Wait, Christmas is HOW Close?

Goodness is it nice outside. Like, "I kinda want to go sit on the porch to write this post" nice. Well, it is a bit overcast and dreary, but temperature wise for December, it's nice. Actually, even though it's flurried almost daily for a week or so, which would normally TOTALLY put me in the Christmas mood, the actual temperature has been fairly mild. Probably why I still feel like I have a full month before Christmas, instead of just a handful of days.

Anyone ready for the holidays this year? Because I certainly am not.

The month kind of flew by for my writing as well. I went from writing daily to barely writing at all. It could still be NaNo Fatigue, or mild depression from my computer problems, or just generic Holiday Funk that's making me kind of apathetic this month.

Either way, the year is almost out, and I'm trying to prep myself to kick even more writing butt in 2018. I do think my writing productivity and focus increased this year, and I hope to increase both again next year. I may not have turned out quite as much this year as I did last, or even as much as I would have liked to have published. However, I think that's because I learned Quality over Quantity. I want to make sure my stories are more polished and complete. I was kind of happy with the September incarnation of "Peeping Tomcat" and could have posted as I wrote, as I used to do. But it grew, it expanded, it evolved, and it's evolving still. The story I want to tell in the mode I want to tell it isn't quite there yet, but it will be if I keep working it. Past Me wouldn't have given the story enough time. I think this decision shows my growth in a nutshell.

Speaking of evolving PT, I realized the reason why I'm stunted is because I'm writing a novella while thinking in show form. I could do what I did with "Hey, Arnold!" and just write my novel. I'll write everyone in-character and have the same basic feel and tone of the show; call it a day. Nearly every review I receive for my HA fanfictions say basically the same thing: "I feel like I just watched an unaired episode." For me, that's the highest praise for a fanfiction writer. If it feels like it could be canon - not that it's so good that the reader WANTS it to be canon, but the reader feels like the creator actually was involved - then I did my job perfectly.

I feel like I'm in that right spot for PT. I feel like I have the characters pretty spot-on, and I feel the over-arcing plot has the same tone as the show would. Still, for me it doesn't read like it's canon. It doesn't feel like it could be like an hour-long special or something. There are so many "Miraculous Ladybug" stories out there, especially since it's basically aired globally within weeks of each other. I have a LOT more competition for readers' attention. I want to make sure my story stands out somehow. Having it flow like the novelization of an unaired episode is how I want to put my stamp on the Miraculous fandom. I just can't get the rhythm down, and creating akumas is WAY harder than I gave it credit.

So, I'm trying a different tactic. This week I started sorta rewriting PT one more time. This time in Celtx. For those who don't recall or don't know, Celtx is mostly a script-writing program. One that I used back when Script Frenzy was still a thing.

I figured I could shift things around better in script form. I know that the general rule of thumb is that it takes a minute to act through a page of dialogue. It also takes nearly as long to read through the description of an action as it is to perform it, give or take. Which leads to the timing rule of roughly "one minute per page of script." This is basically how the industry figures out in the scripting process if they need to add on or cut in order to get the finished product within the desired run-time.

Anyway, using this rule, and knowing that the typical episode of Miraculous - minus the opening and end credits - is either twenty or twenty-one minutes long, I can try to get a better rhythm for my story.

True, I will never get my story to fit into the equivalent of a 20-min episode. In truth, it never should, given the in-depth problem I'm working on within it. However, as I mentioned, I could maybe get it to feel like it's an hour-long special or a multi-episode story arc. I have at least two akumas plotted to be in the story: one per "half hour" of the tale.

I know that my story should take longer than twenty-some pages per half in script form, but I know now what I'm aiming for. I want each half to feel like it's even pacing. I don't want to go overboard with the story either. If I only have two akumas but the script version of PT is over 100 pages long then I either need to cut or I should add in more akumas. This is an everyday - or nearly everyday - challenge that Ladybug and Chat Noir have to face, and I don't want that to be forgotten just because the focus is on the Will They; Won't They of their relationship. No offense to the beautiful and brilliant fanfics I've already read in this fandom that do skim over akumas - I believe it's because they really are SUPER hard to convincingly create - but, as I mentioned, I want my signature in this fandom to be how "true to form" I am. That means having the proper allotment of time dedicated to LB and CN fighting akumas.

I also realized, as to be expected with this story given how introspective the plot is, that there isn't that much actual action or dialogue. The majority of the story is "Marinette does a thing, Adrien secretly watches her do the thing, he reflects on how cute she is doing the thing and how she reminds him of Ladybug, and then Adrien freaks out about comparing Marinette to Ladybug."

That's it. That's the plot. Fun, right?


In script form I can physically see where the dialogue/action dips off. The beauty of film/TV/stage performances is that the audience typically can't get inside the head of the characters. They have to rely on communication clues. This character is huddled in the corner, arms crossed, foot resting against the wall, head turned to not look exactly at anyone, and grumbles anything he says. You don't really need me to dive into his head to let you know what he's thinking, right? Add in more info like the girl we saw him crushing on earlier chatting up another guy, and Corner Dude flinching every time he hears her giggling in her conversation. You've got a better picture, right?

Well, I need to remember that I don't need visual media for you to know what's going on inside a character's head simply from context clues. The more involved bits, like Adrien's confusion on his feelings for LB vs Mari, or even his realization of how similar Mari and LB are, can probably still be inner monologue, but his "OMG OMG OMG, do I like Marinette!?" freakouts can be shown instead of told. I'm usually really good at that, but I relied too much on inner monologue this go.

I think I was trying to sort out Adrien's feelings myself first, and so I need to reign myself back in now that I think I have it figured out.

So.... script form should help me out with remembering to Show not Tell so much. Once I have it all figured out it will be time to switch BACK into novel form, and filling it out more with descriptions. Script form, I can just add in the wryly for my own notation, and then fully express it within the prose of the novelled version.

For example:

PLAGG
      (whining)
My aching body. I can't move a muscle.

can then become

Plagg floated onto my bed and sprawled out on my pillow. "My aching body," he whined, "I can't move a muscle." I ignored the fact that he said it while dramatically resting a paw across his forehead and rocking side to side like a fainting Southern Bell.

Wrylies, or Parentheticals as they are technically called, are a bit frowned upon in professional scripts because it's a case of "tell; not show" in order to sort of "direct from the page" instead of having those wrylies implied by the surrounding content. However, as notations and cues to myself, I think they are the perfect move.

We'll see how this tactic works. In the meantime, I'm still going strong on my reading challenge. I finished off "The Ship of the Dead" yesterday, and I'm off to find a book set in the future for my next slot to check off.

Challenge by Reading Books Like a Boss

My dad used to be really into sci-fi, and since I now own most of his books, I figured it would be kind of easy to find something set in the future. Problem is, most of his sci-fi is from the '80s. In other words, they WERE set in the future, but we've passed the year the books were set in.

For example, I could skip over finally reading "2001: A Space Odyssey," and even the sequel "2010: Odyssey Two," in order to read the third in the series "2061: Odyssey Three." I'm sure it's fine to start with the third book in the series.... right?

Hubby has wanted me to read the Shadow series of the Ender's Game universe, but they focus on the character Bean, and I HATED that kid when I read "Ender's Game." Hubby assures me that his characterization is redeemed in the books focused on him because you learn his motivation and whatnot. Perhaps I'll cave and give it a try. I did end up loving "Speaker for the Dead" the most out of the Ender books thus far, and Hubby told me that one was his favorite too. I should probably trust the spouse, huh?

Alternatively, I still have all of Zebey's books from when she moved and attempted to donate them to the library. There are TONS of books based on the game series Halo. Hubby suggested I try grabbing one of those. My thing there, though, is that I never got into the fandom outside of watching Red vs. Blue, and so I don't know how lost I'd be. I also don't know what order I should read them in, or if that matters.

I'll give it today to find something to bring into work with me tomorrow to start my home stretch. I'll let you know what I picked.

In the meantime, for those of you who are just finishing up your celebrations:

For those of you who will be celebrating in a couple of days:

I apologize, I couldn't find anything nice that wished a happy Saturnalia.

And for those, like me, who will be celebrating on Monday:

I'm sorry if I missed your holiday. These are the main ones I know of. Please let me know what you celebrate in the comments below so I can include it next year.

Happy holidays, everyone! May your season be bright and joyful!

A Surprisingly Successful, Non-Writing Script Frenzy

Well, this year's Script Frenzy ended up being equal parts successful and complete fail. I know I still have today and tomorrow, but I haven't touched the script in weeks now, so I think we can assume I'm done for the month. Done and with only about 10 pages of script written. The worse that I've ever done with Script Frenzy.

To be fair, I did try a format I've never attempted before. A format I was never taught how to write in. Thank God for Celtx having a sample comic book in its archives so I had a base to go off of. It definitely helped, and so I feel accomplished in that regard.

Actually, even though this month was sort of fail, I don't feel like a failure at all; especially compared to past years. I am taking a lot of pride in the fact that I pushed myself to try comic book writing. Pride in the fact that I'm teaching myself how to write in that format. Pride in the fact that I was able to get ten pages done in one month. Granted, I could have done a lot more if I had all my ducks in a row first, but it's still something.

Also, I can take pride in the fact that I was working on the story - in some shape or form - nearly every day. Well, if I'm being honest, I didn't really work on the comic this past week, but I'll get to that in a bit. Point is, I pushed myself this month, and I call that a great success.

Script Frenzy isn't an official program any longer. Sure, I could participate in a Script-Frenzy-Like writing experience in November instead of writing a novel during NaNo, but still doing so in April is big. I don't have the support group of other Frenziers. I don't have the website keeping track of my progress: the countdown to the end of the month and the progress bar as I crept towards 100 pgs. While I petitioned members of both my own writing group and Writers’ Huddle, I think only one person said he'd participate with me. And we didn't get a chance to really talk this month in order to encourage each other and push each other to continue.

So I didn't really have a support group writing along side me and pushing me forward - not to say I didn't have supporters throughout the month, but it's different when they're going through the experience with you.

As I already emphasized, I also pushed myself by writing a comic book instead of a stage or screen play like I normally would; like I was taught how. Writing something I didn't know how to and with no one guiding me. That's big for me.

I also pushed myself to finally write my X-Future reboot. It was a project I've been working on for a year now, but I never really put anything official down on paper. Yeah, it's because I was world building, but I could have had a lot more figured out by now. Just about everything I stalled on during this month could have been decided back around Thanksgiving. I had been slacking. I kept telling myself "I'll get to it when I'm inspired to" or "It will be written eventually, there's no real rush". Well, now there was a rush. I couldn't procrastinate any longer. I needed to finish world building and I needed to have it done NOW.

Plus, when I hit my first brick wall I could have just stopped completely. Granted, I DID stop completely; I haven't really written anything else since I hit that wall, but it's different. Different because last year I probably would have focused on anything else. I would grumble at the blank pages and whine about how I wasn't making progress. I would get down on myself for being so far behind on my goal. I would have failed in my resolve to keep writing, and then I would doubt that I actually was a writer.

NOT THIS YEAR!

This year I pushed through. I used the fact that I was stonewalled by my lack of world building as the drive to keep world building. I pushed myself to get things sorted out so I could continue writing. I mean, it didn't work that way. I never did go back to writing, but that doesn't matter.

I have a lot of new stuff figured out now. Stuff I probably would still be stalling on figuring out if I hadn't attempted Script Frenzy this year. Between that and the fact that I WAS working on this story - in some shape or form - for the vast majority of the month... I consider that a success!

Now, back to that earlier disclaimer about not working on the X-Future reboot this past week. I was stuck. Plus, I needed something to keep me entertained while I waited for Hubby to get out of work on Sunday. See, more often than not our work keeps him past his scheduled time in order to finish the job he does on the overnights. I go to pick him up when he's scheduled to be done, and sometimes I'm waiting around for two hours. Well, I don't have Celtx on my smartphone, but I DO have Google Docs. So, Sundays - while waiting for Hubby - is usually my days to work on Please, Let Me Explain.

I don't know if it's because I got in to a groove, or if it was sparked by finally talking to the elusive Ronoxym again, but I just couldn't let go of this story. I couldn't wait until Sunday to continue working on it.

Starting at the very first word once more, I read through the whole story up until the POV switch. See, most of the story is in Devon's POV, but right around the section that Ron stopped writing it switches over to Willow's. I stopped my edits at the POV switch. Once I have the latest chapter up I'll work on that next bit.

Anyway, the point is that I tore the story apart. I took notes - literal notes, on a legal pad and everything - of what Devon and Willow said to each other. This way I don't lose track of what was said, and I could keep reminding myself what was going on in each of their heads.

Man, my handwriting sucks...

I'm equal parts super glad and kinda bummed that I decided to critically analyze the story like this.

On the one hand, I found a few typos and sentences I needed to rework. So that's great; except some of them are in the earlier sections that I already published. Whoops. I'm also glad because the story got so long, and with so many different times that Devon and Willow talked, that we actually DID lose track of what was already said. Once or twice Devon repeated himself while explaining his side of the story. Once or twice Willow did the same while yelling at Devon. It's fine to repeat one's self; it's not alright to do so while making it seem like it was the first time it was said. I'm sure my readers would have picked up on that a lot faster than we did.... Whoops again.

I'm also glad I was so meticulous this go because I found a semi-major plot hole in our story while going back through the dialogue. So, yay that I caught it before publishing that part! Also, boooo, because now we have to figure out how to rework a huge chunk of the story. It would be the second half of the latest chapter, so pretty much the entire third-quarter of the story Ron wrote so far. Super duper whoops.

See, I never noticed before that Willow changes her tune in that third-quarter of the story. It only JUST occurred to me that everything that happened in that part of the story more-or-less ignored the huge scene of Willow talking to Devon in his cell. Aside from being caught up in the current dialogue, I'm not entirely sure how we missed this opinion switch before. I've also noticed that she was acting a bit more "Lia-like" in this part of the story as well. So, now I have even MORE work to do. *sigh*

I've also become acutely aware of the fact that I was head-hopping. Not sure what head-hopping is? Check out this article Ali Luke wrote about it:
Do You Head-Hop? Getting Third Person Point of View Right

I want to stress that I am the one with the head-hopping problem. Mainly because I'm used to writing Third Person Omniscient. Those who have read my "Hey, Arnold!" fanfiction know I love delving deep in to the thoughts of my characters. Especially during arguments, so that the reader knows where everyone is coming from. It helps keep everyone relatable and sympathetic. So - if it were up to me - I probably would have stayed Omniscient in PLME.

Thing is, the story was Ron's baby. He was writing the story through Devon's POV; obviously, since Devon is his character. I interjected Willow in to the story. Because of that collaborating set-up, the story was mostly writen in Devon's POV. Which means the times that I imputted Willow's would be considered head-hopping. It's not an even split.

I was able to go through and weed out most of the Willow head hops. However, there are a LOT of sentences still where I have no clue. Am I head hopping in to Willow? Is Devon just observant enough that he can tell? How do I know for sure? How do I fix it without messing with the intensity of the moment?

I submitted these questions - in a manner of speaking - to the fine folks over at Writers' Huddle. It kept a few days, but two Huddlers responded to me on Monday. I have some work to do, but at least I now know where I went wrong, and I have a direction on how to fix it.

So, I'm going to be busy. Between fixing my head hops and then figuring out how to rewrite the plot-hole-oops problem.... Yup. Busy. On the plus side, I think I have a good start on the later.

This story will truly be the death of me, but I love it all the same. It's really driving me, and it's a great learning experience. I'm figuring out how to work with a collaborator. I'm doing some major editing. Probably the most hard-core, tear-it-to-shreds, complete-rework editing I have ever done in my life. It's a practice I really needed to work on. I'm also learning to rein in my adverb usage and honing in on my Third Person Limited skills; e.g. preventing myself from head hopping.

So, I'm super glad Ron let me in on his project last year. I'm just sorry if in hijacking it I ended up killing his motivation. He was so excited about it and had it more-or-less finished in his head. Then I derailed him.... I should have let him finish the story first, I think.

SORRY, BRO!

OH! Before I forget, I said in my blog last week that I'd let you know what the organization name was that Phfylburt came up with. So, after we had a conversation about the whole thing, we agreed that GPS is the perfect accronym. First of all, it's sorta-techy, which really works in a cyberpunk story setting. Second, they are in charge of locating Glitches. Third, I could have fun using GPS brands as street nicknames for them. For instance, instead of Popo, they would be called TomToms. It's corny, but I like it.

We struggled a little trying to figure out exactly what the P and the S stood for; it was a given G was for Glitch. Eventually Phfyl landed on Glitch Placement Services. It's a non-threatening government-agency-sounding name. It explains what they do: round up Glitches and move them in to ghettos to control and "protect" them. I like it.

Alright, well, I have a bit more free time this week, so I guess I have some writing to do. Farewell, Script Frenzy. We didn't go as far as I would have liked - I never even finished the pages I plotted out - but you still helped me accomplish much this month. Here's to high productivity continuing on throughout the year!

Let Script Frenzy Begin!

I debated for maybe half a second to do something wacky today in honor of April Fools. Then I remembered that I'm HORRIBLE with pranks...

Also, I'm so gullible that on April 1st I'm just a walking ball of cynicism. I take EVERYTHING I hear or read today with a grain of salt.

Besides, Fools is not what April is about. It's about script writing!

Yes, unfortunately the Office of Letters and Light had to retire the program due to years of decrease in both funding and participation. But the concept lives on both as NaNo Rebels and in my heart. I didn't really attempt Script Frenzy last year, but I am going to give it another go this year. I may only get a handful of pages - opposed to the goal of 100pgs - but it will help jumpstart my writing and really push me forward with the X-Future reboot idea.

The real trick is that I've never written a script for a webcomic/comic/graphic novel before. It will be interesting to see how it works out. I also now have to think of spacing and how many panels I want per page. So I have to actually write in page breaks. I have to find a happy balance between describing the scene and how the characters work without OVERLY describing it. I imagine it being more detailed than an average script, but only by a little bit.

Thankfully, I have my handy dandy Celtx scripting program to assist. As Open Office is a free open-source writing program comparative to Microsoft Word, Celtx is a free alternative to Final Draft. Well, over the years it seems Celtx has transitioned in to an exclusively online pay-as-you-go program, but there's still sites where you can download the older versions for free and offline use.

Either way, I love this thing. It takes the guess work out of formatting and it has all of these other features that goes beyond simple script writing. I can storyboard, create character profiles - including wardrobe/costume/makeup notes, I can budget my play/film/show/etc, create a shoot schedule, write scenes out of order if I'm more inspired to work on one part over another. I actually did that last part my first year I did Script Frenzy. I downloaded Celtx as per Office of Letters and Light suggestion, and I worked with ChibiSunnie on our version of the never-produced "Hey, Arnold!" second movie.

This is how I actually met Chibi.

Anyway, around the end of Act I, I was getting bored with writing linearly. There was a scene close to the end of Act II that I had brewing, as well as the climactic fight scene with the villain, and another crucial scene towards the very end of the movie. Instead of drudging on through all the scenes in between, I used the "Jump Scenes" feature to write out the scenes I was inspired to, which kept me writing in the first place. We didn't complete our script, but we did get about 70-some pages in. Not too shabby for a first attempt.

Another fun feature of being able to write scenes out of order? If you create your script scene by scene. And then if you decide to switch some later on - or cut one out completely - you can do so easily without searching the whole script and scrolling through to the place you need.

But enough about how much I love Celtx. Let's talk about the project I'm starting today.

It kept me a few months of planning for April to figure out how to start. I really should have done more research - read more comics/webcomics/graphic novels/mangas - in order to get a better feel as to a good starting point for comics. Either way, I'm pretty confident in what I chose.

I'm planning to start mid-action. While Phfylburt, Hubby, and I all agreed upon a main cast of about 10 students, 7 villains, and 9 reworked X-Men canon characters, at the start of the comic the main four is Willow, Lia, Chayse, and Devon. The comic will start with them running from something. Unfortunately - especially since it's the beginning of the story I'm supposed to start today - I still don't quite know who or what they're running from. Whatever danger I create for them, I will still open with the kids being portrayed as average, normal teens. Then one of them will be forced to use his/her power to either protect the other three, or to finally go on the offensive. Again, I haven't figured out which yet. I also haven't decided WHERE I want them to be running. Should they be chased through the woods? A lot of intense scenes seem to have people being chased through the woods. It's familiar, but also cliche. How about through the nearby city in order to help establish the cyberpunk setting as it races by in the background? This idea could work, but the scenario driving them to race through the city will be trickier to figure out. What about an open field? The reader won't know it at first, but the students are running along the orphanage's estate grounds. Either way, watching them scramble will hopefully be enough to hook the reader.

After the "they're mutants" reveal, there will be a page break interrupting the action. The narrator then comes in for the next chapter: one that sets up the world of X-Future. The whole thing will be a brief history of the world; although the history I'm presenting may seem fairly long. Honestly, I'm only aiming for a handful of pages; the broad strokes. It will talk super briefly on the basics of evolution. Then the narrator will discuss how minor bits of evolutionary "DNA defect" - such as two different colored eyes, albinism, midget-/giantism, double jointedness, etc - became more noticeable - such as being born with a legit full-grown tail - and people became more and more mutated as the generations continued.

Scientists/doctors blamed the increasingly polluted environment and processed foods for these "Glitches in our children's DNA". Soon the term became a media buzzword for mutants: Glitches. It will be my world's equivalent to "Mutant", both the typical vernacular as well as a semi-hateful term. In the meantime, much like how Magneto tried to establish the word Homosuperior to replace Mutant, there will be a cry to use the term Preternatural - or some variant of it - instead of Glitch.

Now that the history of the world as a whole is told, it's time to discuss the more relevant history of the orphanage the students stay at. I'll quickly introduce my rebooted versions of Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde and James "Wolverine" Howlett. Kitty felt bad for all the teenagers being abandoned by their shamed parents once their Glitch - powers/mutation - presented itself at puberty. She creates an orphanage and a school as safe haven for these Glitches. Kitty then strived to prove to humanity that Glitches have the same call for both good and evil as any normal human.

James - on the other hand - had a sterner and more grim approach. The regular humans were trying to exterminate Glitches, so why shouldn't they learn to defend themselves? They need to prepare like soldiers for a war, and then pray the training is never needed; better safe than sorry. He created The Arcade as a secret way to run virtual simulations to train Glitches in teamwork, survival, and power control. James created an elite team tasked to watch over Kitty's school in order to keep the Glitch children safe. Basically, the X-Men.

Once the world's main background is spelled out the book returns to the kids just as the one is using his/her powers. The fight sequence ends and it's revealed that it was just a training exercise. If I go with the scene where they're running across the field it will be revealed that it was a game of mutant tag or touch football. If the scene is them running through the woods it could be a game of mutant Manhunt; a variation of tag. If I go with the scene of them running though the city, the training would have been at The Arcade using The Orbs; a way to introduce the VR training.

Again, it's kinda bad that I'm trying to start this project and yet I'm still halted on how to actually START it. Hopefully I figure it out while I'm at work tonight since I won't be able to start writing until 8-ish.

Anyway, however the training session finishes and is revealed, I plan on having some of the students/faculty talk in order to develop more characterization, and then end book one with a nod towards the villains: the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, or at least my equivalent to them.

Not sure how many out of 100pgs that will kill, but it's a nice start, I think. If only I could figure out where I'm actually going with these scenes... Or if I could come up with some decent titles/names.

Well, I have work soon, so I guess I have to keep pondering while I'm out. In the meantime, drop a comment below if you have any name/title suggestions or if you're participating in Script Frenzy this month too.

A Minor Focus on Scripts and Other Creativity

Before I get in to the rest of my week, I'd just like to point out an amusing little tidbit about DarkAngel1326 's first installment in her "Stories from the Winds of Hillwood" saga. In my review I playfully accused her of stealing the plot to my two-part story "I Caught You A Star". Well, after my blog post last week, she contacted me to let me know that she had no clue what ChibiSunnie and I were talking about when we commented on the story similarities. It turns out that DA had never read my story! It was just a major coincidence that I wrote a very similar one for V-day two years ago! She has since read the story....
So fret not, Dear Readers, DA thought up her plot all by her lonesome. Just another case of "Great Minds Think Alike".




Also, if you haven't read her story yet, here's the link again: "Stories from the Winds of Hillwood"

I'm not going to lie, I both didn't really do much creatively speaking and did do a lot creatively speaking.

At the beginning of last week a coworker signed up to join the X-Men forum RPG that Hubby runs. He brought his wife and a friend of theirs that they used to play with on a different X-Men RP. So now we have three new players and it's gotten me and Hubby excited about the game. Creativity is starting to flow again for this universe. I can't wait to officially start back up, in the meantime it was fun to re-read what already happened as well as read what the new players have to say - as well as see the cool backstories they each came up with. The coworker and his friend have their characters both speaking with British dialects, so it will be interesting to try to understand the slang they use. Worse comes to worse I guess I could always ask Ali Luke to translate for me.




On Wednesday I had this strong desire to waste the large majority of my morning getting a full plot bunny farm out of my head. Plot bunnies for more stories!? Sadly, no. They were different concepts for a multitude of fan-made music videos using footage from Hey Arnold. Much like my Plot Bunny posts I have here, I wanted one for my FMV ideas. It didn't seem appropriate to include here, so I posted it up on DeviantArt.

The rest of the week was wasted in many hours of Kirby's Epic Yarn. I didn't even do my normal 7hrs straight on Facebook.

However, aside from a small bit that I need to ask DA, Chibi, and possibly even AngelBlood666 for some advice on, I'm more-or-less all set to FINALLY get to working on my next chapter of What Is Truly Meant To Be. I have four days until the end of the month. Even though I've written full stories in 24hr periods, I really don't want to end up doing the same thing for a chapter for this story. People have dedicated too much time and emotion for me to try to rush it. That being said, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep up my New Year Resolution to update monthly. However, considering I used to take anywhere between three and ten months to update, posting a new chapter every OTHER month is still an improvement. We'll see how it goes. I swear I'm not intentionally slacking on this.

Another reason why I might alter my resolution to every other month is that next month starts bi-weekly writing challenges with the Hey Arnold group. These aren't competitions; instead they are like the daily challenges I did back in July. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be participating in all of them, but I'm going to at least try.

The following month is then April! For those who have been following my blog for a little while, you already know that since two years ago April is Script Frenzy Month! It's basically the same thing as NaNo, but it's writing a 100pg script in 30 days. It's even run by the same organization: The Office of Letters and Light. At least, it USED to be run by the same group. Sadly, Script Frenzy didn't get nearly the same reception as the other writing programs that OLL hosts and so they regrettably had to drop the program. What really saddens me is that I didn't have money to purchase any merchandise for the 2012 Script Frenzy and now it's not available for me to ever get....




However, Script Frenzy shall live on in my heart and April will still remain the month where I get crazy and try to write a full script in 30 days. Since it isn't an "official" Script Frenzy I will cheat a little bit this year. Instead of writing a script from scratch I'm going to use the opportunity to work with Chibi to finish up the fanscript for Hey Arnold that we started during our first Script Frenzy.

If you want to have Script Frenzy live on in your hearts as well you could use this golden opportunity to build up your portfolio! Maybe you could even enter one of these contests that Chibi found this week!

The clever girl managed to find a few contests that networks are hosting in order to bring in new talent to their writing staffs! How awesome is that!? The deadline for the Nickelodeon one is this Friday, so it's probably not a possibility for anyone, but it's an annual contest so you might as well get started for next year, right?

Anyway, here's the list. It's also in my Handy Links page - which was updated with a few other websites as well, thanks to DA!
Nickelodeon Writing Program
Disney/ABC Television Writing Program
NBC Early Career Program: Writers On The Verge
WB Writers' Workshop

If you like the idea of writing for a production team and need a bit more help on the actual formatting and the like, you can check out the free-to-download writing software Celtx. I use it for every Script Frenzy and I LOVE the program. There are so many fun toys you can try out! I also have some information on that Handy Links page in the same category as the writing programs listing.

Yeah.... About that writing....

Well, I don’t really have much to show for the past week. There have been a couple of days in which I spent my 15min breaks and 1/2hr lunches playing computer games instead of working on writing. I had some major stuff weighing on my mind. One or two things are related to work drama, and then there’s a major thing that is mostly a happy thing that I’m excited about, but it could also have the potential of being a not-so-good thing. It’s kinda hard to explain while being cryptic like this.

Basically, one of my husband’s friends celestialTyrant has become a super-close friend of mine too, and he’s majorly crushing on my sister. I’m beyond excited to see these two together – especially since it’s not a secret that I don’t like my sister’s current boyfriend; however, my sister DOES already have a boyfriend, so the fact that cT is crushing on her could end in disaster.

Every time I try to open up a document to work on one of my many projects I just think about cT’s situation, as well as the work drama, and then I can’t focus on the story.

I have been fairly active on the X-Men RP though. So I guess that’s something. My one character Willow is coming up with a plethora of pranks that she and another character Devon can pull, so it’s fun to not only come up with pranks – I myself was never much of a trickster so it’s actually hard to think of pranks – but also have these long posts describing Willow and Devon talking about said pranks. Hubby decided to throw a monkey wrench in to the works by having one of the NPCs eavesdropping and deciding to pull some pranks on the pranksters. We’ll see how that turns out.

Then we have celestialTyrant. Well, his character Nix is actually dating my sister’s character Annika – which is how the two started talking IRL – and so it’s fun to read their interactions in-game, especially since Hubby just had Nix kidnapped. However, both Nix and Annika are telepaths, so they still talk to each other while trying to figure out where he was taken to. XD

In the meantime, Hubby’s main character Cajun is roommates and best friends with Nix, and so my main character Lia – who is roommates with Annika – is torn between comforting Cajun and comforting Annika, who are both broken over the disappearance of Nix!

And finally, there’s Lucas. He’s a character run by one of Hubby’s friends he met through work. The friend is like a walking comic book encyclopedia, and so he is Hubby’s assistant story teller. The two talk back and forth to come up with plot devices for the game, and they come up with some awesome stuff! Anyway, because of the friend’s vast knowledge, Lucas is the only character that was allowed to be made old enough to be a teacher – the rest of us are students. Well, Lucas also recently had an experience of being held captive for two weeks, breaking out of the facility that held him, rescuing three kids that were also held captive, and taking the children to the institute. Lucas – who was raised in the future and came back in time to the present in order to live in a more peaceful time – soon finds out that one of the kids he just rescued is destined to be the mutant that kills him. Dun, dun, duuuuun! On top of that, another one of the kids he rescued is killed the same day that Nix is kidnapped! Finally, one of the people that held Lucas captive has a mental link with him and – presumably – forces him to have violent blackouts. So far all Lucas has done is destroy the landscape around the institute, but he fears for the students and is now leaving the school in hopes of figuring out how to handle the blackouts.

This game is like a mini soap opera! I love it and want to write those webcomics even more each week! I just might open up Celtx and start up writing the scripts. In the meantime, I’m trying to make it easier for everyone to follow what-happens-when by writing up a “calendar” of all the events. It's kind of like the calendars used in dating sim games. So that’s my most recent little project.

Hopping RPGs to the Vampire LARP Hubby’s BFF runs, Friday was the first game with the new vampire character. I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had. Normally, I’m so lost my characters just hang off in a corner somewhere twiddling her thumbs. This time it was alright that I was lost because my character was SUPPOSED to not have a clue about what was going on. It was just amazingly fun to come up with her reactions to things like “First time attacked by another vampire” or “First time seeing a vampire killed and turned to ash” or “Surprised to have staked a vampire first go-around and is excited to have ‘survived’ the attack”.

Throw in Hubby and I visiting celestialTyrant on Wednesday, and one of Hubby’s high school friends and his wife visiting us yesterday… well, the week’s been a touch busy.

I really do want to write, and I have plenty of options to choose from. I just need to find the drive to just sit down and start tappin' on the keyboard until words show up on my screen! XD

Maybe I’ll have something for you guys next week.