Twas the Night Before NaNo

Twas the night before NaNo and all through the night,
Every Wrimo was waiting for the stroke of midnight.
Computer and paper was out and prepared,
For NaNo was, finally, practically there.

Coffee was brewed, or tea steeped if you wished,
Work was forsaken and school was dismissed,
Sleep would not come on this night of the year,
For NaNo was, finally, practically here.

Wrimos waited, breath bated, fingers twitching to type,
On this one and only most anticipated of nights.
Time went by slowly like water through stone,
NaNo was so close yet it seemed so remote.

Browsing the forums of the NaNo website,
Eyes constantly flicking to the clock on the right.
It's 11:59, so close to the start,
NaNo's finally upon us, it will finally start.

--

Just something that kinda popped into my head. :) It makes me smile so maybe it'll make some of you all smile.

Unfortunately, I can't do like the poem says and dismiss school tonight. I've got an early start tomorrow and haven't had any good rest for weeks so I need all I can or I will fall asleep during class. I might, might, be able to get some writing in, in the morning before class but I probably won't get to write anything until the afternoon or evening. (It's a six hour class. Unfortunately. Argh!)

I hope everyone has a merry, merry NaNo! :D

Internets!!

Internet!!

My gosh it's been too long without internet. It felt like. . . like there was just not as much to do as usual. I hope I don't have to deal with that again. Downside is that there's only 1gb of speed so it takes a bit longer for some things to load than I'm used to. And videos? Omg, if it's not in the lowest quality setting I have to wait longer than the length of the video for it to load. But I can browse pretty okay so alls. . .okay.

In other news: We're halfway moved to the shop. We got all the important things, beds, fridge, other stuff that we use often. We pretty much just have the craft room, garage and other small spaces to move, and the garden dirt, then we're done! I can't wait till then, I hate, hate, hate! moving. And then. . . then we start putting up the walls for the new house in the shop. I can't wait until that either!

Anyways, while I was away from the internets an amazing thing happened! I read and finished (the finishing part is very important here) four, FOUR books! I read Crank by Ellen Hopkins, finished Shatter Me by Tehereh Mafi, which was awesome, loved it!, and read the last two books of the Hunger Games series! Which was really awesome as well! I can't believe that! It's been so long since I've read and finished any books and it feels so great :D

And then I found out that the Hunger Games movie comes out next month! I mean, I knew they were making the movie but I thought it would be coming out late this year cause they always seem to talk about the movies like two years before they actually come out. So I will hopefully definitely be seeing that movie in theaters when it is released if I can scrape a bit of money together.

Also, the no internet thing gave me a jump start on my art as well. I got some stuff in the works for my book which I think I'll post here soon!

So, till next time!

:)

Unfinished Bissuness and a Blog Award

Wow, it's been awhile. Um, I could come up with with a lot of excuses but what happened was I lost internet and therefore lost inspiration to write and then lost the inspiration to blog and then I procrastinated longer and longer even after I got internet back and therefore was more reluctant to post. So there wasn't really a reason at all. But here I am now.

It's times like this that I think that I perhaps shouldn't blog. I can't seem to keep up with it even though my life isn't really busy or anything. I do enjoy blogging but I hit these. . . blocks, where I don't blog for awhile.

But enough of that. I think I should feel you guys in about the end of Nano.

About halfway through the month, pretty much right after my last post, I changed internet providers and with the new provider my laptop, for some reason, could not get the internet. But the internet was supposed to be better and cheaper so I though I could just live with using my desktop. I was wrong. My writing inspiration went down the drain, I kept pushing off writing because I had already written way over the current goal.

Long story short I waited until the last three days to start writing again. I wrote twenty thousand words in those three days. It was hard, it was painful but I was not eager to let this be my first year to miss the goal. And I just knew I wouldn't let myself live it down if I didn't get after writing twice that last year. I won by a hair, 50,020.

I'm so happy I won! I'm so happy that I didn't give up in the end. I'm happy and satisfied with what I accomplished. :)

And another thing, long overdue. I've been given an award! I was given the same award by two people back in August (I know, I'm horrible *cowers*). Given to me by Sarah McCabe and Claudie A. (now at The Novel Experiment).


Sarah said: Taylor Roseberry has the most beautiful header and a great blog. I find myself just gazing at that header though.And Claudie A. said: I met Taylor during last NaNoWriMo. I can't recall how, but I know we ended up pushing the last days together. A bond was formed, and it so happens she has a great blog with a super shiny header. Sarah tagged her for this already, but she hasn't answered. So there. You have no choice.

Yes, talk about guilt. I soo should've posted this award before now. I totally slacked on my blogging and currently feel way undeserving of the award and all the wonderful things they had to say about me and the blog. But I'll try to get back on track.

 Anyway, it is the Liebster Blog award!



The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.

The rules are:

   1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
   2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
   3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
   4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
   5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

S.B. Stewart-Laing at Writing the Other. Stewart has TONS of useful information and tips and advice on things you probably haven't ever thought about but probably should.


Larkindale at Fiction and Film. Her posts are amusing and interesting :)


Nicole at Write me a World. Her blog is interesting and awesome :D


Angeline Trevena. She's got a good blog! :)


Miss Cole at Miss Cole Seeks Publisher. Love her blog :)


Awesome blogs everyone! Thanks for the award Claudie and Sarah and I hope to get back into the groove of things!


Hope to be back on the blog soon!

Something Wicked blogfest: My Favoite Spec-fic!

Go here to join in the blogfest and enter a contest to win a secret box of mystery. Their totally awesome. Seriously.


1. Harry Potter

Need I say more? I know that this may be on a LOT of other people's lists but I can't not list it. It's my favorite series, so inspiring and I love it to death!






2. The Kingkiller Chronicle

Consisting of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Waiting for the third book. Well, the Kingkiller Chronicle is so awesome and real. Real as in the people, the characters, the world, it's all so real that it could exist. I mean, yeah there's 'magic' and a couple of creatures that don't really exist (the draccus, for example) but, it's just so realistic. These books are wonderfully awesome and inspiring. The level of realness these books have achieved is what I strive for in my writing and world building.

My third favorite is hard to choose. I can't think of any other books that I love as much as Harry Potter and Kingkiller, and I don't watch many TV shows but. . . There is this movie. . .


3. Pan's Labyrinth

A few months ago I saw some people talking about how awesome this movies was so I rented it and it is so awesome! It's like, a fairytale but dark and gritty and creepy and a little bit scary and so very dark and I loved it so much! It's a very inspiring movie especially if that's the sort of thing you like to write (which, I do)!




Why do I like spec-fic?

Well, I like spec-fic because of all the different worlds and ideas that can be created there that can't be in the 'real world'. And besides, I don't want to read about things that happen in the real world when I already live here. Much better to read about magic and strange lands and creatures (dragons) and magic.


Where do I see spec-fic going in the next few years?

Honestly I don't have a clue. The only thing is that perhaps spec-fic, namely sci-fi and fantasy may get a lot more popular than it is now. To me it seems like it's already getting noticed more so perhaps that notice will only grow, I don't know. *shrugs* 

The Troll

Inspiration for stories is strange. I mean, it can come from anywhere. Or nowhere. Half the time I've no idea where an idea actually originated from, cause it's just so strange or something it just makes me go 'O.O?' Other times I see this tv show or movie and an idea strikes. But most the time, I don't have a clue what my brain is doing.

It's like there's some kind highly unintelligent troll in my head that just grabs random things and squishes them together. Then just chucks these blobs of randomness at me, expecting me and my muse to do something with it.

(The Troll)

 

I usually write most of these unusable ideas down, just in case.

And then the troll goes back to work.

The troll seems to work best when you're being entertained by a good book or show, using the information it's being presented with to put together some of the more usable blobs. And those ideas that kind of seem pointless. . . Well, he just couldn't find much material for use at the moment.

But those rare strikes of genius, the ones us writers live for, it's as if the troll had been working on a masterpiece, and sometimes this only occurs once in the trolls life. The troll isn't usually apt for genius.

The troll is more commonly known for throwing together some vaguely recongnizeable blobs, sending it to you and then passing on to the muse who tries to get something out of it, and convinces you to write on it for awhile before you both realize the troll has fooled you.

And he's laughing at you.

But even though the troll is a small, dim, sometimes unsavory fellow he works really hard, doing the dirty work by putting together the base of a story idea, before giving it to you and your muse to work on. Without him, there'd be NO stories.

And even if he's laughing at you, it was still an idea that you learned from, and something he can use for better material.

Perhaps for that masterpiece he's working on in the basement.

Happy Thursday

:)

The Mission of a Chapter

Something should happen in every single chapter to further the plot.

Now, I already knew this before, but it's quite easy to slip your mind when you're actually writing a story. You get caught up in your character, the world, the story and just the general awesomeness of writing your book, and totally forget that this chapter is supposed to have something important in it. Happens to me all the time, happened to me earlier today. I was writing along and then was all like "Oh, wait. What's furthering the plot here?"

Now, I went to one of my most favorite books of all time to scan through the chapters and see does something very important happen every single chapter. I went through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And something important does happen every single chapter. Something that furthers the plot. Now, when I was writing earlier I was pretty much just thinking, "Okay, introduce characters, setting etc. until I get to the first twist, however many chapters that takes."

I can't do that though. I can't have chapters there just to be there. They have to do something for the plot. I can't have a chapter in my book just because it's interesting or funny, unless it furthers the plot. It's a bit frustrating for me but at the same time it makes things easier cause I know that each chapter has their own individual mission of getting the plot a bit further, instead of just acting as separators within the book.

When I forget this kind of stuff it makes me feel a lot like this:

Good day!