1. Two novel drafts - 2/2 - Yep, I actually wrote those 700 words to get me to the end of Battlefield: Red. LOVE ME NOW, I finished my goal. :D
2. Script Frenzy '08 - Previously done.
3. Regular exercising (twice a week) - 15/100 workouts - ..FAILED...
4. Regular journaling (seven pages per week) - I'm all set for this week, so only one week left in the year...all I gotta do is write seven pages next week and I'm SET!
5. Regular creative writing (one piece per week) - 43/50 pieces, 6/12 accompanying images - Over the weekend I'll go on a writing and sketching spree...I promise...
6. One contest + one submission - Previously done.
7. More socializing - 37/40 events - I actually have three things planned before the end of the year, and something else will hopefully come up anyway...soooo...
8. "Progress" - Trying not to think too hard about this one. I ALREADY GOT IT. Shut up.
9. More studying/earlier start on homework/"good grades" - It'swinterbreakshutup.
10. Summer job - Previously failed.
Total:
- Not started: 0
- In Progress: 4
- Completed: 4
- Failed: 2
Overall goal: 5/10 goals by the end of 2008
I just have to get one more goal, and then I will have my overall goal. Hooray! And since I'm pretty sure I'll at least get the journaling goal...yay! That's awesome!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Two Novels: A Reflection on 2008
Yeah, so I decided I would actually make my "two (finished) novel drafts" goal tonight, since I already had one finished and my JulNoWriMo novel was pretty close to being done...
And really, with that one (Battlefield: Red), it was more of just getting the energy to actually make it to the finish line, since I remembered that when I gave up on writing anymore of it when I hit 50k on July 31, I was pretty close to where I wanted it to end.
So, for the first time in months, I opened that MS Word document, and scrolled down to the bottom. I skimmed a few of the last pages I had written (the ones I'd slammed out in July), and then went about just getting it to the last bit. I was even already in the final scene, more or less, so I knew I could probably manage to get it out in one sitting...
It ended up taking me under 700 words to get to the end, perhaps fifteen minutes or half an hour of somewhat distract writing...
Which made me wonder...
Why didn't I do this back in August? I mean, seriously! I know I rushed a bit to the end once I hit 50k, but...700 words? Sheesh.
But now I have it done, too, even though I kind of consider Battlefield: Red a failure as a novel draft. Technically, it's more like half a novel, anyway, or a very anemic first draft. It's either going to be Part One of a two-part novel (Battlefield: Green, or the "sequel" being the other part), or it will get beefed up enough to be a novel in its own right, in which case Green will be the...actual...sequel.
Unless I want to make the story into a trilogy, which seems more deserving of life than a...duet? I don't even know what to call it.
But the story, if I remember correctly, kind of sucks. Not much really seems to happen in Battlefield: Red, and while I do like the characters and the premise...it just...failed. Nobody has read this thing but me, and I kind of want to keep it that way.
Heh.
But actually, I read over a few pages of Larghetto (The Eleventh, my NaNo for this year), and I wasn't totally repulsed by it. I consider this a huge breakthrough, since I sort of twitch whenever I look at any text from Highness and I don't even want to look at Battlefield: Red for a looong time.
Maybe it's because Larghetto isn't the end of the series, and I have three more books to go before I realize it wasn't worth it...but hey! Not being totally repulsed by a book you've written is a GOOD thing, right?
So...2008, when looking at my written stuff...
I wrote two novels, and sort of started two others. There was my little Travels Through Dreamland escapade earlier in the year (around February, if my memory serves me) and my GothNoWriMo 20k start on Azami (that was my October "warm up" for NaNo). I won't exactly go back to Dreamland...sort of. Actually, you could say I'm about to - I stole Robert and Tawny and brought them into The Eleventh. The next book, Innocentemente (which might get a name change), opens with Robert and Tawny.
Heh.
I may or may not ever continue with Azami, but I don't know. For now, I like working on The Eleventh.
So...my third novel is actually something that doesn't repulse me. I think this is progress. Maybe 2008 wasn't such a horrible year, after all. And you know what they say - adversity breeds greatness.
Or whatever it is.
And really, with that one (Battlefield: Red), it was more of just getting the energy to actually make it to the finish line, since I remembered that when I gave up on writing anymore of it when I hit 50k on July 31, I was pretty close to where I wanted it to end.
So, for the first time in months, I opened that MS Word document, and scrolled down to the bottom. I skimmed a few of the last pages I had written (the ones I'd slammed out in July), and then went about just getting it to the last bit. I was even already in the final scene, more or less, so I knew I could probably manage to get it out in one sitting...
It ended up taking me under 700 words to get to the end, perhaps fifteen minutes or half an hour of somewhat distract writing...
Which made me wonder...
Why didn't I do this back in August? I mean, seriously! I know I rushed a bit to the end once I hit 50k, but...700 words? Sheesh.
But now I have it done, too, even though I kind of consider Battlefield: Red a failure as a novel draft. Technically, it's more like half a novel, anyway, or a very anemic first draft. It's either going to be Part One of a two-part novel (Battlefield: Green, or the "sequel" being the other part), or it will get beefed up enough to be a novel in its own right, in which case Green will be the...actual...sequel.
Unless I want to make the story into a trilogy, which seems more deserving of life than a...duet? I don't even know what to call it.
But the story, if I remember correctly, kind of sucks. Not much really seems to happen in Battlefield: Red, and while I do like the characters and the premise...it just...failed. Nobody has read this thing but me, and I kind of want to keep it that way.
Heh.
But actually, I read over a few pages of Larghetto (The Eleventh, my NaNo for this year), and I wasn't totally repulsed by it. I consider this a huge breakthrough, since I sort of twitch whenever I look at any text from Highness and I don't even want to look at Battlefield: Red for a looong time.
Maybe it's because Larghetto isn't the end of the series, and I have three more books to go before I realize it wasn't worth it...but hey! Not being totally repulsed by a book you've written is a GOOD thing, right?
So...2008, when looking at my written stuff...
I wrote two novels, and sort of started two others. There was my little Travels Through Dreamland escapade earlier in the year (around February, if my memory serves me) and my GothNoWriMo 20k start on Azami (that was my October "warm up" for NaNo). I won't exactly go back to Dreamland...sort of. Actually, you could say I'm about to - I stole Robert and Tawny and brought them into The Eleventh. The next book, Innocentemente (which might get a name change), opens with Robert and Tawny.
Heh.
I may or may not ever continue with Azami, but I don't know. For now, I like working on The Eleventh.
So...my third novel is actually something that doesn't repulse me. I think this is progress. Maybe 2008 wasn't such a horrible year, after all. And you know what they say - adversity breeds greatness.
Or whatever it is.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
BFS Update: December 18
1. Two novel drafts - 1/2 - On Sunday I finished Larghetto! =D It was super exciting. Now I just have to (cheat my way to) the ending in Battlefield...and this goal is in the baaaag. I'll finish it up once winter break starts, I think
2. Script Frenzy '08 - Previously done.
3. Regular exercising (twice a week) - 15/100 workouts - Meh, fail.
4. Regular journaling (seven pages per week) - Still going above and beyond on this one.
5. Regular creative writing (one piece per week) - 40/50 pieces, 6/12 accompanying images - Other than the drawing, I think I'm doing fairly well. Carrying a notebook and going to Calliope club definitely helps.
6. One contest + one submission - Previously done.
7. More socializing - 34/40 events - I had like a week of socializing madness, and I definitely think I'll hang out with friends at least six times before the end of the year. It's winter break! =)
8. "Progress" - Eh. It's still progress. Even if it's the end, too, it was better than where I was at the beginning.
9. More studying/earlier start on homework/"good grades" - Getting near winter break...it's...a...slump...?
10. Summer job - Previously failed.
Total:
- Not started: 0
- In Progress: 5
- Completed: 3
- Failed: 2
Overall goal: 5/10 goals by the end of 2008
2. Script Frenzy '08 - Previously done.
3. Regular exercising (twice a week) - 15/100 workouts - Meh, fail.
4. Regular journaling (seven pages per week) - Still going above and beyond on this one.
5. Regular creative writing (one piece per week) - 40/50 pieces, 6/12 accompanying images - Other than the drawing, I think I'm doing fairly well. Carrying a notebook and going to Calliope club definitely helps.
6. One contest + one submission - Previously done.
7. More socializing - 34/40 events - I had like a week of socializing madness, and I definitely think I'll hang out with friends at least six times before the end of the year. It's winter break! =)
8. "Progress" - Eh. It's still progress. Even if it's the end, too, it was better than where I was at the beginning.
9. More studying/earlier start on homework/"good grades" - Getting near winter break...it's...a...slump...?
10. Summer job - Previously failed.
Total:
- Not started: 0
- In Progress: 5
- Completed: 3
- Failed: 2
Overall goal: 5/10 goals by the end of 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Stolen from...Facebook!
So this note has been going around...so thought I'd do it here instead of on Facebook. You know, just to see what I have and haven't read. And here it is:
List of books everyone should read. Bold every book you've already read.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (working on it...I'm still in The Subtle Knife)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (in some form or another) (erm, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and A Midsummer's Night Dream...)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (book 1)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (fairly certain, but it was a long time ago)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (though I couldn't finish the last one)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (isn't this included in #33?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (again - isn't this part of #14?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
List of books everyone should read. Bold every book you've already read.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (working on it...I'm still in The Subtle Knife)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (in some form or another) (erm, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and A Midsummer's Night Dream...)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (book 1)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (fairly certain, but it was a long time ago)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (though I couldn't finish the last one)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (isn't this included in #33?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (again - isn't this part of #14?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
So other than the fact that Hamlet and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe are technically on there twice (and so I counted them twice), that means that according to this, I've read 21% of the books that I should read.
I think I should be reading more. D: And the sad thing is that I would have been able to bold a couple other books if I'd gotten a different AP English teacher or if I took it last year (ie Catch 22, Jane Eyre, Jude the Obscure, Les Miserables, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, etc.)
...Yeah...just thought I'd post this. :P
Monday, December 8, 2008
Late Night Inspiration
Okay, so it's late...but for the past couple of days (while working on finishing my NaNo, I swear), I got hit with a story idea.
...It always happens when I'm writing a completely different story, doesn't it. D:
This one is inspired by an idea I've had for awhile and the character Tina from Wapsi Square (I'll put in a link...later).
Basically, it's about a girl who gets in an accident and whose body is partially taken over by a small number of other "people" (like demons or something...I was thinking five of them). In order to maintain her normal life span, she can only spend four waking hours each day in control of her body - any other time her body is awake but she isn't in control, one of the other "people" is. When that happens, she just watches, but doesn't take part in controlling her body.
Her body may or may not be prone to physically changing when a different "person" is in control.
It would either be a cliched "save the world" story (eheh) or just about her learning to deal with the other "people" she now has to share her body with.
And it would probably be called "Four Hours". :P
...Yeah...67396 words in Larghetto and counting. It is now officially longer than Highness. -_-
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