Titles are overrated.
I have been tardy. No excuses this time.Now that the obvious has been said, I'll start this much-delayed entry with a list of notable happenings in my crazy life:
1. Mister Cool celebrated his 15th birthday on February 2nd. Katie was there, and we all played an entertaining (and fiercely competitive, I might add) game of Risk, in which the Elven forces were sadly overcome by the armies of Rohan, Harad, and the Shire. We were forced to flee to the White Shores before our race was wiped out entirely. *weeps*
2. We danced the Virginia Reel in our homeschool PE group last week. The thing that made it much more amusing than usual was the fact that Katie stepped on my floor-length skirt as we were attempting to twirl down the line of dancers, and the result would have been disastrous had I not been wearing opaque black leggings underneath. Still, you should have heard me scream...
3. I just found out that I have to take the ACT and the SAT come April, instead of one or the other. (They are college-entry exams.) Pray for me; I am panicking.
4. Ever heard of Chaim Potok? I hadn't, until about a month ago. He was a Jewish rabbi and author of several books, including The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. His writing can be described by me in one word: breathtaking. The way he describes things, you can literally smell the paint on a canvas and feel heat waves as they dance on the streets of Paris. His books are also a good way to gain insight into the religion of orthodox Jews. Read something by him. Now!
5. I have been thinking about this blog, and also about my domain, Runaway-Muse.net. And the thought ocurred to me: wouldn't it be a lot simpler if I just gave this blog a spot on Runaway-Muse.net? That way, I could have everything in one spot to edit with ease. (If I recall correctly, Jocelyn Dixon did a similar thing with her blog, a Pondering Heart.) Let me know what you think! Nothing is concrete yet.
Oh, dear. My mom is telling me that it's bedtime, and I haven't even launched into this entry yet. Oh, well. This is better than nothing.
Tinuviel
Posted in Daily Ramblings at 10:44 PM on Feb. 4, 2009 - comments {3} - post comment
Two more challenges
As you can plainly see, I haven't been very productive on here since Blogoweek ended. My friend, Purpleclad, the one who created Blogoweek in the first place, has noticed this. Furthermore, she has blatantly expressed her disapproval and has presented me with yet another challenge."Blogomonth!" Was the one word that caught my attention. Blog for a whole month? Impossible! So it was that we came to an agreement: I would blog as often as I could, and she would stop bugging me. Not quite Blogomonth, but hopefully I'll establish some good patterns---patterns I apparently failed to establish during Blogoweek.
Now on to Challenge Number Two. Katie, who is dabbling in photography, came across an interesting idea: take one self-portrait every day every day of the year. That's 365 photos! At first, the idea seemed utterly foolish. Who would want that many portraits of themselves? In the end, however, I decided to take it on. After all, it would provide the participant with ways to hone their photographic techniques, as well as experiment with new ideas. Plus, it will be awesome looking back in a year and seeing how I've changed in appearance!
I started the challenge today, and you can see an album with all the self-portraits HERE. I suggest you bookmark that page if you wish to stay updated, because I probably won't be posting a link every day with my newest photo, as Katie seems to be doing.
That's all the news for now! Bed calls my name...
Tinuviel
Posted in Daily Ramblings at 11:54 PM on Jan. 22, 2009 - comments {3} - post comment
Post-NaNo Contemplations
I'm in a blogging mood.My room is dark at the moment, lit only by the pale natural light filtered through the gauzy curtains that fall from ceiling to floor, creating a pleasant Elvish effect. It just started snowing fifteen minutes ago, and already the flakes are coming on thick and fast. Perfect timing!
As some of you may know, I and many others on HSB participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last month, and almost all of us reached the goal of 50,000 words. I didn't have much faith in my ability to make the deadline at the beginning of November, but as the month progressed and I found new ways to discipline myself, the experience went from stressful to enjoyable, from impossible to pleasantly challenging.
The very last day of October, Katie and I got together a small circle of friends who would be doing NaNo (Mister Cool, Enilarwyn, Daydreamer, TigerlilyHardbottle), and spent the night in the little screened-off 'lodge' in the back of our tiny yard, which was unheated save for a fire which we kept going the entire time. We ate cookies and hot cocoa, lit candles, switched between ipods, and talked about writing. (Though most of the time we were goofing off due to pre-NaNo jitters!) By the time the clock struck midnight, half of us were falling asleep and half of us were quivering bundles of nerves, but even so we picked up our laptops or notebooks and wrote for a solid hour before everyone left for their homes.
That first hour spent on my novel was when I first started panicking. Like, really panicking. I hadn't known what to expect since it was my first time participating in NaNoWriMo, and having breezed through a few preparatory word wars before with 600+ words in 10 minutes, I had been expecting nothing but ease. Ha! And double ha!
I was frozen for the first ten minutes or so, struck dumb by the realization that I didn't know how my story began. How could I have overlooked such an important factor in novel-writing? It simply wouldn't do! I was a failure!
Of course, after those first minutes I numbly typed away the first scene that sprang to my mind, and all in first-person perspective. (That first chapter was the only one written from that particular POV.) I absolutely hated it. It was so...hard. I relayed my woes to Katie, who all but thumped me on the head and cheerfully told me I had to continue. Which I did, albeit with a complete lack of confidence.
I honestly can't remember when the Change started coming, but it did come. Sometime during the middle of Week 1, I took a deep breath, stopped complaining about how little I had prepared for this, and simply wrote. I knew next-to-nothing about my characters, my plot was full of holes, but I tried to forget about these things. If there was a scene that didn't fit, I pretended that it had already been edited instead of going back and editing it on the spot. By 'lying' to myself this way, I was able to push ahead and get some actual writing done.
The breakthrough occurred when I discovered that my characters were, indeed, taking on lives of their own. I had read about such a thing happening before, but thought it was merely a figure of speech. All of a sudden, it was happening to me! Characters whose plots I thought I had all figured out were suddenly taking shocking new directions all in the blink of an eye. I would be sitting at my desk about to write a scene I had been planning for days, when a fresh new idea would pop into my mind and would just make so much sense. It was intoxicating. All of a sudden, I wanted to write. By then, I had pretty much taken for granted that anything I wrote during NaNo would be trash, but shockingly, I found myself actually glancing over previous scenes and enjoying them. Things were looking up!
Then came my trip to St. Louis. My dad was attending a high school reunion there and for no reason in particular decided to take along me and Mister Cool. (He said it was to give me some experience driving on the highways. Despite my protests and firm beliefs that I would not survive, it actually went really smoothly. But that's another story.)
The trip lasted two days, during which I did not write a single word. By the time I got home, the inspiration had died off, and my word count was dwindling. Just as a shark doesn't survive if it doesn't keep moving forward, so I had allowed myself to sink, and was now regretting it. Two more days passed with only 400 words to show for it, and I was losing motivation.
Enter Write or Die, the lifesaving web application from Dr. Wicked's lab. Katie had told me about it a week before, but I never had the nerve to try it. That is, until desperation pushed me to do so. My first try I set the time limit to 30 minutes and the word goal to 1,000 words on Kamikaze mode, which is when your words start unwriting themselves if you stop writing for a couple of seconds.
The results were amazing. I was exhilerated. Write or Die was the solution I had been looking for!
From that day on, I successfully wrote 2,000+ words in 30 minutes every day using Write or Die until the end of NaNo, finishing my novel two days early. The quality of my writing had gone drastically down, but I was happy and proud of myself. I had done the impossible!
Another way this year's NaNoWriMo has benefited me is that it brought me closer to a circle of HSBers I had never really gotten to know before. Upon Katie's persuasion, I joined the HSB NaNoWriMo Group and really enjoyed being part of it the last few months before November. A note to them: you ladies are awesome and I'm so glad I was able to share this wonderful, hectic experience with you.
NaNoWriMo may seem daunting, but it's an amazing writing exercise and totally worth it. Who will join me next year?
Tinuviel
Posted in Daily Ramblings at 2:36 PM on Dec. 3, 2008 - comments {6} - post comment
Music and the Muse
Tonight marked a very special occasion: the execution of my evil headphones! That's right, they have now been thrown into the abyss, never to be heard from again. They are replaced by a shiny new pair of Philips headphones, which I purchased at good ol' Target for just $20. The instant I plugged them in, I couldn't believe my ears. I was so used to hearing fuzzy music that the clear, beautiful sound which then infused my ears seemed too good to be true.Is it possible to be in love with something as petty as headphones? Because I think it's happening to me...
*sighs in contentment* Right now I'm more inspired than I think I've been in the last month...and I have no idea how to handle it. Now that my muse has come to call, how do I entertain her? The only writing project I'm involved with is my NaNo story, which I can't start until November. Maybe I'll try writing some poetry...
Speaking of inspiration, I've been especially passionate about my piano playing of late. Like, more than usual. Purpleclad recently asked me to pick out the background piano notes from the instrumental version of 'Prologue' from Disney's Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, and so far it's been a breeze. Such a breathtaking piece of music! I think I'll record myself playing it and post the video on here once it's finished.
I have to go to bed now, but expect another post within a few days. I have so many pictures I need to post on here, except my brother has lost the cord to his camera. In case I forgot to mention, I'm depending on his camera for photos now, as Eni's camera has sadly reached the end of its days.
Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last entry! I promise I'll get back to you...eventually. *sheepish grin*
Tinuviel
Posted in Daily Ramblings at 11:36 PM on Oct. 15, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment
Got my braces off!
The title is pretty self-exclamatory.*dances around the room in a fit of exultation, then proceeds to make herself a batch of popcorn, which she can now eat LEGALLY*
Here's a picture of me showing off my new smile. I apologize for the poor quality---it was taken with a webcam, as Eni's camera is still broken. Don't I look...normal? *grin*
On a completely random note, I am quite fed up with my headphones at the moment. Only one earpiece actually works, and if the wire isn't in a certain position the sound goes off. 'Exasperating' simply does not do my feelings justice. I would buy a new pair, except the ones I want are really expensive and I'm saving up for Renaissance garb. At this point, I'd settle for a $5 pair from the local convenience store! (Which, according to Daydreamer, are actually pretty decent.)
What have I been up to besides getting my braces off? Not a lot, surprisingly. Lately I end up using what free time I have either surfing the web or playing the piano, without accomplishing much by the end of the day. Pathetic, really. (Don't worry, I'm not about to go into another round of self-pity.) On the bright side, I'm getting more and more motivated to work on my story, thanks to several amazing people who have inspired me with their creativity and dedication. I've started taking some free online writing courses to help me build up my characters (I'm the type of person who enjoys such things), so hopefully I'll be ready in time for NaNoWriMo.
I was awarded the C for Contagious award! However, I can't seem to find any people to distribute it to. Is there anyone who hasn't gotten it yet? *scratches head* I'm afraid I'm too lazy to check at the moment...
This post is rather late, as I wrote a bit some days ago and then decided to forsake it until I had more to write about. Wouldn't you know it, it's been exactly a week, and I still don't have anything of note to relay. What a shame.
Hopefully my next post will be more eventful, as 1) my Renaissance skirt is arriving in the mail soon and I'll post pictures, and 2) I'm thinking of changing the template to something more personalized. Keep your fingers crossed!
Tinuviel
