COMING SOON:

50,000 words in one month. Now what?

NaNo is over and I won! WHOO! *pops the champagne, and cherries*

*insert general chaos here*

Okay. Ooooof.

Now, what am I going to do with myself you ask?

Well, more projects of course!

As of right now, I've started a spin-off of a series my friend is working on. It's called The Blue, and we're both rather proud of it.

http://vivienneblue.blogspot.com/<--- mine

http://jfjenkins.pbworks.com/blue<--- hers

Read her stuff and comment! And tell her I sent you!

NANO HAS BEGUN

Let's get ready to rumble!

Weeeee!

Keep your eyes peeled. There's a new project on its way!

Sailors fighting in the dance hall, oh man look at those cavemen go.

GOOD NEWS GUYS! THE WRITING BUG IS BACK. And I'm writing again. It's slow going, much like someone learning to walk after being bedridden for months. I have a few projects I'm concentrating on, just to keep my brain off of the big project. I'm plotting and thinking of ideas for the big one though, so all is not lost.

ALSO GOOD NEWS. I GOT A PROMOTION! I ended up transferring to another store, and I'm now the photo lab supervisor there. Which means, I'm full time. And that comes with benefits. Like health insurance! YAY! The manager at this new store is super cool, and we've worked together before, so it's not like being at a North Korean labor camp. It's different there, but I enjoy it.

But, boy, do I have my work cut out for me. And November is going to be crazy, with NaNo and Christmas, and all.

I CAN DO THIS.

a singer in a smoky room/the smell of wine and cheap perfume

Am I possibly wrong in thinking that this song describes Senga and Tucker? Listen here. No, the version is correct.

This song is MY JAM.

I need to get writing again. Retail is sucking the life from me again. Though we had a small victory when our employee satisfaction survey results came in. ALL THE NUMBERS DROPPED. Like mega dropped. It makes my heart happy. STICK THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT BOSSMAN.

Okay, I'm menstrual and need sleep.

stick a fork in me, I'm done.

http://opheliassister.dreamwidth.org/

I posted what I have so far of my novel there. REEEEEEAD IT!

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

I'm gonna go sleep, and whine about how much my sinuses hurt now.

You're just a cool guy with long hair.

Best. Book. Ever.

I'm only on chapter 3 and already they've made digs at my favorite romance authors. And for that I applaud them. I adore the romance genre, it's my guilty pleasure. And you guys know me. I take very few things in life seriously. And I always poke fun at this stuff. Hell, I even poke fun at my own work.

I'm not even sure what I'm going on about now. I've had two opening shifts this week, back to back. And I'm soooo tired. One more day of work, and I have two whole days off. I'm just hoping Monday is as nice as it was today. I want to go to the beach again, and touch up my tan. Because that's what Cape Codders do during the summer.

Also, EuroTrip is on. On TBS. Edited. Boo.

I'm a sketchball, but you already knew that.

I've decided to self-publish and be sketchy and sell my book out of the trunk of my car. So far, AuthorHouse.com has the best deals I've seen. So I'm saving my pennies!

Also, is starting work on a sequel when the first book isn't even finished a bad idea?

BREAK IT DOWN.

So, I almost had a breakdown at Walmart today.

I'll explain.

I don't have health insurance, I lost it last year cuz I was out of school. Okay, I can handle it. I can get insurance through work. Right? Nope. Part-timers like myself can only enroll in benefits at certain pre-determined spans of time, known as an Open Enrollment Period. So, my boss being the douchebag he is, fails to tell me when those are.

So I turn to MassHealth. Got turned down for that because my employer offers health insurance.

I'll let that sink in a little.

Moving on! Two weeks ago I came down with the sniffles. No biggie, right? That's what I thought. Fast forward, and I'm coughing up NEON GREEN MUCUS. Today I decided to take care of it. The office visit was $105, not bad, I can splurge for my health. My temperature was 103 degrees. I normally run in the low 98s. So I get the big nebulizer machine, which is a gift from GOD, and the doc writes my scripts before I leave. An inhaler, some antibiotics, and prednisone.

So off I go to Walmart, cuz the drugs would be cheaper there, right?

Yeah, right. The prednisone was $4, not bad. But everything else? HA. The woman behind the counter told me how much, and I almost lost it. I was tired, and menstrual, and achy, and JUST WANTED MY FREAKING MEDS. So I stepped away and called my mom.

Shut up.

So Mom calls the Doc, and after waiting a half hour for him to call her back, he tells her to tell me to stop by the office, he has all my meds there. Turns out he just raided the sample cabinet.

So now my big decision is whether or not I want to go to New Hampshire with the family. Mom wants to go to Strawberry Banke, and I'm really under-enthused about it. I'm thinking I'm just gonna pack my notebook, sunblock, and a fully charged iPod to get me through the ordeal.

Or just not go, and spend the day attached to my inhaler, and my Gilmore Girls DVDs.

HEAD FOR THE BUNKERS!

Livejournal is down! I repeat, Livejournal is down!

I can't check Oh No They Didn't. What am I supposed to do for the night?

Oh, yeah. WRITE. And watch anime with my brother.

NAME DROPPING TIME!

First things first. A shoutout to my bestest friends: Jill, and Sarah. Who read this blog. At least I think they do. Jill is a fellow writer, and Sarah is an amazing illustrator/artist.

Jill's work can be found here, and Sarah's can be found here. And I'm sure they are going to hate me forever for linking to them. But nuts to them! They know I love them both dearly.

And they understand me. They get me. Even though they're both in faraway lands (Minnesota and L.A.), I wouldn't trade them for a hundred friends living next door.

I found the BEST place to buy tea. Which is this little place in the Mashpee Commons called The Tea Shoppe. Yes, Shoppe. Whatever. I think, when I go to visit Jill, we are going to have a tea party. And I'm bringing her a proper tea set, complete with that little metal dunking thing, my mother's words not mine, and a tea cosy, cozy? And we will play with makeup, and write, and drink lots and lots of tea. Kind of like I did in college.

I have an hour and half to get ready for the Gulag, I mean, work. And I really want more tea.

Fail Fic is... Fail?

I'm still working on this fic, and it's hilarious and fun. I'm enjoying the break from the actual novel.

I think that's what I need: a break. I need to regel, and rejuvenate. I'm burned out from my day job, mostly. And I want to get my head together for NaNoWriMo. I have to bring my A-game for that. My plan for that is as follows:

1. Get to 50,000 words by the start of October.
2. Spend the month of October playing video games/being a lazy bastard.
3. Putting on my ass-kicking shoes for the month of November.
4. Kicking ass and taking names and COMPLETING the goal of another 50,000 words.

Easy, right?

WRONG. NaNo is HARD. I tried it last year, and only did about 10,000 words. You have to be disciplined, and that's something I'm working on.

This writing thing is hard, Mommy.

To my bosses:

HOW DARE YOU PREACH CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THEN THE SECOND IT GETS PUT TO THE TEST YOU BREAK. And what happens? *I* get to clean up the mess and bust my ass doing so.

But on the bright side, I learned how to do something new.

I'll have a better update later tonight. So for now, writing.

Fan Fiction FUN

I think I'm gonna write some Senga/Tucker fanfic.

Hear me out guys.

I need a break from the actual novel. The day job has been rough, I'm sunburned, and I'm recovering from a killer summer cold. Yuck. I'm still coughing up the yuckies.

And I won't even get into the fact I had a brain wave earlier, to change the storyline a little bit. My new idea would give the story a little more drama, which I like. I have to write it down before the NyQuil fogs my brain up and I forget it. I do that all the time, you see. I'll be driving around and get an AMAZING idea, and by the time I get home, it's gone.

So I'm gonna scribble down my new idea, and work on a little drabble I started earlier. Should be fun.

So, TTFN. I think I'll sleep soon, I have work in the morning. Woot.

Her thumbs are lightning fast, at Tekken she'll beat your ass.

It's my jam. I'd rather my day job be at the video game store. I also wish I was as pretty as Olivia Munn.

Do you know who I am? Good, neither do I.

Another lovely day at work. So, to distract myself, I think I'm going to talk about characters.

Senga started out as a character for an RP my dearest friend Jilly had created. Tucker was one of her many characters. And she has graciously let me use him for my novel. If it ever goes anywhere, I promised I'd pay for at least one vacation a year, plus a visit from me (if I don't already live near her by then). ANYWAY.

Senga has gone through many revampings, and facelifts over the past couple of years, but what I've tried to do is keep her personality and backstory essentially the same. She's gone from a witch to a Siren, and back to a witch, but nothing else has changed. The poor girl, no matter what sort of being I choose for her to be this week, is still the same vulnerable-but-still-kicking-ass-and-taking-names woman when it comes down to it. She wears designer clothes, and bakes cookies in Manolo Blahniks. But she's also the girl working at the video game store who plays Guitar Hero on expert just for fun. I think that's part of why Tucker loves her so much.

And yes, she's fashioned after me a little. But all of my characters have a little of me in them. I like living through them. But there's a fine line between that and Mary Sue-ing. Which is a line that should NEVER be crossed. It's very easy to cross that line, and part of the challenge is keeping yourself on the other side of that line. Mary Sues are characters that are TOO perfect. Good and interesting characters should have flaws, and should work through the main conflict despite those flaws. Mary Sues don't go through any sort of growth throughout the story. Examples of Mary Sues can be found in poorly written fanfic, and Twilight.

I'm not a fan of Twilight, and yes, I have read them all. The only lesson I learned from that book series is: If that woman can get published, then SO CAN I GODDAMMIT.

Moving on.

In future entries, I'll talk about the other characters in the novel I'm working on. If ya'll are interested. But, it's 3:30 in the morning and I have to pee and go to bed.

You wanna cash out and get the hell out of town, don't be a baby, remember what you told me.

Shut up and put your money where your mouth is, that's what you get for waking up in Vegas.

I am not disciplined. At all. Example: I opened this window at 11:39. It is now 12:50ish. I may have some form of ADD, as yet undiagnosed. This could become a problem. The last couple of weeks, though, I had a good streak going. About 1,000 words written a night. I'm proud of myself. I told myself that 1,000 words was 1,000 more words to my ticket off this rock. As I'm aiming for 90,000 words, I have a lot of work to do.

If I do 1,000 words a day, it would take me 80 days to complete the rough draft. That doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

Easier said than done. Crap.

I should have sufficient motivation to write. I have the novel plotted out, outlined, characters (mostly) mapped out, their personalities explored. I know them like I know my best friends.

Am I losing hope?

My day job is slowly siphoning away my faith in humanity, and my own talents, or lack thereof. Retail is draining, a slow killer. So, I should be able to redirect my frustrations and annoyances into a creative endeavor, right?

WRONG WRONG WRONG. YOU'RE WRONG.

The atmosphere at the ol' day job is heavy. I feel like if I step one toe out of line, and I'm not all "PRAISE CVS AND CUSTOMERS ARE NUMBER ONE I MUST TOSS THEIR SALAD IF THEY ASK ME TO IT'S ALL ABOUT THEIR NEEDS NOT MINE *FAP FAP FAP*" I'm gonna be blindfolded, handcuffed and tossed in front of the firing squad. I wonder if this is how North Koreans feel.

Now, I'm going to waste more time, and watch Samurai Champloo, and take some Nyquil to help me sleep. It's cheaper than Ambien.

Can't read my poker face.

Okay, so I didn't reach my goal for Script Frenzy, but the script is coming along nicely. Mostly, I've been watching shows similar to what I've been writing, and slowly but surely working my way through The Screenwriter's Bible.

The best way to describe my script is to mix up The Dresden Files with a sprinkling of Charmed, and a healthy dose of Bones. I think. Now that I've done so much writing screenplay style, I'm starting to watch TV and picture the script in my head. It's kind of interesting.

Other than that, I've been working A LOT. My job has taken a turn for the ridiculous. I work for a well-known pharmacy chain, in the one hour photo lab, and I've been doing that for nearly 7 years. Now, in addition to processing and printing my customers' pictures, my manager wants us to greet customers AT THE DOOR, which is clear across the store. Then after we greet them, he wants us to promote our coupon printer, where you scan your loyalty card and gets lots of crappy coupons for things you'll never buy.

Now, I have a couple options here. I can pretend to be like the door greeters at Wal-Mart, and offend a lot of people. Or! I can sex it up, and wear my stilettos and my red lipstick, and offend a lot of people. Or I can get a new job.

Or finish my script.

I also really need to get back to school.

a little inspirational music.

OMG UPDATE

I apologize for not updating for a week or so, but I've been busy. Busy not writing, sadly. I feel bad for it too.

I'm behind for Script Frenzy too, by at least ten pages. But I'm almost done with the first episode, and I have pieces of the whole season done too. I've been working in bits and pieces, which is something I do. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I like having a goal for the story. It's just a matter of connecting the dots.

I had Easter weekend to myself, so I got a lot done. Dishes, leg shaving, and at least 5 pages of my script. Tonight, I plan to get at least 5 more done. I won't be caught up, but it's something. And after that, I could have the first episode done!

Wish me luck.

EDITED TO ADD: One of the other reasons I like having the whole house to myself, is that I get to watch my Gilmore Girls DVDs on the big TV and not get made fun of. Life is good. Mom and Dad should go away more often.

tonight's accomplishments....

NOTHING. I went out with my lovely friends, and all us ladies hid from the boys underneath a Powerpuff Girls sheet and talked about cats and babies and how cats don't like babies.

However, Jilly approves of my first fairly good scene. Which is good considering she created the Tucker monster.

Now, I wanna post what I have here, but it's long. Anyway to put it under a cut, or something? Hmmm.

Moving right along.

Weeeee, 13 pages down! This is fun.

I also picked up my copy of The Screenwriter's Bible. And HOLY CRAP is that book huge. I started reading it today, and it made me feel dumb. Oh well. That's why I'm reading it right?

Script Frenzy profile, I'm ahead of schedule.

I decided to re-write the beginning of the script, because where I had originally started really made no sense unless you were familiar with the Senga/Tucker story. Which was started many moons ago with my dear friend Jilly, who created Tucker. And for that, I am forever grateful.

Thoughts on script writing.

I'm enjoying the screenwriting format. And I'm surprised at how it just chugs along and all of a sudden you have 10 pages done. Maybe Sian has found her calling?

I think tomorrow I might go to the bookstore and see if I can find The Screenwriter's Bible. And add it to the giant stack of books I have to read. Speaking of which... I can't find my copy of The Waste Lands by Stephen King. I did find several books I forgot that I bought. So blessing in disguise? I think so.

To tide you all over until I have enough to post.

SCRIPT FRENZY STARTED TODAY, YAY!

So what did I do? Worked, walked, and slept. But I started at 10 PM. I'm awful, I know. Someone kick me please.

Anyway. Off to convert the following snippet into script form! It doesn't have a title yet, but that'll come.

“It’s the girls, agent. That’s what will ruin a case. Not poor investigating, not any lack of evidence. The women are the root of it. They cloud your mind; their beauty is distracting. Let this be a lesson for you.” Agent Radner sat in the driver’s seat of grey, grey rental car, while Agent Smyth sat in the passenger seat, getting scolded. Both men were in their bland grey suits that matched the car. Agent Tucker Smyth’s suit seemed to fit him better, and he even made the suit look better, while Agent Radner’s suit just hung on him. Tucker was the better looking of the two, as well as being the younger agent. And his good looks got him into trouble.

“Not only are they a distraction, but it’s not professional. That girl could file for sexual harassment if she was in her right mind. And the agency would let you go if that happened, and it would be on your record. You’re in deep, Agent Smyth.”

Tucker did his best not to roll his eyes, and just nodded silently in his seat.

Agent Radner continued his tirade. “And just as a precaution, you’re off the case. And so is she.”
“What? You can’t do that! It wasn’t her fault, she did nothing wrong! Why should she be punished for something that was clearly my fault?” Tucker said, his face horrified. “I had never intended for that to happen.” He added quietly.

“Her chief made the decision, not our department. He felt that it was better to have new agents on the case, and that it was a mistake to have put the both of you on the case.” Radner said, not looking at Tucker, keeping his eye on the road. Showing emotions were never Agent Radner’s strong suit. But Tucker could throw a tantrum when he got riled up.

“That’s BULLSHIT. And you know it! We were so close to a break in the case. And you know we made a good team. We were so close…”

“Yeah, you guys were really close. I saw what you two got up to on the stakeout. And you nearly lost the suspect. Yet ANOTHER reason why relationships with a colleague are frowned upon. We’re nearly at the airport, calm yourself down.” Agent Radner muttered as he guided the car towards the onramp of Logan Airport. “Who the hell is Logan, anyway?”

P.S. Also! Since when is grey not spelled G R E Y? I'm confused. And the HTML freaked out at me, so I apologize for any formatting looking funny. Never had this problem with LiveJournal! Bah.

The day before tomorrow.

Today, I prepare for the month that is to come. Gathering resources, doing research, and procrastinating....

And I realize how much I want a Rottie. Seriously. Look at the cute.



It screams "PLAY WITH MEEEEE!" Yes, I will play with you.

Also. If anyone sends you a link to the Rubber Johnny video, don't watch it at night. Watch it during the day, with all the lights on. Seriously, I cried.

ZA INTRO.

Oh, goodness. Here I am, starting my new blog in a world other than LiveJournal. Here I'll post what I've been working on, updates on ScriptFrenzy, which starts in a few days! And I'll post anything I find relevant to publishing/me getting published.

Welcome aboard! Down the rabbit hole we go...