My Muse Apparently Has Purple Hair

I'm not sure if I should be proud or disappointed in my efforts....

On the one hand, I only managed two writing sessions this past week: one I wrote only 626 words, then the second was a last-ditch effort to make up my word count, but even that ended with only 1592 words. Within the middle third of the Writers’ Huddle Summer Challenge, I was aiming for five writing sessions at 700 words each, at least. That means I should be writing about 3500 words per week. I managed 2218. This far into the challenge I should have written 12,000 words overall. I have managed 9035 - excluding what I write for this blog - over the course of four weeks. That means I'm 2965 words behind where I feel I should be.

Yesterday started the final third of the challenge; the point where I wanted to be able to write 1000 words per session; five times a week. Anyone want to guess how many words have been written thus far? Give yourself a gold star if you picked zero!

NuaNia Facebook Sticker
by PRANEAT

Yeah, no... don't give anyone any gold stars! This is getting pretty bad!

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by Birdman Inc

I did manage to write SOMETHING though. So.... yay? Gold stars after all? Having nearly 10,000 words by the end of a month is still exciting, right? I mean, that was my whole goal for July's Camp NaNo. Plus, it's still 9000 words more than I had before. It got me something to post here last week. It allowed me to finish up my Camp NaNo project. It made sure I didn't completely slack off after a writing fury. Also, writing 2200 words this past week can be mildly impressive when taking into consideration that I was focused on organizing with my mom all last week.

So, yeah, I didn't get as much writing as I would have liked, but I did accomplish this:

I mean, I accomplished a LOT this past week. It just wasn't really in the writing department.

Still, as I keep saying, considering the limited time I had this week, I'm still increasingly impressed at the amount of writing I did do. Especially since I also had a party to attend right after work on Saturday, and Friday, when I meant to catch up on writing, I ended up passing out on the couch instead.

Ya know what? Give me that gold star after all! I could have dropped writing completely this week, and instead I put in the effort of writing at least SOMETHING.

OK, that may have been a bit much, but... eh.... encourage good behavior, I guess.

My short-blip of a writing session I managed on Friday before I passed out isn't really much to read, but it's writing practice. It's not supposed to be my magnum opus. It's mostly stream-of-consciousness and inspired by the agonizingly boring Thursday evening I had, followed by an equally mind-numbing Friday; probably why I passed out in the first place.

So, if you want a quick read about my thoughts on days seeming unbearably long, you can check it out below.

"Time Must Be A Toddler"

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As for my last-ditch writing session? Well, it was Sunday, I needed to check in with Writers' Huddle, and I didn't even have 700 words under my belt. I needed to try to get something else down on paper.

I had finished the Devon/Trish story aside from editing. Granted, once I get the fight scene figured out I'll probably add words there, but at the stage I currently am I know I'd be subtracting words; not adding them. Plus, Mouse is in a writing flow and didn't want to disrupt it by stopping to edit her July project. I can't fault her that. So we pushed back our writing exchange. Helps me too, because I can now focus the last two weeks on prepping for Quarthix's wedding as well as going full-throttle on this writing challenge. This does mean, though, that I'll have to back down from my original promise to have the edited Devon/Trish story up by the end of the month. Unrealistic thoughts, that.

However, I'm not doing another writing challenge next month. So, by the end of SEPTEMBER I will have it up. Poke me relentlessly if I delay again.

Anyway, my point is that I didn't have any more writing to add to the Devon/Trish story right now. I'm still largely inspired to work on my fan-novelization of Varekai, but I want to save it for my NaNo this year, and I already "cheated" a bit by writing one of the chapters. I have to resist writing more before November. I need to spend my time writing notes on what I want the narrative to be. THAT is what I can do before November, but no more chapter attempts. No "cheating."

So that's two projects I'm interested in, but I'm trying to avoid right now. The next big project I want to try to work on is the "Hey, Arnold!" fan-script for "The Jungle Movie" before the actual one premiers on Nickelodeon in November. The problem there is that I don't really remember what ChibiSunnie and I have thus far, which means I have to take the time to read through it first. I didn't have time to do that and still get my writing in. What other writing project could I work on?

With the excitement of TJM, I've actually been feeling What Is Truly Meant To Be again. The problem there is that it's been so long since I've touched that story that I would desperately need my notes to remember where I was headed next, and they're buried somewhere under all the other notes I've made for more recent stories.

Perhaps I could finally get to my Miraculous fanfic. Problem with THAT, though, is that it's been a few weeks since I last saw the show, which means not having the characters predominantly in my head anymore. It also means that all of the "reveal moments" I thought up while watching the show are overpowered by all the "reveal moments" I've seen in fancomics or read in fanfiction. A lot of them are really good, and I kind of want to incorporate a lot of elements from each of them. However, there's a lot of elements that I also wasn't the biggest fan of; giving me the challenge of "I can do better."

Being so determined to get it "juuuuust right" means planning. Planning means time. I didn't have that. I spent an hour trying to get it mapped out in my head, and it ended up with me wasting my writing time doing anything but writing.

No. It was about 10pm on Sunday, I only had 600-some words for the week, and I didn't have time to search for notes or reread anything or rewatch any shows or plot anything out. I needed to write. Now!

I went back to "A Writer's Book of Days." I'd write three writing prompts if I needed to! Except I wasn't inspired. I already struggled for a day to work on "The Longest Day" which is why I missed writing anything after work on Thursday. I saw the next prompt was "Write about a shade tree" and nothing came to me. Nothing. No inspiration in the slightest. I didn't have time for this! I needed to write!

I racked my brain. I needed my Muse to talk to me, and quickly. There must be SOME story I wanted to tell that didn't need prep-work. There must be SOME tale that I didn't need to wait on. There must be SOME inspiration waiting for me to find it.

And there was.

Jolene! Glorious, beautiful, broken Jolene! I haven't touched her story since, what, January? Mostly because I couldn't handle the heartache of writing more of her story. But now was the time. I needed her. I had her story planned out. I knew what needed to be written for the next chapter. I had her in my head a lot lately due to some of the music I've been listening to the past few weeks. I missed her. Now was the time.

And I wrote.

I wrote nearly 1600 words before Hubby knocked on our bedroom door. It was midnight, and we should be going to bed. Mildly defeated that I only wrote about a third of the words I wanted to this past week, I submitted and put the laptop away.

Still, I'm back on track with Jolene. The next time I need to write and inspiration alludes me I will again turn to her. In fact, until I can think of something worth writing about a "shade tree," Jolene will probably be my focus for the last two weeks of this challenge.

Slowly but surely, I will have all my WIPs completed.

The Next Challenge

I don't know if I'm still on track to do a half-NaNo for this month's Camp NaNoWriMo, but I have managed to stay ahead of the curve since the 9th. Largely due to the massive writing session I managed to get done that day. Saved my butt after neglecting my writing again for four days. On the fifth day, though, I was back below where I should be by July 14th, so I cracked the whip again. I've missed two days since, but otherwise I've written at least 300-some words per day to stay ahead of the game. Out of my 10,000 goal for the month, I'm currently at 6334 words. Not the greatest, but also not too shabby considering how little I wrote pretty much April through June.

Yes, I'm doing fairly well with the word count, but what about the narrative? Well, I didn't get as far as I would have wanted before tonight's writing group. I knew I wasn't going to have it done, but I wanted to at least have the confrontation through to the end written.

I do have the confrontation, and the end, written, but I've been firmly avoiding writing the actual fight scene. How many more times do I have to admit how much I'm dreading this? Maybe I can convince myself to write it today so I can indeed have the back half of the story done by group tonight.

Or, at least, maybe have the rest of the opening written and explain my hesitation with the fight scene. That shouldn't be so bad, right? "Here's this story, and then they fight and Devon gets his ass handed to him, and here's the ending..."

The problem with finishing the rest of it - meaning, the opening of the story - is knowing how to start it. I know that Nyssa gets letters from her parents, but I don't know how to explain her parents knowing where she is. Maybe the teachers at the Xavier Institute contacting the parents? But if Nyssa's family truly are mutant haters, wouldn't the teachers want to shield her from that? Even if I skim over how Nyssa's family found her, how do I explain Devon's ability to escort Nyssa by himself when they feared Trish was with her parents? Why was the default "We need to go and get them" instead of "We need to let the X-Men know so they can save them"? Why did they keep the whole thing a mystery from the X-Men instead of asking for help from their new family? Especially considering the amount of trouble doing pretty much the same thing two years prior brought Devon.

Sadly, Hubby's attempt to move the game plot along quickly meant creating such a broad overview that in-depth thoughts like those above were kind of glazed over. Somehow Nyssa got mail from her parents. For some reason Devon and Nyssa thought they could handle it on their own and kept the real reason for the trip secret from Cyclops. The X-Men randomly decided to let these two go on their own without an escort, but the knowledge that backup might be needed for the kids. Finally, neither Devon nor Nyssa thought to call for backup once they knew how bad the situation was. Don't think too much into it....

I'm hoping the holes will fill once I start writing.

I have a few other things I need to think about anyway, such as what comes after this Devon/Trish faceoff story? Also, what to name this story so it doesn't have such a lame working title anymore....

What other things do I need to think about? Well, for starters, as I just mentioned, the obvious What Am I Going To Write Next question. I'm rolling straight from the Camp NaNo challenge into the Writers’ Huddle summer challenge. In fact, a week overlaps. At WH the challenge will be six weeks between Monday, July 24th through to Sunday, September 3rd. Or, in other words, the time between my birthday and Quarthix's wedding!

Oh, and another side note. Ali Luke has just dropped the cost of Writers' Huddle to only $10 per month! She also sent out a mass email as I was writing this paragraph - I still say the woman has a spy kit focused on me or something - alerting the public that she's now opening Writers' Huddle to new members. She only does this in brief spurts so that all the newbies come in as a "class," as it were, instead of slowly sprinkled in unevenly throughout the course of a year. So, if you're looking for an online place for critiques, info, and support, please check out Writers' Huddle. It really is such a great community, and Ali is such a big help.

OK, sales pitch over, back to my writing.

I had stated that I have a "few" other things to think about outside of my existing story. Well, one of which is the Summer Challenge at WH, but another is a way to get back to my writing practice. This week I typed up the last of my pre-written writing practices. They are all online now. I can only post them as I write them from hereon out, which is great that I caught up, but at the same time intimidating that I have to really stay on the ball going forward. I guess it's for the best: accountability. I wanted to share something with you guys every week, and posting those challenges was my way of doing so. It was simple: I opened up my notebook, typed a practice up, and edited. Easy peasy.

I have to get back to the grindstone now. Make sure I stop slacking off. Like I said, it's a blessing, but also an added weight.

Maybe that will be my challenge for August: work on my writing practices again. Have at least four done per week. That gives me slip days for when I'm just overwhelmed. Especially since my mom is retiring this Friday and is planning on coming up to spend the first week of August with me helping me organize my house, and possibly life. I'm drowning over here.

With any luck, the fresh look to my house will revive me. The de-cluttering of my environment will also de-clutter my mind, and I can again focus. I'm both antsy to start, and terrified. Point is, I want to spend the time outside of work with my mom redoing my house, which will leave little to no time to write. I want to be able to allow those cheat days where I ignore my writing. Maybe even wait and write four different writing prompt practices in one day just so I still have them done.

Then I'll have a backlog again.... which will mean I can again slack off and still manage a new story each week here..... maybe this isn't the most brilliant idea.

On the flip-side, it may get me back into the rhythm again, and drive me to set up daily writing hours once more. I could get my writing nest back in the library! I could take time-outs to sit on my front porch and enjoy the weather while I write. I could have a backlog of the practices to post weekly while working on a larger project, like I'm doing now with the Devon/Trish story! I could get back to Jolene's story. I could go back to the Hey Arnold Jungle Movie fanscript before the real thing comes out in November.

Maybe it IS a brilliant idea!

Well, I'm giving myself until Sunday's deadline to figure out officially what I'm doing, so who knows how much more see-sawing on the subject I can do in the next four days?

In the meantime, enjoy the last of my pre-written writing practices. I'll catch you next week with a new short - hopefully - and my decision on the Summer Challenge!

"Best Left Unsaid"

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I Hate Creative Permanence

Another dead week. I don't know what's up with me. I've been fixated on Hubby's latest tabletop game, actually. Between that and working six days a week, I've just been too drained to think of anything creatively.

About a month ago Hubby bought the game Ninja All-Stars by Ninja Division/Soda Pop Miniatures. If you play a league within the game, then you get x-number of starter points that you use to "purchase" ninja units for your clan. There are six clans to choose from, and each one has their own allotment of minimum and maximum of any particular unit in order for you to customize your clan. Then, as you play each game, your units earn experience that you can use to purchase upgrades for them, making them even more customizable to your game play.

As of right now, including me and Hubby, we have five people playing this game. So we each have our own clan out of the six available. Hubby then went ahead and bought the unique miniatures designed for each clan. I have the wind bird tribe Clan Tanchyo.

The reason I'm obsessing, though, is that the minis come unpainted as one solid color to represent your clan. For me, that's green:

I couldn't find my camera, so I just swiped this photo from a review site.

Normally I would just go with it, but I need to differentiate between like-troops, such as the two crow-men Madoushis - monks - that are shown to the right. Or the two eagle onis - demons - towards the back. For troops like those, I've been adding a paperclip to one to tell the difference between the like-units. However, my clan also allows four yajiri - archers - and I can't really tell the difference between them with just paperclips. For the time being, I'm also using figures from the core game.

Again, can't find my camera. This one is from the game developers themselves.

Normally I use the Void Shrine, because the friend who has the actual minis for the Void clan Ijin doesn't really use archers. I then put a paperclip on one of them, and I can tell the difference: one green with paperclip, one green without, one purple with, and one purple without.

The solution works for now, but I know eventually I will have to just paint the darn things in order to help me figure out who is who. It's exciting, but also very permanent. I'm not good with permanent. It's why I bought three scrapbooks while in high school and never used any of them - this was back when you could only get one, maybe two, copies of a photo and that's it unless you could remember where you put the negatives. Permanence is also why I have a bookshelf filled with blank journals. I love them. I collect them. I almost never write in them though, because that's it. You can't use that journal for anything else than what you started to write in it. I have two different "diaries" in really nice journals, only for me to get bored with journaling and giving up about 20pgs in. I also photocopy my coloring book pages so that I can recolor them however I want.

I don't do well with creative permanence.....

Plus, I've never painted miniatures before, and I'm nervous that they'll end up beyond ugly. They're cheap compared to a lot of other miniature games, such as Warhammer, Warmachine, or old-school D&D before they came pre-painted. However, I still don't want to have to go out and buy a new clan set if I really mess up this one....

I want them looking nice like these professional ones:

Ignore that the woman with the peacock feathers in her hair - the Chunin, or clan leader - looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid.

I know I'm not going to get them this nice, though. Hence the point of professional miniature painters in the first place. My main concern is that I SUCK at shading, and that's what really makes these pop. Still, I'm trying to prepare myself for this undertaking by looking up what colors I want for each of my units.

We all unofficially decided to name our characters after anime/video game characters. I branched out a little by naming my one Madoushi Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and my one Oni Hugin from Stjepan Sejic's "Death Vigil":

For those who don't know, Hugin can transform into an albino T-Rex....

Anyway, my point being that I've been looking up the color schemes for the anime/video game characters I named my minis off of, so that I know how to color them so they're still obviously Green Tanchyo Tribe while also being distinguishable from each other.

This is pretty much how I've been spending my spare time this past week. Obsessing over colors for minis and learning how to properly paint them, as well as researching the best bang for my buck in regards to buying the paints. Trying to mentally master the art of painting minis has been my everything outside of work this week.

Kind of pathetic.

And at work, now that I'm hourly instead of commissions, I feel guilty if I'm not working around the clock. So I've been coming up with all sorts of busy work for myself. I barely have time to sit down anymore.

I need to get out of my head. Or, if I really can't get out of my own head, I should at least talk to one of my characters hiding up there. Get back to writing. I don't know why I'm at a complete stand-still lately.

While I'm still trying to figure out what is up with my lack of muse, you can at least enjoy another old writing practice. This one choked me up bad. One of the few times I had a hard time seeing what I was writing because I was fighting back tears. I hit a sore spot with this. Tried to get some pre-mature closure, I guess. I get emotional in my writing, but it's rare that I actually inflict an emotion on myself this severely while writing, so this practice scared me in more ways than one. I hope the emotions at least showed up in this 1000-word short.

"Find. Remember. Love Again."

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Reading Queen

I wrote something on Thursday.

That's it. No other writing. Not even really pondering of writing. Yet, for some reason, while sitting outside on the porch, listening to the wind chimes Hubby got me, I was inspired. I wrote another writing prompt out of "A Writer's Book of Days" until my wrist hurt and my fingers cramped up. Kept me only about forty minutes and three journal pages.

Still, it was something. I should praise that for all its worth. Especially considering how long this slump has been. I don't know what caused my love of writing to recede, but I still don't even have the drive to think about writing. I don't get my normal pain of guilt or itch of inactivity if I go without writing. On the plus side, I also haven't gotten cranky and agitated due to my lack of writing. I'd much rather sit on my porch, people watch, read my book, listen to my chimes, and enjoy the warmth. I'm just soaking it all in. Maybe I'll wring it all out of my head later, but right now, my brain is just sponging everything; hopefully.

In the meantime, Hubby did sort of decide on a new surname for Chayse. He narrowed it down to five names. He also feels that Neo-Gambit - Ryder - won't go by a last name. He'll simply be Ryder. Considering the fact that I kept Gambit's criminal background, I could see Ryder dropping his last name to avoid being tracked. So, Hubby's thinking that the couple just agreed to give Chayse his mother's surname. Right now we're really focused on Foster. However, even though Emily Foster sounds awesome and is really calling out to us, I feel it's a bit too on the money. A woman named Foster opened an orphanage?

Then again, names have meaning in literature, so maybe the nod to the connection between the name and the calling isn't so bad?

Anyway, that's the extent of my writing this week. I did read Hello to my writing group last week. Fantasy is definitely my wheel-house, because even my psuedo-supernatural, slice-of-life, slightly-exaggerated anecdote got sort of lack-luster reviews aside from "nice twist at the end." And then we talked about the paranormal for a little bit before moving on to the next person.

I never seem to get much of a reaction out of that group unless I'm writing something set in a fantasy world. Although, oddly enough, about six months ago they asked me why I only wrote fantasy and fanfiction when I could "write like that" - in reference to my heartbreaking story of a man realizing his ailing wife was slipping from him.

On the flipside of my frozen state, it seems Ronoxym is on a writing frenzy. Nearly every time I talk to him he has something new he's working on. Granted, he only gets a couple paragraphs to a couple pages in before the next shiny story idea catches his attention, but at least he's writing. More than what I'm doing. Maybe we share a Muse, which is why we work so well together. However, sharing her means that only one of us could be in the mood to write at a time. Lame.

Anyway, he even asked if I was still into reworking/finishing Please, Let Me Explain. I was kind of like "doi" so maybe that means he's going back through my edits to try to figure the rework out too. It would be cool if I could continue reading that at group.

In the meantime, I have my writing practices. And since the next two practices I have combined are still less than 1000 words, I figured I would type them both up for your reading pleasure.

This first one is largely inspired by a friend and former coworker of mine. I took some creative liberties to follow where the character was taking me, but my friend is definitely the core inspiration.

"Fire Personified"

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This second one is beyond quick: about 250 words. I was stuck on another writing prompt that is a really cool phrase, but too abstract for me to come up with a story concept. I might have this issue a lot with Judy Reeves' prompts. In the end, I just wrote whatever came to mind until I had filled the page. It's more of a thought experiment than an actual tale, but it's something down on paper.

"Thought Experiment: Now"

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So, if I wasn't writing, what was I doing for the majority of the week? Well, as I mentioned, I've been on my porch enjoying the weather. I've also been reading like a boss. Appropriate, considering the reading challenge I'm currently undertaking.

"Half Bad" by Sally Green was definitely a slow go for me. The fact that the entire story was broken down into six parts was the first oddity. They aren't even parts. They don't seem to coincide with the typical Three-Act storyline. They were basically six giant chapters that were then broken down into smaller chapters. And the fact that some of those chapters weren't even a page long was the other oddity that threw me off. The final thing that made me wonder if I could make it through was her use of second-person narrative to make the reader Nathan. There were just too many things that seemed different about this story. Makes Green a unique author, though.

Well, I powered through because the synopsis was intriguing enough. Plus, I don't like quitting on books. I'm glad, too. Part Two is about a third of the book, and it's all Nathan's flashback on how he ended up in a cage. It's also, thankfully, in first person. I was able to really connect with Nathan then. Again, my empathy allows me to connect more with a character when THEY are telling me their story, as opposed to the reader trying to tell me this is my story.

The first chapter - and ONLY the first chapter - of Part Three was back in second, and I groaned. I didn't know if I could handle the past being in first person and the present in second. I wasn't sure I could handle jumping back and forth between "you are Nathan" and "Nathan is telling you his story." Thankfully, since that one last chapter, the rest of the story is both first-person, and present. I mean that literally, it's written in present tense. It's also written in sort of short, choppy sentences: "I don't sleep well. It's not cold. There's no wind, not a breath. The clouds are still. There's no rain."

Nathan admits that he's not intelligent at all, and he's illiterate. So his sentences are simplistic. Life is what it is. He realizes that - for the most part - he has to live in the present. He can't dwell on the past because he can't change it. He can't focus too much on the future, because he might not have one. Sally Green takes that character trait and translates it to how Nathan talks. How he tells his story. He's direct. He's to the point. He doesn't have much time to explain something with long, flowery words. He tells you what's happening while it still is.

I really, REALLY got into this story once I was in first-person narrative. A week into reading this story, and I only have 41 pages left to go. If I didn't have chores and errands to do last night, I might have finished off the book. I'm basically reading a part a day, a few chapters at a time.

When I read the first part I wondered how the heck could anyone read two more books written like this. Now that I'm almost done, I know I have to find the other two. The writing is still odd to me, but now I'm invested in Nathan. I'm even invested in his jailer. I'm loving the wizarding world that Green created. It doesn't hurt that I could try to use some of it to help me get re-inspired for "Glitches" purposes.

In fact, sorry guys, but I gotta jet. I have a couple more chapters left. I need to finish them. Then I need to find another story to finish June with. Since I have such a head-start, I think I might pick up "Atlas Shrugged" next. I think that will be my "outside comfort level" book.... Still not sure where to put "Half Bad"on the list, though....

Did A Lot Of Thinking; That Counts, Right?

To start, sorry about the late post update. I got caught up on editing and lost track of time. I mean, on the plus side, it means that I have more for you fine folks to read. On the downside, aside from a late blog post, I'm still just editing stuff I wrote back in like March and April. I'll get to that though.

Let's start on that high note: two new stories for you to read. First up is that Lia story I was having issues with last week. Ended up being delayed for no reason. A whole week later and I still don't have the names figured out and updated, so aside from some minor sentence structure editing, this is exactly the same as it was last week. Whoops. Hubby and I are trying to brainstorm, though, and I did spend all week TRYING to come up with new names for everyone. So there's that. Don't know if it counts if I didn't succeed though. Either way, here's Lia's story. First thing starring her that I've written in about a year. Geez. Poor thing.

"Weirdo Among Misfits"

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Next story probably isn't too much of a surprise coming off the heels of a Lia story: a Willow and Devon story. I mean, I was in an X-Future mood the day before, it just seems natural that it would continue into the next practice. Especially with the prompt: "Write about a sideways glance."

"Mutual Teasing"

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I was nervous about that second story. In the past I've been a bit off when writing friends' original characters. And odd thing to admit when I'm a fanfiction writer, but I'd always be close yet still not quite right. I sent Ronoxym "Mutual Teasing" this morning to quickly read over, and I'm so excited by his response.

Ronoxym: "That was actually beautiful. It's nice to just look at the two of them and think about what might have been."

He went on to let me know that Devon was in-character. So... Yay! I win!

Now, if I could just win again by actually having something NEW written, not just polished before being upload to a few websites.

Anyway, as I mentioned, ironically after stating that I was going to take a mini-vacay from writing, I spent a great deal of last Tuesday trying to figure out the new names for everyone. I then realized that I never really rewrote Jamie Madrox to his Glitches version Cody. I put in a great deal of time trying to figure out how his powers worked, but nothing really on Cody himself. Even then, I didn't really solidify what I wanted to do with his powers. The simple way of explaining is that he can use fresh drops of his own blood to create temporary clones of himself. However, there has been a sort of head-canon about Lia that I wanted to bring to Glitches, and I don't know if Cody's way of duplicating himself would lead to that.

See, when I created Lia and luck of the dice decided that she was going to have the same exact powers as her mother, but none of her father's, I then unintentionally designed Lia so she looks like the spitting image of her mother. It happens. Some kids just pick up a lot of their looks from one parent, and barely any distinguishable traits from the other. However, the more I thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. Jamie's mutation is the ability to duplicate himself. That's in his DNA. DNA he was now sharing with his daughter. The way that happens is that his DNA is mixed with Amara's. So.... why not having Lia accidentally be a clone of her mother? Birthed naturally? Jamie's DNA mixes with Amara and, instead of duplicating himself, Jamie's mutation actually duplicates Amara. Jamie's body doesn't recognize it as a duplicate since Lia has Amara's DNA, not Jamie's so he doesn't re-absorb her like his other dupes. Amara's body doesn't have the mutation that would have her re-absorb her duplicate. Er go, no one realizes the natural cloning.

I personally think it's a neat bit of trivia, however, if Cody's powers requires him to use blood to duplicate, can it still work? Could his mutation still mix with Keahi's DNA upon conception of Lia? Could maybe that mutation use Keahi's blood via the umbilical cord/placenta to accidentally turn her freshly fertilized egg into a naturally growing clone?

Fun thought exercise, but it brings me back to the same issue: I'm too focused on Cody's powers and not enough on his actual character. I also still need to figure out Neo-Mystique for Devon's mother. She most likely won't come up until much, much, MUCH later in the series, but basic information about her might pop up in the meantime.

So, that's what I've been doing this week. No writing, but a lot of thought exercises to try to figure out and lock down the last of the Marvel-property rewrites into originals. While I'm at it, I realized that a lot of Lucas Kinney that made him who he is consists of elements I'm not bringing over to "Glitches": a naturally conceived/born child of a clone, time travel, knowing how he's going to die thanks to the time travel, his toughening as a youth plus his establishing the institute as his home thanks to multiple organizations wanting to capture and experiment on him, and the fact that he's pseudo-related to Wolverine as the man's artificial grandson. I tried to fix some of it by having my version of Wolverine rescuing Lucas from government-sanctioned experimentation, and then being a surrogate father. Still, there was just too much characterization I couldn't bring over. So, I might do with Lucas Kinney what I did with Marvel's intellectual property: use it as a base as I create my own version. 

As much as it pains me to do so, because the catalyst for wanting to write "Glitches" in the first place was to revive him, but I might have to do the same with Phfylburt's other character Lincoln as well. Part of his confusion and feeling lost is because he was part mutant, part Inhuman, and part fairy. He didn't know what race he was because he was a mix of non-human races raised by humans. On top of that, he had a disembodied voice constantly with him that only he could hear, and yet the voice was adamant that it wasn't a split personality or Lincoln's imagination. Darwin was positive that he had a separate soul and was somehow locked within Lincoln's body, even if neither of them knew how or when that happened.

Lincoln is just such a beautiful character with such depth and complexity. It's no wonder I mourned for so long after Phfyl killed him off. I can only hope for readers to be as connected to my stories. Even so, things like mythical creatures being real and a race of half-human/half-alien hybrids is getting too close to the Marvel realm again for my comfort. "Glitches" is going to be INSPIRED by Marvel's X-Men, not a complete rip-off of it. So, how do I tweak Lincoln to ignore the Inhuman and fairy sides of him? How do I explain his confusion when he discovered that his powers and mutation wasn't simply because he was Inhuman, it was because he's also part mutant and part fairy? How do I explain his irregular upbringing due to his father being the mute leader of the Inhumans; a man forced to have multiple wives so that each of the different subraces of Inhumans felt properly represented within the royal family?

Even if I could figure any of that stuff out, I haven't spoken to Phfyl in over a year after he slipped off the grid. I wouldn't feel right unless I went over the changes to Lincoln with him. As it is, redesigning Lincoln - but keeping his wings, his anxiety, and Darwin - still feels a bit too close to comfort for me. I know that if one of my friends took Willow, Lia, Trish, Jolene, or Amara, tweaked them so they were slightly different than they are now, but kept them mostly whole, I'd feel weird if I didn't OK it. There's a reason why authors tend to hate the movie/TV show adaptations of their characters unless the author had a hand in the change. These are our babies. If you change one thing about them, it's no longer them.

This is why I'm so nervous about keeping people in-character. If I even had one glance, one gesture, one bit of dialogue, even one word wrong and out-of-character then it shakes the foundation of the character for the creator.

I have time to figure out the Lincoln situation though, so I have some more brain exercises to do. Perhaps when I'm closer to being ready to roll Neo-Lincoln out I'll get back in touch with Phfyl.

OK. Enough X-Future/Glitches stuff. You pretty much have the idea of what I was doing this week in regards to that. However, since I really DIDN'T do any writing this week, I decided to use my break to finish my reading.

I didn't manage to complete "The Dark Prophecy" by Rick Riordan before the end of May, but I did complete it on Sunday, so I guess that's something. Only three days late. I also started up my June book already. It can either bump "Ready. Set. Novel!" off the "Red on the Cover" category, or it can fulfill the "Takes place in the UK" category. But first, let's check out my challenge thus far:

Challenge by Reading Books Like a Boss

OK, so, real quick before talking about my latest book read, a reflection on "The Dark Prophecy." All-in-all, I am enjoying the book series, but it's closer to "The Kane Chronicles" than Riordan's other works in regard to over-all enjoyment.

He did so well with the Percy Jackson series, and Heroes of Olympus. He's doing amazing with the Magnus Chase series. I don't know why he seemed off his game with the Kane Chronicles or Trials of Apollo. I think it's kind of the same issue though.

In The Kane Chronicles, you have Sadie and Carter Kane. They are practically polar opposites of each other despite being siblings. Sadie is arrogant, but has some redeeming qualities. However her magical prowess makes her seem a bit overpowered despite Riordan's attempt to explain the restrictions Sadie has on her magical reserves. Then there's Carter who can have random bursts of power but mostly tries to use his brain to strategize ways to conquer their problem. While I liked Carter more than Sadie, and they are both fully developed characters, for me, Carter seemed a bit underwhelming. I mean, these two didn't really leave much of an impact on me. I had to look up their names to make sure I remembered them correctly. When I put the book down, I could go days without going back to the story, and when I did I'd have to start the reading session by re-reading the last page or so of the previous chapter to remind myself where I stopped. I could barely put down any of the other book series Riordan wrote....

Then there's the Trials of Apollo. Apollo basically is Sadie's arrogance in Carter's lackluster build. Apollo was transformed into a hero, so he can't really do much of anything unless he has random blasts of godly power, so he mostly whines about how things were when he was still a god, pine over his multitude of lost loves, and strategize to try to find a non-combative way to solve problems. Then there's Apollo's companion and human master during his trials to regain his godhood: Meg. Meg is Carter's soft-spoken, near-forgetability wrapped in Sadie's near deus ex machina power set. Somehow these characters are likable, but I'm not passionate about them like I am with all of Riordan's other characters.

Heck, half the time I like Magnus Chase's sword Jack more than Apollo and Meg. This breed of hero just doesn't work for me, but that's not to say they aren't lovable to others. Like I said, they are well-rounded, and Apollo is redeeming his arrogant ways as he quickly realizes how hard it is to be a human, let alone a demigod.

Still, I liked the Egyptian gods Anubis, Bast, and Bes far more than I like Sadie and Carter. I liked the Karpoi Peaches more than Apollo and Peaches' owner Meg. I couldn't really see much difference between Josephine and Emmie in "The Dark Prophecy," and had to frequently go back and re-read to figure out who said what and who was where, because the women blended together for me.

The biggest disappointment for me? Leo. He was totally my boy in the Heroes of Olympus, and even after my week of feeling gross ended I still felt like Leo wasn't "himself" anymore. It was like someone was ghostwriting Leo for Riordan, and didn't quite hit the mark. As I mentioned above, the slightest change to a character can completely change the character, which is why I'm so nervous about Lincoln.

I don't want to discourage anyone, though. Like I said, some characters speak to me because of my own personality and upbringing, and others just don't click. It's the same to other readers as well. I might find Meg lackluster, while you might find her the most beautifully written character with a quiet strength holding her up against an emotional trauma that would normally crumble other 12yr olds. On the flipside, you might find Jack the sword from the Magnus Chase series an unnecessary and annoying plot device.

Now, as for my new book for June, well? I'm not sure about it yet. The dust jacket makes the story sound promising, which is why I picked it up in the first place, but then I started reading it.....

"Half Bad" by Sally Green is the first of a trilogy; very first novel that Green ever wrote. You can read the jacket copy on the linked site, but the overview of even that is that Nathan is a witch trying to find his father, but his father is dangerous and Nathan is caged and watched. Like I said, the concept seems so cool.

Still not sure about the actual writing of it though. Each chapter is short. Super short. Like a scene. The very first chapter barely fills a page, the second is only three paragraphs. The thing that threw me off the most though was that the entire book is in second person. An odd choice that brought Green lots of praise for her skilled use of it.

It's too odd for me, though. It's weird, having everything make ME the main character - the point of the "you" pronoun in second-person - is actually disconnecting me from the book. I'm not Nathan. It's hard for me to suspend disbelief far enough to get past the fact that I'm not Nathan. However, if the book was in first person or even third, my extreme empathy would let me connect with Nathan so much easier.

I'm an odd duck.

Four chapters in, sixteen pages, nearly done with the first part out of a six-part novel, and Nathan's hand was nearly burned off by acid. You'd think that would be enough of a hook. Yet, I'm like "alright, well, let's see this through...." I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'm hoping I can get over the weird narrative POV, because the story, if it were in a more traditional 1st or 3rd person, would have gripped me hard by now.

OK, well, it's now WELL past when I would normally post my blog update, so I should probably start prepping for writing group now. Save something to say for next week.

Vacation From Writing?

Well, May has officially kicked my writing butt. Yet again I walked away with NOTHING written. It's getting pathetic. The worst part? I'm so drained from all this work drama that kicked up this month that I don't even have a drive to write. Normally, if I go a few days or a week or whatever, I'm angry with myself. I have an itch I haven't been able to scratch. I have this tug at my heart berating me for slacking off with my writing. I have overwhelming guilt about not picking up a pen or opening a new word document.

Not this month. Not right now. Even as I have my fourth "Yeah, didn't write..." post of this month, I feel no guilt. I feel no pull. I feel no itch to write.

What I do feel is a call to READ. A call to clean. A call to play video games. So, perhaps my mind is just so overwhelmed with what's going on with my life that it can't even escape into its own world. I have to escape into others'.

Hubby bought a new game: Ninja All-Stars. It's a bit complicated to learn at first, but once you get it, the game is super fun. It's a strategy game - which I suck at - and there are actually something like 12 different game scenarios you can play, and a flippable board to add even more variety. The best thing is that it is an army-builder game. When you create your team - or clan, in this case, because they're ninjas - you are given an allotment of game-money to spend on troops. Everyone starts with the same amount of money, but there's little guidance as to how to spend it, so each army is different. You can also set up the game as "League Play" where each player levels up his/her army after each game played in order to evolve their clan. It's a bit of an addicting game that we've been playing nearly every night for a little over a week. Problem is, each game takes an average of three hours to play! That's pretty much all of my free time outside of work!

Yet, when Hubby has a friend over to play later today, I am so tempted to join in instead of doing anything else. Clean. Read. WRITE. I know I can't afford to give up 3+ hours each day to play this game, but I want to so bad....

I don't know where the spark went, but the writing bug has hidden itself away lately. I'd prefer to get lost in the world of Ninja All-Stars instead. Perhaps I need a break from even thinking about writing. Let the work drama settle. Let my brain take a vacation. I really don't know.

As for my weekly updates of edited writing practices? Well.....

I have the January 17th one typed up, but it's my Lia story from a month or so ago. It still needs some polishing. Mostly because I was trying to write it as if it were in the Glitches world instead of the original X-Future one. I really need to go back and iron out the details of that world, or at least the center location of everything. I'll have to work on that and possibly post two next week: the polished Lia story, and the January 18th prompt practice.

Let's Play the Yay-Boo Game

Well, on the plus side, I did write something this week. Yay!

On the down side, it was Wednesday, and I haven't written anything since. I also again neglected to chart the hourly breakdown of what I did this week to know what I was doing instead of writing. Boo.

On the plus side, I was busy at work - cutting down on my available writing time there - didn't have a second day off due to my coworker's quitting, and had a TON of chores I needed to catch up on to prep for Ronoxym and Cyhyr again visiting with their daughter. So, at least I had a "valid" excuse for not writing? Also, I don't have a chart, but I more-or-less know what I was doing? Yay?

Down side was that most of the hecticness at work was for naught. A lot of energy for not as much pay-off. That, and Ron and Cy only managed to hang out for about 2hrs.

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

At least my house was much less of a baby death trap for those 2hrs. Worth?

I didn't even really have the time to read much more this week. I think I got a chapter or two further in? Yay and boo?

I bought us a new sofa table to better organize the increasing number of table-top games Hubby keeps accumulating, I also bought a second chest of drawers to make up for the fact that we apparently found the only apartment on the planet that doesn't have enough closet space. Most of the week was spent reorganizing to utilize the new furniture. I'm hoping it also means it will be easier to keep the house organized so I don't have to have these whirlwind cleaning weeks about once a month.

I know. I fail every time I write that phrase in this blog but ONE OF THESE TIMES IT HAS TO BE THE TRUTH! Some day I WILL keep this place organized. And that will alleviate so much stress. And I'll be able to focus on writing instead of vacuuming, or dealing with laundry, or cleaning an imposing amount of dishes, or clearing off the dining table so we can use it for more than dump-storage, etc.

On the plus side, I didn't really have "dead time" this week. That time when I should be doing something like reading, writing, cleaning, exercising, etc, but instead I'm mindlessly on the loveseat scrolling through Facebook while vaguely watching something on TV with the husband. So, a drop in "dead time" is a plus, right? Yay again?

I'm going to see if I can keep the momentum of eliminating "dead time" while also adding in "writing time." In the meantime, I do have another old writing practice up.

"Icarus"

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Aaaaand Then I Fell Back Off

What the heck happened to me this week!?

I was so excited last week. I was energized. I was ready to attack my writing. I was ready to jump with both feet. I was going to finally get some momentum. My writing funk was over.

And now I don't even really remember what happened this week. I was at work. Friday, Hubby and I spent the better part of three hours at the hair salon getting our hair cut and dyed. Well, I took about three hours. He was done a little after one.... Last night we hosted game night again. The rest of the week? What filled the void that prevented me from writing? The reason why I didn't read a single page of the new Rick Riordan book I was so excited to pick up last week?

Not a clue. Not one. I can't recall what I did. I don't remember sitting on the couch and binge watching anything like I did over the winter. I know I cleaned my home, but it didn't take up that much time. I'm clueless.

Which is why I'm going to spend the rest of May using a technique Ali Luke has talked about before. One that is also touched upon in "A Writer's Book of Days." I need to start writing down my daily schedule. First, I should probably write one up based on what I THINK my schedule is and/or what I WANT my schedule to be. Then, each day, I need to write down what I actually am doing. This way I can get a better grip on where I'm spending my time, because this is getting ridiculous that I keep losing weeks like this.

AWBoD goes a step further, Judy Reeves suggests writing on the calendar exactly why I missed a writing session, or simply, why I didn't write that day. What was my reason? What did I do instead? At the end of the week or month or however long I'll give myself to collect this data, I can look back and truly see where I've been wasting my time. I could see what I'm doing instead of writing. I'll see my "avoidance behaviors."

I can tell you right now, "Watch TV" or "Scrolling through Facebook" will pop up far more than I'd like. The weather has been chilly again this past week, so I haven't been able to escape to the front porch. I again lost a comfortable spot to just hide away and write. The only really comfortable spot to sit upright for a long period of time is on our loveseats, which is right by the TV, which Hubby keeps on continuously while he's home for the background noise, which then distracts me. It's a bad spiral I knew I've been stuck in for a while. I really REALLY need to figure out how to climb out of it.

Maybe I really should start making "writing dates" with myself and just run away to the library up the street. I'll squirrel away in a corner of the building, have my earbuds in, and just write.

My earbuds. Those and my kitchen timer should be my best friends until I get into the habit. I keep neglecting them though. I don't know why. I don't know why I'm not putting in the work I know I need to. This week will have to be me attacking these questions and trying to find the answer.

Sorry I don't have anything new for you this week aside from another old writing prompt typed up. Hopefully it is enough to appease. Those of you who know me personally, poke me. Prod me. Push my nose to the page. Make sure I'm doing my exercises. Remind me how much I love writing. With any luck I'll get over myself and put something new to paper this week.

"Thrust Upon Them"

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Game Night!

Well, seems my thawing isn't quite complete when it comes to breaking out of my Winter Writing Freeze.

To be completely fair to myself, though, it was largely in part to an overwhelming amount of socializing this week. Last Tuesday was one of Hubby's work friends' birthdays. So, after our normal Tuesday-run-around, which included a Walmart run during laundry to save time instead of me writing during laundry like usual, we spent the late afternoon until close to midnight hanging out at his friend's house. Table-top game nights are such a great thing!

So great, in fact, that Hubby also hosted his own gaming night this Thursday. Another coworker of his, her boyfriend, along with Quarthix and his fiance, all came over to hang. Another really fun time, but also another night going until close to midnight. If that wasn't enough, Quarthix and his fiance had asked Ronoxym to officiate their wedding. Since their apartment is far from being kid-friendly, it was decided that Ron, Cyhyr, and their daughter would come to my place for a mini-meeting about the upcoming nuptials for the future Mr. and Mrs. Quarthix.

Since Ron and Cy live a little out of the way compared to everyone else, it always ends up a big thing when we know the two of them are coming to visit. So that meant that Shadow came off his mountain to also hang out.

Now, our house was clean for the Thursday game night - sorta - but we slacked on putting the games away, which snowballed into the rest of the house just being a wreck. On top of which, I needed to figure out how to baby-proof as much as possible. You never realize how many small things - and how short all your shelves are - until you try to baby-proof.

It was a full-weekend experience. If we weren't at work, we were cleaning the apartment. Really no down time for writing.

People left fairly early in the evening Sunday, about 7 or 8 at the latest, but I was so exhausted that Hubby and I just crashed on the couch, caught up on Facebook, and watched TV.

I wanted to get SOME writing done this week. Especially with writing group tonight. So, I figured I'd go back to Please, Let Me Explain. Everyone likes the story thus far. They like that I'm sticking with something, I'm even getting critiques on it. The change is probably the thought process of "why critique a one-off? Save that for something that is going to be a project."

All-in-all, it's really driving me to actually FINISH a longer writing project. Still a bit stuck since my co-writer Ron is finishing up his semester of college while working full time so Cy could stay home and raise their daughter. Doesn't exactly leave time to get writing done for either of them.

So I'm trying to do as much as I can while Ron is still on writing hiatus. I thought, Maybe I could write a prologue, or a flashback nightmare to let the audience know the details of Devon's leaving. That way it doesn't need to be explained via dialogue. I mean, sure, I'd like to think I did a good job at letting the reader know everything via dialogue without it seeming too heavy-handed. The problem, though, is that it's a bit long-winded instead. They just talk for PAAAAAAGEEEEEES. I need a way of tightening it up, and I can only do that if the readers know what the background story is.

I have two ways of doing that: prologue leading into Devon in his cell, or Devon having a flashback nightmare. The problem with the latter is that the audience might be a bit confused during his and Willow's argument, but that should be fine since it's all better explained about three pages later, right? The second problem is that it will all be from his POV, and most of the dialogue is Willow letting him know her POV.

So, maybe the flashback nightmare should be Willow's? Her driving force to see Devon in the holding cells? But the rest of the story - outside of Devon's head - is from his perspective, so starting the whole thing with Willow having the nightmare might be a bit jarring.

More jarring than neither POV for a prologue? Just a straight omniscient third-person narrative before giving the story over to Devon?

I was so stumped as to how to put in the backstory, and where, that I instead went back over the first two scenes that I already read at group and just tore it apart. This is just the first eight pages of a currently twenty-seven-page story. Anyway, I sent Ron the editing notes last night. Nearly every paragraph has something.

The problem is that the bulk of the story - pages nine through twenty-three - just go on forever; obviously, it's an argument that goes on for over fourteen pages! Granted, there's movement - from the hallway into Willow's room, back out into the hallway, back into Willow's room, things are thrown, people calm down - but it's still friggen FOURTEEN PAGES!

Any long-time readers of this blog know that I've been fighting with this section for about two years or so. I don't think I want to read it off to the group tonight. Just reading and discussing all the ways I should tighten it could take up the entire meeting. Yet, I also don't have any edits actually done on the first eight pages, and I don't have the prologue/nightmare written yet.

So, much to everyone's dismay, including my own, I guess I'm going back to reading off more of my practice writings. Reading them, along with typing them up to share with you guys each week, might get me back on the ball. I'm still back in January's prompts and it's nearly May!

Anyway, below is January 11th's prompt. A coworker of mine had recently told me an office anecdote, and I couldn't resist recreating it with some creative-licensing flair for this prompt. Thanks to that coworker, I was able to do an actual flash fiction this time. I think. I feel like it's a complete story and not just a scene....

"Yawn Immunity"

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I DID IT, RON! I HAVE A STORY UNDER 1000 WORDS! That's what? My fifth successful attempt since last October? I'm so good at this.

On the super plus side of all the baby-proofing, the house is still fairly clean. It's a lot easier for me to keep up with everything now, as long as I don't slip. With a clean house, I'm also less stressed. I don't feel so guilty reading and writing instead of cleaning. This might be the key. I may actually have my head uncluttered with my house. If it still doesn't work, it's at least nice enough weather to start some official Spring Cleaning. I'll just keep cleaning to clear my home and my head.

Plus, it's starting to be beautiful and pleasantly warm outside. I sat on my front porch yesterday, enjoying the air and typing up my editing notes for Ron. I'm going to love being able to do that again, as well as maybe getting back into exercising. Between a finally clean living room and being able to walk around outside, perhaps I can refocus on being healthier once more. The exercising last summer/early fall really did help me become more energized and excited to write.

I'll keep trying things out until I find the key. I am determined to figure out what exactly I need to do to stay on top of my writing!

Thawing the Last of the Winter Freeze (Hopefully)

It's been a sad, pathetic road the past month or so, but I finally did it. Aside from this blog post, the new D&D sessions with Bear, and the one time I updated on the now-dead X-Future boards, I finally wrote something! It was only yesterday, but it was still something! The non-writing streak is over. And I hope it stays that way.

Things have finally leveled off at work, and I'm getting my down-time again. Still need to sort through home-life some more to get back on track there, but one step at a time. I plowed through my third book of the year, and I hopefully have enough time to get another one in before the end of the month to get back on track.

So, before I go any further, let's catch up on that reading challenge, shall we?

Challenge by Reading Books Like a Boss

I already have something for either "outside comfort zone" or "recommended." When I visited my father-in-law for Easter he handed me his "lending copy" of "Atlas Shrugged" and told me he expected it back, and read, in about two months.

I doubt I can charge my way through that book before the end of the month, so I think I'm going to purposely avoid it for a few more days. We'll see if I can manage to get through it in the 31 days of May, or if I'll have to ask Professor FIL for an extension.

That does mean that I need another book to finish this month off with, though. Perhaps keep going with my Nikki Heat series? I still have the "name in the title" book to read, and the Heat Series are all titled with a play on word of her last name, which was why she was given the last name Heat.

OK. So, I finished reading the novel I started mid-March. I've written something quick - like, forty-minutes off-and-on quick. As per usual, I don't have it typed up to share, but it is the January 19th prompt, and I do have the January 10th one to share this week. So, I'm catching up. Would be nice if I could actually do multiple prompts in order to get back on date, so that the prompt is actually written on the day listed. Maybe next year I'll get the rhythm to do so.

Anyway, without further ado, my January 10th prompt. It's super short at under 800 words. I wasn't really sure where to go with it, and I wrote it while waiting for my clothes to dry. Going from complete zero and only allotting myself about 40minutes to write seems to be the key to me getting short stories out.

Still haven't made it into an actual flash fiction skill level yet. I'm still pretending with these vignette scenes. Sure, there's dialogue and minor action, but there's no beginning, middle, end or character arc, so they aren't really stories, are they?

*Ahem* So much for "without further ado," I'll just let you read....

"Seeing Stars"

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I'll probably fall behind again, because I really want to work on Please, Let Me Explain before my next writer's group meeting next week. I know the next section is both mindnumbingly long and oddly interesting at the same time. There's arguments and character advancement and it seems to at least keep me and Ronoxym drawn in, unable to break away from the drama. Therein lies the problem. We can't find a clean break. So their argument just goes on and on and on forever!

I need to figure out a way to tighten it up. A way to break up the action. Maybe have the arguments sprinkled within different interactions throughout the weeks since Devon's return? The problem there is that neither of them want to let the other have the last word. They chase after each other to explode more and try to guilt the other into shutting up. If either of them succeeded in walking away, would a conversation continue? There would have to be some sort of inciting incident. Would it get too boring for the reader to see them blow up at each other. Then do so again. And again. And again. All before Devon FINALLY convinces Willow to use her powers to get past their communication barrier; seeing things from his POV to better comprehend his pain. Maybe even have her leaving some of her POV for him to understand her too?

I think how we redo the opening will help a lot. How do we inform non-X-Future players the background of Devon's "defecting"? I am, supposedly, seeing Ron this Sunday. However, we're doing so to discuss him officiating a wedding for a friend, and I kind of don't want to hijack that conversation to bug him about PLME. Maybe I'll just do that online.

I think what's holding me back lately is an unclear direction of where to go with my writing. I have so many different paths I could travel, and I'm stumped.

I could edit the main body thus far written for PLME. I could redo the opening so I know how to better condense the dialogue. I could write the next part of the story since I have Ron's outline. I could update the outline so we don't have to do so many revisions.

And that's just with PLME.

I could also say "screw it; I'm playing catch-up" and just tear through multiple writing prompts. I could finally write out Jynna's backstory. I could figure out the backstory for my new D&D character Gevin. I could deal with the first major trauma that Jolene had to suffer and write the next chapter of "Lost Loves and Paramours." I could go back to "Ready. Set. Novel!" and work out more plot for Jolene's post-LL&P story. I could focus on finishing world building for "Glitches." Figure out such things as Cody's connection to the orphanage, or even what to call the damn place! I could even put in some "Hey, Arnold!" DVDs and get back to my post-college roots: finally finish, or at least write the next chapter for, What Is Truly Meant To Be.

There's so much I could do. I'm so overwhelmed by options that I think that's what's been shutting me down. I have no direction, so I wait to see which of my WIPs grabs me and goes "Work on me! Now!" yet none of them do. Without a demand to work on one project specifically, and without the desire to work on one project specifically, I'm frozen.

I need to become unfrozen. I need to pick a direction. I need a drive.

I need a fire under my butt. I preemptively apologize to my future agent/editor/publisher, who is/are going to have to really keep on me to keep going with my project in order to finish it.

Easter: yet another chance for new beginnings. Here's hoping my writing yesterday proves fruitful this time.