Tonight, one of my favourite programmes is on and it is the penultimate episode. I’m quite excited. I’m also finding it relatively hard to concentrate on what I’m writing at the moment. Some people might say it’s writer’s block. I know it isn’t (but it did give me the opportunity to post one of my favourite Cyanide & Happiness comic pieces). It’s more that I’m distracting myself. Occasionally I get very scatty and end up staring into space, which means I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing. It usually involves circular thoughts, as well, about situations I cannot change for whatever reason. It’s these circular thoughts that kept me awake until about four this morning. It may be the reason why I am feeling so distracted today.
Tag: formspring
Midnight Workings Weather Down The Story Line
Firstly, thanks to whoever left me the formspring comment about some bad grammar in an excerpt of my first unpublished book. It was an honest mistake that I can only attribute to the dialect in the area that I live, because when it was pointed out I already knew it was wrong and I am subsequently kicking myself in the teeth about it. So whoever you are, many thanks. If anyone else sees any such error, please do tell me.
My intentions for today are to clean the kitchen up a bit, figure out what to cook for dinner and then make a start on uploading photos of my mother’s jewellery to her site. If I have any time, I may attempt to write a piece of flash fiction. One of the lovely people that follow my facebook fan page has provided a statement for me to base it on. It’s much nicer to get statements from other people because it feels so much more communal. I like getting people involved, too. There’s also the fact that when other people provide me with statements, they’re usually statements that provoke writing from me that I wouldn’t normally consider scribing. This, in itself, is fantastic because it makes me broaden my writing horizons. I love new challenges where my writing is concerned. One of the most recent challenges I faced, whilst finishing off Secrets, was that I’d never written a proper battle scene before and the last few chapters required this. I don’t mind telling you that it really worried me. They were critical scenes and I didn’t want to get them wrong. Around the same time, however, I noticed a post show up on my blogroll at the side. The post was from the This Business Of Writing blog and it was a how to on writing battle scenes. I may not have used everything it said, but it did help me to make sense of how I was going to sort out the scene. I figured out a basic choreography for it – who was injured, what their injuries were and when they received the injuries during the battle.
What made my battle particularly difficult, however, was that it had been foreseen by another character. She’d witnessed deaths in her vision and so I had to get these events in exactly the right place, making sure that the right characters were in the right place too! You could say that this was a bit ambitious for my first real battle scene, but somehow it worked. Admittedly, the scene still needs a bit of editing to polish it up, but I’m incredibly happy with what I managed to achieve. I think it managed to flow well and it got all of the correct bits in.
It may be slightly obvious that I get carried away when discussing how writing a scene has gone, especially if it’s gone particularly well. My favourite anecdote about my writing at the moment is that I managed to make Andrew queasy when he was reading a torture scene. If I can make it realistic for a reader, then I feel as if I’ve done well.
Speaking of realism, I had a very realistic dream in amongst other dreams. For a short while after I woke up, I was under the impression that the dream was real, which is dreadfully upsetting because I’d dreamt something that I wish with all of my heart and for a couple of moments I felt thoroughly happy. Don’t you just hate it when those things happen? I really do.
(Lyrics in the title are from Wonder by Megan McCauley)
& The Worst Part Is Before It Gets Any Better We’re Headed For A Cliff
I’m downloading the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010. It’s taking quite a while to finish the last bit. In fact, I think it’s been doing that bit for over an hour. It’s really quite annoying. I would have stuck with Office 2007 but I only had the trial version and I see no reason to upgrade to the full version of 2007 when Office 2010 is going to be released a few months down the line. It seems like a waste of my time. I figured it would be better to just get the free beta of 2010 and get used to it so that I can purchase it later on in the year. Besides, it means that I’m helping out the people at Microsoft. I already have Windows 7 (which, incidentally, is absolutely brilliant – glad I waited to get it instead of being stuck with Vista) so Office 2010 will add to my gadget collection.
On another note, I am fairly annoyed with somebody. The only time she bothers talking to me is when she’s home for long stretches and has nobody else to talk to… and all she talks to me about at these times are her boyfriend whose guts I completely hate because of the way he treats her like his own little personal lapdog. And I really don’t care if he sees this. Nevertheless, it irritates me that she only remembers that I exist when she’s looking at hours of boredom without her boyfriend. I know for a fact that she’s been home plenty of times over the course of the semester and not once has she even bothered to say hello or ask if I want to meet up. What annoys me even more is that when she does want to see or talk to me, she can never be bothered to come see me. She always wants me to trek to her house. I feel like I’m the one doing all the work. And, if I’m honest, I don’t think it’s fun to be around her any more because I can’t say what I really think. If I did she’d hate it. So what kind of friendship is that?
Anyway, since I had my rant about that and did thousands of other things (including making and eating dinner), Office 2010 beta has installed. This pleases me because some of the new functions look really quite cool. I’ve already played about with making text look as if it reflects. That was one of the primary plus reasons for me to install it. I’ve gone into options and made the backgrounds in all of the different office programs black, as well, because then I get less screen burn, which I really need considering the lighting in my room is utterly shoddy. So I’ve replaced my two pinned 2007 programs with their 2010 versions on my task bar (that’s a neat trick that Windows 7 has – you can pin your favourite programs to the task bar and then you just right click them to bring up a list of projects you last worked on). I have to admit that the pinning is one of my favourite functions of Windows 7. I also love that I can make things translucent and have a background that changes at set intervals.
I seem to be getting some formspring questions from people who really have no business asking me things, too. People like this just make me sad for the rest of the human race. I mean, really, whoever you are, is there a point to you being vile to me through anonymous comments or do you seriously have nothing better to do with your time? I mean, it’s bad enough that you bother to send me petty messages, but the fact that you don’t even leave your name to accompany your mud slinging… well, that’s just cowardice. If you want to tell me why you hate me, please feel free to do so below and sign with your name so everyone can decide whether you’re right or not. Personally, I don’t want to be involved in it.
(Lyrics in the title are from Turn It Off by Paramore)
But You. But You Write Such Pretty Words…
Huzzah!
Which is code for: I finished the last chapter and I’m eating a victory ham sandwich.
Although, if I’m honest, I think the bread has gone off. So, I’ll stop eating. How disgusting. I may have to eat a victory chocolate bar instead. I’m not a calorie counter, but going on size, I’m going to say that it’s healthier for me. Eventually, I’ll figure out that there is something drastically wrong with this theory and that over the course of being victorious I have, indeed, outgrown my house. There are various problems involved with outgrowing one’s house. The first problem is that you then have to wear the house as a form of clothing because until you start wasting away… there’s no way that house is going to let you wriggle out of the biggest window or door. In fact, you may need to take the roof off and live in a circus tent until you’ve dieted… a lot. Secondly, you won’t be able to reach your computer. This means that you’ll have to drag your sorry arse (house attached) to the nearest library and lean in through the window to type. Of course, you won’t be able to press the keys properly and therefore be unable to type any sense whatsoever. If you choose to read to while your time away, you will sadly be unable to turn the pages in your book as your hands will be absolutely massive. You might as well just give up on everything… unless you’re a prankster. In which case, your only use is to pretend that you are actually a house and creep up on groups of people. When they least expect it, attack!
This is guaranteed to terrify everybody you jump out at to death.
I don’t know about you, but if a house-sized, house-wearing person jumped out at me… I’d be pretty damn scared. You also have to make sure that you don’t accidentally jump out onto the people you’re trying to scare. A nice little prank on various family members could turn into a trip to the hospital for your elderly relatives and a trip to the morgue for that hated aunty you stepped in. Stepping in aunts, no matter how hateful, may cause tension with parents and is thus not advised.
I think I must be tired. I only write such bizarre drivel when I’m tired. Don’t let me put you off eating, though. Nothing should put you off eating.
Just don’t become house-sized.
This has to be my most random entry yet. I should probably crack on with talking about something that is actually news. I guess one thing is that I’ve been helping my friend sort out the navigation bar etc for the new site. He’s also successfully iframed this in, which you’ll get to see when he’s completed the site. My formspring has been iframed in as well. The link is still at the side if you want to ask me anything there. Really, I don’t mind. I get bizarre questions anyway.
Something that has annoyed me, however, was my younger brother. He always annoys me. I may blog about how much quite a lot so please feel free to ignore me when I do so. It’s just because I need a release. Anyway, he irritated me this morning because I went to use the bathroom next to my room. I couldn’t. He’d stuffed loads of loo roll in it again and just left it. So I went to use the other one, not realising he was in there faffing about with his hair or whatever he does. I got yelled at about how I was everywhere and he hated me. On the upside, that meant he left and I actually got to use the toilet (I know. This is just thrilling stuff, isn’t it? Be thankful I didn’t go into too much detail). On the downside, he went to his room, cranked up the volume on his stupid screamo music (that was loud anyway) and started singing along. Also loud. So by the time I’d barely been awake five minutes, I’d been yelled at and had a headache. The bit that made me really angry, however, was when I went to get a shower and there was no hot water. So yes, I’ve spent most of the day looking even more like a hobo than usual. Men annoy me. If I knew how to change my internal preferences to women, I would… though I suspect we may be just as problematic.
Also, I may write another piece of flash fiction when I’ve finished writing the Epilogue of Secrets (I bet you’re sick of hearing about it now). This means that, if you have any random sentences you want me to make a piece of flash fiction out of, you should comment below. Thanks and don’t outgrow your house!
(Lyrics in the title are from Lover I Don’t Have To Love by Bright Eyes)
