Let me tell you about white text

I cannot tell you how nice it is just to take a big segment that's getting in the way, make it white text, and move it to the end of the document. It's doing wonders for the inner editor. The word count doesn't take a hit, either! Everybody can be happy. :)

Working titles

Note the time stamp.

How's NaNo going for everybody who's doing it?

/Edit/

Did this really look that much like a poll?

What.jpg

Actually, the file name really is what.jpg

Eventually...

I will write something of worth on this blog again.

:D

The greatest synopsis I've ever written

Yes I spammed Facebook with this. And yes I'm reusing characters. Come at me.

This is the best thing I've written since "I'm going to be a space hobo now. A magical space hobo."

Also if you're doing NaNo, I will totally be your buddy (when that's available again)! My corner is over here.

Neat resources for character building

First we have the Personality Scale Descriptions from Archetype Writing, which is pretty amazing. Basically, it is a big check list of personality traits. You can download it (in .rtf format) here: http://www.mediafire.com/?sco900g3ryx5myn

There is also the Character Motivation sheet, which I've had for so long that I can't remember where it's from. To quote the creator: "...with it you determine the motivations of the character, then you derive
the personality to go along with those motivations. You can have a truly evil bastard who is doing it all for love!
The key to the system is the idea of separating the actual form of the motivation from the “direction”. This allows us to compress over a hundred possibilities into a small space."
And that PDF is right here: http://www.mediafire.com/?mx900c4wv1g7bax

So hopefully you find these useful!

Edit Minion!

So Dr. Wicked (who created the wonderful Write or Die) has come out with a new writing program, which is pretty brilliant. It helps you weed out adverbs, weak words, passive voice, "said" replacements, endings with prepositions, and misspelled words. It's still in beta, but it's really great! Here's a screenshot:

Full-size version
And I will stand by that "nice" and "very" to the end.

So yeah, you should check it out. :)

If plots were playlists

Then this is what my NaNo story would sound like so far.
(If I did this right, the whole thing should just play in that little window.)

Awesome thing: How to Steal Like An Artist

This one is really long, but it's probably some of the best writing advice I've read.

Here's what it covers:

As always, I highly recommend you check it out.

Insomnia. Why.

Hey, remember that time when I was all insomnia'd up and had Google Earth?

Yeah, it happened again this morning on Facebook when I became drunk* with the power of being able to make status updates that nobody else could see.

*In the figurative sense only, though I can understand if you don't believe me now.
Also, The Glass Toaster is a very real, very emotional song. It changed my entire life and the very way I look at toasters.
I might still be completely exhausted while writing this.

And while these shenanigans are happening, what am I doing in another window? Yep, I am reading AWESOME FANFICTION rewriting a story from ninth grade. Why? Because Story Nostalgia, that's why.

Do you know what I'm talking about? You write this story, then years later, you have this inexplicable urge to go back and read it. And it is so bad but you love it anyways. Not because it has any literary merit... but because nostalgia.

And that is why there will always be print.

/This concludes the most poorly thought-out post on this blog.

Double rainbow all the way...

...across the sky...

 It really is a double rainbow; my cell phone just couldn't handle it. I was just trying to take the pictures, and my phone was like, "DOUBLE RAINBOW, what does it mean? So intense."

OK, I'm done making stupid jokes.

We've had some crazy weather up here! (Read: completely normal.) It was in the upper 80s and 90s for a few days, then yesterday it dropped down into the 60s. Oh Michigan.

Replace book titles with bacon

^ That's one of the trending topics right now on Twitter. I'm not actually logged in at the moment, so thought I'd share some titles here.

The Bacon Games
Catching Bacon
Baconjay
The Lord of the Bacon
The Fellowship of the Bacon
The Two Bacons
Return of the Bacon
Fight Bacon
Baconormalcy
Bacontastic
The Scarlet Bacon
How the Bacon Stole Christmas
Charlotte's Bacon
Memoirs of a Bacon
Baconborn
Baconbreaker
Baconclimber
Trickster's Bacon
If Bacon Stay[s]
Where Bacon Went
The Lion, The Witch, and the Bacon
Prince Bacon
The Voyage of the Dawn Bacon
The Silver Bacon
The Horse and His Bacon
The Magician's Bacon
The Bacon Battle
Baconlandra
Bridge to Terebaconia
The Bacon Bride

And by "some", I meant "a bunch".

OK, now your turn!

Swoon, Blogger, swoon.

Seriously, Blogger's new layout is really nice. Much cleaner-looking.

Anyways, today's the last day of Camp NaNo. I'm probably not gonna make it (close to 31K right now, soo...). But I don't feel like this month's been a loss because I got a lot of short stories written. They're just... really short. :) Plus I've been experimenting with style, which is always fun. Swinging in between third person and second person, and present and past tense. Still hate writing in first person.

I think a big part of it was that it didn't really feel like NaNo, so there wasn't really a big rush to write more than usual. So... yeah. Still planning on participating in November, and hopefully winning this time.

Finally, you guys should check this kid out. He has crazy talent.

Hmmm.

Is it just me, or are there a lot of YA trilogies lately?

...That's all.

Lost five hours today on a reading binge

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, you guys. I didn't think it would be that good.

And it was incredible.

I thought it was going to be another typical YA supernatural romance with vampires and drama and angst and blablabla but no. It's actually charming and funny and exciting.

I was not prepared.

No, it's not without its flaws (explaining jokes, some typos, the awkwardly used word/phrase here and there) (pot and kettle, I know) but the pros largely outweigh the cons. And that character arc! Let me just be a fourteen-year-old so I can do this real quick: <3 <3 <3 And there's no love triangle! I mean, there's a psycho ex-boyfriend, but the main makes it very clear she wants nothing to do with him, so... <3 And the main love interest guy has flaws, too! And there are very real stakes! And you actually kind of feel for the main villain! And - and - and -

*Cries* I'm just so happy, you guys. This book is so awesome.

Friday Fragments

(Geez, when was the last time I did this. I'll try not to spam you guys with videos again.)

1) I'm a bit behind in Camp NaNo, but hoping to catch up this weekend. I've pretty much accepted that this has turned into a collection of short stories instead of something super exciting. Oh well. I'll save the super exciting stuff for the main event.

2) Something amazing happened the other day! I thought I lost the main files for my NaNo '10 story because the computer screen broke and it was all glitchy and terrible, but miracles happened and the files were saved! Don't you love it when that happens? :)

3) I'm feeling a reading binge coming on in September. So many books:
-Memoirs of a Geisha
-Trickster's Choice
-The Light Fantastic
-The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
-And Then There Were None
-The Scoop & Behind The Screen (two stories in one book)

Considering adding Divergent to that list.

4) OK, this one's for The Hunger Games fans. Spoilers ahoy. What did you think of the epilogue in Mockingjay? I thought it worked pretty well. It showed that the world changed, the survivors were trying to move on, and all that jazz. The only part I was kind of unhappy about was that Gale and Katniss were never really friends again, and that was pretty lame.
My friends Kirstin and Courtney weren't really happy with the epilogue in general (but Courtney's never been happy with an epilogue :P). They both thought Katniss sounded really depressed (PTSD anyone?), and there wasn't enough explanation about Panem and their new government and such.
So yeah, what do you think?

Have a good weekend, everybody! :)

It's been a while since I've spammed y'all with pictures and videos, hasn't it?

Let's fix that. :D

Haha, hipsters are hilarious.

Saw this the other day and got the feeling that in time, I'm going to have to make a similar ridiculous promise.



(Pfft. "Once you jump into a tub of marshmallows, you really have to savor the moment.")

And lastly... guys. Did you realize that the main NaNoWriMo event is less than three months away? (While I try to figure out what the heck even happened to my plot. Where'd it gooooooo...)

Let's talk about cursive

There was this post over at Daily Writing Tips talking about how people don't really write in cursive or by hand anymore because of computers and tech and all that jazz. (It's like a sillier version of the hard copy v. ebook debates, except hard copies are definitely better than ebooks. :P)

I don't mind writing by hand at all, but I really hate cursive. It's always seemed to be a really ridiculous way to write, not to mention it gets harder and harder to read the more often you use it. It's like print writing's horrible inverse. Plus, thanks to some school-hopping between second and third grade, I had to learn it three times. Kinda loses its charm after the second time.

*Looks at blog banner*

...

Week One in a nutshell

So I started off the week feeling pretty good about this story. Loved my characters, thought the plot line worked pretty well, all that jazz. The first chapter basically wrote itself, which was nice. Also had a lot of fun writing some future parts with the nightmare sequences. Those are pretty fun, too.

Then somewhere around Thursday, I got to the part where the antagonists were introduced and just wasn't feeling it. So I wrote more nightmare sequences! And then realized how action-light this story really is when I was imagining something really exciting.

And now it's turned into a completely different story (different genre and everything), but with the same characters. It'll be fun. :D

There is no way I will regret redoing the entire story at the end of the month.

Did you see the new Writer's Digest site?

It's beautiful~. So yeah, link's right over to the side. Unless you're reading this in something like Google Reader, in which case, here ya go.

So Day Two! It's going slowly. Probably cuz I'm still stuck in chapter one and because I just started writing a little while ago. Trying to work through the first few plot-related songs on the playlist. Word count-wise, I'm on track. Somewhere around 1800 right now.

/Cut scene/

Skipped to some depressing future parts. Killed a main character. Twice.

Going for three.

Day One so far

Started out a little shaky this morning, but I think that was because I was super tired and getting distracted by the internet. I was worried that the story would move pretty slowly, but after a page and a half of putting up with Mitchell and Tasia being themselves, everything's moving really quickly.

It's weird because I thought that Ace would be the main character because... well, he has all the makings. But Mitchell is actually proving to be a pretty good MC, even (especially?) if the point of his character arc is for him to stop being so passive. :D And besides, rolling with third person omniscient over here, so it's not like the other three won't get plenty of attention.

I think this thing finally has a title, too. Going with Soul Shout. Came from this song by Your Heart, specifically this set of lyrics: "If it's heartache that you want
Well we're f-f-fresh out
You can have a kiss from God
That will make your soul shout..."

So yeah! Everything's going pretty well so far. :)

Google Earth is dead useful. / Carissa loses her mind

And probably dangerous in the wrong hands.

I've been trying to find a good hometown for these kids. It's just in my head that they're from a kind of big town in the mountains. I've got it narrowed down to somewhere in Idaho. But now I feel bad because I feel like I'm creeping on all these towns and I just want to get everything right.

It's late and I should sleep.

/Cut scene/


Wow this town is like the Bible Belt, except with Mormons.

And it's PERFECT.

wait if I use this town then I can make a bunch of Pokemon shout-outs


/Cut scene/

Holy tomato it's perfecter


Ernest Hemingway and his grandkid are buried here, you guys


I found a street called Lane Avenue. ...No further comment.

/One more search/

Hey guys

Guys

I found my neighborhood and


It is ridiculous how many people have ridiculously large swimming pools, like ten people. :( Why aren't we friends, swimming pool people?


Why do I keep typing in italics?


Right. So tired.


Yeah OK I'm going to sleep now.

/LIES/

5t's

wa5t what 5s... s60eth5ng 5s screw5ng w5th the 2eyb6ard. TH5S W6N'T EVEN 0A2E SENSE T606RR6W.

oh. Finally found out what num lock does. BUT GUYS IT'S THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY!

sleep

Getting ready for camp

Camp NaNoWriMo, that is.

Most of my plotting has been music-based, and by that I mean I've been going through every single song in Windows Media Player to try to establish the general mood of the story, what the characters are like, what they're like with each other, and, y'know, all the plot points. It helps, I think.

I'm not going to share the entire playlist with you guys (28 items/ 108 minutes), but right now I'll show you the first part of songs that establish the story and the characters.

Story's Theme: Best of Me (acoustic) by The Starting Line
Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone
The worst is over and you can have the best of me
We got older, but we're still young
We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up

Ace Flynn: Everything You Ever Wanted by Hawk Nelson
I tried to be perfect, tried to be honest
Tried to be everything that you ever wanted
Tried to be stronger, tried to be smarter
Tried to be everything but you

Shea Henley: Ordinary Day by Zoegirl
Every minute feels like an hour slowly creeping by
All of this stress but I do my best to take it all in stride
I need to decide, need to unwind
All these things are on my mind
It's an ordinary day...

Tasia Henley: It's On by Superchick
It all comes down to this
You take your best shot, might miss
You take it anyway
You're gonna make your move today

Mitchell Schubert: Procrastinating by Stellar Kart
So here I am, it's 3 AM, I don't know where to begin
Time's running out and there's no doubt that I feel like throwing in
The towel with no way I can get this start finished

Ace and Mitchell: Last Train Home by FM Static
We've fallen apart somewhere back at the start
When we thought that we could fix each other by ourselves
Let's get back to the part when things weren't like they are
And we were laughing on the last train home

Shea and Tasia: Vole by Celine Dion
Vole, vole petite aile (fly, fly little wing)
Ma douce, mon hirondelle (my dear, my dove)
Va t'en loin, va t'en sereine (go far away, go serene)
Qu'ici rien ne te retienne (let nothing here hold you back)

Mitchell and Tasia: Finding Something to Do by hellogoodbye
As long as there's something to see, I'll see it with you
As long as the days can seem, we'll find something to do
If ever your love should leave, just swear you'll follow it through
And I swear I'll always follow you

Shea and Ace: Some Story by Raven Zoe
But your eyes are the saddest that I've ever seen
And whatever you're hiding shines right through the screen
And those other girls might not agree
But some story isn't worth it to me

Tasia and Ace: Hot Air Balloon by Owl City
I'll be out of my mind, and you'll be out of ideas pretty soon
So let's spend an afternoon in a cold hot air balloon
Leave your jacket behind, lean out and touch the treetops over town
I can't wait to kiss the ground wherever we touch back down

Shea and Mitchell: Fine by Lemon Demon
Light is on the way, we'll be having a fun time
It's such a lovely day, we should pocket the sunshine
And never give it back, even if there's a heatwave
We're stalling on the track, it'll just be a close shave

Normally I don't pick out songs for every single relationship, but that's kind of a big focus in this story, so that's what happened.

High school writing. Oh joy.

So in eleventh grade, my teacher advised us that we should keep everything we've written, whether it's good or bad, because when we look back on it, we'll see how far we've come as writers.

And I did keep everything. Well, a lot of it. The Harry Potter fan fiction is all gone. :P So is a lot of my emo poetry, but that's more because I didn't back it up. (Seriously, sixteen-year-old me, what was wrong with you?)

So the other day I was looking through some old notebooks from high school, and I found this.

"Have at thee, knave," growled the monstrous knight right behind Bobert. Bobert paled at the unbelievable size of his challenger, and then remembered his squirrel army and smirked.

"SQUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAK!" shouted Bobert, pointing at his foe, which translated as "FOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" The ravenous squirrels let out their battle cry and enveloped the poor, unsuspecting enemy.

Bobert blinked in surprise. "I thought I said "charge". Oh well, that works too."

Self. What was wrong with you. Don't you know how to structure a sentence.

...

Don't you know what question marks are, either?

It's so hot

Have you seen the heat index for the US lately?

See, I'm in that lower part of Michigan that's in the orange zone. Please keep in mind that this is the current-current heat index, which means how hot it feels at 9:30 at night. Let me just track back a few hours to, say, 4:30.

And suddenly we're in the reds.

Why am I posting this?

To remember how miserable summer can be when January hits. (Haha, most of you readers do not know how crabby I can be when it's cold out. And I've lived in Michigan my whole life.)

--

After-post edit: Did not realize those pictures would actually change. This is basically like knowing the weather all the time. Plus what it was four hours ago.

The people who just don't get it.

Can I quote myself for a second? I don't mean to sound pretentious, but it'll inform this post.

I know what I want to do with my life. I think people think I'm joking when I say, "I'm gonna work dead-end jobs and write novels my whole life," but I'm being perfectly serious. I could not care less what my day job is; I just want to write.

So after graduating, people expect me to do something with my degree. I am. I'm trying to finish a story and get it published. That's the primary directive here. But they don't ask anything about that. They specifically ask, "What kind of jobs are you applying for?"

Honest answer: The kind that are hiring and that don't take up extra hours so I can write.

And I swear, almost every time, they look at me like, Ohhh. You still haven't grown out of that. Uh, nope. Not about to "grow out of" the one thing I'm sure I'm supposed to do.

A day job is just there to be convenient and get me out of this house. And that's all there is to say on the matter.

Awesome thing of the day: "The Difference Between A Writer And Someone Who Writes"

This is a really long essay, so I'll just copy and paste the first couple paragraphs, then I strongly suggest you follow the link at the end to read the rest. :)

A writer is not just someone who writes. In her head, it’s words all day. She sees the world not as a place made up of things but of words about those things. She knows more meaning is contained in a phrase like “poison friends” than a paragraph-long attempt at comparing emotional pain to a stab wound. A writer will divine a metaphor from a pattern on a dress, or a gesture, because sunsets have been done before. A writer understands the capacity for words to embolden, to eviscerate, to cut a man in half. A writer’s words have texture and an aesthetic – they mean one thing on paper and another in your mouth. A writer knows the word “perfume” has a scent, and “savory,” a flavor. She also knows that the technical term for making you taste her words is synesthesia, but she’d rather show you than tell you.

A writer’s mind is sticky, cavernous. It is a locus of constant invention and generation, but also of deconstruction and warfare. Its very synapses fire bullets between semicolons and periods. In the infancy of the day, or as it’s expelling its final breath, an errant phrase will show up there unannounced and become lodged in some furrow. It will keep the writer up at night, until she’s built a temple, or at the very least, a sand castle, around it.

Continue-->

I'm still alive!

I'm kind of afraid to check the last time I actually posted here. But here's the long and short of it.

First it was the last few weeks of school, and that was crazy between writing the last couple episodes of Spacecano and getting ready for graduation.

This happened before the semester was actually over. Ha.

Then eleven of us went on a missions trip to Christ's Outreach for the Blind.

It's pretty scenic down South.

And I had a camera.

SO YEAH.

That's where I was.

And now I'm planning to do Camp NaNoWriMo next month. Anybody else doing it now or doing it next month as well?

Heartbeats and Heroes

(Sorry to do this two times in a row. Scraps coming tomorrow or Sunday.)

Mitchell Schubert isn't exactly a shining picture of health. Ever since he was a kid, he's had what he calls "random heartbeat attacks". The adults call it AVNRT because it's very grown-up to use a weird acronym.

Kids used to call him a beanpole in school, because that's what he looked like. Well, a redheaded beanpole. Add to the fact that he wears glasses and a medical alert bracelet, and you have yourself a recipe for bullying.

Jack doesn't really care how much Mitchell yelled about his random heartbeat attacks. Mitchell's a tiny thing, and tiny things are fun to push around and knock about behind the school. Also, he is pretty sure that Mitchell made the whole thing up to get out of gym.

Mitchell figures that Ace must be his guardian angel when he shows up.

"Hey, jerkoff!" Ace adjusts his baseball cap. Tufts of dirty blonde hair stick out from under the brim. "Leave him alone!"

Jack smirks and pushes Mitchell away. Mitchell seizes the opportunity to whip out his medicine, taking it quickly to stop the palpitations.

Jack steps towards Ace. "Or what?"

Ace clenches his fists together. "I'ma make you pay."

Jack raises an eyebrow and pushes Mitchell to the ground. Ace runs at him, right hand in the air and ready to make contact, but he freezes when Jack grabs his wrist. "Stupid move."

Ace doesn't miss a beat. He drives his left fist into Jack's nose, bloodying it. Jack staggers back, and Ace smirks. "I'm ambidextrous, nimrod."

Jack wipes some of the blood from his nose and stares at it. He doesn't seem to know how to react, so he only gives the other two an uncertain look before threatening, "I'm gonna get you guys!" and trying to swagger off. The swagger is off.

Ace snorts. Then he notices that Mitchell is sprawled out on the ground, red-faced and sweaty. "You OK?" he asks. "You don't look so good."

Mitchell guesses he doesn't. "I'm fine… j-just chillin'…" he says, hoping the other boy would just drop the topic. He bites his lip. "Why'd you do that?"

Ace falls quiet as he sits down next to Mitchell, putting a fair amount of space between them. "People who… who hit other people should know what it's like. They should have a taste of their own medicine." He tugs at the bottom of his long shirtsleeves.

Mitchell looks at him, feeling like he was missing something. "Oh. 'Kay." He holds out one of his hands. "My name's Mitchell."

Ace grins. "Ace." He takes Mitchell's hand. "You stick with me, kid. We're gonna be just fine."

–

Mitchell hasn't seen his best friend's eyes since they were fourteen years old. Ace has been doing a good job the past three and a half years hiding them behind a huge pair of aviators. He doesn't even take them off in class, which Mitchell thinks is ridiculous. On the other hand, it's impressive that the teachers let him get away with it.

And it wasn't like he hadn't tried to find out why Ace had kept the shades on for so long. The guy has an annoying talent for changing the topic every time Mitchell brings it up. So Mitchell is a little surprised when Ace brings it up himself.

"You know how I've been wearing these awesome aviators for like… forever?" Ace leans against Mitchell's piano, fiddling with the keys but not playing any distinct melody.

Mitchell raises an eyebrow. "Um, yeah."

"And you know how I'm like, always here or at work or somewhere? And how I never let you in my house for long?" The piano keys plunk in discord.

"Get to the point, man."

Plunk. Plunk-plunk. "Phht. 'K, don't freak out on me, bro." Ace takes hold of the glasses, and he slowly pulls them off. A long, thick scar traces the bottom of his left eye. It's the most noticeable thing in the world. "Yeah. It's bad, I know."

Mitchell can't help but stare. "Um… what? What happened? I don't…"

Ace just stares at him. "Think about it, Mitchell. Do I really need to spell this out for you?"

Mitchell grapples with what this could mean. Then it hits him like so many refrigerators full of horror, if that was a thing. "Oh my God. Ace. You… you mean… your parents?" He touches his own left eye.

"My dad." Ace plunks at the keys some more. "So yeah." He swallows. "That's kinda what the thing with the maps is about."

What? Wait. What. "Oh you moron. You complete dumb – ffffh." Mitchell can feel his heartbeat beginning to quicken, but it's no cause for alarm yet. "You are not running away. That's the stupidest thing you've ever thought of! And for that matter, why didn't you ever tell anyone that this – " he makes some wild motion around his eye – "was happening? You coulda gotten out of there! Why the hell would you stay? Obviously you don't give a crap about your family, so what's there to lose?"

Ace stares at him with angry grey eyes, but he is so calm. "Mitchell, calm down. You're stressing yourself out." He puts a hand on Mitchell's shoulder and forces him to sit down.

Mitchell glares at him. "I can't believe you're just going to up and disappear. This your idea of a goodbye, you jerk?"

"Dude, would you just calm down so you don't have heart failure or something?" Ace says this more snappishly than intended. "…Sorry."

Mitchell sighs and nods. "I'm calm. My heart is AO-flippin'-K." He closes his eyes tightly. "No heart failure up in here."

"Good." Ace sits down next to him. "Cuz you should come with me. Y'know. To Washington and be basically Canadian." He smiles a little when Mitchell opens one eye to see if he's serious. "I'm so serious, dude."

"Oh." Mitchell opens both eyes and stares ahead. "So we're like… road-tripping it up now like some Fellowship of the Specs, right?" He smiles and holds out his fist.

Ace pounds it. "For sure."

This is what I've been doing.*

*Well, sorta. Wrote this ages ago. Just continuing it now.

Psychology, Cartography

Ace is eighteen and still hasn’t completely grown into his own body. He’s made up for it by growing well into his mind and everybody else’s. Just because he sells fruit doesn’t make him any less of a psychologist. And just to make sure nobody else can get into his head, he keeps on a pair of aviators.

That’s his superhero name, by the way. Aviators.

He volunteers for more shifts than anybody else, and if they won’t give him any extra shifts, he’ll hang around the place anyway. It’s not like he has the best job in the world. He just works the register. It’s like being stuck on repeat.

He is so tired of being stuck on repeat.

Shea works with him on almost every shift. She cannot fathom why he is almost always there. “Are you seriously here? Again? Dontcha have a life, you loser?” Shea actually believes that honesty is the best policy. Funny how quiet she gets if anyone asks her about that eye patch, though.

Yeah, maybe there are other places that Ace could be. But being closer to work means getting more shifts, which means getting a little farther and further away from his house. And shoot, anything that gets him away from there is all right in Ace’s book.

“Don’t you ever go home, bro? It’s like you’re either here or at school or at my house. All the time.” Mitchell thinks he’s so hilarious. He has no idea how dead-on that statement is. Ace doesn’t think he’s actually seen his biological family in two solid days.

Good.

“You caught me, dude. I am totally trying to find a way to secretly move into your house without you realizing it.” Mitchell laughs. He has no idea Ace wasn’t kidding.

When he was younger, he used to fantasize about taking off in the dead of night. No warnings, no notes, no nothing – a clean break. Except if he did, then who’d end up saving Mitchell from getting shoved into lockers?

Mitchell has no idea what it’s really like at home. Ace is too proud to admit that he needs a hero, too. So he settles for finding excuses to not go back. He gets weird looks and awkward questions about it on a regular basis, but that’s fine.

Everybody will be asking a different set of questions soon enough.

Before he was twelve and needed to save his best friend’s skinny behind at every turn, he collected maps and taped them up in his room like wallpaper. Every night, he would trace the paths from his house to any number of anywhere-elses.

Canada sounds nice, but he doesn’t have a passport. He guesses Washington will do. Washington is basically Canada.

“You should be in cartography,” Mitchell says when he first sees all the maps. Then he realizes he rhymed and laughs.

Ace shrugs. “Whatcha think of Washington, bro?” He’s casual. There’s no ulterior motive behind this question, not at all.

“Dunno.” Mitchell sniffs. “It’s Washington.”

“It’s basically Canada.”

Mitchell chuckles and nods.

“You ever wanna be basically Canadian?”

“Huh?”

Then Ace realizes that his dad’s going to be home and smoothly suggests they relocate – so smoothly that it’s completely awkward. Mitchell notices, of course. He’s only ever been to Ace’s house a couple times in the seven years they’ve known each other, and both times have been brief.

When they relocate to Mitchell’s house, Ace figures it’s time to be straight with him. He pulls off the aviators. Mitchell is shocked, of course. He always thought the glasses had been worn for dramatic effect. Not to hide… that.

Yeah. It’s bad, Ace knows. “That’s kinda what the thing with the maps is about.”

It takes Mitchell a second to figure it out. Then he’s worried and angry and depressed all at one time. Ace has never heard his best friend yell like that. It’s kind of impressive, but it makes sense. Mitchell is a redhead.

When he quiets down, Ace tells him his idea. They’re eighteen, they’re out of school in two days, and they have mobility.

Mitchell’s pretty bright. And he’s pretty up for adventure. Ace guesses that’s why they’re best friends.

So two days later when Shea and Ace close down shop, Ace tries to be extra nice to her. He’s sorry about that eye patch, by the way. Shea is suspicious, but doesn’t question the change in attitude.

“See ya tomorrow, Ace.” She leaves him behind.

Ace smiles to himself. “No you won’t.”

Sunday Scraps

What do you mean this is late? It's just not on time.

This is pretty video-heavy, even for me.

1) I kind of want to read this.


2) So Friday night, my friend Kirstin gathered us to her house to watch this masterpiece:

It was so bad, it was good. Innuendo like you wouldn't expect from the 1950s. Plus it's just... yeeeeah. Half the characters have seizures at some point in the movie. XD What you have to do is get a group together and make the ever-loving fun out of it.

3) Just kinda stumbled across this website/animation called Ana Somnia. It's really interesting because every time you replay it, there's a different animation, but it's really freaky and trippy.

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend!

Something about school.

...Wait, hold on a minute, you can put a location on these posts now?

*Fiddles with it*

Haha, yes. I am now located in Atlantis. I am now done being a child.

Anyway.

I somehow created the PERFECT STORM OF PROJECTS. Seriously. Episode 3 for Spacecano! is going to show next Thursday, so we're working on that right now. In Group Problem Solving, we have a group presentation also due next Thursday, and it has to be at least 40 minutes long. And in Piano, we have our midterm on Monday. So everybody's kind of practicing for that.

"The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5500 light years" and that's where Google Images stopped being informative.

At least I got to coin the term "snowquake" in the process.

So yeah, it's pretty chaotic, but it's fun, too. It's nice to have all these things to do, y'know?

Some things I've been working on.

1) Patches and Pals (WT)

Tasia Henley is seven years old, has a brown eye and a hazel eye, but doesn’t have cancer. The doctors were worried about that because of the whole iris thing, especially when she started complaining that it was really hard to see. Turned out that she just needed glasses.

Actually, it’s her twin Shea who has cancer. Yes, that’s why she’s cross-eyed and has red eyes a lot. That’s also why her eye hurts so much so often. Everything makes a horrible kind of sense now. But Shea is really brave and strong, so Tasia keeps telling everybody that it’s going to be just fine. So stop worrying, ‘kay?

They’re going to do something called an enucleation, which is a fancy word that means when Shea wakes up, she’s only going to have one eye. But that’s OK because it means she gets a cool eye patch, so she might as well be a pirate. And pirates are just so cool, right? Right.

“When you get your pirate ship, I can be first mate, right?” Tasia and Shea’s drawings of their pirate adventures litter the hospital bed.

Shea gives Tasia a pointed look. “Duh. You’re my sister. It’s the rules.” She grabs a red crayon and scribbles in the ship.

2) To Carmen, from Waldo

Where in the world could you be?
Oh I wish there was some way you could see
That you don't need to steal the world
When adventure's all you need
So take my hand and disappear with me*

*Yes, this is about Where's Waldo and Carmen Sandiego. They would be an amazing couple. Search your heart. You know it to be true.

3) Blue Court Revolution (WT)

There was something sort of light and blue flickering in the darkness when he returned. "That was kind of rude, Evan. I was trying to tell you something, and you just ran off." The blue, light thing shifted a little.

Evan squinted. "Oh geez, is that you again?" He half expected her to tell him that the universe was in danger, and he was the only one who could save it. "Why are you blue? I thought we were twins."

"You can see me now? Awesome." The Cora-shape shifted in a way that suggested a sort of strange dance. "And I'm not blue. I'm just wearing Blue Court regalia, but you wouldn't remember that."

Friday Fragments

Man, it feels like it's been forever since I've done this.

1) So last night was the NPP's first show, and it went great. We had a full house, and everybody seemed to really enjoy it. Only downside was that because of stupid university rules, we couldn't film it. So lame.

2) This is too excellent.

Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant!- Case of the Two Watsons from Squadron B on Vimeo.

3) Did you even realize that the Deathly Hallows movie is less than a month away? I know. Sneaking up like a ninja. A magic ninja.

4) I'm really loving this 750 Words site. As an experiment, I wrote all my 750 words before, then copy and pasted it into the browser. This is what it said about the time:

Writing started at 19:12pm and stopped immediately, bam.

So funny.

Anyways, that's all I really have to say this week. Have a good weekend, everybody! :)

Killing Your Darlings

Guess I'm bringing this up because there is a small faction of people in class who want to kill off the president. Well, the character, I mean. (As a side note, it's ridiculous what we can get away with saying just because we're writers. Such as, "Let's kill the president!")

I've got this reputation for killing at least one character per story, and I'm not sure where it came from, because that's really not accurate. I mean, I get really attached to my characters! Even the villains, bless their evil hearts. If I'm gonna kill them off, it's gotta mean something.

And then we have stories where it seems like everyone is dying left and right. I'm sure we can all think of a couple examples. *Cough*Deathly Hallows*Cough*Hunger Games*Cough* And it's like, never-ending sorrow. And it can be really, really difficult to see the point in some of these deaths. Not saying that it can't be used effectively, but there's just that little part of you that got really attached and... yeah. You know.

So how do you handle character deaths?

Did not mean to disappear./ 750words.com

Oh my gosh, you guys. Blogspot/Blogger just hated me this past week. Every time I tried to go to Blogspot, I got this:

So annoying. But then I tried blogger.com instead today, and that decided to work. Tech is so weird.

Anyways.

Happy Memorial Day to those who are celebrating it. :) For everybody else, Happy Monday! ...Yeah, sorry about that.

I actually wanted to tell you guys about this really awesome website called 750words.com. It's kind of like Write or Die, but more reward-centered instead of punishment-centered. It encourages you to write at least 750 words every day, and you can get these neat badges. It also analyzes what you write to show a bunch of things. Here's a link to one of my analyses.

So yeah, you should definitely check it out! It's really cool.

Friday Fragments - Story Recs Edition

A few book/series/whatever that are pretty excellent and, if you are so inclined, you would do well to check out.

1) Airborne (The Matt Cruse Trilogy) by Kenneth Oppel
Book One: Airborne
Book Two: Skybreaker
Book Three: Starclimber
I read the first two books in high school, and they were the first steampunk books I'd ever come across. This world is just captivating and has this magical quality, even though it's technically sci-fi, and the characters are so much fun. So yeah, there's this spirit of adventure, but it also manages to cover some pretty interesting issues that steampunk is known for.

2) Other Electricities by Ander Monson
This is a collection of short stories that kind of tell one big story. It's really interesting. It's about this town in Michigan that's responding to a girl's death. The voice is kind of odd and the prose is more poetic than in most stories. There are no real "main characters", exactly. It's a strange story, but a good strange.
And yeah, I had to read it for class last fall.

3) Geektastic by an assortment of writers
This book is amazing and pretty much a must-read if you're a nerd or a geek in any way, shape, or form. Sara Zarr's "This is My Audition Monologue" pretty much makes the whole book. It has all the geeky fun things like conventions and RPGs and such, but there are some pretty deep themes explored, too.

And, if you're into fanfic like my friend Kirstin and me:

The Very Secret Diary. (Harry Potter/ Chamber of Secrets)
Dear. God. This story is terrifying in the best possible way. It starts off slow, but of course it gets exciting right around the October 31 entry (and you probably know why). My friend and I both read it in one night.
But just a warning, it gets really dark and disturbing. This is basically CoS from Ginny's perspective.

"Don't be afraid to be deep."

(Despite the title, this is not a serious post.)

So I told you guys about how in the New Play Project, we're writing about a group of super sexy scientists that have to stop a spacecano from destroying earth. Professor Feffer has been telling us that we shouldn't be afraid to be deep and really explore the characters.

Cue him walking in on the Episode Three team (the team I'm on) discussing character histories, personality flaws, and vulnerabilities.

"You know what I said earlier about not being afraid to be deep?"

"Yeah?"

"Not for this group. Don't be afraid to be shallow!"

He's started implying that we're the special group because while all the other teams have stuff written, it took us 2 1/2 hours to even start writing. We were too busy discussing character arcs and motivations and... and chips.

We might be the special group, guys.

Friday Fragments

Well I was going to post yesterday, but Blogspot seemed to be having... issues. (I think I'm going to have to temporarily change the update schedule, by the way, just to accommodate classes.)

1) The New Play Project is excellent. On Tuesday and Thursday morning, we focused on ideas and decided on a show, which we've all seemed to nickname Spacecano. It's about a meteor that's also a volcano that is going to crash into earth in six days, and this team of "super sexy scientists" is trying to find a way to stop it. Meanwhile, there's a volcano cult and all this other stuff happening.
Yeah, this show is going to be kind of amazing.

2) It was so hot this week! It got into the 90s or near the 90s on a couple days at least. It was pretty nice. Guess it's supposed to cool down again, though.

3) I heard someone mention that they're turning The Perks of Being a Wallflower into a movie. This is one book I've wanted to read for a while, but everybody seems so divided on it that I'm a little apprehensive. If any of you have read it, what did you think?
Also, I have no idea if the movie thing is actually true. *Googles* Nevermind. It is true and it is supposed to release next year.

4) Is it super obvious that I am burning out from everything in the world? :)

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Awesome thing of the day: "Born like an artist..."

This incredibly moving piece comes from here.

Edit: Hmm. Apparently the picture doesn't work anymore. Just follow the link. I promise you, it's amazing.

Everybody knows how I feel about videos by now.

And how I love making them, too.



Proper post later. Like, tomorrow. :)

Friday Fragments

Haha, just kind of disappeared again this week. Sorry about that. I have no real excuse except I was either out doing stuff or reading stuff or writing stuff. So yeah.

1) Here's an awesome thing of the day from Letters of Note about libraries. You can get the full context at their blog, but here are a couple of the letters:

I love that Dr. Seuss' letter is written in crayon. There are also letters from EB White and Hardie Gramatky which are really interesting.

2) So it's Mother's Day on Sunday. Most people get their mothers some kind of plant life... but not for my mother. You see, she kills every plant she touches. I wrote a poem about it last year. She wasn't amused.

3) Wednesday night at youth group, there was a conspiracy to saran-wrap my friend Joe's car. It was amazing.


4) School starts again on Monday. This semester I'm taking:
Communication Inquiry (which I recently learned is basically how to do research)
Piano Class I
New Play Project (which will be super awesome)
Group Problem Solving
None of the classes sound particularly difficult (except maybe piano class...), though NPP will probably present its own challenges. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

Have a good weekend, everybody! And if you're a mom, happy Mother's Day!

Top Ten Tearjerkers

...In any given media. Not in any particular order. Why? Because.

Spoilers ahead, of course.

1) (To give a little context- the little boy with the gas mask had died, but he'd been brought back wrong so that the mask was part of his face. Also, this takes place during WWII.)



"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"

2) Married Life - Up
(To be fair, certain moments of nearly every Pixar movie does this, but this is particularly notable because it happened within the first twenty minutes of the movie.)



3) A Series of Unfortunate Events... *sigh* there are just so many, especially in the last few books. The part that really got me was this... (MAJOR spoilers ahead!)

"'The night has a thousand eyes,'" Kit said hoarsely, and lifted her head to face the villain. The Baudelaires could tell by her voice that she was reciting the words of someone else. "'And the day but one; yet the light of the bright world dies with the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, and the heart but one; yet the light of a whole life dies when love is done.'"
Count Olaf gave Kit a faint smile. "You're not the only one who can recite the words of our associates," he said, and then gazed out at the sea. The afternoon was nearly over, and soon the island would be covered in darkness. "'Man hands on misery to man,'" the villain said. "'It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can--'" Here he coughed, a ghastly sound, and his hands clutched his chest. "'And don't have any kids yourself,'" he finished, and uttered a short, sharp laugh. Then the villain's story came to an end. Olaf lay back on the sand, far from the treachery of the world, and the children stood on the beach and stared into his face. His eyes shone brightly, and his mouth opened as if he wanted to tell them something, but the Baudelaire orphans never heard Count Olaf say another word.

4) Of Mice and Men - at the very beginning, you have the guys like us speech.
"But not like us. Because-"
"Because I got you an'-"
"An' I got you."
(And, of course, the ending...)

5) Harry Potter, where to start. Let's just say Harry's entire existence until the epilogue and call it a day. Especially when he starts thinking that everybody's abandoned him (that is, at the start of almost every book.)
Also, this.
"After all this time?"
"Always."

6) A Very Potter Musical: (and don't get me started on the sequel)
Quirrell: "You came back?"
Voldemort: "I came home."

7) The Hunger Games
Fhhhh. This is harder than I thought it would be. Why are top ten lists so difficult. Remind me that I shouldn't do this again. I guess I'll go with the heartwarming one since this list is mostly comprised of depressing ones at the moment.
"You love me. Real or not real?"

8) Lord of the Rings (the book)
"I am glad that you are here with me, Sam. Here, at the end of all things."

9) MPSA- Homestuck (had to get a webcomic in there)
Heartwarming: [S] John: Reunite with your loving wife and daughter.
Depressing: The most recent one since there are just... so... many.

TG: im not a hero 
TG: my bro was
TG: john is
TG: im not

And finally, a web original poem that's heartwarming and depressing at once.
10) "the bluest eyes you'll ever see, and hair so brown with power. when she left, i talked with her, and called her my sunflower."

OK! Now for something cheery!

I still have no idea why I was compelled to make this list. This was a terrible idea.

Sunday Scraps

...Because I was really busy on Friday and Saturday. Heh, sorry.

1) School-wise... exams went fine. Don't really care how I did, just happy the semester is over. :)

2) This book trailer for Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow is pretty brilliant. It reminds me a lot of A Series of Unfortunate Events because there is such... joy in its complete and utter misery (just watch the video, it'll make sense). Also, I'm really excited for this book because I've been watching Katy Towell's flash movies for six years. SO YEAH.
(The video won't embed, so you actually have to follow the link. And yeah, you should definitely watch her short films. They're marvelously dark.)

3) You know you might be a little sleep-deprived when...
...you're writing in a notebook, and when you hit a bump in the story, you start hitting the notebook against the table and yell "Move, story, moooove!"...
...you refer to your handwriting as font...
...and you forget that you can kind of draw cows.
It is a little embarrassing that all three of these things happened within an hour.

It's exam week.

And I've created the near-perfect storm of exams.

Tomorrow I have a real exam for COM 2000, then I have to turn in a take-home exam for Environmental Tech Whatever (so that's what I'll be working on today). Thursday I have three exams. Three. In one day. Grand total of five exams. I haven't had to take this many since high school.

So yeah, this is me disappearing until Friday. Sorry!

Friday Fragments

1) It was the last week of classes this week, which means there are only 67 days until my last day of school. Ever. (Nope, no plans to go to graduate school.) The *grin* emoticon doesn't do this justice, so... ^________^

2) I've been working on this new story called "Evan's Almost Dead Again" (for now). Not completely obsessively because school keeps getting in the way, but it's been fun.

3) Just curious. Anybody here into fandom? Cuz I just discovered this, frankly, really entertaining Livejournal called Fandom Secrets, which is kinda like PostSecret except with... fandom.

4) And because a post just isn't complete without some sort of visual...


5) Happy Easter! Hope you all have an excellent Sunday doing whatever you do. I think my dad's side of the family is getting together Sunday evening for dinner. Plus we have church earlier in the day. We're not very exciting people. :P (Though church activities can be exciting. Like that time with the grill exploding into fire and almost melting my friend's face off. No exaggeration.)

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Character Q&A

You know those questionnaires about your characters that kinda float around the internet, and they're supposed to be really fun and give you insight about your character?

Yeah. I've always found them kind of irritating. I don't know if any of you feel that way. But I picked up a very similar exercise from Script Frenzy a couple years ago that helps just as much.

1) Take a Facebook survey. Any Facebook survey.

2) Answer the questions as your main characters.

3) Happiness ensues.

For example:

102) Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
Tal: *Hand shoots up in the air* You JUMP THEM. Until the writer says, "Nooo, Tal, your boy is a WEIRD boy, a very weird boy who would have a heart attack if you did that." So then you just tease and flirt and hope he gets the hint, but then he's too big of a chicken to admit that he loves you-
Sim: Um.
Tal: -so you keep trying and trying, even though you start doubting yourself, and then when he's taken away-
Sim: *Full on frontal attack*
Tal: ...Oh yeah. That's what you do. 

Emerald and Pyro: *Exchange look*
Emerald: I thought you used it to make a plan to take over the middle school.
Pyro: Thanks for that... using me for your own selfish gain...
Emerald: It was Hydro!
Hydro: And thank you for your feminine wiles. *Smirk* And you too, Emerald!

:D It's a lot of fun.

I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry.

Very short post today. Er, tonight. I was going to tell you about this website, but... I got a little sidetracked...

I think you'd better see it for yourself and just experience the phenomenon.

I'm sorry.

Friday Fragments - We're All Winners Edition

I got the website wrong yesterday. It's not random.com, it's random.org. WELL. After doing magical things, we have a winner for the book giveaway. First, thanks to everybody who entered. It was a lot of fun reading your comments (although I'm way too scared of that post to reply to them all individually, sorry).

Without further ado.

Can I get a drum-roll?



Thank you. And the winner is... Sarah Reads Too Much! I'll be sending you an email by the end of the day, but if I don't hear back by Monday, I'm just going to assume you don't want the book anymore and choose another winner.

In other news. Allow me to fill the rest of this post with awesome YouTube videos and delay the very special episode until tomorrow.







Have a good weekend, everyone!

Autism Awareness Giveaway

Just a quick reminder in doodle form. Cuz you all know how I'm pretty much smitten with doodles.

Oh yes.

Oh my WOW, people.

I am now intimidated by the number of comments on Monday's post. It's kind of amazing how many kind of obscure lines got thrown out there.

Just to clarify. The post/contest will be closed to comments at 11:59 EST tomorrow night AKA 4/14. Or whenever Doctor Who finishes on PBS/WGVU. (Oh yes.)

Friday's going to be a Very Special Episode Post. So today, you get whatever the heck this is (just for reference, this was written in a cootie catcher). Because sometimes it's fun to do things a little differently.

Strangers
"Hey, 3:15 Guy."
"...What?"
"That's what I call you in my head. 3:15 Guy. Cuz you always come here at 3:15."
"Oh." Beat. "My name's Rory."
"Mine's Kaleigh."
"Can I have a root beer float?"
"Oh. Yeah!"

Friends
[Insert picture of Rory and Kaleigh here. Actually, you know what?]

Good enough.

Maybe.
   That's a good word for this.


Not Enough
"So... you haven't been around lately."
"Yeah, just don't have much time."
Beat.
"...Usual?" Read: Missed you.
"Yep." Read: You too.

Beginnings
"I need to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
"Do you like..."
"..."
"...Root beer floats?" This is code for someone.
"Do you?"
"...Well, isn't it obvious?"

--

Yeah, it's kind of open-ended, but it was fun trying to fit in a story on a cootie catcher.

So challenge! If you would like to. Try to write a story in a format other than the typical "Someone said, 'Dialogue,' and then there was prose." fashion. If you do it, just tell me, and I will give you a doodly-type avatar thing.

Autism Awareness Book Giveaway- Closed!

This is my sister Laura.

Stetsons are cool.

This is my sister Laura being hilarious.

My family found out Laura had autism when she was about two years old. She's doing pretty well now, well enough that we think she'll be able to move into a group home eventually. But she's the reason I'm participating in this.

So the book in question is a Book of Legend.

Oh yes.

Oh.

Snap.

Yes.

Bask in its glory, kids.

Bask in its glory.

In all seriousness, though. If you want this book, then all you have to do is reply to this post (as in the one I'm writing/you're reading at the moment) with answers to the following:

1) Are you doing anything for Autism Awareness Month?

2) Are you following this blog?

3) How many lines from The Princess Bride can you think of by yourself? As in: no internet involved. No friends. No family. Just you, soldier.

OK. Go!

EDIT: OH MY GOSH I was in such a rush to get this posted because of this project thing that I totally forgot about autism information. I fail forever. But here it is now.

Autism affects 1 of out 110 children now (it was 1 in 125 two years ago, FYI), and there are four times more boys with autism than girls. It's a spectrum disorder, which basically means that it ranges in severity (you have low-functioning, high-functioning, then everybody in between). There's no cure and nobody is sure what causes it - by the way! If you hear anybody tell you that they've found the thing that causes autism, it's probably not true. Because in all likelihood, it's a combination of biological and environmental factors.

You can find more information here.

Autism Society
Autism Speaks
Autism Research Institute

You can also find the other blogs involved in this week's giveaway here. Thanks everyone who's commented already and so sorry for the info delay!

Friday Fragments

OK. So it's already the 8th. Weird.

1) So last Friday night, I started feeling a little weird. By Sunday, I was totally bed-ridden and felt like I was dying, which explains Monday's post. This lasted well into Wednesday. So yeah.

2) Finally got my hands on If I Stay! It was alright. Not a bad read.

3) The fountains at school are running again, which means spring is officially back. And to prove it, it's supposed to get into the upper 70s (like between 75-78) on Sunday or Monday. :D

4) On the eleventh, the Autism Awareness Book Giveaway is starting. Be excited.

Have a good weekend!

Battling a plague demon.*

*By which I mean I'm horrifically sick and in no state to write a blog thing.

Here's this instead.



Have a good day, everybody.

It's April 1. You know what that means.

It means it's Friday! So here are this week's fragments.

1) It's Autism Awareness Month! (Note the change in banner.)

And there's a book giveaway hop over at the I Am A Reader, Not A Writer blog.



Naturally, I am all over this. Erin at Quitting My Day Job is participating as well. You'll be able to see a full list of all the participating bloggers at the previous link. What book am I giving away? Not sure yet.

2) This makes me laugh. So much.

3) Script Frenzy starts today. I am not going to attempt it this year, and I'll tell you why.
2009 (by myself): 6 pages. Finals happened.
2010 (collaborated with Kassy): 25 pages. Finals happened.
So yeah. I can sense a pattern here. Any of you participating?

Have a good weekend!

Why I Read/Write YA: A Response

Erin at Quitting My Day Job asked in today's post what our high school experience was like and why we read/write YA books.

I went to high school in a relatively small town. Not the smallest by far, but small enough where people tend to remember your name. It was small enough that most everybody understood why it was hilarious that I screamed for five minutes at one of my best friends for a Senior Send-Off skit (I was the quiet one in school; she was the outspoken one).

Summarizing. Freshman year was alright, sophomore year was just OK, junior year was THE BEST EVER ZOMIGOSH!!!1one528@+42*!!~#%!!!one (you will never see me do this again, I promise), and senior year wasn't terrible.



My best friends were, and are, awesome. By the end of senior year, we had like a four-girl-band type of thing going. We even have this AMAZING graduating picture that Kirstin and I call Smartest to Dumbest. Kassy and Steph call it Least Common Sense to Most Common Sense. We're all very mean. :D I don't actually have a copy, so let me doodle it for you. Wow, this post is media-heavy.

Kirstin: Valedictorian, National Honors Society sash thing, Honors cords

Me: National Honors Society sash thing, Honors cords

Steph: Honors cords

Kassy: GRADUATED!

So yeah. But we actually spent most of high school writing this amazing series of short stories called EPSE. It's like if high school were an epic and had 13 main characters. Yeah, we didn't know what the heck we were doing.

I read YA because, well, it's fun to read. When I'm reading more age-appropriate books, I don't feel compelled to binge read them. I've never felt that sort of immediacy with an "adult" book, even Lord of the Rings, which I adore. And with YA, you can talk about a LOT of things. You know what I mean.

Why I write YA.

1) Force of habit. I've always written it. It's like my default setting. :D

2) I'd rather write about high school drama than college drama. (Sometimes I just sit in class and think, "I hate this place, I hate this place, I hate this place, I hate this place...") At least high school drama has hilarity potential.

3) Teenagers with their mood swings, dramatics, shenanigans, and hormones make for doggone entertaining characters. Real Life Example: At the beginning of senior year, my friend Kirstin had a crush on this boy she called the "Sun God". Or something like that. Well, she wasn't wearing makeup one day, and she thought she saw him pass by our cafeteria table. What did she do? She dove under the table and took Kassy with her. It was hilarious.

4) This.

"So, when you and Radar said you were going out to 'get slushies', was that your secret code for getting together and making out?"

Hydro/Radar is my OTP. (Yep. I ship characters I helped create.)

It's story time!

Too exhausted for a proper post. Here's something from the hundred theme challenge. The prompt was Sixth Sense.

--

“Do you have any recurring dreams?”

Evan Lin just wanted to know why Lily Hale painted him in one of her original pieces for their sixth grade art class. In the painting, Evan and Lily were piercing a giant shadow with two glowing swords. Rays of light ran through the shadow like cracks.

In real life, they didn’t really talk that much at all. Usually when they passed each other in the hallway, they just smiled and nodded. When he asked her why she painted him, she just told him to walk with her after school.

And that led to her completely off-the-wall comment about dreams.

Evan replied, “I can never remember my dreams in the first place.” He looked at Lily from the corner of his eye. “Is that what it is?” He frowned and crossed his arms. “…You’ve been dreaming about me?”

Lily shook her head. “It’s not like that. I’ve only had a one dream with you. And I don’t know why you were in it because real life people always stay out of my head at night.”

Evan scratched the side of his head. “What do you mean by that?”

Lily sighed and ran her hands through her curly brown hair. “It’s like when I go to sleep and start dreaming, it’s not quite a dream. It’s like I enter a whole different world that’s just as real as this one. And I know that in dreams, everything seems real until you wake up. But even after I wake up, it’s still incredibly… real. For lack of a better word.” She took a deep breath. “So that’s what makes me think it’s a different dimension.”

“You know you sound crazy, right?” Evan laughed in attempts to lighten the mood.

Lily smiled and nodded. “Yeah, but I think you’re gonna keep listening because you really want to know where you came into play.”

Evan had to admit she was right. “That’s true. So what was that thing we were killing? Was it like that world’s version of Sauron or something?”

Lily shrugged. “I dunno. Like you, it’s a recent development.” She paused to think, then added slowly, “But I don’t think we were killing it.”

Evan stopped on the sidewalk and grabbed Lily’s shoulder. “We had swords. Glowing swords. We were stabbing a huge shadow. How is that not killing a bad guy?” He waved his right hand side to side. “You know what, nevermind. It’s just a dream you had.” He continued walking, but Lily just stood there.

“Um. Actually…”

--

Just the first draft, but yeah.

Have a good day, everybody!

Friday Fragments

Wow, it's already Friday. It appears the timey-wimey-rollercoaster that comes after spring break has set in. (Timey-Wimey-Rollercoaster: Time appears to accelerate and weeks pass before you realize it.)

1) Don't know how I missed this last week, but they cast Katniss in The Hunger Games adaption. I was kind of rooting for this unknown actress on YouTube, but if they say she's good, then I'll trust their decision. Now I guess they're focusing on Peeta.

2) I became Facebook-popular this week with this music video I've been working on to Owl City's "If My Heart Was A House". Two weeks with Paintbrush and Windows Movie Maker. And it's not finished yet.


3) If you're like me, you might occasionally wonder what kinds of delightful stories JK Rowling is cooking up these days. College Humor has an answer.

4) A conversation from Wednesday:
Nurse: So what's your major?
Me: Creative Writing.
Nurse: Oh my gosh, WHY? What can you do with that?
Me: *Stunned laughter*
True story. Have to give her credit for being honest.

Well, have a great weekend, everybody!

The Hundred Theme Challenge!

When I was a wee thing, only 16 years old (this is a joke), I stumbled across something called the Hundred Theme Challenge. Thought it looked cool. Never saved the prompts. Lost track of the website forever.

AND THEN I FOUND IT. HERE. Two years ago. I've tried to make a story of the hundred themes twice now. Both attempts failed miserably.

The rules are to write a story or create some kind of art with each of these themes. If you want to try it, well, go for it. And here are the themes I'm using.

1. Beginnings
2. Middles
3. Ends
4. Insides
5. Outsides
6. Hours
7. Days
8. Weeks
9. Months
10. Years
11. Red
12. Orange
13. Yellow
14. Green
15. Blue
16. Purple
17. Brown
18. Black
19. White
20. Colourless
21. Friends
22. Enemies
23. Lovers
24. Family
25. Strangers
26. Teammates
27. Parents
28. Children
29. Birth
30. Death
31. Sunrise
32. Sunset
33. Too Much
34. Not Enough
35. Sixth Sense
36. Smell
37. Sound
38. Touch
39. Taste
40. Sight
41. Shapes
42. Triangle
43. Square
44. Circle
45. Moon
46. Star
47. Heart
48. Diamond
49. Club
50. Spade
51. Water
52. Fire
53. Earth
54. Air
55. Spirit
56. Breakfast
57. Lunch
58. Dinner
59. Food
60. Drink
61. Winter
62. Spring
63. Summer
64. Fall
65. Passing
66. Rain
67. Snow
68. Lightning
69. Thunder
70. Storm
71. Broken
72. Fixed
73. Light
74. Dark
75. Shade
76. Who?
77. What?
78. Where?
79. When?
80. Why?
81. How?
82. If
83. And
84. He
85. She
86. Choices
87. Life
88. School
89. Work
90. Home
91. Birthday
92. Christmas
93. Thanksgiving
94. Independence
95. New Year
96. Writer's Choice
97. Writer's Choice
98. Writer's Choice
99. Writer's Choice
100. Writer's Choice

Isn't it glorious?

Plotting for NaNoWriMo. Yes, already.

I don't mess around when it comes to plotting for NaNo. It's pretty much how I spend a good portion of the year.

March- May: Figuring out ideas and characters.
June- July: Deciding on an idea and working on fleshing out characters.
July-October: Plotting the entire story, beginning to end.
November: Obvious...

So these are the ideas I have for NaNo this year. So far. :D

• Step in Time to My Heart (WT, albeit one that makes me laugh): Exactly what it sounds like. It's a love story about band geeks. Yay band geeks!
• Sim Saves the Galaxy: A rewrite of NaNo '08, The Wonderful World of Imminent Doom. It's a story about this interplanetary war in a made-up galaxy called Tsu-Min. It's kind of worth the rewrite for this one line: "It's time to save the planet!"
• Key to Hadley's Soul (WT): It like an AU version of our world where people are born with these things called "soul keys" that change in appearance as the person grows. Then one of the MCs, Hadley, loses his key and he starts to forget who he is. (I like this one.)
• Level Up: A superhero story! It's about a college kid named Molly who has super strength and invisibility. Then she meets her arch nemesis who has no name yet, but he has a vast array of mind-related powers. (I like this one, too.)
• Battlefield Suburbia (WT): It's about an angel/demon war. In the suburbs. (And this one, as well.)
• Forever Saturday: Based on a lyric in an Eleventyseven song. "Every single day was a Saturday." Then I just thought, OH MAN! What if time just STOPPED and every day WAS a Saturday?! That would be crazy.

But yeah.

So, anyone weird like me and start planning for November insanely early?