tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64527910511113525092024-03-12T18:31:40.627-07:00Writing with Weird NamesA rambling blog about me and my fantasy writing. Probably includes some linguistic rambling, too.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.comBlogger228125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-4195855773616303942012-03-09T11:46:00.003-08:002012-03-09T11:46:26.840-08:00Happy Spring Break!It's too bad I have all the things to do on my week off. There's a speech and a discussion on the Tuesday after break, 1,250 words due on Wednesday, and an essay test on Thursday. At least, I suppose, I don't have to do all of that while going to class and getting daily work in Statistics and my computer class or something. If I have time this week maybe I'll do next week's programming assignment, so I don't have to worry about all of that in the midst of worrying about everything else. But I won't stress about that. And I'll stop complaining about the rest of it.<br />
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I checked out a fun book from the library that I'll read and call research for my speech: "In the Land of Invented Languages" by Arika Okrent. Talks about the history of created languages, from Esperanto to Klingon to Loglan, all sorts of obscure ones too. That mostly just leaves me requiring a visual aid and info on Quenya for that speech, assuming there's something I can use in this book for the others. Of course, I need four sources anyway, so my search hardly stops here.<br />
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I could use this research for my iSearch project that hasn't even been talked about in class. I mean, it'd be something to do, all I have to do for that assignment is research stuff, it needs to have one or two books, various articles from the databases, that could totally work. I just need to keep track of a Bibliography and not just a works cited and then kind of write a reflection/log of my research. I could give it a shot. It doesn't take that much effort and if it's not right, well, I have other speeches to research for, too. But if I took the time for this it would be <i>done.</i> Then it's just a matter of cleaning up and making sure everything fits ok. I could worry about other things for other classes instead of worrying about getting this research done. Sounds like a plan! We'll see how it goes.<br />
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I promise someday I'll write about something other than school, but evidently not during this break, seeing as I have so much school to do right now.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-26256926161369086622012-02-29T10:43:00.000-08:002012-02-29T10:43:05.312-08:00Happy Leap Day!Not sure what to say about this certainly important holiday. We get an extra day, and I've heard it proposed that since it's so very... extra... we should get it off of work and school and the like. We have another day so people should get to use it to relax, right?<br />
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Anyway, I'm going to use it to make sure I actually get my blogging done this month, since I'm supposed to try and post at least twice. There's not a whole lot to say: school's kept me busy, this week is particularly hectic. I have three tests, two projects, a quiz and a paper to write all this week. Well, the paper's not due until Monday, but I'm just like that. The good news is that by now most of that's sort of taken care of. I have one test and a quiz out of the way, I mostly just need to tidy up the paper, I lucked out that I don't have <i>another</i> test on Monday, and... oh right. The projects are done.<br />
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How can it still be Wednesday? As much as I feel like I did on Monday alone I'm ready for the week to be over. Alas, I still have the two tests tomorrow and Friday. At least I've sort of cleared out my schedule so I can study for those. One shouldn't be so hard. The other... well, it's a placement test for third or fourth semester Italian, so we'll just have to see how that goes. I just don't want to have to take yet another one of those.<br />
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Otherwise life has been pretty dull; I don't get to have much of a life because of all of these classes I'm taking, but Spring Break comes up March 12th, when I at least don't have to do a bunch of homework. Instead I'll get my wisdom teeth out! Yay.<br />
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School is just stressing me out and crowding out pretty much any other clever thought I have. I think the other day I thought about where the word "talent" probably got it's current meaning, but I'm not so sure it's all that interesting. Maybe you've heard of the Parable of the Talents, told in one of the gospels? The boss goes away and leaves three servants in charge of some money. To one he gives... five talents I think. In this case a talent refers to an amount of money, maybe a year's wages or something. I don't quite remember. Anywho, the next guy down the line gets just three. The third gets one lonely talent.<br />
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The master comes back after a while, and the first guy says "I invested your money and doubled it, so here's ten talents when you gave me five." The master says "well done, good and faithful servant. Come and enjoy the fruits of your labor." The second shows up and says: "I invested the three you gave me and I got three more." The master says the exact same thing to him.<br />
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The last dude, though, had run off and buried the one talent he'd gotten, so he comes up and says "look, here's your money, safe and sound!" And the master rebukes him, saying how he could have put it to work and maybe gotten him some more money. Moral of the story is good stewardship, I believe.<br />
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Anyway, if you can imagine how people tend to want to apply this: "it's not just money," they say. "It's about whatever God gives you. Your possessions, yes, but also you <i>abilities</i>." And they send them off with the admonishment to "take good care of every talent God has given you." And then talent becomes a specific ability God gave you, or that you were born with. Viola!<br />
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I have no proof. This was me thinking in the shower.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-51624216493988465702012-02-16T09:33:00.000-08:002012-02-16T09:33:31.803-08:00In Which I Start Getting NervousSo... school. Things keep happening. Western Civ is going ok, I think, we're reading <i>Italian Journey</i> by Johann Wolfgang von Geothe, which is a beautiful book, but I'm not sure how well I'll discuss it. The past two have been pretty heavily philosophical books, but this one is just a guy on a trip and his musings. He gives great description though.<br />
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Also on the subject of Italian, after having backed off of Italian I now need to put the pedal to the metal again, at least until I take a placement test to see what class I should start with at KU in the Fall. It'll be soonish, but now I have a list of things I should study, so I'll get to writing myself discussions and things about those and bother anyone who will listen so I can remember everything.<br />
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What else... I'm giving a speech in public speaking (who'da thunk?) on Tuesday, but now that my outline's done I'm not so worried about it. Papers come up due in Composition II rather often... at some point some of these classes will cool down a bit, but the others will heat up (Western Civ will get harder around midterms, for sure), so I guess there's going to be this balance throughout the semester. Except for Italian, which will be really hard for a bit here and then just go <i>poof!</i> gone.<br />
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I find I'm already looking forward to June and Camp NaNoWriMo, since a friend and I started creating yet another language, and the people are just begging for a story so I can get ahold of their culture so I can work on their language some more. And <i>that </i>winds up taking more time than you might think, what with the two being intertwined.<br />
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But for right now, homework + Italian studying. Non stop. Should be fun. Maybe I'll blog something again someday.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-31121500912100980052012-01-31T09:48:00.000-08:002012-01-31T09:48:33.289-08:00Oh, I'm Supposed to Blog Again!Right, that goal of trying to post twice a month. It's nearly not January any more, and I've only posted once. Guess I should fix that.<br />
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School's been going on for a few weeks now, but I'm having a hard time finding a routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm up at the college late, maybe, but it's never predictable. Late may mean until six, or maybe until five, or sometimes not really all that late, if someone's hanging around at about three. It messes with my homework routine, though, if I don't know when I'll have to leave. That's probably why I hit burnout with my Italian. Trying to work out two lessons, six days a week, along with accomplishing all of the school I want to doesn't really work, I've found. Since unfortunately school has to take priority, so I'm backing off of Italian and going to a few lessons a week along with a little more time spent on native materials, which at this point can be more entertaining anyway. At this point I think it's what I need to push me to a higher fluency level anyway, as textbooks can only get me so far.<br />
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The class that will be heaviest on homework (I think) starts today, since for some reason it was a late-start this semester. I'll lose a few hours of homework time to class, and I get a fair amount of more homework: not exactly the nicest arrangement, but I suppose we work with what we can get.<br />
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Oh well, I guess that's all for today. I may have had some somewhat interesting musings before, but I've forgotten them in the rush of getting a post up. Ta!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-81361650212662889372012-01-13T17:33:00.000-08:002012-01-13T17:33:48.592-08:00Huh... 3000 PageviewsHappened to see on my dashboard today that I have exactly 3k pageviews on this blog. That's not a tiny number, as far as numbers go, but when it's applied to a blog it doesn't mean much, considering how long it's been hanging around and whatnot.<br />
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Not that I particularly mind. I've hardly gone out of my way to promote this thing or put any sort of sensational content to draw readers, and it makes me no money regardless seeing as I haven't hooked it up to adsense. Just an interesting bit.<br />
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At any rate, I've been working on catching up with Italian work and finding myself considering what language I want to work on next. Swahili? Japanese? Spanish or French? Right this second I'm thinking something a little bit useful, which in all honesty means probably Spanish but currently in my head means Japanese because... IMPORTS! I guess.<br />
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At any rate, currently my Italian listening comprehension still stinks, and until I improve that I doubt I should really move on to much else. Grammatically I'm improving day by day, though, I'm still working through my Assimil course and recently I was blessed with an Italian email penpal, someone I actually get along well with, seeing as we share a lot of common interests. Which brings me back to wanting to learn Japanese for the sake of watching more Anime and reading more Manga and getting newer video games, although anymore everything is region-locked so there's no real bonus on that front, if I'm honest...<br />
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Current plan is to resume making concerted effort with listening comprehension, probably utilizing my previous recordings and the constant input of every other kind of audio I can get my hands on. It gets boring to me, listening intently, I'm more of a reader to be honest, but <i>listening</i> is what I need, and there's no other way to fix my comprehension than just listening and comprehending. And speaking. More of that.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-19813827349123249762012-01-04T13:27:00.000-08:002012-01-04T13:27:36.023-08:00I'm All Out of Post TitlesI think a new shipment of blog post titles comes in later this week. Maybe we'll get lucky.<br />
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Anyway, one of my goals this year is to blog regularly, according to a schedule I set as opposed to just whenever I happen to remember long enough to write one.<br />
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Turns out that schedule is going to be twice a month. Not so often I get tired of it and start writing really boring posts, but often enough that maybe I'll keep it in my head to post once in a while.<br />
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I've already listed out my other goals, I suppose, but there's not been a whole lot of other things going on, as early as it is in the year. I've been chugging away at my Italian, and I should finish my book in late February, after which I'll have to move on to something else, I suppose. By that time I hope to be able to read books and newspapers and things like that in Italian. What gets tricky is that I have to get it through my thick head that it's not <i>just</i> for fun. When something is easy enough just to be fun it means I need to move on to something more complicated or difficult. If I'm not getting anything wrong it means it's time to move up.<br />
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I remember hearing about an article (classic internet-infused teenagerism: "I read an article... well, the majority of an article, about how...") that said the people who keep themselves from reaching a plateau on their knowledge or ability of something is that they force themselves to a level higher than they really should be, allow themselves to make mistakes, keep themselves from getting comfortable. That's really the hard part, getting yourself to try something new and move on.<br />
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Let's see how that goes.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-14365204296788455522011-12-29T09:27:00.000-08:002011-12-29T09:27:18.957-08:00Huh, It's Late December...It's that time of limbo where the Christmas rush is suddenly over, you're still on winter vacation, it's not the New Year yet, but you feel like you're about ready to leave the current one behind. Or maybe not. I wind up considering by New Year's goals and figuring out what I want to do next year.<br />
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Of course surviving college is on that list, since I'm taking 19 credit hour next semester and then transferring to a four-year university in the fall, and that goal is probably going to stay on the list until I'm out of college, in which case it'll probably be changed to finding/keeping a job or something.<br />
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I've got a few Italian goals, little things to count as milestones: finishing up my current Italian course, achieving a B2 level of fluency, finishing the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Italian, writing a short story in Italian (that last I feel would signal to myself that I have a reasonable mastery of the language that I can construct a thousand words or so of comprehensible script, which in my opinion is an accomplishment). I'd <i>like</i> to start a new language as well, maybe Swahili or something, but those Italian goals come first.<br />
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Also linguistically related, I'm sort of putting my created language, Ganyi, on hold. It doesn't appear I'll have too much time to devote to it, and I didn't even complete my goal for it this year (yes, I technically have a few days left to work on it, but I have plenty of other things to do at this point as well, like <i>catching up on my Italian work</i>). So for now it gets the goal of adding at least 100 words to the language and we'll just sort of go for a slow but steady pace of improving the vocabulary, which is largely what it needs at this point. I can't just randomly assign words though, I want to have my etymologies straight and common roots and all of that jazz, so it's not as simple as just any little algorithm to work it out.<br />
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Piano playing makes the list, in the spirit that I don't want to drop it. I want to improve my jazz and blues playing skills (I'm not adding a great quantifier to that, no, but as my jazz and blues skills are currently non-existent, I'll know when they're actually there, and that means they've improved. I'd also like to work up at least ten pieces to, well, I guess performance level, even though I don't expect to perform them. Maybe offertory or something at church.<br />
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What else... I <i>would</i> like to blog somewhat regularly, maybe weekly with a few excepted weeks. Maybe I'll shoot for twice monthly. Also a little fitness goal, and something fun like memorizing "Fox in Socks," and then something NaNoWriMo-esque: I want to participate in either one of the Camp NaNoWriMos (I'm thinking June) or else the original flavor of NaNoWriMo, in November. It is <i>not</i> on my list to do both a Camp NaNo and the regular one, since I doubt I'll want to try a NaNo challenge in November when I'm away from home. August is when school starts and I'll be moving and such then, so I'm thinking ideally we'll go for June, when school is out but there's not usually a whole lot else.<br />
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So that's about my plan for the next year. We'll see how it holds up under stress. It's not that I care much about planning the whole thing out, but the lists I make up are sort of reminders of things I'd like to accomplish, things I want to perpetuate, an organizing exercise, of sorts. So, yeah. I'm off to enjoy my time of limbo!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-87806371236281614542011-12-02T15:15:00.001-08:002011-12-02T16:01:20.680-08:00Hardest. NaNo. Ever.In which I finally get around to updating my blog again. Anyway, since we've last left off, I finished Camp NaNoWriMo the 2nd (did I mention I did two of those? I don't remember anymore), headed off to college, and managed to win another November rendition of NaNoWriMo.<br />
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Now, unless I've messed up on my time keeping (not all that unlikely), that means I've edited one novel and written three more this year. At least. Well, I haven't finished last month's story yet, and I'm not entirely sure I'll bother with it. I had the goal similar to last year's NaNo that I wanted to describe the heck out of everything so I could actually maybe someday <i>remember</i> to describe the fun little worlds I come up with. I did ok, I think. Mainly I'm just glad I managed to win the challenge this year. My first ever NaNo in college, and it was killer; I don't know how you school people do it. I knew it was going to be harder than before, but I guess I wasn't exactly prepared for how much harder it turned out to be. I did manage to win, though, and I've also managed to keep my grades up, which was sort of the goal.<br />
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As for the other goings on, I was sort of keeping up on my Italian course until November hit, and then I don't think I did anything for the whole month. The goal for Christmas break is to catch up on that and maybe after that I can actually <i>keep </i>up with the system. I may wind up going through it again, just for refresher and the like. Or else I'll just move onto all native materials and forget courses altogether. I do feel like that will be the next step, once I finish this. After about B2 level (where I hope to be) it's not so much learning grammar rules or basic phrases, but it's building vocabulary and assimilating from whatever you read and listen to, naturally.<br />
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I say all of this, of course, but I don't honestly know, and I never will unless I get my rear in gear. The last week of school doesn't promise to be all that terrible, one paper due that I've got written, a rewrite to hand in, and preparation for finals. Oh, an essay test. That's the major point of stress, and probably why I keep forgetting it. Finals week will hold only two tests for me, and one discussion in the class that has the essay test next week. Oh, and one of those tests only requires me to get a 22% or better in order to get an A in the class. So there's that.<br />
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I was thinking today, though, how maybe it would be fun to write a single story in a series. As it is I sort of have a series thing going with my stories in Yavn, but they're all mostly stand alone, which I like, in some ways. But I think maybe it would be a good exercise to see if I could keep a storyline alive through multiple books, a sort of pacing exercise. I'm not sure how I would want to go about it, or if I even have the wherewithal to manage it, for that matter.<br />
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I might take one of my bigger stories, like Crystal Glare or Crystal Frontier, and expand it. As the plot is now, I guess I would make that my core plot. Then I take all the freedom I want to expound on some of the background characters, take a few rabbit trails, weave in more backstory, add more elaborate subplots. That means making several points of suspense, though, as each book in the series needs to sort of have its own climax and etc.. And it means about a thousand more strings to tie and probably retying all of the ones that I had before so they work with those thousand other strings. Yikes stripes. It sounds like fun, but I'm not sure I could ever make it through the drafting process, much less editing the set of monsters that will come from that plotting session. But it might be something to try, just to see if I have any interest in that direction.<br />
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Thoughts would be appreciated, if I still have any readers (I probably don't; that's ok).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-59316397704253294062011-08-13T12:09:00.000-07:002011-12-02T15:29:42.246-08:00Summer is Fleeting...So school starts in just over a week, and do you know what I did Monday? I started a new Italian course. Brilliant of me. Oh well, it's one I've heard great things about, Assimil, so we'll see how I like it. The first few lessons are pretty easy, as the book is for beginners and "false" beginners, but they do seem pretty in depth, and for now I'm going over them for any vocabulary I may have missed and to get used to the style of teaching, so on and so forth.<br />
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Camp NaNoWriMo is going on again this month, and I'm still writing, but I should be done by school starts, if I can just finish up the story. I have just over a week to get to the point (which I only figured out a few days ago) and resolve it. Woo hoo! I should really be spending a few hundred more words each day to build buffer and move the plot along. I tend to have a bit of an aversion of moving the plot much until I have my words for the day. Odd, huh? Oh well, back to work! Writing and/or Italian!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-77257386238712824132011-07-31T19:26:00.000-07:002011-07-31T19:26:00.561-07:00I Feel Somewhat Foolish...So here's the new plan! Finishing up Italian on August 11th (dunno what was up with my counting earlier. It was off, suffice to say). Writing 2.5k every day for 50k by the 20th. Starting school the 22nd. Getting shopping and organizing done before that. Translating July's efforts into Ganyi, preferably before school starts. No plans past school starting other than finishing up any other unfinisheds as quickly as possible, and then I can re-evaluate how tough things are and see what projects should be tackled next. School is pretty much first priority though, so homework must be accomplished before projects may be done. Having never really done homework, I don't know how that'll work, honestly. We'll have to see.<br />
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I'm not going to drop Italian, but it may just be on steady hold, flashcards and what little listening and/or reading I can get done. Ganyi may be on hold somewhat after I get the translating done, too. Writing, well, I'm still going to <i>try</i> NaNoWriMo this November, but like I said before, school first. This is a new lesson for me. Before I can write or make a ton of origami or even probably talk to my spiffy cupcakes, I must do my homework. Study for tests. Etc. etc.<br />
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Gah! Right now I have to plot though. Just a few hours to August!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-51698264252290858732011-07-26T15:17:00.000-07:002011-07-26T15:17:29.986-07:00It's Amazing......how quickly 50k drops down to just 11k when you cut out the tangent stories. It'll probably be down a little bit more once I finish translating and line-editing. I'll start on that tomorrow, I think. That's gonna take days, though, with most all of the words needing fabricating, I imagine. I'll simplify all the sentences, though. No sense in using really fancy words for things when I don't even have the normal or simple ones. The real question is whether or not I can get it done by the end of the month. If I can, I guess there may be a short little Augustian novel in store for me...<br />
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I have a few more days to decide and cobble up a plot, or not. In the meantime, I'll be coming up with TONS of words for Ganyi, and maybe actually get it functional after this. Cool. I guess.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-78117130278926984982011-07-25T11:44:00.000-07:002011-07-25T11:44:44.015-07:00Language Focus or Another Novel Challenge?Now that I'm back from vacation I guess I should figure out what to do with my almost-month left before school starts. I'm <i>mostly</i> caught up on Italian, although I've been skimping on those exercises. I have a lot of material in the language I could work with: things to read, things to listen to, probably I could even find a language exchange partner or someone to kinda tutor me over Skype. I have almost a whole month to be awesome at Italian!<div><br />
</div><div>Yeah, not really <i>awesome,</i> as such, but whatever. Alternatively, there's another Camp NaNo in August. So writing, or language... another language option is to work on Ganyi. Another writing option is to edit my July CampNo (totally just made that up. Probably not the first one), and translate it into Ganyi, as was the plan. Also I just found myself yesterday on a website for another conlang, a supposedly very logical one. It's a good thing I don't have a job, I guess. It could get even worse, remember that.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The other good news is I think there's really nothing major happening from now until school starting on the 22nd of August. I need to get up to the school and return a book and get my student ID card. And some shopping, clothes, supplies, etc. I hate clothes shopping. School supplies may be slightly more fun. I can work around that, I figure.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So here's the question: extra language work, or writing something new? I don't exactly have an idea for anything in particular to write in August, but that's not much of a problem. Actually, what was I thinking about just yesterday? It made me marvel at how easily I can get sidetracked into Yavn. I was looking at the clouds, I think... and... nope. Don't remember. I <i>do</i> remember that I was looking at the stars on vacation and thinking of creating little legends or stories around groups of them, but in Yavn they'll be said to represent different moments of the Elements working together, depending on the shape. That was it. I could write a collection of those. Maybe in like 20 days. That might be nice. Have at least a few days break before school. 50k in 20 days makes for an even 2.5k/day. I kinda like that idea. And that's not so hard compared to writing 3.5k a day like I did this month. I could probably keep up with my Italian then, and I think I'm going to be done with that on like the 11th. Wait. Earlier, I guess. How'd I get ahead of schedule? Oh well. The remaining time can be spent either working on what's next or getting through the stuff I skipped. And/or translating July CampNo into Ganyi, as was the <i>original</i> plan for August. Maybe I can do it all before school starts. That'd be cool.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-21776652688721384812011-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:002011-07-14T12:02:36.548-07:00It's Camp NaNoWriMo!So... I'm a little late writing about it, but oh well. The wonderful people of NaNoWriMo are bringing a NaNo to us now not just in November, but in July and August as well! Anyway, I was planning on participating in this camp-themed NaNo in August, the second month, but next thing I know I'm starting July 1st, despite the fact that it means early mornings writing, interrupted by a bit of work, then late night shooting fireworks... and I decided to finish by today, because tomorrow morning I leave on vacation. Woo. WriMos make me crazy. So anyway! I kept planning on blogging from the time I heard about Camp NaNo being ready for July until now, when I'm actually getting the dang post written.<br />
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Anyway! A 14-day writing adventure requires 3,572 words per day. It was higher stress than I thought, since I usually go for 2,000 words per day, and 3,000 means it's a pretty good day. Of course, there was that weekend where I wrote 10,000 words every day, but that was only for three days and there was pretty much nothing else going on... anyway, I managed it, even with a day off and finishing a day ahead. Now I just want to finish my story before I leave, and pack, and... yeah.<br />
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It was originally going to be kind of a crash course/tourist's guide to Yavn, the country I made up. Of course, that hardly makes it to 50k, so it's full of tangent stories and things. That's fine, one of the main purposes for this was to do some worldbuildng before I go off and focus on the neighboring countries, and I get a lot of that done while writing a story. I'm going to do a quick editing swipe, getting rid of fluff and the like, and then translate it into that country's language so it can be used as a reader, <i>and</i> get me quite a few words made up for that, since I need to be building the vocabulary. But before I can do any of that I need to wrap up the storyline I have and get quickly through the language portion of the book. Just a rundown of Ganyi grammar and some vocabulary word placeholders and the like. A few thousand words. I'm not going to be done by the time we leave, especially since I keep chatting on Skype with all of the spiffy cupcake Camp NaNo people.<br />
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So anyway, I've managed to write 50,000 words in 13 days. Personal best, even if the words per day isn't, you can't expect to sprint a whole marathon. Back to writing!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-16431653758965611912011-05-25T09:35:00.000-07:002011-05-25T09:35:58.280-07:00Happy Towel Day!<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_day">Towel Day</a> is awesome. And it's today! So yeah, Don't Panic, grab a towel, and be a generally hoopy frood! Huzzah!<br />
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Oh, uh, things happen every once in a while. I've been working on Italian, but the passato remoto isn't making much sense to me, really... English doesn't much have it, and apparently even in Italian it's a literary-only tense, pretty much. So yeah... Anyway, I haven't been good about getting words and stuff onto flash cards, so I'm taking this week to do some review and stuff. I <i>should </i>still be on track to finish within my timeline, before school starts and whatnot in the fall.<br />
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Um, not a whole lot else to say. Towel Day!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-43513602537022663932011-05-06T08:13:00.000-07:002011-05-06T08:13:55.974-07:00Ganyi Has an Accent Now!I've been figuring out exactly what a Ganyi-speaking person sounds like if they were to speak English. I found some speech therapy diagnostic passages online, that contain all, or at least nearly all, of the phonemes in English. I wrote it out anew, making notes of the sounds and emphasis. I'd use phonetic markings, but I don't know them, so... anyway, it unexpectedly turned out to sound most Jamaican, with a few differences, but mostly Jamaican. Kinda cool.<br />
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May is going to be <i>extremely</i> busy. Tomorrow is that LARP thing, which takes all day, and I'll be missing a cousin's graduation for that... not a big deal, it's just that I'm taking a few friends and I already paid for it and all, so I didn't want to skip it. And I'm missing a practice for next Saturday, where I'm supposed to play piano in a band made up of my brothers and a few friends for one of those friends' mother's wedding reception. Yikes stripes.<br />
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I've had to self-dictate my piano practice for my senior recital lately, since it looks like I might not get any piano lessons at all this month. Speaking of, I need to get some practice done today... 31 good practicing days and I think 9 songs to whip into shape. Yikes stripes. At least I'm nearly done with school. Today is my last day of science, and then there's just a little reading that needs to be finished up, and I'm done. The reading may or may not get completely finished, I dunno. Hard to say.<br />
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Onward and upward!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-1210713390889527232011-04-28T08:38:00.000-07:002011-04-28T08:38:59.510-07:00Well, That Was QuickSo... yesterday I finished Crystal Glare. Highest daily wordcount was yesterday, nearly 3,000 words. 21 days of writing, for a total of about... 44-45k, I think. I'll let you know when I get it all uploaded into the computer.<br />
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It's vaguely worrying that all of a sudden my stories are so short. Crystal Frontier was written in '09, and came out close to 100k. I edited it down to about 60-70k. I don't mind. That's a good length. NaNo '08 ended up at about 60k, which was good, for as little of a plot I had. But things have kinda gone downhill since then. NaNo '09 was pretty long, I think, Crystal Glare Draft 2. But I haven't enjoyed a whole lot of my stories since. I've stressed over them one way or another, which is a problem. I enjoyed Enori. Whatever summer that was. Late summer '09? I don't remember now. I'll check. Ah. Summer 2010. More recent than I thought. Last summer doesn't feel all that long ago. Anyway, I enjoyed Enori. It wasn't based in Yavn, though. So I think maybe I should take a step back from Yavn, for a while. I've got exploration plots in Shorion and... does that other country have a name yet? Oh well. I think Yavn is getting a little old. I tracked its origin, as well as Shorion's, roughly, but I don't know hardly anything about Shorion. It might breathe new life into both of them as far as relations between the two. I mean, eventually either one or the other is destroyed or they come to some sort of peace.<br />
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Anyway, it's nearly May. May holds graduations and a LARP -- Live Action Role Play. Should I write in May? It probably wouldn't start until the latter half. If I wait until June, that's got my senior recital. Now, the question there is whether having a project will help distract me from the stress or just stress me out more. I'll take a few days and think on that.<br />
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I also have that language I'm creating, Ganyi, that needs some work. There's a lot more vocabulary to work on, and maybe an alphabet to polish up shiny a bit more. I wanted to get a short story or somethin' written up in Ganyi before NaNoWriMo this year. And then there's Italian, and a little more science yet, and literature... I might just see if I can take a break. I have various other things to do while I wait.<br />
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All right then!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-58149180131701011542011-04-25T11:05:00.000-07:002011-04-25T11:05:24.420-07:00I Killed a Man Today...I really should plan that sort of thing out better. I ended up kinda prophesying that my hard-hearted Arantos would die. That was Saturday, I think, that I wrote that in. So today I had to kill him off. I don't know that he was a sympathetic character to the reader, but his cousin Parika <i>is,</i> I think, and she's going to be all sad about it. I guess I never get to have his heart melt... one way or another it was going to be kind of sad, since if he realized what he'd done he would probably be nearly suicidal anyway. I don't mind killing him. I just mind that I forgot to plan it in while I was plotting, <i>again.</i> Oh well. I may edit it a few more redeeming features if I get to the point of editing. A line or two here, a flashback there, not too hard.<br />
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What's really handy is that Parika now is a source of thousands of words, because of her mourning. Very sad, but I get my word count pretty easily today. If I could just keep from being distracted by things like blog posts and piano sheet music.<br />
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I have a lot of cleaning I need to help with today, and then a piano lesson this afternoon, and then I'm gone all evening. Grar. I still need a job. The YMCA needs front desk people, I could do that, probably. I should go in and fill out an application. Bleh.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-38067709854766719412011-04-19T12:31:00.000-07:002011-04-19T12:31:46.860-07:00College O.oIt's vaguely exciting, I guess, going to college. I came up with my brother to take an assessment test and see a counselor and such-like, and now I'm waiting around, and therefore blogging!<br />
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The assessment test went fine, I got placed even higher than I was aiming for, so that's nice. But then why didn't I get the right score on the ACT? I don't know... less stress, I guess, or something. Anyway, I can take College Algebra, and English with honors, if I like. I dunno. Thursday is an enrollment party, to try and arrange schedules and whatnot.<br />
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I've found that I'm not only more motivated to get up early and write when I have things to do, but I write <i>faster</i> when I feel like I might have less time. Maybe I should schedule all of my days like that. But that's high stress, unless of course half of my day gets cancelled, like it did today. I can't exactly arrange that, though.<br />
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So yeah, productive day! Not quite over yet, but I'm gonna see about doing a little Italian and playing some Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-49368010669528427662011-04-15T12:49:00.000-07:002011-04-15T12:49:49.174-07:00Summer Jobs and CollegeToday apparently is a day to be grown-up, or something. I <i>hate</i> growing up. It stinks. Ah well, così è la vita, I suppose. Oh yeah, Italian's been going pretty well, too. I feel like I'm learning at least a little. Anyway, I got my acceptance email from the Community College today, which means figuring out when I'm going to go in and take the COMPASS math test. The whole test thing frustrates me, since I <i>thought</i> my ACT score was high enough that I could go straight to college algebra, but it appears that I'm still a point short for JCCC to let me straight into the class without an assessment test. What's annoying is that I'm that same point short from going straight to Calculus, if I were to attend KU. What's up with that? Whatever. I'll go in Monday or Tuesday, before enrollment, and take their stupid test. I'd like to get that done before next Thursday, when enrollment opens.<br />
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I also called around a little bit today for some summer jobs, the library, pharmacy, maybe a local restaurant/catering place. I'll call them in a bit. I guess. Meh. I don't even really want a summer job, but the powers that be decree that I shalt have one. Blech.<br />
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My words wrote themselves early today, my motivation being that I needed to look for a job. Good thing, too, or else they might not get written at all. It's one yucky day outside. Rainy, cloudy, coldish. I thought we were about done with this. Oh well. The story progress, with bickering characters that are <i>really</i> fun to write. I need to remember that.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-51151342131573743222011-04-12T08:36:00.000-07:002011-04-12T08:36:51.730-07:00Productive Day Is Productive!I barely managed to haul myself out of bed and write my 2,000 words, working a few more characters through their quest. Now really interesting stuff can happen! I wonder if it's still too linear. Oh well, I'll deal with that later. I found out I don't have a piano lesson after all today, so that frees up my whole day, without even writing that need be done. I'm determined to keep it up today, just for the fun of it, so I need to look up when and where I can take a test at the Community College, fill out a scholarship application, and... practice piano, I guess. Also science and many much Italian studies. I think there was something else... I dunno. I did get through Invention #13 from memory without huge major mess-ups. Some some minorish ones. And it needs to be faster. FASTER FASTER!<br />
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I'm a little hyper. I'ma go do something productive now. Or maybe watch Full Metal Alchemist. There's always that.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-86996268506314650502011-04-06T10:32:00.000-07:002011-04-06T10:32:51.624-07:00Projects!Oh, and I have someone who actually read by blog! Huzzah! I started Crystal Glare on Monday, getting back into the groove. I get to write my story of reclaiming a country from invasion. All sorts of handy dandy fantasy stuffs.<br />
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I got up early to write the first few days, but for some reason my alarm didn't go off today, I have no clue why. I even checked last night that it was on, but the dang thing didn't wake me up or somethin'. Oh well, it's a nice day, so I'll probably head out to the woods this afternoon and write in my treehouse. That makes everything better.<br />
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I think I have senioritis, I'm so lazy about school lately. I think I'll actually take this science test, just for the practice. Electric potential and all sorts of fancy stuff this module.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-19268762917187148432011-03-31T10:02:00.000-07:002011-03-31T10:02:08.435-07:00It Begins MondayI'm grumpy today, I dunno why, for sure. I'll have to just get over it, yeah?<br />
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Monday I'm gonna start Crystal Glare. I think typically I start with the start of a month, just for the fun of it, but I looked at the calendar and saw that the first was a Friday, which means only two days before the day off, and it makes unloading it a little awkward. Anyway, Monday. I need to clean my room and organize everything, finish up my plot, things like that, I guess. I have all weekend to do that. Or only the weekend. Something like that.<br />
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I need a project again; I feel awkward without it. It'd help if there was sunshine, though. It's been gray lately. Is annoying.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-73278970551370017872011-03-26T11:27:00.000-07:002011-03-26T11:27:04.742-07:00I Wonder If I'll Get It Right This Time?I'm actually a little nervous about writing Crystal Glare again. This is a bad thing, since being nervous is not something for the drafting stage. Not that being aware of it is ever very helpful for me, that I know. It's like the ACT: I was nervous, knew it was stupid and unhelpful to be nervous, but it hardly helps, it just makes me frustrated at my nervousness. I do wonder if I managed to check it at all, though. Anyway, I guess I just don't want to have to draft this thing again. I don't know for sure why I've kept poking at it for so long. I guess 'cause it's a worthwhile idea, and a chapter of Yavn's history that should be written, but written <i>right.</i> It's a cool plot now. Really! I think. I plotted out the timeline of events, it came to 10 chapters -- which appears to be my new magic number or something. Crystal Science was 10 chapters, too. Well, I suppose it might be ten <i>sections</i>, or something. The definition of chapter is fuzzy for me, just a little.<br />
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Anyway! I was just writing out my plot as if I was explaining it to someone -- like I usually do -- and things were looking pretty impressive. I had character backstories, subplots, everyone had something to do, never really just tagging along like those annoying characters can. Then I put it into a timeline, and I wonder if I scared myself with over-simplification or somethin', cause now I feel like my plot stinks. It <i>doesn't</i> stink, dangit! I <i>like</i> this plot! I'll get over it. And I think I'll start writing it in April, so I have a little time yet to think about it and modify the plot -- though I don't think I will, at this point -- and generally prepare for the project. Today I have a cold. I'm not starting today.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-11413704030079852712011-03-23T12:30:00.000-07:002011-03-23T12:54:48.937-07:00The Difficult Questions of Weird Names...So I was thinking how I hardly ever get last names written into my stories. Do you know why? To be honest it's too much trouble to come up with not one but TWO unique names per person. I mean, come on. But I was thinking that I probably should start having these dang last names or something similar if Yavn is going to progress much father. The question is, how do I make it work?<br />
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So last names probably first came from your father's name, or in some cases your profession (like Smith and plenty of others I'm sure). But what do I do with Yavn? I have the possessive prefix vu-, so maybe I can use that, but how is the name determined? Father, mother, some older ancestor? By city, perhaps? By founder of the city? Do last names vary by Element?<br />
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Well, probably not the last. I'm thinking most likely some important ancestor or something, much like they're done here on earth. Maybe it only matters if you're of the Nobility. Low Nobles and newer Nobles therefore command less respect, since their last name will be the same as their first, for a generation at least. That's where genealogy tends to matter, anyway. But then how do I identify families? I mean, that kind of thing can matter to people, you know? Ach, such a puzzle. I suppose it could've originally been held by the nobles, but in a hundred years or so it trickled down to the common man or sommat. And now I have to have enough names for everyone -.- great. Nice work, Rena. Give yourself a little <i>more</i> work, why don'tcha?<br />
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Oh, and I just got my hours for NaNoEdMo. I call Crystal Frontier about as done as I want it to be, so THERE. I cross it off the list. I move on to my next goal, focusing on Italian, maybe some Ganyi work, things like that. The summer hastens toward me, and then will hasten away.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6452791051111352509.post-5219783547514372592011-03-22T14:17:00.000-07:002011-03-22T14:17:20.174-07:00Plotting!I decided to bend the rules a little, since I so very much wanted to be done with Crystal Frontier, and I'm waiting for feedback from my readers. I still have five or six hours left, so I'm bending the rules a bit and plotting for Crystal Glare and counting it as editing time. I don't think it's actually <i>breaking</i> them, just bending them. After all, I've written Crystal Glare twice already, and I'm keeping careful track of what I did the last two times in order to fix everything -- or at least most things -- I did wrong. Eh, whatever. I don't care a whole lot.<br />
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The only problem is that I don't like to rush or push myself on plotting. Drafting, yes, get the words written regardless of the quality. But plotting... I have a general idea of what happens, but it needs to ferment. I've only edited for about an hour today, working on character profiles and the like. I just hate to... You know, I don't know what any more. Oh well. If I draw a map of Yavn as of Crystal Frontier, that counts as editing, right? Yeah, I think so.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05096583508651957575noreply@blogger.com0