maybe several things

I feel like these five individuals are teaching me more about writing than all of the classes I am taking right now are teaching me about everything else.

I feel like I should take notes on everything they ever say.

I do have to wonder, though, why I have kept so much of the beginning of Silver Chain the same when it has always been the weakest and most obviously conceived before I was in high school. Totally got called out on that tonight, haha.

Also wonder why I constantly analyze the shit out of the tv I watch to the point of annoying everyone around me, but I don’t usually analyze literature unless it’s for a class or I’ve read it like a million times. It’s starting to be an issue with regards to crit group.

This might be one of the most stressful parts of my week, but I feel like it’s the part that will be the most important later in life. With the possible exception of learning the Spanish language (because hello how could that not be important to me?).

All work and hanging out with family members and no physical contact beside the occasional high-five is simply not feasible for me.

I felt like I was losing my mind.

My solution: more high-fives. Also playing with kids. Having a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old attacking me and beeping my nose was pretty much exactly the right cure. I mean, besides going out and jumping someone for guerrilla cuddles.

...Now that I think about it, that sounds pretty awesome, actually.

ANYWAY. I should be going to bed, because I have my costume class tomorrow morning, and we've finally started sewing. Have I mentioned that I love sewing? I do. Right now I am wearing a shirt I put together myself. It started life as a 3x NaNo shirt and one of my brother's old button-downs. It's now awesome and comfy and excellent for horsing around with kids in. Also for screaming at the television.

My life sounds really interesting with few details. As soon as I explain what I'm talking about, it kind of goes down the drain.

FINALLY: Today in my boring required English class I started writing a sci-fi story. I really hope I can finish it, because it is the sort of thing my dad would read, and honestly? It'd be pretty great to finish something.

I hate it when my RL friends ask me for advice on writing. Not when they have some specific issue or something. But when it's a friend who thinks writing twenty pages of a story definitely means they're going to finish and publish this book and they might have to fix some punctuation errors or something and they ask "what I think"...

It's pretty uncomfortable for me. I mean, I know we all start somewhere, and that's where most of us start, but there are also a lot of people who get to that point and then never do anything with writing ever again. The friend in question in this case is kind of a flighty type in the first place, so I will believe his commitment to this story/writing when I see it.

But, like, I don't know what to say. My urge to constantly analyze things and talk about what makes writing good and point out flaws always fights with the knowledge that saying something too harsh to the wrong person can make that friendship awkward (or, depending on the person, nonexistent).

The problem in this case is that the key idea of the story really is quite good. It's interesting. There could be some interesting themes about fate and second chances and etc. It's the sort of idea where you hear it and you go, Ooh, I'd love to write that, except, you know, the person who came up with it is a good enough friend they'd call you on it and get pissed, and not good enough that you can ask to snag the idea.

I find I have this problem often enough to get very weary of it. I don't know how to tell people that the ability to put words in a row doesn't make them a writer, and while I applaud the effort, nineteen pages into a story (with many common beginner flaws and a slightly below average grasp of grammar) is a little early to be talking about publishing and the sequel you'll write.

THAT SAID, I did my best to be encouraging and compliment the idea behind the story and pointed out the most immediately fixable of its flaws (in this case, the flowery dialogue in a modern-day story) and to generally not be a bitch. But still. I feel like I ought to make up a sign. Something about not running a writing clinic. I don't know.

I don't know if I've ever been this comfortable in my own life before. It's interesting, feeling like I've been waiting all my life to be right here, right now, living in a residence hall with a bunch of nutty teenaged girls and a stressed out music major roommate, getting up at eight o clock to walk across the street and learn American history, and then go out with my family for dinner almost every night, and sit in my room and read for class and fool around on the internet and eat oranges.

I don't want to be somewhere else. I don't spend all my time thinking about how much better things would be if I lived in Wisconsin/Arizona/not with my mom, or if only I could say something to Jazlin/Josejuan/whatever J name person I'm crushing on this week, or if I could just get some work done, or if my classes were less boring. I'm totally content right here, doing what I'm doing. It's kind of a first for me, and I'm not entirely sure how to deal with it.

Other than forcing myself to write, which is increasingly difficult to do, along with reading, because I see no reason to get away from the real world. I've never had trouble reading, for crying out loud, because it was always better to be somewhere else. And now it's not, and that's weird.

Not bad, of course, but weird. Very different. I think I could get used to it.

(and I've been doing a pretty good job, for me, of ignoring the voice in the back of my head that says it's all going to implode sooner or later, because things are going too well. Pretty good. Not perfect.)

So NaNo is in full swing, I'm behind on my word count, I've done all my homework this week, I'm registered for classes for both winter and the spring, and I've already got my birthday/Christmas list sent out to everyone.

But I'm behind in my word count.

Not for long, however! I'm going to an actual, official write-in on Saturday for the first time in the several years I've been doing NaNo. And hopefully I will make some progress.

In other news: Eastwick is not great television, but it amuses me so. And makes me happy. In my pants. In my pants (because Paul Gross).

Know what else makes me happy? Everything, these days. I'm so happy all the time I start to worry that something terrible is going to happen. It's been a month and nothing bad has happened. NOTHING. Creepy.

So today, I went and saw The Proposal with my mother, then came home and filed for several hours, and then scruffbunny drew me into a conversation about our shared expanded Zelda universe, and I got roped into updating our map.

Now it is ten o clock at night and I still have not finished my commission or done laundry, both things I need to do like two days ago. However, my paperwork is like so organized.

I'm really excited that I get to move in less than a week from now. I've talked to my roommate, and she's nice, though she might not stay my roommate, and I'd like to be settling in. Also by the time I am at school, I will have money to pay for things, and I never realized how much I wanted to have a matching sheet set until I was presented with the possibility of doing so.

I listened to all of The Graveyard Book yesterday, and I really love Neil Gaiman. Even if his books nearly always make me cry. While I was listening, I drew two pages of comic, and inked them, and colored them.

I am very busy for someone who isn't really accomplishing what she should be.

Is it weird that I'm kind of envious of people who can write a short story? I mean, I've had writer friends tell me they wished they could write longer stuff like me, but I kind of wish I could get a story to a manageable length. For one thing, it's easier to finish, which lets you feel more accomplished. It's also a little easier to sell, from my understanding, though that doesn't seem to be much of an issue anymore, since I keep getting sewing commissions and school is about to start, so my financial aid should be taking care of most of the necessities soon.

But it still frustrates me that nearly all of my ideas are for long, oftentimes meandering projects that take forever and often depend on some other knowledge.

On that note, however, work on SNDE is, while not exactly zooming along, still going pretty well. I can at least write it in pieces without a problem. Most of the time, I have to write in order for things to make sense, and that's a little obnoxious. But I've got a good outline and a solid idea of how things go, so I can just write whatever bit I'm feeling that day. It's nice.

I realize I still haven't done a comic con post, but I promise I still will. I'm still in the recovery process. Also I have a sewing commission to finish for a school friend, and she wants it before she moves into school--the week before I do. :/

As a belated and at this point somewhat useless piece of information, I now have a writing community. I'll try to remember to post things there, but since I hardly ever consider something finished, I don't know how often that'll be happening.

At the least, some of my stuff is there to provide hours of reading entertainment. More or less, anyway, depending on how fast you read.

So, yeah, check out qz_writing.

I feel kind of lost at the moment. I accidentally slept through school today, so I spent the whole day reading comics. I ran out of comics, and now I don't know what to do. I should go to bed, since I do have school tomorrow, but I really don't want to do that. I don't know.

The only work I did today--the only anything I did today that I could even loosely classify as work--was plotting out a Supernatural/Grease crossover with nehi. That was my day!

Also I chewed my fingernails way too much and now it kind of hurts to type. :/

One: Comics should not be this addicting.

Two: We should probably actually do something as long as Sophie is here.

Three: Writing outlines is not difficult. Plots, however, still are.

Four: Holy shit that is a huge monster I am so glad I am not playing this game.

That is all.