Writing Spirit Renewed

Behold the power of the Daily Challenge!

I go from two weeks in a row where I am not inspired in the least and haven’t written a single word to a week where I am spending most of my free time writing!

Last month the Hey Arnold Creative Ideas group on facebook presented a 15-day challenge. Every day a new art theme was presented and everyone participating had 24hours to draw something Hey Arnold related using that day’s theme.

Now, I have difficulties drawing stick figures, so I clearly wasn’t going to participate in the drawing daily challenge, but I really wanted to.

Then comes an announcement that there will be a writing daily challenge for the month of July. Now THAT I could participate in! No whining about Writer’s Block! Who knows when I’d have an opportunity like this again? I was going to participate!

Not only do I post "on time" on my DeviantArt account, but I also then post in an anthology that I created specifically for this challenge. Every day I update with a new "chapter" - each chapter is the previous day's writing prompt. So feel free to follow along! ^_^

So far - aside from a hiccup on the sixth where I just couldn't think of anything - it’s going much better than Script Frenzy, and I think that’s because of four reasons:

1. There is something new to write about each day. I don’t have to sit and think of a long story – as naturally as that comes to me. Instead I can just sit for an hour, write a little blurb, and be done with the challenge for the day. Granted, it's been more like "Write for 20minutes at a time throughout the day and write 3000 words" but you get my point... Plus, the new daily topics keep me from getting bored with what I’m writing.
2. I actually know of others participating and I get to read what they wrote every day. It’s great to see what others come up with, see their stylings, and it’s a fun way to relax: just sit and read short fanfiction. The stories that are coming out of this challenge are so awesome! It makes me super excited to see what other people are going to post next.
3. Because this large community is all participating and posting daily, that puts pressure on me to continue participating and posting daily. Granted, no one is going to be “You suck! You quitter!” – it actually goes more along the lines of “Awww, it’s too bad you didn’t continue…” but still. However, reading everyone’s positive feedback and writing “I can’t wait to see what you come up with next” is such an addicting feeling. I need more of this in my life when it comes to writing – and especially when it comes to exercising!
4. Finally, I find it easier to continue with this because my oh so darling DarkAngel1326 is the one who is in charge of the challenge. She randomly selects writing prompts from a LiveJournal post and then sends the prompts our way. She then gets gloriously and ironically stuck on what to write and is usually one of the last people to post something – so it’s fun to encourage her on the day to day. Which means that if I’m poking at her to write I can’t be a hypocrite and I need to write alongside her – which brings us back to point number 3.

So I have been on a bit of a writing frenzy and it's all thanks to DA1326! Another thing that's thanks to her is my new catchphrase: Tsunami of Awesomeness!

On the third she was going on and on about how great my stuff was and how hers blew in comparison. Obviously I didn't agree with her, but that's our way. ^_^ So in our "argument" we had this little banter:

DarkAngel: "I think [I have an idea that's] kinda original, but, at the rate you're going, you'll blow me out of the water."

Me: "I'm sure I won't blow you out of the water..."

DarkAngel: "You're right. You won't blow me out of the water. You'll create a tsunami of awesomeness and drown me out with your amazing prose."

XD DA, you're just too cute and I'll glomp you if I ever meet you in person! <3

I've also met a new buddy thanks to the challenge. Seems our little writing community has a "Pay It Forward" policy... I beta for DA, she then offered to beta for Angelblood666 - I'll get back to him in a second - and HE offered to beta for someone in the Creative Ideas group I mentioned above. I'm sure in a month or two she'll offer to beta for someone else, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, back to AB666. He and DA have been chatting a lot, and she offered to beta for him. Apparently, throughout their numerous daily talks my name comes up time and again - and with strong encouragement to read my works! *blush* So AB finally reads what I have and gives me these rave reviews each time!

I then see that DA posted my Daily Challenge "entry" in the Creative Ideas group for everyone there to see. This I should be doing myself, but it feels weird for me to promote myself like that. Even when people leave the "What fanfiction should I read" question I NEVER mention my own works - I'd prefer others saying "You should check this out!" Anyway, so she posted my story and here comes AB with yet another shining review!

We then started talking via the facebook group and the next thing you know, we're in each other's heads. For the July 7th prompt he almost wrote a story that would have closely resembled mine, and I nearly wrote one that would have matched his!

He really is a sweetheart and a great writer. He's new to the game and needs lots of encouragement, so go check out his stuff and let him know what you think. Here, I'll even link you to his page again.

So there is lots of "win" going on with this challenge.

• I'm writing again, and consistently.
• I'm excited about writing again!
• I may not be updating "What Is Truly Meant To Be", but I AM updating daily for my readers.
• I'm slowly learning how to write Drabbles.
• I'm getting daily Writer's High from all the kind reviews of my stuff.
• More people are discovering my writing thanks to DarkAngel posting it in the Facebook group.
• I'm challenging myself even more than the challenge itself because I'm purposely trying to think outside the box - that way I can avoid writing something similar to what everyone else will write. It's fun to add to the challenge, as well as fun to write for characters I never would have thought of if I just went with my original instincts of Helga and Arnold. I AM writing a lot of stories using the Johannson family though....
• I'm making new friends!

Speaking of which... I'm also becoming stronger friends with CartoonLover16. I'm not sure if it was because of my post a few weeks back, but he's become very vocal lately and I love it! He comments all the time here and on my stuff on DeviantArt. He also has three more drawings featuring my avatar.

I again seem a touch scary here... hehe

HAHA! Yes! And I AM surrounded by freaks on a nearly daily basis! XD

But I think this one is my favorite:

HAHA, I love my expression! That's so me! XD

Personally I think he's getting better, don't you?

The only thing left to talk about is the X-Men RPG Hubby started up a few weeks back. Every now and again we get a small group of us on at the same time and we have some great fun, but for the most part it's been kind of dead this week. People have work, or don't know if they can handle the RP on a forum, and I have the writing challenge. 

Still, the "crazy antics" that we DO put our characters through makes me want to turn it all in to a comic series. I just need someone who is capable and willing to draw out the scenes as I convert them in to a script. ^_^ Any takers? HAHA!

Well, until next week!

Why Am I Bothering?

Well, as predicted, not terribly too much happened by way of writing. I'm gonna try to get better at that this month.

The car drama came full circle:

• Car problem was an easy fix
• Car problem is gonna take $200 to fix
• Car can't be fixed for another week
• Car gets fixed with a simple hose replacement for free
• Car runs fine until I'm at Mom's
• Car's "Check Engine Light" comes back on....

Well, it at least survived the four-hour drive back home and it's not stalling every time it goes idle, so it will have to do for a little bit. Hubby did win some money when we all went to the casino by my mom, so we at least have the money to fix the car - hopefully. ^_^

I then got super cranky because Writer's Block hit so hard that I couldn't even finish roleplaying one night... I literally just put the computer away, turned to Hubby, and said "I can't think of anything".

Since then, I'm still a little iffy when it comes to creativity, but I'm at least doing SOME roleplaying, which means SOME creative writing. It's a start, right? I also finally decided on enough stuff about my secondary character that I could start roleplaying with her, and as of right now she's sort of my primary - since I can have some fun with her.

I also spent the week working more on the visual aspects of the game to help everyone better understand where everything is.

And unfortunately, that is all I have for this week... Here's hoping I have more to talk about next week, these short blogs are getting kinda lame. :P


Fun little side note: I surpassed 2000 hits this week. That's kinda cool considering that means 1000 hits in like 3 months. ^_^

Yup, slacked again

Well, folks. Here we are again. Another week not only gone by, but gone by with me being late on a blog post.

I’m not gonna lie, I blatantly ignored this blog this week.

I know. I’m sorry.

Life has gotten super stressful lately and it’s just easier for me to disappear in to my newest fandom and forget everything else.

My Check Engine light came on, and I have no money to pay for a trip to the mechanic. My father-in-law, sister-in-law’s husband, and a friend of my in-laws all know how to maintain and fix cars: specifically Fords – which is what I have. So I was informed that SOMEONE would look at my car for me to see if I even NEED to go to a mechanic – or if it’s a “quick fix” that one of them could do.

Then the parents-in-law had their car break down, knew how to fix it, but with the East Coast Heat Wave couldn’t be outside long enough to actually DO anything. And since I needed them to bring my husband to work while I was already there, I ended up lending them my “Check Engine” car – they’d drop me off, drive the car back to Hubby, and made sure the car was back for us to leave work.

Three days later – and over a week after the light came on in my car – I drive my father-in-law back home after one more day of lending my car to him, and then my car stalls right outside their house.

My car is an automatic.

So, some super jerky minutes and a lot of tears later, we made it home and I had a near panic attack.

Thankfully, Hubby was there for the rescue.

He talked to his parents to comment on how horrible the car was now and they promised to come down the next day to figure out what’s wrong. Next day comes, father-in-law checks, and tells me I have a rough idle, or low idle, or some sort of “this car isn’t idling properly” situation. Therefore, whenever my car comes to a full stop, and switches to idle, it stalls. As long as I’m giving the car gas I’m fine.

OK, good. I can drive to and from work until we can get it fixed, however, I’m supposed to take a four-hour drive to visit my mom on Thursday. No way in hell I’m doing that with a car that has potential to break down – especially since I can’t afford AAA anymore.

So now it’s a long game of phone tag to see if the father-in-law was able to contact the friend or the son-in-law to see if either of them could help, since Daddy-in-law doesn’t have the right tools. I’m praying it DOES get fixed by Wednesday so I don’t have to cancel my long-awaited trip. In the meantime, I’m just stalling at every stop sign and traffic light on the way to work because I don’t know how to drive a manual car, so the “Switch to and from Neutral when you’d normally idle and give it a little gas to stop it from stalling” thing is a little tricky for me….

On the plus side, I did this really cool trick where my car stalled in the work parking lot, but I still had enough momentum to perfectly turn in to a parking spot before it came to a complete stop. Also, a coworker apparently had a similar problem and he claimed it was a “pretty cheap fix”. I’m hoping his definition of “cheap” is $20 or less….

Anyway, between that and drama going on at work centered around one coworker being immature and unprofessional, which makes the entire department look bad, which means we’re ALL getting 15-minute one-on-one lectures from the manager that was on vacation at the time…. *sigh* so much stress!

Then you have the new X-Men RPG that I talked to you guys about last week. My husband had been talking about starting one up for a while now, and he finally got around to making the forum a little over a week ago.

In the game his 16-yr-old character is crushing on my 14-yr-old one. Not really all that farfetched, he almost always has my character be a love interest of his. However, with Gambit being his character’s father, he’s really pouring on the Cajun Charm as his character attempts to woo mine.

AAAAAAAAND randomly, more reasons why we love Gambit:

Anyway, my heart races whenever Hubby updates a post and I read the charming courtship he’s presenting.

It’s like we’re back to 8 years ago when we first started dating and he’s courting me all over again.

Even though all of the characters’ firsts aren’t anything like our own, it still feels like I get to relive our first encounter, first dance, first kiss, first date, and all the tingley moments of wondering where he is, when we’ll run in to each other again, what he’ll say, what he’ll do, etc.

So, naturally I’m now addicted. I’m addicted to all these warm, fuzzy, de-stressing feelings of courtship. Whenever I attempt to work on my story, or my blog, or cleaning, or my Operation Ruthless video – which was due on Saturday, by the way… but if you still want to participate contact PinkLotus27, she might let you sneak one in while her computer is getting fixed – anyway, whenever I try to do ANYTHING other than the forum I get distracted by thoughts of Hubby and what our characters might be doing next.

And so I spend nearly every waking, non-working moment on the forum, role playing with the hubby.

Also, due to my overly visual nature, I am now overcome with an impulse to draw what everyone’s characters look like so I have a clearer mental image of their characters. Thing is, I can’t draw… So I’ve been also addicted to DollzMania.com where I can try to piece together what the characters look like. Problem THERE is that I’ll like a character base and hair color from one doll maker, and the actual hair style and top from another, and maybe the pants from a third, and a fourth one would be really good at making the X-Men uniforms… Which leads me to copying pretty much every element of every doll maker, saving them in Photoshop, and then trying to re-create my OWN doll maker – with like a zillion layers with all the skin, hair, clothes, and accessory options.

On top of that, I also want to create a blue-print of what the Xavier Institute looks like. Mainly because not everyone who is playing is THAT huge of an X-men fan. They might know the basics of the universe, or know what was shown in the multitude of cartoons and movies, but they don’t really have all this stuff memorized or anything. So, for them to have a better idea on what is where, I wanted to do a blueprint.  My secondary reason is that Hubby needed to tweak some things to better fit the RPG, and so the layout isn’t exactly the same – which means even the few hard-core fans that are playing don’t exactly know where things would be located.

My final reason for the blueprint is because I’m a visual person who needs a reference for herself – plus it’s more time in Photoshop and ignoring the stressors of the world right now.

On the plus side, after a LOT of reference pictures, and searching the internet, and pixel-by-pixel recoloring I did manage to come up with these two images of my character:

She’s the daughter of Amara Aquilla AKA Magma. She has her mother’s powers to control lava, create fireballs using the heat of the lava, and create minor earthquakes due to using magma to shift the tectonic plates a bit. When Magma fully energizes so she can manipulate lava her body transforms. Depending on the reference you get, she either looks like she’s covered in lava or her body is made of flames.

Anyway, I didn’t want my character to be a carbon copy of Magma, so my character – codename Obsidian – turns in to obsidian when she fully energizes, but she still has cracks of lava at the joints – hence the red lines you see all over that first picture. I also described her as having a furnace-like core where the glow shines through her stomach – which is what’s up with the weird orange abs. I might have to go back and doctor that some more, but I can’t seem to get the same glow effect I got around the lava-filled eyes. I might also change the hair since her hair is naturally brunette and it’s supposed to become flame-like when she transforms….

I still need to finish making a doll of Obsidian when she’s normal, plus I’m also working on a super secret second character. She’s a bit trickier because Hubby created her originally, and then when I expressed that my character – as much as I love her – is fourteen and super meek. I wanted a more outgoing, flirty character. So the character Hubby created was passed over to me. Trouble being, he had a mental image of what she looked like, a rough idea of her personality, as well as a list of her powers. Now I need to fill in the rest. And the rest doesn’t want to be filled in.

When I needed a back story for my main D&D character I just read up on how the typical Scout character class was built, saw that a lot of times the character backstories included needing to hide and track in the woods, and the rest of the backstory sparked from there. When I created another D&D character and decided I was going to have her purposefully quest solely for fame and fortune the rest of the backstory more-or-less wrote itself.

When it came to my main X-men character, the catalyst for her backstory came from wondering why she was at the Xavier Institute in order to train her powers. If her parents were teachers there, she would have grown up there like a lot of the other characters – but she was just starting there. Why? If she had a combination of both parents’ powers perhaps she needed the training from the institute instead of having her parents train her, but she only got a carbon-copy of her mother’s powers. So why couldn’t Magma train her daughter? Once I realized that my character Lia had to go to the Institute to train because Magma wasn’t around to train her, the rest of the backstory easily developed – as did the character.

But now I’m stuck on this new character. I can’t figure out the main catalyst that would make her who she is today. I want her to be a bit like the character Boom-Boom from X-Men: Evolution, but I don’t want to be a personality clone – especially since the character has no relation to Boom-Boom. I also want her to be a touch “street wise” – one of those girls that will surprise you because her small frame doesn’t make it seem like she can defend herself. Think Jasmine from Disney’s Aladdin, when she surprised him with the ability to pole-vault simply by watching him do it.

So how do I make her street wise? I don’t want her to be a thief. A) because Hubby’s character is the son of Gambit, and therefore already is a bit of a thief himself. B) because Boom-Boom was forced in to a life of Breaking and Entering due to her power, and again, I don’t want my character to just be Boom-Boom 2.0.

I also don’t want her to be street wise due to living on the streets for whatever reason. We already have a character who had “ran away from the orphanage, turned to a life of crime, and lived on the streets” as his backstory.

Soooooo now what?

Anyway, that’s where I am: frozen behind a huge Writer’s Blockade mainly due to stress. I need to chip away at the block so I can figure out this new character as well as finish the chapter. Especially since CartoonLover16 is breezing through the story and is almost done with what I have already. Aaaaand, because I got ANOTHER piece of fanart from ChibiSunnie and she’ll be caught up with pictures soon too at this rate! ^_^

Fair warning, with a mad rush to find a way to fix the car this week, then the trip to visit my Mom to celebrate 17 years of being cancer free…. Well… Frankly I doubt I’ll have much to write about next week either, but we’ll see.

For this week I’ll leave you with the lovely piece of artwork Chibi drew for Chapter 3:

Non-Writing Creativity

It's been another week of not writing anything... sort of.

I finished beta-ing CartoonLover16's second chapter. It's longer than my Valentine's Day story. I actually had to split his chapter in half in order to send the edits back to him without crashing FanFiction's DocX Exchange. I find it amusing that he ended up doing something similar to another author I'm Beta reading for - plot-wise.

I also spent the past three days concentrating on a new character I'm creating for another fandom.

Hubby has been talking about it for a while, and he finally got around to starting up his game. It is a forum-based RPG in the X-Men universe. More specifically, it will be a continuation of the X-Men Evolution timeline with the main comic book canon spliced in.

Each player is the son or daughter of at least one X-Man or Brotherhood member. So far all of us  - through a random dice roll - are children of two mutants. Our characters are all ages 14-19 and we're "New Recruits" at The Institute... I THINK he finally decided to stay with the Xavier institute instead of updating to the Jean Grey institute.

He created a list of possible parent candidates and each player is allowed to chose one parent off the list. Once chosen, that character cannot be picked by another player as his/her parent. Hubby then uses dice rolls to randomly determine the other parent - this is the only way players can become siblings because he can roll a parent another player picked already. Other options include a non-mutant parent or Mr. Sinister genetically engineered your character by splicing together two mutants - possibly resulting in both parents being the same sex. Hubby himself was almost the engineered child of Gambit and Bishop... Gambishop. ^_^

Using a table, he then rolls to see if you inherited your powers from your father, mother, both, or not at all - it's more detailed than that, but you get the idea.

YAY, ROLLING FOR GENETICS!

My character is the daughter of Amara "Magma" Aquilla and Jamie "Multiple Man" Madrox. I chose Magma because... well... her name's Amara... which is also the name of my D&D character that I started developing back in like 2004...
The dice then decided on Multiple Man. I only inherited Magma's powers.

The next few days were spent coming up with a backstory and messing around in Photoshop to create a sprite characterization of my mutant. WHOOT!

So since I haven't really done any writing, I decided that this week I'll share with you the OTHER ways I've been creative.

Here is a list of music video ideas that I want to do using Hey Arnold! footage. I have the professional editing program; just not any way of copying the DVDs on to my computer.... Maybe I'll do that Walmart "Digitize your DVDs" thing....

Music Video Ideas - Fair Warning... nearly every song I hear ends up on this list... :P

• "Please Don't Leave Me" by Pink - Helga singing to Arnold.
• "James Bond Techno" by Moby - All of the "spy scenes" in the Hey Arnold! movie. I guess the MIB songs could work too.
• "Replay" by Iyaz - Arnold singing about Lila
• "So Damn Hot" by OK GO - Brainy singing about Helga
• "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" by REO Speedwagon - Helga leading up to her love confession in the movie
• "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga -  Helga as "It Girl" and stalking Arnold
• "Chemicals Between Us" by Bush - A darker "Stalker Video"
   -- Helga stalking Arnold
   -- Brainy stalking Helga
   -- Curly stalking Rhonda
• "Alejandro" by Lady Gaga - Helga-centric about her hiding her feelings
   -- Alejandro = Arnold
   -- Fernando = Stinky
   -- Roberto = Brainy or Arnie
• "The Mating Game" by Bitter:Sweet - Helga's male manipulation to get to Arnold
   -- Mostly the episodes "Helga's Boyfriend", "Arnold's Valentine" and "Dinner for Four"
• "Roll To Me" by Del Amitri - Brainy singing to Helga about Arnold
• "Reflection" by Christina Aguilera - Helga about hiding who she really is.
• "I'm The Only One" by Melissa Etheridge - Helga singing to Arnold about Lila
• "Layla" by Eric Clapton - Arnold singing to Lila... I mean you can almost HEAR Clapton sing Lila instead of Layla...
• "I Want Your Girlfriend to be My Girlfriend" by Reel Big Fish - Brainy singing to Arnold about Helga. A touch tricky since the song has the f-bomb in it...
• "White Flag" by Dido - Helga singing to Arnold
• "Mr. Saxobeat" by Alexandra Stan - Helga's strong attraction to Arnold and the stupid stuff she does because of it. Also works because it has a slight techno-jazz feel.
• "I'm Sexy and I Know it" by LMFAO - Probably the one I want to do the most right now. Arnold and Gerald as LMFAO and just being sexy.
• "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele - Everyone either does a "woe is me" or "I'm madly in love" or "Yes! We're finally together" type song for Helga. But no one ever seems to show the "I'm so pissed you don't love me" side of her! That's what I'd like to do for this video.
• "Don't Call Me Baby" by Madison Avenue - Lila singing to Arnold, because there aren't really any Lila-centric videos... especially none that show her as strong and independent. 
• "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction - Not sure yet if it's Brainy or Arnold "singing", but it's about Helga.
• "It's Not You" by Halestorm - Originally it would be Helga singing to Brainy, Arnie, and Stinky. However, depending on the footage I might make it a full Girls of Hillwood video.
   -- Helga to Brainy
   -- Helga to Arnie
   -- Helga to Stinky
   -- Rhonda to Curly
   -- Lila to Arnold

And now finally full circle back to writing - since this IS a blog about writing....

The first fifteen days of June hosted a drawing challenge. A new challenge was set up every day and the participants only had 24hrs to complete their drawing. Although I didn't participate - since I can barely draw a stick figure - I did get inspired by some of the art.

New Plot Bunnies

• Gerald and Phoebe V'day story within the same universe as "I Caught You A Star"
• OoC fic based off 30 Day Challenge pic of tough Arnold seducing meek Helga
• Strange Paring fic based off 30 Day Challenge pic of Agatha Caufield and Sheena's Uncle Earl

This Will Be Quick...

This has actually been a quiet week in comparison to the past two. Nothing majorly exciting occurred and no insane progress was done on my story.

I'm actually not sure what to even talk about this week.

First and foremost, the kind words about my writing keep spilling in and I'm so humbled by each of them.
Thank you, All, once again.

I finally got to editing my Operation Ruthless video. The darn thing is about 1/2hr long! Aaaaand.... it's supposed to be 10 minutes at most. Whoops...

After two days of hearing myself yammer on about Hey Arnold! I got sick of hearing my own voice. :P It is now sent over to my darling PinkLotus27 and she can have the fun of figuring out how to cut down my ramblings. *sigh*

Once she's got the video down to the proper length it's back to me to polish it up, so I still have about a week's worth of editing to do before the June 23rd due date.

Oh! And speaking of Operation Ruthless; BaconNom-Nom - one of the heads of the movement - just posted this little jewel of a video. It's a great overview of the Operation Ruthless website and Bacon sounds so amazingly professional here. Great quality!

So if you're a fan of Hey Arnold! and want to know more about our movement to revive the series you should check this out:

Along with keeping busy with my video, I've also been keeping busy with work. I'm quickly learning that summers in a grocery store Deli are quite chaotic with all the sales....

However, I do still enjoy my lunch breaks where I get to work on my story. Not too much progress this week, but I AM still getting stuff on paper - so to speak.

I was actually tempted to bring in Lycopolis to read over breaks. However, the reviews I've read about the book implies I won't want to stop once I start. Probably not the best thing to attempt over 15-min breaks then...

I also recently received the FULL second chapter of CartoonLover16's story - I was only given the opening portion to edit before. I haven't started tackling that quite yet, but I'm excited to do so. It might take a little bit to Beta, however. His chapter has a higher word count than my 2012 Valentine's Day story. I mean, it's less than the latest chapter of my story, but it's still a lot.

OOOO! And speaking of CL16, I was surprised yesterday to discover that he drew me a little present:

HAHA, I seem so intense! XD

Teehee, I have fanart of... ME!


He also commented on my last post that he'd like to make title cards for What Is Truly Meant To Be. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

I'm actually super happy to see that CL16 and I are finally clicking as friends. It's fun to have little dialogues with him. Now to start "socializing" more with Devious.Editor! ^_^

A Most Grateful Author

Man, has this been one exciting week for me, and it’s all thanks to you guys!

SO. MUCH. LOVE!

I honestly feel amazingly validated when it comes to my writing. I’m soaring on such a Writer’s High right now!

Let’s break this down, shall we?

Wednesday I posted my insanely-long fiftieth post. We all took a trip down memory lane. It was delightful, no?

Anyway, I wake up Thursday to discover that there was a huge influx of people to my blog – and at least a third of those readers were new!

Now, I’ve posted about my blog updates on Facebook before under my Lyco Rogue account. I recently started tweeting about new blog posts a couple of weeks back. However, I think this may have been the first week I remembered to post about the update while on my main account…. I can’t recall… I have a feeling I’ve posted on my main before too, but it would make sense that all the new readers came from my main account - that is, if this WAS the first week I remembered to post there.

Anyway, point is, for some reason I got something like twice the readership this past week and it feels AMAZING!

I also had three new people post comments on my blog, but I’ll get to that in a little bit.

So, now I KNOW people are reading this thing, and that gets me so excited. I mean, this isn’t an informative blog at all. You are all here reading my JOURNAL entries. You’re not learning anything. You’re not bettering yourself. This isn’t for your benefit – simply your enjoyment. The fact that you care like that is just so cool!

Thank you.

Now, I’m going to jump all the way to today. Today, while waiting for Hubby to get off of work, I saw in the grocery store book bin something that made me really smile for two reasons:

I was scanning the books to kill time, I saw the font and thought “That kinda resembles…” Saw the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” across the top and squealed like the fangirl I am.

I had inherited the rest of the series from my dad. I own the Hollywood movie – which is not the best adaptation, but still a good movie – as well as the BBC miniseries – which is an almost verbatim adaptation… Upon hearing of Douglas Adams’ death I coordinated with some fellow Sci-Fi nuts and we walked through high school the next day with black armbands and towels over our shoulders.

Point being, that I originally smiled because there is another book to the series! I also originally thought that it was a posthumous manuscript that was just polished up/completed by the new author listed on the cover.

As I read the dust jacket I discovered that I was wrong. The entire book was written by a new author – with permission and support from Adams’ widow. I was a little disappointed, but then it dawned on me: 

THIS IS BASICALLY FANFICTION TURNED CANON!

Also, the new author – Eoin Colfer – is the bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series. I haven’t read the series yet, but it gave me confidence that this sixth book will feel like the other five.

Anyway, this “fanfiction turned canon” thought also reminded me of another series I recently discovered: Astonishing X-Men. It was started back in 1995. Volume two written in 1999. But I’m specifically referring to the third volume written in 2004.

I was introduced to this series when Hubby discovered the Motion Comics version on Netflix. How am I so late to the game with these things!?

Well, the thing that really excited me about Astonishing X-men was who wrote at least half of Volume 3:

Joss Whedon.

The brilliance behind Buffy: The Vampire Hunter, Angel, FireFly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse, and the recent blockbuster and record breaker The Avengers. 

This guy is like THE sci-fi nerd, and I LOVE the man for it! 

My point being that even though the man has dabbled in comic book writing, he’s mainly a TV guy. He’s not a Marvel Comics staff writer. So, for him to write 24 issues for X-Men is again basically someone writing fanfiction and it being canon! 

If they can do it, why can’t I? 

Granted, there isn’t much call for any official Hey Arnold! works; so THAT probably won’t be my meal ticket, but it IS possible. 

I thought this once before while my mom was gifting me the How I Met Your Mother companion books “written” by Barney Stinson, and the Nikki Heat novels – companion books for the Castle TV show - “written” by Richard Castle. 

Then there’s also the latest “Must Read” going around lately: 
50 Shades of Grey. 

I mentioned in a previous post that I really should do a full post about it – and perhaps I still will – but what I need to say now is that it was originally a fanfiction for Twilight. It’s now a bestselling, highly discussed trilogy. I need to first find the right fandom to join, but… 

I CAN ACTUALLY MAKE MONEY OFF OF FANFICTION! SWEEEEEEEEET! 

OK, so let’s come back around to my writing and the validation of it. 

I already established that people are ACTUALLY READING WHAT I WRITE… which is epic to me! And I just established that writing fanfiction instead of original works actually isn’t a waste of time. If I find the right fandom it can actually become a money maker. 

Question is, am I really good enough? 

A question that creeps up on me all the time.

Yes. I am a good writer.
Yes. People enjoy reading what I wrote.
Yes. It is fun for me to write and get the stories out – even if there isn’t a readership.
BUUUUUUUT

Is it good enough to eventually lead to monetary gain? 

Although the jury is still out on that question, I’m starting to think that the answer may very well come back as “Yes.”

Back in February I discovered a Hey Arnold! themed contest on DeviantArt. There were a multitude of categories that I could submit in to, but let’s face it, the only one I could actually do is writing.

I wasn’t sure which story to go with – and there wasn’t a limit – so I just submitted all of my love-themed/fluffy one-shots: 

The story I wrote for Valentine’s Day 2011, both parts 1 and 2: 
I Caught You A Star
Clumsily Perfect 

The story I wrote for PinkLotus27’s birthday this past year: 
I Thought You Liked Redheads 

And the Valentine’s Day story I wrote for ChibiSunnie this year: 
For Whom the Bells Toll 

Well, I’m not sure which story actually won because I have yet to find a listing of the contest category winners. However, I came back from dropping Hubby at work at 1am this morning to discover that I now have a 3-month Premium Membership on DeviantArt as the winning prize for the contest! 

Knowing my luck, I was probably the only one who submitted in to the writing portion – therefore only competing against myself – but still… YAYZ! 

So, thank you to the head of the contest - CreativeWave85 – for awarding me the winner of the writing portion of the competition as well as paying for 3 months Premium membership! 

Now I just need to figure out what to do with said membership…. 

Anyway, long and short is that I actually won a competition with my story! I NEVER win writing competitions! 

While I’m talking about DeviantArt, let’s talk about another form of writer validation: Inspiring People. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I already knew for a while that these were coming. Chibi already informed me that she’s planning on drawing fanart for each chapter of my story. However, it’s still so amazing to see the resulting fanart. 

Fanart based off of something *I* wrote! 

Just think, to see how others see a scene you wrote, and see how closely it resembles the one in your mind. I really can’t imagine how surreal it must be for writers to see their work adapted as graphic novels or movies! 

Anyway, here is the wonderful piece of artwork done by ChibiSunnie based on the second chapter:

These are all such angst-ridden scenes!

Chibi apparently isn’t the only one inspired by my works. 

DarkAngel1326 completely blew my mind this past week! 

Now, she first blew my mind when I commented on getting Lycopolis from good old Ali Luke, and DarkAngel commented about me being her writing mentor! 

But the brain explosions continued when I squealed about Ali, and then my wonderful mommy stepped in to do what moms do best – encourage and gush over their children. At first I didn't think much of it – just a proud parent – and then DarkAngel joined in:

Mom: YOU CAN BE NEXT...YOU ARE THAT TALENTED!!!!!!

DarkAngel: I agree!!!! Write! I want a book from my writing mentor!!! even if i have to buy it XD I don't care.

Mom: SEE YOU HAVE A FOLLOWING NOW STOP PLAYING AROUND AND WRITE MY DEAR LITTLE AUTHOR...

First off: D’aaaw! Mommy! DarkAngel! Yous guyz! *blush*
Second: hehe, OK, Mom. Lay off the caps lock! ^_^
Finally: OMG! “even if I have to buy it”… DA, I heart you, girl!

This is insane! I already have at least two super-devoted readers. It’s not much when compared to bestselling authors like J.K. Rowling or James Patterson or Stephen King, etc., but it’s still more people – and certainly more DEVOTED – than I ever expected!

Thank you so much, ladies!

HEARTS!

Also, just yesterday I got a message from FanFiction to let me know that someone added one of my original stories to their favorites! Buried under tons of newer fanfiction, my originals are still being found and shown some love!

So, you, my readers are most CERTAINLY validating my writing.

Now for the kicker! We’re going full circle back to Thursday when I saw new comments on my last blog post.

First was CartoonLover16. So, welcome, Buddy! Don’t worry about me beta-reading for you! Remember, if I didn’t enjoy doing it I wouldn’t – I mean, it’s not like I’m getting paid or anything.

That goes for ALL I Beta for! I might comment here about how time consuming it is and how my own writing gets pushed back because of it. DO NOT CONSIDER THIS TO MEAN YOU’RE A BURDEN! I love reading your stuff! I love helping you! I love Beta-reading.

I’m just trying to explain to others why my own writing might be taking a little bit.

Speaking of which, little side note: with Beta Reading done, I’m back to working on my own stuff while at work. It’s slow go, but I AM progressing. Not sure when the chapter will be up though. I STILL have Operation Ruthless and Wedding Thank Yous to deal with. @_@

Back on topic. I also want to thank my cousin for writing such sweet words about writing. I guess writing isn’t a family trait, so I’m ecstatic to have that talent. Also, thank you for the offering of a contact in publishing! I’ll stash that offer away until I need it.

But the most exciting to me – for obvious reasons – would be that Ali herself discovered, read, and then commented on my blog!

DUMBFOUNDED!!!!!

For me, the highlights included these parts of our little dialogue:

Ali: I'm very touched to be your mentor ... and I'm really thrilled that my blogging's been helping you. And you've inspired me to write something about fanfiction soon (I've got quite a few other readers who I know are fanfic writers too...). Keep writing, keep blogging; success isn't overnight, but it'll come!

Me: I'm so excited to see whatever post you write about fanfiction. And thank you for the kind words. I find our similarities amusing and it's stuff like that, and how Rick Riordan and I seem to have similar stylings, that truly proves to me that published writers aren't much more different than I am. That I can actually become published as well.

Ali: Ah, and that's something else I want to post about at some point ... the fact that however distant the "real" writers seem, there's honestly not such a difference.
You're a great writer; that's obvious from your blogging alone (and I haven't read your fanfiction but I'm guessing by your dedication to it and what you've said about the comments you've received that you're great at that too). Heck, with a blog and fanfic out there online, you *are* published, technically speaking... :)

Also, thank you Chibi for chiming in with

Chibi: That's so exciting!! :) And I agree with what Ali said about your writing. :)

Anyway… *SQUEAL* Ali thinks that I’m a great writer!? Based solely on this blog!? I mean… THIS blog!? It’s not even fiction! It’s not informative! It’s a JOURNAL and she still thinks that it’s “obvious” that I’m a “great writer”!!!!

*Faints*

I’m just… just… just… WOW!

So one last thank you to EVERYONE!

Thank you family for the support.
Thank you Ali for the encouragement.
Thank you glorified fanfiction writers for giving me hope.

And super duper thank you for my amazingly, wonderfully, fantastically devoted fans!

You humble me to no end!

So much validation crammed in to one week! I now know how Arnold must have felt in my latest chapter! The Universe is speaking to me and trying to direct me.

And I’m ready to listen!

Mark my words: I WILL be a professional author before I’m 40!