Write it, cut it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quick rewrite it,

Script Frenzy! 2009 starts in 4 hours, 7 minutes for me. Bleh so not ready! I have my characters roughly sketched out. I have my setting. I have my opening events. I have the vaguest shadow of a plot. *sigh* That's about it. Besides which, I have several more hours of homework for tonight, not to mention to get done in the few hours I'll have tomorrow.

Ah, well, that's what makes these things FUN!

My Writing Blog....in Twitter

Bahnree:

-loves writing
-is having trouble with the current Stranger episode

-is feeling very anxious about Screnzy....should I do it??? Will it even work? Will I totally fail in school because of it? How hard IS a screenplay?

-trying not to let Lilith affect her writing

-seems to use the words "moment" and "stare" a lot

-uses her powers for good, most of the time

Writing Windows

I like windows beside me when I write, although I can write just about anywhere and have written just about everywhere. But my preferred places to write in my house are in my room beside my window, and at a window in our family room. Some people claim windows are distracting; they prefer to lock themselves in dark rooms so they can concentrate.  However, I feel I need some connection the “real world” when I lock myself in my mind, so that I can remind myself what it’s all for and what it’s all about. I need to see the sky. The natural light doesn’t hurt, either.

There’s not much of a view outside my bedroom window, anyway. My neighbor’s garage takes up a large portion, gray slatted roof and smooth gray paneling. A tree from my back yard can be seen, a young birch: its branches tease the right hand side of the view. Behind the garage are several stands of trees, layering back, presumably, to the horizon (my neighborhood has a lot of trees). If I crane to the left, I can see more of the birch and the green grass of my neighbor’s yard. If I crane to the right, I can see my neighbor’s driveway, crumbling pavement, and a vehicle or two. Above all of this is a patch of sky. In the evening, I can watch the stages of the sunset in it. So, all in all, not much of a view.

Our family room window looks over the street. There’s a lot more distractions to be had from this one, as I can watch passersby (who are frequent, because we live down the street from a park), passing cars, my neighbors, my neighbors’ pets, etc. Across the street there’s a yellow lab; one of the boys plays with it outside a lot. Then my dog barks, and runs upstairs and puts his front paws on the windowsill to watch. I yell at my dog, and eventually get back to work. This window faces south, so I usually miss both the sunrise and the sunset. All in all I like this window better, as sometimes I get ideas for descriptions from it, even if it’s more distracting.

So, what do you think? Windows or not? View? No view?

Motivations

[Sorry if this is cheesy. Just a post I've had rolling around in my mind for a while.]

Why do I write? Why do I spend so many hours of my life writing, editing what I’ve written, planning what I should write in future? I’ve heard a lot of reasons for a person to write, and I think all of them come into my own personal reasons to a degree.

Some people do it only when they have to: for school, for work, for correspondence. They write papers, reports, emails, only from necessity; as soon as they’re finished, they put down their pen with relief.

Some people do it simply for the enjoyment: they like being the master of their many worlds, creating people and places, deciding what should happen and when; or being master of their argument, laying forth the facts and persuasions as seems good to them. They like losing control and letting their worlds grow into beasts that demand their time and resources and soul. They can write a hundred pages a day and not get enough.

Some people write for attention. They ask themselves, what would be the weirdest way to deliver a poem; how can I get the biggest rush out of a story or the most outcry from an essay or manifesto? They write for the praise and the ridicule and the interviews and the critics and the fans.

Some people write because they have something they must communicate, out of want or need. They are driven by their dire conviction that as many people as possible must hear what they have to say. This isn’t, necessarily, out of an arrogant presumption that they know better than everyone else. Sometimes it is a purely altruistic thought: they truly believe they are writing for the benefit and knowledge of others.

I can’t say I’m completely free from any of these reasons. I think, perhaps, I possess a little of each. But most of all, first and foremost, I write because I must. I have to write; it is a demand from my innermost self. It is my outlet, my communication to myself, my creative bend, my hobby, my life. If I didn’t write, my self would be contained and never escape. My thoughts, my dreams, my worlds, my friends, my creatures, come out in my writing. Because they have to. Because I have to. It is my mission, set by myself, in some place and time outside of myself. And that is why I write.

OC Madness

Chose ten of your OCs. If you don't have ten of your own, chose ten cool people. 

1 = Clai

2 = Numair

3 = Dionysus

4 = Ramy

5 = Varesh

6 = Callen

7 = Alice

8 = Alec

9 = Adrastus

10 = Jahara

 

1.)   4 invites 3 and 8 to dinner at his house. What happens?

Ramy: “I think it’s time the brains in these worlds need to come together and…you know. Right?”

Dionysus: “So wait, are you hitting on us or suggesting world domination? Either way, I’ve got time.”

Alec: “Oh, wow, look at the time! I have to go make sure what’s-her-name doesn’t get killed on her way home…”

Me: “Can…I….please…come too?” *ded from fangirl squee*

 

2.) 9 tries to get 5 to go to a strip club. 

Varesh: “Hey, man, I don’t think this place is what you think it is…”

Adrastus: “Whaddya mean? Dionysus said it was really great; said the steak is delish…”

 

2.)   You need to stay at a friend's house for a night. Who do you choose, 1 or 6?

I’m not sure if Callen would let me IN his house, after what I did to him…but yeah, I’d definitely go with Callen, seeing as he lives in a palce and Clai is a bum…

 

4.) 2 and 7 are making out, 10 walks in. What are the reactions?

*Jahara takes one look and leaves in a state of dignified rage*

Numair: “Wait, wait! I CAN EXPLAIN!”

Alice: “Well, gotta go. Chad and I are going out for dinner.”

 

5.) 3 falls in love with 6, 8 is jealous. What happens?

*Callen is overcome by the absurdity and wrongness of it all; he esplodes*

*Dionysus and Alec return from their brief insanity*

*all is well*

*except for Callen, who iz esploded*

 

6.) 4 jumps you in a dark alleyway. Who comes to your rescue; 10, 2 or 7?

Numair attempts to rescue me, and then Ramy takes me away to other worlds….if ya know what I mean.

 

7.) 1 decides to start a cooking show. Fifteen minutes later, what is cooking?

Varesh’s hair.

 

8.) 3 has to marry either 8, 4 or 9. Who do they choose?

Dionysus uses his godly powers to switch one of the females into 8, 4, or 9 (probably Alice)

 

9.) 7 kidnaps 2 and demands something from 5 for 2's release. What is it?

Alice: “You. Me. Dimensions.”

Varesh: “Okay…you didn’t have to kidnap the pirate, though.”

 

10.) Everyone gangs up on 3. Does 3 have a chance in hell?

*Dionysus smiles angelically*

*censored content*

 

11.) Everyone is invited to 2 and 10's wedding except for 8. How do they react?

*Numair and Jahara are very happy that not only are they a man-woman pairing, they’re a canon pairing from their story*

*Alec sends a herd of stampeding horses through the wedding ceremony*

 

12.) Why is 6 afraid of 7?

Callen: “She’s terrifying. You ask her if she’d like anything to drink and she gives you a look that says she’d like to pour her drink on you and lick it off.”

 

13.) 1 arrives late for 2 and 10's wedding. What happens, and why were they late?

Clai: “Sorry, Faulkner tried to fake my arrest again. I stabbed him in the brains with sound waves.”

*silence*

Varesh: “That’s my girl.”

 

14.) 5 and 9 get roaring drunk and end up at your house- what happens?

Well, first I’d put Adrastus to bed, as he can NOT hold his liquor. Then Varesh and I would stay up, er, discussing what should happen in DimTourn. Yes.

 

15.) 9 murders 2's best friend. What does 2 do to get back at 9?

I don’t think Numair would ever suspect Adrastus in the first place, so Adrastus could live in peace. Regardless, Numair doesn’t really HAVE a best friend to get murdered.

 

16.) 6 and 1 are in mortal danger. Only one of them can survive. Does 6 save himself or 1?

Callen’s a decent bloke, unfortunately. He’d save Clai, if she let him.

 

17.) 8 and 3 go camping. For some reason they don't have any food. What do they do?

(why is it always 8 and 3? And WHY are Dionysus and Alec 8 and 3? Lolz)

Dionysus would just use his godlike powers again. Lame, I know. And Alec would get extremely tired of grapes and wine.

 

18.) 5 is critically injured in a car crash. What does 9 do?

(again with the 5 and 9!!)

Wonder what in the heck that big, moving metal box was.

For years I've been telling myself the same old story

I'm reading a fantastic book by Annie Dillard called The Writing Life. It's completely fantastic! Seriously, all writers reading this blog, you should check it out. It's only a bit over a hundred pages, but it's great. 

Here's a couple of brief excerpts:

"To comfort friends discouraged by their writing pace....

Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks; he claimed he knocked it off in his spare time from a twelve-hour-a-day job performing manual labor. There are other examples from other continents and centuries, just as albinos, assassins, saints, big people, and little people show up from time to time in large populations. Out of a human population on earth of four and a half billion, perhaps twenty people can write a serious book in a year. Some people lift cars, too. Some people enter week-long sled-dog races, go over Niagara Falls in barrels, fly planes through the Arc de Triomphe. Some people feel no pain in childbirth. Some people eat cars. There is no call to take human extremes as norms."

(about Jack London):

"In subsequent years, once he had a book of his own under way, he set his alarm to wake him up after four hours' sleep. Often he slept through the alarm, so, by his own account, he rigged it to drop a weight on his head. I cannot say I believe this, though a novel like The Sea-Wolf is strong evidence that some sort of weight fell on his head with some sort of frequency-but you wouldn't think a man would claim credit for it."

Meanwhile, I finished the episode I was working on, and am working on the next. This one is giving me Numair-esque difficulties: Numair is just a hard POV to write!!! He won't let me leave him, either.

"Here's to Poosh." "To Poosh!"

When it rains, it pours. I've finished the next Stranger episode and will post it next Saturday, probably, although it's rather short so I'm going to need to do something about it. It was WEIRD rewriting this one, which is the rewrite of the one where the Stranger gets his soul back. This time, it ends QUITE differently.

The episode I'm working on now, by contrast, is turning out really LONG so I might have to chop it in two. He's visiting more places from before, and several new characters dropped out of the sky (think dragons and historians). Also, an old face will be reappearing. Four locations so far have to be visited. All of that adds up quite a bit in wordcount. I sometimes question myself and wonder if I should just write a novel about the whole business, but I don't think I could do it. Not in a way I'd be pleased with it, anyway. I think the Stranger will just live perpetually in my consciousness and bother me, insisting on being rewritten every few years. :P

"It's said to be nearly unbearable to witness, but I'll do my best."

At LONG LONG LONG LAST, the fourteenth episode of the Stranger has arrived!

http://www.freewebs.com/soulcollectors/index.htm

http://bahnree.deviantart.com/art/The-Stranger-Episode-Fourteen-116656536

Lulz. I'm so made of fail. But there it is.

Spring Break has begun and at last I'm getting back into writing fiction, which is lovely. I wrote some of the Alec Horsemaster madness last night, which was fun.....that story is SO erratic, inconsistent, and hilarious, it's great. I kinda thought I'd practice writing his character, though, since he's going to be in ScriptFrenzy. I'm not counting on winning ScriptFrenzy at this point. I'm just going to do my best. But I have characters popping into my mind. Alec is the advisor, Bahnree is the dictator, Conrade is commander of the mercenary forces (A-B-C theme, yeah? Lulz) and Danner is another character. I'm possibly going to have a villain character named Zeugma, which is the ultimate Latin geekery, rofl. Anyway the villain will either be Zeugma or Evan's communist regime and Eric's republic will be the enemies. But probably Zeugma will be the villain and Evan and Eric will just be characters for comedic exploitation. Should I keep their real names, or give them aliases? I dunno. 

So yeah, enjoy the Stranger. I'll try to update DAMDL this weekend too.

to see a world in a grain of sand

Wow, poetry overdose, much???? For my lit class we've been reading Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and for my own leisure reading I've been reading a Dover selection of William Blake. I'm enjoying all of them, although, IMO, they're all completely different. Anyway, this is affecting my brain because I was TAing today and a couple lines of a poem sprang into my head, which hasn't happened in a long time. Don't get me wrong, the little poetry I've done isn't great, but I like it when I'm spontaneously inspired and form a whole poem around a few lines.

http://bahnree.deviantart.com/

I have a few poems over there, and if anyone wanted to give me some feedback on it, that would be great. :) I posted the one from today there as well.

Anyone else have an extremely amateur interest in poetry? :)

the frenzy is beginning

the script frenzy challenge: 30 days. 100 pages. April.
Are you in?