Time for another writing survey!

What’s the last thing you wrote? Hmm a blog for this blog. :P Before that, a blog for my OTHER blog.
Was it any good? Kinda a spazzy account of my weekend, but sure.
What’s the first thing you ever wrote that you still have? Hm, I believe it’s “The Adventures of Coconut” and “Coconut goes to Paris”, about a dog. Yeah.
Write poetry? I have written poetry, but I try to avoid it, in protection of the world.
Do you type or write by hand? Both. I type when I want to get a lot of rough done, but write if I’m experiencing writer’s block or have more time at my disposal.
Do you save everything you write? Basically, yeah. When I type a first draft, I keep the original, but then once I start editing I don't save all the different versions. Hand-written stuff is usually in notebooks so that's saved, too.
Does music help you write? Only non-vocal music. Otherwise it’s reallyyyyy distracting, OR affects my writing in really strange ways. Enough said, I think. O.o
Do you even show people your work? Yes, and usually regret it.
Do you want to write for a living? YES?
Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper? For my highschool newspaper. :P And I’ve submitted some stuff to my college literary magazine.
The last thing you’ve had published for pay? Nothing.
Fiction Writers…
Where do you get ideas for your characters? That’s a good question. Sometimes characters from other things give me an idea, like, “What if there was a character like THAT only they [difference].”
Are you a Pantser or a Plotter? (what’s a pantser? O.o) I guess a plotter. I usually work off of an outline. But I dunno, sometimes I don’t. So whatever. Do what feels right to me.
Have you ever written sci-fi, fantasy, or horror? Yes. :P That’s mostly what I write. Well, horror not so much, but “Absence” had some freakish elements.
Ever written romance or teen angsty drama? No. Although I'm sure elements of both are in my stuff without asking permission.
Genre of choice? Er fantasy I guess.
Do you favor happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers? I guess I prefer happy endings, but really anything with closure, unless it’s in the middle of a series.
Quote something you’ve written. The first thing to pop into your mind.
Something from The Missing Door, an unfinished rough draft from last year:
“Watch out for any yellow-spotted lizards,” Ramy said, giving her one of his fake smiles. Ramy had, Tara had noticed, a large range of expressions, most of them fake. “They’re poisonous. Lethally so.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Tara said drily, not sure if she believed him.

Workshop report

Sooooo last weekend, or more specifically Friday night and Saturday, I was at Bob Welch's Beachside Writing Workshop! Yay! Throws confetti! Dances? I dunno.

Friday night we ARRIVED (actually a whole five minutes early, SHOCKING!). They were set up in a school gym but actually it was pretty neat.....Bob's wife did the decorating and she's kinda hardcore. There was a section for eating (meals were provided, yay!) and a section for the workshop. On the dining tables were large, old books with their innards sliced out and replaced with dirt and grass. Haha I alternated the entire time between horror, fascination, and admiration. Lolz. They were cool though.
We also got plenty of snacks provided for us! The whole food thing was pretty pro. For Saturday breakfast we got this insane French Toast insanity with cream cheese and stuff. It was like....all meshed together. Yeahhhh....and fruit salad and epicness. For Sat. lunch we got CRAB LASAGNA and other stuff. Crab lasagna! Whose idea was that, anyway? It was REALLY fantastic except they used quite a bit of lemon.....lemon in food is probably my least favorite idea, lol. I remember a lemon soup I had at Augustine that I downed through sheer hunger and willpower alone. :D
So Friday night we did sort of the introductory sort of sessions, stuff about inspiration and imagination and Bob's life, etc. lol. He has a plethora of interesting stories about himself, his writing, and how he found the stuff to write about. I decided, even more after talking to him, I would HATE to be a columnist. Like....that's just a LOT of columns. He said he's in the 2000s. Three columns a week, year after year? No thank you. But it was fun hearing the stories. He told us a lot of what went into his American Nightingale book, which is about an American nurse, Frances Slanger. He spent like $67,000 going around Europe researching the darn thing. Crazy. But I need to read that, as well as A Pebble in the Water and the book about the Easy Company guy (Easy Company is the company in Band of Brothers, which is a book I've read and also a mini-series I have not seen).
We also got free stuff! YAY! A t-shirt that says, "Metaphors be with you" (lolz) and a notebook-binder with lots of stuff in it. Wheeee! Also a paint chip. *nods*
Saturday we went through his ten tips for writing, which was kinda hardcore, and then did the whole lunch thing. Besides worksheet-ish stuff in the notebook, we wrote two short pieces during the weekend for various purposes, but kinda overall before and after things. My first one had to be based on a fortune-cookie fortune, which was "You will soon find your treasure." My brain was SO dead that night so somehow I wrote about a girl who was on an angsty road trip by herself and the car broke down. Yeahhhh.....that's what I said too. My second one was about Oregon vs. Ottawa weather. :P
Yeah so more of Saturday was writing and critiquing each other's writing. What I think is interesting is that the main comments I got was that I was very descriptive and I did a good job of wrapping stuff together into one thing. I think I was so nervous about my atrocious descriptive skills that I overcompensated? Ah well.
The people at the workshop were a variety of nice, odd, and strange. lolz. Everyone was prettty old (like 30 and above) except for me and this one guy who I didn't speak to. But Beverly, Mary, and Jan were my friends. <3 But in general it was just REALLY AWESOME to get together with people like me who don't write for a living (yet) but really want to get better at it, and most of them loved writing as much as I do. I'm hoping to get into some regular correspondence with some of them, and I'm more inspired than ever to get involved with a writing group in my area.

White picket fences are bloody dangerous.

Hai guyz. My life is a hopeless whirlwind of time-sucking demons right now, so I'm lowering my goal to 50 pages. I'll do another 50 next month. :(

On a happier note (maybe?) I'm going to a writing workshop this weekend, held by a local writer who pwns faces. I've never gone to one before and I think it'll be an interesting experience, if not anything else. I'll write up a full report when I return. ;)

May your pens spew ink! Or somesuch poetic line.

Screnzy Update 2.0

Page count: 30
Page count I SHOULD be at: 63
Chocolate consumed: many, many eggs
Time wasted on Youtube: *hides*

I don't know why I'm having such problems! I'm honestly enjoying my script. It's a lot more fun than a LOT of my other projects. I do have time constraints, but obviously that's not the whole problem. *points at Youtube*
My goal for tonight is 10 pages. I have some fun things planned: character cameo from another story, we find out more about the villain, and a previously-named character death. If I get 10 done, and do about 5 a day from here on, I should be okay. :P Let's go!

Lightbulb moments

"I love those moments. I like to wave at them as I pass by."

I finally had my first, honest-to-goodness ScriptFrenzy lightbulb moment! It made me laugh a lot too. I was pondering a logistical problem I was having with Bahnree (a character) and also pondering a "What should I do with him?" problem I was having with Rogue. Then Rogue just sat beside me on my bed (this is not meant as an innuendo, I was sitting on my bed at the time, okay????) and told me what he was up to. I rofled. I don't know if I'm cute when I rofl, but I did. :P I didn't realize Rogue could make me laugh that much. I didn't know he could be so helpful, either: he took care of both my problems!

TO: YOU FROM: BAHNREE

STILL AT TWENTY TWO PAGES STOP STILL NOT GIVING UP STOP PRAYERS ARE APPRECIATED STOP

Screnzy Update

School is eating my life again. The sillies.

I have 22 pages of Screnzy, and I believe I should be at 29.7 today? Or somesuch. I haven't given up yet, of course, I'll just have to do some massive catch-up. I might try and pump out some tonight, after I finish reading this godforsaken book for school.

Out peace.

"And then they laugh at him, and beat him."

I might cry. Or laugh. It's in committee.

I've been posting my ScriptFrenzy as I've been writing it over on my friends-only LJ. You know that character, Rogue? All of my readers LOVE him! WHY? WHY, O MUSES, WHY???? To me, he's one of those slimy good-bad types that's over-the-top good-looking and ought to be PUNCHED or beaten with a large, blunt object. There are way too many hunky "gray area" guys in literature, let's face it. And I love Han Solo and Boba Fett as much as anyone.

Breathe, Bahnree, Breathe. Rogue exists for me to make fun of myself, and I'm going to stick to that goal, no matter how many females love him. 

The GOOD news is that I'm up to 18 pages on my script! Yay! I not only caught up completely today (I was aiming for 15 by tonight) but am ahead a bit! :D Wootage. It's all thanks to a super epic scene wherein Alec told people how it was several times, Conrade yelled a lot, and Rogue let people know stuff only because it suited him. Oh, and I created another character on the spot: The Serpent, a professional assassin. I know, how original. I just needed an assassin. I don't even know if it's a chick or a dude!

Oh, and I keep forgetting to post this, my Screnzy profile: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/user/200913

gotta getcha head in the game

Whew! I'm a bit behind on Screnzy. But I HAVE been getting stuff done. Namely homework, going to a play that a bunch of my friends are in, editing the Stranger, editing the Varesh-as-a-child story, etc. :D I'm at 10 pages now, though, for Screnzy. I'm really curious how the story is going to turn out...I don't have much of a clue or outline at all. Characters keep popping up, like Vana and Rogue. Rogue, particularly, is a funny story. I was thinking tonight about how I often like the scoundrelly, ruffian, rogue types in movies and books. SO I decided to make a character named Rogue who's a scoundrelly type, and then totally tear the poor guy apart. :D Fun times. My sarcasm shall be his death. It'll be interesting. It'll be like a metaphor for me getting over the whole rogue-novelty thing. Or something.

Okay, yeah, it's lame. 

it's the fear-fear of the darkness growing inside of me

I woke up this morning and realized a new episode of The Stranger was due today. Lolz. So I ran through the final edit and it is up HERE. I'm pretty excited about this episode. It's the first one past how the story has gone before, and we meet a lot of people in it, some who will be important later, some not. :P

Of course, now I have to hurry and finish 17 in time for next Friday. The next episode is just a mess, probably because I'm trying too hard. :)

Day Two of Screnzy was rather disappointing. I hate every word that I wrote. I'm regretting the massacre in scene three. Ah well! Keep going, wot?

And then the ice weasels come.

I've been finding spectacular ways of procrastinating from writing my first paper for the term, which happens to be due tomorrow. :D

Anyway, it occurred to me that I should write a First-Day-of-Screnzy post. For posterity. And for the furthering of said procrastination. :) Note: Why do I always seem to end sentences with emoticons? That is irritating and I just noticed it. For instance, I wanted to put a :S after "emotions?" and a D: after "noticed it." Sick. I think my sudden new resolution is to temporarily stop using emoticons.

OKAY ANYWAY SCRENZY!

I've written a bit over 3 pages, which is, you know, what I should have for a day but it's good to create a buffer in the first week, right? :S Ah well. I like what I have, although I wrote the scene way too fast and I know I left out a bunch of stuff that I needed to put in...but oh well! I'll add it later. I'm having a lot of fun so far (which isn't saying much as it's only the first day, but hey!), but it's REALLY hard for me to not wax descriptive on every little mood and facet of the characters. I didn't realize how much I liked describing my character's speech and motivations. Weird, huh? Although I'm also noticing I don't miss describing locations AT ALL. Me and locations=fail. For anyone who's read my infamous Olympus scene.....yes. Case in point.

Tomorrow I'm writing a scene wherein my mercenary commander gives his best and brightest a run-down of their new duties, a tour of the palace, and possibly a glimpse of the ferret terrarium thrown in the mix! :D

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? :)