sometimes you have to make your own fun

A week and a day to 50,000 words. Eek! I'm a little behind at the moment because writing has been a struggle for the last week and a half - like wringing out my brain - but I think I'll get there as long as I play some catch-up this weekend.

I've hit the point in my story where my planning was the vaguest so I feel a bit like I'm poking about in the dark trying to figure out what happens next. This is a pretty common thing for writers at one point or another from what I gather but it's been frustrating because when I don't know where it's going I feel like I start to lose my grasp on the characters when it seems like I should be more confident in them the further I go. Well, thank goodness the first draft isn't the last I suppose. Edits will be my saving grace.

Today I'm going to fill out a questionnaire that I've seen on tumblr before for Mona, Percy, and Kamdon in the interest of reassuring myself and hopefully amusing you, dear readers.

How would they react upon accidentally walking into a glass door?
Mona - would probably laugh at herself and pat the door
Percy - might hit it as a knee-jerk reaction, the likelihood of this increases if people saw her walk into it. If she was alone she'd mutter to herself about the stupidity of doors trying to be windows
Kamdon - would apologize to the door though chances are he ran into it because he was reading something in which case he wouldn't really respond, just stick his hand out to feel for the door so he can go around it while still reading
Their reaction to having their name spelled wrong on a Starbucks drink:
Mona - confused and a little indignant. Her name isn't very hard to understand so, at most, people would probably make it more complicated like "moanah" which just doesn't make any sense
Percy - I don't think her name would be spelled wrong very often but the person calling out drink orders would probably be confused that she's not a guy which would piss her off
Kamdon - he'd get Cameron a lot and I think he'd just sigh and let it go without saying anything. He's tried correcting them before but it always takes too long to explain and he gets embarrassed
Their reaction to my favorite character:
[To preface, my favorite character generally changes based on whose POV I'm writing from at the time]
Mona - would be surprised that she's ever a favorite because she doesn't think she stands out as much as Percy and Kamdon do and the things I like most about her are the things that make her most human which she doesn't like because they make her feel weak. she readily endorses almost all other characters as favorites
Percy - Percy would be annoyed by the fact that I love her for reasons she finds embarrassing, annoying, or irrelevant, like how she handles receiving romantic attention [which is the punch the person in the face]
Kamdon - would be flattered and a bit embarrassed and then probably try to do something to "deserve" being a favorite which would inevitably result in some mistake or amusing anecdote
What would their finishing move be?
Mona - is not much of a fighter but thus far she has proved proficient at throwing rocks upon the unsuspecting
Percy - likes knives but she isn't particular about how she finishes a fight, as long as she wins. However, she is rather fond of kicking her opponent once they're down. She's a little vindictive
Kamdon - is a useless, noodle-armed fighter when it comes to weapons. He mostly just tries to get attackers far enough away from him so he can run to safety. He has his means for this but *spoilers*!
Their feelings about scarves and how they would wear one:
Mona - enjoys scarves but doesn't wear them very often because they're distracting. She winds it once around and ends up playing with the ends until they unravel
Percy - would dub them frivolous and annoyingly in the way until she discovered 101 practical uses for a scarf [swiss-army scarf!] and then she would wear one almost all the time, also secretly because she thinks they're comfy and someone once told her she looked good with a scarf. She'd keep it wound around her neck with the ends tucked up out of the way
Kamdon - scarves are for cold weather. He doesn't wear them because he looks like a dork who can't dress himself no matter which way he puts it on

100th post

I feel like I should have something more important to talk about for such a momentous post but hey, I'm not a terribly momentous person so you get what you get!

On positive notes, I've moved on to my fourth notebook and fourth pen this week and broke 35,000 words [counting since November]. So that's pretty sweet. It's fun and intimidating to see that stack of notebooks grow because I wrote all of that but also because I need to edit all of that. I'm at a point where I'm writing out some of Kamdon's back story, deciding how much needs to be said in this conversation, and I'm finding all of these details that I need to remember so I can integrate them when I go back and edit. Discovering the story as you go is a fun, exploratory process but every time I realize something that needs to have been in place for a while or a detail I want to change part of me groans, haha. Editing is going to be so much fun.

It's been a bit of a long day so, in the interest of leaving some energy over for the actually activity of writing I'll let this post go short today. But I will leave you with Ninja Bear, because this video never fails to make me smile and having a 3:1 positive experience ratio every day is an important factor in improving your life. So here's one. Make sure you find two more today!