Oops

I, uh…completely and totally bombed Script Frenzy. I don’t think scriptwriting is my thing. It was fun at first because it was new, but then it was more, “Oh my freaking word, I have AP exams, *tears hair out and forgets about script* oh crap oh crap oh crap.” Don’t get me wrong, I’ll continue to dabble in it and I think people who write scripts are amazing. I just have trouble with it. But I would like to say that everything takes practice. Writing novels takes practice and I’ve been doing that for seven years, so it’s no wonder NaNo went well for me. I’ll practice a little more and maybe try again next year:)

That said, I visited the NaNo site again, and it was surprisingly active and busy. I am definitely ready for another NaNoWriMo. WriYe proved to be a little too crazy…I have SO many things that I’m working on all at once that I got a little confused with word count and then just kind of stopped worrying about it. Also, like I said, I had AP exams, so even if I was still keeping track I’d probably be far behind. And OH YEAH my hard drive bombed and I broke the number two NaNo rule, which is back up everything every five seconds. However, I don’t see this as a failure. I’ll try for it again next year, when my life will hopefully be a little more organized

I also thought I’d say that I’m working on figuring out a good schedule that will allow me to finish my new classes by October but also to have a regular, set-in-stone writing time every day, including weekends. I’m serious about writing and I think it’s time I move it higher on my priority list. Even if I just sit there for an hour and stare at the computer or notebook or whatever, I need to establish writing as a habit. Apparently you can train your muse to arrive at a certain time every day if you do this consistently. I don’t know how that will work, since Frederick and Elizabeth have minds of their own, but it can’t hurt to try, right?

By the way, I’m working on updating the blog and getting some more interesting, writing-related pages in. Check out the menu bar above as well as the cool blogs on the bar to the right. I’m on Twitter, too; the link is also to the right. Other than updating the pages I probably won’t post again for a while, but I’m still here and I do have my other blog at Masquerade.

See you in a few weeks! I’ll be coming on again in late September or in October to help you get psyched for NaNo:)

<3 africanstardust

A Considerable Dilemma

School has eaten my soul. Which is rather unfortunate, because last time I checked it was safe in NaNoWriMo’s arms. Anyway. My point is, I scarcely have time to write. No, no, no…that’s a lie. I have time. But all I want to do after spending 10 hours doing school work on my laptop is to get away from my laptop. And read something that I don’t have to think too hard about. So my update is bad, because I have not in fact written all that much.

The other problem is that I keep getting ideas for new stories. Is there something wrong with my brain? I need ideas for my WIPs, not for new stories. Yes, I realize the irony of a writer complaining about too many ideas. But my freaking goodness!! I’m only one person!!

Question (not rhetorical, as in please please answer me): at what point do you drop a story? I shudder to think of doing this, but…I don’t know. Maybe I should force myself into NaNos and get them done that way. *tears hair out* But yes, I think that might be the only way.*sigh*

On the bright side, I think I have an idea for a 2010 NaNoWriMo!!! Huzzah!! Here’s my cover (I lurve it). Of course, it’s only March, so it might change before November, but oh well

Oh My Schnickelfritz.

Forgive me if I’ve already used this title, but it’s very fitting.

Due to an insane and inhuman amount of schoolwork (do not contest me on this, because for once in my life I am not exaggerating), I haven’t written in a week. Not only that, but I don’t have much desire to write today or tomorrow (my two off days) because I do internet school, on the computer, and I’m kind of tired of the computer. So it of course makes perfect sense that I’m blogging. Anyway, I did want to give some kind of an update.

I discovered my genre!! The main one, at least. I shall from now on be focusing on Christian romance in addition to fantasy, which I’m sure I’ll never be able to get away from (not that I’m complaining). How do I know that this is my genre? Well. I started writing it just for kicks, and I ended up writing over 12k in three days. I could have done more, if I hadn’t had school. It just kept going. The only other time where I’ve been that inspired was when I was writing my first novel, my first anything – the catalyst for my entire writeringness. So.

In other news, the name of my screenplay has changed yet again. Love in High Places sounded a little bit too much like Bruce Almighty, which there’s nothing wrong with, but this isn’t a comedy. It’s more like The Brave One meets The Phantom of the Opera meets House meets Wuthering Heights meets some other stuff. You get the idea. I present to you the hopefully final screenplay information:

Script type: Screenplay
Genre: Drama/Romance
Title: Love in Dark Places
Logline: Haunted by the cage her own mind creates, seventeen year-old London must find her way out before it’s too late.
MFC: London Whinter
MMC: Cilian Girard
Anatgonist: Trek Manchurian {Actually, there is no antagonist except human nature – Trek ends up redeeming himself and falling for London. This was not my doing. While writing novel-style scenes for character development, Trek and London developed an obvious chemistry. Apparently this is going to be a bittersweet movie, against my principles. But anyway.}

Writerly Adventuring

WriYe Progress:
Wri Ye is going well. I think I’m only about 2k behind as of today, which seems to be my perpetual curse, but anyhow; I’ll get caught up soon, probably on Saturday. I also finally made the leap and bought Pixelmator, the most amazing photo editing software known to Mac. This is my very biased, very inexperienced, very I’ve-never-used-anything-else-but-this-works-amazingly-for-me opinion. Anyway, my point is that I finally have unlimited and unwatermarked time to play around with the thing, and I’ve made two sig banners for WriYe. My plan is to take on one novel every month, take months for editing, finishing, and planning in between, and take two novels in June. October is obviously dedicated to planning for NaNoWriMo, and November is NaNo only. December is rest, or if I still need to make up my word count, I’ll work on Shard.

Script Frenzy:
I have changed my title, plotted, character developed, and picture found (talking like this is rather fun, actually). I won’t post the pictures here because a) they’re copyrighted and b) too many bytes in uploading, but here’s my updated script information:

Script type: Screenplay
Genre: Drama
Title: Love in High Places
Logline: Haunted by the cage her own mind creates, seventeen year-old London must find her way out before it’s too late.
MFC: London Whinter
MMC: Cilian Girard
Anatgonist: Trek Manchurian

And that’s that for today, partly because I have to pee and partly because I have an appointment.

Like Cake, But Better

I can’t decide if I’m cheating or not. I mean, according to the rules of WriYe, I’m not cheating. But should planning be allowed to count as word count? I guess so. I guess it’s okay. But I have this odd feeling that the Angel of Writing is tsking at me.

Oh, well. I thought I would post the link to my personal progress thread so you can check it out for yourself if you like: http://wriye.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=progress&action=display&thread=870

Hmm, I hope you can see it…I’m not sure if people who aren’t signed up can. Anywho. I’m rather excited, because I’m only about 2k behind as of today, which is just over a day’s writing. If I plan some more and maybe actually WRITE *gasp* then I’ll be all caught up:) I’d say that tomorrow we’ll be looking at a nice, roundish number of 46,200. Impressive, no? I must say, though, that the reason you don’t see me freaking out and behaving NaNoishly is because most of what I’ve done has been one of the following:

1) planning (about 8,000, and no, I’m not kidding)
2) intense, super-inspired-driven writing sessions for hours on end.

As we all know, the second one is easy. Because when inspiration hits, it’s like a freaking jet plane. But, and this we all know too, the trouble comes when inspiration does not show her face, which is sort of the point of these enormous endeavors. So I feel like I haven’t actually done very much. However, inspiration left at approximately 11:34 am yesterday morning, so this month will be much harder. Yay! (raises hand in sarcastic gesture)