Because You're Not You When You Aren't Writing

Honestly? I got nothing.

I managed to finish my chapter on Saturday. Finished at about 4300 words. Unintentionally called it a week by not even bothering to write on Sunday. I probably could have, too. Quarthix and his fiance were over to character create for my upcoming first attempt at DMing a D&D campaign. One would THINK that would mean I'd be busy. However, I STILL don't know the game well enough to help answer questions without looking at the books myself. I could flip to exactly where in the book they can find the answer, but I don't know off the top of my head. So hubby was the one mostly helping those two build characters while building one himself.

Me?

I sat in the same room and watched the movie "John Carter" on TBS. So productive.

Anyway, my point is that Sunday was a bit of a writing wash, as was the rest of the week.

Between frantic cleaning and other such chores, doctors appointments, added work shifts, nursing my sick husband, filing taxes FINALLY, exercising - yup, just started that back up again; good timing - and an impromptu 4hr visit with Spink on Monday, I have no clue where this week went.

I attempted to write on Tuesday. Spent two separate hours on it. However, I had hit the point where I no longer had the posts from the forum pre-set for me to write. I also didn't realize that while my spreadsheet of the forum threads was extensive, it wasn't close to complete. So, I spent those two hours filling out more of the spreadsheet, and reading the posts.

I had written the last chapter to set up the next thing Hubby and I role played: Chayse helping Lia learn to control her transformation so she didn't burn through clothing. I hadn't read that segment in years. Had I done so I might have skipped over that entire closing segment of the chapter, because the training, while important for Lia's character, is very short and not the most entertaining.

So I'm trying to see if there are other such short, not entertaining enough for its own chapter, but crucial character development bits that I could mush together into one chapter. I THINK I have a few figured out, I just need to finish mapping everything. I'm stumped as to when I'll get any writing time this week, though.

Today I'll be at work until about 5pm, and so in theory I can probably get started today. Monday's are normally my big writing day since I'm usually off. This Monday, however, had the impromptu get-together with Spink, along with the exercising, frantic cleaning, laundry - in which I ended up spending the entire isolated time chatting with an old friend instead of writing - and some husband nursing.

Tomorrow would be my other big writing day most weeks. Hubby would go off to Friday Night Magic, a weekly gaming event in which gaming stores host tournaments for Magic: The Gathering. Since I don't play Magic, I use those quiet hours alone at home to write.

However, Hubby's fairly sick, and so I doubt he's going anywhere. He wouldn't be going to FNM this week anyway since he's not a fan of the style of play they're showcasing this week; there are multiple "versions" of Magic that get rotated through the schedule. Since Quarthix and his fiance aren't really into this week's FNM as well, there's a strong possibility we're turning tomorrow night into a Movie Night. Spink and her fiance may join in as well.

Otherwise, Spink and her man are possibly crashing my place for THEIR character creation for the D&D campaign. A campaign I still don't have a plot or adventure for. So I need to work on that in time for Sunday.

Saturday is another possibility for writing since I only work until noon. I'll still need to figure out the D&D campaign for Sunday, though, and I don't want to fall too far behind on my chores again. Not after the frantic cleaning I've done this past week. I'm really hoping to fit writing in on Saturday regardless. This not writing thing is just stressing me out.

Sunday would be my last-ditch effort to write. Hubby would be at work on the overnight. I would have difficulties going back to sleep, but I wouldn't want to stay out of bed to do things like clean. That way I can just pass out if sleep finally hits me.

It normally doesn't though. At least not for two or three hours. Sometimes as many as five. It's a decent writing chunk.

Not getting that this week though. This week has been such a crap-shoot for writing! They're down a guy at work, and since I'd be awake at 3am anyway to drop Hubby off at work, they are having me come in and help on the overnight shift. There goes the last of my quiet down-time.

Once that shift is over Hubby and I are going to crash, wake up, play D&D with Quarthix and his fiance, she's going to go to work, Quarthix might linger for a bit to hang, and once he finally leaves who knows if I'll still be alert enough to write. I could try.....

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comics
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I just can't get my head on straight with this writing thing. Everything else in my life seems to need immediate attention this week, and so writing gets pushed to the side. I wouldn't even be able to get my Book of the Month done if I hadn't started reading on my work breaks. I could go back to writing during them instead, since Hubby helped fix my netbook for travel. But I barely have enough time to boot up my computer, wrap my head around what I want to type, and get it on the screen before my break is done. Reading is simple. Flip open the book and go. Plus, I have a free hand to still eat and drink on my breaks when I'm holding a book. Not so much when I'm trying to type.

It's a good arrangement: read on work breaks. Makes sure that I read nearly every day, and helps me get through the reading challenge. I just wish I could equally find the time to write. This past week I've been either in the middle of something important, middle of eating - because I lost track of time, or still at work when my daily writing hour alarm went off. Even when I have time scheduled I STILL can't seem to find the time to write.

It's a downward spiral. I get frantically busy and can't write. So I'm cranky the next day because I didn't write. I get so cranky that I can't think straight, and end up not getting writing done a second day. Then I get REALLY cranky about missing two days in a row, which usually bums me out so much I don't even ATTEMPT on the third day. At this point I'm pissed at myself for not being productive at all during the week, which only makes my new-found writing depression worse. I get pissed that my chain of "no zero" days is shattered. I'm cranky in everything I do throughout the day because I'm doing that instead of writing. It's just bad.

Further proof that I'm supposed to be a writer? Reactions like this! When I'm a worse person when I don't write, and a happier person when I do. THAT'S how I know I'm supposed to write.

Anyway, enough complaining about how unproductive I've been this week. I actually have a couple hours left before work today, and so I'm going to try yet again to get SOMETHING on paper.

In the meantime, here's last week's chapter:

"More Than Meets the Eye"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

Deciding On A Writing Challenge Goal

I still haven't really been doing too well with the “No Zero Days” commitment. Since my last post, I've written nice LONG posts over on the X-Future Play-by-Post game, so I guess that counts. But that was all on Monday night. Last Thursday, after finishing my post, I more-or-less finished up my weekly challenge from Phfylburt. We exchanged on Sunday, and Tuesday I edited it based on his notes before posting it online. I haven't really done any other writing except that.

Although this week has flown by so fast it FEELS like I've written much, much more. I was actually a little proud at how many times I've set myself aside to write, and a bit excited to write this post. Then I reflected on the week, and I realized there really wasn't much to say. How did that happen?

I haven't even read much more of the book I'm working on, although I really need to step it up a notch in order to get done before the end of the month. Recently I have been using my “reading time” to research more for my upcoming D&D campaign. Too much on my plate; not enough hours in the day to dedicate the right amount of time and effort to each project, I guess.

I've been trying to remedy that. I really have. Hence all the challenges I've been taking on – I'm still waiting for Ronoxym to send me his challenge for me – in order to add accountability to my writing. Get me doing it more frequently.

I even hopped back on to Writers’ Huddle in time to sign up for the 6 week winter writing challenge. Problem is, I don't know what to challenge myself with. Others can work on their manuscripts, or blog posts – since most others do professional, article-style blogs – or the like. Me? I have so many projects pulling me in so many directions, I don't know where to go.

Do I continue off of the summer challenge and work on the X-Future reboot some more? If so, what part of the reboot this time? I don't really have any other characters that I need to remake into original incarnations. I could attempt world building some more, or work on research so I'm set in April to keep working on the comic book script. But research seems more of an “on my own time” thing, not something to work on during a 6 week writing challenge.

Do I continue world building Gyateara? That's a strong possibility, but I've been banging my head against the wall for years now. Maybe working on the D&D campaign will really help me out, but right now I'm stuck on culture builds and pantheon creations and possibly creating my own monsters; let alone naming everything. Still suck at that.

I could take the bull by the horns and just finish off Please, Let Me Explain by myself. Then I could send it to Ron to read over and edit to more of what he was thinking. I mean, I have the outline of what he wanted to do with the story. But he hasn't even gotten back to me yet about whether or not he wants to include the new character I created – let alone get notes back to me about how he'd look – and so I don't know if moving forward without him is a good idea. Is it enough of a shove to get him back on track with the story? Or am I just stealing it completely from him? I still want this to be OUR story, not my story inspired by his.

I might have to break out some DVDs and binge-watch a bit to get back in character, but I haven't touched What Is Truly Meant To Be in YEARS. I could use the next six weeks to work on that.... Honestly, I don't have a counter against it aside from being stale when it comes to the story. This might be an actual option.

In the same regards, I went through pains to try to get myself set up to work on X-Future: The Second Generation Begins without terribly too much effort to figure out the next series of posts I'd need to look up. So, I could always work on that some more. Especially with the forum so stalled for the past year. It will still take me months, even years to catch up, but I can close that gap if I work on X-Future's story.

Speaking of. I do also have Lia and Ripley's summer in New York City from a year or two ago to write, although I honestly don't recall where I was going to go with that story. There's also the Willow and Chayse in Japan tale from the same time period. Hubby gave me a great play-by-play of how their summer went down, but it seems like such an epic undertaking, and I really don't want to start up ANOTHER chaptered story before finishing up ANY of my current ones. Finally, there's the confrontation between Trish, Devon, and Nys. I might work on that one. I haven't been able to write Trish in over a year – minus some small posts on the forum – and so that might be fun. However, I was looking forward to maybe collaborating that battle with Ron too. The only thing is that with how painfully slow PLME has been getting written, maybe working with him right now isn't the best idea – unless it's in person and we can crank it out in more-or-less one session.

Then there's still that story that DFL sent me, as well as the result of the last prompt. She couldn't attend on Tuesday, and so she emailed all of us her story to read. That's a little more than 100pgs to read. I could have myself read about 17pgs each week in order to chip away through the beta read. However, much like the researching issue, is this really appropriate for a WRITING challenge? I mean, I get people who are putting editing as their goal, but they're at least editing their own stuff. Which means they are still being creative by coming up with how to alter what they already have on the page. I can't do that. It's DFL's story. I can give her notes, but I'm not doing anything actively creative....

I could always go for the age-old challenge of writing x-amount of words per day or week, excluding what I write for this blog. Possibly excluding what I write for the X-Future forum as well, although that IS fiction writing... The only snag there is that I'm not sure what is a reasonable amount of words for me to aim for, since I generally don't write daily, as much as I'd like to. I could focus more on that 4-5 writing hour, perhaps. My goal being to not get distracted during my daily writing hour, and to not skip any. That's a thought.

Gaaah! I don't know which one to pick. I'm going to have to harass Hubby a bit to see which he thinks is the most do-able for me, or the one that would best benefit me at this time. I could also send a call out to ANY of my writing groups to see which one they think I should do....

I can't even make a decision on what my writing challenge is going to be. This is a promising start to the year.

Alright, well, forget about what I'm failing at. How about some positives? Such as the story I wrote using Phfyl's prompt, for instance? His challenge for me last week was to take a song and write a news article based off of it. I had to listen to a lot of songs last week before I finally heard one that really clicked with me.

I ended up going with Iggy Azalea's song "Black Widow" featuring Rita Ora.

Based on the song, I had this inspiration of a news report of her ACTUALLY loving him like a black widow spider. Namely, consuming the head after sex. It was twisted, but I haven't written something like that in YEARS; pretty much since college, or even high school. It was fun to tap into that dark side of myself again.

I was a bit concerned, though, because I haven't attempted to write any sort of article, even a mock one, since I dropped off of the college newspaper in 2003. I needed to shake a lot of rust off, and I know I didn't get it quite right. For one, Keaton brought up a good point that based on the time I established the article coming out - namely, the next morning - I have too much information. The reporter had about two hours tops after catching wind of the incident to write something up before the paper went to press for morning delivery. There was no way the reporter could have gotten so many quotes from the next door neighbor and a local barista at about 3am. On the flipside, if I were to change the article's opening to the murderer being sentenced, there would be plenty of time for the reporter to get the information, but now the article "feels too short." Keaton suggested turning it into a sort of expose about the black widow killer, similar to the Serial podcast series. I don't know if I want to put that much effort into this quick project though. It might be fun, but I have enough open projects to start up another one.

Anyway, with that critic in mind, for those who wish to still read the story, I have it posted on DeviantArt and FictionPress, as per usual.

"Gonna Love Ya Like A Black Widow, Baby"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

Now, I do want to add that I did put a mature filter on the story on DeviantArt, and a trigger warning on both versions of the story. There is some suggested sex, semi-descriptive gore, and implied violence towards a dog. I know some people are sensitive to that stuff, and I have recently learned how important trigger warnings are to such things; as ways to prevent people from reading or seeing something that would greatly affect and upset them.

To be honest, though, unless it's blatant stuff such as the above, it's unlikely I'm ever going to use trigger warnings again. I am sorry for people who are deeply affected by things and need trigger warnings to know what to avoid, but in truth, something greatly affects SOMEBODY. You can't figure out what is an emotional trigger for everyone. I don't mean to be insensitive about it, it's just the fact that I hold true.

On that pleasant note....

I still need to get to writing the challenge Phfyl gave me for this week, however I think I'm overthinking it. I have about five different scenarios on how to go with the concept, and I'm not sure which to go with. I do know that I don't have the time to write all five...

I also have both the newest writing prompt from the writing group as well as the one I lost from last time - they informed me what it was. So, I have a BUNCH of writing to get to still, as well as the reading I've been avoiding for whatever reason.

I guess I should get started then. I'll have Phfyl's prompt for me up next week, and I might attempt to have at least two of the local group's prompts done for next week too. Should be interesting to see what I can crank out. Finally, I'll have to have my goal figured out by Monday, and so I'll let you guys know what I decided on.

Reflection On 2015

I didn't think I was going to be able to find time to work on this blog again next week. I might have to deal with the fact that yet another year passed that I wasn't able to get 52 updates in. I've done a lot better than the last two years. A lot closer with 50 posts; maybe 51, we'll see how this week goes. The last time I had 51 posts in a year was 2012, so there's that. Maybe 2016 will be the year of true weekly posting all year long.

As possibly the last post I make this year, I want to reflect on how 2015 treated me in the writing department. I don't want to think about how it treated me otherwise...

I won't go as in depth as I did last year, but I do want to do a reflective overview.

I had six resolutions that I wanted to follow this year in order to improve my writing and make it a much more serious part of my life. I started out real well with all of them, but none made it through the full year.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week

I haven't talked about Zero Days in MONTHS. That in an of itself is a bit pathetic. What I need to do is what I've been suggesting to my fellow writers at my bi-weekly groups: get a small pocket calendar whose sole purpose is for me to mark what days I write. This way I can keep track of my Zero Days and try to eliminate them. As of now, I have no real recollection on how long I was able to keep up with this resolution. Heck, with help from my MasterClass in September and October, I even had a set writing hour. Still, I barely wrote anything this month, and I don't recall writing much more the previous month. So, at the very least, this resolution fell apart two months from the finish line. Most likely died months before that, though. I guess I'm trying to tackle this beast again this upcoming year. With the improvements I made this year, though, maybe I can actually follow through with this in 2016.

Resolution #2: Read At Least One Book A Month

Oh, this one died and died hard. I missed January. I read in February. And then I spent the rest of the year painfully slowly reading two different Rick Riordan books: "Percy Jackson's Greek Gods", and "Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire". Normally I tear through Riordan's books, but there's just something about these two. Hubby and I try, lord we try. We love Riordan's Percy Jackson books so much. Even when the first Heroes of Olympus book didn't include Percy at all, we still loved it. The Kane Chronicles though.... Out of all mythology, I was also the biggest into Egyptian, and so I thought I'd love this series the most. Nope. Something about how he wrote the two main characters Carter and Sadie just makes them seem whiny and spoiled. It kept a while to go though the first book in the series too. Still, I try. And here it is, like eight months later, and I'm only about half way through the book.

As for "Greek Gods"? Well, it has Percy's playful snarkiness, but there's something a lot more childish about the whole thing. Sure, the whole series of Percy Jackson and Kane stories - and now the newest, Magnus Chase - are written for middle graders. Basically, for 10 through 14 year olds. However, none of the other novels, even the Kane Chronicles, really READ as aimed towards kids, per se. "Greek Gods" just really hits home to me that I'm reading something aimed at a 12-yr old. It's still fun, but I ended up using it more as a reference book than one to read cover-to-cover. I'll give it another go, though.

All-in-all, my point is that I have struggled through two books, and even then, I barely set any time aside for reading. At least I read three books last year. This was just pathetic. Granted, the main reason why writers should read is to see how others have honed their skill to tell stories, therefore improving the reading-writer's skills as well. And me? I do that, just through analyzing TV show, movie, and video game writing instead. It's not an excuse for me to have such a pathetic reading record, but at least it's proof that I AM doing what reading is supposed to for writers, just, with other medias...

Resolution #3: Log On To Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week

I was doing really well on this one too. After I caught up on my backlog of posts, I even did what I suggested at the beginning of the year: evolve the resolution to "be an active member of the Huddle at least once a week". I was doing soooooo well. Then November happened. Once again, during the last two months of the year I fell off the face of the planet in regards to that site. If any Huddlers still read this blog, know that I love you, I miss you, and I'm going to try this resolution again next year.

Resolution #4: Complete At Least One Writers' Huddle Module

Oh, yeah. Didn't even bother with this one. Not even the module where Ali Luke Skype interviewed me for part of the lesson on NaNo. I kept meaning to, but just didn't have the discipline to sit down and go "OK, This one. Now. Go."

I feel a little better that I at least did the MasterClass that my mom gifted me. It's the same basic principle as to why I wanted to do at least one module this year. However, I still feel like I'm wasting my WH's membership by not being more active on the forums, and by never doing any of Ali's modules. This is yet another resolution that is getting another go in 2016.

Resolution #5: Beta Read And Return Notes Within A Fortnight

Um, yeah, about this one.... Especially after the MasterClass, and hearing how quick James Patterson is with his notes for his co-writers, I really REALLY wanted to stick to this one. However, no one really gave me anything to Beta this year. I mean, I did hop on whenever Ronoxym had something new for me to read, but that was mostly because I was so excited about the story that I was ready to gobble up any advancement he made. Plus, I knew that if he was in the mood to write that I needed to jump on that and get notes back to him ASAP before his writing attention drifted to a new project.

The only true beta request I received was from poor DFL just before Thanksgiving, and I have yet to do more than open the document she sent. Considering it's a good 100pgs, it's a bit daunting, but I still should have read at least 15pgs by now to get back to her about things. Baby steps. Still, November and December have been a complete writing hole. I think THAT'S what I need to conquer next year. In the meantime, I REALLY need to start beta-reading DFL's story!

Resolution #6: Have At Least Six New Stories/Chapters And 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2015

You know what? Aside from missing two weeks this year, I think I actually accomplished this one. It didn't look good for most of the year since I was so laser focused on Please, Let Me Explain, and I haven't been able to update that since February. However, I did post a couple new chapters of X-Future: The Second Generation Begins after Ali's Summer Challenge on the forum. I also started posting those super-short one-shot writing prompts after joining the writing group a couple months ago. All of that bumped me up to my goal for this year; barely at eight total prose updates, and nearly all at the end of the year. Still, it's one resolution I didn't completely fail at, and so I'll take it!

For any of you that somehow missed the stories I posted this year, here's my complete list.

From "Please, Let Me Explain":

"Chapter 1: Devon's Cell"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

"Chapter 2: In the Kitchen"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

From "X-Future: The Second Generation Begins":

"Bro-Bonding"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

"You're In Trouble, Son!"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

And for my original writing, I have the newest anthology of my Writing Group writing prompts:

"Fashion Gone Bye"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

"Memory Tap"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

"The Power of Pink"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

"What a Crumby Day"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

Alright, so I at least have that. I have eight updates this year. Not the larger chapters or fresh new stories that I was originally planning, but it's something. So. Tada!

Even with all of my failings at these resolutions, I have grown a lot as a writer.

I may become busy and miss one or two, or post a few days late, but for the most part, I have learned to set aside time for me to update this blog regularly. That's the first improvement.

I've taken that MasterClass, and I joined that local writing group. Even if I don't feel up to going, or I'm too busy to take two hours out of my week, or I slacked off and don't have anything to read, I still force myself to go. It's a way to really demonstrate to myself that writing is important enough for me to make a priority in my life. Plus, I always feel weird NOT having something to read at the meetings, and so it forces me to sit and write out the writing prompt at the very least. It may not be much, but it keeps me writing even if I don't feel like I have the time to. It forces me to MAKE the time. Another improvement.

It only lasted about a month or so before life got chaotic, but for a brief point in time I spent an hour a day on my writing. I may have spent that hour researching. Or spent it plotting. Or spent it character/world building instead of actually sitting and writing prose. However, it was still more than I usually allotted myself, and so I am proud and going to try to get back to this again. I enjoyed making writing a priority, and seeing how Hubby really supports me vanishing for an hour a day doing so. Improvement number three for 2015.

I've become a bit more confident in my writing, and have picked up on what I need to really focus on in order to make my stories better. I've taken a few chances with writing decisions I've made - you'll see this when I post my next writing prompt - and while I may not be 100% on board with how the story turned out - such as with "What a Crumby Day"- others seem to enjoy it, so that's what I care about. I'm challenging myself to break from my comfort zone in writing. I'm also enjoying being a sort of writing mentor of my own with a few of my friends and the ladies at the writing group. I still feel like a teenager in a world filled with mature, accomplished writing adults, but at least I now feel like an 18 year old instead of 14. Small improvement, but improvement none-the-less.

While I am hoping for a drastic improvement in my overall life come 2016, I am content knowing that I can build on this year's writing success to improve on my craft even more next year.

Who's coming with to see how it turns out?

Prose Finally Written, But Not Done: Final Week of Summer Challenges

Well, I'm a ditz. I completely forgot that I was supposed to check out Inkitt.com a bit more and report back to you guys about it last week. I was so fixated on how behind I was with the August challenge over at Struggling Writers Society that I didn't even think about Inkitt.

It's a pretty neat site. There are a few "groups" that you can post in; they run essentially the same as a forum. A place to share and discuss. There's one section for generic writing and editing discussion, one for introducing yourself, another for tech support, one to discuss the current writing contests being held, and a final one for beta-reading.

The "Discover" tab allows you to pick what type of story you want to read, based on genre, Inkitt's staff picks, or whatever fandom's fanfiction you wish to read.

Finally, the part of the site that got me to join in the first place: Contests. They just opened up the fantasy genre one on Monday, and it's open until September 24th, in case anyone else wants to join in. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work on something soon enough for it to be ready by the 24th, but we'll see.

It seems that they rotate out contests, so if there isn't one for the genre you write right now, there might be one opening soon enough.

So, this definitely seems like a win of a find!

But what about my current challenge?

Well, I wasn't able to get the chapter done in time to share with this post, as predicted. However, I have a nice sized chunk taken out of it. Not as much as I would have liked, but I've been spending my non-working hours mostly catching up on cleaning and organizing the house.

Still, I was determined to have SOMETHING accomplished to post when we did our check-ins this past Saturday. I was NOT going to go another week of not doing anything for my writing!

So, I plopped myself down at the dining room table Friday night in order to write anything before going to bed. I could only spare about an hour before I had to go get some sleep for my early morning shift on Saturday, but at least I did it. I had done some writing before the end of the challenge week.

I had managed to write just over two pages - 1313 words - before crashing on Friday, and I also asked the SWS to keep me accountable by making sure I had posted a sample of my work before 10pm on Saturday.

Well, things went a bit awry, and so I didn't post until a bit after 10, but I still managed my deadline. Here's the sample I posted in the group:

“Lia, we fell asleep on the roof. You gotta wake up before anyone notices that we've been out here all night.”

“We fell asleep?” she groggily gargled back. As soon as the words left her mouth her brain figured out what they meant. Jumping on to her knees, she stared wide eyed at Chayse. “We fell asleep?” she yelled.

“Shhh, you're gonna wake everyone!” Chayse grabbed her arm to steady her as he covered her mouth.

She batted his hand away and continued to freak out. Thankfully, it was in a much softer tone this time. “Oh, my god, we fell asleep? We've been out here all night?”

Chayse slowly nodded his head; giving her a moment to finish waking up and comprehend what was going on.

“Crap! My dad is gonna kill me!” Her eyes widened farther – something Chayse didn't realize was possible – and stared him down. “He's gonna kill us. Oh, shit! We gotta get back to our dorms! Quick! Before he finds out. Oh, god! First the thing with the dress and now this? Shit. I'm gonna be in so much trouble. And he's gonna hate you. Geez. He's gonna think you're a bad influence on me or something, and then he won't let us see each other anymore, and since we both live here that means he'll be on patrol twenty-four-seven. And he can do that, ya know!”

“Lia,” Chayse tried to hide his chuckling, but it was just too cute listening to her ramble whenever she was nervous.

“I thought him watching me was bad before. He'll be like my shadow now. And what if he thinks all guys are bad influences because of this? What if you've ruined my chances with any guy? I'm never gonna get married. I'll grow old and alone, but instead of a crazy lady with forty cats, I'm gonna have forty copies of my father.”

“Lia!” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her briefly. “Calm down. They're not going to know, alright? You just need to relax.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “How could you let us fall asleep?”

He made a mental note to not make this girl legitimately angry. Even that playful punch kind of hurt. He guessed she had more strength than she realized; having to walk around with obsidian skin can add some real muscle strain otherwise. He rubbed where she connected and shrugged. “I know, I know. My bad.”

Accountability and disgust with one's self is sometimes a beautiful thing. It gets stuff done!

Apparently I didn't have quite enough disgust, though, because after hiding away for another four hours, I only managed to add another 1463 words. So, in nearly four times the amount of "writing time" I only managed to do a bit more than double my word count. Go me....

I then skipped two days; opting to clean and sleep instead. So, I tried to crank out the last of the chapter Tuesday morning before having to go to work. I still haven't figured out my writing rhythm, though, and don't allot nearly enough time to do the writing I need. So, no time to finish the chapter. Instead, I added yet another 920 words; barely anything in the grand scheme of things.

I then had more cleaning before work, work itself, and then house-invaders, sleep, and work once more before this noon update. Probably another reason why I ran out of time to get the chapter done and published; I had to write this post yesterday in order to get it published on time.

Still, having about seven pages written isn't terribly too bad. I do still have until this upcoming Monday to have the chapter done and published in order to meet my official August goal. I have time. I just need to really crack down on it. So, I'm adding accountability again.

I WILL have the chapter available to share in next week's post. Keep an eye out for that! And if I don't include it, shun me!

Hopefully I'll have another story to share next week as well. Seems Delaroux got bit by the writing bug yet again! She recently shared with the rest of SWS that she just finished a 13-chapter fanfiction about the anime Haikyuu. I told her to drop us the link to the story, but for all I know she hasn't posted it online. If she does get us a link, I'll be sure to pass it on to you folks.

Man, I had something else kind of major that I wanted to share this week, but this post is already getting long, and I'm in a bit of a time crunch. I'll have to hold on to it and share next week along with my chapter and possibly Delaroux's story.

Yay! Lots of stuff for you to look forward to for next week!

Spreadsheets Are My Friend, And I Have The Pictures To Prove It!

As anyone involved in my writing group Struggling Writers Society can attest, I was horribly disappointed in myself this past Saturday. It was the close of the second week of our August writing challenge - a challenge I'm HOSTING, by the way - and I didn't do ANYTHING involving writing the whole week; this blog being an exception.

The whole process of tracking down the posts was such a tedious one; I didn't want to do it anymore. I had started spreadsheets to help me out for future use, but it didn't save me time now.

Wide awake with my Sunday Insomnia, and sickened at the fact that I hadn't even THOUGHT about doing any writing this past week, I finally knuckled down. I wasn't going to allow myself to sleep until I had everything plotted out at least. I even went through and redid some of my spreadsheet; again, for ease later down the line.

I still have tons of threads to add to the sheet, but here it is right now:

Along with thread name, location, and date it was started, I added a column to determine if I wrote anything from that thread before. The most important one, in my opinion, is that last column. Smartest thing I did in regards to plotting this out. That last column lists the post number for the start of the next story segment from that thread. It also lists the date the next story segment is posted; that way I can find the posts I need that much easier.

Honestly, with that last column, I don't think I need the "Yes/No/Won't Be" column, nor the "date created" one. I feel all the info I need is really in that last section I created. Go me! I'm really proud of myself for coming up with listing that.

Alright, so that's semi-set for me for next time, now to return to NOW. What do I have done NOW to help me with my month-long goal to have another chapter posted of X-Future: The Second Generation Begins?

Well, as I stated last week, I started off the same way I did for the first eight chapters of TSGB. I was copying the posts and dumping them into Word. Well, since I don't have Microsoft Word on my laptop - nor can I GET it for my laptop - I ended up attempting to dump it into an OpenOffice document. It didn't work too well, and putting it into Google Docs wouldn't have helped. I wasn't even done with the day - maybe only 1/2 way - and I was already up to 51 pages. Mostly because the table cells get HUGE in comparison to the actual forum's layout.

Case and point, here are the same two panels; one from the forum and one in OpenOffice:
  

So, yeah, dropping them in Word was a really bad idea. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before, but I had the lightbulb-moment to put everything into yet another spreadsheet; just copy and dump. I didn't need anything more than the action/dialogue and who the poster was.

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

That 51+ page chaos soon became simplistic. Even better, I was able to categorize the posts easier. Now, instead of scrolling through endless posts in Word, I can jump to a new sheet. This meant I was also able to find appropriate break points in the story during that day or two of posting. So, I have distinctive starts and stops for the different story segments. I'm not going to just keep writing until I find that natural break; I know when it's coming!

This also means that I know how many chapters I can get out of that day of posting, that spilled into a second day to finish up the role play.

Check that out! Three! Three new chapters! Well, and a "random event" that no one really reacted to, but it still greatly affects the story world, and so I have to include it somewhere. I just need to figure out where, and fabricate reactions from characters....

Anyway, point is, I have three new chapters plotted out. All that headache set me up for three chapters! I think that evens things out a bit. That also means that TSGB is indeed going to be an epic. I'm not even a week into the role play and I'm already going to have 11 chapters; possibly more once the role play week is done!

I haven't yet, but I need to get cracking on actually WRITING the thing now. It's the fun part, but I haven't had time until today. So, I guess I know what I'm doing while Hubby's at work. I am determined to not let this week slip by like last week did; Sunday and now not included. I WILL have a sample for you folks next week. With any luck, I'll have a full chapter, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

In the meantime, there IS someone who managed to get a chapter done. Although I would love to say it was Ronoxym getting back into writing, sadly I think he's become too preoccupied lately. He has a really big career opportunity coming up, and so his focus is justifiably on that.

Instead, the person who got some major writing accomplished is someone I don't think I've mentioned yet in this blog.

Yesterday, one of my college buddies very proudly posted the chapter she had been working on for a little while. Although I don't recall her actively participating in SWS's writing challenge this month, I still consider this as one of the challenge's victories. The whole point of me starting up the challenge is to help shake the dust off some people. A lot of us have let writing - something we all expressed a passion for; simply by signing up for my group - slip into a nearly-forgotten hobby. I wanted to bring it back to the forefront; back to us proving to ourselves how important it is for us. Cassie hadn't written in a while - or, at least, she didn't post online about it - and so her giddily sharing that she was back to writing was exciting.

Better yet, she was trying out something new. Most writers are instructed to write what we know, that's mostly because it's super hard to believably write what we DON'T know. Granted, through practice, study, and interviewing we can write what we don't know, but it's a struggle. One that Cassie bravely took on.

She wrote in a male's perspective. She was nervous about making it seem realistic, and probably still is unsure of herself. She even admits that it isn't her best work; yet. Still, she went outside her comfort zone, and shared it with the world on top of that.

So, why not hit up the post, and then let her know what you think, especially if you're a guy. She'd gladly accept the criticism: Chpt 2 - Caleb

And, while she seems to be still figuring out who she is as a blogger, her posts are entertaining. Give them all a check, and you might as well add her to your reading list while you're there.

Cassie Jean, Writer; A Work in Progress

Anyway, yay progress for my fellow SWS writer!

Now to focus on some of my own.

TO WRITING!!!!!

    

NuaNia Facebook Sticker
by PRANEAT

    

Hacker Boy Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

Tedious Actions, Mangas, and a New Writing Site

The summer challenge over at Writers’ Huddle is done, and we're about half-way through week 2 of the Struggling Writers Society's August Writing Challenge. I have to admit, I got a bit lost this week.

I'm trying to get back to working on X-Future: The Second Generation Begins for this month's challenge. I abandoned the project nearly two years ago, and I really need to start closing up projects.

Granted, considering the fact that I'm something like 8-chapters long already and still haven't finished adapting the first week of role play, this project will take YEARS before it's "closed". However, I can at least work towards that first time jump that Hubby created when the game starting to die down around the holidays. Consider that "volume one" or whatever. Then I can close out some other projects. Eventually I can work my way back to the board and create both the Devon spin-off - following him on his journey - as well as work on "volume two". Basically, writing up until the three-month time skip. I can again take a break, return, and do the next portion that leads up to the summer break time skip.

The whole process will still take me years, I'm sure, but maybe with a little bit of discipline, I can get this accomplished in a year or two. By then I'll either have more material to work with, or - as it seems to be going these days; sadly - the board will be dead, and I'll be completely caught up.

Of course, I'll still be working on my comic reboot throughout this whole process, but it's still nice to have a plan mapped out. Perhaps I'll even have some more material to add more chapters to X-Future: Snippets. I mean, with getting back into character to rework all of this role playing into prose, I may start really hearing The Girls in my head again. Stories might unfold. It would be nice to write prose again. I haven't done so in months.

It's getting to the point where I'm a bit envious of a couple of participants in the SWS writing challenge. Mouse posted on Facebook last Thursday: "I'm about 17,000 words in..." She also added on Monday: "Another chapter drafted! Woooo!" So. Much. Progress.

Then, even with play practices and whatnot, you have stupidly disciplined Cyhyr. When doing our weekly check-in on Saturday, she was "up to 19,698 words and [has] a general idea of the next few scenes."

I am so proud of these girls, and everyone else who's participating in the challenge, but at the same time, I'm so darn envious of them! So much work accomplished! And in such a short span too. I'm curious if I'm ever going to be able to accomplish that.

Granted, the project I gave myself does take a LOT of prep-work before I can actually get around to writing, so it's partially my own fault. Still, the tediousness is so overwhelming that I found myself BALANCING OUR FINANCES the past two days during the minimal amount of hours I had outside work. That's right. I would rather figure out finances and set up a budget than work on this project....

Not including the section for the Brotherhood role plays, there are 161 - that's ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE - different topics in the X-Future board. Each topic is a different room or mission or off-campus excursion or character diary or "general world information" post, etc. MOST of these posts were started months, even years, after the part of the story I'm currently working on. So, I can weed out these topics as threads I don't need to re-read quite yet. The trick is weeding through them all to see which topics I DO need to go back through.

To try to help with that, I started up a spreadsheet listing the threads, the direct link for each of them, what date they were created on, and which topic folder to find them in. So far, I'm not even half-way through the full list of topic folders, and I'm already up to about 60 threads. Whoot! Only 100 more to sift through.

Trying to list all the topics would be a great help to myself later down the road, but it's currently taking far too long for my current challenge. So I decided to go back to my original way of sifting through everything. Namely, look up Hubby's account and select "all posts from this month". I then select "June 2012" and scroll to the date I want. It's convoluted, but it works. Mainly because Hubby was involved - either with his character Chayse, or as the narrator - in nearly every role play at the very beginning of the game. I then bring up my posts as Lia for any role playing that Hubby wasn't involved in, and finally I bring up any posts that celestialTyrant had as Nix.

We were the Main Three posters at the start of the game, and so anything that was going on at the time typically had at least one of us three involved somehow. Once I gather up everything that the three of us role played in, I then go back through thread by thread, and double check that there weren't any additional role plays in that time frame. For instance, Phfylburt might have had a solo-play with his character Lucas Kinney.

THAT is the most time-consuming. Going back through, thread by thread, and checking "was this thread started on/before June 23, 2012?" If it wasn't, I can quickly forget about it since any role play in it was obviously done after the section I'm currently adapting. If it was started on or before the date I'm currently working on, then I have to read through and see if there's anything there I need to grab. The real fun ones are when it's something like Willow's bedroom - both pre-time-skip when she was bunking with Penumbra, and post-time-skip when she was bunking with Lia - where there's about 20pages worth of role playing, and I have to try to guess where the "June 23rd" role playing can be found.

Tiring work. Boring work. Tedious work. I really need to get that spreadsheet finished so it's a bit faster for me to get through the "planning" stage of these chapters. Man, it would be so much easier if I could just type in a search bar on the forum "All posts from [insert date here]". Save me the trouble of trying to find them all manually.

I wish I knew where this came from/the artist.
I use this "sigh" graphic all the time. It just works perfectly.
If you know the source, please let me know in the comments.

AAAAAAAANYWAY.

So, I go through the whole board. I gather up all of the role play posts from a specific date. THEN I have to organize them. Sure, it's easy to go through from start to finish on one role play session, but what about the ones that are happening on different threads? I have to use the time stamps to figure out which posts happened when, and if they occurred at the same time, I have to decide - narratively - if it's worth breaking up one role play to insert the other so the times line up. Do I break up this action by bringing in this other one, and then bounce back to the first? Do I write out the entire first session and then comment that across campus at the same time this other action was going on? Do I take some creative liberty and say that the shorter of the two sessions happened after the first, instead of at the same time?

Then comes one of the most frustrating portions of translating the role play into prose. The actual timeline of the story. We were testing the waters when we first started. We weren't sure about formatting or how to state what time we were picturing while writing. We didn't even have a way to state which DATE we were on. So we have two different characters interacting with each other on two different days; seemingly.

For instance, Lia goes off and has a heart-to-heart with her dad after her first date with Chayse. Right after Jamie leaves her, Lia watches the footage from the Danger Room session that put Chayse in the infirmary in the first place. Shocked by what she saw, Lia rushes from the room in order to find Chayse. So, based on how I role played Lia, this is MAYBE about 3pm the day after her first date.

MEANWHILE, right after getting in from his date with Lia, Hubby had Chayse chat with Nix, and then head out to the campus pond to showcase a new trick he learned while in the DR session Lia ended up watching. So, in my head, I'm picturing Chayse showing off his new "trick" to Nix about the same time - maybe a little earlier - as Lia and Jamie's talk. Then Chayse heads inside to grab food and change, only to see a note on his door telling him his parents wish to see him. At this point, Chayse is probably talking with his parents about the same time that Lia is either chatting with her own father, or is already watching the footage of Chayse's DR session.

Now, here's the trick, after having Chayse talk to his parents, Hubby stepped away from role playing for a few hours while the rest of us finished up stuff: me having Lia watch the footage; Nix and Annika finish role playing their date, etc. So, when he came back to role play as Chayse again, it's heavily implied that it's the next day, and Gambit is knocking on Chayse's door to remind the kid that he has a tournament to get to. Chayse races out the door and is gone for a few hours - more like half a day, probably - before returning home a champion. Lia - who was racing to see Chayse after watching the footage - meets up with Chayse right as he returns home. He's established as still wearing his martial arts gi and holding his latest medal. Lia even comments on both. In fact, most of the conversation revolves around Lia's discovery that Chayse does martial arts, and is super good at it. So, I can't really IGNORE that she finds him after his tournament. However, Lia - the way I wrote it - is still on the day after their date. Where as, Hubby strongly implied that Chayse's tournament was two days after the date; one day after showing his new power discovery to Nix.

It's going to be fun to try to figure out THAT timeline. And most of the role playing for the first few months is like that. Oh, the joys....

It's no wonder I abandoned this project nearly two years ago....

Another distraction - aside from work and figuring out finances; as I already stated - was that I'm rereading a manga series.

I don't even really recall when I started it - around 2005, I think - or who introduced me to the series - because I rarely just go "hmm, this one looks good" - but around a decade ago I got into the manga series "Fruits Basket." For one reason or another, volume 21, out of the 23-book series, was NEVER available for me. I tried multiple times for months on end to find this "elusive" book; purchasing the final two volumes when I found them so they wouldn't "disappear" on me too.

After about a year of searching with no success, I ended up forgetting about the incomplete series - mainly because I didn't have the disposable income to buy it any longer. So, I read up to volume 20, and volumes 22 and 23 remained untouched. Fast forward until this past Friday, when I realized that one of my friends had a lonely volume of "Fruits Basket" on her bookshelf. Her fiance's sister had left him a random assortment of mangas, and this ONE book from late in the series was one of the hodge-podge. Lo, and behold! It was "elusive" Volume 21!

Well, since it was silly for her to have just the ONE book, and since neither of them bothered even reading it since it was so late in the series, it was gifted to me so I could complete my collection!

NEATO!!!!!

I tried just re-reading Volume 20 to remind myself what happened before tearing through the last three volumes of the series. Except, I didn't recall ANYTHING from that book! I know I read it, but the whole thing seemed new to me. So, I backtracked again and read Volume 19, only to realize I still couldn't recall some of the things they were referencing. I kept backtracking like that until I got to Volume 16.

Oh. I remember this one! I've read it about five times already. My favorite book in the whole series so far; mostly because about half of it is the love story between the main character Tohru's parents. You had references throughout the series about how madly in love they were, and how opposite they seemed to be, personality wise. However, Volume 16 gave you the whole story. There's even a panel in that book - just one panel - that makes me sob EVERY. FRIGGEN. TIME.

Vol 16; Chap 92; Vol pg 91/chp pg 19
Every. Friggen. Time!
I think it's because I think of Hubby holding
our future child, and it melts me.
Or it's just because of the Father/Daughter thing.

*sniffle*
Anyway....

Point is; I CLEARLY recall Volume 16, parts of Volume 17, and nearly nothing after that. Sooooo, I've been rereading these books so I can FINALLY finish the series. On the one hand, it's a bummer because it means I'm NOT writing. On the other hand, I wanted to read a book a month throughout 2015, and I've only read one book; back in February! So, it's nice to be reading again. However, I think I'll consider reading Volumes 17 through 23 "one book" in regards to my reading goal; since graphic novels - by their nature - are easier and faster to read.

One last thing of note for the week.

Last night I randomly received a message on my FictionPress account. I was informed of a fantasy-themed free writing competition, and a strong encouragement to participate. Now, part of me is thinking that it's probably some sort of spam; this info was sent to anyone on FictionPress that has a submission in the Fantasy genre. However, another part of me kinda likes thinking that this person did read my work, and honestly thinks I'd do well in the contest.

Either way, I noticed the email this morning, and so I have yet to look up the contest; I'll do that once I'm done here. I also haven't had a terribly good look at the site the contest is being held on, but it looks very promising.

It's called Inkitt. From what I can gather, it's basically a more professional version of FictionPress. Anyone can submit their original writing there for free; so it seems, again, I haven't had time to really look to see if there's fees. Then, the group that runs the site has editors read the work to make sure it's publishable; is the grammar and spelling correct, no typos, formatting correct, no "author's notes" to bog the reading down, etc. I don't think work is ever rejected based on the quality of the writing/story, just on the actual grasp of the English language. Sort of like how a teacher won't grade your paper based on how much she enjoyed the story, just on whether or not the basics are done correctly.

Point being, that anyone can post there, but those who go to read the stories don't have to weed through ones that aren't properly polished first. Like I said, a more professional version of FictionPress.

Speaking of readers, apparently there's also a way for the site to custom-pick stories that you would like. I'll have to play around with that too in order to figure out that feature, and then get back to you folks next week.

Have any of you used Inkitt before? Either as readers or authors? Feel free to let us know more about it, as well as how you liked using it, in the comments. In the meantime, I'm off to play with a new site.

2015 Summer Writing Challenge Final Week - Multiple Man

This past week was even more pathetic than the one before. Shortly after publishing last week's post I attempted to drive out to my sister-in-law's to meet my nephew. Sadly, my car died on me while making the trek. It's been an annoying week of getting to and from work while also attempting to revive my car. We managed it - it takes a bit, but it starts up now; won't be taking it out of town, though - and so hopefully the next month won't be as stressful.

However, added chaos and nearly hitting my breaking point at work put a complete halt on my writing. I was so embarrassed to check in on this last week of the challenge. I had to let people know that while I did attempt to work on Multiple Man's rework this week - just like with Shadowcat last week - I didn't really get much further than what I had already come up with a few months ago.

Because of that - again, just like with Emily last week - a lot of what you're seeing in the below bio I thought up as I was writing it here. For instance, I had a fairly strong idea of what I wanted Cody to look like, but I didn't get around to writing it before Sunday, and as I wrote it out here different little things popped up. Such as the fact that he has scars, freckles - and Keahi's reaction to them - always wears sneakers, and that he needs reading glasses. Most of the backstory was created this morning as I was writing this, as well as Cody's hobby of gardening.

New Name: Cody
Basic Info: Age Not Figured Out Yet, 5' 11", 155lbs, Brunette, and green eyes
Powers: Tweaker Glitch; Sub-category: Soul-Splitter/Cloning
Cody is capable of converting a fresh drop of his blood into an exact copy of himself. These can be mindless drones with “hive mind”, but Cody has to spend all of his mental ability “remotely” controlling them. So, he usually defaults to the “Soul Splitting” part of his powers. This means that when he makes a copy he can make it autonomous by “gifting” it some of his consciousness.
The clone has the knowledge and personality that Cody selects - usually subconsciously via deciding what he wants the clone to do - and it is “locked” away from him while the clone exists. He can still “remotely” tap into that knowledge and personality as long as the clone is close. Cody’s ability to tap into the part of him birthed into the clone diminishes with distance. It completely “locks away” if the clone is ever 200 or more miles away; basic knowledge learned is a default that Cody would never have to “gift” to a clone and therefore will never lose it. If the clone is ever killed, that part of Cody’s consciousness returns to him; along with any new knowledge it may have picked up while away from him. However, the trauma of the clone's death gives Cody a migraine. He can also reabsorb a clone to get rid of it without causing that trauma. To do so, Cody needs skin-to-skin contact.
The almost instinctual reabsorption of the clones is due to his "soul" craving to be whole again; it's almost a gravitational pull. To prevent himself from accidentally absorbing a clone before he wants to, Cody tends to wear gloves and as much other clothing as possible while he has a clone nearby. Also because of this pull to be whole again, the closer the clones are to Cody the more mental control over them he has; allowing him to dictate their actions with little to no argument from them. Cody has had a few clones that wandered far enough from him to feel true autonomy, and it was a struggle to bring them back into the fold.
I may or may not create a story arc centering around Cody's darker side of his personality splitting off as a runaway clone that Cody was never able to track down and reabsorb. This would explain why he's so cheerful most of the time, and it would be fun to see the interaction once the runaway clone finally returns - or runs into Lia.
He can create multiple clones at the same time via multiple drops of blood. In turn, each of the clones may use their own blood to create clones of their own; breaking off some of the personality Cody gave them to put into the clones they make. So on and so forth. Cody can also decide how much or how little of himself to give each clone. The amount of himself he inputs into each clone determines both how many clones he can create in any given time, and how many clones the clones can create. The death of any clones Cody's clones create will give the clones migraines, just like Cody. If more than three of Cody's direct clones die and return to him within a half-an-hour his migraine gets so bad that he is completely immobilized. If six or more are killed within a half-an-hour of each other the trauma is so severe that Cody falls into a coma that lasts an hour for each clone past the initial six that were killed.
To prevent losing himself completely, he caps his clones at 25 clones of himself. There is further restrictions on the cloning. The actual mechanics are still being ironed out, but the fewer clones Cody makes, the more clones his clones can make; and the more generations of clones can be made before the only thing left are Hive Mind clones. The more clones Cody spawns, the smaller portion of his “soul” goes into each one, which means less personality to split into other clones. Generation chains are shortened. At 25 clones from Cody, each clone can only make Hive Mind copies because it doesn’t have enough of Cody’s core to split into other clones.
While it still hurts - and always will hurt - to draw blood in order to use his power, much like a diabetic who has to prick their finger constantly to test their blood, Cody has become used to the pain of blood draw from his fingers.

Physical Appearance: He keeps himself in good physical condition for a man his age, but he's not nearly as strong or buff as the other adult Glitches around the orphanage. He exercises to stay fit, not to be strong. He has light brown hair that he keeps in a short cut; just long enough to run your fingers through. His light green eyes are vibrant and have a sparkle to them; it's one of the first things that attracted Keahi. He keeps himself clean-shaven, and his face is a little round.
He doesn't have any piercings or tattoos, but he does have a bunch of little scars scattered throughout his body - mostly around his joints; wrists, knees, elbows, fingers - both from his klutzy childhood and from use of his powers later in life. He has a tiny scar just under his lip from when he bit through it in his youth.
He has a few freckles under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. They've faded over time, but they become prominent in the summer when he has more sun exposure. Keahi thought they were adorable and would love to stroke ones on his nose like he was a cat.
He has a typical "dad" look to him. He wears casual slacks most of the time, but switches into worn jeans whenever he's doing an activity where he might get dirty: playing with Lia outside, doing yard work, construction/maintenance on the house, camping, etc. In the summer he's particularly embarrassing to Lia by wearing shorts; showing off his "pale, chicken legs" as Lia complains. Thankfully, he's not QUITE dorky enough to attempt the socks and sandals, but he does wear sneakers with white tube socks fully extended about half-way up his calf; almost as embarrassing. When he wants to take Lia to the beach or public pool - a rare occurrence, especially after Lia's powers manifested - Cody "dresses up" by putting on good old Bermuda shorts. Lia is NOT pleased with those. He'd probably even wear corduroy in winter if he could find any for sale anywhere.
As for his tops, Cody wears faded band or sports t-shirts with his jeans and shorts. The rest of the time that he's in his slacks he goes for light polo shirts, casual button-downs, or sweaters. In the spring and fall - or mild winters - when it's just a little chilly, he's been known to throw on sweater vests; argyle ones most often. Regardless of how casual or fancy he dresses, unless he's going to a formal event where dress shoes are expected, Cody will always be in sneakers. Being a single father for the majority of Lia's life proved that one should almost ALWAYS be in sneakers and ready to run after the child.
Not quite embarrassing, "Stereotypical Dad" enough yet, Cody's eyes are starting to fade. The guy has to whip out reading glasses. At least Lia convinced him to make THOSE a bit more fashionable. Simple, thin, black frames that fit his rounded face well to make him appear more sophisticated. All he needs is house shoes and a glass of Scotch after work and he'd probably be a typical 50's father.
Cody's color scheme has earthy spring-like tones. Light brown - typically just his pants, but brown accent in his shirts as well - and green, with a splash of yellow and blue.
Because his power is blood-based, he wanted a way to always be able to draw blood if the need arose. Before meeting Keahi, he would have a pin on him at all times. It would take a moment to undo it from his collar and prick himself, but it was otherwise fairly efficient. Although Keahi wasn't a fan of her husband having to injure himself, she wanted to make sure he could draw blood a lot faster if needed, and so they customized his wedding band. It's a bit thicker than a typical ring, and there's a secret latch that's hard to accidentally open, but one he can easily flick open with his thumb. He then can prick himself on the needle point of the latch.

The cartoonish nature of Chibis probably won't make this very useful to anyone besides me, but this is how I picture Cody:

Chibi Cody is so adorable and unthreatening... <3 data-blogger-escaped-td="">

The inspiration for Cody's ring; from the anime "Attack on Titan."

While not as impressive,
a Real World version of the above ring.

Personality: While it's not exactly a personality trait, Cody's klutziness and accident-prone youth made him very awkward as a kid. He was generally very friendly and outgoing, which helped him forge tight friendships and had him be likable by most of his classmates, but his awkwardness kept him from really connecting with too many people. His spontaneous cloning whenever he injured himself made him even more of a target for teasing and shunning, but even so, he kept a fairly positive outlook throughout most of elementary and early middle school.
When he was a young teenager the fact that his powers only manifested via blood, coupled with the knowledge that Glitches were considered second-class citizens and his very small friend circle, put him into a typical "gothic teenager" phase. While he never went so far as to purposely cut himself, he did become obsessed with blood and dark imagery.
Just before graduating high school - after nearly mastering his powers - the gothic phase ended and he returned to a cheerful, friendly, outgoing person. He was still a bit awkward, especially around women. This awkwardness was another winning trait in Keahi's eyes.
He remained optimistic and playful, losing most, but not all, of his awkwardness while with Keahi. Even now, especially around Lia, he tries to remain that person.
After Keahi's disappearance, the "helicopter parenting" that he learned from his own parents kicked in. He was terrified of losing Lia as well, and now he didn't have Keahi around to reign him back from the only type of parenting he knew. On top of that, his powers allowed him to take "helicopter parenting" to the extreme: ALWAYS having either himself or a clone with Lia at ALL times except for when she was at school; the school wouldn't allow him to hover.
He is EXTREMELY protective of those he cares about, and has no problem bringing out a terrifyingly dark version of himself to do whatever needs to be done to keep his loved one safe. While he doesn't get angry easily, he can become very scary when he gets frustrated.

General History: Cody used to be a huge klutz and very awkward when he was young. He was constantly injuring himself accidentally. Because of this, his parents were a bit overprotective of their accident-prone child. This helped instill the idea of "helicopter parenting" in Cody. It also kept him a bit on the outskirts of his class's social circle. He had friends growing up, but it was a tight-knit group of five. While he was liked well enough that kids wouldn't go out of their way to tease or bully him, he was still awkward enough that they had no problem teasing or laughing whenever he tripped up.
Cody's powers manifested when he was about 10, and that made things even more awkward for him. Now, whenever he would draw blood - which was fairly often given how accident-prone he was - at least one clone would spontaneously appear. Now people would tease him for the clones. This teasing was added to the intensity of the knowledge of his powers and what it meant to be a Glitch. He became Gothic between the ages of 13 and 17. He re-invented himself over Christmas break his senior year of high school - finally coming to terms with everything - and became his normal bubbly self. Not to many students liked him though, despite his attempts to befriend and help others. Mostly because he had his powers under control and used his clones to help himself study: allowing himself to study all of his subjects at the same time and then reabsorb the clones to get the information. He skyrocketed to the head of the class, but everyone called him out on the "unfair advantage" of having almost infinite amount of time compared to everyone else. Even though he was the top of his class when he graduated, this "unfair advantage" resulted in him simply being able to walk and receive his diploma, with no other acknowledgement of his GPA or the multitude of extra-curricular activities - clubs and sports - he participated in.
It stung to be shunned like that, but it helped him connect more with Keahi - who was actually kicked out of school due to her being a Glitch - and help her become courageous enough to attempt college after all. Plus, the Glitch-friendly Hawaii Pacific University appreciated both the vast array of extra-curricular and top GPA. They saw it as proof that even if he were to use his powers, it would be for positive development.
Cody and Keahi had a typical college relationship after he convinced her to go to HPU with him. He proposed to her when she was a senior at the college, and they got married shortly after graduating. Using his powers to absorb as much as he could while in college, he was able to quickly climb to the top of his field. Although I'm still not entirely sure what "field" that is.
While this is still subject to change, as of right now I have it set up that Keahi and Cody end up moving to Colorado to be closer to his family. The trick with this - which is why the location may change - is that Colorado is a great distance out of Cody's clone-range, and I wanted him to leave a clone at the family home while he's working at the orphanage. That way Lia has her childhood home to go back to if she ever wanted to return to a public school and/or after graduating from Emily's school. Having the family home be in Colorado would mean either
A) Cody sells the home which will be a huge shock to Lia's system since she was expecting Emily's school to just be a boarding school and she could come home during holiday breaks,
B) Cody either leaves the home with family with the understanding that he and Lia can take it back at any time, or he leaves it unattended completely over the years, or finally
C) Cody locks away a piece of himself as the clone lives it's own life out of Cody's home.
I'm rambling...
Cody started up gardening as a means of meditation, as well as further training of his powers. It is incredibly easy to prick one's self while gardening, and it's incredibly helpful to be able to clone one's self while doing yard work. Anyway, Keahi got pregnant with Lia a couple years into the marriage. They were a loving, playful, happy family for about seven years. Then Keahi heared about the environmental turmoil in the Ring of Fire portion of the Pacific, and wanted to join other Evoker Glitches in helping calm the area. After much debate, Cody agreed to her helping with one of his clones as her guardian. It changed his personality slightly to be without that part of him while it was with Keahi, but he tried to not let it affect Lia.
When his clone was killed, he created a new clone out of all of his compassion and paternal instincts in order to leave the best guardian he could for Lia, and then raced off to where Keahi was when she was attacked. He spent a little over a month attempting to find her, but even with his paternal self locked away in his guardian for Lia, he still desperately missed his daughter. He eventually gave up his search and returned home. He still makes a week-long annual pilgrimage to Keahi's last known location in attempt to find more clues about her disappearance.
Terrified of losing his daughter too, he vowed to NEVER let her out of his sight; a slightly empty vow since her schools wouldn't allow him to hover over her. He did debate homeschooling her so he could be around her 24/7, but he realized how much she needed the socialization and normalcy. The rest of the time, however, even when on his pilgrimages or at work, he always left a clone behind to be able to watch over his daughter. His own over protective parents didn't really see much wrong with what he was doing, and so without Keahi around to tease him about being ridiculous, no one reigned him in.
Lia's powers actually manifested when she was yelling at her father about not allowing her to grow up and be independent.
Due to being at the top of his field, Emily and Ryder reached out to him to assist with the orphanage and school when it evolved into a boarding school to help Glitches learn to control their powers. He turned them down originally, wanting to stay in his family home in case Keahi found her way back. He also wanted to keep his focus on his own child, not split it with children of other people; as noble as that is.
When Lia's powers became too much for him to train her alone, he called Emily up to see if their offer still stood. When she gladly welcomed him to join their staff, he sent Lia ahead to start her training while he tied up loose ends at home. Lia was ecstatic at first - thinking she was finally getting some independence - only to be mortified by her father's sudden appearance at the school as part of the faculty.

Boy, I'm good at writing backstory on the fly when I'm typing it here. Why can't that work the rest of the week when I'm writing the bios for the challenge?

Well, ironically, the week that I feel I did the least amount of work towards the writing challenge happens to also be the week that I win the random draw of a $10 Amazon voucher for participating. So, that's a positive for the week!

I don't have an e-reader, and so I downloaded the PC version of Kindle, and then purchased the three e-book short stories that Rick Riordan wrote as Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles cross-over tales. He wrote them as incentive to buy the paperback versions of some of his books, but knew that some people won't buy the paperback since they already had the hardcover - me and Hubby being such people - and so he later released the stories as e-books, and I had been meaning to buy them for a while now. So, thanks, Ali Luke, for the voucher prize, and the ability to finally have these stories!

The only thing I really did this week for the challenge was Ali's Mini-Challenge for the week; figure out what I'll be doing with the momentum from this challenge. As I mentioned last week, I had already decided a few weeks ago that my writing group - Struggling Writers Society - would be doing its own month-long writing challenge in August.

Well, it kept me until about 11pm on the first to finally decide on what my challenge would be, and post on the group's event page. In the end, I decided that I was going to keep the momentum going with X-Men.

I haven't touched X-Future: The Second Generation Begins in almost two years. Mostly because of how tedious it is to sort through all the posts in order to come up with the plot I'd translate into prose. Well, that's my challenge this month. I want to get at least one new chapter up before August 31st.

Not really off to a good start. It's the fifth and I have yet to even open up the forum to start cataloging the posts I'd be translating. I'm hoping to whip my butt in gear now that the car is running and the Writers’ Huddle challenge is finally done. I'm hoping to at the very least have the posts figured out by Sunday, and the posts I'll be reworking into prose sorted by my next post next week.

I'm also thinking of letting you folks know how I did with the other mini-challenges Ali pitched our way.

Here's to a more productive writing week again.