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

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

So here's a belated for my mom:

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

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

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

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

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by Birdman Inc

Alright, back on topic here.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenge created by Modern Mrs. Darcy

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

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

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

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

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

Productively Writing Nothing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Birdman, Inc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally, it is April, which would normally mean:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

World-building Counts as Writing, Right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally, Some Writing!

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

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

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

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

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

"Welcome to Ashitar"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Everything for a Reason"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

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

Challenge created by Modern Mrs. Darcy

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

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

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

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

An Easter Miracle! (But not really)

Image by Celesse

Well, don't I totally rock at this weekly update thing, huh?




Do I get forgiveness if I say I missed last week's update because I've been writing almost non-stop for the past two weeks?


Probably not much consolation when you guys realize that you can't read anything I've been working on... not for a while at least.


But, let's backtrack and see what I'm talking about.

First off, I've gotten off the doll-making kick; at least, for a little while.

I had the 20th, 21st, and the 22nd off.... and I spent them WRITING!

Yeah, that's right...

writing!

I was able to hand write the opening of the next What Is Truly Meant To Be chapter on the front and back of a legal-pad page. Not too much once it's condensed down in typed form, but it's something, right?

But that little bit was done during breaks at work. The rest of the time I've been getting mad inspired by the X-Men RPG. We've had a couple of days two weeks ago where we actually had nice little role-play groups going. Most of them consisted of me mainly running my character Willow. She's a flirt and a prankster who gets her kicks out of getting a rise out of her fellow classmates - one in particular being the stick-in-the-mud William. She's just becoming so much more fun to run as a character and she's quickly surpassing Lia as my main character.

A LOOOOT happened that week in Willow's world and it just developed and expanded her character. I love it! I'm getting super connected to this character - a lot more than poor Lia - and I'm starting to finally hear Willow's voice in my head.

She's also a major case of "The Character Tells The Author How Stuff Is Gonna Go Down."

In other words.... this:

"So, You're a Cartoonist? - Following the Leader" by Tom Preston

It has inspired me to translate Willow's story in to prose so that all of you fine readers could also partake in her tale. I also still want to eventually try turning the entire forum game in to a series of webcomics, but I'll need an artist for that.

Anyway, on Thrusday, March 21, a cataclysmic event happened on the forum that turned it in to a massive bundle of heart-wrenching, edge of your seat, "For some reason I completely care about these characters" emotions. If you're keen to Tumblr's own little sub-genre language, the emotions would be simply summed up as "The Feels!"

I'll try not to be too specific with details so that when I DO translate everything over in to prose I wouldn't have let spoilers slip too much, but a player didn't want to run his character anymore and decided to start up a second one instead. However, he didn't want to bring in the new one until he got rid of the old one. This was the catalyst.

He killed off his character, and now mine are not only trying to come to terms with the loss of a friend, but a lot of other unresolved emotions that are building up to a head. The death of the character resulted in Willow completely breaking down. To the point in which I was weeping like a baby all of that Thursday night. Like.... legitimately, "Hand me a damn box of tissues, I can't see over here" crying. To this day, over a week later, I can't read any of that stuff without choking up. She had a very touching memorial that even got the killed-off-character's player crying, welled up Hubby's eyes with tears, and got Devon's player to choke up a little.

Mad skills!

One of the many reasons I want you guys to be able to read this stuff! I want to know if this stuff is just emotional because we're running these characters and feel connected to them, or if this stuff truly is that emotional.

Since I have no clue how many of you are X-Men fans, and because we created our own universe canon for this role play, I wanted to write up the main events of the world these characters live in. This way, everyone sort of gets what's going on. So last week I started writing down the key plot points of the X-Men: Evolution TV series, since this is the basis of our world.

I didn't get very far before the forum continued to blow up. So much emotion going on, so many characters reacting to the character's death, and reacting to the repercussions of the event.... it's taken us about a week of nearly non-stop role playing to finally finish off everything that happened that day!

It's been mad crazy! That's why I missed last week's post. Between bringing Hubby home from work and going in to work myself I spent the rest of the time working on the role play instead of my blog post. I had every intention of going back and writing the post after work was done, or on Monday, or even Tuesday. Yet, the forum always seemed to take over every waking moment.

And there were a LOT of waking moments. Even with me having to get up at about five or six in the morning nearly every day during The Week Of Feels Hubby and I still stayed up until midnight, 1am, and even 2am.

I am certainly not a college student any longer. I cannot survive on minimal sleep.... and my body sure as hell reminded me of that this past Tuesday. After I was done with work I got hit hard with a nasty head cold. I've gone through two tissue boxes easily. I frequently sit with my nose clogged with tissue and wonder if people would buy a product that is essentially tampons for your nose. I mean, doctors already use tampons to help with nose bleeds after a head trauma or nasal surgery...

I'm going off topic.

Anyway, Wednesday was miserable. My head was swimming, my eyes wouldn't focus, I was constantly either sneezing or blowing my nose, my throat was scratchy, and I couldn't seem to medicate the symptoms away no matter what. Dayquil? Doesn't help with runny nose. Herbal Tea Cold Remedy? It usually works, but this time, no dice. AlkaSeltzer? Didn't touch the cold at all. Dieting Tea with a hint of caffeine to keep you energized enough to exercise? Well, this one was mainly for the steam and to attempt to combat the drowsiness the meds were giving me. Still.... down went another tissue box.

I'm still getting over the nasty cold. I hate being sick like this now that my netbook died on me. If I am able to lay in bed, snuggled up in my covers, being on "bed rest" while sick is the best thing for my writing. I just go off like a beast. When I feel craptastic, but I'm forced to sit in a computer chair? I start to slowly slouch, my neck, shoulders, and back begin to ache, my eyes strain to see the monitor two feet away, and I'm just a grouch. Blah.

Hubby helped a little by offering up his laptop while he used the desktop. But that was mainly so I could continue role-playing in an insane attempt to finally close out the day so the rest of the players didn't have to sit and twiddle their thumbs for much longer. The player who killed off his character had to wait about a week before he could bring in the new one, since we wanted his new one to literally start where the last one stopped. It was a cool scene, but his grand entrance couldn't be on the same day as the other's demise.

I sure hope all of this massive role-playing will eventually result in the two prose sagas I'm hoping for - one for Lia and one for Willow - and when that happens I hope you all will let me know whether or not it was worth this blog and my Hey Arnold fanfic being put on hold.

I think it is helping me out as a writer at least. First off, it blasted through my writer's block. I'm now writing daily, and I'm writing a lot. I'm getting emotional and personable with my characters. I'm finally "hearing" them speak to me the way that DarkAngel1326 and Delaroux tell me their characters speak to them. Which is exciting.

OH! Quick sidenote about Delaroux! I just got a message from her that she has a new story idea and wants me to beta again. I have no clue what the story is about. I don't know if it's going to be another Hey Arnold fanfic, if it's going to be solely about her Flite11 group, if it's going to be about other demons and supernatural beings based on the universe she created for Flite11, or if it's going to be something completely different. I also don't know how long it will be before I start getting stuff from her, let alone my turn-around time. If it's anything like Something To Return To then I'll be getting something soon, and frequently!

Now, back to me.



I'm super excited about hearing these characters in my head! It's weird though. Because I don't legitimately "hear" them in my head per se. You know how when you think to yourself you hear your own voice in your head? Or when you read a piece of fiction - especially if there is a visual representation of it - and you "hear" the character's reciting their lines? Oooor, maybe not. Maybe I'm odd.

Anyway, that was how I was picturing the characters "chatting" to DA and Delaroux. Maybe that IS how it works for those girls. But for me, it's more of a series of Freudian Slips while I'm typing. Kind of like how Arnold and Helga just sort of take over while I'm writing WITMTB. I have every intention of writing one thing, but when I look at what I actually wrote, it's something completely different. Yet, if I try to change it back to what I intended, I get this weird feeling inside like the character is telling me that what I wrote was wrong, and what I originally had was what was "natural". Most times I comply, and this leads to the above comic strip.

My only thing is that Willow is a lot smarter than I gave her credit for, and Hubby's character Chayse is a lot more honest and straight forward. This resulted in a MAJOR plot twist/story arc device to be figured out WAY too soon. It would have been a lot more fun playing around with a certain element that was brought in, but noooooo Chayse had to confess something and Willow had to put the pieces together. Stupid characters.

This whole "The characters take over" thing is why Lia and Chayse ended up hooking up so shortly after the game started, instead of having Chayse take his time woo-ing her. Anyway, during The Week of Feels, the majority of the time Lia stayed "quiet" and just did whatever it was I deemed "natural" to do. Sadly, since Willow exploded as a much more developed and dynamic character, most of the time I had no clue what to do with Lia - so she sort of sat in the background.

Then Hubby started "hearing" Chayse in his head the same way I heard Willow. Soon our apartment was filled with a chorus of us verbally asking Willow and Chase "What are you doing!?" just before posting. We knew that the characters shouldn't say this, or act like that, but they had other plans.

As the Week of Feels came to a close and I realized that Lia never really did anything to say goodbye to her fallen classmate, I created a touching series of scenes for her. Nothing as emotional as Willow's farewell because Lia hadn't yet blossomed, but still moving - hopefully. What really surprised me though, was finding out that Lia is like a Mama Bear protecting her cubs and she gets SCARY when provoked!

A few days later she finally started to grow as well, and I "hear" her along side Willow now - although Willow is still the more dominant talker.

Hubby has also had a few of his secondary characters start "talking" to him too. This game has really gotten him in touch with his own writing side. This is big considering the fact that he has HATED any sort of transferring what's in his head down on paper since about high school due to his Aspergers. So the fact that he's writing just as frequently as I am, with such compelling stuff, and loving doing so is FANTASTIC to me. YAY, Characters Talking!




The biggest concern for him is that one character in particular, who he WANTS to get more involved in the game is NOT talking to him, at least, not for a while. Yesterday Ripley FINALLY opened up and we got some real good stuff from him. Completely surprised both of us. Mr. California Surfer Dude is actually quite the gentleman and apparently wants to become a therapist. Neither of us saw that coming.

Now, when either Hubby or I are on our lunches or breaks at work we always make sure to have paper and a pen on hand so we can jot things down as it comes to us. Hubby was shocked as the stream of consciousness for two of his main characters came out majorly different than what he was expecting of them - given the situation he left them in. He's also developed more backstory to fill in the two year time skip we just participated in, as well as the over-all driving force story arc for the universe.

I played one campaign of D&D with him as the Dungeon Master, and yet I forgot how epic his stories can get! I'm so super excited!

One last thing before I rap up with all this role-play talk. A new character just came on the scene and he's "scaring" his player by doing the same thing of "talking" to the player. The player was joking around that it's like the character is just channeling himself through the player. This just adds to my love of this new character.

His name is Lincoln, and when I get back to building avatars he's the next one I'm working on... even though I was in the middle of building Lincoln's player's main character when I stopped. XD

Anyway, Lincoln started off as just this shy, awkward kid who was raised in a different world/dimension. He's not the only one, another character Sasha was also raised like that. Lincoln was socially awkward and unsure as to how to carry himself on Earth.

This awkwardness developed a stream of consciousness where his thoughts would contradict his actions. Sort of like these new line of Speed Stick commercials:

    

If that wasn't adorable enough, this "my thoughts contradict my actions" back and forth quickly developed in to full-on multiple-personality-like conversations with himself. He is just too friggen adorable!

For those who watched the anime Soul Eater.... Lincoln is kind of like my obsession a few months back when I watched the show.... You might remember a loveably glompable character named Crona:

Crona being the kid.
Ragnarok - Crona's weapon and secondary personality - is the X-Faced thing messing with Crona.

We don't have a name for Lincoln's head-friend, but he picks on, messes with, and delights in Lincoln's pain just as much as Ragnarok does for Crona. Lincoln and Crona are just as equally socially awkward and may find their first friend in the maternal character of the group. Bonus: Crona and Lincoln are both raised and taken care of by a woman named Medusa!!!! How trippy is that!? Especially since Lincoln's player doesn't really watch anime and has never even heard of Soul Eater or Crona! I'm telling you, give Crona a set of green butterfly wings and an acknowledged gender and you have Lincoln! It's fantastic! My instant fave character! <3

Alright, enough ramblings about the forum for today. Hopefully this makes up for the two week delay. I'll try to work on converting stuff over in to prose, but no promises that I'll have anything concrete.

Aside from the forum itself possibly taking up more time, tomorrow also marks the start of my unofficial continuation of Script Frenzy! One Month. 100pgs script! Can I do it!? I haven't in the past, and I'm saddened that I will now never officially have a "winner" badge, but that doesn't mean I can't still participate in Script Frenzy - at least in my heart.

Normally, the script would be started completely from scratch, but since it's no longer official, I'm just going to use the month to get as much done in a script written format as possible before May hits. I'm supposed to be re-starting my The Jungle Movie fanscript with ChibiSunnie this month. I just need to sit down and take the time to go back over all the notes and what we have so far.... I've been slacking on that....

Depending on how adventurous I feel, I may start converting the forum posts over in to webcomic scripts. We'll see how that goes.

Since it isn't an official Script Frenzy I'm debating if I will be purposely skipping weekly updates in favor of my end-of-the-month diary recaps that I've done the past two years. Considering I've been doing bi-weekly updates this year so far, it's not like you'd really be waiting all that long. However, I do fully expect to just go ahead and continue with the weekly updates. I guess we'll have to see how work-heavy April turns out to be.

So, I may or may not catch you folks next week.... sorry about being so vague.
You can follow my blog or me directly if you haven't already. This will guarantee that you won't miss an update. Over along the right side of the page you'll see a spot where you can either add my blog to your RSS feed, or you can input your email address. I don't spam you and you'll get my blog neatly wrapped up in email form. If you have a blogger account you can also follow me by logging in to your account, scrolling down your Dashboard page until you reach "Reading List" click on the "Add" button, and drop in my URL: www.TheRoguesScribe.blogspot.com! Super simple! You can also follow me directly by checking out my Facebook Account, or following me on Twitter: @LycoRogue.

OH! Another quick sidenote, speaking of following blogs. Cyhyr just started up her own blog about writing! You should go check out her stuff here:

The Writer Cyhyr

And while you're at it, go hop over to DA's blog and poke at her until she remembers to post something.

Random Creativity Blog

In the meantime, please wish me and Chibi luck on our Script Frenzy, and wish me, Hubby, and the other X-Men Forum players luck with all the voices in our heads.

I'd like to close out by again wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Image by MoogleGurl