Death

Gary Coleman died yesterday and he was forty-two. I think it was a brain hemorrhage or something, but don't quote me on that [this is me being too lazy to use Google]. Then today Dennis Hopper died and he was seventy-four and it was because of cancer. If it's true or not, it seems like there have been a lot of people I know of dying this year, and last year now that I think of it.

Oh, I finished editing that rewrite I did, and that was pretty cool. I was super happy about it, but now the original high has worn off and I'm onto trying to work out something else, as far as plot and setting are concerned.

Also, I'm kind of getting into summer mode. Mainly, all that means is lounging around because it's too hot to do anything else. Ah, summer. The heat, the humidity, the long break from school--oh wait, scratch that last one. I'm going to school year round now. I did get my schedule for next quarter though, and I've class only two days a week, so that's kind of a win in my opinion.

Back to...well, not work, but something like it.

It's Alive!

I spent pretty much the whole day shopping and riding in the car. The first part of the day I was listening to like a podcast that was two and half hours long and then I went out. I bought a really cool outfit, light yellow and stormy sky blue is the color scheme. I really like it, because since they're on opposites of the color wheel they complement each other.

I bought "Glee: The Power Of Madonna" by the Glee cast and "What Is Love?" by Never Shout Never. Love them both. I was going to buy "Congratulations" by MGMT, but that'll have to wait for another day. Still, I can't get "Flash Delirium" out of my head.

Time to attempt some sleep. I've got class in a few hours. And a test I think. I really need to get on that and stop being blindsided by music and television and writing. And reading. I've been doing loads of that lately too.

Ill

I have been so sick lately that it's ridiculous.

I hope it clears up before summer, because at the rate it's going it isn't looking like it.

Originality

Things like this annoy me. They annoy me for a few reasons, all very simple:

1. These jokes are old
2. These jokes are too often told
3. Yeah, Owl City sounds like the Postal Service, but
4. The Postal Service ripped off Depeche Mode as far as sound goes and
5. A guy from 3Oh!3 should be the last one on this earth to harp about originality. Pul-leaze.

There's nothing new under the sun. People need to get over that and shut up, unless they can come up with something totally original, which--aside from being impossible--wouldn't come from either of the guys from 3Oh!3.

The Clock

Groundhog's Day was wonderful, even if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and we're due for six more weeks of winter. There's always a bright side, which in this case being that there's only six more weeks and not seven or nine or something (because seven and nine are sequential numbers).

So, this is another one of those just before I've got to leave for class posts.

I still have yet to continue writing a thing for the rewrite. That will change today; I'm on a schedule. I'm going to write like nobody's biz. I'm going to go to class, take notes, and write when the teachers lose my interest. I'm going to try to find any unforeseen holes in my plot.

Speaking of plot, I've come realized that there's really only one element that I seriously pay attention to. Sure, I make sure that it has conflict, and sure I make sure that it's sound, but I really pay some major attention to The Clock.

I remember when I went to the young writer's conference last year and there was this guy who talked about how he helped write films and teleplays and he talked about all the elements of plot, in particular the clock though he did talk at length about the other elements and the plot arc and such.

Now, the reason I pay so much attention to it is because it's the only thing that really makes anything else matter. I'm not spouting off advice here (because I'm kinda under-qualified), but rather rambling to myself in a rather public manner that isn't the supermarket.

You have the goal, you have the obstacles. The obstacles make the goal matter by making it hard to achieve. A time limit makes something matter more because if goal x isn't met by time y then it ceases to matter all together. The only thing I could think of that didn't have a time limit actually does.

The only thing I could think of was The Odyssey. Odysseus wants to get home to his family and is tossed and turned by all these events and he takes forever to get home. However, that has the time constraint element, because if he took too long he'd be too old, his wife would be remarried, or the family or him would die before they could be reunited.

So I've really been focusing on the clock lately and not just in this novel but in short stories. I think maybe one of the things I need to work on is other ways to implement time constraints.

Also, happy Black History Month. Now, I've got to eat, make tea, and leave. Did I have homework? I don't think I did it. Gee...

Grammys Baby!

The only parts I've watched have been the very beginning with Lady Gaga and Elton John and then the performance of "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum. Had the first thing not been happening I would not have watched at all. As a general rule I don't watch award shows. I'm actually pretty ignorant of them. I didn't even know the AMAs existed until Adam Lambert brought them to my attention.

But enough about that.

The rewrite is...I suppose I could say that it is going mediocre, but only because of the past few days. I haven't written a thing. Mainly because, typically speaking, no one write very well when they're dead asleep, which is what I've been for the better part of the last seventy-two hours.

I haven't any idea why I decided to turn into sleeping beauty, but I did. I feel kind of sick. And I'm still very tired. Then there's school tomorrow and I have a group project that I have to work on. Group work is the very bane of my existence, not to sound dramatic or anything. Mainly because there's collaboration and then there's research.

I'm supposed to research 1/3 of the paper and write 1/3 of it as well. I'm trying hard not to sound like a diva and say, "I don't co-write" but regardless of what I say there will still be undertones of that. I've co-written before, but not only was that fiction it was with someone whose writing no only complemented mine but blended well. Plus, I knew them.

But I'm going to do some research before I fall asleep again and I'll probably be up and writing again by Tuesday at the very latest. I've gotten to that weird point of rewriting where you know everything that's supposed to happen, but you want to make it happen in a different way so half the time I'm mumbling to myself about technical things like weather patterns and dates. It makes me look super sane. Seriously, I appear to be the perfect picture of mental health.

Pretty soon I'm going to need to find some betas though. I should probably start looking...

This Is Going To Be

Short, and very much so. I have to leave in less than ten minutes for that dread creature known only as Class. Class and I have been in a battle as of late, with my trying to vanquish it and it still appearing every week without fail. I mean, sometimes it doesn't show up after we've fought for maybe two months straight, but it's back after a few weeks of recuperation.

Anyway. It it the very early morning hours for me. I did not sleep last night. I have a test today and am eating my cereal as I type. I know that the moment I get home I won't feel like writing this and/or I'll be passed out asleep.

Speaking of sleep, I've only got seven or so minutes and I need to make tea. I have to have caffeine. That stuff can steep in the car, right?

Not the point.

Bottom line: The rewrite is going well. I cranked out over 3k today so far. I'd say it's maybe one third done.

Rewrite

Rewrite

I'm doing a major rewrite. The funny thing that I find is that now, when I have way more time on my hands, I've been writing less. It's kind of terrible. Back when I was fourteen, I wrote a book that was 133k words long. It was pretty decent, but the point is that I wrote a lot.

I remember writing eleven pages a day and regardless of word count that's huge compared to what I'm doing these days. I have all the time in the world for writing, but I use it on other things, like movies, practicing, video games, and making references/movie quotes of Tim Burton movies on twitter. Damn those Final Fantasy games, damn them straight to hell.

-Ahem- Back to the point. I need to get back into the swing of things. It's been so long since I've written anything substantial. That's what I'm going to do, not in February, not in March, but when I wake up and am not threatening to fall asleep at the screen.

So, it's time for a rewrite, and rather than doing it the old way where I'd just go through and edit, I'm scrapping the whole story and starting with a blank page. It'll be...fun.

Week In Review

Week In Review

Right now I'm getting over a sort of sickness. I'll just leave it at that it kind of sucks to be hungry when all you can handle is ginger ale. It sucks really bad.

Anyway, I'm going to recount the high and low points of the last week and half. That does make the title of this post a little misleading, but in my concept of time, it's been a week, so bear with me.

[Side note: basically none of this has to do with writing.]

So, in pluses and minuses, I shall recount the previous week or so:

+Books-A-Million was having a pretty awesome sale, and it was literally one dollar for three whole book carts, a lot of which were hardcover. I was so unbelievably happy that it bordered on ridiculous. I only went there for a magazine and came back with a miniature library.

-Stevie left the 5AGs, which I kind of saw coming, but still didn't want to happen.

+American Idol is back! Bad singers and all.

+Books-A-Million was also having a DVD sale.

+I got new video games, including one I lost in the move for GameBoy SP.

+I got a calendar for 2010.

+I got a case.

+Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are getting hitched!

-I'm sick.

On the up and up, because that last minus is really kind of bumming me out at the moment, I don't have class tomorrow. So this week or so was a good week. Oh, and I totally forgot that Taboo has a season premiere, so that's definitely another plus. I'm going to go get some more ginger ale.

The Quest

The Quest

So, it's Tuesday and in a few hours it'll be Wednesday. The holidays are officially over, school has started again, and the premiere of American Idol was tonight.

As of late I've developed the unfortunate habit of slacking off, mainly by watching Cartoon Network and playing all the "new" video games I've bought recently ["new" because they're used and were first released in the early 2000s]. So, I say, no more!

So I started this thing last year where I'm going to write a certain amount of fiction [or memoir, you know, whatevs] by the end of the year. In other words, a writer's New Year's resolution. Now, I'm not going to put that number here to save myself the humiliation should I fail miserably, but it will prove to be challenging.

I haven't exactly been meeting my daily goals, but whatever, you know. I'm sure I'll catch up when I have a boring weekend and haven't the urge to fritter away time on things such as video games. Or at least I hope so.

Anyway, about the title. Yeah, I was watching Teen Titans and that was the title of the episode. It's the one where Robin goes in search of the "true master" for some extensive martial arts training. He has to climb this huge mountain in order for him to be taught so he ends up asking if there is an easier way up. So, the master ends up saying, "There is an easy way and a right way."

You can draw the parallels between that situation and novel writing if you want, but I won't [at least not here]. Mainly because the cheese factor of this post has already climbed uncomfortably high. So, I'll end it here.