poeticmaiden

First of all, my mother dearest has placed a time limit on my internet usage. I agree with her that it is for the best, but that doesn't make it easier in the present. :P Oh well, I'm trying to get used to it. Anyways, since I have less time to post, I've decided to try out a new posting format. Instead of just rambling on until I run out of things to say, I will pick three things to talk about, each of which will get their own paragraph. I stole the idea for this from a thread on one of my favorite internet haunts.

Unfortunately, in my absence from the internet I have not, as we all would have hoped, stolen myself away and gotten a ton of writing done. I'm barely above the required word count for today: I now stand at 32,072 words. Not much time to write at all, due to the fact that my mother brought down the Royal Maternal Gavel and decided that I have to finish this Biology course by Friday, or she's marking down my grade. I complained and cried and did other such things to try to convince her to change her mind, but she would not budge. And, thanks to the fact that I had no other choice, I am sure to finish in time. Then I can start on Chemistry! THANK YOU MOM FOR BEING HARD ON ME!!!

I am taking a complete writing break in December. I mean completely. No noveling, no editing, no fanfiction... nothing. I have been attacking writing persistently for the past 20 months, and it is time for some distance. I need to clean my room. I need to get back into drawing. I need to READ. I used to devour dozens of books in a month, and now it has taken me an insane amount of time just to get through Oliver Twist. I feel like I took the entire contents of my brain and poured them out... and now my brain is empty. And yes, I do continue to churn out words with an occasional thought included, but every time I sit down to write I run the risk of saying something that I've already said before. But still, the thought of a writing-less month still saddens me, and I know I will particularly miss my fanfiction and hanging out on watsons_woes .

And that's 3 things! Now I'm off to comment on kcscribbler 's amazing fanfic. ;)

Since I'm working predominantly on this story for NaNoWriMo, I thought I'd make myself feel better about my progress and post the next chapter. ;)

Title: Evanescent Moonlight, 2/?
Word count: 2,889
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: A romance of the immortal, thwarted by a secret that should have been told, bleeds over into the realms of earth. A fairytale-ish, half-mythical fantasy story written for The Oblivious Seraph for the Phenomenon 2009.

(Chapter 1)

And would you know, I actually wrote 100 words before I started typing this entry just so I could say the word count in my title? 

So I'm not really that far ahead anymore, which is OK.  Instead of writing this entry I should probably be writing more of my story.  But my LJ just looked so lonely, with no entries since Sunday...

Evanescent Moonlight itself is 26,068 words.  Since EM was about 20k when I quit for NaNo, I'm estimating about 6,000 of those words make up part of my NaNoWriMo word count.  Seer is 12,317 words, which means... I've written more fanfiction than I thought.  Oh well. 

I'm considering a dangerous proposition that I made to myself.  I'm planning on taking a complete writing break in December because I just need one.  I've written too hard and too steadily for the past year and a half, and it's beginning to take its toll on the rest of my life.  That break might extend into January, but we'll see. 

Anyways, I do not like the idea of taking such a long break with two unfinished first drafts on my hands.  I'm thinking that I will try to have EM completely done by the end of NaNo.  But then, since Meggy's telling me that I need to finish Seer too, I've been wondering... should I try to finish both novels this month?  That sounds like a Mariellian task.  It would be good for my word count, but it sounds beyond my skill.  Opinions, anyone? 

I would.  For one, I do not believe in ghosts.  And for another thing, the idea of living in a house where a murder took place is strangely appealing to my writer's mind.  It's not just any old house: it's a house with a history.  I find the notion oddly fascinating.  Perhaps it's a little morbid of me, but I honestly believe I would be inspired. 

As far as the whole idea of a house being haunted, I blame all strange ghost-related activity on demons, and if there really is a dark spiritual stronghold in the house, then perhaps I would reconsider.  As a Christian, I don't think God would let me stay there if it really were 'haunted'.  But I believe spiritual strongholds can be broken through prayer... so it really depends. 

But I still don't mind about the murder.  ;) 

As I start today I'm more than a fourth of the way through NaNoWriMo, which is good.  Despite not writing very much, I've still managed to stay ahead of the curve just a little bit.  I'm hoping today to increase the distance between me and the required count, and get myself back in the zone where I can write 2,000 to 3,000 words per day.  Yesterday, despite it being a Saturday, I still wrote less than the daily minimum!  Good grief, I'm out of practice.  But NaNoWriMo is the perfect time to get back in practice, is it not? 

When I started the month I had some vain notion of keeping up with mariellahunt , as did many of my friends in our Homeschooled NaNoWriMo group.  But we have officially found out just how silly of an idea that was.  She reached 40k last night.  Yes, 40,000 words!!  O.O  She can type 700 words in ten minutes, and spends so much time thinking about her stories that when she actually sits down to write them, she doesn't really have to pause and think about what she's going to say next.  She's unstoppable, I tell you. 

That's why I'm making her do 100,000 words for NaNo this year instead of 50,000.  As you can see, 50,000 is just not even fair.  Of her own volition, she extended her goal to 150,000, which I think was an even better idea, at the rate she's going. 

And she's two months younger than I am!  It's not fair!  *pretends to wail but instead bursts into giggles*

Oh well, I guess not everyone can be the insane super-writer teenager. 

As far as story goes, I sent all that I've written of Seer so far to Meggy for her honest judgment, after warning her how bad it was... and she said she liked it, and that I have to finish it!   *is amazed*  If she says so, than I shall do my best -- but I am very surprised, as I thought it was beyond saving.  I'm still going to work on Evanescent Moonlight, though.  It's nice having two stories to work on, because whenever I reach a road block in one I can switch to the other while I'm trying to figure out a solution. 

More news from Meggy: down in Arkansas she's apparently found the perfect future husband for me.  And he has an insane, random love of chickens. 

I love this guy already. 

Word count:  11,245 words

After toying with the idea for several days, I've been successfully convinced not to quit NaNoWriMo.  I'll keep going, and probably at a slower pace so that the stuff I write will be of higher quality, but I'm not quitting! 

Good thing I decided that before I waited too long and got truly behind.  

Thanks to Katie, I've decided to keep working on Evanescent Moonlight for NaNo, since I just love the story so much.  EM now has 20,543 words!  :D 

I'm not giving up on Seer, though.  I still love the story, and I'm going to complete it some day.  It just doesn't feel quite ready to be born.  

Of the 11,245 words I've written for NaNoWriMo, about 750 of those are fanfiction.  Because I couldn't help myself. 

I'm still thinking I'm going to write something to enter in Watson's Woes Challenge 008.  That's one of the things that helped give me those 750 words.  It was so vague and didn't exactly have a solid idea yet, but it was getting somewhere, at least. 

Oh, and I'm happy, because I'm reading again!  (As in, reading something that's not fanfiction and not for school.)  My grandma lent me All Through the Night, by Mary Higgens Clark, and I'm rapidly working my way through it.  I'm amazed because even though the book is only 34,000 words long, the story is fantastic and engaging.  And it's suspense and mystery!  What could be better than that? 

Off to go get ready for the day! 

Fun!!!  I hoped I would turn to be her!!  :D  
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It's day 3 of NaNoWriMo, and I feel like I've fallen from the train that steamed out of the station at midnight on the 1st.  On that first day I was unstoppable, ending the day with just short of 9,000 words. 

And how much did I write yesterday?  262 words of Seer, plus 421 words of Holmes fanfiction, which makes less than 700 words. 

At the moment I'm sitting at about 9,834 words total (counting the fanfic), and as I'm watching my friends race on to 12k and beyond, I feel lost.  

Yesterday was terrible.  I could not bear the thought of churning out any more lifeless words, so I didn't.  I could not stop thinking about what a mess I had made of the first 9k of my story, wondering if it could be repaired.  It just seems that with every paragraph I write, I feel a sense of deja vu -- that I've written it all before, that every phrase has been used a thousand times. 

Not to mention the fact that I was so tired that I broke down crying at the end of my kick boxing class because I. Had. No. More. Energy. Left. 

I think part of it has to do with the end of daylight savings time, because now the sun is low in the sky and all weird, and it has a habit of making me depressed. 

Because of this, I'm on the verge of inciting the wrath of the PWWKCISWFFFN -- People Who Will Kill Cherise If She Writes Fan Fiction For NaNoWriMo.  Yes, they formed a group.  And I might go against their wishes, racking up a high word count with this crazy crossover that's been spinning in my head...

Speaking of which, I have to know: would you, dear reader, be able to take fairies seriously in a story if someone did them right?  Right meaning taking them as they are, without relying on all the hype and assuming they're automatically awesome, and also making them serious beings as opposed to cute fairy-tale fairies?  

I'm hoping that sound I'm hearing is not all my fellow Holmes fans smacking their foreheads, guessing where I'm headed and dreading it with a passion. 

Yes, my imagination is a strange place. 

Ah, I've just put on "Flying" by James Newton Howard, and it is lifting my spirits.  It's impossible for your mind to stay on the ground while listening to this music....

Title says it all.  This is officially the most I have ever written in one day. 

I'm aiming for 10,000 words today at this point, although considering the fact that I'm getting tired I'd be happy with 8k.  If I do get 10k today, I'm rewarding myself with a Granada episode of Sherlock Holmes.  ;-) 

I'm wearing my NaNoWriMo t-shirt!  *is happy* 

It's 1:23 am, November 1st.  I have 1,714 words, and I am about ready to turn in for the night. 

The first scene I wrote made me cry, as in tears literally streaming down my face.  Considering that I'm going for angst, I think that's a good sign. 

This is so awesome.

Title: One or the Other
Author: poeticmaiden
Rating: G (or PG at the worst, but I don't think it deserves all that)
Characters: Holmes, Watson, Lestrade
Summary: Odd costume choice...
Word Count:  849
A/N: For the watsons_woes weekend writing prompt of 'costume'.  I don't know if this plot bunny has been done before, but it was way too much fun to write.  Happy Halloween!  

 

           

( Read more... )

1) Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands [fannish etc.] that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.

2) Have your f-list guess your favourite character/member from each item.

3) When someone guesses correctly, strikethrough the item and put the name of your favorite character next to it.

 

*********

1. Sherlock Holmes  Sherlock Holmes himself!

2. The Last Unicorn

3. A Tale of Two Cities

4. Jane Eyre  Jane herself

5. Lord of the Rings  Samwise Gamgee

6. Chronicles of Narnia  Lucy Pevensie

7. Star Wars (both old and new trilogies)  Obi-Wan Kenobi

8. Star Trek (Original Series)

9. The Circle Trilogy (by Ted Dekker)

10. The Sherwood Ring

11. Wall-E

12. Inkheart

13. Amazing Grace  William Wilberforce

14. The End of the Spear

15. That Hideous Strength

16. Smith of Wootton Major (by J.R.R. Tolkien)

17. Peter Pan  Peter himself

18. The Thrawn Trilogy

19. Elsie Dinsmore

20. Millie Keith  Millie herself

 

Hmm.  The problem is, I haven’t been around long enough to become obsessed with very much. 

 

Good luck! 

Where I live we have an 18 inch blanket of snow covering everything, and every time I look out the window I see a world that seems to have leaped straight out of a Christmas card.  In the back yard the field of snow is still unmarred, and it seems that I cannot get tired of gazing at something so pure and perfect.  Snow in the suburbs has a wonderful quality of seeming to erase the stains of humanity, so that even though you're surrounded by houses you still feel as if you're alone in a snowy wood.  Throughout the day I'll find little snatches of Enya songs from her album And Winter Came running through my head.  (Hence the title of this post.  I think I am forever in love with her song Last Time by Moonlight.) 

It seems that the snow has covered not only the drab, dead autumn grass, but it has also buried my troubles.  They're still there, hidden under that layer of white, but I find it impossible to dwell miserably on them.  I walk with a spring in my step, and for the first time in weeks, I am genuinely looking forward to NaNoWriMo.  Who cares if my plot is imperfect and filled with holes?  I care not.  I shall be writing, and I won't have to worry about editing or writing perfectly, or any of the little things that hang me up.  And in a way, having less of a plan is much more fun, because I can discover the plot as I go! 

I also succeeded in getting Chapter 4 of Evanescent Moonlight into decent enough shape to post, which took quite a weight off my chest.  I am going to miss that story during November.  It remains to be seen whether I will actually leave it behind for the whole month, or secretly pick it up again after I've written a good chunk of Seer. 

My dear friend Meggy has started writing a new story, one starring... me!  Well, not me technically, but a character based off of me.  We were talking on the phone, and she said that sometime in her life she needed to direct a movie so that she can release her big-sister-what-are-you-doing dictator impulses.  She said she'd make a movie of the Elsie Dinsmore books, and then I begged her to make a new, accurate Sherlock Holmes movie.  We began spinning plot ideas, and I mentioned that I wished I could have a roll in it somehow.  She said that she would put me in as the bride-to-be who gets tragically murdered on her wedding day... and the plot grew from there.  She isn't turning it into a Holmes story, but she gave me permission to write an AU based off of it with them in it.  And of course, I will always know that they were the true inspiration behind the tale.  ;) 

So... happy!  The dark clouds lift, and I go dancing across the snow!  

Stolen from rabidsamfan , kcscribbler , and med_cat . 

Good... good! *is glad to hear that she is not addicted*   This was fun.  I had no idea just how deep were the depths of LJ insanity.  o_O  Warning to my HSB buddies: a few bad words in the test and some inappropriate material. 

The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test
Category	Your Score	Average LJer
Community Attachment	8.6% You have one or two loyal pals on LJ... But you probably have better things to do with your time.	22.89%
MemeSheepage	5.26% You fill out forms at work - why should you fill them out for fun?	27.5%
Original Content	17.74% Monthly rant sessions and occasional movie reviews	38.08%
Psychodrama Quotient	2.41% Warning: Can Flame When Necessary	16.56%
Attention Whoring	15.91% Slothfully Seeking Susan	20.64%
Take The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test and see how you match up! (By The Ferrett)

Before NaNoWriMo:

• Edit Evanescent Moonlight Chapter 4 and post it on FF.net
• Write something for Watson's Woes Challenge 008 (because I cannot resist)
• PLAN MY NANO NOVEL (as in, more than I already have, which is not much) 
• Survive the math and science homework 

It sounds so simple on paper (or computer screen). 

I do my best to forgive and forget, because I've found that holding grudges takes so much time and energy, and it only makes me miserable.  I think the longest I've ever stayed angry at someone was a few years, not because of a few incidents, but because of the overall attitude they took toward me: namely, they treated me like I was invisible.  But because they see me more for who I am, I have forgiven them and don't think about it any more. 

I find I tend to be more angry not at specific people for specific actions, but at groups of people for the general motives and attitudes they have.  This can lead to me being angry at specific people for being part of those groups, but if they are willing to change and leave that group, then I am willing to forgive them. 

I should have been planning all day today!  *wails*  And now look where time has fled!

I do not want to give up working on Evanescent Moonlight for a whole month.  I do not.  I love this story.  How can I bear to be parted from it when I'm right in the middle of it? 

*thinks this is not fair* 

*goes into panic-management mode, thinking about what she can do right now* 

On the Write a Better Novel blog, Bill Henderson has been giving daily tasks to help Wrimos prepare for NaNoWriMo.  He started halfway through the month giving them out by email, and then a few days later started posting them on the blog.  I didn't want to give out my email, so I don't really mind doing them about a week late.  Anyways, the first task that's practical for where I'm at says that I'm supposed to pick a character from my NaNoWriMo novel and get to know that character better.  I can do that. 

After I get a little farther in Chapter 11 of Evanescent Moonlight. 


(Icon credit goes to elentari , and a beautiful job she did of it too!)

I'm frantically trying to plan my NaNoWriMo plot before November hits.  I have some semblance of one, I just need to get it down on paper and get the ugly little details worked out. 

I finally decided that I'm going to do "Seer", the historical fiction/time-travel idea.  Basic pitch: a girl travels back into the past and then has amnesia, forgetting she was even from the future.  I decided that my other plot, The Poet's Dream, was just a little too complex for NaNo. 

And I probably already blogged about all of this before, but I really can't remember. 

Anyways, every spare moment (except for the ones I'm taking to write this blog post), are spent either dreaming up details for Seer, or working some more on Evanescent Moonlight.  EM reached 18,000 words last night.  I also thought I had finished Chapter 10, but on looking over it again this morning I discovered that I accidentally left out half of the plot-related stuff I was supposed to put in that scene.  *headsmack*  Which makes it yet another chapter that I am going to have to majorly fix.  :(  

I know that, compared to my other works, the word count on EM is climbing very slowly.  But I'm finding that I don't care.  I love taking time to linger, to simply enjoy the story and work on perfecting it instead of rushing through. 

But I am ready for a challenge, something to get me moving once again. 

So, while my soul is ready for NaNoWriMo, I am afraid that my plot is not.  Oh well.  Soul makes up for plot, anyhow.  ;) 

Credit for this awesome icon goes to emmyette .   I love it.  :D  

I saw Katie and Beth making lists of advice and got jealous.  ;)  So here we are: 

 

 

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So I finally found myself in a brave mood (and with a growing collection of icons), and so I decided to post some of them!  None of the Watson ones, since I'm going to wait until I've finished more of the themes to post some of those, but here's what I do have:

6 Sherlock Holmes [#1-6]
1 Writer fountain pen [#7}
1 Muse [#8]
3 Jeremy Brett as Freddie [#9-11]
5 Victorian Ladies [#12-16]

Rules:

1. No hotlinking.
2. Comment if taking and credit me (otherwise I will be sad).
3. If you want to take one of the textless icons and add something to it, please ask me first before doing so, and credit me for the background when you post your new icon. 
4. I'm open to icon requests!  ;) 

The base images for 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 are from the Jeremy Brett Archive.
The base images for 12-16 are from Karen's Whimsy
The base for #4 was my own screencap, and the base for #8 was found on Wikipedia. 

Enjoy!  Hope you like!


 

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