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.