What's in a Name?

There are our given names such as John Smith or Susan L. West. There are nicknames (mine at work was “Westside”). There are our twitter account names (@Sorica2001). Then there are names that we learn not to like such as “Coward” for Prag, “Traitor” for Lore, “Dark” for Dorthor, and “Cheater” for Praxel. These names all reflect on the world who we are and what our personalities will be. And we can either go with the flow like I did with “Westside” or Lore did with “Traitor”, or you can let it bother you each time you hear it like Prag does with “coward”.

I remember my name. It was “Cutie Girl”. And it wasn’t because I was cute, but because they all thought I had a contagious disease called Cuties (which doesn’t exist). I know it’s childish, but it followed me all the way through elementary school. They also called me the “Wicked Witch of the West”, which turned out to be partially true because I was a Wiccan for a good part of my life, but I never did anything evil or dabbled in the Dark Arts. It says it right there in the Wiccan Reed, “An ye harm none, doest what ye wilt.” One time, when I was in middle school, I tried damn hard to ignore all of the bullies that I was actually accused of being deaf.

stats:

music: When Doves Cry by Prince

mood: a little tired

chapters: don't ask

Questions of the week:

1. What were some of the names you were called when you were younger?

2. Have you accepted them or do they still haunt you?

3. Did any names have any meaning beyond the obvious?

Knots, ellipses, and notes: Three things that are driving me crazy.

When I write, sometimes I find it hard to write strait through. Which is why between some paragraphs I put double ellipses. And I always rely on notes. Between the notes and my literature & every two consecutive notes I place a single ellipse. Of course, the biggest problem with this method comes when you have to fill in the ellipses  and the double ellipses. Yep you guessed it. You need to fill in the gap between two ideas that might have been placed minutes apart. Which is where I get to knots. They can carry on a story for pages without end. They can be resolved easily with a "let's change the subject" or a change of the paragraph before or the paragraph after. Or they can be impossible to sort out. In which case you can delete either all or part of it and start over.

Now I am in no way advocating that this method is right for everyone. You may find it easier to write strait through. But you might want to try it if your a little scatter-brained like me. Or you could try your own method. As long as you write for at least 15 minutes a day, you'll do good.

stats:
Music: the Otherside by Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Mood: ;-)
Chapters: still working out the ellipses in 11 and trying to avoid the knots

I'm Baaack! Back in the saddle again!

Yes, I'm back after a long hiatus. And here is a first, I'm also writing a post without the crutch of my word processor. So why such reckless abandon? Well, first off my butt isn't so sporadic anymore. And secondly I got someone who I can trust to read what I've got so far and give me an honest opinion on it.

So who is this person? He's an old friend who just so happened to find me on myspace and on twitter on the same day I predicted an old friend would. He took me to go see The Village and IRobot, to listen at a Dave Matthew's Band concert, to eat at a japanese style restaurant called Osaka, and to dance at my prom. His name is Chris Daly. And although I haven't seen him for a few years, I was still enthusiastic when I handed over part of my manuscript to him.

stats:
mood: elated
chapters: 11 (with a few ellipses)
music: Black horse and a cherry tree

It'll take a miracle

I finally finished chapter 10 with no ellipses and no knots. And now I'm trying to get chapter 11 done by this Monday, May 16. There's nothing particularly special about that date except that it's two days from when I promised myself I would be finished with a third of my promo animation. And I've already completed that. But now I've got another problem. My right arm has been cramping up in the evening. And my right arm is my primary writing arm. I am not ambidextrous. So the process of writing this chapter is going to be slow. It's going to take a miracle to get this chapter done in time.


Stats
Mood: content
Chapters completed: 10
Promo Progress: Finished 1-12 on storyboard
Music currently: Your Decision by Alice in Chains

Not about pets

I realize that this post will be my 4 x 7th post. And on my 7th day I usually blog about my pets. Well today I've decided not to do that because I've decided to try something new.

I'm trying to start a new chapter in my book. Yet I'm not completely finished with my last chapter. I still have ellipses not to mention that I have one heck of a knot. I really can't wait to get the first draft of chapter 10 done.

But here are a list of issues I have 1. I think chapter 10's too long already and it pains me to make it even longer. 2. My muse frequently take vacations and I can't finish the story without him. 3. My mother is constantly interrupting me with reminders to eat and sleep and to take a bath at inconvenient times like when I'm getting the groove of writing. And finally 4. My butt prevents me from getting near the computer and writing. Whenever I go to my computer when nobody's home my colon goes into hypersensitive mode and produces poop. TMI I know, but it is a constant problem.

Carting Around a Dragon-poem

Without a doubt these are very heavy creatures

But for those who have no wings

From birth or from a fight with another dragon

Or for those who are just plain lazy

To terrorize the kingdom anymore

Or to eat any of the farmer’s cows or sheep

Somebody must cart these fire starters around.

But how does one do this?

Their butts are too big for a wheelchair

Or a wheelbarrow or a car or SUV.

However, I suppose you could stick it

Onto a really big semi-truck with a flatbed.

But then again if the creature gets angry

With the truck driver for some reason

It could deflate the tires with his sharp talons

And cause an enormous traffic accident.

So it’s only for short distances that this is done.

What about carrying it for long distances?

Like if the Dragon has a family out-of-state

And it feels like visiting them for x-mas?

Well, in that case they are flown over

By the underside of an airplane.

Dragons are no longer allowed to fly on top

Anymore because they like to eat the birds

And they can stir the plane around to catch them.

Nowadays they are flying from cables

Which is kind of embarrassing for a Dragon.

They used to put them in air balloons

Until they started blowing them up in fire

And falling to the ground with a loud thump

It wasn’t until 1980 with the Kansas Incident

That ended up making the state flat

And the FAA decide that flying them by balloons

Was no longer a viable option.

They do not like to be carted around anyways.

Stats on my book writing

I really enjoy writing. But there are some problems that have been occurring lately with writing my first book. The first one is lack of reference material. Seriously I can't find one thing on one-on-one dragon fights let alone how dragon boxing matches are supposed to happen. The good news is that I have a lot of room in which to bullshit. The bad news is that there are no established guidelines. So I'm sort of the first to write about dragon boxing. If I were to guess I would say it would be a combination of kangaroo and human boxing. The second is the inability to fill the holes. There are gaps in my chapter 10. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except that my non-hole parts already have more than 4500 words in this one chapter. And I'm not even done with the bulk of this chapter yet. So in the end I'm going to have one really long chapter. My third problem is knots. Knots are places in the story that either force the story to go on longer or screw the story up completely. First you have to find them. And sometimes they're there and sometimes they're not. When you do find them you can either delete and go around them or you can try to comb them out. Either way it's a big pain in the ass.

Mood: tired
Music: none
chapter:10.5 out of 21