I am a mature adult.

So I started reading Divergent by Veronica Roth, and it's really good! I just love it so far, even though I haven't made it that far in.

In the book, the city is divided into five sections: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Erudite, and Dauntless. The main character starts out in Abnegation, which emphasizes selflessness. And I started thinking, Man. Abnegation people are the type of people who let people cut in front of them while they're waiting for the bathroom until they're having a meltdown.

And that led to this.

(Click for big.)

No regrets.

Something different

I've been having trouble writing recently, and I'm not really sure why. Stress, probably. SO I figured my routine could use a little shaking up.

In our high school drama and screenwriting class, our teacher started us out writing scenes that were completely silent. Then we built up to one word, then two words, then we could use all the words we felt were necessary. That, in essence, is what I'm going to be trying. Except it'll look a little more like this:

-50 words
-100 words
-500 words
-1000 words
-2000 words
-5000 words
-10,000 words

It'll be a good exercise, especially with the first three.

I've got the 50-word story done and with that... it is only with great embarrassment that I'm telling you I have a Tumblr. I swear I'm not a hipster. I got it and wasn't really sure what I would do with it for a while, but... well, now I do. Plus now I'm finding tons more writer blogs. So. If you're on there, give me a shout. :)

Rage. Rage, rage, rage.

"SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive - and a New Bill Joins Them"

So let me break this down for you.

Government: Hey, we're gonna pass these bills that will totally violate your first amendment rights and encourage other countries to do the same thing!
Internet: DON'T YOU             DARE.
Government: Oh... I guess these might need some revision.
Internet: Come up with that idea on your own, brain trust?
(One day later)
FBI: We're going to shut down Megaupload now.
Internet: NOOOOOOOO.
Tumblr: Good night, sweet prince.
(A week later)
Government: Hey we've barely altered anything in those two bills, and we've got another that will do the same thing!
Internet: >:T

Government: Also ACTA.

"Is Your Book Good, Great, or HOT?"

(Relevant link that pretty much cracked me up with the title.)

Disclaimer: I am just kidding you guys. Also this is the best possible first post of the year. Also I'm really sorry if this offends you and I promise never to make these kinds of jokes here again.


My book is SO hot!

"How hot is it?"

It's so hot that it comes with its own fire extinguisher.

It's so hot that when it touches one page to another, it sizzles a little.

It's so hot that everybody at the library wants to check it out.

It's SOOO HOT that it runs at 451 degrees Fahrenheit.

(Best for last.)

My book is so hot that when it walks down the street, librarians wolf-whistle and go, "Hot dog, check out the binding on that fine piece of print."

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.