Deciding On A Writing Challenge Goal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Gonna Love Ya Like A Black Widow, Baby"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

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

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

On that pleasant note....

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

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

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

Daily Timelines, D&D, and World Building. WHOO!

Well, here I am again! Blog post number three this year already! It may seem a bit much, but I did comment that I had a lot to say after feeling like I missed the last week of December. True, I did post on like the 28th or something, but that was to try to catch up with the week before. To me, I missed a week, and now I caught up with it. Plus, even if this is only technically the second week in 2016, it never hurts to have a head start on that 52 post count. If I slack somewhere later, I'll be covered!

Now, with two blog posts this week so close to each other, I'm sure you're probably thinking that I'm back on the ball with this writing stuff. Eh, you may be right, but at the same time, yesterday was yet another Zero Day for me. I got up, patched up some work pants, went in to work at 9, back out a little after 5, did some quick shopping, had dinner, and then it was off to FINALLY go see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." I then spent the rest of the night reading through every fantheory, review, and meme that I had been avoiding for hope of dodging spoilers.

Actually, now that I wrote that last paragraph like that - vague play-by-play of how I spent my day - I want to quickly check in on my "read in one day" book. Ali Luke had sent me an advanced copy of her super short e-book "Time to Write", an updated version of her earlier e-book "How to Find Time For Your Writing." It's only about 15 pages long, and kept me less than an hour to read - with me pausing to think about what she was proposing, as well as analyzing the book as a beta reader. Best part? It's a free e-book for anyone who signs up for her blog's newsletter; a helpful email once a week with informative tidbits on writing.

She still has to do a quick touch-up polishing and get a proper cover finished, but otherwise the book is done and will be ready for her newletter recipients soon. I highly recommend it to any writer who is having difficulty either finding time to write, struggling to make writing a priority, or even trying to shut that inner critic up long enough TO write. She has quick 2-page chapters about different reasons why people may struggle with sitting down and writing, as well as a simple exercise to try. When I say simple, I mean it. One exercise is to find 15minutes a day - that's it, you can even use your work breaks or lunches - three times a week. Write during those 15minutes. Then there's another challenge to change up your writing location: find a new one, or get noise-cancelling headphones, or find music to get you in the writing mood/drown out everyone else around you, or use an exercise ball as your chair, etc.

One challenge - which is what lead me to talk about this in the first place - is to jot down the timeline of an average day - or few, if the schedules are drastically different - in order to see where you spend your time, and if you could maybe cut in some writing. Sometimes, you don't realize you have the writing time - even those 15minutes - until you see it on paper.

Here's the example she gave in her book:

Here’s roughly how Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays currently looks for me:

• 5.45am – get up, shower, dressed, breakfast
• 6.30am – get kids up, changed, dressed, breakfasted, ready to go out. Drop Kitty at pre-school and pop to the shops with Nick. Play with Nick for a bit.
• 10am – Kids’ nanny arrives and I head upstairs to work. Brief lunch break around noon.
• 1.25pm – head down to take over from the nanny. Play with kids, normally take them out somewhere, then come home to prepare tea around 4.15pm.
• 4.45pm – teatime
• 5.15pm – Paul takes over on the kids and I have fiction writing time! :D
• 5.45pm – run kids’ bath, pop away any laundry
• 6pm – bathtime, stories, bedtime
• 7pm – cook dinner, eat dinner, and watch a bit of TV or chat to Paul
• 8.30pm – housework and mindless web surfing
• 9.30pm / 10pm – bed

... Pre-kids, my routine looked something like this:

• 7.30am – get up, breakfast, mindless web surfing
• 9am – work, with maybe a trip out to get groceries mid-morning
• 1pm – lunch break with Paul, maybe watching TV
• 2pm – work
• 6pm ish – Dinner (Paul cooked) :D
• 7pm – shower, washing up, TV, board games
• 10pm – mindless web surfing
• 11pm – bed

I have to admit that her pre-kids routine does look very familiar to me. So, I'm going to try to see if maybe I can make my life a bit more structured without kids forcing me to do so. I'll most likely fail miserably, but I can give it a shot.

Right now my schedule is:

• 6:30a - alarm goes off and I hit snooze a million times while snuggling the husband
• 7a - Finally work my way out of bed, groom, and grab a quick breakfast while checking in on Facebook
• 8a - Work
• 2p - This varies from day to day, but the average is that I leave work by 2, possibly get some shopping in, head home, grab lunch
• 4p - Definitely home except for extremely rare days. Usually plopped in the living room with Hubby; Netflix and snuggling while checking in on FB some more.
• 6p - Stomach starts growling; ignore it for another 1/2hr or so, finally cave and grab dinner; I'm generally distracting myself with more Facebook or DeviantArt.
• 7p - Get one or two episodes of CSI:NY in - thanks to Netflix - while having dinner
• 8p - Primetime shows or football. If neither are on/new, it's more Netflix & Snuggle
• 11p - I go "shoot! It's late!" and head to bed
• 11:45p - ACTUALLY make it to bed

As you can see, writing is no longer a general part of my scheduled day. Used to be all those "Netflix and Snuggle" parts - which seems to make up at least half my day - were still productive because I was crocheting gifts. Now that Christmas is over, I need to wean myself back off of the TV and get back to being productive.

For starters, I need to get back to having 4p-5p being my daily writing hour - with the rare exceptions for days like yesterday where I was at work until after 5p. For the most part, 4p-5p is just a time-void where I'm mindlessly watching TV while catching up on Facebook. It's generally after I'm home and able to have some unwind time, but before people would come over or our Primetime shows/football would start - Sunday excluded. Plus, it has a nice hour-long buffer before my bi-weekly writing group meeting, so that I can still make it to the meeting on time without cutting the session short, and I can have the session run a little long without being late to the meeting.

I've also started using the time while I'm home and Hubby's at work; such as now while I'm writing this post, actually. The house is quiet, and I don't have distractions. I do feel a bit unproductive still because I could also use this rare alone time to clean, work on finances, search for a better job, or even exercise. Heck! I could use this equally rare time where I have control of the TV and game systems to start up a game; I haven't played something myself in MONTHS, excluding my handheld games.

Nope. I'm using it for writing. I partially feel bad about it, but it's priority fixing. I can work on finances and job searching and cleaning with Hubby home. I can fight the siren's call of the TV while working on those chores. My writing, however? Even with headphones in, the gleam of the TV calls to me. I have to not have the TV on at all in order to write, and Hubby needs it on as background noise at the very least. We need to work on having a radio or something that we can have on as background noise instead....

Anyway, if Hubby's home, then I have to hide away somewhere. Not a bad option, but that either leaves me with sitting on the floor in the library, or snuggled in bed... which tends to lead to me falling asleep while writing lately.

So, writing while Hubby's at work - at least for an hour or so - and then hiding myself away between 4p and 5p. Seems like good options, we'll see how sternly I stick to them this time. The "Writing Hour" thing did work for a little while. Once Hubby knows the routine he usually shoos me away to make sure I stick with it.

There's still all that extra time though. Again, I really need to have us cut back on all the endless Netflix & Snuggle dates, and be more active/productive. More structured. As I mentioned in my earlier post this week, humans are actually fairly simple, and sometimes you need to revert back to how things were when you were a toddler. And toddlers need structure. They need to know what activity is next, when it will be, that it will be the same pattern daily, and that there's little to no "free time" where boredom or mischief can set in.

Even as adults we need that. Sure, it's out of necessity, but think about your friends, family, or even yourself after becoming a parent. Life HAD to become more structured, and with that, the new parent is surprisingly a lot more productive.

Structure leads to happier, healthier, and more productive lives. Now, to get Hubby on board so he doesn't unintentionally disrupt my new call to order by beckoning me to the couch to snuggle for seven hours straight.

But enough of that! I have been moderately productive with creative stuff, and I had every intention of talking about THAT today.

I'm becoming a Dungeon Master, or DM.

Two of my co-workers, who are planning on joining the X-Future game, are in a small D&D playgroup. The one co-worker asked Hubby to help him design a dungeon labyrinth. Hubby did, and the month it took to build it and come up with the traps in it, and all the discussions the three of us have had on the dungeon has really REALLY brought up my craving to play some D&D myself.

Sprinkle in that Hubby's been playing Skyrim, with is basically D&D the Video Game. The call for me to play this game is strong, and yet I'm sitting in Limbo with it.

For one game, a friend of a friend is supposed to DM, but life got crazy and he hasn't even thought of the campaign yet. All we have are the basic structures of the characters we built for a game that may never happen. Another game had Spink and her fiance asking Hubby to run it. He's still trying to figure out what he wants to do for that game. Then there's Hubby's Game of Thrones inspired game that he started over a year ago, and hasn't really done much with; no inspiration. Finally, there's the game that was sort of impromptu when we went to Mouse and Bear's house one day, but with our car out of commission, who knows when we'll be able to get to their new place and have the campaign continue on.

FOUR. Four games that I COULD be playing, but I am not. I lamented this. Then people suggested that if I wanted to play so badly, why not run a game myself? I have willing players that are waiting for a DM too. I'm a bit hesitant due to my inexperience with the game, but with Hubby as my co-pilot, my gift for storytelling, and four players just as inexperienced with the game as I am, it might work. I just have to remember to start simple and then work up to the heavily complex world that I've been drafting in my head.

Namely, Gyateara. True, I've been building it as a grand setting for multiple High Fantasy novels, but it was always about creating a new D&D realm as well. I want to be able to work my way up to the point that Skyrim and other Open World games are. You are the main character, but in the grand scheme of the world, you're not really important; at least, not at first. Wars are fought around you without you impacting them much one way or another. Raids happen that aren't meant to be random encounters, you may not even get there in time for it to be an encounter at all. Towns are ransacked before you can return to them. NPCs retire to a safer location before you get all the information out of them that you could have. The fortune-telling beggar ends up simply dying of hypothermia before your quest is done. The world keeps spinning with or without you. I LOVE this aspect of the Elder Scrolls games, and I am dying to be a skilled enough DM to be able to run a campaign setting like that one day.

For now though, I have to keep it small and simple as we all learn together. Which means that along with Ali's book, and making my way through "The Throne of Fire", I have also been setting aside some time to read the Dungeon Master's Guide cover to cover - although it specifically states that it's a reference book and isn't expected to be read as such - in order to learn how to do this task.

It's a great way to get my mind going again. Brewing up some plots and story ideas. Get the creative juices flowing. A lot of writers and Hollywood Big Wigs actually used to play D&D for this exact reason. Even if you don't self-identify as a geek or nerd, I do suggest finding a playgroup and joining in on at least a few sessions if you feel stuck. It's a great way to shake off some rust and have you think creatively while on your toes.

I even finished off 2015 with finally creating a map of Gyateara. It's a preliminary one and I already have some notes on how I want to alter it, but it's a start. Sadly, even after avoiding drawing a world map for years out of fear of just recreating Earth, I somehow still managed to do just that. Stupid subconscious having me create something familiar to me.

Anyway, here's the first map of Gyateara, remember, it will change, but I'm not sure by how much:

Please excuse the folds in the map....

I don't have any of these continents named, and I only have the pantheon structure figured out for about 5 of them, and so that's part of the issue that I need to work out. I have been having some fun with it though.

The equivalent to Europe will have a Greco-Roman pantheon; much like the original pantheon designed for D&D. The island grouping along the top of the page is made up of a pantheon of four goddesses, maybe one or two minor gods as well, and is structured pretty much identically to that of the Legend of Zelda games. It's also an off-shoot of the Greco-Roman pantheon.

I was wondering if the basic structure of Norse mythology is unique enough for a pantheon stylized off of it to be at all different from a Greco-Roman one, or even a war-driven one such as the Aztecs. So, I'm still debating having one of the continent pantheons be stylized Norse.

There will be an Asian-inspired continent with 12 gods, much like the Chinese zodiac. I was also debating having Japanese culture - since it is so distinct and even separate from the rest of Asia - as its own pantheon. I'd focus on the yokai, or even one centralized god - Budda-equivalent - with the yokai as his servants that helped him in the Divine War and in building his continent.

One of the smaller continents will have a pantheon inspired by the Native American beliefs and lore. One of the other island groupings will possibly be an off-shoot using other native beliefs such as the Mayans, Incas, Aztecs, Inuits, and Native Hawaiians. Since these beliefs can be drastically different from each other - Aztecs and Mayans, for one - I may reserve these smaller, more centralized beliefs for the different island groupings in order to have enough pantheon diversities for all of the continents.

The Africa-inspired continent will have a combination of an Egyptian-stylized pantheon, as well as one focused more on the tribal beliefs of the jungle sections of Africa. Namely, a pantheon made of people with animal features and a structured hierarchy. Then there will be one focused on anthropomorphed animals such as Anansi the Spider.

I'm thinking that continent in the center that looks like Africa and has a second continent attached to it might work. The one side will be "Egyptian" inspired, where the gods are all half-animal people, and the other side will be "tribal" inspired, and the gods will all be humanoid animals. The gods will create beings in their image; tweaking the agreed upon human structure that is seen across the entire globe.

The "Egyptian" gods will create creatures such as centaurs, lamia, merfolk, harpies, D&D Driders - also known as an Arachne, and to a lesser extent - mainly because they're so important to Egyptian lore - the sphinx. Whereas the "Tribal" gods will create creatures such as kobolds, gnolls, kuo-toa, catfolk - in all their variety - and minotaurs, which I define as humanoid bulls instead of half-bull half-human. Although, I guess you can make the same argument for harpies... maybe it's because minotaurs have the animal head and harpies have a human one?

Like I said, I've been having fun with this.

So, I guess I'll have to see what other inspiration learning how to DM and watching Hubby play Skyrim will bring. I'll be sure to keep you posted.


**EDITING NOTE: Soooo, um, it was brought to my attention that the term "Netflix and Chill" is not as innocent as I had thought.... I have since gone back and changed all of them to the "Netflix and Snuggle" that Hubby and I actually do...**

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.

New Year; Sick Me

Image is Leave The Past Behind And Welcome The New Year
by NaBHaN

Goodness, it's been a little while. Sorry about that. Not the best start to the new year, huh? In all fairness, however, the delay in my update is mostly due to the fact that I got hit with a wicked cold on the first. I barely had anything to drink, and I stopped at about 10pm, and so no snickering that it was a hangover.

I was battling a nasty head cold around Christmas, got over it around the 28th or so, and then got hit with an even worse one on the first. If I wasn't drugged up so I could get through work, I was fast asleep in bed. At least, that's how I spent the first three days of the new year. Monday was the first day I ventured out of bed for any decent amount of time outside work.

I had the intent to use the day off to work on my blog, which may get yet ANOTHER update day change given the frequency I've had to work on Thursdays vs the frequency that I've had Mondays off. However, I also had my bi-weekly writers group meeting on Tuesday, which I hadn't even started working on the writing prompt for.

I wanted to include the links to the prompt in this week's update, and so I tasked myself to finish that first. Problem was, I wasn't really sure where to go with the prompt.

We collectively pieced together a very vague character. Keaton likes our prompts to be as vague as possible so that she and DFL can each use the prompts to write another snippet for their overarching novels, which are fairly different from each other. I get it, but every once in a while I'd like for a very specific prompt and see how each of us tackle something that seems so black and white.

Anyway, the prompt this time had us tackle a character with two motivations, two conflicts, and a random extra element.

The extra element was that we had to include a dog somehow. Instantly, I knew I wanted to write the story through the dog's POV. I figured it would be fresh and unique. Then, I heard Keaton's story with a dog as the narrator. Hmmm. I guess that's yet another way the two of us are similar.

What were the other components needed for the story? Well, the two conflicts were a rival and the loss of something. The two pieces of motivation were recognition and money. Everything else worked fine with my idea of a dog POV, but money? Why would a dog want money? Keaton actually added that as part of the narration. "They say I'm supposed to want money, but I'm a dog. What would I do with money?"

Me? I had to go to my number one sounding board: Hubby. It was his suggestion that the dog is a show dog bringing in lots of winnings, and that his motivation for recognition and money is actually translated to him wanting to win more competitions. The rival could either be an up-and-coming younger dog that could take his titles away, or even a new pet at home that changes the family's focus to a more playful animal instead of the well-behaved and well-trained champion dog that is the narrator.

Great ideas. I loved it. Got the gears going. And then I thought of the Disney movie "Oliver & Company". Much like how "The Lion King" is Disney's animated animal version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "Oliver & Company" is Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist"; for those who didn't know.

The reason my mind went to the Disney version of the tale was because the company turned the character Georgette into a pampered and prissy prize-winning poodle. She hates that Jenny Foxworth brought Oliver into Georgette's home; taking away the love and pampering that she felt she deserved. She had a rival: Oliver. She was feeling loss: Jenny's love, Winston's time, pampering, etc. She wanted recognition: all the family's attention, and the proclamation that she was all the family needed. She even was a dog that had a reason to want money: it was spent to lavish her with the finer things in life, plus, as a show-dog, she was bringing in the money.

I tried to write it so that the fact that Georgette and Dodger's gang were all dogs, and that Oliver was a cat, was hidden. However, I forgot one key thing. If you aren't in the mindset of "Oliver & Company" you may pick up on the original text of "Oliver Twist". Which means my crafty "you won't pick up on this right away" would shoot me in the foot as people picture the original classic and still be confused where the dog would come into play. Whoops.

That's sort of what happened at the group. The other three women that typically show all have children about my age, and so in their mind the story was the classic. Whereas the classic Dickens writing always bored me - I know, I know, shun me now - and so I appreciated Disney's take on the story as a way of introducing me to the classic tale. To me, Oliver is a orange cat, Dodger is a Jack Russell Terrier with a red bandanna, Fagin is Dodger's beloved homeless owner, and Georgette is a pampered poodle.

Anyway, if you wish to read my story, you can find it on DeviantArt - with some typos, sorry about that - and on FictionPress. Yes, it is a fanfic, but it's part of my writing prompts anthology, and so I kept it with the others on FP.

"The Queen of This Castle"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

Now I need to focus on the next prompt we put together. It was a generic setting we each threw one component into. Keaton was wondering why I said it was generic, and frankly, it's again what I said before, she tries to have something broad enough that both she and DFL can use it in their main manuscripts. It's not a bad thing, but she needs to understand how vague these prompts are because of that.

Our setting is Coming Back From A Funeral at Dusk on a Saturday during the Winter months. It's specific enough to be considered a prompt; most prompts on say LiveJournal are just one word like "Peace" or "Spring". However, she wouldn't allow me to throw in things more specific such as "snowy winter" or "rural vs city" or "unattended funeral." She felt it was too restricting. As it stands, DFL's story in the desert can still work. Winter doesn't have to mean cold or snow or even the winter holidays. It just means the three months where there is the least amount of natural light due to the Earth's location in relation to the sun. Also, she can have the funeral be as bustling or unattended or sorrowful or joyfilled as would be appropriate for such ceremonies in 10,000BC. Meanwhile, Keaton can use the same prompt with Buster Keaton in NYC or LA or writing his post-apocalyptic story-within-a-story of two boys in a semi-rural area during a zombie attack.

Me? I'm still seeing where this prompt takes me. Seeing as how I still don't have even an idea for a manuscript to work off of. X-Future definitely translates better into a more visual medium, and so a TV/Netflix/Hulu/webseries or a comic book series would work best for it. It still needs a manuscript, but not the prose/novel that I was aiming for. I'm also still attempting to work on my Gyateara world build, and so I'm nowhere near actually writing any stories in that world.

There has been some deaths on X-Future, although, I don't recall if we ever established a day of the week for any of them. The one I'm thinking of was definitely in the late summer/early fall months, so that might not work. Then again, we never did comment about the deaths that came just before the initial 2yr time jump. That happened just before winter break. Not quite winter, but with the rummaging through rubble, the actual funeral service(s) may not have taken place until late December/early January. I might be able to do that. This way I'm not the only one just writing random prose unrelated to each other.

Then again, I may just stick with what I've been doing. Who knows what stories may come to life with these prompts. Red, for instance, may go back to an earlier prompt with this setting one. She had a character who was going mad after her boyfriend left her, and now she's plotting to kill both him and two people in her past she felt wronged her. We were all talking about how much fun it would be for her to use this funeral prompt as a continuation. I said I wanted to see how the narrator kept her composure at the funeral so that people didn't realize how excited she was about the death.

Also, back when I did the daily prompt challenge for "Hey, Arnold!" fanfiction, I actually had a few related prompts. It just seemed perfect to have one continue the story left from a previous prompt.

Hopefully, it won't take the full two weeks to figure out what I'll write. Either way, if I don't have it ready by next week I will certainly have it done the following one.

In the meantime, I have another challenge. Phfylburt is in the picture again. With his new little one, although she's apparently very easy going, he hasn't had the time or inspiration to write lately. However, he's always wanted to learn how to draw, and he has just enough time to practice that daily. He's been a bit mad about slacking off, though. So I issued him a challenge.

He would give me a new writing prompt every Sunday, and I would give him a new drawing challenge. The following Sunday, we will exchange what we did, and issue another challenge for the week. Technically speaking, he's supposed to show me at least five different drawings he's done throughout the week, but as long as I get the drawing I requested, I can let the others slide.

Now, poor Phfyl thought he was easing me into this new challenge set-up. Thing is, he asked me to do one of the most challenging things for me: poetry.

I used to write poems a lot in middle school. Looking back at them, I've realized they're terrible. My college ones weren't much better. The ones I attempted to write for Helga in my "Hey, Arnold!" stories are just as bad. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I can't stand vague, thought-provoking writing. I don't want a pretty simile about your soul and the colors of the rainbow when you meet different people. I want to know the location of every battle scar on that 6' 2" Puerto Rican man with cocoa-bean brown eyes, brunette hair so deep it appears black, and a crooked smile due to his previously broken jaw.

Every time I attempt poetry it always seems like a pathetic forgery. Like someone telling you they'll make you a fabulous Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and then plops a Tofurky in the center of the table; worse yet, the tofurky is barely shaped to look like an actual bird.

If this isn't bad enough, the challenge is to write a 12-line poem that describes nothing. NOTHING! No description! WHA!? Hit the ground running, I guess. Sink or swim. Well, the point was to challenge each other in order to better them. So he swung hard without even knowing he did.

It may not be pretty. It may not be poetry. But by gum, I'll have a 12-line poem ready to post here next week! I just need to write it still....

Because of my illness-induced impromptu vacation, I actually have a lot more to talk about. However, this seems to be getting a bit long. I'll save it for next week, or perhaps an extra blog post to try to get me up to 52 this year!

Oh yeah! I never officially stated my resolutions for this year! Yup. Definitely need to work on another post. Now that football's regular season is over and the playoffs have started, I should have more of my evenings free. That should open up some more time for me to write and sneak in that extra post. However, Ronoxym and Cyhyr are supposed to visit on Saturday. And my nephew's baptism is Sunday. Still, I'll try to get something ready for Mondayish. So, keep an eye out.

I'm also going to use my first post of 2016 to yet again plug the fact that you can fave my blog and/or join a mailing list. The mailing list simply drops this blog right into your email for ease of access. Plus, you don't have to worry about maybe missing a post since my update days are never set in stone. I swear that's it. You won't get any promotional mail from me or Blogger. You won't get any spam. We don't send out your email address to anyone. Just a simple: "You've Got Mail: The Rogue's Scribe Updated; here it is!"

Sound good to you? Then just go to the right side bar; you'll have to scroll back up to the top. Do you see my "About Me"? Good. Right above it is the option to input your email address to join the mailing list. Simple as that. Then the blog will be delivered right to you like a faithful Sunday morning paper.

If you want to fave my blog and just check in on it via your Blogger dashboard, simply set up a Blogger account if you haven't yet. If you are on Google+ you have an account already. Simply go to Blogger and it will bring you to your dashboard. Scroll down a little bit and you'll see "Reading List." From there you can add new blogs. You simply click "Add" and then drop in the url of this blog. You can then choose whether or not to follow me anonymously before clicking "Follow." You're done! You can now just log back into your Blogger dashboard, go down to Reading List, and read the latest entry of this blog and any others you are following.

You can also include my blog in your RSS feed; basically the same thing as favoriting it on Blogger. For those of you who don't know what an RSS is, then don't worry, the other two options work fine. For those of you who do have one, just above the option to sign up for the email is a place where you can subscribe to my posts, the comments, or both via your RSS. You can subscribe via NetVibes or My Yahoo!

One last way to stay up to date with this blog. I post on Twitter. I don't really do much else on Twitter any more - I'm addicted enough to Facebook to add Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or Pinterest - but I do post when I update my blog. It's as simple as following @LycoRogue.

Alright, I really should get some work done, either on the funeral prompt, my poem, or some of the cleaning I need to do around here. Catch you guys next week, and have a happy new year!

Reflection On 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resolution #2: Read At Least One Book A Month

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From "Please, Let Me Explain":

"Chapter 1: Devon's Cell"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

"Chapter 2: In the Kitchen"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

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

"Bro-Bonding"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

"You're In Trouble, Son!"

On DeviantArt           On FanFiction

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

"Fashion Gone Bye"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

"Memory Tap"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

"The Power of Pink"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

"What a Crumby Day"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Video Games Have Taught Me

Finally figured out that this is Knives from the graphic novel series
"Scott Pilgrim" by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I really am starting to hate December, and I hate that I'm hating December, because I should love December. December has my husband's birthday, Spink's birthday, Christmas, and a slew of other holidays that my mother had us celebrate while growing up. Aside from the cold, I used to LOVE December.

The family time together. The decorations. The music and movies. The traditions.

Yeah, all that went in the toilet as soon as I moved out.

Crazy retail work weeks due to hectic holiday shoppers. Exhaustion from running around work in order to pay the extra bills not included in living at home with Mommy. Football taking over nearly every evening. Lack of children negating the "need" to do all the normal holiday extra stuff - decorating, checking out the neighbors' lights, watching movies, listening to music, baking cookies, etc. With just the two of us, December becomes the last minute run to the end of the year. I routinely forget what day of the week it is, let alone what date it is.

Hence me missing last week's blog post. Didn't even notice that I missed it until today. All my focus is on finishing the crochet project for my nephew, cleaning the house, finishing gift shopping, wrapping said gifts, and kicking this head cold's butt.

Oh, and my faithful car that I've had since 2006 is on death's door - has been since July, truthfully - and so I finally pulled the trigger and bought a new car. Problem being, the one that we found within our price range is a standard five-speed. I don't know how to drive stick. The only other option was an automatic - that I did love, by the way - that was more than three times the price. I couldn't justify spending the extra coin on the automatic. So, standard it is, and now I need to learn how to drive the darn thing!

So, it's probably pretty clear that writing has fallen to the back burner this past month.

Oddly enough, though, it kind of hasn't.

The wheels have still been churning over the past month. I don't have one thing I'm focusing on, though. I keep trying. While I'm spending hours mindlessly shelving and dusting at work I keep telling myself "This is a great time to let your mind wander and for you to mentally write something. Anything!" In the end, though, because I'm not working on a particular project, I come up blank.

I keep trying, though. Always keep trying.

I finished up the writing prompt for the last 2015 writer's meeting tomorrow night. It's definitely not my best work, but the concept didn't really catch my interest enough for my full heart to be in it. Still, it's one of the only pieces of the anthology that I put up on DeviantArt that was favorited. Two different people within three days of me posting it. So, maybe what I think is good is vastly different than what others believe to be good. Who knows?

"What a Crumby Day"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

It's actually super short compared to my normal works. It only clocks in at like 1200 words or something. I'm not very good at slice-of-life stories, which is what that turned out to be. It didn't need to be, though. I could have gone in any genre I wanted. All I needed to do was include the following elements from each sense:

• Feels Satin
• Smells Musky Perfume
• Sees Ice Breaking
• Tastes Apple Pie
• Hears Bells

I don't know why I ended up writing slice-of-life when I'm so bad at it. I didn't even do so on purpose to try to practice and improve. I just went with the story that came to me. Part of the "Channeling Methodology" of writing, I guess.

Besides working on the writing prompt to read tomorrow, I've been brewing things in my head the past few days. Mostly taking note on what I need to do for further world building.

It's the holidays, and it's been crazy. Both Ronoxym and Cyhyr work retail as well, plus both have much larger families than Hubby and I do. So I figured their crazy must be a step up from ours, and so I halted on my playful harassment of Ron on the progress of Please, Let Me Explain. At least, until the new year. Come 2016, I'm going Life Coach on him about this story.

In the meantime, as I mentioned, I've been brainstorming more world building.

A friend lent Hubby his copy of Skyrim. Yes, we are slowpokes who haven't even attempted to play this game in the 4yrs since it came out. Our friend thought that was a travesty, and he's too fixated on Star Wars Battlefront right now to really care about playing Skyrim anyway. So, Hubby's been playing for the past few days.

Hubby's one best man Shadow - AKA The Bard, as he was previously referred to in this blog - has always stated that the best thing about the Elder Scrolls games was the lore and background they put into the open-world storytelling. You could become just about anything. You could do just about anything. You can wander just about anywhere. The game world was your oyster. So the thing that really ties it all together - since the actual game plot is very vague and buried under all the open-world fun you can have - is the depth, complexity, and realism of the world you run around in.

Everyone has their own problems that don't rely on you. You can help them solve the problems, or they can take care of themselves. Just like in the real world. Characters don't just sit around and wait to hand you another piece of the plot's puzzle. They are having their own arguments and conversations that you walk into. Just like in the real world. I love it. This is what role play games should be like. Granted, I am horrible with first-person game play, which is the default of these games, which is why - despite the genre - I haven't been much of a fan. However, if I can learn to drive a standard car, perhaps I can master dual-thumbstick maneuvering in First-Person games.

This is all besides the point.

The point is I'm watching the detail and complexity of the world that Bethesda Games created. I'm loving it! I really am. Hubby needed to finish a side quest that required him to bring booze to the town drunk. Is said drunk just sitting and waiting for Hubby's return like in most games? NO! He had to run around the town for about five minutes before he found the guy, who was off doing whatever it was that he was planning on doing that day anyway. Hubby also runs across open fields to stumble upon people being attacked by raid groups that completely ignore the "hero" that just appeared. Hubby's character is so insignificant to the world he's running around in. Fantastic!

So, I'm realizing that I need to work on doing the same thing while creating Gyateara. I need to think of it as a large web of stories all unfolding together. Building lives that would run without the main characters of my stories ever getting involved. If I do what I originally planned with Gyateara, and have it as my own D&D world for campaigns, I need to make sure that the parties that run through my campaigns are just as insignificant to the world around them. That is, until they do something major enough to affect it. Having the world sit and wait for the players or the main characters is just poor world building and boring writing.

Nothing has really come to mind quite yet, but I'm setting the gears in motion to come up with these other mini-stories and conflicts to have in Gyateara. At this rate, I might not run a single campaign or write a single story in that world until I'm 50, but by gum, they'll be fantastic when I do!

In theory....

So, in case the week gets the better of me and I don't get the chance to make up my missed update by posting on time this week, have a merry Christmas. Even if you don't celebrate it, still have a merry and blissful December 25th.

Trying To Stay In The Writing Mood

Have I mentioned that the last six or seven weeks of the year are just a production black hole in regards to writing? Because I feel this needs to be said yet again. Between getting ready - and traveling - for Thanksgiving, and crocheting Christmas gifts while getting ready for Christmas, and the hectic hours at work, and the exhaustion of trying to get everything done while time seems to go by in double time.... well, there's really no time for writing.

Heck, I didn't even realize that I missed my update until today. I'm so good at this, aren't I?

Again, I am grateful that I joined the bi-weekly local writing group. Sure, we still don't seem to accomplish too much; I was yet again the only one who brought anything to read, and no one seems to have problems they need help tackling. However, it is the only time I pause life long enough to even think about writing. Two hours every other week. It's not much, but it's better than my writing hibernation I go into between October and February.

Sad to say, I'm still in that disappearing act for Writers’ Huddle. Knowing that I have a large backlog of posts to read, and potentially comment on, has kept me off the forum for MONTHS. When I finally have the time to just sit and read again I'm going to have about 18hrs worth on that forum...

As for the local writing group, as I mentioned, I was the only one who read anything again. I attempted to read off the new bit that I sent to Ronoxym for Please, Let Me Explain. I know that last time I stated that it was about four pages long, and we like people to keep their readings to about a page or two. However, I noticed that most who read their prose have it set up traditionally: single spaced with indented paragraphs.

Since most online publications don't allow indented paragraphs, the standard has become single-spaced paragraphs, with a space in between them to indicate a new paragraph. With all those extra spacings, the bit I wrote hit four pages; without them, it was only two. Score. So, I generally had just about the max amount that we generally would like read aloud. Again, just for ease of absorption; it's hard to take in much more than two-pages worth.

Once again, I had some nice feedback. Keaton had a few notes, but it was mostly her complimenting my descriptions of some things. Her only real critique was my ad libbed description of the new character; something I'm waiting on Ron to give me feedback on. It was placeholder description, and so I took note of what Keaton thought better fit the actions he portrayed.

The other issue? "Please, Let Me Explain" is a companion - although mildly Alternate Universe - story of X-Future, which is based in the X-Men world. The X-Men world in and of itself - due to how long the comics have existed and the spin-offs it created - is long and complicated. Add in the fact that the X-Future game has taken on a sort of Soap Opera-like storytelling; adding more complexity. Sprinkle in one last layer of complications that Ron and I included in PLME. If you follow the story, it should be fairly easy to comprehend. If you go in cold like those ladies on Tuesday? I can completely understand why it was a bit hard to follow what was going on. I had to explain about four different events just to lead up to the segment of PLME that they heard, and then added a few more clarifications after the fact for minor things I forgot I had included.

Poor things. They tried so hard to help critique, but you could tell that they were lost. Now I'm really really hoping it's easier to know what's going on if you went from the beginning. I mean, even for people who have nothing to do with X-Future who are reading PLME; I hope we explain the X-Future happenings well enough that these readers still get what's going on.

We finished our meeting with all four of us having basically forty minutes of "free-writing" as we independently worked on the latest writing prompt. A practice for finding our writing voice. I'm fairly confident that I know what mine is, but it was fun to just sit and write, so I didn't care what the exercise was for. Turns out what I had originally pictured with the prompt is fairly different than what ended up on paper, so that was pretty cool. Kind of reminds me of the creation of Trish: originally designed to be Devon's love interest, only to end up despising him and hungry for his blood.

For the prompt we all agreed to jointly come up with a single character, and then we would each take the character on whatever journey we envision. The fun is to see where we each went with her. Thing is, somehow what we agreed upon got lost in translation, and instead of creating a character for us all to play with, we created an environment around the character.

Keaton suggested going with the five senses. I thought that meant we'd come up with how the character - which we agreed would be female - looked, the texture of her skin/clothes, how she smelled, the sound of her voice, and then take it inward a bit by coming up with what taste she had in her mouth. This should have created a picture of the character.

A stocky, 40-something, woman with course skin, a raspy voice, the smell of gasoline as her perfume, and the taste of slightly burnt grilled steak still lingering on her tongue gives off one image of the character and her possible story. A slender, 92-yr-old woman with loose, soft skin, a whisper of a voice, excessive perfume, and chalkiness in her mouth is a completely different image of both the woman and the story she'd tell.

That's the sort of thing I was expecting us to jointly build. Instead, we figured out what our character sees, hears, feels, smells, and tastes. So, the scene she's in. We can still come up with different stories because the scenes are so broad, so it will be fun to see where we go with it.

Our character sees ice breaking, hears bells chiming, feels satin, smells musky perfume, and tastes apple pie. I think Keaton said she had an older woman as her character - which is what I almost did too; switched to a young girl. Red said hers was middle-aged and a seductress. DFL wasn't feeling well, and so she left before we got to writing.

I've gotten a lot written in the last half-hour of the meeting, but not enough to finish. I'll attempt to finish up and have it posted for next week's update.

I also really want some free time to work on character builds more. Really get a nice profile written for all of my characters. I have Lia, Willow, Trish, and Amara pretty much figured out, but I also want to rework Connor and Natalie from my NaNo story from a few years back.

I'm hoping to have something to show you folks next week, and once again I'm also hoping to post at my actual update time.