• Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

labeauteausei asked me:

1) If you go anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
2) Your favorite song of all time?
3) What's your favorite thing to do in your spare time?
4) So far, what can you say is the best moment in your life?
5) Who's the person you would want to meet most if you had the opportunity?

First, I have to say that, Sam, you ask hard questions! LoL. But I love them. :)

Okay, answers.

1) I would have to say London, or rather, England in general. I've always had an inexplicable fascination with the place and I love the history. All those old buildings are amazing and, really, the accents of the people are awesome. *sigh*. Despite the rain and the cold, I wouldn't mind living in London. Actually, I don't really feel the cold and I do my best writing when it rains. Maybe moving wouldn't be such a bad idea...

2) You have no idea how much I obsessed over this question. My fave song of ALL TIME? I thought long and hard. Finally, I came up with an answer. 'Come Back Down' by Lifehouse. OMG. I love this song to death. Lifehouse is my fave band and this song, though not a classic, never fails to put me in a good mood. I sing along everytime it plays. Having said that, though, I was hard pressed to pick between this song or 'Black Balloon' by Goo Goo Dolls, 'Please Remember Me' by Tim McGraw or 'Black on Black II' by Heart. Just bear that in mind. These songs are all my faves. I would probably die without them. Haha.

3) Read. I love reading. I love the way you kind of sink into that trance-like state so you're completely unaware of the world around you. I love the way you get invested in the characters and the way you cry when something bad happens to them. I just love books, I think. I even love the way they smell, and most people I know hate that smell. There are two smells, of course. There's the crisp, new book smell. But there's also the musty, yellow-paged old book smell. I love them both. :)

4) The best moment in my life? Ok, you know, this is going to sound REALLY lame, but I'm going to say the best moment in my life was getting my acceptance letter from uni. I told you it was lame. But it's the truth. The whole last two or three years of high school, I knew exactly which course I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it. I applied for the same course at another uni, but they rejected me, but I wasn't bothered; I didn't want to go there anyway. But then I got my acceptance to where I've been studying the last two years and I was so happy I cried. And then when I finished crying, I started hyperventilating. LoL. I knew it was the right decision to go there. I met some of my very best friends at uni. (Jess, JJ, I'm looking at you!)

5) Hmmm...you know, I guess most people would normally choose a celebrity, or a favourite author, or someone famous like that. But I'm not going to. If I had the chance, the person I'd most like to meet is a friend I made through FictionPress a few years ago (Hi, Jen!). She lives in the United States, so obviously our communication is limited to emails. LoL. But if I was ever in that area, I'd like to meet her. She's just awesome. :) Oh! And, of course, I'd want to meet Sam as well, who gave me these really difficult questions because she's just so amazing. Fun too. LoL.

Alrighty, I survived Sam's questions! Woohoo! As the instructions say, if you want me to ask YOU question, leave the phrase 'Resistance is Futile' in the comments and I'll try to think of some really interesting ones for you. :)

Day 3 is nearing its end and I don't know if I'm glad. On the positive side, I wrote a good amount today and I'm almost 200 words up on where I'm supposed to be. On the negative side, I have to get up and do it all again tomorrow.

I'm feeling particularly drained today and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's just the knowledge that I have to keep reaching this level for the next four weeks. Maybe it's the prospect of having to battle my way through scenes that are leading God only knows where.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the writing. It much just be the frequency and the pressure. I don't write every single day. Usually, I physically write 5 or 6 days of the week and then use the remaining days to let things stew in my brain. But now I just have to write, write, write. No thinking allowed.

I suppose in the way this is a good thing. I'm probably allowing myself to write stuff for NaNo that I would never let sit on the page in 'real life'. I'll probably also be used to this writing every day routine by November 30 as well, so maybe I'll be able to write every single day from now on. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm also finding it impossible to write with music. This is very strange for me. Music gets me into a mood and keeps me there. In fact, I find it works so well that my novel, Long Road Home, has a soundtrack with anywhere from 1 to 4 songs allocated to each chapter. But with my NaNo project? Nope. Music is just a distraction. That might be because I don't know where the story is going and I need to concentrate but I can't be sure, obviously. Future writing projects might make it clearer but I wonder if everyone's NaNo writing experience differs from their usual writing experience, or if it's just me.

*sigh* I'm too tired for such philosophical thoughts. I'm going to relax tonight (in front of 'NCIS' and 'Lie to Me') because there's a lot to do tomorrow. Not only do I have my NaNo words to get out, I also have to study for a test on Thursday. It's on copyright laws--not exactly my strong point but it all seems pretty straight forward.

Until next time, happy writing.

5197 / 50000 words. 10% done!

Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, Jackson and Daniella Humphrey, and Owen Sparks. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

 

Chapter Eight: Convictions

 

The wooden bench was uncomfortable to lie on, but with her head resting on Owen’s lap and her gaze on the clouds above, Ella was happy. Strangely, she found herself happy only in his company these days. No, she wasn’t as upbeat as she used to be, but at least she wasn’t crying anymore.

 

 

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Dear Mr Hanks,

We've never met, and we're unlikely to in the future, but I felt obligated to write this letter because you changed my life.

As a fiction writer, I find inspiration comes from the oddest of places but when I sat down to watch Castaway about eighteen months ago, I never expected to get anything more than a few hours entertainment out of it. If I'd known when the film began that my life would change before the end credits rolled, I might have marked the occasion in some way, or at least noted down the date. As it was, I sat quiet and content and, even when the moment of change came, I made nothing of it.

The moment I speak of comes at the end of the film. Your character has just delievered the package he kept safe throughout his time on the island and is consulting a map at a crossroads. He has no idea which way to drive or what he will find when he does. A woman drives up in a truck and gets out to offer help. She tells him what lies down each road and then they part, off to live their separate lifes.

After those short moments, I was never the same again. I went to bed with the woman on my mind but gradually she morphed into someone else, another woman, entirely my own, who lives out of her car and drives around the United States because she wants to. This woman stuck in my head and for days she entertained me during long stretches of boredom. A few days after watching Castaway, the woman, whose name I had discovered was 'Andie', was forced to stop in a small, middle-of-nowhere town because her car had broken down. There, she met a man, surly and bitter, whom she decided to befriend.

This is how the novel I'm writing, the one I plan to publish, was born.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened had I not watched Castaway that night. Would Andie still have come to me? Or would she never have been even a blip on my storytelling radar? Whatever might have happened, I know that I have never been so thankful for a film. That moment in Castaway has become my own, personal moment of cinematic history.

So, thank you, Mr Hanks. I will be forever in your debt.

Sincerely,

Marie.

Title: I Want You
Author: Lady Knight 1512
Rating: T
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Spoilers: all episodes through 1x08
Status: Complete

Summary: When the truth comes out about the paternity of Quinn’s baby, no one is more surprised than you when you don’t date her.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. I'm just playing with them.

 

 

( I Want You )

 

 

( Author's Note )

I have been converted to the Glee fandom. Seriously, it is one of the best shows going and Puck is my fave character. :D I know a few people who are Puck/Quinn shippers (and I like Quinn too, so don't freak) but, I dunno, I'm kinda swaying in the Puck/Rachel direction. In any case, Puck doesn't get nearly enough screen time (if I had my way, it would be all Puck, all the time, LoL).

Hence my posting of the video below: a sneak peek of this week's episode, 'Mash Up', in which Puck sings 'Sweet Caroline' (presumably to Rachel, though I'm willing to admit he's probably using her in this episode, based on the Canadian promo). Personally, I'd rather pretend he's singing it to me. LoL.

Groundhog Day was on TV last night.

You know the movie I'm talking about. Bill Murray's character is forced to relive the same day over and over again.

Personally, I love the movie and, seeing that it was on after the Hey, Hey, It's Saturday Reunion, I thought I'd watch it again. But it got me thinking because it seems to me that the movie is put on free-to-air TV every six months or so.

'Why is that?' I was wondering. 'What is it about this movie that makes it so popular?'

(Well, it certainly seems popular to me. I've never met anyone who didn't like it. But if you think it's the worst movie ever made, please, let me know.)

Does it's popularity stem from the storyline? The story questions? Or is it the characters? Is it just Bill Murray himself? Or is it that watching his character change and grow speaks to so many people? Or, more probably, is it a combination of all these things? Surely one can't work so well if the others aren't pulling their weight?

I began wondering how this relates to Long Road Home. I like to think that all of the above contribute to making it a good story (and it is in my mind, whether people agree with me or not) but now I'm not so sure. Is the storyline working? Are enough story questions being created? Are the characters enjoyable? Will readers enjoy watching them grow? I don't know and I don't suppose I will for a while. I've heard good things from my Novel class during workshopping sessions, but they've only seen the beginning mostly. Whether all their comments will carry across the whole novel remains to be seen.

Flying Sparks News

There is a chapter coming, I promise! It's just a long one and, though I wrote it months ago, I have to edit and rewrite about half of it. Plus, I have a lot of stuff going on at the moment, both school-related and not. So the story hasn't been abandoned. I do know where it's going, I haven't hit any brick walls. Don't worry.

I have a friend in the United States who I edit chapters for. We've become good friends and we email each other regularly. My poor friend, though, has been waiting (very patiently, I must say. More patient than I would be) to read chapters of Long Road Home for many, many months.

We got to talking about it the other week and I said, 'You know what, I've got about half of the first draft written now. How about I start sending you chapters and you tell me what you think?"

She said, "Sure."

And I thought, 'Awesome! I'll got back and revise my first chapters and then send them to her periodically. I can revise and write new matieral simultaneously.'

So yesterday I opened my Chapter 1 document (which I haven't looked at for months) and began reading. I knew how I was going to change the chapter and I have notes from my current Novel teacher that I have yet to implement. It shouldn't have been a problem.

Oh. My. God.

Did I really write that crap? The characters were flat, the dialogue made me cringe in shame and then there was Andie, one of my MC's. Oh, Lord. She has a Pollyanna complex.

I have to admit to being shocked by this unpleasant discovery. Sure, I haven't worked on Chapter 1 since February or March, but I don't recall it being that bad. The feeling I got while reading was akin to the feeling you get when you unearth an old piece of writing you did as a child. You read it and laugh at yourself a little, but mostly you feel embarrassment.

I'm well aware that the first chapter of any novel is the most reworked of the whole book. My first chapter has undergone various changes, additions and deletions, but it is largely unchanged from the original. As I mentioned previously, I know how I'm going to change it, but I'm thinking maybe I should just scrap the whole thing and write it again from scratch. This has the added benefit of me knowing my characters better. There will be more hints at the depth of Liam and Andie won't be so sickeningly nice. I'll put more Doyle into it as well, and hopefully, we'll be getting somewhere.

So there you have it. My unpleasant discovery. My first chapter sucks.

It's ok. I know there's no shame in having a cringe-worthy first chapter, especially as part of the first draft...yet I'm embarrassed by it anyway. *sigh* There's no winning.

So, on the back of my micro-pig entry, I'm going to talk about NaNoWriMo.

I doubt there are many writers who haven't heard of National Novel Writing Month. I've never participated before, though I did consider it last year. I'm not sure why I didn't. No ideas maybe? Well, regardless, I've just registered and I'm very excited. I had the idea for my novel while in the shower (where all my best ideas seem to come to me. Go figure) about 6 months ago. It's since been stewing away and with each day that gets us closer to November, I just get more and more itchy to get started!

I'll be working on a chick lit novel (tentatively titled One Night in Vegas), but it will be the exact opposite of Long Road Home. Well, that's the plan anyway. I made the radical decision soon after coming up with my idea that I would not plan or outline Vegas. Maybe this was a mistake, considering how much trouble I've previously had with writing by the seat of my pants. But I think the problem was that I was too worried about doing everything the right way. This November I won't be worrying about plot holes, successful character development, rising tension, strong dialogue or any of that other stuff I've previously preached about. Instead, I'm just going to write a story. If I sit down one day with no idea what will happen next, I'm just going to go with the first scene that comes to mind. If it sucks, it sucks. I can always fix it later.

Hence, my motto for November will be: 'No pressure.'

To anyone else out there who will be participating, my profile is here so add me!

Good luck!

That's right.

My latest love affair is with micro-pigs.

They are just so cute! I mean, I have a thing for piglets anyway, but then when they grow up into grown up pigs, I'm not so taken with them. But now we have these guys!

Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, Jackson and Daniella Humphrey, and Owen Sparks. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

 

Dedicated to: mhas because she always leaves such insightful comments and because it’s her birthday. Haha. Hope you have a good one!

 

Chapter Seven: Burning Bridges

 

The bell chimed as the lift doors opened to reveal the entrance hall of the Humphrey penthouse and Ella poked her head out hesitantly. No sound came from anywhere in the apartment and the air left her lungs in a whoosh. It appeared that no one was home. Maybe her absence had gone unnoticed.

 

 

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Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, Jackson and Daniella Humphrey, and Owen Sparks. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

 

Chapter Six: Sparks

 

They were trying to whisper, but she could still hear them.

 

“She’s sitting alone…Mia already left for the steps…they didn’t sit together in Economics either…I heard it was because of Jack. He chose Mia over his sister…”

 

 

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		I will marry Ben Affleck.
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in London, England in our fabulous House.
		We will have 1 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a orange Toyota Yaris.
		I will spend my days as a Author, and live happily ever after.

Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, and Jackson and Daniella Humphrey. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

 

Chapter Five: Treason

 

Ella had always been astounded that, when going up to the Waldorf-Bass apartment, it never felt like she was in a lift. The ride was so smooth, so easy; it seemed more like an instant teleportation device. She stepped in, the doors closed, she waited a couple of minutes and, when the doors opened again, she was in another world.

 

 

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I'm a huge fan of thrillers. James Patterson (the master of the thriller genre) is one of my all-time favourite writers and he's set the bar pretty high. However, I'm always open to discovering new authors. Tara Moss was one such. I'd heard various things about her novels, most of them complimentary, but never read any. Well, a couple of months ago, I received an email from Dymocks, promoting the release of Moss's latest novel.

"Alrighty," I thought, "now is the time to jump on the bandwagon."

I tracked down Moss's first novel, Fetish, at the library and took it home, eagerly anticipating the psychological mind games and adrenaline-infused chases to the finish.

Things didn't progress quite the way I'd hoped.

( Read Review )

All in all, I found Fetish lacking in more ways than one and, as quickly as I jumped on the bandwagon, I jumped off it again.

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5.

Ok, I have to get something off my chest because it's pissing me off so much, I'm about two minutes away from punching something.

I recently began reading a series of stories over on Fictionpress.com. I don't spend much time over there these days (so much to do, so few hours in the day), but the other day I followed a trail of LJ links and landed myself in a story over on the site. Sure, there are somethings that could be better handled, like structure, language, dialogue, tense, but the premise sounded interesting and I stuck around (it's currently incomplete, to my despair, but I can wait for chapters). I moved on to other stories by the same author and, while they all have very intriguing plots, there is one mistake being made over and over again and it's driving me crazy.

For God's sake, people! "Would have" is NOT A SUBSTITUTE for "had"!!!!

Example: "She wished she would have never gone over to his house."

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone kill me now. In every one of these stories, this mistake is EVERYWHERE!

Is this a common thing? Do people actually speak this way? Why, oh why, is it so difficult for people to use proper, grammatically-correct English?

I'm a grammar snob, I admit. Anyone reading this who knows me personally is well-aware of my need to correct every little mistake, whether it be in conversation or through workshopping.

But there's something about this mistake in particular that is driving me up the wall. I'm practically quivering with rage.

*takes deep, calming breath*

Rant over.

I have all sorts of homework I could be doing right now...but I'm not doing it. Am I going to go off and do it after this? No, probably not. Instead, I'll go work on a short story I began yesterday and leave everything until next week...as usual. You'd think I'd know better by now.

ANYWAY!

I so enjoyed my Interviewing Characters entry that I thought I'd put up another writing related blog. Today's lesson is possibly the MOST IMPORTANT lesson every writer needs to learn.

Backing up.

No, not in a car. Even I can do that (though I did almost reverse into a car in a carpark last week...*blush*). I'm talking about backing up work.

One of my classmates was unfortunate enough to have his laptop stolen recently. On said laptop was all the work he'd done on his novel. Luckily, he'd backed things up on his USB. Unluckily, the USB was in the computer bag which was also stolen. I go a bit crazy when it comes to backing up stuff, particularly when it comes to Long Road Home. I seem to have this irrational fear that overnight everything will magically disappear from my laptop. So, I make sure to transfer everything (and I mean everything: chapters, scenes, chapter outlines, character profiles, subplots, notes on chapter changes, etc) not only to my USB, but also to the PC. On top of that, I also email everything to myself. This emailing has the added benefit of a time stamp, which means that if anything gets plagiarised, I can prove it was mine first and sue the plagiarists arse into the next millenium. No one steals Doyle from me and gets away with it.

So that's it for today. I'm now off to write. Yay!

Have a good one!

Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, and Jackson and Daniella Humphrey. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

 

Chapter Four: Summons

 

Part of the reason Ella had always loved Nina’s was the smell. As soon as she pushed the door open, scents of brewing coffee and freshly baked cakes and pastries made her mouth water and her stomach grumble loudly.

 

 

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Previous Chapters

It's Sunday night and I'm bored (as usual). Really, I'm just killing time until Rove starts and trying to avoid eating the ham roll my mum so lovingly prepared for me. In all honesty, I'm feeling a little sick, so the idea of eating anything is not conducive to a peaceful state of mind.

So, I thought I'd post a short blog entry. No, sorry, this isn't a 'Flying Sparks' update (expect the next chapter sometime later this week). Instead I'm going to write about interviewing characters.

This is something I love to do and I spent a good portion of my afternoon doing it today.

I go about my interviews by setting up a scene, generally in a place the character feels comfortable. Today, for example, I met Liam (the character in question) at his house. He very kindly showed me into his living room and even offered me a drink before we got down to business (this is already starting to sound crazy, but more on that later). I have a set of questions that I work from, taken from various sources around the internet, and I begin the interview by asking one of them. After that, I just go along with the conversation, playing off what the character says, until that line of questioning has resulted in what I call a 'Hidden Truth'. Then I choose another question from my notes and go again.

A Hidden Truth is the point one topic of conversation leads up to, a truth about the character that was hidden even from you, the writer. They are never easily discovered, and only reveal themselves after much prodding and a series of "Yes, but why's", which I'm sure the character will never thank you for. I find, as I interview characters, that I fall into a kind of 'trance' (for lack of a better word). The surrounding world disappears and I am there in that room with the character. This opening of the subconcious allows for a more rapid-fire sort of questioning until the Hidden Truth is clear.

I tried to explain all this to my mum once and she just looked on in confusion, a reaction I suspect all non-writers would have. She said, "But how can you discover things about your characters? You made them. Shouldn't you already know?"

The answer, quite simply, is no. Yes, I created the characters and, yes, I can give you all their basic information: physical appearance, age, occupation, goals, dreams, love interests, favourite food/music/book, who they hate and why. But it's that final 'why' that I just mentioned which has to be explored further.

Going back to the character I mentioned earlier, Liam. Today, we got onto his occupation. He's a doctor and I asked him if he liked his job and why he chose it. "I like helping people, I was good a science, I admire [the other doctor in town]." "Yes, but why did you choose it?" I questioned further. More prodding revealed that his mother had pushed him in that general direction by suggesting he go into psychiatry in order to help his sister, who had mental problems. Liam, however, knew that his doing this would disturb the uneasy peace between himself and his sister, so he chose medicine instead. Now, though, he partially blames himself for the suicide of his sister, believing that, if he hadn't been such a coward, she'd still be alive.

Well, this was news to me. I didn't even know he didn't like his job! Such are the benefits of character interviewing.

If you write original fiction (or even have original characters in your fanfiction) I highly recommend trying this exercise. You'll never know what you'll learn. I found my questions at:

• http://www.autocrit.com/articles/?a=articles&p=69
• http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Character-Interview-as-a-Writing-Tool
• http://pymprompts.blogspot.com/2009/04/interview-your-character.html
• http://thesebeautifulscars.tripod.com/interview.html

Well, whaddya know, Rove is just about to start. Awesome.

Have a good one!

Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, and Jackson and Daniella Humphrey. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

 

Chapter Three: The Morning After

 

When Ella’s eyes fluttered open she was at home in her bed. Had it not been for the dryness in her throat, the taste in her mouth and the pounding in her head, she might have thought that she’d skipped the party after all.

 

 

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