New! Epic! New!

Epic! New! Project!

So. If you follow me on Twitter (@ anabstar), you may have seen randomness regarding backers and other things. Well, now that I probably don't have your attention, here's the news you haven't been waiting for.

About the epic new project.

So, earlier this year, mike speegle published Artifice online, in installments. I'm gonna kind of be stealing that same idea, the idea of the serial, published at intervals that will be random, rather than set, but it's still going to be happening.

The cool part is that you all get to help.

Yup. You heard me.

So. Here's how it's going to work--it's kinda like kickstarter but there's only one option and you don't have to pay any money.

What do you mean, no have to pay no monies?

To back the project, all it takes is being a willing conspirator. You mind find yourself receiving random questions and dialogue prompts from me, and if ou back the project, you're saying that you're willing to help... In return, you (or at least my perception of you), become a character in the short. No, not calling this a novel, because right now, it's more like a short improv gig. So, if you happen to respond to a dialogue prompt on Twitter, that's going to get incorporated in, somehow--this whole idea started when molly mullery responded very awesomely to a random tweet, and my brain just went from there.

Okay, bored now, so the rest of the random details... if you're interested in getting involved, you can leave a comment below, give me a shoutout on Twitter, or just keep an eye open for my next call!

Huzzah!

One Week One Week One Weeeeeeeekkkk!!!!!

Yes, the reason for the continual forum span is nearly upon us!

ONE WEEEEEEKKKSSSS!!!!!

Pens!!!

They're here! Will do a writeup soon!!

So this whole handwriting thing...

So if the amount I've handwritten today were part of NaNoWriMo, and my estimations on the count are correct, I'd be about a fifth, maybe more like a quarter or a third of the way done. 32 pages of narrow rule.
And the night is still young.
Too bad it's not fiction, right?

Five years

We all have pet projects, the ones that we can't let go of, no matter how much we try. Mine started as a trial run for NaNo 2007, after I had a dream I had to get out or I was going to lose it. What followed was about 20,000 words in a handful of Moleskine cahiers over the course of the week of fall break. I've worked on it in bursts over the years, first as a continuous story, then as a discontinuous set of shorts that weave in and out of the original idea, and take it from a novel to an epic. What once spanned two years now covers fifteen.

Last night, I had a revelation. There is a key event that is the premise for most of the action in the story. Without it, the dream I had makes no sense. In the past, I'd just danced around what happened, the mechanics, but five years and three months after I wrote the first words, it finally came together. I know how out all happened, and it works. It's beautiful.

Human hand

The human hand was not designed to write thousands of words a day, every day, with a pen.

I had a dream...

About a mint, ice blue SM-3. Anyone want to give me one?

Apocalypse...

...is what my classmates are calling the drinking binge they're starting in

Slight Anger

You know when you ask a friend and artisan to make you a gift for Christmas, and then they bail on you?

Yeah, just happened to me.

And I'm kind of angry.

Okay, really angry.

Not trying to melt down and rage. And really trying hard not to tell him he ruined Christmas.

Yup.

Stolen Quote

So, with NaNoWriMo and the Vignette Challenge coming up, I just want to inspire you with a quote I stole off the comments of Mr. Clemens' latest blog post:

"Having time and the ability to write are not prerequisites. Otherwise a lot of us would be in serious trouble."

Yup. very true.
Now back to work!!!

I had a dream.

In which I found a Skyriter.

Now only if it would happen in real life.

What once would have been called an epic journey through academia is now the long slog through a paper on my personal feelings on academia. Like wading through a swamp.

I think the title says it all. At least it's due by midnight, right?

Epic Journey: Flashback

Remember all that writing?

And all that posting?

So do I.

I would love to regain some of that motivation. Paper due by midnight and massive 6 hour final tomorrow... and tomorrow is the 30th.

You may well see "A Slightly Less Epic but still rather Epic Epic Journey" in the next few weeks, as I have one paper to tackle after this one.

In which I realize that ITAM is over, CLUB is starting, and I don't know how much I care.

Yup, another long title.

February and ITAM is over... I typed on a typewriter once, it acted up again, I put it away, and didn't touch it or any of my other machines for the rest of the month.

But I did think about it.
And I thought about the Typosphere.

Then the news came from M and it brought back a lot of memories for me, and I've spent time with them, rather than the blog. My apologies.

Now, it's time for Celebrate Local and Used Bookstore Month, and I don't know if I'm going to do anything for it. My life has changed in these past few months, and it's put a lot of things into perspective that I hadn't thought about before.

So I'm sorry for neglecting this space, for not posting typecasts or pencasts or even the beautiful letter to my great aunt that is sitting in my desk, just waiting to be transcribed and posted. Maybe we'll get back on track, one day.

We'll see.

A

Epic Journey VII: In which I realize I am crazy(er) [than previously thought.]

Mainly for my choice of chosen sport. Watching other climbers crush outside a. makes me want to go and climb outside and not do homework. and b. makes me realize that we're um only slightly crazy. We climb big things with only 4 inches of foam between us and the ground if we fall. Right. Very brilliant.

Epic Journey IV: The Waypoint

(This was originally Epic Journey III)

You've done it. You've made it through the first day, and you see that hut on the top of the hill where you're going to spend the night. Inside, there is a warm fire, and maybe even company, but most importantly of all, there is a soft, warm bed waiting for you. That bed is your refuge, that place where you can go when things look rough, and by the time you wake up, everything is good again.

Epic Journey III: The Problem with Austerity

As a student, you often run into the concept of austerity. Life, and often finances, are such that you live a life that is much less ostentatious than you might wish it to be. During certain times of the year, you retreat into your cave and don't come out except for midnight food scavenging runs and ambushes on the printer when it is time for that. But, in theory, you deny yourself the simple pleasures of life, like dessert or TV time, and there is a point at which you crack and after that, it's all downhill. You spend inordinate amount of time on Hulu and Wikipedia, researching totally irrelevant things, much like you do during NaNoWriMo, but this time, you're even more distracted, because you've been depriving yourself for so long. That's not even counting the chocolate binges that are sure to come, at least if you get your hands on the money to procure chocolate, even the cheap chocolate. Your mind slowly melts away, wishing that you had more time or more motivation and you weren't writing long and rambling a pointless blog posts, but it's useless. That's the price of Austerity.

Epic Journey II: Realization

It's late, and you're freezing your ass off. You don't know why you decided to make your Epic Journey into cold places, as you're not a huge fan of the cold, but then you remember. It's December. That's why it's cold.

Epic Journey: Motivation

There are times in the life of every intrepid explorer that they must stop and consider their motivation. Why do I want to do this? Why shouldn't I be off doing something like watching TV or sleeping? That's the big question to answer, right now. I currently sit at 682 out of what will end up being about 1500 words... which is where I need to get by midnight, and I am questioning why I'm not getting this done, why I'm still sitting here after all this time.

The Haze of Academia: In which I embark on an epic journey of 10,000 words into nonfiction

The title says it all. I handwrote 9 pages in 2 hours today for my last in class exam, and now, I am about to embark on the epic journey, as it says in the title, of writing two papers, one take home exam, one reflections essay, and one set of comments to the BLM. Not in that order.
Yup. Here I go, into that hazy world in which so much happens and not as much is possible as in fiction.

Wish me luck. If I survive, I'll tell you a little more about The Letter from Last Friday.

Art the Intrepid