nWriting

I’m not sure where the n in the title came from, but I think it looks nice. I’ma let it stay.

I’m sorry I’ve been so blog-absent. It’s all Things I Love Thursday and roleplaying at the moment. The reason for this is quite simple: I’ve been sick. It’s just a cold, but it’s a very bad cold. Lee got it first and then I got it three days later. It’s been a coughing, sneezing, mucus-y, feverish cold and it really fried my brain. So I haven’t been able to write anything other than roleplaying fic and blog posts about roleplaying.

I am getting better, but very slowly. I know I am still sick because I have an ugly patch under my nose and absolutely no attention span. This is a problem when you want to write, let me tell you. But I do have the linky, and I have the ideas to write in the future.

Oh the future, that’s right. Some stuff is going to change in my life that will mean that writing Wednesdays don’t happen, at least for a while. I’m very happy about these changes, but I’m going to need to adjust the time and space I give myself for writing and look at rescheduling some life. I’ll tell you more about this when it’s all settled anyway.

One cool thing this week is that I had a surprise training course wherein we went over grammar and tone and suchlike. It was very helpful. It also gave me a short story idea so that’s neat.

The linky:

Pippi with the dragon tattoo. I’ve never read any Pippi Longstocking (I was scared of her as a kid) and I haven’t read the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but this article is neato.

(stop saying neat and neato, Jenni.)

Pearce has set himself a daunting task over on his blog. He’s going to read or watch every incarnation he can track down of Dracula and review them for us to read. Awesome sauce. I love me some Dracula and the project sounds neat FUN.

If you don’t achieve your writing goal, what do you stand to lose?

I enjoyed this article about the importance of a good critique group. It makes me thankful for my little email circle of readers. Sure, we’re all friends, but we’re also nice and constructive of each other’s work. Having different perspectives helps too.

Writing When you’re weary. I’m gonna watch that TED talk now.

Inspiration

Fall ep 202 – ‘Troubled Waters’

First thing, the morning after last episode. Megan wakes up cheerful and secure in the knowledge that she is loved. She immediately logs into facebook to chat with Ash. She is then late for school. Calvin doesn’t turn up til Midday, Alex doesn’t come in at all.

Alex is riding her bike through town, trying to locate a big black truck. She finds it at the motel Ash and Yuki are staying in, and spends her day creepily stalking them, waiting to see if they do anything. The only thing that seems to happen is they have an IKEA delivery.

At lunchtime Megan and Darius sit together and awkwardly talk about Ash. Calvin comes in, sits down with them.
Darius: Where’ve you been all day?
Calvin: sleep.

Darius: So Ash seems a bit abrupt, like, he’s a bit off hand. Kind of rude. It’s like, he isn’t treating you as well as you deserve.
Megan: I’m confused.
Calvin: Hey, where’s Alex?
D: I dunno, I haven’t seen her all day.
Darius texts Alex but doesn’t get an answer. Calvin texts and the reply is: “Dude, stop texting me.” He calls the phone again and the person who answers is clearly immature and putting on a fake high voice.
Calvin: Jared?
Jared *hangs up*.

Darius texts Alex again asking why she punched Yuki and gets into a text argument with Jared.

Things I Love Thursday

The weird, melancholy awesomeness of Girls on Cardigans. It’s like a cross between The Dog Blog and A Softer World but about girls in cardigans in Wellington.

Lovecraft inspired art exhibition opening.

Neil Gaiman’s new footwarmer

I need one of my lovely friends who is talented in the knitting department to make me this alot: Inspired by this.

Toughest coyote evah!

Day of Games

I am hardcore and stayed the whole day for Day of Games this year.

First round: Time and Temp run by Paul.

This is a neat Inspectres-esque game where you play temps at an agency for dealing with time discrepancies. We were sent back to London 1598 to check out something that they said was ‘big’. It turned out that Kenneth Branagh was there, chatting up Will Shakespeare and trying to steal Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost.

I played Charlie Greene, who had been a librarian, then a stay at home mum and a volunteer at Playcentre before temping. Nasia played a ditzy former hair-dresser/nail technician called Sam. Nick (who played Edgar Allen Poe at Fleet St) was a slightly violent former supermarket worker and Ellen played an ex-journalist.

Sam: This is nothing like Shakespeare in Love!
Charlie: It would have been if you could smell it.

I played up the mothering and even got to tell off Kenneth Branagh when we managed to track him down. This is after we had encouraged the crowd to boo him off stage and Nick’s character had beaned him with a wine bottle.