Brace Yourself

National Novel Writing Month is held in November.

October is almost over.

Snuck up on me again, didn't ya, NaNoWriMo?

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. Afterward (ideally), you have the rough draft of a novel to work with.

I've technically participated for the past three years, although I think only the last two count. I've never won. Could this be my year? Could 2014 be the year I make it to 50,000 words?

Eh. I don't have high hopes. November is the busiest month of my fall semester. There's all kinds of papers and stuff going on this month. But I'm going to try very hard to beat last year's score.

Last year, I started a semi-Victorian, semi-steampunk, semi-romantic, very adventure-y novel that I called "The Night Rider." I got up to 12,360 words.

I'm going to work on a different novel this year. Night Rider is still very near and dear to my heart, and I hope to finish it sometime, but it's no longer the most prominent idea buzzing around in my mind. Also, the NaNoWriMo rules say that you have to write all new words, so I figure I'll just start over with a new idea.

That said, I'm having a hard time picking between two story ideas. They're both fantasy stories, although one has a bit more supernatural stuff and the other is actually a bit more scientific. One idea is fairly recent in my head- I think the grandfather of the idea popped into my head over the summer and gradually developed into the awesome thing it is right now. 

The other idea is one I've been working on since roughly last Spring Break (although it has nothing to do with Spring Break, I swear). I'd like to say this one's a bit more developed than the other one is, but I'm actually not sure about that anymore.

A major factor in the decision will probably be the fact that I actually have names for most of the characters in the newer idea. I have the hardest idea coming up with names. But I've been writing up chunks of the story for creative writing assignments, just to sort of test drive the characters, and I managed to come up with some names for them. They felt weird at first, but after a three-hour writing session on Monday night, I can officially say they've grown on me. 

So that's my dilemma. That's the update. I'll make a decision about it by Nov. 1.

I'm definitely supposed to be reading workshop pieces for creative writing. I'm definitely procrastinating. Back to work!

Just a Little Bit of Art

Last night, I wanted to illustrate my newfound journalism and office worker prowess with a little cartoon. So I pulled out the old Bamboo tablet and opened up Photoshop Elements.

I must have been really tired, because I screwed stuff up from the very start.

First off, I sketched and sketched and finally managed to get a really nice circle-plus-chin going for my cartoon head. Then I realized that my head was in the wrong position for the cartoon I wanted to draw. So I started over on a new file.

On my second try, I created another layer to go on top of my background layer. When I draw cartoons, I like to draw the outline on the topmost layer and then do the coloring on the background layer (or at least one lower than the top). With most programs, I can color over the lines a little bit and it won't show because the color is actually under the line art.

Smart, huh?

So I sketched out the outline of the cartoon, making rough eyes, a rough nose, rough shoulders, all that jazz. And I was really happy with the way it was going.

Until I realized that I was drawing everything on the background layer instead of on the top layer where I wanted it.

D'oh.

So I reasoned that, since I needed to trace a definite outline over my sketches anyway, I would just do the tracing on the top layer and then erase everything on the background layer, leaving myself with nice, neat line art on the top layer. Smart, huh?

So I resolved to do that. I changed from the pencil tool to the paint tool and began to trace over my sketches, sorting out which lines would become permanent and which would get swept away. And I was really happy with how it was going.

Until I realized that I was still drawing on the background layer.

D'oh!

That particular failure meant that I had a lot of work ahead of me-- using a very small point eraser to erase away all the sketchy marks without erasing the final paint lines. It took a very long time. I had to zoom in and squint at the screen. I had to make teeny-tiny movements with the stylus. I had to use the undo function a lot. And there was no room to cheat because I had done all my sketching in a bright blue color that the paint wouldn't cover up, even when it was a layer higher.

That project is still not done. My hand started cramping and I lost my patience. I will go back to it, but it wasn't going to get done last night, and I just couldn't bring myself to work on it today.

So instead, I did a little traditional drawing. I didn't bring a lot of art supplies with me to Virginia, but I did grab a few new notebooks from Target the other day, and I've got the pencil case I use at school. So I did a little doodle! I wasn't going to spend as long as I did on it. In fact, I was going to just sketch a little bit and then go to bed. But then the picture happened, and I didn't go to bed.

Here it is, presented in two different versions:

Version 1

The lighting in this version is the best, although the camera angle is not great (my scanner access is a bit limited at this late hour). I've had fantasy on the mind lately, so I drew an elf. Obviously I haven't gotten much better at drawing since the last time I've posted art, and I'm still working on proper proportions and oh-my-goodness-those-stupid-hands, but it's not too terrible.

Version 2

The lighting in this version is worse, but it's a much better camera angle. I usually find that I can make things look more realistic (or at least more serious) if I draw and shade it with a pencil instead of inking it and coloring it. This is going to smudge in my notebook like no one's business, but the fresh, clean version is on the Internet now, and the Internet lasts forever. 

And just because... Here's a picture of a cool bird I saw out the window today:

There were about three of those hanging out in the backyard. I have no idea what kind of bird it is. I just think it looks cool.

Catch-up

Hi! So, yeah. I had a couple of nights when I just reeeeeally didn't feel like blogging. I was also doing some legitimate research for a writing project, so there's that. My apologies. I'm going to cover a lot of ground in very little time, because I have to get up and do stuff tomorrow.

This dalmatian is my aunt's dog Fuego. I was responsible for watching him and his brother Shadow (see below) for almost two days while my aunt was out of town. Fuego and I became buddies.

This Weimaraner is named Shadow, and he and I had a bit of a fight over who was the leader of the pack while my aunt was away. I had to turn to Cesar Millan for some advice, but I came out on top in the end and Shadow doesn't hate me.

I used to get these out of the vending machine when I was studying in France. So why do I have one here in America? Well, when my aunt returned from her trip, she took me to this AMAZING candy store called For the Love of Chocolate. It. Has. EVERYTHING. I was seriously overwhelmed by the candy amazingness in that store. I could hardly decide what to buy. I decided that I would just have to go a couple times a week and sample something different every time. As long as I walk there, it'll be okay!

I also got this Irish creme truffle from the big truffle case. Mmmmm. So good. I might have to start a blog series about all the candy I get from For the Love of Chocolate.

As a side note, I also tried Thai food for what was either the first or second time in my life (I can't remember, but I think I might have eaten it once before). I got Pad Thai, and it was amazing both in the restaurant and in leftover form. We got veggie tempura as an appetizer and I loved that, too! Especially the asparagus.

This is a tapestry of Louis XIV, my favorite French king (and a lot of other people's favorite French king, too) and it is located at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where I chose to spend my Saturday afternoon. The museum was awesome! It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. I wasn't expecting a whole heck of a lot because general admission is free, but I was blown away by the size of the museum and the variety of art on display. I mean, it's no Louvre, but what the heck else can be a Louvre? I had a great time, and since the admission is f-r-e-e-that-spells-free, I think I'll go back a few more times. I mean, if nothing else, they have a pretty cool art library that I'd like to poke around in.

When I look at art exhibits, I don't just wander around, glance at a few things, and think, "Oh, that's pretty" or "Eh, I don't understand that." My mind has been trained to go much deeper than that over the course of my education in the English language and literature. 

I scrutinize. I analyze. I read the information signs. I look at the art from a few different angles. And then I think, "Oh, that definitely represents the mindset of the time" or "I wonder if the hands are missing thanks to weather or people or what" or "Eh, I don't understand that."

Although it took me about 0.51 seconds to recognize that the figure in the photo above was Saint Denis of France. He's the only headless saint I know of (The guy supposedly was beheaded and then picked his head up and walked away with it), so that was a pretty easy one.

I had no idea who this was from looking at it, but the sign told me that it's Saint Barbara- who, as far as I know, having a father who was in the military most of my life, is the patron saint of things that go boom. Which is pretty cool.

Virginia folks, I don't wanna hear anything about Alabama people being rednecks. These are some crazy Confederate protesters I saw through the museum windows. They're apparently there pretty often. EVERYBODY'S GOT SOME REDNECKS.

Okay, okay, it's not really politically correct of me to call people who wave the Confederate flag rednecks. What I should really say is that I disagree with just about everything they're fighting for under the stars and bars.

(I had written out some specific reasons for my disagreement with Confederate flag-wavers, but with each reason, I had opened up a big ol' can of worms that I realized could cause me some problems. So... playing it safe. On with the show.)

This garden display outside the museum reminded me of something I saw in France.

As I mentioned briefly before, I'm currently researching names for a story/thing I'm trying to write. That's taken up some of my free time over the past two-ish days. The names are for a fantasy world, but I'm struggling to come up with the right names. After doing some research about mythology and fairy tales and stuff, I began browsing through Ancient Scandinavian names and started coming up with some results. I'm going to check out Old English and possibly some Russian names, too, and I'm definitely going to raid some roleplaying websites for ideas.

I also reached out to my Facebook friends about the rules of making up names. I mean, I feel so stupid stringing together a bunch of letters that don't make a real name, but you've seen the fantasy and sci-fi names we have in our culture: Legolas, Frodo, Gandalf, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Darth Vader, Voldemort, Aslan, and so on. We don't question those names (or at least we don't question them much). We just take them as part of the fantastical world into which we are delving when we read a book or watch a movie. But somebody had to sit down before that book or movie came to life and string a bunch of letters together to make up new, weird names.

My question is- how do they do that? How do they make names that sound foreign and fantastical but don't sound completely stupid? Do they research and combine words from old languages together? Or do they seriously just put a bunch of syllables together until they find goofy names that they like?

I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out, though.

And now I really gotta go to bed, because I have a little roadtrip tomorrow to meet an old friend for lunch. Later, gators!