Today is the Day

Today's the day. For better or for worse, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to read my Script Frenzy manuscript.

Wish me luck. In my three Screnzies, this is the first time I've summoned the courage to go through the result (shameful, I know). I have no idea what I might find.

I'm a little scared. I found after reading my NaNo novel that the parts I felt when writing them were absolutely horrid weren't actually so terrible as I remembered. The parts, however, I thought at the time were kind of good... made me want to scream. They were so bad.

Throughout April I felt for the most part that what I was writing was pretty good, sort of. But that probably just means that when I look at it again I will pluck my head hair by hair.

So, if you don't see me around for a while, I'm probably still recovering from the trauma, and shopping for wigs on Amazon*.

When I'm back together, you might get to see some amusing Screnzyisms.

When you reread your first drafts for the first time,** do you find it's better or worse than you remember? Have you ever come across any particularly amusing errors or typos? If you're not a writer and you're reading this post, do you like pie?



*Okay, I couldn't resist. I just did it. I think this one would look really natural on me, don't you think?
**That sounds sorta funny: reread for the first time. Hehe. Anyway.

Vict'ry!

(In using an apostrophe and exclamation point in the title, I am distancing myself from ZNZ's very similar post. =P)

I just won. In the past thirty days, I bled and perspired and cried my way to 100 pages. Some of it was actually okay, and some of it was an embarrassment to screenwriting, that's what revision's for, right?

So now it's time to go watch a movie, relax, and celebrate. Congratulations to everyone who won! Here, have a virtual cupcake. Even if you didn't win, it's probably safe to say you've written more pages of script than most have. You get a cupcake for that too.
 

As I was typing this post, Christian fell asleep in my arms.

<3

I Think This is the Title

So, I’m trying out this feature where you can post a blog post through email. I’m assuming the subject of the email becomes the title of the post, but I’m not really sure.

I don’t really have much to write, except that I have nothing to write. Last night working on Script Frenzy, I was so out of things to write my characters engaged in a philosophical discussion concerning the metronome. It was actually sort of interesting, and rather fun to write. And also painfully reminiscent of my own trials involving the metronome…

My metronome scene is pretty much wrapped up, and I’m not sure what to write next. I’m running out of characters to kill off. I guess that’s what I get for making them die in the backstory. I could write backstory, I guess…

Also, I’ve been looking through my NaNo manuscript. (And Outlook spellcheck told me “NaNo” isn’t a word. That is so not true. NaNo is totally a word. I shall add it to the dictionary.) In November, the scenes I believed profaned literature are upon reread actually not as horrific as I remembered, and some of them are quite witty. Almost good, even, ringing with the little truths in life that are often overlooked. One short scene which I had ended abruptly with the words, “Oh, this is so horrific I cannot go on,” was actually rather poetic. Another scene I had been so horrified with I rewrote it twice and made a note to cut the first take, I actually found to be best in its original form.

Unfortunately, the scenes which I had thought at the time were not so bad, were really, really bad. After reading them I thoroughly rinsed my eyes and consulted Poison Control. After explaining to them that no, by NaNo I did not mean NaNO₃, they let me go with instructions to rinse again just in case and call my physician if I experienced anything out of the ordinary in regards to my vision.

The good news, though, is that in general throughout the month of November the quality of my writing increased, reaching its zenith around the time of the creation of my amoeba poem. This I found to be most pleasing. The blood, sweat, and tears I shed producing what I thought at the time to be utter drivel was not completely a waste. Only 70% of it was utter drivel.

(Okay, so I exaggerate. There was actually only a small portion of it that was entirely unsalvageable. The majority just needed major revision.)

What I fear, however, is how nonhorrific I think my Screnzy (which I also had to add to the spellcheck dictionary) is turning out to be. The vast majority of it I feel is actually tolerable quality for a Screnzy script. Which, if the same proves true as it did for NaNo, means what I’m producing is really quite atrocious.

This is getting long and rambling, and I’m pretty far behind in Screnzy and should be writing, so I should wrap it up. Those of you doing Screnzy, how are you doing? And those who did NaNo, did you find your novel better or worse than you remembered when you unearthed the manuscript from the bottom of the drawer?

Week Two Woes

Another stunning masterpiece by yours truly.

I'm behind in Script Frenzy, so naturally, I'm here blogging about it. What is it about the second week of these things (Script Frenzy, NaNoWriMo, you name it) that is so agonizing?

The first week you dive in to a brand new script (or novel or what have you) aflame with passion for your story, keen to let the words flow into your ink (or pixels). You're zipping along, racing furiously after that fluffy plot bunny*, consistently passing your daily quota, when suddenly Week Two hits. That cute, fluffy, wubbable wittle plot bunny was really leading you into a trap--and you fall into the gaping plot hole it placed in your path. 

The darkness inside the hole is disorienting, and you can't even string together a halfway-coherent sentence. Unable to see, you panic, running to and fro and hitting the hard wall of the hole every time. Your characters ditch you, leaving you to rot and die. You crawl into a hole (wait, you're already in a hole...) and go to sleep.

When you wake, it's Week Three. The morning shines brightly, birds sing, and you're like, "Now wait a minute. I can climb out of this hole. I can climb out of this hole! Why didn't I think of that before?!" And you get up and climb out of the hole.

(At least, that's what most NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy participants seem to claim they find in the third week. I usually find Week Three the worst. But anyway.)

And then, Week Four is usually a blur as you zoom to the finish line. Or, for some, it's blurry from the tears you shed because you didn't win.

So anyway, it's Week Two. I'm not sure I'm all the way down in a hole, but I've hit a rut, definitely. (And I can't form a coherent sentence, which is evident in the quality of this post.) My state of stuckness, though, is mainly caused by my own nerdiness. Chemistry is just too much fun! Who wants to write when one can be learning about matter and its phases?!

The only reason I haven't done any chemistry today, in fact, is because I've been saving it as a reward for catching up to my page-count quota. Which means I really need to close Blogger and open Celtx**, because I am itching to get the scoop on why exactly water expands when it freezes...

But before I go, here's your daily dose of nerdiness.

* If you don't know what a plot bunny is, see ZNZ's explanation.
** Celtx is a wonderful script-writing software and my BFF during April.

[Witty Title Here]

FADE IN:

INT. OLIVIA'S HOUSE - NIGHT
OLIVIA, mid-teens, sits cross-legged on a leather sofa, a dog curled up beside her. On the floor lies a small stack of notebooks and screenwriting manuals. This is obviously a girl in procrastination.

She hunches over to stare at the laptop resting on her thighs. The blank white screen reflects on her glasses.

ON THE MONITOR

The cursor blinks ominously in the empty Blogger "compose" tab, pausing briefly as the draft is autosaved. It resumes blinking, slowly, tauntingly.

BACK TO OLIVIA

Olivia sighs, scratches her nose, blows a wisp of hair from her eyes, drums her fingers absently against the computer. Suddenly, she perks up. Her fingers begin THUNDERING ON THE KEYBOARD.

ON THE MONITOR

The beginnings of several different sentences appear on the screen but are mercilessly hacked away by the POUNDING BACKSPACE KEY each time. THE TYPING STOPS.

BACK TO OLIVIA

Olivia heaves a sigh and leans back, moaning.

Then a sly smile creeps across her face. She leans forward and TYPES SLOWLY, carefully.

ON THE MONITOR

First the words:

"INT. OLIVIA'S HOUSE - NIGHT"

And then, one by one, the rest of the words from this script begin appearing in the text box.

BACK TO OLIVIA

Olivia grins and nods in satisfaction. What she is writing pleases her.

Then she HITS THE TAB KEY. A look of horror crosses her face.

ON THE MONITOR

Olivia's post, now lengthy enough to require a scrolling bar thing on the right of the text box, is scrolled up to the very top. She scrolls back down to the bottom.

BACK TO OLIVIA

Again, she HITS THE TAB KEY.

ON THE MONITOR

Again, the scrolling bar thing has reached its climax.

Olivia repeats the process several times, PRESSING A VARIETY OF OTHER KEYS along with tab, to no avail. Every time, rather than tabbing over, the tab key brings her to the top of her post. She panics.

OLIVIA
What do I do?! I can't format the dialogue properly! This is a crime against screenwriting! Blogger is prejudiced! How dare they?

Looking at what she's just typed, Olivia is horrified and disgusted at the formatting. She TYPES MADLY for several minutes, trying to solve the problem, but her frustration only increases.

EXT. OLIVIA'S HOUSE - NIGHT
A SMALL HOUSE, illumined by a dim security light. A CHORUS OF NIGHTTIME INSECTS CHIRPS, and a pair of ROCKING CHAIRS on the front porch blow in the wind, CREAKING softly.

Suddenly, a CRASH from inside shatters the stillness.

INT. OLIVIA'S HOUSE - NIGHT
COMPUTER PARTS are strewn across the living room. The dog cowers in the corner. Olivia disappears. After a moment, she reenters the room, book in hand. She ignores the stack of notebooks and screenwriting manuals.

Curling up in a comfy chair, she reads.

FADE OUT.

(Yeah, it's really late and I have nothing to post. In the morning I'll see this post and be horrified that I published it for the whole word to see.

And does anyone happen to know if there are HTML tags or something to get it to tab over?)

Gasp! Is It True? Could It Be?

Christian has grown a bit since my last post,
and even this photo is old.

Yes. You are looking at a post. A brand new post.

If you're a follower, odds are when this post showed up on your Blogger Dashboard you stared at it for a minute trying to make The House on the Rock ring a bell. It has, after all, been four months since that name has shown its face in your Reading List.

I'm a sorry excuse for a blogger. This is, what, the fourth or fifth time I've posted after a long absence?

At least I can say that I've fulfilled (most of) what I said in my last post. I said I was going to manage my time better to increase my productivity, and I daresay I have. Since my last post, I've read the Bible cover-to-cover in eighty-nine days, finished the first level of Latin, completed my highschool biology course in nine and half weeks and begun chemistry, scored a nice grade under a tough judge in a piano festival, entertained my baby brother countless times while my mom was on the phone or cooking dinner, and kept in touch with long-time friends.

Unfortunately, with all that busyness some things had to be neglected, and blogging was one of them. I need to take a breather now, however, especially seeing as I've caught a cold, which is a perfect excuse to spend more time blogging. I've already tweaked the layout a bit, and that new header is a very simplified representation of Portland Headlight I made in Paint.

Another area that's received far too little attention is reading and writing, which is excellent timing with Script Frenzy starting tomorrow! NaNoWriMo's sister event, "Screnzy" is a challenge to write 100 pages of script in the thirty days of April. It can be any sort of script--screenplay, stage play, TV or radio script, graphic novel, you name it. This is my third year, hopefully my third win, and also my third time adapting.

So tell me, are you doing Script Frenzy? Why or why not? If so, what are you writing?

And is the blog just too busy?