Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan review

So, there's a major problem with reading the first 10 books in a series and then not reading the next for at least 5 years. Especially books as long, complex, and including literally thousands of speaking characters as the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

My disorientation in this book included, but was not limited to trying to figure out:

-who was bonded to who. I MEAN REALLY. EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG IS BONDED TO AT LEAST ONE PERSON.

-who the bad guys were. The problem with WoT is that the good guys are unaware of several villains, and if the reader IS told that they're a villain for sure, you get one scene telling you so, and then you have to remember it forever more.

-the state of Sea Folk politics. Again, I MEAN REALLY. Sea Folkiness is complicated enough.

-and, of course, who the heck all of the characters are besides the main 10 or so.

I could, of course, have re-read the whole series before tackling Knife of Dreams. But that would have taken me another 5 years at least, probably. :P

Anywayyyy this is supposed to be a review. Despite all of my confusion, this addition to the WoT series was pretty fantastic and lovely. For once in a long while, we had plotlines with ALL THREE of the Male Leads: Rand, Perrin, and Mat. Usually one of them will not be present in a book, just because there is sooo much going on in the series at this point. It was GREAT to be able to spend time with all three. The same mostly goes for Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne, who I consider to be the main Female Leads (but feel free to dispute that). Elayne, unfortunately, still made me want to slaughter villages of angel kittens. She's already the most moody, selfish girl ever, and now she's got wayyyy more hormones than she knows how to deal with. *SIGH*

In this book, Jordan seems to have really made an effort to start tying up threads, even if just started. :PI don't think I should go into too much of the plot, as it would be nonsensical to people who haven't read the series or aren't up to speed. But the Tower (Black and White) threads (pretty much all of them) get a lot of progress, as do Perrin's rescuing rampage of Doom, Mat's hilarious pursuit of the Daughter of the Nine Moons, and Elayne's bid for succession. The ending of the book didn't have an ENORMOUS HUGE OMFJAM climax like WoT books often do, but in a way it was kind of nice. It got some stuff done that needed to happen, and in mostly satisfactory ways.

My main complaint in this book was a few scenes from POVs that seemed completely pointless. That's my main complaint of WoT in general: if Jordan kept his plotting and characters a little bit tighter, the story wouldn't get quite so out of control and epic and bogged down. I mean, for example, did we REALLY need a scene with Arymilla and her cronies? No, no, we did not. Everything that we learned in that scene we learned AGAIN from Elayne's POV. All it did was add a completely boring meal scene in the middle of THINGS HAPPENING.

Overall though I really enjoyed this book; it's probably my favorite WoT since Lord of Chaos (book 6. Yeah. Forever ago.). One of my favorite things about the series is Rand and his insanity, or lack of, or battle against, and he got a lot more POV-time in here than he usually does. Many of the other characters got much-needed "character moments" as well, to remind us of just how much we love them and why.

I'm looking forward to tackling The Gathering Storm sometime soon!

Continued book meme from Picaresque.

Part 3– The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months:

This is an absurd question. But okay. I'm just going to put my top.....6 from 2010 (cuz it's easy to check on Goodreads, lol).

-The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

-The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

-The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

-The Bostonians by Henry James

-The Game by Laurie R. King

-Fire by Kristin Cashore

Part 4 – Your favorite book or series ever: This is such an impossible question! But I'm going to say The Lord of the Rings trilogy, because honestly it's really what turned me into the bookworm I am today. :D A close second would be Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, because I've read it countless times and love it to bits.

Part 5: A book or series you hate: Twilight? I don't know, I tend to block out books I hate and just refuse to think about them anymore. OH I did have to read a book for school this year, Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, which despite being good writing I completely hated. It was just too disgusting for words.

Part 6: A book that was adapted into a movie you liked better than the book (or vice versa, or both): Well I've never read a John Grisham book, but I love the movies The Pelican Brief, The Client, and The Runaway Jury. Does that count? Books that I like better than movies include Howl's Moving Castle, Inkheart (although I loved the movie except for the last scene), Dark is Rising, and of course Eragon. I don't care how much you hate the Eragon book, the movie is a travesty to humanity.

Part 7: Least favorite plot device used in books you otherwise enjoy: Random tragedy or deaths or emotional angst that is used just to get you to "connect" or "empathize" with the characters. Save me useless drama, people. If it's needed for the story and completely understandable and believable, okay. Otherwise, no.

Versatile Blogger Award

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order...)

4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

I was given this award by Maria A. Hughes, aka shield maiden, who is awesome in every way. Thank you so much Marie! I'm kind of a blog lurker so I probably spend more time reading other people's blogs than working on my own, but I still really enjoy posting here and chzatting with everyone!

7 things about Bahnree

1. I read manga almost as often as I read "normal" books, but I don't often talk about it. I guess it's sorta like a guilty pleasure, only I don't actually feel guilty. I take a vindictive pleasure in defending manga when someone bad-mouths it; I just don't wear it on my sleeve, I guess.

2. I have a secret dream (oops not secret anymore?) of becoming a voice actor. I love quoting, I love voices and working on different ones, and I love animated movies and TV (although there's a lot of of crap in the market).

3. Studies have implied that I could live on root beer and mushrooms for a week.

4. I make beaded animals when I'm really bored and need to do something with my hands.

5. I was in drama in high schoo and miss it DESPERATELY.

6. My family is very important to me, and often people give me a hard time for how much time I spend with them. Don't judge me? ;)

7. I'm a Christian but I don't actually hate you. Jesus says to Love your enemies and Love your neighbor as yourself.

Awesome Bloggers You Should Visit

(mmmmKAY?)

1. Stories of Medusa
2. Just A Good Book
3. Picaresque
4. Kiersten Writes
5. Hyperbole and a Half
6. Natural/Artifical
7. Poisoned Rationality
8. The Lost Entwife
9. The O.W.L.
10.Unputdownables
11. Lavender Lines
12. Fig and Thistle
13. Smitten With Books
14. In The Forest
15. A Girl Reads a Book

BBB Read-a-thon Wrap-up

So it was a lot harder to read in the car than I thought. I forgot we were not going on an interstate but an older highway, so windy, narrow road+reading=sick Bahnree. I just would read a few pages, then have to take a break, read a few more, etc.

But I still managed to make progress on the Conqueror's Trilogy, even if I didn't get it finished or anything else read. Let me tell you, catching up on blogs last night and today was really awesome but also really depressing...everyone read SO MANY BOOKS. :D Good job!

Conqueror's Pride: 389 pages

Conqueror's Heritage: 342 pages

Total weekend:

1094 pages read (the above plus Knife of Dreams)

3 books finished

10 bottles of water consumed

Thank you to Monica for hosting, and to everyone else for participating! I had a lot of fun following blogs and seeing all the TBR lists go down. :D

I will probably post mini-reviews for the books I read this weekend a little later today, so if you're interested, stay tuned. ;)

Read-a-thon: Day 1

GREETINGS.

Today I finished Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan. Which considering I had my niece's birthday party and am leaving on a 9-hour (one way) car trip tomorrow, I think that's pretty okay.

The book was fantastic, btw. Probably the best Wheel of Time book since Lord of Chaos, or on par with Crossings of Twilight, at least.

Books read: 1

Pages read: 363

Saturday and Sunday I am planning to read the Conqueror's trilogy by Timothy Zahn, or however much of it I can manage. I won't have internet again until Sunday night, so don't expect any updates from me. :( Good luck everyone! Hope you're having fun!

Book Meme parts I and II

Book Meme from Picaresque. :) Who knows where it started.

Part I: A series you wished had gone on longer or one you wished would just END ALREADY (or both!): I would read Diana Wynne Jones' Howl books until the world ended. I don't know if that's healthy or whatever. But it's true. It's unlikely we will get any more.

Series that need to END are Paolini's Inheritance "trilogy" and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (which also started as a trilogy). Both series have major weaknesses, but I also love them to bits and would like to see some CONCLUSION.

Part 2: A series or book that you wish more people were talking about and reading: Hmmm....hard game. Well it's actually quite hard to find some good old Henry James lovers....I keep gushing about the poor man and everyone thinks I'm insane. I would love to discuss his books and themes in-depth. Also I was very sad for a while because I didn't know anyone personally who had read Howl's Moving Castle, despite its utter MAGIC, but that's solved now, yay! The Perilous Gard and Sherwood's Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope are, as far as I can tell, extremely under-read and underrated.

Reading Choices

Booking Through Thursday (that's a link) weekly meme:

Have your reading choices changed over the years? Or pretty much stayed the same? (And yes, from childhood to adulthood we usually read different things, but some people stick to basically the same kind of book their entire lives, so…)

I was JUST thinking about this yesterday, actually! I was thinking about how even though some of my favorite books NOW are "children's lit" I didn't actually read them as a child. I didn't read Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Howl's Moving Castle, Ballet Shoes, etc, until the last 10-ish years.

Anyway let's try and go through this chronologically:

Years 0-12: I'm going to lump this all together because I really didn't read much in these years. I mean, yes, I liked reading, and I would get piles of picture books and what-not from the library, but I didn't do my research well. Also, I was an enormous animal: horse nerd so a lot of my reading was the Thoroughbred series, Margaret Henry, Walter Farley, etc. One of my favorite chapter books was Harriet the Spy, and I enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie books. I also checked out Big Bear's Book from the library possibly 100 times. I didn't read Goodnight Moon until high school, the same for Where the Wild Things Are. I eventually discovered the Young Jedi Knights book series, as well as Redwall, around 12 or so, and devoured those. I already loved Star Wars but finding sci-fi/fantasy books like these is probably what started my current life as a super-nerd.

Years 13-18: I discovered Tolkien around, oh, December 26th, 2001. XD I thank God those movies were made, because otherwise I might never have picked up the books (they always looked too big and scary and SRS BSNS). I read those at least 6 times that first year, and also started reading the other Tolkien books: The Hobbit, Sil, etc. Once I realized how Completely Awesome fantasy was (many, many years too late), I started trying out all the other big books in the Tolkien-fantasy genre, such as Narnia, Earthsea, Wheel of Time, etc. Other big books of this period: Paolini (restrain your shudders), Diana Wynne Jones, adult Star Wars (now that I knew I could read "big books"), and more Redwall. Star Wars led to Timothy Zahn, which led to more adult sci-fi, but I was very picky. I dabbled in Christian fiction (Frank Peretti, Left Behind series) but the main books that I still enjoy and recommend are Melody Carlson's books, particularly Diary of a Teenage Girl series.

Years 19-21: Going into college, I made BOOKISH FRIENDS who have helped and continue to help me expand my reading material greatly. I've gotten way more into YA than I ever have been (although I'm still extremely picky >.>) and have been catching up on some children's classics, but still mostly continuing in my favorite veins: kids or adult fantasy or sci-fi. Jasper Fforde, Naomi Novik, Hilari Bell, Terry Pratchett, James A. Owen, Cornelia Funke, Mervyn Peake, Elizabeth Marie Pope and Frank Herbert are all big authors of this period so far. I also started reading GOOD Christian fiction and non-fiction, by GK Chesterton, CS Lewis, and George MacDonald. Probably the biggest Book Effect of college, though, is my acquired love of classics (*waves to English majors*). Henry James, Jane Austen, and Conan Doyle are my current classics-loves but they change rapidly. I'm guessing I'll be specializing in 19th c. lit. XD Although I also have a soft spot for medieval romance.

So, current genres are fantasy, sci-fi, and classics, and those can be in kids, YA, or adult. :)

This turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be: sorry!

Bibliophiliac Book Blog Read-a-thon

I signed up for another read-a-thon. Because I'm crazy. But I'm going on a family road-trip this weekend and I need something to keep me happy, even if it makes me carsick. XD

So! Books I am hoping to read:

Conqueror's Pride

Conqueror's Heritage

Conqueror's Legacy

(all by Timothy Zahn)

Alternates:

Finish Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So, goodnight dear void.

So I've been wanting to read Robin McKinley and Patricia A. McKillip for a while now. Does anyone have suggestions for what book of theirs to START with??? Too many options!

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey review

I was sorta forced to read this by Snazel. We were both visiting a friend at the time (we live on different sides of this particular continent) and I was going to visit her, Snazel, right after that. She left first, and left Guardian with me as well. So whenever I was tempted to stop, I just kept thinking, "But...she told me to read it! And left it with me! I gotta read it or when I go visit her she'll hate me!"

Don't ask. I have insecurity issues.

This book was SLOW GOING for me at the beginning. I wasn't connecting with the narrator (first person present, for those who care), I didn't like any of the other characters, and the plot seemed to be the whiny "I'm such a loser I refuse to participate in life" kinda books, a la Swan. But about three chapters in, I started sitting up and paying attention. The characters that had been introduced became more interesting, started doing things, and I cared. I don't really know how Healey made me care at that point, because by then I had such a bad attitude that I just kept picking up the book and saying "I DO NOT CARE." The rest of the experience was lovely: I just got more and more interested and by the end I was glued to the page, to the point that I didn't notice Snazel walking up to me in the airport.

So, I guess I should talk about the plot. The narrator, an insecure highschool girl named Ellie, has a best friend Kevin, who is involved in a college drama production. She also has a crush on a mysterious emo bad boy (I KNOW, RIGHT? He gets better!) named Mark. There is a strange woman also involved in the college play named Reka. Meanwhile, in the city a serial killer named Eyeslasher (guess what he does to his victims???) is, well, killing people. Reka starts trying to seduce Kevin, Mark starts to take an interest in Ellie, and somewhere along the way, plot happens!

Yeah okay I suck at plot summaries.

But what I loved about this book was the incorporation of the mythology. A big part of the book has to do with New Zealand mythology, which I am very unfamiliar with but was really interesting and cool! The main characters have varying degrees of knowledge about the stories involved (it's set in NZ), but they all learn more. I'm a myth geek, but New Zealand folklore was new to me, so all of those elements were delicious!

I also believed in the romance, which was nice. I didn't at first; I was like wow this is lame and thinking I could predict the whole thing. But by the end I did like both of them, so there you go.

The only thing I disliked about the book besides the lackluster beginning was the postmodernist viewpoint, which is just a personal thing. But really, when the main characters say "Stories are true if you believe enough in them" just gave me a bad taste and did NOT make me want to care about THEIR story.

Somehow I managed, though, which says something for the pacing (after the first couple of chapters), the action, and the characters.

I gave this book four out of five stars.

(debut challenge book #1)

The Scribe Delivers an Update on Her Progress, or Lack Of

So this year has definitely been a burn-out year for me, in regards to written fiction quotas. What have I even done? I don't know. Pretty much nothing, except for some drabbles, and I vaguely remember 17k being written on something earlier on in the year....*frowns*

Anyway. My bud Snazel challenged Kemendraugh and I to write 52 short stories in a year. So of course, like good little Snaz minions, we accepted, and are FIGHTING. lol. We started on July 1st, so I've submitted 5 stories to them so far. Although, we are allowing for a certain number of the stories we share with each other to be older ones, so I've used up one of my "reruns." But still! I've written 4 shorties in a month! And I kinda like all of them. One is part of my Alice in Wonderland retelling, two are about my Star Wars characters, and one is a weird fantasy-ish bizarre thing. XD The first three were really good for just getting my rusty fiction-writing brain into gear. The latter I kinda love, and I may use to do some world-building and eventually get a longer tale out of, but I'm not sure.

So the moral of the story? Deadlines are good, especially when you've got friends to poke you. It's especially fun because now I get to look forward to short stories from them on Monday and Fridays (my day is Wednesday). So we have collective creative juices at work here! XD And all of it helps to encourage the rest of us. Or so it seems to me.

I'll keep y'all updated on the year-long challenge as we go.

PS- sorry for all the layout changes here...I finally got around to exploring blogger's template designer. Also, welcome to a couple of new followers! ^_^ Let's be friends.

Read-a-thon Closing Comments!

Well, I read a lot more than I otherwise would have! XD
I finished Geek's Guide by Garth Sundem and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which was a total of about 400 pages.
I read How To Be A Pirate and How To Speak Dragonese by Cressida Cowell, which was a total of 433 pages (kid books).
I read 1 30-page fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

Yay! Thanks Wallace for hosting! I had a lot of fun. This was my first read-a-thon; hopefully for the next one I'll be a bit more prepared.

Now I'm off to babysit my niece, read White Cat by Holly Black, and make wedding programs for my sis. It's going to be a crazy week.

Douglas Adams....AGAIN???

You're The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

by Douglas Adams

Considered by many to be one of the funniest people around, you are
quite an entertainer. You've also traveled to the far reaches of what you deem possible,
often confused and unsure of yourself. Life continues to jostle you around like a marble,
but it's shown you so much of the world that you don't care. Wacky adventures continue to
lie ahead. Your favorite number is 42.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Read-a-thon Update 3

I am just NOT in the mood for Andersen...I can't even talk about it. But here' s the remainder of my read-a-thon reading.

How To Be A Pirate by Cressida Cowell: Awww this book was too cute! I laughed out loud several times too. I liked it more than the first one, because both Hiccup and Fishlegs get more skillz and Toothless isn't QUITE as impossible. XD Stoick and Hiccup's father-son relationship is just out of control cute! This book was only 211 pages (including drawings) but too bad. :D

How To Speak Dragonese: 222 pages. Romans! Nanodragons! Frightening Foreigners 101! Sharkworms! Dragon-nappers! Kick-butt female!

I love these books.

"The Ice Maiden" by Hans Christian Andersen (fairy tale): Not to be confused with "The Snow Queen," btw. 32 pages. I loved the fact that "Vertigo" was a character in this, and that he's an assassin sent by the Ice Maiden to get Rudy, a little boy, killed. Rudy didn't have the common decency to die when the Ice Maiden had him in her clutches, so of course she has a grudge now. XD So the villains are awesome; Rudy, not so much. He's like an Andersenian jock. :P And Babette the love interest is properly brainless and swoony.

Read-a-thon Update 2

I finished The Historian! Win! I actually started it in June...it's kinda sad. But I took a big break in July to read a bunch of other stuff, so...yeah. No, there's really no excuse. Sigh.

But it was good! *cue mini-review* It's a lot of libraries, history, research, etc, + vampires, + travelogue, so it's not for everyone, but I liked the writing style in much the same way I like the Inkheart series: dense, and not always good for pacing, but I just kinda heart it.

The pacing suffered a lot every once in a while, mostly because there are three plotlines going on: one in the 1930s, one in the 1950s, and one in the 1970s. I enjoyed the 1950s one the most, which is by far the longest. I also did not believe in one of the relationships at all...I DID at first, but then it was just totally pulled off all in two seconds and I was like...ok...that would not even happen. But maybe I am clueless. Anyway. Another relationship I was like "Oh man stupid man" but I was okay with it, and the other relationship I just heart. ^_^

Plus...VAMPIRES! The awesome evil BAMF kind (almost literally, hahahaha) not the sparkly kind.

Readathon so far:

Geek's Guide-finished: 87 pages

The Historian-finished: a bit over 300 pages

2010 Debut Authors Challenge!

Randomly decided I should try to do this... :)

What is the 2010 Debut Author Challenge?
The objective is to read a set number of YA (Young Adult) or MG (Middle Grade) novels from debut authors published this year.* I'm going to challenge everyone to read at least 12 debut novels! I’m hoping to read at least 30! You don’t have to list your choices right away, but if you do feel free to change them throughout the year. I will also be focusing on mostly Young Adult novels.
Anyone can join, you don’t need a blog to participate. If you don’t have a blog you can always share your views by posting a review on Amazon.com/BarnesandNoble.com/GoodReads/Shelfari, or any other bookish site.
The challenge will run from January 1, 2010- December 31, 2010. You can join at anytime!
* I would like to limit the novels to those released in 2010.

Books I've read so far:

The Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

The Line by Teri Hall

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell

Plain Kate by Erin Bow

A Match Made In High School by Kristin Walker

Thirteen Reasons Why

My 12th novel will be one of these three:

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Tyger, Tyger

I Am Number Four by Pitticus Lore

Read-a-thon Update 1

I'm getting SO distracted reading all of the blogs by other people doing the Undoubtables Read-a-thon! It's totally counter-productive, is what I'm saying. ^_^ Why is it that reading about other people reading is just as much fun as, well, actually READING?

I also had to spread compost this morning.

However, despite all this, I finished my first book! Yay! :D Geek's Guide: Done and done! I only had 87 pages left of it to read, BUT it's tiny, nonfiction text! So...so there!

It's a pretty fun and interesting book, all told. Pretty much gives you an overview of geeky information. The math/science bits made me go O.O but the other stuff was really fun...especially logic stuff.

Read-a-thon!

My buddy kemendraugh let me know about this read-a-thon going on this weekend. I'm a bit late but I'm going to GO for it! I have a bunch of books I still need to get read this summer.

SO! My goals:

-finish The Geek's Guide to World Domination by Garth Sundem

-finish The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

-make progress on Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales

I'll just see how it goes. ^_^

I write like Douglas Adams. So they say.

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

"I know how you like news."

There is no excuse for my recent inactivity (sans book giveaways) on this blog. I could whine and apologize and excuse myself a lot. But the main point of the affair is, I have not been writing fiction lately. Sorry! The reasons for this are mostly psychological, compounded by academic, and I'm not going to go into it.

BUT! But but but! I have an exciting piece of news!

At the end of that fiction class I took last fall, our instructor encouraged us to submit one of our finalized pieces to a local writing contest. The League for Innovation Student Literary Competition is the full-name, and is a nationwide league of accredited colleges. I entered the fiction division of the LOCAL level of this competition. The winners of each local level are entered into the national one.

Anyways, I got a letter from my college yesterday, saying my story got third place! So win! On a stick! :D It was pretty hilarious because I picked up the letter, all disgruntled and betting it was either a "We noticed you're not enrolled with us this term" (I transferred this term to uni) or a "Oh btw we have your degree" sort of letter. So it took me several moments to comprehend the actual letter, and then I started squealing and dancing around the house. ^_^ My dog woke up and was very grumpy.

The amount of excitement I expressed was definitely excessive for third place in a county contest, BUT please understand this is really the only time I've submitted anything anywhere, and I wasn't expecting to place at all. :D

I'm pretty calm now....I purposely didn't blog yesterday because I knew it would be all caps and acronyms. :P

SO! The result of all this, is that I get a prize (I'm not sure what, because I didn't really pay attention to any of the info our instructor gave us), and I'm not sure if I go to the national level, because I'm not sure if "winners" mean people who placed, or just the 1st-place people.

Also, my friend who is in the graphic design program said that her class is working on a "book" and apparently I have a "page," but I have no further info on that at this time. ^_^ My college is hosting the national level this year, so I'm thinking I will only be in said book if I'm actually in the national level part. :P

Also-also, the letter I received told me to contact Denali, my college's lit magazine, because even though their deadline was past, they wanted to include the winners' stories. I emailed them, but they said the mag was on the way to the printers, despite their hope to include us. ^_^ They encouraged me to submit work to a future issue. Which is impossible, because I no longer go to that school, and is also hilariously ironic because I DID submit something LAST year, and was rejected, and now they're REQUESTING my presence?

I dunno. Funny.

Winter Pen Olympics Finale

IIIIIII didn't write anymore the last two days. As of this moment I'm trying to finish my final-final paper for my lit class and I would like to keep the stellar grade I have been maintaining. Merc said something about an anti-medal...maybe I could get one of those? XD

But I did write a lot more than I would have!!! 6858 words! ....yay! :D I have a lot more of the plot figured out and several crucial scenes written. I have lots of inspiration and ideas to continue writing--also, I want to work on The Other Country like nobody's business.

Winter Pen Olympics Day 16 (yesterday)

Daily wordcount: 1420

Overall wordcount: 6878

I've never written this randomly and haphazardly. Except for the first couple of days, I've just been writing whatever scene came to mind in the overall arc. Which means that I've been jumping around from the very end to the very middle and everywhere in between. Very strange and backwards; I don't normally write like this. Usually I HAVE to go chronologically because I don't have a clear enough idea of what is happening later. :P But it's kinda fun this way. I'll just have to connect it all eventually.

Winter Pen Olympics: 2 more days!!! O.o

Workshop post is coming!!!

But meanwhile!

Total wordcount for Olympics so far: 5458

I KNOW SO PATHETIC RIGHT????

But it's words. That's important. And I'm enjoying myself! Writing in class, writing when I have a few spare minutes somewhere and access to paper. I'm just so busy right now and tired all the time....which isn't an excuse, but there have been mental and emotional breakdowns, so I don't care. I'm still glad I made a goal. :D

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to write the scenes that are banging around in my brain, begging to come out! :D

Winter Pen Olympics Update

^_^

I've written ONE scene (592 words) since Wednesday. So. Er. Not much to say about that. Except it's a FUN scene. XD

BUT I was gone this weekend! So, er, there's an excuse??? I will post about the writer's workshop (SEE I WAS WRITING) soon. :D

Winter Pen Olympics: Day 6

Daily wordcount: 2,111

Scenes: 4.2

PWNZED IN THE FACE.

Finally hit my stride today (or something). There was battles, magic, epic torture, and heart-to-heart conversations.

I was also randomly inspired by a single line in a song that I hate? It was on the radio, and I heard the line and I was like ZOMG I UNDERSTAND YOU NOW MYRA. Lolz.

Winter Pen Olympics: Day 5

Daily wordcount: 487

Lolz I failed today! But to be fair, I THOUGHT a lot about my plot and how this is all going to go...I'm feeling very discouraged with this novel because somehow, without me noticing, it's become VERY unfocused (i.e. PLOTLESS) and I don't know how to get from where I am to the end. Sigh.

But Drem is behaving beautifully, as always. ^_^ I like that kid. That's probably my PROBLEM. I need to start DESTROYING him but I like him too much. Bleh. STUPID DREM I WILL MAKE YOU BLEED.

Winter Pen Olympics: Days 3 & 4

I seriously have no idea how this story is going to end. Or continue. Or really anything.

"You're just making it up as you go along!"

"But I do it brilliantly."

Day 3: No words.

Day 4:

Daily wordcount: 1021

Total wordcount: 3075

Scenes: 4

Notes: My characters are very, very cold. And Myra isn't here. I thought she would be, but she's not. Everyone ELSE is though so it's okay. And they're going to pwn faces with sharp sticks.

Also, I wrote a large-ish outline (250 words! lolz!) for the rest of the novel...I was having so many plot problems I literally couldn't write another word till I figured stuff out. But I think what I have will work, as long as "then they beat the small army" doesn't take too long. Heh.

Writing Workshop 401

I am attending this this next weekend. I'm pretty excited! Oregon coast=win and writing=win, therefore Oregon coast+writing=Epic Win. My famblee is going with me, actually, and taking the opportunity of having a beach vacation weekend. In February. Heck yes. Sideways rain ftw.

I want to pick a theme or maybe even a recurring object or person that I HAVE to include in ANYTHING I write during the weekend. The question is, WHAT? If you have any suggestions, please put it in the comments! :D

I don't have any expectations for this workshop, really, since it will be pretty different from the last one I went to. The last one, only Bob was there, it was 101, and there was only 25 people. This will be bigger and more advanced, so I'm back to square one in the expectations department. Hopefully it will be jolly though! I'm also going to explore (again) the used bookstore there in search of treasure. ^_^

Winter Pen Olympics: Day 2

Daily wordcount: 1065

Total wordcount: 2054

Scenes: 2

Progress made: Well on the way to establishing the next arc.

Notes: omfjam two of my favorite characters have RETURNED. :D Hint: they're both very good with swords. And I want to nom them.

Winter Pen Olympics: Day 1

Daily wordcount: 989

Total wordcount: 989

Scenes: 3

Progress made: I ended "Part 1" of the three parts of the novel, so now I get to skip ahead 5 years, plot-wise. Yay!

Notes: I like Drem's horse and am fond of randomly inserting scenes with her. Also, Byrn is getting more serious. :( Poor Byrn. Has to be all responsible.

Winter. Pen. Olympics.

Greetings.

I have taken up this challenge, which is basically...any challenge that I set myself. Which sounds good. The challenge is Feb. 12-28, so it STARTS TOMORROW so get on it.

I'm on Team Fiction, and in Drafting Events, and am planning on 17k written on Drem. :D

Comment if you are doing it as well. I will try and post daily updates since I've been failing at writing and blogging for so long.

"The gods are angry," he said, but I had used the lightning myself.

I'm just in a blog-updating sort of mood. This is just a general update on all aspects of me writing.

Uhmmmm I've been writing...off-and-on.....Yes? :D No, really, I have. I've worked on my experimental, a bit more on Alice, and fiddled in Drem. And, of course, I've been writing a ton of papers and am currently procrastinating a 5-page beauty on The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. I just can't decide the best way to combine those two plays in a paper. It may involve Jessica and Horatio. Or not.

A couple of weekends from now is another writing workshop I am attending. It's sorta the same deal I went to before, but with another writer in addition to the guy before. I'm sorta excited and sorta intimidated again.

I've been reading Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, which, while VERY fun, leaves a LOT to be desired. I loved that Dionysus, or Mr. D, got a lot of screen-time in the third book.....I enjoyed reading Riordan's take on the Theseus/Ariadne/Dionysus/Minotaur/etc legend. But of course, this made me want to continue HHNF SOOOO MUCH. OM NOM NOM NOM. So I'm trying to resist that. What also really amuses me is that Riordan didn't mention that the original Perseus was very much responsible for Ariadne's death....I felt like that would have been a great thing to mention, seeing as Mr. D hates, or pretends to hate, Percy Jackson all the time. ^_^ It's cool though because reading Riordan's version, I don't feel the desire to copy him in the least, but I did get a couple of ideas for remastering Ariadne's string and the labyrinth, which I've always felt could do with a lot of fixing in my version.

Let me paint the picture of a perfect place

I totally wrote today. Why no, I have pretty much NOT written during 2010! *weeps with horror and shame* It's really pathetic. I don't even know what my problem is anymore. I like writing. I really do. So why is it SO HARD?

Ahem. I actually did write like a paragraph on Alice a couple weeks ago. *nods* But it was like pulling teeth out of my own mouth. While my hair was on fire.

Anyway, what I wrote today was Nothing and No One Will Ever See It. :D But it was fun! I just started a random project, just to get myself WRITING. I think I'll just use it as a forum for myself, to experiment, to get myself to write when it's hard, and to work on things that I don't like about my writing. This will mean it will be very messy and a little on crack, which means that, as I said, no one will ever see it. :D Yay for being stuck in the library with nothing to do so I HAVE to write. :DI wrote about 3 pages and it's mostly a self-contained scene. There was magic, angst, and descriptions of moonlight. XD

In other news, I've been wanting to write Latin poetry again. Kinda creepy, but I just may try it again.

Fiction Class: Workshops (or, How To Take Criticism)

Halfway through the term in my fiction class, we started workshopping short stories by other people in the class (before that we read and discussed classic short stories, like Flannery O'Connor and stuff, which was an experience all on its own).

The process in a nut-shell: we would turn in the short story we wanted workshopped, the teacher would make copies and hand them out, we would take them home, read them, mark them up as much as we wanted and make comments in the margins, and then we also had to fill out a critique sheet with a basic summary of our thoughts, and THEN we came back to class and discussed it with each other, whilst ignoring the author. ^_^ At the end, the author could say a few words if they wished.

So that's the process. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to submit one of mine, because....well I just felt really insecure. The short story I had written at that point (note: other than 2 short stories the entire term, we wrote a million 300-word scenarios) was a reimagining of Alice's encounter with the Cheshire Cat. I knew it was horrible so....yeah.

But meanwhile, I had a lot of fun reading other people's stories. Craft and skill aside, everyone in the class had GREAT brains and imaginations, and the stories we read were all wildly different and very interesting. There were really only a couple that were sooo bad I had problems reading them... XD It was really fun to critique them, too. I think we all got more nit-picky as we went along though. But it made us really look at the words we were choosing, the way we were telling a story, plot, characters, and most especially what we were all leaving OUT. I think every single story had some fairly-major element that was VERY unclear to most of us. ^_^

One frustrating thing for me, and this is going to make me sound like a conceited bitch, was that probably about 80% of the people in the class still didn't have their technical writing skills down (by that I mean spelling, grammar, etc). Even their "polished" stories they were submitting were sometimes riddled with errors. They were all works-in-progress, so, I was trying to ignore them, but it was like everyone would praise these stories that still needed a TON more work, just because the premise or a character was well-written or good, and then they would HATE these other stories that were way more polished, just because they disagreed with one little aspect? I dunno, I think all of us, including me, were very inconsistent in that way. Anyway, I just felt myself needing to come to the defense of a couple of stories that were perfectly decent but the loudmouths in the class were totally bashing.

Okay, so meanwhile. As I was reading these other people's stories, it gave me a bit more confidence to submit my own. After a couple edits, I felt like it was at least not going to shame me into my grave, and anything they said would be probably more constructive, as opposed to them reading my rough and just calling it crap and have done with it. XD

I might have been wrong about it not shaming me into my grave. XD The class period when they discussed my story was MORE than a little humbling. Pretty much they reached into the stories guts and completely disemboweled it. It was an interesting psychological process because I was struggling so hard to stay open-minded and tell myself that this was GOOD, I was getting a ton of good constructive criticism, plus I knew from the beginning that the story was kinda iffy. But honestly, after that class, I wanted to burn the story and pretty much everything I'd ever written and never write a word again.

That particular story got ignored for the rest of the term, until the VERY end. For our final we had to take the 2 short stories we'd written and completely rewrite and revise them. I cautiously took all my "pink sheets" (the critique sheets my classmates had filled out) and set to work on my story. I had already read all of them, and I was surprised as I re-read them that I was so much calmer and readier to work with the criticism and the story again. I still was angry with the story, but I was just more business-like and objective about it? I completely reworked the story (at this point it was the 4th or 5th draft), and I was amazed at how much the suggestions they gave helped. At the same time, I didn't use ALL of their suggestions: I ignored a few because I didn't agree. But that was OKAY. :D I was objective-minded enough at that point that I could find the good suggestions and make them work in the story, and ignore the rest. The result was a much stronger, more polished story. Overall the work isn't one I'm particularly proud of, as it wasn't well-thought-out from the start, but the whole process was a MAJOR jump in knowledge and skills for me. :)

Wow, this turned out kinda long. I'm sorry? If you're still reading, here's my conclusion from the whole madness:

-Having critical readers is a blessing.

-When you receive criticism, let it stew in your brain for a while before freaking out or before attacking your story with a cleaver.

-Revision is lovely and VERY satisfying.

2010 Writing Goals

*notice I didn't use the "R" word. It scares me.

These are just big, scary, goals I'm going to make, and see if I manage to get them done. It would be very, very lovely if I could. :D

• Finish Drem rough draft-I love this story. :)
• Write second draft of Wyrd-I also love this story. I love this world. It's barely even sketched out so far in Drem and Wyrd, but I know everything about it I just need to get it all down.
• Write more short stories! One of the things I learned in my fiction class is that shorter fiction is REALLY REALLY fun AND satisfying. To this end, I'm going to write at least one short story a month, either in my Alice in Wonderland world or my Dimension Tournament world. I'm hoping to revamp those novels into linked-short-story sequences, and possibly take those sequences and turn them into novels later, DEPENDING on the results, lol.
• Catch up on this blog. :) I have several posts-in-progress to finish.
• Write every day. I always make this res-er, goal, but I'm just going to keep making it until I accomplish it! :D

Self Doubt

So I know I promised to write a post on critiques, but first I'm posting this. Because this is already written, and the other post is NOT (great excuse, no?). This was an in-class assignment wherein we had to write about our own personal self-doubts about writing.

I didn’t want to open the door. I had just settled into the rented cabin and I was finally ready to start writing. And yet there came Beatrice, my know-it-all big sister, down the icy dirt path, up to the thick oak door, and rapped on it with all her might.

“Let me in, Sharon!” she demanded. “It’s freezing out here!”

I sighed. No help for it. I got up from my warm cushioned chair by the fire, walked across the bare wood-paneled floor to the door and hauled it open.

Beatrice charged in at once, her waist-length blonde hair covered with a snow-frosted shawl. I shut the door behind her as she looked around.

“This looks nice and cramped,” she observed.

“What are you doing here, Bea?” I asked wearily.

“I’ll have some coffee, thanks,” she answered, walking over to my cushioned chair and sinking into it, dripping melted ice onto my blank notebook.

“You realize this little escapade is totally pointless, don’t you?” she asked, pulling off her gloves and dropping them onto the floor. “Even if you can get a lot written out here, you won’t get it published. Do you realize how hard that is? You’re still learning, after all. And if there’s no hope of getting published, what’s the point of writing?”

“For myself,” I murmured, plugging in the coffee machine and getting out two chipped mugs.

“You’re just ostracizing yourself,” Beatrice plowed on. “Writing isn’t a career. You never see your friends, you never spend time with the family—“

“That’s not true!” I exclaimed.

“Well, you don’t even have a boyfriend, your job sucks, you need to spend more time on those things before you go gallivanting off to the mountains to spend time on a hobby—“

I dropped one of the mugs. It hit the floor and broke with the satisfying sound of shattering pottery.

The sound made Beatrice pause and look. I marched over to the chair, my chair, grasped her by the elbow and hauled her to her feet.

“Sorry, I don’t have time for visitors just now,” I told her. “I believe I made that clear when I left.”

Hustling her to the door and ignoring her protests, I added, “I have a lot of work to do. See you in two weeks.”

I hauled the door open; a gust of freezing wind hit us in the face, drowning Beatrice’s angry retort. I pushed her out, slammed the door, and lowered the bolt.

I turned back to the fire, sat in my chair, and picked up my notebook.

Perfect writing conditions.

An Anecdote on Revision

Owing to my overloaded schedule, I had to write a 4-page analytical literature paper in a matter of hours on Friday (it was due by midnight). Normally for final papers like this one, I like to spend about a week on them, pondering, pre-writing, roughing, and editing/revising/rewriting (whichever is necessary). So I was pretty depressed Friday morning, to say the least. It was even more depressing because my sister and her fiancee were coming into town that day, and my little brother had his black-belt confirmation for karate (which I went to, it was just stressful to go away for even a little bit).
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that my sister is a genius. I wrote the rough draft of the paper, feeling okay about it, and printed out a rough and gave it to my sister. She read it thoroughly, and then said something very close to this: "Yes, it all made sense, generally. But I really don't think your conclusion is right. I would take these two paragraphs [the last two], put them at the beginning after your intro, then take these paragraphs [random ones in the middle] and put them at the end, and oh, rewrite this part to make it make sense."
I did what she suggested and VOILA the paper made sense in my brain and on paper. XD It was pretty much the most awesome and hilarious experience ever. I always have issues with conclusions, but this paper in particular was in completely the wrong order. The paper went from being "Meh-licious" to being one that I'm pretty proud of; there were minor errors in the rough too, of course, but the basic structural madness was what really made it so much better.

So, shout-out to awesome beta-readers who manage to find exactly what's wrong and tell you! :D

Coming soon: Fiction-Class Critiques (i.e. How To Take Criticism)

Nano 09 Wrap-up: Drem

I wanted to post a Nanowrimo wrap-up post, but wasn't sure what to even say. Luckily, Snazel's blog is always there to rip off of.

Basic stats:
Total wordcount: 65,071 words-this is partially fake because some of this is just fiction I wrote during the month and incorporated into the novel. Only about 60k of this is actually pure novel.
15 day wordcount record: 40k (I'm pretty pleased with myself that I actually did this....even if I didn't reach 80k overall like I originally self-hypnotized myself to do while under the influence of Halloween zombie-cookies)
Overall sanity casualties: My brain stayed with me for about a week. My emotional equilibrium lasted a little longer.

Stuff I learned:
1. It's hard to have a plot when no one, not you, not your characters, have any clue who the villains are. Bad stuff happens. Okay. Mystery.
2. I not only suck at writing action scenes, I hate writing them. Weird. I always play them out like movies in my head but I can't write them to save my life. Or their lives. Heh.
3. I have a LOT of world-building to do. A lot of stuff I just gave totally lame names (like fortresses and military ranks) because I didn't do any pre-writing, it wasn't covered in Wyrd (Nano from last year that this one is related to), and I had no inspiration whatsoever.
4. Suffixes and prefixes SEEM like a good idea at the time. I still haven't decided how that's all going to work out.
5. I suck at first-person male POVs. Drem is kinda a woman a lot of the time.
6. There is always a good reason to write scenes that involve gratuitous fire of some kind.

Shout-outs to some of my characters (in no particular order except for the first 3):
Drem: Thank you for being easy to write, even though this is probably due to the first-person POV more than your personality. I put you in the hospital-equivalent a lot, didn't I? Sorry about that. I'm looking forward to writing you when you're a bit older and even MORE cynical and world-weary. XD
Byrn: I think I'm in love with you. No, really. *cough* I mean, you jerk, you kept trying to hijack the novel! Luckily it's in first person so that's pretty hard to do, but you still tried to pull a Great Gatsby. I hope you live. Really.
Myra: I had high hopes for you, which you promptly dashed, and then rebuilt yourself. Thank you for surprising me and being a great counter to Drem. He's an idiot, huh?
Vakko: OMJAM I'm in love with you too! You almost took Byrn's place. Almost. It was close. I probably will bring you back at some point because there are just too many possibilities when you're around. Although don't you think the hair is a BIT Malfoy?
Cray: You became more important and more interesting than I thought, but then you just kinda disappeared? Sorry? You'll be back.
Hadric: WOW Byrn kinda HATES you, doesn't he? I thought you were a nice guy but I'm not really sure where you stand right now. But thanks for taking care of Drem for a while.
Akkaro: I really need to change your name because you're trying to channel a certain other character whom I do not own. But I'd like to bring you back, too, maybe in a combo move with Vakko.
Petra: Ahahahahaha. Sorry.
Deia: Wow, I kinda love you too! You were a total surprise. I enjoyed watching you behave like a total b**** and yet somehow totally loveable at the same time. You go girl.

nearing the end

Wow I really haven't been posting here, have I????

The truth is there isn't a whole lot to say. I wrote 40k in the first 15 days of Nanowrimo, and since then I've written 8k chronologically, and 18k in total. I keep having problems because some days I literally have no time to write, and then a couple days pass and when I sit back down I'm all disconnected from the story. IRRITATING.
Yes, I HAVE given up my 80k goal. :P I'm just going to concentrate on getting as much as I can in the last 4 days. :)
I have a lot of stuff to say about my fiction class but it will have to wait for December. Watch this space, I guess???

Oh, I HAVE reached 50k though! w00t! Third win.

everything burns, everyone screams

I hit the third burnout this month today. Third is definitely the worst. It gets better after that, right? *hopeful look*
It's really kinda tragic too cuz I JUST CAUGHT UP yesterday. Blargh.

I did do SOME writing today, though. I critiqued several stories for class, and I wrote 300 words of a short story that's due for Wednesday (a full short, not just a scenario). Can I count that in my nano? PLAX? Whatever.

Starting tomorrow I'm just going to move to 3000 words a day, so hopefully if I miss days or don't make the count certain days, I'll have a cushion? I don't know if that's a good idea though. And I've decided that for the next week at least, school takes priority to Nano. I mean, it was already, but basically what it meant before was that I'd finish hw around 11, and then START Nano for the day? Now I'm going to put a little more emphasis on sleep. :) So we'll see if I reach the 80k. I will definitely reach 50k, though.

It is SO stormy outside! It's been windy all day but once the sun went down its' been pouring and trying to tear the house down. Yay!

Before I Sleep

WHOOOO! This weekend rocked as far as wordcount went. I got 4k in yesterday, and about 3.5k today. :D I might write the remaining 500 before I sleep. I dunnoes.
Of course, tomorrow another week begins, and it's NOT going to be a fun one. Oi.

I totally finished the "Writing Fiction" book I was reading for class today. It's by the Gotham Writing Workshop and was surprisingly good! The last chapter was kinda the business end of it, in a 30-page chapter. ^_^ It was interesting though to see it all in that kind of clear, summarized form. Overall the book is a very good, overall-look at writing. It also has lots of little prompts sprinkled throughout that are VERY helpful for working on the particular things they talk about (they're not the normal, annoying kinds of prompts you find in self-help books that drive me crazy).

kthxbai

"I don't think I feel that way about you Byrn." But *I* do!

This years' Nanowrimo just keeps getting more and more interesting. On the one hand, I love my novel. On the other hand, scraping out the words each day is getting more and more like Professor Umbridge's Quill. You know what I'm saying???

I wrote only like 700 words yesterday, but TODAY I've written 3k so far. :D Probably my most productive day so far. I'm going to attempt to write 1k more today, and then somehow try to get 4k tomorrow, cuz then I will be caught up for my 80k goal. I VANTS 40K TOMORROW. TRUFAX.

Question for the comments: During Nano, when it comes to travel exposition, do you like writing long, drawn-out accounts so that you have more words? Or do you like just writing a brief summary and moving on?

Even the man in the moon disappears somewhere in the stratosphere

Writing has been particularly difficult the last few days. Not really sure why. It's Week Two, maybe? I dunno, I don't like blaming EVERYTHING on the poor dear.

Things I've been noticing about my writing:

• my words get ENORMOUS and beautiful when I write longhand. It's hilarious! No one should have that many SAT-test words in their writing (examples: rhetoric, diatribe, self-deprecating). Sorry.
• I've always heard Nano advice-givers say that it's a good idea to stop in the middle of a scene when you finish writing for the day, because then it's easy to get back in the flow the next day. I have been coming to realize that, for me, this is COMPLETELY UNTRUE. If I stop in the middle of the scene, even if I was writing full-tilt the day before, the next time I sit down to write, I just stare at it for many long minutes that I don't have to waste. It's much better to keep writing until I run out of steam, and then when I come back with fresh eyes it's easier. Usually.

In other writing news, I got a great idea for my next short story, due next Wednesday (short story, not short-short or whatever they're called). Yay! Will talk more about it if/when it works out.

Writing was like pulling teeth today. Like pulling teeth out of a werewolf. But I am NOT BEHIND DARNIT! Have a wordle to celebrate 20k:

Um um um MARBLES

I went to my third official regional write-in today! I haz three marbles (our ML is giving us a different-colored marble for each event we attend, have I mentioned this?): an opalescent black one, a green striped one, and a normal classic one.
I wrote about 1500 words there, in 2 hours, which isn't bad....I suppose...>.> Still working on the rest of the day's count right now. :) We had it at a pizza parlor, and it ended up being hilarious and psychotic cuz it was SOOO BUSY AND CROWDED. Part of it was the fact that there was over 9,000 birthday parties there, and the other part of it was that the Duck game was on (football, vs Stanford, they lost 51-42 and I cried). So yeah that was very exciting...our little group was crammed into a corner and told to just be quiet and write and avoid all other people.
We had a word war that I TOTALLY would have won, only reddening suddenly is like "Oh Stanford got a field goal!" at the very end, so of course I turned and had to watch and cry, and then she beat me by 10 words. CURSE YOU REDDENING. :D
Um yeah I guess I should go finish writing now. kthxbai.

she will reach for a story.

Writing went really well today! I wrote about 800 words in the morning, and then wrote the rest during a write-in at a bud's house. I didn't write OVER my daily count, which I suppose I should while it's going well, but I have HOMEWORK OKAY??? Plus, it's better than physically forcing myself each night to pound out the words, staying up several hours past my bedtime and making me grouchy about the whole process. ^_^ I want to love Nano, not hate it. It needs love.

Widgets are online! You can see my wordcount over there: --------------------->

My fiction class has entered a different phase. We're still doing scenarios, but our midterm was a full short story. Now she's assigning the short stories for us to read, and then we have to mark up the story and fill out a review sheet on it. Basically, we're critiquing them for the authors. Then we'll discuss them in class and pretend the author isn't there. It's pretty fantastic, I'm having a lot of fun doing my best to criticize CONSTRUCTIVELY. :)

And that's about it. I love my MC. Which is good news. It was touch-and-go for the first 10k.

show them how funky and strong is your might!

Total wordcount: 12,206
I plan to be at 13,332 before I go to bed. But first, I'm procrasting and telling you a funny story from the write-in tonight!!

Well, the first funny part was that I forgot it was happening. But I'm over at the community college campus cafeteria (oh yeah) at that time anyway, so I walked in, saw them sitting in the Nano corner, and was like "Hey, it's a bunch of people working, looks like the Nano group does when...Oh. That IS the Nano group." and then had to hastily remember that it was Thursday. XD

Anyway, halfway through the hour that I was with them, I suddenly remembered again that it was Guy Fawke's Day. I'm like "OH it's Guy Fawkes Day! Everyone needs to burn something!" At which they all laughed, of course. Then the ML is like "I feel a word war coming on," and the other ML is like "Yeah."
SIC ML (after explaining how to do a word war): "Okay, we need a noun."
Me: "FIRE!"
*group laughter*
SIC ML: "Okay, then. We also need a phrase."
Me: "'LET'S BURN SOMETHING.'"
Hahaha my end of the table was collapsed in giggles. Because I am so lame. But yeah, she ended up choosing someone else's phrase. XD I don't think she appreciated my pyromaniacs.

Plz continue selling your soul for moar words.

it's too close for comfort

Nanowrimo is actually going pretty well. This makes me nervous, because it should not be happening.
My overall goal is 80k.
Current wordcount is 5349 (which is about the amount I should have for the first two days....haven't written today yet).
My homework is suffering but I haven't actually fallen behind yet. XD I'm planning to catch up today, somehow, so nothing is actually late. I really don't have very much time, though, so I'm not sure how I've been writing.
Anyway, here's to finding the time to write without understanding exactly how you're doing it! It's like Time Lord tech at work or something.....time is bigger on the inside? XD

Day 1 and I'm already using Write or Die?

This is a bad omen.



Total wordcount: 2843

I should mention that I'm not doing "The Missing Door" after all. I started outlining at last only a few days ago, and decided that Stargate has invaded my brain too much for me to be able to write that at all. I also didn't want to try Dimension Tournament because of the popularity of a certain book called The Hunger Games. My other options were Eros/Psyche retelling and HHNF sequel, both of which require a lot of research. So I'm doing Drem, the companion story to Wyrd, instead. :D

Wrimos will look up and shout "save us" and I'll whisper.......no.

Wow, I have an absurdly long list of posts I need to make on this blog....and probably all of them will have to wait until Dec, unless I get really procrastinatory.

NANOWRIMO HAS BEGUN! THE WORLD WATCHES IN TERROR.

I went to my local midnight write-in last night. :) It was fun, although special, experience. XD
Got to Shari's, told them my age, and was told the Wrimos were in a room that minors aren't allowed in. I was like ohhhkay. But then it wasn't actually a room, it was just at one end and slightly partitioned off. So I started an awesome kids table right outside it and ended up being joined by all the COOLEST people. Not even joking, all of the annoying people I remember from last year were totally BEHIND THE WALL. LOLZ it was great. Then the women at my table and I were being super chatty and silly as we pwned words, so then this woman from BEHIND THE WALL came and sneered at us. After a very polite argument, she left and made fun of us to her table-mates and we quieted down a TAD.
I wrote about 1644 words before my head started nodding so I figured I should go home.

Current wordcount: 1644.

List of Shiny

This is more of a mix between Shiny List and Magna Carta I.
Shiny from: Liana
Magna Carta I from: Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem!

Here is mine:
-traitors
-characters saving the lives of other characters
-big bodies of water
-interesting weapons
-badass little-girl-saving
-comedy of errors (things just keep going wrong but hilariously as opposed to disturbingly)
-actually, lots of disturbing errors is shiny too
-romances that start out with hate
-fun hiding places
-snipers
(notice how my brain went from "fun hiding places" immediately to snipers? I saw that. I know.)
-snappy dialog
-interesting inventions
-bizarre locations
-spaceships that go fast. if you know what i mean. *is shot*
-soldiers
-military operations
-the smell of rain
-freaky dreams
-warm colors
-snow

What's up in my writing life

So I believe I mentioned in a previous post (maybe. I'm so behind on here WHO KNOWS.) that I'm taking a fiction-writing class this term. The only reason I've been writing ANYTHING this month is because I HAVE to for the class. Which is pathetic. But also encouraging, because it shows that I CAN write if I have a deadline and creative people poking my brain. ^_^

I don't really understand writing slumps. I mean, I love writing. I really do. So why do I sometimes (OFTEN) want to do just about ANYTHING besides write???? Is it because all my current projects are giving me way too much pressure? That sounds truthful as I type it. :P

But, wow, this post isn't supposed to be self-awareness catalyst. I want to blog about my class, darnit!!!!

Our teacher is really an interesting person. She's the kind of free-flowing, purple-vested, burkenstock-wearing hippie person that normally drives me BONKERS. You know, the smiley teacher that wants to be friends with everyone immediately and says things like "precious" and, well, "precious"? Maybe I'm the only who's bothered by nice people. LOL anyway, she did drive me bonkers for the first three weeks, but I suddenly realized this week that she has ceased to bother me really at all (and today we had a lecture about MEDITATION. Not that I have anything against meditation, but it was just what she WOULD do in a fiction-class.).
Our assignments are mostly 300-word "scenarios" with an assigned prompt, usually involving an emotion (such as love turning to suspicion, which is this week's) or a list of details we have to include (these are killers). I'm really enjoying the scenarios for the most part, though. I'm taking the opporchancity to practice writing stuff I normally don't do, like sci-fi, first-person, future tense, and zombies (I did it for you, Merc. I did it for you. lol.). The future tense and the zombies have been among the most fascinating.
We're also reading short stories by people like Flannery O'Connor (okay, mostly Flannery O'Connor) and a writing how-to book by the Gotham Writer's Workshop??? It's surprisingly good (by surprisingly I mean yes, I DID judge it by its cover). It has good essays by different people about important elements of craft (like plot, characters, description, etc).
Besides all that, we also have two full-length short stories due over the term. I've completed the rough of one.
This leads me to the best part of this class, and that is FEEDBACK. Just having the opportunity to work on our work with other people is great. The teacher gives us TONS of notes and suggestions on our turned-in work, especially the short stories, and we can get lots of verbal feedback if we opt to read ours aloud (I chickened out on the zombie-one. I'm pretty sure you have to have a Zombie Reading Voice, which takes years of training and a special diet.).
All the people in the class are CRAZY, too. It's so refreshing cuz everyone WANTS to be there, and there's no shy or reserved people, so we all discuss and bash and praise. :)

That's really all I have to say about that. :) I'm writing a ton of random fiction that I never otherwise would have, and it's given me plenty of great ideas and lessons for what I should include in future stuff. #win

THIS IS WHAT I CALL epic.

September Recap:
My goals for this month, I believe, were to finish the rough draft of “The Other Country” and add more stuff to HHNF. I failed miserably, of course, in both of those. ^_^ I did work on TOC a bit: I probably got about 10 pages done. I might post teasers of the scenes I wrote on my LJ. Maybe not. None of them are very good.

October Goals:
Read my existing material for “The Missing Door” and plan for Nanowrimo a bit. That’s all I’m attempting this month. XD I just want to remind myself of where I was GOING to go with the story, and figure out if I want to stick to the same plan or change it. Also I need to re-familiarize myself with the characters. :P
I am writing other fiction, though, for my fiction writing class. Most of it is really short pieces but we have a full short story that will need to be written and reworked.

Nanowrimo is NEXT MONTH! I can’t believe it. So crazy. I’m not really excited at all right now, but I think that’s just cuz there’s too much stuff in my brain right now. Hopefully once it starts I’ll get into the swing of things? I’m REALLY excited about the video-casts (or whatever you call them) that they’re doing. The one they’ve done is soooo cheesy but so win.
I haven’t done much recruiting this year, either. I’m pretty sure most of my friends are sick of hearing about it. :) I did mention it in my fiction-writing class, though, and I also sent info on it to a columnist in my area whom I’m in kinda-speaking terms with cuz I went to a workshop of his. :) He has another one in Feb and my father is bothering me to register. It’s moneyyyyyy...Blarg.

On THAT happy note, I'm off! :)

this is my now

*waits eagerly for Nanowrimo site relaunch*

Bahnree's Brain: My Muse

Warning: this is an extremely long post about one of my characters, "Alec" the Horsemaster.

His current role (he's been in several other stories) is in "The Other Countr," my Screnzy about my third world country. I was trying to describe his relationship to the MC, Bahnree (basically my fictional self) to myself. I knew Alec wasn't the love interest, because that would be creepy on so many levels, but I couldn't figure out what his position in the story was, whether he was like the best friend, the brother, the conscience, or what. I realized, with the sudden clarity that a warm snickerdoodle brings, that Alec is nothing more or less than MY MUSE.

I was shocked! I always questioned the existence of my muse, because my "creative works" are so erratic and inconsistent. But, as I thought about it more, whenever I'm the most productive creatively, Alec is there, either peering over my mental shoulder or actually performing in one of my stories. I'm not talking about an imaginary friend, here, either (although I have a long and infamous history with those; personally I think I jsut channeled all my imaginary-friend-creating powers into my writing, so in that sense, all of my characters are imaginary friends....Confused yet?). Alec is just special. During Augustine he was particularly present in my brain, which makes sense, seeing as I drafted HHNF, started The Missing Door and Dimension Tournament, and wrote plenty of other stuff during that year. He also stars in no less than three of my stories: Dreamwalkers, Dreambenders (quite different from the former, fyi) and The Other Country.

When did Alec show up? Very early in my fiction-writing career. Well, not really. Very early in my fiction-writing that actually was productive (he pre-dates my first novel-in-a-month by only 6 months, and I wrote plenty in between). The first story he was in was Dreamwalkers. This was a story told through fictional journal-accounts of myself. So....kinda like day-dreaming, but again I stress the fact (for my own dignity) that Alec was not the love interest. He was the guide between me and my boring life and the crazy adventures I wrote for myself. This was imagination working on its purest level, and this more than anything makes Alec my muse.

The second story Alec appeared in was Dreambenders. This story is retarded, so I won't say much about it. Basically a normal, boring church girl finds out she can control dreams (both hers, other people's, the dreamworld in general) and this has consequences in the real world. Alec shows up at her church and turns out to be, what do you know! A guide sent to help her figure things out.

Seeing a theme here? Pseudo daydreams written down, always containing a guide between worlds. The theme continues in The Other Country, where Alec is Bahnree's advisor and knows a lot more about her country than she does. Or seems to, anyway.

One random-yet-slightly interesting thing to note is that the Dreamwalkers and T.O.C. Alecs look exactly the same and have the same powers (elemental mage). But Dreambender Alec has blonde hair, can only use magic in dreams and has much more limited magic. I don't know what this means.

[This is SO much info that no one cares about but me. Oh well!!!]

I kept wanting to write Alec-centric stories at Augustine, because he was so present, but instead I wrote other awesome stuff (really, I am proud of my creative output that year). Dreamwalkers and Dreambenders, btw, were written March-August 2006, before I did PEN in December and before I did Nanowrimo for the first time in November 2007. The Other Country was written last spring, at the tale-end (tail-end?) of my last productive writing period.

What is Alec doing now, and why isn't he forcing me to write more? I think two reasons. 1, Alec is WAY too laidback. He likes me to motivate myself first before he lends a hand. >.< 2, I think being in T.O.C. so much is taxing and distracting for him. I really should finish that story so he can get back to being my muse full-time.