Monday, July 31, 2006

Feel The Anger Flowing Through You...

I am never using fanfic.net again.

Let's be honest: That fucking sucked.

Their program for uploading and posting made no sense. They say in their little guidelines: "Do not upload chapters as separate documents." Basically it says I'm supposed to load one main document and then edit it in some other place in order to make chapters.

Uh, right - where?

Their system is backwards. Or outdated. Or contradictory. Or something. I had no other way but to upload separate documents for different chapters. There seriously was no other way to do it. And let me tell you, I'm patient with computer programs. It's one thing for my computer, which I'm used to, to suddenly freak out on me and hence I freak out in return. It's totally different for me to be online with some new program that doesn't have a lot to it at all and be stuck working with it for over 2 hours. I should have been done over an hour ago. I don't know why it wouldn't accept number signs or asterisks either. That was really getting to me. Finally managed to settle on dashes.

Ugh. Man that was annoying.

Glad I'm finally done with it. I'm not touching it or posting anything. Ever. Again.

On another note, I'm back into #1H. I should work with some poetry. I need to email some people too. I need to do a lot of things in the world of writing. I rewrote a section of #1H, or am in the middle of it. Cutting out a lot of the beginning. I didn't want to introduce characters I really wasn't ever going to use. Makes no sense. A waste of 5 pages, but oh well. I like it better this way. This was how I was initially going to do it anyway so hey, good times.

That's really all I have to say. I really just had to rant about that site and its stuff. Honestly...

Currently: Feeling Violent

Thursday, July 27, 2006

"Hello Beastie."

If you recall in the last posting, I was creating a fanfic based off of the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (Shut up, I already know I'm stupid). Actually, it's not really based off it, it's just a random idea I had that I had to act on. I really did only mean for it to be like, 8 pages. Seriously. I had no intention for it to get so big. Would you like to know the page count? Okay. Keep in mind, this isn't typed up yet, so the page count is of college ruled paper (one sheet, front and back) with my handwritten words all over it in that tiny style I have.

20 pages.

Yeah. I ran out of room in my previous notebook after the initial 9 pages. Actually, the initial story is only about 18 or 19 pages. Then I just continued on with a few random ideas that popped up due to the soundtrack (which I again, highly recommend. It seriously kicks pirate ass). I finished the whole thing up this morning, actually. I was writing all during the trip (save when we were out hiking) and was up until about 2 last night (or maybe it was 1:30...I don't know) because the storm would have kept me up anyway and I was on a roll. That's when I finished the intial idea. I did the last two this morning since I didn't want to go down and instantly have TV in my face.

Aside from my pirate nonsense, on the 19th I sent off parts of my first book to a publisher. I know, one try isn't going to cut it, but I've been stuck doing research on places, trying to get their information, having issues with that, trying to see what they're looking for and if my stuff fits the bill, etc. etc. Whether or not I should get an agent, and even then if said agent is still in business, yadda yadda. It's messy. I'll probably have to go get the most updated edition of Writer's Market. Or maybe Author's Market, the one specifically for books. At least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. There are two other places I can send it to, but I need to do more research on them to see if I should even bother wasting the postage.

Anyway, that's that. I don't know if I'll send the finished pirate story to Megan directly or just give her the site I'll end up posting it on. Either way, if you seriously want to read it, contact her, haha, because I'm done with it after this (except for Stacey, since you don't know Megan).

Okay. Peace out.


Currently: Ho hum.

Edited at 12:23pm 7/29: It's 28 typed pages (single-spaced of course)

Saturday, July 15, 2006

BLOODY PIRATES!

The deal is I've just gotten done watching the new Stargate episodes, SG-1 and Atlantis. A select few of you know what I'm talking about, and probably even fewer of you give a shit. I think Stef watches it. And now I'm up here rambling in order to avoid the news, which is perpetually on in this house. Oh, how I hate the news. It's always the same shit; people dying, countries being assholes, everyone hating us. I do not see how this is news.

Now the Stargate episodes should have incited the little #1H muse, but instead it's merely made me all excited to see the new ones, which I have to wait until next Friday to see, which I will then have to wait a few more weeks to see since I'll be off romping in Colorado at that time. Damn. Oh well. The thing is, I've been writing something else. Something pointless, something utterly useless, something I can't even modify later in order to be useful. Okay, that's not entirely true; I'm sure if I really wanted to and really tried I could, but I'm really not into bothering with it. I should be doing something productive, and yet I'm writing a bunch of drivel, which I initially thought would take up maybe 5, 6 pages and has extended to...well I'm not sure of the page count at the moment, but it's getting to the end of my notebook, which means I'll have to get into my other one, so I suppose it's probably 8-10 pages by now.

So just what is taking up all my time and has me more involved than the #1H story (which would have me more involved were I not busy writing all the stuff that has to draw into the story before it gets good - never was a fan of the crap. Not that it's crap, it's just not as much fun to write)? A fanfic. Yeah. How lame is that? I never thought in a million years I'd be bothered with something like this. You see, I went to see the newest Pirates of the Caribbean and when it got to a certain point, I was all excited about the whole thing and when the movie was over I was more giddy than I have been in a long time when it comes to a movie. It was that damn kiss between Elizabeth and Jack that had me all revved up. If I've ruined it for you, well, trust me, I haven't, and you should know better anyway. Anyway, something in me clicked and some alien idea got into my head. Suddenly I found I was more interested in Johnny Depp/Jack (hard to say which exactly it was that was tugging at me) than Orlando Bloom (whose hotness, by the way, went away a long time ago when he started dating Kate Bosworth or whatever her name is - a Hollywood chick, and that's all I needed to know for him to not be cool anymore, or at least, as cool). That kiss affected me more than I thought it would (I knew it was coming, all thanks to the TV guide channel), and suddenly the pairing of Elizabeth and Jack was very interesting.

I read a few short pieces at a fanfic site where you can find basically anything you might find interesting (if you recall my search for my muses and the failed excursion with Kakashi) that dealt with the ElizabethxJack pairing, but decided in the end, these didn't work well for me. Or rather, they didn't sit well. I couldn't very well let Elizabeth suddenly abandon her feelings for Will, thus none of the fanfics seemed to work out. Then I started thinking. Then I got an scenario into my head. Basically one scenario is all it takes. To be honest, I wasn't really ever going to do anything about it. I've had an inclination to do a pairing before a while back when school was still in session concerning some anime characters, but since I knew it would be pointless writing, never acted on the impulse and simply waited for it to die down. Took a while. The thing is, I knew this idea wouldn't go away until I did something about it - instead it would just play in my head every night until I stuck it on paper, similar to Dumbledore's little pensieve. Too many thoughts in your head? Take them out.

So I did, and have been for the past three days (I believe). I was going to try and flash-bang it, like I said, slap it down in 5 or 6 pages, but as usual my ideas tend to grow a little larger and I get into more detail, yadda yadda yadda, and here we are at the present. It will end, and I won't have to worry about it anymore; if I want to revisit it I can always just dive into my little paper pensieve and enjoy. And I do feel like I'm being wasteful of my time (not the paper; that's exactly what that particular notebook is for). Instead of writing query letters and such I'm writing about...well I won't tell you exactly what I'm writing about since I feel a bit stupid for doing it in the first place, though I do admit that it is damn hard to wade through Jack's thought processes, not to mention coming up with good dialogue for him. I consider that, at the very least, good writing practice.

When I'm done, I might post it at the fanfiction site in order to give millions the chance to read my rubbish, and I've also been considering sending it to Megan (yes, just Megan) seeing as she's my fellow Pirates fan. I doubt the rest of you will want to read my nonsense, but something tells me she'd be all excited about it. From there if she wanted to distribute it, by all means, I'd give her leave to, but I'm not going to bother shipping it out everywhere.

So that's it. That's what my dumb self has been up to in the pencil lead sector. Dorky, huh?

...I am such a geek.

Currently: Bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed

Friday, July 07, 2006

The RRSGS -Or- Book #1H

It's slow going, really. I've paused on the poetry thing (though in reality I should get back on it because it's not as though it takes up too much time...sort of...sometimes. Ok, it depends) and have gotten to work on a book which stems from an idea I had last summer that came about during an hour of lying in bed and then a 24/7 writing session on the computer soon after, something I never do, really. I have issues with writing on the computer when it comes to stories for some reason. But to get to the point, the Isu story (aka #1F) has been put on hold. Yes, the one with the characters made out of Brett, Shawn, Katie, Sandra, and everyone else. It's an interesting enough story, but not enough to truly hold my attention. The same went for #1E, which was based on characters from my high school friends. I literally had to force myself one day to do some writing on it by going to a Barnes & Noble at 8am (or whenever they opened) and staying 8 hours, only getting up to stretch and clear my brain before getting back to work. I burned out after 5 hours but got a lot done.

Moving on, I think tonight will be an all-nighter. Normally that means I'm going to stay up all night and write, in this case on #1H, but I think instead it will be a mix. As a Top Reviewer on Epinions.com, I need to keep up a certain quota of reviews in the movie section. To be honest I don't even know what the number is, so I just need to write a bunch and hope I've made it. I should email someone. Anyway, I have a number of other things, namely soundtracks, that I should review as well and have simply been, that's right, putting it off because I'm lazy. So tonight I'll do some writing, do some reviewing, do some writing, reviewing, etc. etc. I don't have to worry about going to the stadium tomorrow because we didn't all week anyway and weekends we simply don't go. Dad says the time off is good for his back and knees anyway, which I don't dispute.

But back to the writing. It's been slow going. It's the kind of writing that I sort of want to do, the kind I know I need to do, but in reality, really wish I didn't have to do just so I could skip on ahead to where all the good stuff is. I should work my ass off on this. Did you know that on average I've written each book in about a year's time? Except the last time I did that was with #1E - I haven't written crap since, in the ways of completion anyway. No offense to my character-friends, but I shouldn't have bothered with #1F and simply gone on to #5 or something instead. But it seemed like such a good idea at the time, and in many ways, still is. I just need to get past the boring stuff. That's the thing everyone hates - that boring filler. Like the second Harry Potter book. Haha. J.K. Rowling said that one was such a drag to write, but just had to get out there for the second year.

Listen to me, talking like I'm some published author. Nope, still have the title of writer. That's different to me. Until I'm published I'm not an author. What I should do is write a query letter and send off #1 like I've been talking about. God I'm lazy. Or maybe a bit fearful of having to go through all that. Not the rejection part, no, that doesn't bother me, that's a part of a writer's life: Death, taxes, and rejection. No, I mean the fear of how long it may take once I get on that road. I guess it equates to rejections, but it's like, once I hop on, I fuckin' hop on. Here we go, and it's a long ride.

But who knows? Maybe I'll be like that kid that wrote Eragon. Boy that would rule. But I guess I should stop daydreaming and make it happen, damn it.

Currently: Carefree