Busy Little Beaver

It is drizzling at 8:30 in the morning during the last full week of October in the Northeast of the United States. I should NOT be writing this post while still enjoying my front porch! I mean, I LOVE that I am, don't get me wrong, but.... um.... this should NOT still be my view while working on this post:

Especially since I'm just in a simple long-sleeve jersey tee. No sweater. No scarf. No jacket. I even have the sleeves pushed up a bit.

Silly Mother Nature.....

Anyway, it IS the tail end of October, which also means it is a week from Halloween. Well, thanks to me trying to get into the "Halloween Spirit" this month, I have been listening to my Halloween Playlist over on YouTube, and inspiration struck!

It was because of this lovely little easter egg song from the Left 4 Dead 2 video game. The Left 4 Dead series is a first-person shooter during the zombie apocalypse. For the second game in the series, the developers went to comedic song writer Jonathan Coulton, who was riding a new level of popularity after writing the song "Still Alive" for the closing credits of the Portal game. Coulton wrote a zombie-themed song that Left 4 Dead 2 ended up using as an easter egg song on a functioning jukebox within the game. If the players listen to the song long enough a horde of zombies shows up at the chorus.

Anyway, it's an amusing "group participation" song that I love listening to every October. Give it a listen yourself.

About two weeks ago, after listening to this song multiple times nearly every day for the first half of October, I just had this nagging thought about how much fun it would be to take the story already presented within the song and converting it into a written narrative. You know how writers keep commenting about waiting for that story to just "grab" you and "force" you to write it because you can't focus on anything else? Yeah. It was like that.

On top of that "need" to write this story, I had joined a fanfiction group on Facebook close to two months ago, and to celebrate hitting something like 2000 members, they came up with the challenge of writing something Halloween themed. I was so focused on the "Miraculous Ladybug" story for next month that I couldn't think of anything Halloween-themed that I wanted to do for a one-shot.

To finish the trifecta, there is another very popular fanfiction site other than fanfiction.net. It's called Archive of Our Own, or AO3 for short. The site only allows x-number of people to join at a time, and so it has a bit of a waiting list as more and more people decide to post there instead of on other sites, such as FF.net, largely due to the growing community and better site formatting; more user friendly. I knew of AO3 for quite some time now, but it was only recently that I was strongly encouraged to try to join. I've read some ML fanfics on AO3 without being a member, and the formatting just for reading did seem much better. Especially since you can download a PDF of the story, which is great for when I want to read it during my downtime at work, where I don't have wifi access.

After about a month on the waiting list, I got my letter of approval from AO3. I officially had my account, but wasn't sure what to post there. I could transfer over everything I had on FF.net, but I wanted to make sure of two things for AO3: 1) that the story was polished, and I didn't want to take the time to edit my older stuff to make sure it was up to par, and 2) that the story was complete. I didn't want AO3 readers left dangling like I did with my readers on FF.net or DA. I still had a few valid options to transfer over to AO3, and I did start the process of porting over my "Hey, Arnold!" stories a couple days ago. However, I wanted my first story on AO3 to be current. To be new. I figured I was going to have to wait until I was done with "Peeping Tomcat" before I could participate on AO3.

Then I had that story pop into my head thanks to Coulton's song. It just worked beautifully. It was kind of a palate cleanser after struggling with plotting out PT for so long. It could work for the Halloween-themed challenge on my Facebook group. I had something to post on AO3 to officially start up my account.

You can check out the story in either of my two original sites - DeviantArt or FanFiction.net - but you can now find it on AO3!

"RE: Your Brains"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction          On Archive of Our Own

It's kind of exciting! Sure, I didn't get that many hits and I haven't gotten any "kudos" yet... the AO3 version of "favorites" I guess? Whatever the equivalent, it means other members really liked your stuff. Point is, I haven't really gotten much love for the story. Then again, it is such an odd bit of "fanfiction" that I wasn't even really sure what fandom to put it in. Coulton's songs actually have something like 50 stories on AO3 based on them, and mine is the second one based on the song "Re: Your Brains." Plus, people in the Left 4 Dead fandom aren't exactly going to look for a story based on a song that was an easter egg in the second game. So, the readership isn't there.

Still, I enjoyed writing the story, even if it isn't the best thing I've done. The tale is out of my head and I can move on. I have something up on AO3. I participated in the fanfiction challenge. I still have 36 hits since I posted it four days ago. I haven't received any hate on the story. That's enough for me.

Now to try to get back to the ML fanfic for next week! Yeah! NaNo is NEXT WEEK! A week from tomorrow I start working on trying for that 50,000 word goal again.

And yet, because I was so fixated on that zombie fic, I haven't really advanced much of anything for the Peeping Tomcat plot. I think I settled on the order of:

• Adrien, as Cat Noir, spies on Marinette
• Adrien becomes addicted to his innocent voyeurism
• Adrien begins to realize he has romantic feelings for Marinette, but isn't sure what to make of them since he still strongly believes he loves Ladybug
• As Cat Noir, Adrien discovers that Marinette is LB
• Adrien again has to sort through his feelings, but decides that he does love both sides of Marinette and is even more excited about the prospect of being with her finally
• Adrien realizes that LB doesn't have romantic feelings for CN, so even if he could woo her as Adrien - unknowing that he doesn't need to win her over - what would the point be if she doesn't like Cat Noir romantically?

I think I'm going to end it like that. Mainly, it's because, as dense as Adrien may be, once he realizes that Marinette and Ladybug are the same person he may realize that the reason LB has no interest in CN is because she loves Adrien. It's kind of like how Adrien didn't romantically give Marinette the time of day at first because of his love for his partner. I couldn't have Adrien realize Marinette likes his civilian half in this story. It would make things too neat for him to figure out.

Also, as I mentioned last week, I already have a "You've Got Mail" inspired sequel in mind called "One and the Same." I even got the DVD of "You've Got Mail" over the past week, so I'm all set to watch that and write the sequel. I just need to finish "Peeping Tomcat" first. I think, since Kathleen and Joe didn't realize the romantic feelings they had for each other at first, that having that last reveal for Adrien - that Marinette loves his civilian side - as well as having Marinette find out that Adrien and Cat Noir are one and the same will be nice layering for that sequel story. Plus, it cleans up some awkwardness for PT since I just can't figure out where to slot in Marinette's feelings for Adrien among his own discovery of his feelings for her and her being LB.

ONLY TWO REVELATIONS ARE ALLOWED PER STORY!

Anyway, for "One and the Same" I think it's going to be roughly:

• Headline akuma attack to remind Adrien how dangerous it is that he knows who LB truly is, and that he shouldn't just outright reveal himself either. This recaps PT for the reader to catch them up.
• Adrien, in his struggle to figure out how to get Marinette to fall for his CN personality, finds out that Mari loves his civilian half.
• Adrien uses this knowledge to his advantage and chaos ensues as he slowly works in some more of his CN playfulness whenever he can around Mari, while also having CN interact with Mari more to try to win her over that way. 
• The same way Joe wins over Kathleen before allowing her to know that NY152 is him. Again, I'm going to have to watch the movie to get a feel for how Joe does it, and therefore how CN should do it.
• I'll have to figure out a mechanic here so that Marinette thinks she could have a potential relationship with CN, which would never happen if she thinks he's still madly in love with only LB. Either all his Adrien-teasing has to be to LB instead of Marinette, or he has to tell LB that he's moving on.... I'll figure it out when I'm closer to writing this story.
• Right when Mari is about to break because she's torn between Adrien, who is finally showing romantic interest back to her, and her budding feelings for CN, Adrien reveals himself to be her superhero partner; making her elated that CN is exactly who she wanted him to be.

Oh, the plot bunnies! I STILL have the Varekai story to write as well! I'm going to be busy for quite some time.

On the Varekai front, not only do I have the show mid-November to watch, but I also created Icarus for a D&D campaign that I just joined with my Hubby. The DM is using the most recent version of D&D: 5.0. I had no clue what I wanted to do with this new version of the game, as well as for the campaign as a whole. So I did a "random roll" where I basically rolled dice corresponding to the amount of race options I had available. The first three that had their number come up thrice were the top contenders. I was then going to roll one last time to see which one's number came up three times first.

However, one of my top three contenders ended up being the race known as the Aasimar. They are basically descendants of angels.

The Varekai story was still tapping at the front of my brain, waiting for the ML ones to get out of the way. I also recently wore my Icarus Communications sweatshirt. I was drawn to this race and decided I was just going to make Icarus.

I haven't quite figured out MY version of Icarus, but he's a weird blend of four "established" versions.
He has the blue skin and orange hair of the Icarus Communications mascot:

Designed by the Icarus Communications art director
"Brought to life" by artist and animator Tom Pollock Jr

He has the arrogant bravery and unbridled call to impulsiveness that derives from the portrayal of the original Icarus of Greek mythology.

He also has the seemingly dimwitted but adorable sweetness of the Icarus from Disney's Hercules TV series:

While I'm not sure if I'm going to keep Disney Icarus' quick turn to anger out of spiteful jealousy, I am keeping his obsession over Cassandra, but making my Icarus obsessed over the Sun instead. In doing so, I might inadvertently give him a little of the Icarus personality from this artist's series:

Series "Icarus and the Sun" by Picolo-kun on DeviantArt
aka: Gabriel Picolo

His take is that Icarus is made entirely of wax. Such a heart breaking series. The guy is super good!

Anyway, the final official inspiration for my D&D Icarus is of course the Icarus of Varekai: a bit bewildered as to his new surroundings as he slowly tries to acclimate himself to the life he's now living; resolved that he will never return to his old life. What was his abandoned old life? I don't know. I'm hoping my Icarus will tell me as I play him more....

The point to all of this, aside from more character development practice -
YAY!
- is that it might help me better develop the Varekai Icarus and drive me to write that story.

So.... yeah... I have three main writing projects in the works, and more keep popping up. I STILL have to redo that darn fight scene between Trish and Devon!!!!

I'm going to be a busy little beaver the tail end of this year and the start of the next. That's not even including the fact that I still have to read 3 - possibly 4 or 5, depending on how I interpret the challenge - more books to finish off the "Reading Books Like a Boss" challenge.

I don't need to actually do things like socialize, play video games, or.... I dunno.... clean for the rest of the year, right?

I should probably get started on SOMETHING to chew away at everything I have on my To Do list. Until next week!

Finally, Some Writing!

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

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

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

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

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

"Welcome to Ashitar"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Everything for a Reason"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

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

Challenge created by Modern Mrs. Darcy

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

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

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

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

Sickness: 2; Writing: 0

Ug! Two week streak. Fantastic.

Hubby was oh so kind to make sure to share..... his cold.....

Friday, when I normally would have the house to myself, due to Hubby being out with his friends playing their weekly game, was a writing wash for me. None of them wanted to play the format of Magic that was being hosted at the local gaming store - as I mentioned last week - and so we all got together to watch a movie instead. It was a fun time, but an unproductive one.

And Friday was my last healthy day.

I woke up Saturday with a non-stop running nose and a wicked pressure headache. Popped some meds, which ended up doing nothing really, and headed in to work. Since my normal Sunday Solitude was also a wash due to being scheduled for the overnight, I was planning on spending the day writing, sleeping, and trying to kick this cold before it got as bad as Hubby's.

While I was mildly successful in preventing it from getting as bad as my husband's, this cold still majorly kicked my butt all week. I only survived work via travel packets of tissues, a near-endless supply of non-medicated throat drops, and my shifts only being 4hrs long. When I wasn't working I was huddled in bed; mostly sleeping.

Hubby stepped up and did the chores around the house, but he's still getting over the tail end of his cold, and so said chores were sort of a minimum: laundry, do the dishes needed for that meal, take out trash, etc.

The self-imposed bed rest did allow me to finish my second book of the year, but I only managed to get it done by the end of February by the grace of the Leap Day. I was about five chapters away on the 28th.

My brain hasn't really been functional enough to write anything creatively, though. I've tried. It's been keeping me about seven attempts and two days each to respond to anything in the X-Future game. This Sunday was supposed to be the first adventure of my first campaign DMing, and not only did I cancel due to exhaustion and illness, but throughout this week I've been trying to figure out a pre-written adventure that was part of the D&D Starter Kit I bought nearly a decade ago. My mind can't even unfog enough to think of a simple dungeon for the players to run through.

I skipped out on my bi-weekly local writing group meeting on Tuesday as well. I was still too sick to really leave the house unless I really needed to - e.g. work - I didn't want to infect any of those ladies, and I didn't have anything to share anyway.

The closest I got to working on my next chapter is a very vague outline. As I mentioned last week, I'm attempting to gather up a bunch of "too short to be a solo-chapter" roleplays to add to the chapter where Chayse is training Lia; to beef it up a bit. I have two others I can use. Neither are crucial for over-all plot, and I was originally going to breeze past them, but it does show that there's more characters at the institute than just Chayse, Nix, Lia, and Annika. Also, it adds some fun character development. Actually transferring this outline to narration? My brain fogs up again. Man, I need this cold to go away!

I have been trying to stay creative. I did mention that I've attempted to stay active on the forum. Just because I'm ill doesn't mean the new players should be deterred from playing due to my inability to interact with them. So, I attempt. It takes a while, and it's not the most exciting posts, but it gives them something to respond to at least.

I've also been grinding through getting this first adventure ready for Sunday. No clue if I'll follow through, though. Yet again I was scheduled to help with the overnight - something I'm NOT happy with, but think of the money.... - and one of the players may have already had something scheduled.

Right! I forgot to mention. One of Hubby's friends Goob watched the movie with us on Friday, and we were talking about the D&D stuff. He's mildly interested in playing, but - much like the rest of us - hasn't had a consistent-enough playgroup to really get into it. So, Saturday, when I should have been resting, writing, or at least planning the first dungeon, was instead spent helping him - and later Spink - build his character. Between the two of them, this was an all-day event. Spink didn't go home until close to midnight, and Hubby and I had work at 3am. Not much rest to nip my cold in the bud.

Anyway, Goob has a pseudo-prior commitment for this weekend that he's still not sure he's going to follow through on. If not, then we'll D&D if I'm not on death's door from working the overnight again. If he does to with the prior commitment, we may still play, but bring him in a little later. Only problem there is making up the experience gap from him missing the first game. Third option is to not actually start playing until Hubby and I come home from our PA trip mid-March. That gives me another two weeks plus change to figure out a dungeon. It might be best.

I have been trying to doctor the "boxed adventure" I got from the starter kit so that it's mildly original, and fit the party a bit better. Trying to come up with my own NPC dialogue and character motives for the quest-giver as well as the monsters the players will come across. Make the whole thing seem more organic than "you all randomly decided to join together to go into this dungeon and fetch this thing for the local baron." That counts as creative writing, right?

The true embarrassment is that Ali Luke draws at random among Writers’ Huddle members that check-in weekly during the challenges. Even if you didn't hit your goal, if you checked-in you were still eligible to win the weekly prize.

Guess who won last week?

I know, if I felt so bad about being rewarded for slacker behavior - as I teased Ali about - than maybe I should have purposely delayed my check-in until after she announced the winner. I was too sick-fog-induced to think of that at the time. I had hoped that maybe I could have used it as a motivator to kick some writing butt this week, but my illness has just held me back more than my chaotic schedule last week did.

Hubby's off at work. I'm home most of the day. I'm hoping that will result in SOMETHING productive. We'll see. At worst, I can try to use my bedridden-ness to get started on my March book: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish", the next book in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series. This will probably be my "book I once abandoned" selection for the reading challenge. Once again, here's a reminder of the list for any who wish to participate:

Challenge presented by Modern Mrs. Darcy

Alright, well enough chatting here. I won't get anything accomplished this way. Here's hoping I'll have something to share with you next Thursday.

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

Running, Running, Running

Alright, so, even for a few weeks, and only for a scheduled hour, I still can't manage to write every day. Not even for something as puny as 500 words. It's a bit pathetic, actually. Even when I'm done with work later in the day, you'd think being out of the store by 3 would give me enough time to do everything else that I need done with an hour to spare to write.

You'd be surprised, apparently.

I keep letting Life get in the way, and it's annoying me. Really annoying me. But of course, once I set my mind to something as simplistic as "No one talk to me between 4 and 5pm because I'm writing," that's when I'm not even in my house during that hour. I guess it makes sense. As soon as I went "I'm moving my updates to Thursdays since I have them off all the time," that's when I started consistently working them.

Once again I'm debating switching my writing updates. Perhaps Mondays since I have them off. Maybe I'll even change my availability so that I never again work Mondays. Then again.... I need money, and that would be a dumb move if they need me on Mondays in the future. Which will most likely happen as soon as I move my blog update days to them.

I did manage to hit my 3500 words a week goal, though. Barely. I wrote about 1200 words on Monday in order to finish up the previous chapter - which I believe I already commented on last week - and then I finished up this week's chapter at about 2000 words. In one sitting. It was a semi-long sitting.

I was so mad that it kept me until Friday to write anything - besides this blog - and so I just sat in silence, and wrote. Next thing I know, I have the chapter done. It's short, compared to my other writings, but it seemed to have a natural stopping point that I listened to.

Saturday I edited, polished, and added a few more words to both improve the chapter, and get me the remaining 300 words I needed for my weekly goal.

I haven't had any sort of comments on really any of the chapters in The Second Generation Begins, and so I'm a bit nervous about how this chapter is/will be received. It's basically a retelling of the earlier chapter "Rescues and Robots," but through Lia's Point of View. I was debating breezing over this solo-role play that I did on the board, but I feel like it really showcases Lia's character, and the bond growing between her and Chayse. So, I rolled with it. It's tiny, and so I hope it works and isn't too boring.

"Giant Robots of Death"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

I'm now working on the chapter I originally thought I was going to write when I started "Giant Robots of Death," but with the natural stopping point I had at the end there, I just couldn't continue on to the next scene.

So, now we have Lia tracking down Chayse. It was weird trying to figure out whose POV I was going to use for this chapter. Whose chapter was it? In the end I went with Chayse. I had two Lia chapters in a row already, and the lead-in to the chapter included a conversation between Chayse and Gambit that Lia wouldn't have been around to hear anyway. I could have had her hear it when she found Chayse, but it would have been hard to stop her from interrupting it.

Also, my husband isn't nearly as descriptive as I am. He writes enough that you know what's going on, but he doesn't add in things to showcase personal ticks a character would have. For instance: Lia, when nervous, bites her lip and plays with orange streaks she keeps dyed in her hair; Willow, when feeling particularly mischievous gives herself a Cheshire Cat illusion of ears, twitching cat tail, and large grin; Trish, when bored, plays with fire the way that someone might play with a lighter: snaps her fingers to create a flame, snuffs it, snaps to create another one, snuffs it, etc.

Does the reader need to know these ticks? Not really, no. Especially when the reader is simply another player on the board. Hubby's lack of elaboration keeps play moving. We know enough to set the scene and interact. That's all that matters.

For novelization, however, we need a touch more. Otherwise Chayse is this blank canvas that allows every individual reader the ability to paint him completely unique to their own imagination. It's not a bad tactic; a lot of books are starting to purposely be vague in character description specifically for that point.

It's not me, though. I have a set image in my head, and I feel it's my job to try to portray it so that everyone can see the same image I do. Again, personal preference.

Which is another reason why I try to get into Chayse's head whenever possible. I've talked with Hubby enough to more-or-less know what goes on in there - same with Devon - and so, if I can't at least figure out exterior ticks that will showcase his state of mind, I can literally go into it to show the reader what's up.

I can have another character note Lia's lip biting while playing with her hair, and the readers should know that she's nervous or self-conscious. Chayse hides this feeling - for the most part - because he feels he needs to be the rock for the other students. In which case, if he's nervous or unsure about something, I have to dive into that cranium to let the readers know that.

Anyway, those are all my reasons behind the POV switch to Chayse in the upcoming chapter.

It's going moderately well in the writing schedule front. I wrote about 1600 words on Monday; a good start. I'm about half-way through the scene. I also just picked up on how much Lia used to tease and call Chayse nicknames. When I originally wrote Lia, I was definitely channeling Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series. The way she picked on him, and called him things like Seaweed Brain. Lia did the same exact thing to Chayse.

Picking on people and giving them nicknames has evolved into an exclusively Willow thing, and no one calls Chayse "Cajun" anymore either. I like the change up. It definitely fits Willow's personality more. It will be interesting to explain that transition, though. Also, maybe it's about time Lia starts calling Chayse "Swamp Brain" again whenever he's being particularly stupid.

Tuesday got away from me, but I did read off what I wrote so far for the chapter while I was at my writing group. There wasn't really much by way of comments on the story itself - not that I would really alter anything since this is all just conversion from the roleplay - but we did get into a semi-long discussion about X-Men in general once I was done.

Yesterday also got away from me. By the time I was done with work, and dinner, I was back out the door to drive about 45minutes to a movie theater - because I live in nowheresville with a one-screen theater that isn't showing Deadpool - in order for me, Hubby, and two of our friends to FINALLY do our Valentine's Day double-date. I wasn't feeling well at ALL on V'day, Hubby was exhausted from the overnight shift, and one member of the other couple also wanted to just stay in, due to how insanely cold it got randomly over the weekend.

Anyway, my point is that between work, dinner, drive down to the mall, watching the movie, and the drive home from the mall, I had maybe an hour total to just sit at home and chill. I SHOULD have used it to write, but I needed a mental wind-down, and so it was spent catching up on Facebook, emails, and DeviantArt uploads by artists I follow.

Sadly, I also have no hope for getting any fiction writing done today. Due to my slacking yesterday, my "first thing in the morning writing" that I COULD be using for fiction is instead being utilized to write this post. Then it's work. Then it's come home, change, grab something to eat real quick while clipping coupons that I've been avoiding all week. Then back out to the store with Hubby to grocery shop for the week, then over to the fabric store to FINALLY get more to maybe ACTUALLY finish that darn blanket for my nephew, then off to Walmart to pick up a small array of things we need, and then FINALLY back home again. Grab some more grub, unwind for a bit, and then MAYBE get writing done. It's possible, but doubtful.

Maybe if we also include a run to the laundromat today. I could bring my headphones - which I always seem to forget - and write while doing laundry. If not, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow, and I'll get a lot of writing done again. Between laundry and Hubby being away for his weekly Magic thing, I'll have plenty of downtime to utilize.

I have high hopes of completing this chapter on schedule. I might even get the 3500 words a week yet again. I have no hopes of ever writing 500 words daily again until I can get the world to follow me with getting on schedule.

Silly, Life, just work with me, here!

One last fun little note to shout out. I don't recall if I mentioned this last year, due to me trying to keep my private life out of this blog if it didn't directly affect my writing one way or another, but my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a very aggressive strain of cancer. It was a rough go, but the woman is.... is there a word for "Scrappy" on steroids? Anyway, she'd a fighter that's too stubborn to die before she gets more time with her grandbabies - and sees the ones that I'll produce, I'm sure - and managed to do what apparently only 11% can.

This Tuesday she found out that she is officially cancer free! She also discovered that she somehow fractured a rib on each side.... but she's cancer free!

Facebook sticker Hacker Girl
by Birdman Inc

Alright, now that I have that out of my system, I should probably get ready for work. I'll catch you next week, with hopefully a better daily writing record....

Can We Fast Forward to Next Week?

This has been a very fast week, and a massive productivity crapshoot.

I wasn't able to finish the X-Future: The Second Generation Begins chapter before the end of Sunday due to a whole bunch of chaos last week. So, I started this week attempting to finish the darn thing, edit it, and get it published. It was a difficult battle in doing so.

Mainly because at some point on Sunday I busted the charger cable for my netbook. Still don't know how or when. It was working fine earlier in the day, and then it just stopped working for me when I moved from the bedroom to the living room. Hubby was able to get it at JUUUUUUST the right angle for it to still work, but it had to be at exactly that angle. Then it was over to our friends' house for the Super Bowl, and once more Hubby had to set up the charger at the proper angle for it to work.

Then Monday came around. I made the mistake of shifting which outlet my laptop was plugged into after Hubby was at work. I couldn't get the charger to work any longer, but I had a full battery. However, between everything I needed to do, the battery drained faster than I anticipated. Before I knew it, I was done with the writing, but not the edits of the chapter. However, my laptop was blinking that it only had 10percent battery left. I struggled with the charger for a good half-hour or so. The laptop was now frantically beeping that it only had about 5percent battery life left, so I caved in and turned the dang thing off.

Between attempting to get the laptop to bring up a menu it's supposed to after hitting FN+ESC - which it refused to do - and scanning everywhere else on the computer, I finally gave up. I took the battery pack out - since it was turned off anyway - to finally find the model number so I could buy a new charger online. Problem was, the only one on Amazon that listed my laptop's specific model number also had a 1star review saying that it didn't work for said specific model - there were about a dozen listed that it was supposedly compatible with - even though it claimed it would. Nervous that I was buying something I wouldn't use, I bit the bullet and bought the cord anyway since there were no other options that I could find in my frantic panic.

I got the cable in the mail yesterday, it works fine - stupid 1star reviewer - but it's about half the length of my original cable, so now I'm stuck working on my laptop only about 2ft from an outlet. Thankfully, Hubby bought me that new battery a few months back, so I can unplug once it's fully charged so it's not as big of an issue. But if I want to finish up something when the laptop is dying, off to my little outlet corner I must go.

Anyway, so it's Monday, my laptop is dead, and I still have to finish with my writing hour and posting the chapter. I decide to go on to Hubby's laptop to do so; thanking myself for writing everything in Google Docs so that I don't need my specific laptop to finish.

Problem is, I didn't want to screw up Hubby's Chrome settings, so I logged in under Incognito Mode. Except, Google Docs won't work unless I log in. Thinking "I'm in incognito, it will be fine" I went ahead and logged in to Google Docs, which logged me in to Google+, which then reset all of Hubby's Chrome presets to mine. Weirdly enough, even though we never went onto my computer under Hubby's account, when I revived my laptop yesterday my Chrome had all of his presets. Weirdest part is that Hubby's laptop claims it's set up under his Google+ account, and my netbook says it's logged in under mine. So, why do I have Hubby's presets and bookmarks, and he has mine? We have yet to figure this out, and so we're slowly rebuilding all of our bookmarks and the like. It's quite frustrating. So much so that I didn't want to bother looking at my computer at all yesterday.

So, mark that as a Zero-Day for writing.

Back to Monday. So, I'm on Hubby's laptop. Logged in on Google Docs. Finished the chapter, edited it, and published on DeviantArt and FanFiction. I was even proud of the fact that I didn't even get my full hour of writing in, but I still managed about 1200 words!

If you'd like to check out the chapter. You can find it here:

"Could Be Twins"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

I wanted to go straight into the next chapter. It should be significantly shorter since it's mostly written out via role play, there's not much I'll need to alter, and there isn't any new room I need to describe. I thought that maybe this would be the week where I could get the X-Future chapter done, as well as get another writing prompt set up for my meeting this upcoming Tuesday.

Instead, I have yet to even START the chapter. Stupid computer.

By the time I gave up attempting to revive my computer, and found a cable I could order to charge it again, I barely had any time left before Hubby was done with work. He came home, we celebrated the Lunar New Year - yeah, because wearing all that red was really bringing me good luck; thanks Year of the Monkey - and then he played some more Skyrim while I finished posted my chapter. I just didn't have the energy to get started on the next chapter after that whole headache. Especially since the actual chapters are in Google Docs, but the list of posts I was converting are all on my private laptop. I'd have to manually sift through all of the X-Future posts all over again to try to gather up what I needed. I wasn't ready to do that with everything else going on already.

Tuesday was a real bummer. I had to be in work an hour before my shift to drop Hubby off, and I had to stick around an hour after my shift for Hubby to clock out. I could have gotten so much writing done, but nope. Computer was out of commission. At least I got some reading done.

Same with yesterday. I had another three hours or so bookending my shift after dropping off Hubby and waiting for him to clock out. Once again, I didn't have my computer to write on, so I read. I guess that's a plus at least.

I had decided to start up "Life, The Universe, And Everything" by Douglas Adams. It's the third installment in the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series. I wasn't sure what book category I wanted to read next, and so I figured I'd go back to Hitchhikers - it's a small enough book that I can easily carry it in my purse - for the challenge. I wanted to go with "A book you abandoned" but I couldn't recall which one that was. Part of me feels fairly certain that I finished "Life, the Universe, and Everything" and that I abandoned the next book "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." However, Hubby doesn't remember me finishing "Life..." and so, I don't want to start up "So Long..." if I never finished "Life..." But what if I did finish "Life..."? Is this a waste of reading time? I read too slowly for me to be able to get this and another book done within a short month, especially when I missed the first week of it!

Well, then I rationalized that even if I did finish "Life..." I can still mark it off as one of two books: "A book I've read at least once before" or "A book published before I was born". And if it turns out that I was right, and I didn't finish this book the first go, I can use it as I originally intended: the abandoned book.

I think it was the abandoned book, because it's already starting to annoy me. While the first two books were fantastic and hilarious - and I have chuckled at this one too - there's something about the situations Arthur finds himself in that seem a bit too over-the-top compared to the earlier novels. I'm pushing though it, though. I think another hiccup is that in the first two books, Arthur is out in the galaxy, experiencing new worlds and cultures. I'm just as new to these worlds as the protagonist. I'm learning with him. "Life..."? Well, there's a whole section dealing with cricket and general English culture that makes sense to those that live in Adams' native country, but for a foreigner like me, I'm confused as to what is going on. On top of that, since Adams' assumed most of his audience knows exactly what is going on, he felt he didn't need to explain anything. Which confuses me more. If it were an alien thing that he's pitching at the readers, he'd know we had no clue, and so he'd explain things. Cricket? Nah. People know what's up.

I mean, I did play a game or two of cricket in college - thank you, eccentric Communications professor - but I don't recall much of anything. So, my brain is about as fried as Arthur's at this point in the book.

I'm hoping to get past the overboard opening of this book and power on through it, and enjoy it enough to want to read the remaining three books in the series.

I'm just batting 1000 with these series books. First, the Kane Chronicles were sort of lackluster for me, and now Hitchhikers.... I need more Percy Jackson....

Alright, I know I've been sort of all over the place with this post, and honestly, I don't have the time to bother going back and editing it to be more linear. So, let's recap, shall we?

Monday: Tried writing. Laptop died. I had a freak out for about an hour. Finished writing, editing, and publishing the chapter via Hubby's laptop. Celebrated Lunar New Year.

Tuesday: Laptop still down due to no charger. Fat Tuesday/Doughnut Day/Faschnact Day/Mardi Gras. Ate a lot of doughnuts. Spent all morning, and the early part of the afternoon at work without access to a computer to write. Tried reading instead. Got home and frantically cleaned. Two co-workers showed up a few hours later in order to build their new X-Future characters. Had a grand-old-time, but didn't have the ability to steal Hubby's laptop for writing. Zero Day.

Wednesday: Another day where I spent the majority of it at work, but with no access to a computer in order to write. Read instead. Attempted to get home, only for the soft metal of my car key to bend in the lock. Had to have the in-laws drive us home in order to get the spare. Had a headache of a time to make more spare copies in case this happens again. Don't actually make it home until after 6pm. Ate dinner, got frustrated at life, read some more. Passed out at 8:45pm. Zero Day.

Thursday: Got up early to write this post. Something is up, though, and I've been having stomach issues all morning. Hopefully it won't cause me to go a third day in a row without writing something fictional. I have to do grocery shopping, and laundry today. I'm hoping to write while doing laundry at least. This week hasn't been going well for me.

And now I'm off to get ready for work. I'm really REALLY hoping for a turn-around today, and the rest of the week.... With any hope, I'll still have a new chapter for everyone next week. I'm just sorry for anyone who had been following my writing prompts anthology since I've been slacking on that.

2016 Resolutions and Accountabilities

Alright, so I didn't manage to get to writing this as early as I had originally intended, but I'm determined to have it done before the end of the day so I can do my normal weekly update on Thursday and still manage to get on track to having 52 updates this year.

Speaking of which, that's what I wanted to talk about in this post: 2016 New Years Resolutions.

Pretty much every one of them are going to be the same as last year's, but this time I'm doing more to make sure I stick with them. A lot more accountability.

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

I'm going to attempt to do the "Don't Break The Chain" concept of marking a calendar. Thing is, I need the calendar first. "Don't Break The Chain" and "No Zero Days" is basically the same concept. The thought is to do something productive daily that works towards an overall goal. Each day you accomplish this - a non-zero day - you mark your calendar. After a little while you'll see a chain of days that you managed to do the task you set out to do: write, draw, sing, exercise, clean, etc. It's added motivation to see that chain of "x"s - or whatever it is you use to mark the calendar - add up each day. You really don't want to "break the chain" by having a day not marked off. It's kind of weird to say this, but it's the same concept as marking a toddler's "potty chart" whenever they use the toilet instead of their diaper. They get excited about the number of stickers they get, and they are disappointed when they can't get one because they didn't use the toilet.

Humans are simple creatures, and at times I feel like I need to just go back to those original tricks of "training" toddlers in order to help me break my bad habits. I've been sort of fail so far this year due to being sick, and so I'm hoping adding the "Don't Break The Chain" concept will help keep me disciplined.

In the meantime, I have some challenges to keep me writing. First is the fact that the local writing group gives out prompts at the end of each meeting, and I try to write off of those prompts in time to read it at the next meeting. It's been going well so far.

Second is that Phfylburt and I have a challenge set up for each other too. He's switched over to wanting to draw daily to improve that skill. So every Sunday we are now giving each other challenges/prompts. The following Sunday we exchange what we did that week given the prompt/challenge. Then we repeat the process by issuing each other a new prompt/challenge.

I'll go more into this a bit later.

Resolution #2: Read At Least One Book A Month

I wanted to make sure that I get this one this year. So, I started off by using my sickness downtime to crack open The Throne of Fire yet again. I managed to put a bit of a dent into it too. I'm aiming to have this book FINALLY done before the end of the month so that I can also manage to sneak in a book that I can "read in one day." Why one day?

Much like with my first resolution, I've made sure to include a challenge for accountability sake. The challenge was put out by blogger Anne on the site Modern Mrs. Darcy. The long and short of it can be found in this picture she created:


Now, just having the challenge and saying I want to do it is a start, but I've learned that I never tend to follow through with anything unless someone else can check in on me. So, my mom, Spink, and Cyhyr are all joining me. On the first of each month we are going to do a check-in to state what book we read and under what category of the checklist it was for us. This way we're not restricted to finding a book we'll all read as a typical reading group would, but we all still get the benefits of talking about the book we chose.

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week

Tweaked the wording of this a little from last year. I want to be a more active member again. I was doing so well for a while, and then again dropped off the face of the Earth. I have to be honest, part of me doesn't want to click on that link to go back to the forums because I know I have a lot to catch up on, and it'd daunting. But little bits here and there to slowly catch up shouldn't be too overwhelming. Baby steps. So, I'm tasking myself to rejoin the forum community by the end of this week. The accountability will be forum members seeing me active. The trick is going to be remaining active once the chaos of November and December swing by again. I just need to see if I can get one or two of them to send me FB messages asking me if I'm still alive if I haven't logged in after a week. I think that might do it.

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

Last year I did the MasterClass, and I still pull from it all the time. It has really reshaped the way I look at certain things in regards to writing. Knowing how much it can impact me, I'm really going to try to get through one of the modules on Writers' Huddle.

In fact, Ali Luke just put up a new seminar about beating both procrastination and writer's block. That sounds right up my alley! She also just sent me an advanced copy of her book on basically the same subject to beta read. Now, to find a way to make myself accountable so I don't slack off on this again....

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

As I just stated, Ali just sent me - this morning, actually - an advanced copy of her book on finding the time to write, with hopes that I can beta and get some notes back to her. That's actually the next thing on my To Do list after finishing this post. I'm hoping it will work well with my other resolutions to keep me on the straight and narrow when it comes to writing discipline.

I also have to get around to reading DFL's story that she sent me a little over a month ago. It didn't seem like such a big task at first. She wanted me to read her backstory for her characters. I was figuring it was something like Amara's; about 4 or 5 pages long. Instead, it turns out that her "backstory" is actually her "original story"; the first story in this saga that she wrote a few NaNoWriMo's ago. The whole document is over 100 pages. Not the "sit down and get through it in one day" reading I was expecting.

So I've put it off. Something that is not fair to DFL at all. As a means to try to correct this wrong, I'm going to push myself to get through at least one scene every two weeks so I have something new to bring to her at the bi-weekly meetings. I only have one week this go, though, since our meeting is next Tuesday night.

From this point out, I'm going to try harder to actually do right by the people I beta for. Get them their notes quickly. Especially after hearing how quickly James Patterson can manage this task. Once more, though, I feel I need some way of holding me accountable, and I don't think it's going to be via complaints. So far I've dealt with some saintly patient writers....

Resolution #6: Have 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2016

I dropped the first part about "six items of prose published" because with all of these challenges keeping me away from zero-days, I should have something new to post every week. The trick is getting around to writing my weekly blog posts. So, this year I'm going for the big 5-2. I've come close, but I haven't actually done it yet. Perhaps this will be the year. Then, maybe 2017 will be the year of me posting an update at the same time and on the same day every week.

Alright, so those are my resolutions this year, with added accountability to try to get me to actually succeed with them this time. How have I been doing so far?

Well, for the Non-Zero Days, I've been "meh". I wrote on the 4th in order to have that dog story ready for the meeting on the 5th. I wrote my blog post last week. I'm working on this post today - and I started it yesterday - so there's that. Plus I worked on the challenge that Phfyl gave me. I have been doing other story-related things lately, but that's all the writing I've been doing.

Speaking of Phfyl's challenge, I promised last week, as well as earlier in this blog, to showcase what I wrote. Keep in mind that I'm not a poet, and this is VERY rough. As Phfyl put it:

Phfylburt: It did feel like a first draft and that it was kind of simply scratching the surface. It also didn't feel complete, like it could have used two or three more lines. Of course this is all subjective, so take it as you will.

He prefaced with a lot of nice things about the poem, which shocked me since I still think I suck at it. I'm with him, though, it does feel like a first draft. However I don't have a clue on how to edit a poem. Prose you can see where you can add description, or cut it, or add/cut dialogue, or where you can use a better word. Poetry? I dunno. Too "unstructured" for me, I guess. Kind of like how I'm not a fan of the "Open World/Sandbox" games like Elder Scrolls where you can go anywhere, do anything, or be anyone. I need more guidelines.

Alright, enough dawdling.

Inner Critic
Inadequate
Everyone else has their plan
What is mine? Where am I headed?
What’s going to grab me; drive me?
Self-doubt
We all have it, and I need to conquer it
I can do this.
I need to do this.
This is me. Why can’t I find me?
Push through. Always pushing through.
Focus on the good. Focus on the positive.
Still, I feel so behind; just trying to catch up.

Want to know a fun bit of trivia about this poem?

The challenge was "write a poem (lets say simply twelve lines) describing nothing. It can be in whatever form you would like."

I interpreted that to mean that I wasn't allowed to describe anything. Phfyl MEANT for me to literally describe "nothing." He wanted to see what I would come up with in poetry form as I described the essence of "nothing"; however I saw it. The real fun part about this whole misunderstanding was that when he read my poem he thought that I had followed as intended, except that I was describing what it felt like to think of yourself as nothing.

I guess that is partially true. Maybe a part of my subconscious figured out what Phfyl was going for and decided to point me in that direction. So, the poem ended up having me describe what it was like to feel like nothing, while avoiding describing anything at all.

Huh....

Well, my latest challenge is to write a news report based on a song. I'm still trying to figure out what song to use. I've also sent out a query late last night to see if Ronoxym wanted in on these challenges in order to stay on top of his reading/writing. He hasn't replied as of this posting. I hope he is willing to join in on this, because I have a great challenge in mind for him!

I'm now off to read Ali's book, which I might be able to qualify as my "read in one day" book for this month. I'm hoping to get another post in this week on my normal Thursday update. Keep your fingers crossed for me.