over the last couple of months, so I need to calculate where it would fall in her timeline, how she reacted, and how extreme of an event it is.... I've gone through quite a lot of revisions over the past week. There may be some more this upcoming week. We'll have to see what Hubby thinks.

This would be a lot easier if my characters truly "talked" to me and I was truly just the medium between "them" and the page. I get the character's voice in my head, and when I start writing Amara's backstory - much like when working on my Hey Arnold chapters - the story tends to go in a completely different direction than I intend. That's the closest I get to having my characters "take control".

What I really need is for my characters to really "live" in my head like they do with Delaroux and DarkAngel1326. Both girls joke about how noisy it is in their heads because of all the chatter between characters. Here's a great example of what I mean via DA's one journal entry.

Granted, I get more peace my way, but the characters also take longer to develop. It's my analytical nature I guess. Everything has to be played out and properly calculated in my head before anything goes on paper. I check for continuity and realism. I never let things just "be".

I will give you the opening of Amara's tale, however. This part hasn't really changed much over the years. Her current part of her history is getting a great deal of detail, however, so perhaps I'll add more detail to Amara's childhood before I officially post.

Anyway, without further ado, Amara's heritage:

I came from a clan of gypsies. My father’s clan the Umâgo rode through the forests of Mesonía in the land of Gancrock. They would find a clearing and set up their camp of wagons, hunt for a season, pack up again, and follow migration. The gypsies were trackers and poachers by trade, but they did so respectively to Nature. They prayed before and after each hunt, and they would use every bit of the animal for both their own needs and for the goods they would sell. Never would they hunt to the point of endangering the species; for if the animals were gone, so too would be the gypsies’ way of life.

Nearby was an unknown clan of Elves; the Araphelium Tribe. They were the keepers of the Mesonía and they were untouched. They knew of the other races, of course, and they would feud with a Drow tribe every century or so, but they mostly stayed hidden and protected the forest. My mother was of this noble tribe that kept away from the N'Tel'Quess; those “not of the people”.

One day my father was separated from the hunting team. As he wandered through an unknown section of forest, he found my mother mending the injured leg of a fawn. My mother has such pale skin that the sun’s rays almost reflect off it. Her hair is a black so rich a clump of it could be mistaken for an onyx. Her hair was long and free then. As she knelt by the fawn, her hair kissed the ground. My father had to have her.

My mother heard his first step forward and stood straight and proud, shooing the fawn. She called out to my father and he stepped into the light. My father’s hair was tied into a ponytail and his beard was short and gruff. He was tall and strong. My mother could see his muscles through his tight shirt. When their eyes met my mother submitted. Without a second thought, my father walked up to her and kissed her.

For months throughout the hunting season, my parents would rendezvous in the same spot. When my mother became pregnant with me my parents decided to move in together. My father, however, refused to leave the gypsies.

The Umâgo had always preferred to remain separate from Gorgios (outsiders). They had little interaction with them except for trading purposes, or in extreme medical conditions in which the Umâgo were ill-equipped. “Gypsies with gypsies begetting gypsies,” they’d always say. Interbreed right up to the point of inbreeding, and then go find another nice gypsy clan and start over. However, even finding a “worthy” new tribe was a task for the Umâgo. Most other gypsies prided themselves in their frequent interactions with Gorgios, as well as their easy manipulation of them – giving all gypsies the bad name of “swindlers”. Because of this, the Umâgo considered themselves the most pure and superior in comparison to the other gypsies, and they would not yield to a lower standard.

All of this meant the adult gypsies were a bit uneasy to have a Gorgio living among them, let alone one that was now family. What my father did was beyond taboo, and as a result not only would I be the first half-human in my father’s clan, but I would also be the first half-gypsy.

Any thoughts? Like I said, I might add more to the story, but as of right now it's already six pages long and I'm not even done yet.

D&D is apparently my Muse

Well another week's gone by. I still haven't written anything for Chopfe's birthday - still not exactly sure WHAT I even want to write aside from a very broad topic. I haven't gone back to work on any of the Daily Challenges from July. I opened up and re-read the latest chapter I'm working on for What Is Truly Meant To Be, but I didn't add anything to it. One of my friends has been near-ruthlessly teasing me about my "lack of imagination" - which is EXACTLY what a fiction writer wants to hear. AAAAAAAAAnd ChibiSunnie's birthday is this week and I'm drawing a blank on what to gift her.

I've talked with Ali Luke via emails and she's given me encouraging words. We've talked about how I might be able to branch out in search for paying writing gigs. However, the more we talk about what I could write an informative blog on - or even a guest post about - the more I realize I am a Jack of All Trades; Master of None. There's really nothing I can give advice about. Further more, as much as I know it's not his intention, the more I talk to celestialTyrant the more I feel the mediocracy of my life come to the surface.

Fret not, though. This isn't an All Is Emo post like before. Despite all these hardships and shoves towards self-discovery, I have indeed written this week.

My wedding thank you notes.... finally. :-D

Well, more than that. Especially since I have about two weeks to go before my year anniversary and still about 40 Thank Yous to write...

DarkAngel1326 was super excited to have the basics of an original character plotted out. In July she used the writing prompt "Of Blood and Honor" to write a fantasy starring the Hey Arnold characters Gerald and Phoebe. She used this setting again for the prompt "It's Too Late". She soon fell in love with this little world she created - as did her readers, I'd wager. With a little debate, she decided to start fresh with her new world, yank it out of her fanfiction comfort zone, and make the story an original. But since she didn't have Gerald as a pre-established character, she set forth to fully create her lead "33".

In my offerings to help her out I started talking to her about the first D&D character I put a lot of thought in to creating.

Amara Yori

I talked about how I helped develop Amara by "interviewing her" and just let my mind have a dialogue with my character. I also sent DA a 2-page description of Amara that I wrote up in 2009. I mapped out all 30 scars she has on her body and how they were inflicted. I might change a few of them though. Considering her mother's healing abilities there's no reason for Amara to have scars from being grazed by an arrow...

DA was impressed with the amount of detail put in to Amara. To be fair, I've been working on Amara since 2004 and she's only been working on 33 since July/August. Even so, Amara is still evolving.

At the beginning of the year I introduced Amara to Delaroux. Not only does Delaroux have an entire population in her head, but each one of her characters are darker and deeper and more well-rounded than Amara. Sure, Delaroux has had a harder life than I, so perhaps that's why she's able to come up with such angst-driven characters. You feel and root for her characters, mainly because they had such a rough life and you enjoy watching them flip off the world. My only issue - and I have to stress that Delaroux was talking in-character at the time - was that it was pointed out that Amara's life - in comparison - wasn't so bad, and therefore she shouldn't be so angsty.

Amara's backstory changed a little then.

After talking to DA about Amara, I was inspired to go back through everything I have on her and to send Amara's story to DA to read. I discovered that I had a hardcopy of the backstory, but I didn't have the file on my computers anymore. This meant spending the last few work breaks retyping the backstory. This also meant evolving the story.

I'm almost finished with the most recent incarnation of it. Although I'm still not 100% happy with it, and I'm sure there will be about seven other revisions as Amara develops more, in the meantime I think I'll actually post her tale on DeviantArt and FictionPress. I'm still debating if I should also post on FanFiction under Dungeons And Dragons.

Yes, I'm creating my own world, but so does nearly every Dungeon Master when starting a campaign. I'm still using the basic Laws of the Universe, races, class system, deities, and equipment developed by Wizards Of The Coast. I'm essentially writing out a D&D campaign in story form. It should probably go on FanFiction and not FictionPress, shouldn't it?

Regardless. I'm hoping to have that up before my next blog post.

It's not Hey Arnold related - for those of you who only know me through that fandom - but it IS something, correct?