Don't Think I'm Not

It's Tuesday! And seeing as it's Tuesday, I went back to writer's group today! It was fun. Glad to have gone back. A lot of people seem to have come back from like, 7 month hiatus'. It was more full than I've ever seen it. Typically it's a small group of like six people, but today I do believe there were 12 people or so. Insane.

Anyhow, the prompt for the five minute writing was 'Strangely, it all began'

Here's mine:

“Mmm… Strange. It all began at that party for my sister-in-law?” asked Professor Humphry as he lay on the therapist’s couch. He sat up, changing his view from the mahogany ceiling to the ever plain Doctor Plainsborrow. Humphry adjusted his monocle. “Are you certain that’s what I said?” 

Dr. Plainsborrow nodded. “I am very certain.” 

Humphry nodded and laid back down, once more looking at the ceiling. The good old doctor had suggested they try hypnotism to find the root of Humphry’s problem. Humphry hadn’t thought such a thing would work, but Plainsborrow assured him. 

Humphry reached up and stroked his full, dark brown beard. “Very odd. I had felt fine after that party. It’s only recently I’ve had this… urge…” 

“You may not have noticed until recently, but it began at that party.” The doctor had a very boring and monotonus was of speaking. It was no wonder he was the top ranking professional in hypnotism. “Something triggered this, but you became unsettled and I had to wake you up.” 

“Unsettled? Whatever do you mean?” Humphry sat up again. 

“You were becoming upset, Professor, screaming nonsense. I had to wake you up.”

What dya think? I kind like it. I think I'm going to turn this into a longer story. Got an idea for it and everything. :)

So, the prompts for this week are:

• dandelion
• keys
• storm
• girth
• ascertain 

Take a stab with the words then let me see what you got!

Good luck with everything y'all are working on!

Laters!

Fly Away From Here

A word of advice: if you're having more than one person editing your manuscript, don't have them do it at the same time on different copies. It is so damn annoying to have to jump between the two (or more) copies to make the changes. At least in my opinion. I guess it's not so bad if it's a hard copy, or if you have something that isn't Windows 7 and bunches all your tabs into one little square on the bar down there. I stupidly did that when I was getting my edits on my first NaNo. I have one copy that's my roommate and one that's my dad. I have to work with em side by side in order to get the edits done at the same time. So annoying.

In other news, if any of you guys are looking to get writing published in magazines (helps build a platform, don't cha know?), there's this awesome site that has a huge database for it and let's you search by genre, length, pay, etc. Check it out if you haven't heard of it before: http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx

Gunna get back to writers group probably the week after next. I should have been posting the prompts here anyways, since they send it via emails. Too late now to do that; it didn't even dawn on me before now, haha. Oh well. Rather looking forward to going back, it was fun and a nice way to get out of the house :) I must finish some of the stories I'm working on so I have something to bring in and share.

I need to get back to editing my first NaNo. My brother's are going out of town for the weekend so I think I'll put in a huge chunk of writing and editing while they're gone. Too bad I can't do both at the same time. I'll figure something out and report back on Monday or so.

Laters!

Thriller

I think I'm going to call this NaNo a fail and take it as a learning experience. Not much of it I haven't learned before, but maybe this will actually get it into my head.


I don't do very well keeping at a story if I've talked it out too much. I spent a year forcing myself not to even think too much about my story line, but then come the beginning of November and... BAM, I talked about it. Too much. And all kinds of thoughts came flowing in and now I'm just like '...no.' It SUCKS, but ya know what? It's a learning experience. I'm just going to call it that.


There's also been a bunch of other crap that's been happening that I'm not even going to get into here. It's just a bad month... a rather cruddy year but a really bad month.


BUT! I am going to save this story for next year, hopefully think it out a little more and get things more worked out and plan out something for it and use it for the 6 novels thing. It'll be fine. :)


I'm going to get back to cleaning up my first NaNo, do that instead. Then hopefully when I'm done with it I can start sending out letters about it.


All right, I've got to go to dog training class.


Laters!

Let's Get It On

I think I get why romance is one of the hardest genres to write.

At first, I was all like "this is simple! Why the hell would they say Romance is so damn hard to write?"

I now know.

And this year's NaNo has shown me why.

In past years, I've written about characters who already had a history and the story just plopped down in the middle of it. This year, my characters DON'T have a history. They have to be introduced, meet, and fall in love. And it can't take them months to do so, no, it's gotta be almost instant. And believable.

I can do this. I totally can!

In other news. that word count of mine over there is a lie. I restarted my story and only have 1,458 words. Ain't it great? /endsarcasm

I need to get out of this slump and actually write.

Because I need/want something to do to let my subconscious think about my story, I provide you with something I stole off someone's journal on deviantART!

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
My All the Same universe is my fave. It's set in Rhode Island (because no one lives in Rhode Island lol) and it's about Angels, Fallen Angels, God, Lucifer, etc. I don't like religion but I LOVE these stories and characters. They just make me happy.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's a funny one. I have more than I can count/remember. Both story and RP, cause I end up turning my RP characters into story characters. So for the rest of this, characters will be either RP or story and I won't tell the difference, lol.
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
Randomly, for the most part. Or I'll hear a name I really like and build a character around it. Or go obsessive and search for the perfect name. It all depends on the character.

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
Ok, prepare for lameness. First story I ever wrote (or more, dictated to my mom who wrote it for me) was in kindergarten, about a cat who was friends with all the animals except the dog. My mom still has that story around here, too. It doesn't really have a plot, but I think that is what really got me into enjoying writing. My mom also once got one one of those packages where you write a story and draw the pictures and then the parent sends it back in and they bind it like a real book. I wrote about Santa and other holidays. That was fun.
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
Youngest I've ever created was technically Andrew Iero-Way, but I don't count him. So Ryan Jack, who was I was to say 4? Oldest would be Ash Knight (why yes, I did borrow that name from a book >.>) Who was 42 in his most currant like I was writing in. "Youngest" would be the few I'm still working on in my head for a future project. As far as one I've just made and use, that would be Cole. "Oldest" is um... that cat from kindergarten, lol. Ok, ok, I'll go for one I made up... Giggles Miller, a Newsies OC.
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?
I like to find somewhere that I can have quiet; the library, the community room in the garage. I'd like to try writing at Starbucks one day. Yes, not quiet, but oh so writer-ly haha. I prefer writing on the computer. Paper drives me INSANE. I always want to go back and add more, but I can't.
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
Yes I do. I have unmedicated ADHD (and will never take medication for it!) so I need the music to occupy my mind while I sit and work. It works wonders, actually. I love music. 
Ahahaha! If I sat here and wrote down all the songs that relate/apply to my characters, I'd be here all friggin night and you wouldn't want to read it all. I have songs for characters, for their situations, for their couplings, etc.
8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
I like to write romance (even though I've now realized why it's so HARD!). And while I like to read romance as well, I really like YA. More adult-oriented categories are so conveluted with big words that it's like "get to the story, please." Maybe it's just the really small font used in the adult-oriented books. Who knows.
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
They just happen. A song, a picture, a mention, a movie, anything at all can spark a character.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Every thing from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
Really weird? Eesh... it's all really weird by normal standards but not by their world. Oh! I know! Carrighan shoved a pine cone up someone ass once! Oh, that was fun :D
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
Carrighan. I love him. Least favorite? Uh... none. I make it a habit to love all my characters.
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of world building? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
I don't world build, really. I set them in the real world, cause I'm awesome that way. Well, I created Heaven and Hell, but I just let my brain work it out as I went based on what I felt like at the time and what other's had said about it.
13. What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
Umm... Culture? American? That's where all my stories are set at least... I love to write Angels and demons and such, though. Is that a culture? I prefer mental issues, like Stockholm syndrome. I LOVE Stockholm syndrome.

14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
I doodle them in my notebook, or I make it up in my head. Normally in my head. If I don't get how something is set, then I'll doodle it.
15. Mid way question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
I DID admire MaryJanice Davidson, but not that much any more. I don't exactly admire writers. *shrug* I find Tommy Lee a big inspiration though >.> Read his book and I think you'll see it. Or you might not, cause you're not me.

16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?
I write romance, what do you think? Haha. I will write all the way to sex if it fits the story.
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
Carrighan. Because he's awesome. And I love him. And he's awesome.

18. Favorite antagonist and why!
Lucifer? He's not really an antagonist. He's just there. He helps, then he hurts, then he helps, then he hurts. I don't exactly have antagonists. Not that I label 'antagonist' anyways.

19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
Larry. He's a 4'9" Fallen Angel cannibal with a Cockney accent. He's adorable.

20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
Carrighan and Demetrios are my number one. Larry and Perish are fun too. I could see them being one messed up slash pairing. Seth and Marcus the Zombie are fun, too.
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
In RP, they do, yeah. But when I write them as story characters, they don't. Carri and Deme adopted a little girl once, but she turned out to be a demon and tried to kill Carrighan.
22. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
Short stories and like, a day. Novels are... a long time.

23. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most interesting way you’ve killed someone?
If the plot demands it, then I will kill someone with no issues. Killing people is fun! (in stories, of course!)
I killed an rp character once by having his head explode after he jumped into a fire. It's a long story.
24. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
Seth has his cretures. Other than that, not really. I'd forget about them too easily.

25. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
I can't draw. I had someone draw me some fan art once! It made me feel awesome! I'll show it off.

The original url for that is here: http://fav.me/d2fpq1r
I also bought some art on gaia:

That's Deme and Carri, respective

And that's Perish :)
26. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
I give the bare essentials and let people decide what they look like. Carrighan is based after HYDE, Demetrios is based after Gackt, Perish is based after the fetish model Perish, Seth is based after Ian Watkins from LostProphets, Cole is based after that one dorky guy in Tropic Thunder who was also the main guy in Sorcerer's Apprentice, God is based after King Morpheus from Little Nemo crossed with Zeus from Disney's Hercules, Lucifer is based after the guy with the black hair from Nightwish. Then others, like Larry, just come out of my head.
27. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
Eh heh heh heh. I love mental problems. I have a character who is slow and appears to be schizophrenic though he's just possessed by three different spirits. I had one character who couldn't talk because of shock, I guess you could call it. I want someone who has Stockholm Syndrome, but I have yet to work that out.

28. Final question! Tag some one! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!
I tag all of you. If you want. I like you because you're awesome :P

Back to trying to come up with stuff.

Laters!

Well All Right!

NaNo = Fail.

Oh yeah.

Spent so much time being excited about NaNo coming and then it gets here and... I've fallen on my face. Completely.

I'm not excited by my idea, though I abso-friggin-lutely love it. I got to over 7,000 words, hated all of it, started over. I'm at 637 words right now and I can't seem to push myself to write. It makes me sad.

I think I've just got too much shit going on this month between my brothers's dad being out for the week, not getting this job I was really excited about, and getting accepted to the school I wanted to go to. My brain just ain't into it right now.

I feel really lame.

Blah.

Laters.

Into the Ocean

Yey! I got writing done! Granted, most of it (read: 2,000 words of it) was done at 2 in the morning, but hey! Who cares! I had gotten 265 words done during the day on Tuesday. Granted, I had other things I had to do (stupid life getting in the way of NaNo), but that's no excuse!

Any how, I got 2,229 words written today, so I'm happy with myself.

I'm struggling a bit with this intro, but I suck at beginnings. Er, at least beginnings that don't start in the middle of a super cool and fun scene. None of that this year! Cole demands a beginning that starts at the beginning of his day and he's being all... reflective on his new day.

I had to do research today. Cole's parents decided they were too good for California and were more old blood, so they live in Provence Town, Massachusetts in a house with 11 rooms and is worth over 2 million dollars. Lucky for me, my family is from Mass (mom's side at least) and my mom's been to P-Town.

In other news, I think Cole likes to cross dress. This is a new developement and I don't know yet how that's going to play into all this.

Anyways, it's almost 3am, so I'm going to bed now.

Laters!

PS, I wrote a couple paragraphs from the point of view of a bottle. Wtf?

This Is For Real

Today is day two of NaNo, and as you can see by the status bar over on the side of my page... I have no words written. This is just a tad bit scary.

Lemme explain. Halloween amongst my group of friends is a big deal. We are a group of cosplayers so any chance at all to cosplay, we take advantage of it (Halloween, conventions, midnight movie premiers, etc). So, Halloween was taken by being dressed up and at a movie till late, so that cut out starting at midnight (I've never actually started NaNo at midnight, for obvious Halloween related reasons). Then the night of Halloween was spent sleeping at my friends house, watching horror movies and drinking. The first was filled with.... staying late at my friends house, watching horror movies, doing a Sweeney Todd sing-a-long, drinking, and playing ouija. No, I am not an alcoholic, we just drink when we have parties, which isn't that often. So we were at my friend's house until almost 8 last night.

My roommates computer is also dead, so we have to actually have a schedule for our writing. I'm busy mornings, so we're writing from 1pm to 9/9:30pm, then we come back to the apartment (see the blog post where I show my writing area. It's in my apartment building's garage) and my roommate uses the family computer to type up what she's written for the day and I do my rping and possi bly more writing, update my word count, etc. So as of yet.... I have no words written.

Luckily, I have my beginning already set up. Yey me!

I'll update later when I have something. :)

Laters!

Les Poissons

I'm going to start this post with a quote that actually pops up in my head a lot and I'm just going to steal it, right here right now. And whenever it applies to the conversation. When I first came across Qzie's blog, I read all the posts she has posted before (as I do with most blogs that I read) and while doing so, I found on one of her older posts, a quote that, like I said, has stuck in my brain. I'll give a little context with it:

I know what I want to do with my life. I think people think I'm joking when I say, "I'm gonna work dead-end jobs and write novels my whole life," but I'm being perfectly serious. I could not care less what my day job is; I just want to write. 

The bolded part in there is what always pops up in my head. I actually really like this. All of it. Granted, I'd like to sell novels and eventually be able to live off of that and make writing my full time job, until then I've got to do something for money. I wanted to share that quote and let Qzie know I'm stealing it! :P

In other news, NaNo is soon (like, 3 days), and you know what I hate? When plot bunnies pop up and totally give me a new plot and title! Now, I've had this idea in my head for a few months now, but last night, I came up with more of it and even a title was born! I'm not going to talk about it, because I don't want to forget it or get bored with it, cause I want to write it really bad. And I will, probably as one of my 6 novels for next year.

*dances around* I can't wait for NaNo!!!

Ok, I have nothing else to say for now.

Laters!

Be On You

Today was writer's group! I'm actually glad I went. They loved both mine and my roommate's stories. One of the ladies actually came up to us after the group ended and told us that she always looks forward to hearing our stuff because we have great imaginations. It made me happy, to say the least :D

The 5 minute warm up prompt for today was 'old clothes'. Here's what I wrote:

Mikey detested almost every outfit Zachary wore. The younger man always looked like he was wearing some old clothes he’d originally bought five years ago. How o why his upscale parents let him out of the house like that he’d never know. 

“Zachary, couldn’t you have worn something a little more case appropriate?” Mikey asked in slight agitation as he adjusted the gun holster over his light blue button down. 

“Dude, what’s wrong with my clothes?” 

Michael rolled his eyes. “They look like you bought them at the Salvation Army.” 

Zack looked down at his white shirt and black vest, his fingers going to absently play with a hole near the hem. “No way, dude, I got these um… not that long ago. But I took this spill on my skateboard into this yard with this dog and--” 

“I don’t need to hear it,” Mikey interrupted. 

“Oh, OK dude.” He flashed the hang loose sign and Mikey sighed with a roll of his eyes.

I think it's cute. This is actually the very first time I've written Zachary; hope I did ok, lol. I'm actually kinda happy with how I did it. (I'm just all around happy in this post, aren't I? haha)

The 5 prompts are:

• tresses
• laughter
• venture
• bon mote
• percipitate

I have NO clue what "bon mote" means, or if it was spelt right. That's how the lady who suggested it said it was spelt, though, so it can't be too off, ya? Anyways, if any of you readers speak French, please let me know what it means!

In other news, I was reading/looking at Qzie's latest post and she linked to a thread on the NaNo boards for your character's post secret (if you don't know what post secret is, hit up www.postsecret.com). I wanted to do it, so I did!

Cole's secrets:

 it says: I want to run away and join the circus

 it says: I throw bottles with messages into the ocean hoping someone will find them and take me away

Seth's secret:

it says: I have everything I want but I still feel empty...

Seth doesn't have many secrets. At least not any he's telling me. Oh well. I got one out of him and I think it's a doozie, considering! I really like the way the bottle one looks. It makes me happy. The whole message in a bottle thing is what sparked this whole plot, so I just had to make that one of his secrets.

I want to say, that one thing I hate about writing is how real the characters feel in your head, to the point they seem so damn real. I think I may end up going crazy in the future just because of that. Maybe that's why writers turn into alcoholics. Hmm...

5 more days till NaNo! I'm so scared! Like really scared! I have to write 2500 words a day to reach my 75000 word goal for this year. I hope I can do it! *fingers crossed*

I think I may start doing like what Becca Fitzpatrick (sometimes) does on her blog and have a Friday 5, or something like that.

Also, if.when I get published, I want to be like Becca Fitzpatrick with how she is so... normal. She interacts with her fans, posts about more than just writing on her blog, and its all got a really big "we're a family!" feel to it. I want to be like that, all cool about it.

On a side note, I'm ready Tommyland and actually finding it inspirational. Odd, don't ya think? Haha. Though I will NEVER be able to look at gummy bears without cringing ever again. Ever.

Ok, I think that's it for now. I'll get back to you all with what I think I may do for this blog, like the Friday 5 thing.

Laters!

Sleep

I found this video on Becca Fitzpatrick's website (author of HUSH, HUSH and CRESCENDO). I think it's cute, even though I hate the song it's based off of. Enjoy!



I've been reading her blog, starting from the very beginning, from before she was published and looking for an agent. It's rather nice, actually. I like her older posts better than her newer ones but I guess that's because she's more about her life and the process and now she's all about the book and all her tours and what she's doing with the book(like blogs that mention her, where she's going on the book tour, so on and so forth). Just my opinion though. Her old posts make me want to post a post on here with the title of "OH MY GOD I GOT AN AGENT!!!1!" just to see how it feels LOL

I can't wait for NaNo. So few days! I'm almost scared to get to NaNo though, cause I don't know how the story's gunna go! Panic!!

EDIT: I take back what I said about her blog. I just hadn't read all the way through yet and was basing it on the very few I'd seen. ^.^;

Laters!

7 Minutes in Heaven

This is going around on deviantART; I decided to bring it here! I'm gunna just go ahead and do both my MCs from this years NaNo

1. Post 10 facts about your character.
2. Tag 5 other characters.
3. Post their names with the creators' usernames.
4. You can tag back


Seth Kerberos
1. He's the Crown Prince of Hell, but doesn't want the throne
2. He has 2 brothers who really want the throne and bother him a lot
3. His dad (Lucifer) gives him whatever he wants
4. His bowler cap is like Mary Poppins's bag: he can put in and take out whatever he wants, there is no bottom.
5. He originally would actually have people die during his circus acts, but with the rise of technology, he had to stop that because it would get around the innocent people died in this mysterious circus and people wouldn't show. So he now has aliens who make clones of a couple people in the crowd and the clones are used in the show.
6. He walks with a walking stick
7. He likes to smile. A lot
8. He captured Vladimir Dracula and keeps him in his circus. Dracula hates Seth and most of the time he refuses to listen to Seth. That is until Seth threatens to tear his head off.
9. His creatures are kept in those old fashioned circus cages
10. He likes to dress sharply.


Cole Williamson
1. His name is actually Herbert Williamson III. He hates his name and goes by Cole
2. He's been throwing messages in bottles into the ocean since he was a kid. All those messages are wishes for a different life, mostly how he wants to run away and join the circus.
3. His parents are super rich and don't spend much time with him
4. He likes Flo Rida
5. He's 22
6. He has no friends
7. He's built like a bean pole
8. He finds Seth completely fascinating
9. His parents are accepting of his being gay, but don't talk about it and haven't told any of their hoity-toity friends about it. Cole's not sure if it bothers him or not
10. He's a virgin (I think he is at least. He's being close-lipped about it)


I tag ALL of my readers to do this for at least two characters from either their NaNo or another novel/story they're working on. Ahahaha!!


----


I forgot to blog about writer's group! It was good. I read the story about the girl who jumped off the cliff and they liked it. That makes me happy :D


The 5 minute prompt this week was equinox.

Trevor stood in front of the giant glass windows that made up one wall of his office. The sun was setting, signaling the half way mark of the fall equinox. He liked days like this one, when the sun was up as long as the moon. It reminded him of perfection, of being complete.

Unlike him.

He was more like the first day of winter: more dark than light; uneven, unhappy. 

 He turned away from the glass, too bothered to watch the sun vanish over the horizon. He should have picked an east facing office. He'd much prefer to reflect on the beginning of a new day rather then dwell on the death of the past. 

 He nodded to himself as he decided that first thing in the morning he was moving his office to the other side of the building.

 I don't like that last line-paragraph thing. I should have just ended it without that, but oh well. I like this character though! He was an angel who became intrigued by the humans and came down to Earth. When he did, he became a model for Gap, claiming to be 16. When he 'turned 18' he started modeling fr Calvin Klein. He became vein through all this and God sent another angel to rip his wings off. But Trevor was given a chance to redeem himself! He had to use his vanity to change the world somehow. Trevor decided to open a modeling agency that hires only those in the LGBT community and works to help the gay community. He stopped modeling because when his wings were torn out, they left large scars from his shoulders down to his waist. Whenever he gets too vain (or really vain at all) the scars start to burn and cause him a lot of pain.

Maybe I'll do something with him later. Right now he's an rp character and I'm going to have fun with him!

And yes, I do have a thing for angels and other winged creatures. Don't ask me why.

The 5 words this week are:

• operate
• bonnie
• diadem
• collide
• raft

I have no clue what I'm going to do with these words. Wish me luck on that! Ha!

Laters!

Noises and Kisses

I stole a meme about NaNo :)

AT THE START: DO YOU:
Have an outline? Nope!
Scene-by-scene? I'm not sure what this means... I write by the seat of my pants with very little planning
Know how it starts? I do now! That makes me happy, cause I had NO clue.
Know how it ends? As all romance novels do: with a happily ever after
Have your climax in order? Uhh.... not really... like I said, I don't plan
Know your main characters yet? Yuppers I do. His name is Herbert but prefers to go by Cole
Have a particular tone in mind? Maybe?
Plan to draw on your own experiences? Not really...

IS YOUR WORK GOING TO BE:
Funny? Yes, cause that's how I roll
Serious? In some spots, maybe
Sad? Possibly, I don't know yet
Semi-Autobiographical? Of course! Cause, ya know, I'm a guy, have run away to join the circus, and fallen in love with the Devil's son.

Based on another story? Not really. One of the characters/the setting is based off of a CD though

HOW HAVE MUCH YOU PLANNED? HAVE YOU USED:
A paper journal? Yup! I write on graph paper
Pens? Duh. I don't like pencils
Multicoloured pens? Actually, yes. I normally write in purple, but I LOVE writing in two different colors
A computer? Kinda
Index cards? Never used em for stories
Bulleted lists? Maybe? Wait! Yes!
Plot charts? Nope
Character charts? Nope
Character formulas? Huh?
Favourite writing resource? My brain.

ODDS AND ENDS:
A line you would like to use: "Shut up unless you want to end up my new talking head."

A scene you would like to include: Marcus the Zombie eating glass bottles
A concept you would like to explore: How a zombie continually gets out of its cage and eats its keeper ALL THE TIME
A cliché you would like to avoid: I don't know. I kinda like cliches.
A character you would like to use: Vladimir Dracula. He'll be in there, oh ya.

FORWARD THINKING:
Do you expect to be able to complete it? Of course
Do you intend to complete it? Yes!
Would you ever try to publish it? Maybe one day. I'm excited by this story!
What do you expect to get out of this month of frantic writing? A completely awesome and totally rad story :D

I CAN'T WAIT FOR NANOWRIMO!!!!

I Need You

Yey! I have done some writing! Big smiles everywhere!

So, on Gaia I'm doing a writer's tourney (don't get me started on that lol) that's finally getting off, somewhat. Anyways, I'm in the first battle, so I wrote mine today. I love it, actually.

Seth is mine, though I don't write it from his point of view. I wrote it from one of the other girl's characters, cause it puts more mystery on Seth. BTW, Seth is one of the MCs of my NaNo for this year. I'm so happy to have been able to use him and practice with him!

Also, this isn't edited, too lazy to do so about now. 

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Julianna screamed as she beat against the wooden coffin lid. This wasn’t happening; there was no way it could be happening. She could hear the dirt hitting the lid, shovel by shovel. She was being buried alive. 

Her screams stopped for a moment as she tried to catch her breath, but there wasn’t much air in the wooden box. Everything was closing in on her as the thuds from the dirt seemed to get farther away. The dirt was pressing down on the coffin lid, the wood buckling some under the weight. She was going to suffocate. She was going to die in this box. 

“Let me out!” she screamed in a shrill voice, thrashing around and beating on the wood above her. “I don’t want to die!” 

The thuds from the dirt stopped and she cried, thinking she was completely buried six feet under. No one could hear her screaming. Her hands throbbed in pain, her knuckles bleeding, her lungs stinging. She could feel the blackness closing in from the corners of her vision. Everything that led up to that moment played in her mind’s eye and she regretted every movement. 

---- 

Julianna and her brother Salem were in some trouble and in hopes to make it better they entered a contest: a tournament to fight for their very lives. She thought it was a stupid idea and that they were morons for doing it but as her brother pointed out: they didn’t have any other choices. So she went along with it. 

They had spent a little time looking around the area under the fighting arena, meeting a few of the people, possibly making a few friends. They couldn’t get too close to any of them seeing what they were there for. Then one morning, a man, who said he was one of the referees named Vole, or Mole, or something like that, came into their room and woke them. They were first up for battle against some guy. He said the names had been picked at random. 

She was hopeful. Vole-Mole had mentioned that he was only one guy, and there were two of them. One guy couldn’t take on both of them at once. For the first time since Salem had brought up the idea of this tourney, Julianna felt like they were really going to make it through this thing and win. 

Her hope only grew as they were led out into the arena by a girl who said her name was Jessica. She was a referee too. 

She looked around. The arena they were to be fighting in was and old arena, like the ones used in ancient Rome to fight lions. If this were ancient Roman times, she would say that her and her brother were the lions and the other guy was the poor, stupid soul who had to deal with them. 

She smirked softly to herself as a new voice spoke. She couldn’t find the man and figured he was above the crowd that was shouting and cheering all around them. 

“Here come our first fighters now! Let’s hear it for siblings Julianna and Salem!” 

The crowd’s applauding got louder. They were really excited. They must know what she herself knew: that they were the better fighters here, or at least had the upper hand. 

Salem was really eating up the attention. He was strutting around the little area they were told to stand, chest puffed out and hand in the air as he waved at the fans. Julianna rolled her eyes but didn’t stop his fun. After they won this battle, there would be no living with him and his ego, but she’d let him have it for now. 

“And now for the competition! Put your hands together for Seth Kerberos!” 

Julianna looked across the empty dirt playing field as another door opened. But there was no man that came out. Instead, it was a line of skeletons, dancing. Music carried out behind them, music that sounded like… like a carnival. 

“What the hell?” Salem whispered and Julianna shrugged, the look on her face mirroring her brother’s words. 

The whole place went silent, save for the music, as something that could only be explained as magical happened. Like in those movies where color washes over the black and white backdrop, the arena changed from a Roman style amphitheater to a giant red and yellow tent. The crowd was now sitting on bleachers around the center ring. The skeletons continued their practiced dance, boney arms going up then back down, their bones jittering as they moved. 

As the skeletons made it to the other side of the ring, all eyes on them, the tent finished building itself, connecting with a burst of what had to be shadow people. They began spreading through the tent, an eerie chant filling the room. It went in time with the music but added a ghostly haunt to the tune. “Welcome to the lower berth, the greatest show on earth…” It repeated as if they were singing a happy round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. 

The crowd was eating it up, a massive combination of shrieks and ooh and awes. 

Julianna was losing her feeling of being on top of all of this. But maybe this was all just an illusion! Something in the water before they came out here, or the food from the night before! That had to be it. It would all be fine… 

Her thoughts were quickly changed as a new voice came over the speakers. The referees looked at each other, clearly confused by it. 

Her eyes went wide as a man began to appear from the ground in the center of the ring. No flames, no open trap doors, nothing. Just right out of the ground. 

“Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and ghouls! Step right up!” Bowler hat, head, black button down dress shirt with white suspender. “Within this tent lies a ghastly concoction of delight, horror, fantasy and terror! Your every wish is our command, your ever whimsical desire brought to life.” Black dress pants, fancy shoes, one of those podiums that ring masters stand on. One of his hands that was clothed in a black fingerless glove was gently holding the rim of his hat, head tilted down so she couldn’t see him well. His other gloved hand was holding an intricate black and silver walking cane on front of him. “But I’m warning you… There’s always a price!” He threw his arms open like a relative inviting in a hug, his head back as he announced to his audience, “Welcome to the greatest show unearthed!” The crowd erupted into cheers and roses, actual roses, were being thrown from the bleachers of people. 

“Where are those flowers coming from?” Vole-Mole said to Jessica, who shrugged, just as confused. 

“Thank you, thank you!” Seth said, bowing. “You’re too kind!” 

Even Salem was clapping. Julianna reached over and smacked his shoulder, her hand landing next to the sheathed sword her brother wore on his back at all times. 

Salem looked at her then cleared his throat as he realized what he was doing and went about looking as if he hadn’t been doing anything of the applauding sort. 

Julianna watched as Seth stepped off his ring master’s pedestal and walked towards them. “Welcome to the show! You two are my guests of honor!” His voice was still loud, as if he were talking into a microphone, but he wasn’t holding one and there wasn’t one taped to his face. 

“What happened to your stool thing?” Salem asked. 

Seth looked over his shoulder. His little stage had vanished. “You mean my estrade?” he asked as he looked back at the boy, his voice at a normal conversation volume. 

“Your what? Is that some kind of French dessert? If it is, I want mine with extra chocolate.” 

Both Seth and Julianna rolled their eyes. Seth, though, carried on with his show. He held his fist towards Julianna. She took half a step back, thinking he was going to hit her. Instead, he extended his pinky. “Pull my finger.” His voice was once again loud. 

Julianna made a face. “Ew no! My uncle used to do that! It’s gross!” 

Seth shrugged and turned to her brother. “Pull my finger.” 

Salem grinned brightly, his immaturity showing. “All right!” He grabbed Seth’s pinky and pulled some. 

There was a groaning sound from behind the ring master and Julianna gasped. Salem didn’t look at her reacting in her girly ways to the weirdest fart he had ever heard. 

“I think there’s another one in there, do it again.” Seth grinned, loving the boy’s obliviousness to what his sister obviously saw. 

Salem nodded and pulled his pinky again. There were two groans from behind him. This time the whole crowd gasped. 

“What did they feed us this morning? Really, I think mine was made out of road kill. Go ahead and give it one more tug.” 

Salem was laughing by now, finding this man hilarious. He pulled, harder this time. 

Seth made a slightly face and a loud groan filled the tent. 

Salem froze at that. Something had just popped up in his peripheral vision. He slowly turned his head then yelled and stumbled back towards his sister. 

Seth stood to his full height and frowned. “What? You don’t like my friends? They’re hurt,” he jested, his frown pulling into a grin. 

“Those are zombies!” Salem cried out in a mixture of disgust and horror. Sure, he though zombies were cool but he never once thought they were real! These real zombies were, well, real. And falling apart. 

Seth looked around his circle then really frowned. “Where the hell is he?” 

“Who?” the siblings asked in unison, looking around. Julianna noted that the refs were gone and they were left alone with this… this guy and his zombie pets. 

“Nothing,” the ring master growled and returned his attention to the kids. He was going to have to wrap this up quickly and get out there to find Marcus his stupid zombie that got out of his cage all the time. “Enjoy.” Seth stepped backwards and vanished. 

Julianna and Salem spun around, looking for him, but he was nowhere in sight. 

And the zombies were closing in on them. 

“Salem, what do we do? You love these things!” Julianna called to her brother who had his back to hers. 

“Gimme a minute…” he muttered and pulled his sword from his back, holding it at the ready in both hands. “Aim for the head!” 

“What?” Julianna looked over her shoulder at him for a moment, not sure she heard what he said. 

“The head? If you kill the brain then you kill the ghoul!” Salem sounded confident. “We can make it through this!” 

Julianna looked the zombies in front of her that were slowly getting closer. “You want me to touch these things? Ew!” 

Behind her, Salem shuffled, fighting with something. “Here, take the sheath.” She took it from him. “Bash their decomposing heads in with it! Hit them as hard as you can!” He paused as he looked around. “There are six of these things. I’ll get these three, you get those three.” 

Julianna nodded and jumped at the first one. She remembered from her minimal knowledge of zombies that if one bit her, she would become a zombie as well. She came up to the first one and kicked it back. It stumbled and she ran past it, skidding to a stop and turning around. “Come get me you rotting fucks!” 

The three that had been on her side of the circle turned their attention on her and with a groaned cry for brains, they shuffled towards her. Well maybe they weren’t shuffling a slowly as they did in movies, but still slow enough. 

She raised the sheath and bashed it into the closest zombie’s head. It cried out something that could only be compared to a death rattle and fell to the ground. It twitched and tried to get back up, it’s head still in decent contact. Julianna stepped up to the creature and lifted the sheath, wincing as the skull shattered with a gross squelching sound. 

The other two zombies were closing in on her as she fought to pull the sheath free of the now completely dead brain. “Come on… come on…”s he pleaded and it came out in enough time to swing it and knock one of the zombies away from her. Its grimy hands hand almost touched her, almost grabbed her. 

She turned her attention to the third one, conscious that the one she’d just hit wasn’t dead yet. She lifted the bloody sheath over her head and brought it down on top of the zombie’s cranium. It groaned and fell to its knees. She repeated her bashings until the thing moved no more in a bloody mess on the ground. Somewhere in her mind, a small voice told her she was sprayed in dead blood, but at that moment she didn’t care. She turned and took care of the last one, stabbing it through the skull. She decided her brother could pull it free when he wanted it. 

Speaking of her brother, she looked for Salem to make sure he was ok. He was, of course. His skills with the blade had all three heads removed and one was even half way across the ring. “We win!” he said when he noticed his sister was done with her half. 

She grinned. “Really?” 

“Well, that guy isn’t here anymore and we killed all of his zombies, so we won!” 

“Not so fast,” Seth’s voice announced to the whole tent. The crowd had gone quiet, enthralled with the show in front of them. 

“Where are you then?” Julianna yelled. 

“Over here.” A spot light clicked on and standing in the middle of it on the other side of the ring was Seth in all his ring master glory. He pushed off the pole he was leaning against and walked towards them. “I see you made quick work of my not-so-quick friends,” he said off handedly. 

“Of course,” Salem said with pride, puffing out his chest again. 

Seth snickered. “Think you want to pull my finger again, boy?” 

“Are zombies all you have?” Julianna scoffed. “We got those things easy-peasy.” 

Seth chuckled and shook his head. “Of course not, but this is only a teaser for my Dark Carnival and I don’t give away all my trade secrets.” He smirked and then was gone. 

Julianna and Salem spun around looking for him again, then she screamed as her braid was grabbed and pulled. 

Salem jumped at the man who had his sister but the two of them were gone. “Get back here with my sister, you bastard!” he yelled into the empty ring. It was just him and the bodies of the undead creatures. 

Then across the ring, a large fun house appeared and out of it stepped Seth. 

“Where’s my sister you sick fuck?!” Salem yelled and ran towards the fun house, stopping far enough away that the man couldn’t just grab him. He had the sword ready though if he vanished and popped up behind him, or in front of him. 

Seth tilted his head towards the well lit entrance to the fun house. “Why don’t you check in there?” He smirked as noise came out from within the fun house. It was screaming followed by Julianna’s voice. 

“Let me out of here! Help!” Bang, bang, bang. 

Salem looked at the ring master then ran towards the entrance. “I’m coming Julianna!” he said loudly as he entered the fun house. 

Seth snickered and took a few steps away from the small building. His estrade appeared and he stepped up on it. “Hat trick, anyone?” He pulled his hat off his head and held it out in front of him. “Within this hat are many, many glorious things. For you lovely people… A rabbit? Will a rabbit do?” 

The crowd was silent then one man yelled, “Rabbits are lame!” 

Seth turned towards where the voice had come from and bowed slightly. “Of course. Your wish is my command.” He stuck his hand into the bowler cap. Everything up to his shoulder vanished into the hat. “Give me a second… this thing is rather heavy.” He grunted as he tugged, his arm coming out slowly. 

The crowd held his breath, wondering what he was pulling out of this small hat. There surely couldn’t be enough room in there for his whole arm to fit, and they didn’t believe that he would pull anything of substance out of that hat. 

The gasped as he produced the top part of a coffin, the hat maintaining its shape. 

“Give me a minute.” He set the hat on the ground, grabbed the handle, and pulled the coffin the rest of the way out. Once it was lying on the floor, he walked over and picked up his hat, brushing it off and putting it back on his head. 

The crowd was stunned into silence. This man was… he was something else, that was for sure! 

“Now, to get my other guest of honor.” He walked away from the wooden box, ignoring the thuds and screamed from the girl locked within its depths. 

Juliana was gasping as her attack on the coffin lid got weaker, her yells for help dying out. Her throat was becoming dry quickly and her lungs stung. She was going to die in here and she had no clue what was happening to her brother. “Please…” she pleaded with the dirt on the other side, hoping it would take pity on her and let some air through, or maybe even let her out. “Let me out…” She dropped her head back against the velvet pillow that was small and thin. She wished she was dead, then maybe it would be comfortable. 

The darkness in the box was becoming darker and she could see her life flashing before her eyes: the good memories, the bad memories, her parents, her brother… all of it. Right there in from of her eyes. 

Then there was a bright light and someone was saying her name. 

“I’m coming…” she said and reached for the light. A hand grabbed hers and pulled her up. 

Her eyes focused and the light was less intense. She wasn’t dead! She was… she was in a coffin in the middle of the circus ring. She hadn’t even been buried! But she’d heard the dirt, felt the lid come in on her. 

“I… I’m alive?” 

“Of course,” the voice that had called her name said. She looked at it then yelled and flung herself at Seth, fists ready to pummel him into nothing. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Seth said as he side stepped, dragging something alongside him. “You wouldn’t want me to break this, now would you?” 

She could hear the smirk in his voice and was almost afraid of what he held that she wouldn’t want him to break. It was her breaking something that got her and her brother in this mess to begin with. She’d broken some rich guy’s car by falling on it and said rich guy wanted them to pay for it. As if he didn’t have enough money to do that. 

She slowly turned around then gasped loudly. He was holding a large mirror, like one from a hall of mirrors, but there was something in it, a picture maybe. At least, she hoped the form of her brother was a picture. Her hopes were shattered as He began banging on the other side of it, yelling but she couldn’t hear him. 

“These pesky mirrors like to gobble up lost patrons,” Seth said as if it were painfully obvious. “Your brother got lost… looking for you.” He looked from the mirror that he’d been brushing with his fingers, the walking stick held against his palm with the last two fingers on his hand. 

“Looking for me? But I was in a coffin! Why would he look in a fun house?” 

“Do you really need to ask that of me?” Seth shook his head. “And here I thought you were a smart girl.” 

She could feel her anger building higher and growled in response to it. “Let my brother go!” She clenched her fists, wanting so badly to beat his pretty face in, but that would make him drop the mirror and she had the strong feeling that it would completely shatter. 

“I want something in exchange.” 

She frowned deeper than she had been. “What do you want? What do I have that you could possibly want?” 

“First, you give up, then you give in.” 

“Give in to what?” She looked at her brother. She may not be able to hear him, but it seemed he could hear everything they were saying. He was mouthing ‘no’ but she looked away from him. She may have gotten them into this whole mess, but she was at least going to get him out of that mirror. 

He shrugged. “I don’t know, it just sounded like a good thing to say.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, you win. You beat us.” She said the last part in a softer voice and dropped her head. 

“Good.” The mirror shattered and left Salem standing there. 

“Why did you do that?! You could have taken him!” 

Julianna looked up, anger on her face. She hadn’t wanted to give up, but her brother was more important to her than winning some stupid tournament. In her frustration, she pulled her fist back and slammed it into her brother’s face. 

Salem fell back, shocked that his sister had hit him. “What the fuck?!” 

Julianna pounced her brother and started hitting on him. Three refs came running out, one grabbing Julianna and another her brother. They were dragged off as the third lifted Seth’s hand into the air. 

“The winner!”

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So? What do you think? I'm rather proud of it! When I saw hers, I was all intimidated, and I hit a writer's block because of it. But I am so happy with this!

I didn't go to writer's group this week cause I wasn't feeling well. But I got the words. I still have to write a story for last weeks words. But here are this weeks words:

• Ruckus
• Extract
• Acclaim
• Soberly
• Cast

I need to write a story for these and the other ones from last week. I'm also looking for a new writing group because the one I'm in, while I love the 5 minute writing and the 5 prompts, there's no critique. Depending on when this other one is that I may or may not find depends on if I stay in this one or not. I like it though, for the two things I just listed.

That's all I got.

Laters!