Attempting to Prevent Stupidity from Overuling my Common Sense.

I’ll be honest, I’m feeling left out.

Everyone I know, for the most part, is getting all psyched up for NaNoWriMo.

Everyone, but me.

I’m a prep, on scholarship, and sponsored, meaning my grades are beyond important. If I get one D in the year my scholarship money goes away, and even a C is risking it.

So there is absolutely no possible way I can do NaNo this year.

*cough* unless I wake up at 1AM on Nov 1st and do something stupid *cough*

However, I’ll be here (when I can spare the time) for moral/mental support.

I can’t wait to hear of everyone’s NaNo adventures this year! Because I am absolutely NOT going to wake up at 1 AM on Nov 1st and do something stupid!

Right, Common Sense?

*sound of distant laughter*

Original Poem: A Lover’s Grief

What do you say, what dare may ring

When words mean nothing and everything?

When it feels like each syllable you cast

Will forever last,

And with it you can either catch a brick of gold

Or destroy everything that dear you hold.

–

What happens when your tongue is tied,

By thoughts and fears of what may come on morning tide?

And what may from the depths of your soul arise

If you do not keep a careful tie

On what you say and what you write

To the one who keeps you up at night.

–

He entrances you with dreams and hopes beyond belief

But may toss away your heart like an old autumn leaf.

What do you say to the one you love

When it seems that no help comes from heaven above?

When you’ve hardly met but already feel

A connection so surreal.

–

You can’t help but fall down and pray

“Good Lord, help me through this day!”

As you lose all feeling in your knees,

As you weakly whimper, “please.”

What strange emotion takes control

As you feel yourself slipping down into a darkened hole?

–

Worries, doubts, fears galore

Force themselves into your open door.

You can not help but worry that with each word you write

You may send him off in a fright.

This one you love with all your heart,

Comes as both sweet and tart.

–

Oh how the poets and people say,

If he loves you truly he won’t run away.

So much sense they seem to demonstrate,

But your in love and so no sense can penetrate

The solid wall of feelings that hide,

The old and dusty meditative state of mind.

–

So you muddle on alone

Through this world that seems of stone.

You can not know what words ring true

That he is not in fact hiding from you.

His silence may not be the fault of a word,

But of some story you’ve not yet heard.

–

But any assurance that I can give

Will be only for a second lived.

No words of relief will ever fill

The hole that comes from a silent quill.

Patience is a virtue who’s greatest strain

Comes from the silent lover’s pain.

*****************

Wrote this ridiculously late at night. It’s been a while since I’ve done a poem with an actual rhyming pattern to it, so I may be a bit rusty.

Like it? Love it? Stick to prose? Let me know in the comments below!

One Year Ago

I have officially been a blogger for one whole year.

Wow!

Since a year ago I have moved across the country and become a legal adult. I’ve received the Billy Mitchell Award in Civil Air Patrol, changed my college plans 4 times in 4 months, done a play from backstage for the first time ever (will do a longer post on that in future), and have started preparations to go where I never thought I’d go for school.

In all it has been a wild ride and I only wish you’d been able to come along for more of it.

What I’ve learned through this whole year is that you can’t blog about everything. It’s weird to do recipe reviews alongside life lessons, with a dash of short stories. While preparing for the SAT I’ve considered posting essays I do for reading and reviewing by my dear readers, but that never has seemed to fit in anywhere.

Basically this whole year I’ve been trying to find my little corner of the blogsphere.

I don’t blog like my friend Erin who can do almost everything and it some how fits into her style of blog (seriously, I have know idea why but it’s true), I’m not like the typical writers/nanoers blogs who talk about writing and post bits of their stories.

However, I don’t want to make this a fitness blog either ( I kind of set up a separate one for that if anyone is interested in following my fitness climb).

It’s taken me a year to realize this, but I like talking about myself.

Well, that’s not entirely true actually…

In reality I feel awkward talking about myself too much, and it has nearly killed me to brag about myself on all these college applications. This is in complete contrast to my biggest vice, which would be pride.

Yes, I’m a prideful person with the most ridiculously strong honest streak ever, and can’t brag about herself for any application or friend in the world.

Oh, the irony.

So what i mean when I say I like talking about myself is that I like sharing my opinions, letting people know what I think, what I like, and what I’m doing.

With those facts in mind not only would it be almost fun (there’s my honest streak peeking out) but healthy for me to make this blog a bragging blog. Well, a Me blog I suppose would be the kinder term…

Now, don’t get to excited or self conscious.

I am not rich, I do not go on crazy expensive vacations every Summer to the beach, and I have never been to an amusement park, let alone ride a roller coaster, so this may end up being a dismal failure and the most boring blog in the history of Me blogs.

Seriously, I am the girl who either wins or comes in second during the “never have I ever” game, if any of you have played that before.

This blog will literally be me trying to overcome every self conscious bone in my body and live to the mantra that my old Drill Team leader, Lt Col W taught at a leadership class.

“No regrets.”

I can’t let something small I screw up on cling to me for the rest of my life.

It isn’t healthy, and with my career plans will jeopardize my future if I can’t nip it in the bud.

I have to learn to brag (on paper at least), accept who I am and the mistakes I make (that would be my pride there), and perhaps learn some time management as well.

That’s not to say every post I do will be me talking about my “feelings” or mistakes I’ve made, or things like that.

If I have something I wrote that I really want to share or a book I read I want to give my opinion on I will.

But I won’t force myself to write anything I don’t want to post.

This is no longer the mish mash blog I started it as, but I am now giving it a purpose.

Year One was finding my corner, and new friends, in this crazy little corner of the web.

Now this next year will be the true Year One, Year One for me to get this blog really going.

This year I’m making this blog Mine.

And now for the boring stats you really have no interest in, but that I want chronicled for five years from now.

Posts: 101

Views: 1,632

Visitors: 662

Best Views Ever: 36 views on Nov 5 2014

Followers: 93

Next year’s Blogiversary Post will be much cooler, I promise.

And I’m sorry if I restated a lot of what I said a couple posts back, but I felt like I needed to cement it, having only just come up with a plan on how to make this a real Me blog.

TCWT April: Oh Romeo…

Okay, so once a week ever since April started I’ve had a mini panic attack that i’d missed my post. Then i’d remember, oh wait, I’m later this month… 24th… righhhttt…. And move on with my life.

Of course, as soon as the 23rd rolled around, when i should have been writing, and did start, on my post things got very very very crazy. My prom was the 24th, I had a full day of college visit, rowing practice, and a museum visit the 25th. I had an all day boat race Sunday from 5 am when I left the house until 8 pm when i returned.

So, yeah, this is 4 days late.

The plot for this month is… *drum roll*

“Write a letter to a fictional couple.”

Dear Katara and Zuko,

Why? Just… why? After all you guys had been through in the series, you truly should have ended happily together. Katara, I’m sorry to say this, but Aang is not for you darling. He’s a child more like a cousin to you, I can tell. And Zuko, what are you thinking? Mai is… Mai. She doesn’t deserve you.

I know you both started out bitterly hating each other. Katara, you blamed him for your mother’s death. Zuko, you used her as bait to capture the Avatar. But then under Ba Sing Se… you both felt that connection. You’d both lost your mothers because of that war, you both carried scars you’d rather leave behind.

You to are perfect in that you balance each other out.

You bring out the best in each other.

If only this ship had actually happened…

Your most shipping fan,

Originally I was going to do more, but one will have to do.

Besides, I can always post others if I feel like it. 😉

Don’t forget to check out who else is doing the chain!

5^th – http://www.adventuringthroughpages.wordpress.com/

6^th – http://www.theworldofthewriter.wordpress.com/ – Saxon!

7^th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/ 

8^th – http://freeasagirlwithwings.wordpress.com/

9^th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

10^th – http://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/ – Lannis! 

11^th – https://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

12^th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

13^th – http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/ – Starlight!  

14^th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/ 

15^th – http://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

16^th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.wordpress.com/

17^th – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

18^th – http://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/

19^th – http://from-stacy.blogspot.com/

20^th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

21^st – http://themagicviolinist.blogspot.com/

22^nd – http://www.pamelanicolewrites.com/

23^rd – http://arielkalati.blogspot.com/

24^th – https://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/ – You are Here! 4 days late…

25^th – http://theboardingblogger.wordpress.com/

26^th – http://allisonthewriter.wordpress.com/

27^th – http://stayandwatchthestars.wordpress.com/

28^th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

29^th – http://gallopingfree.wordpress.com/ andhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Book-Gap/603228309718111

30^th – http://hautehealthhails.blogspot.co.uk/

and https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.

Original Poem: The Run

I feel the ground beneath me,

The hard unloving ground,

But I pound right back at it,

It will not pull me down.

This trail is mine to conquer,

My feet will know no pain.

And however long this takes me,

All that time I’ll give

To conquering this villain,

Send him back to the unknown.

I will not fall nor break,

Until victory I’ve claimed.

This journey is a test,

And some mornings I do not wish to rise

And set my feet back to it,

But put off until a later time.

But I will never quit.

Never will I waver.

Until at last I have set my feet,

On the peak of my Everest.

No man can keep me grounded,

No storm send me crawling home.

This trail is mine to conquer,

If must conquer it alone.

********

What do you think? I’d love to have some feedback on this. It was just something I wrote on the fly.

TCWT February: Music For the Pen

The topic for this month is AWESOME!

It is basically about life.

Well, alright, technically Music, but for me a great deal of life is music.

The question is “How does music relate to your writing?”

Music inspires my writing a great deal, and I use it in different ways.

Sometimes I’ll listen to a creepy song for no particular reason, and write a short story. If I’m writing a nice long novel then I’ll like to mix it up. Constantly.

I have been working on my novel for three years. Each year it’s something new.

Every April – May I tend to get sucked into a Scottish or celtic playlist for my writing.

During July and late summer/early fall I get more into scifi soundtracks.

November, movie soundtracks (hunger games, LOTR, Divergent, things like that.)

Around December – March I am more into the modern pop and pop/rock. Recently I’ve been listening to Meghan Trainer, Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons, Avicci, Taylor Swift, and all that fun stuff.

Basically, my writing music has to do at least two of the following four things.

1. Reflect the Season

2. Connect to the level of action what I am writing contains.

3. Connect my to the original idea for the story/scene/whatever.

4. Drown out any annoying siblings, so I typically avoid quiet whisper acoustic stuff.

Example time!

When I was in the basic story development/writing stage I listened to a lot of Scottish/Celtic music. It reflected the feel and natural landscape I wanted my novel to have

When I was trying to get in touch with my inner romantic I listened to the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie adaption soundtrack (all scenes written during that time have been recently eliminated do to reversal of story. The scenes were good though. Cheesy, but with editing could have been quite good… ).

Then I think I just started listening to whatever was new that I liked to drown out siblings, and of course during December it was a lot of Christmas Carols.

During editing it almost always is whatever is new. if i’m writing something for the rifts time, the music has to reflect the story and natural background, but if all I’m doing  is tweaking and proofreading I’ll listen to something bouncy and upbeat and most certainly not classical.

When I write, I attempt to stir up all the emotions I want my readers to feel (though I doubt they feel as exhilarated as I do when a group of bandits burn down a farm house and murder a family while one MC holds back other from racing in without a plan.).

So music relates to my writing in every way. i don’t think i could accomplish half the writing I do without music. It connects me to my fantasy worlds, and help me disconnect myself from reality.

How do you use music in your writing? Doe sit bring your ideas roaring, or close the floodgate of your imagination? Is music even necessary to drown out crazy siblings?

Let me know in the comments below your thoughts, likes, and dislikes about this post, or music in general.

Also remember to check out the rest of the posts in this month’s chain!

6^th – http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com/and http://vergeofexisting.wordpress.com/

7^th – http://novelexemplar.wordpress.com/

8^th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.com/

9^th – http://www.freeasagirlwithwings.wordpress.com/

10^th – https://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

11^th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/andhttp://www.pamelanicolewrites.com/

12^th – http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com/

13^th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/ andhttp://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

14^th – http://kirabudge.weebly.com/

15^th – http://lillianmwoodall.wordpress.com/andhttp://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/

16^th – http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/andhttp://fantasiesofapockethuman.blogspot.com/

17^th – https://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/ < You Are Here

andhttp://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

18^th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/ and http://from-stacy.blogspot.com/

19^th – http://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/

20^th – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

21^st – https://stayandwatchthestars.wordpress.com/andhttp://arielkalati.blogspot.com/

22^nd – http://loonyliterate.com/ andhttps://www.mirrormadeofwords.wordpress.com/

23^rd – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

24^th – http://themagicviolinist.blogspot.com/andhttp://allisonthewriter.wordpress.com/

25^th – http://missalexandrinabrant.wordpress.com/

26^th – http://awritersfaith.blogspot.com/andhttp://thelonglifeofalifelongfangirl.wordpress.com/

27^th – http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/andhttp://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

28^th – https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

For the First Time in Forever Parody: Novel Style

Okay, so I was technically working on my forgotten novel that I’m entering my third year of work on, and I got a silly little plot bunny for this gem.

Now, I’ve written parodies before. Me and my sister love writing parodies. Someday I may share our Hobbit/Frozen parodies.

For now I hope you enjoy….

For the First Time in Forever

Novel Style

The document is open,

So is my file,

For the first time in a long long while

I’d almost forgotten what I wrote.

For months I’ve ignored my calling muse,

Busied myself with school and news,

Finally I’m looking at my notes.

 

I’ll actually be deleting

Words that don’t make sense,

I’m going to regret this soon I bet

 

But for the first time in forever,

I’m working on my book.

For the first time in forever,

I’m daring to take a look

 

At what I wrote during

That crazy NaNoWriMo!

But for the first in forever…

I’m not saying no.

 

I can’t wait to fix these plot holes.

Uh oh! But what if I find, the Big Hole.

 

Yikes I see it coming now,

A big black void in my plot somehow

I know this is going to kill my soul.

My character’s escape does not make sense,

I blended both present and past tense,

How long until the madness takes its toll?

 

Cause for the first time in Forever,

I’m sitting down to write.

For the first time in forever,

I’ll be avoiding all sunlight.

 

And though I know its totally crazy,

To hope this will be any good,

For the first time in forever,

I’ll try to believe it could.

 

Don’t let them in,

Don’t let the see,

Can’t let my family read this catastrophe.

Conceal,

Don’t feel,

Put on a show.

Write one wrong word and all my hope will go.

 

But it’s only for this scene,

It’s only for this scene,

 

Then I’ll achieve my dream,

I’ll achieve my dream.

 

There’s the end, let’s write a few queries,

A few queries…

 

For the first time in forever,

I wrote the very last words.

I finished my whole novel

Now I can listen to the birds.

 

And I know it’s not a masterpiece,

But I’m sending queries off today!

Cause for the first time in forever,

For the first time in forever….

I don’t have to fear clichés!!!!

Yay!!

*****

TCWT January: So veeeerrrryyyy late.

First off, major apologies for this being so late.

I forgot to pre-write and schedule this post last week since I was going to be out of town the actual day.

This month’s prompt is a fun one in which we can praise writers for what they do best, and condemn all else… Mwahahahaha…

The prompt was “What do you think is commonly done well in literature? Done poorly?”

Done Well

To start off, I will list what i think is done fairly well in literature.

First person: There is a complete first person rage going around these days. You can pick up almost any YA book and, oh look, another first person. However, it is done well by most writers who choose to use it. The only books I couldn’t get into when that were first person are Kidnapped (Sorry Erin! It’s just not as gripping as Treasure Island), Robinson Crusoe, Perelandra, To Kill a Mockingbird (not to be confused with Catching Fire or Mockingjay), and Code Name Verity (I don’t know if this was because of how the first person was, or the over all story, but it was one I managed to finish, but I don’t think i’ll read it again).

Good First Person Books I’d recommend

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

and I’ll end with If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Female MCs/Heroines: Sometimes they are cheesy, sometimes dramatic damsels, but over all I find a lot of very good female heroes in literature.

Annabeth in Percy Jackson, Tris and Christina (I personally like Christina more then Tris, she seems more real) from Divergent, Attolia and Eddis in The Queen’s Thief Series  by Magen Whalen Turner, and Hazel Grace from The Fault in Our Stars.

All those heroines share at least one trait with myself, or people I know. This makes them seem very real to me, and so I like them and deem them well written.

What is Not Done Well OR Needs To Be Done More Often

Yeah, okay, i’m expanding that question a bit.

First Person Character Descriptions: Mirrors. Stop with the FMC looking in a mirror. I didn’t realize how often it was done until i read Matched. Figure out some other way to introduce the appearance of you MC if you are writing in first person.

More Boy MCs: I’m sorry, but for the past two years nearly every book I’ve read is in first person from the POV of an FMC. I ahve not found any good books since Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, and The Queen’s Thief series that revolves around a boy. Even the male authors are writing stories about an FMC! I recently read Looking for Alaska, which is a romance written from the boy’s POV, but I don’t count romance. I want another good adventure novel that has a boy riding off into battle, or a quest of some kind.

And no, this is not because I like day dreaming about a prince in shining armor, or think i need more fictional characters to fall in love with. It is simply because A) boys need books to! Not all of them read scifi or comic books. I want my little brother to grow up and have a smorgasbord of YA Boy novels to choose from. B) It’s almost as sexist as having no girl MCs to have over a thousand FMCs and very few boys. And C) I honestly like boy adventures and characters more.

Sword Fights: C.S. Lewis skipped over that in most of the Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien knocked out Bilbo in the Hobbit, I can’t remember the battles in LOTR very well because they were so long and I wanted to get to Frodo and Sam…  and I haven’t been able to find a good fantasy novel in a while that had a nice classic sword fight.

Third person: More and better done third person. It seems to be a dying art these days, and the few I’ve found are rarely catching, especially the fantasy. There are some good ones, yes, but I feel those are mostly in juvenile fiction. It is incredibly humiliating to have to go across the library to where all the middle school kids are and get strange looks just to find a good Third Person fantasy book

The Only Book Series That Does Everything (minus the First person thing, these are Third Person) I’ve Listed As Done Poorly/nonexistent is Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan. A must read!

And that’s all I’ve got.

So let me know in the comments below what you like or don’t like in books.

And if you know of a good YA fantasy novel with a boy MC, and an epic adventure, and lots of sword fights, please let me know what it is called and where I can find such magnificence!

Oh and, check out the other posts for this prompt!

5^th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

6^th – http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com/

7^th – https://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/ and http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/ 

8^th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

9^th – https://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

10^th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

11^th – http://kirabudge.weebly.com/

12^th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

13^th – http://maralaurey.wordpress.com/

14^th – http://dynamicramblings.wordpress.com/

15^th – http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/

16^th – https://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/  

17^th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.com/

18^th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

19^th – https://gallopingfree.wordpress.com/

20^th – http://www.alwaysopinionatedgirl.wordpress.com/

21^st – https://deborahrocheleau.wordpress.com/

22^nd – https://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/ (you are here… and I am late. Sorry) 

23^rd – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

24^th – https://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

25^th – http://wanderinginablur.blogspot.com/

26^th – https://anotefromthenerd.wordpress.com/

27^th – http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com

28^th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

29^th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

Avengers New Year

I really didn’t want to do a fanfic for Liam’s Short Story challenge, but this was the first thing I finished.

I hope to finish an originally one shortly, and get it posted January 1st as well.

But just in case, here is…

Avengers New Year

* What is this strange tube-like structure?” Thor asked.

Tony looked up, ready to yell at Thor for touching another electric fuse or half finished arc reactor models. He was surprised to find Thor actually held a harmless trinket he’d quite forgotten was there.

“Oh, that’s a slinky.”

“A slinky?” Thor asked, stretching the twisted object out. Tony snatched the slinky away from Thor who was about to tangle and/or break it as he answered.

“Yes. A kids toy. Doesn’t do much, just for entertaining brats.”

“Was this yours as a child then?” Thor asked.

“Yeah, I used to play with it before I realized there were more important things.”

“I remember that day,” a new voice said, entering the conversation. Pepper walked in with a grin on her face as she observed the mass of, well, massive people in her living room. “That was last week, wasn’t it?”

All the boys burst out laughing, except for Tony who scowled at Pepper.

“Very funny,” he muttered, and he went back to his tinkering.

“Would you all be quiet!” Natasha snapped. “I’m trying to watch the ball drop!”

“The ball won’t even start dropping for another two hours, loosen up!” Clint laughed, and he took another sip sparkling cider from his glass. It had been agreed by most of those present that the alcohol should be held back until Midnight. Needless to say, Tony was not one who had agreed.

“I can certainly say New Years Eve has become a much bigger deal to folks since my time,” Steve Rogers remarked as he looked out the window. The group were in Tony’s  New York place for the holidays, and Tony being Tony had insisted on an excellent view of Times square. Above the buildings the crystal ball waited to count down the last minutes until the New Year.

“Everyone is always in a mood for a party, Cap,” Tony remarked. “Always on the look out for new holidays and a new excuse to not go to work, or complain about going if you have too.”

“My family used to eat black eyed peas and greens every New Years, for good luck,” Clint remarked, watching some new break out artist perform in Times Square on the tv set.

“We do not celebrate New Years on Asgard,”Thor shared, as he swiped the slinky back from tony. “We celebrate the anniversaries of battles, and kings Could someone show me how children find a ball of metal entertaining?”

“What about you Bruce, any New Years traditions?” Natasha inquired of her friend, as Steve lead Thor towards the stairs, Tony following after insisting on seeing to the safety of a childhood memento.

“Not really,” Bruce said, spinning the sparkling cider in the glass he held. “Just a family dinner, and stuff. Haven’t done that for some years now,”

“Neither have I,” Pepper replied, taking a seat on the couch next to Natasha.

“Well, then this is a treat!” Clint proclaimed. “All of us who never celebrate anything get to have fun on the last day of the year!”

And with that decleration, a great clash came from up above, and three Avengers tumbled down the stairs, busting holes In the wall and splintering the banister.

“Thor! You don’t chase the slinky downstairs! You let it go and then catch it!” Steve shouted, rubbing his head at the bottom of the stairs.

“My apologies, I don’t think I fully understand this game,” Thor said, rising from the wreckage.

“Shhh!!! That ball!” Natasha shouted.

Sure enough, the ball was beginning to move, as all of New York counted down the last minute of 2014.

Pepper hurried to prepare the wine glasses, full of real wine this time, and Tony moved to help her. Thor went to watch the “magic box” with Clint, Natasha, and Dr. Banner. Steve stood by the window, and looked out, watching as the real ball moved slowly down wards.

!0, 9, 8…. Tony and Pepper returned and passed out glasses… 5,4,3,

Steve took a deep breath as the fireworks started.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

November 7: NaNo Week 1 Report

Well, I am sitting at my computer desk, staring at a document I’ve been working since before NaNo started, and have actually been crafting for two years now, and I can’t write a word.

I think I missed a monster in my NaNo Wood Walk through, and it is taking its revenge on me for that.

Most people have muses, and they are the mystic writing deities we humbly beg to assist us in our quests and missions through the NaNo woods. We offer them sacrifices of caffeine, Chocolate, sleep, exercise, daylight, Chores, School Work, and even our own brain cells during this crazy month.

I’ve only just figured out what my muse is.

I am fairly certain my muse isn’t quite a muse at all.

I swear it is a crazy satyr marching around my head with some sort of club that controls the door to the imagination well from which my writer’s gifts come.

For those Percy Jackson fans out there, think Coach Hedge marching around in your mind palace shouting “Give me 20 words now! Where are you again? A stable? Where are the horses! The place should reek of them, give me reek! What’s this now? A ball? forget it Twinkle Toes! Break this slow dance up with a nice army of tap dancing zombies with M16s NOW!”

Of course, he’s currently sitting in a corner pouting, “Oh? you forgot to mention me? Don’t even know I’m here? Fine then, see how well you write with this little stream of plot lines cut off”, and away he goes to close the nice door that acts like a dam for my imagination.

Rather annoying, but I’m almost glad to find my source of muse-like wisdom is a half goat man with a baseball bat. While I like writing pretty verses and stories of tall muses with dark flowing hair, none of them seemed to click as the kind of source of inspiration I had somewhere in my head.

And with that compliment, my goat man is reopening my imagination well, and begrudgingly is allowing me the ideas I need to continue writing.
Hoorah!

Tip #6 For Winning NaNo: When all else fails, compliment the goat man in your head.

Now, before Coach Pen gets mad again, an actual report.

Current Word Count: 10, 332

My Words Per Day: 1,476

Target Average Words per Day: 1,667

Words Remaining: 39,668

Days remaining: 24

Projected Finish Date: Dec 4, 2014

Words per day To Finish On Time: 1,653

What about you other NaNoers? How are you all doing?