Writing Freak - Recently Updated Pages

This Just In!

CosmicalKari — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:15:28 CDT

Script Frenzy

Join the Screnzy!

Who: You, me, and the other Frenzies.

When: April 1st-30th, 2008

What: Write a 100 page script. Oh, and have riotous amouts of fun!!!

Note: This year, the contest has been moved to April and has also undergone
some other changes as well. For example, all kinds of scripts including shorts,
TV shows, graphic novels, and games are now allowed. So, come check us out
and join in the fun.

April Fools

CosmicalKari — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:05:35 CDT

Welcome to My Writing Site!

CosmicalKari — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:48:22 CDT

This site is to talk about the things I am writing and the contests I answer. Check back to see what I'm doing. Also, add any other cool writing things you've heard of that I haven't mentioned!!!

I haven't been on here since July, but I'm baaack! I have a lot of things planned for the coming year, so I'm going to try to become active again. If you see it's been a long time since my last update (say over a week or so) don't be afraid to give me sharp jab in the ribs to get me going again.

Things I am Currently Signed Up For:

National Novel Writing Year - January 1st - December 31st, 2008
Script Frenzy - April 1st - 30th, 2008
April Fools - April 1st - 30th, 2008

Words of the Week:
You learn something new every day, right? Well, here's your thing for today. See if you can use each of these in your writing at least once this week.
lacuna (noun) - a blank space or missing part
sylvan (adjective) - pertaining to woods or forests

Quotes of the Week:
These can be words of inspiration or just plain funny and random.
"Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?" ~Unexpected (I know it hurts, but read it again slowly and I'm sure all will become clear.)
"Have you ever had a dream you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from the dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?" ~Morpheus, The Matrix (I'm a recent convert/addict to this series!)
"He who sticks his hand in fire will become burned." ~Me
"What happens at Deer Camp stays at Deer Camp." ~My Dad

The Master List of Writing Thingies

CosmicalKari — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:32:03 CDT

Welcome to the Master List! I've decided that it might help avoid confusion if all of the writing communites (I'd call them contests/competitions but none of them really are) and their dates, goals, and locations were listed in one convenient place, so here you go.

Month	Community Name	Goal	Website
All Year	National Novel Writing Year (NaNoWriYe)	50k - 750k+ words	http://www.pro-board.com/index.php?proboard=nanowriye2008&act=idx
January	January Novel Writing Month (JaNoWriMo)	Set Your Own Goal (Most Common is 50k)	http://janno.ymakeadomain.com/forum/index.php
February	FebNoWriMo	coming soon	coming soon
March	National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo)	Edit at Least 50k	www.nanoedmo.com
April	Script Frenzy (Screnzy)	100 pages of one or more scripts	www.scriptfrenzy.org
April	April Fools (AF)	Set your own goal 500 or more words	www.aprilfoolsnovels.com
July	July Novel Writing Month (JulNoWriMo)	50k novel	www.julnowrimo.com
November	National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)	50k novel	www.nanowrimo.com
December	National Novel Finishing Month (NaNoFiMo)	Add 30k to and finish an existing project (Most often used for ambitious NaNo novels)	www.nanofimo.com

If you know of any I've missed, don't hesitate to tell me. I have a feeling that there are some, so I'll probably be adding more soon. Check back often!

Frenzyisms

CosmicalKari — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:08:05 CDT

Okay, kids, so this is a section for my Script Frenzy typos. Some of them are hysterical, and some...maybe not so much. Enjoy!

She looks a little nervous, but starts to loop the rope around the ring attacked to the mast.
Yup, the ring is attacking the mast. As you've probably guessed, it should be attached instead.

"I'll find some spare road that you can use for practicing."
This one does sort of make sense if you don't know the context. Chip is teaching Annabelle how to tie a special knot, and he's supposed to be finding her a rope for practicing. Yeah, like the girl's just gonna go around tieing roads into knots. What are you thinking???

Croks is druk and starts acting rowdly l- gibbs, wu, and tubbs subdue hm eventualy.
This was just a quick note to myself on what should happen next when I had to leave the computer for a while. It was written really fast, so has lots of typos! It should read, "Crooks is drunk and starts acting rowdy - Gibbs, Wu, and Tubbs subdue him eventually."

A ladder leads down from the main deck into a small area surrounded by piles of quotes.
Yeah, these pirates just happen to carry piles of quotes in the hold.

"Eh? Aw, proabably just rats. They're everyone on this stinking ship you know."
Every one of the pirates on board is secretly a rat. Really. (Yeah, it should be everywhere.)

I guess I'll be leaving now hen.
Random chicken alert, cluck! (Should be then.)

She slipas his shoulder a bit harder.
This is one of my favorites. Slapping a shoulder can't feel very good, but "slipaing" sounds very painful. If she does that to the captain again, she's going to be in trouble.

Annabelle shurgas.
Similar to the last one. What exactly is "shurgaing?" I think you're supposed to be shrugging, lass. I keep feeling that shuga is an actual word, but I can't seem to remember what it is. Hmm...

He runs toward the gap between the ships, but is cut off by another man with a pistol is his hand.
Yikes! Now instead of peglegs, we've got pistolhands!

His desk chair has been pulled over, and he sits beside the cot holding one of her wide hands.
Did you know that getting shot in the shoulder causes your hands to get wider? No? Neither did I. Personally, I think it would more likely to make them white.

We now have a good supply of gold bars, expensive cloth, spices, and more food to add to our stories. Because you know every story can be inproved with the addition of gold bars, expensive cloth, spices, and food. (That should be stores, people.)

That's all for now, folks!

RPGing

CosmicalKari — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:16:36 CDT

This is a template page

Use this template when you want to use photos and text to tell your story. Click EasyEdit, then highlight this text with your cursor and type over it with your own words: You can write as much as you want!

This sample photo is easy to replace with one of your own: Click the EasyEdit button, highlight the placeholder image at left and hit "delete." Then click the "image" button in the toolbar and use the "browse" button to find the image you want to insert from your computer. It's that easy.

The text can be wrapped around your image, or you can have the text start below the photo. You can also move the photo to the right side of the page. See your choices for photo and text placement by clickin on the photo with your mouse and then clicking "image" on the toolbar.

You can also change the size of your photo by clicking on it once to highlight it, then by clicking the "plus" or "minus" sign in the "Edit Image" toolbox. When you're all done, save your page.

JulNoisms

CosmicalKari — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:08:14 CDT

So, here's another place for me to showcase my typos. I've only got a few now, but I expect them to grow exponentially, so let's get started!

Here's how it's going to work: I'll paste in the sentence or phrase with the typo underlined, then put the word or that should be there in parenthesis. Most of them will probably have humorous (or occasionally serious) comments below also.

In fact, they had been on rather unfriendly terms for most of the door. (year)
Yup, Sara and Kayla haven't liked each other ever since that fateful door incident...

“Wus wrong wit’ you guys?” Sara asked through a mouthful of foot. (food)
The first part is just because of the food in her mouth, or maybe he really does have her foot in her mouth. Hmm... Open mouth, insert foot. *does so*

Thorououghougly (thoroughly)
Not really a typo, but I just couldn't spell that word! My mom helped though - it's supposed to be tho-roughly. At least it not as bad as immediately or definitely which I couldn't spell to save my life - thank you, Spellcheck!

Well, that's all for now, but there'll be more soon, so don't worry!

My Blog

CosmicalKari — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:53:57 CDT

May 23rd, 2007

So, this is me starting another blog. I will probably write in it like twice and then forget about it, but oh well. I can hope.

At the moment, I am uber excited about WriDay on Saturday. I think I might have a premise for my crazy and pointless novel. It might start out being about a weird old cat lady and her weird cats. I'll call it Cat Lady Insurance. Yeah, I'm in Personal Finance right now and have insurance on the brain. This is going to be interesting.

May 26th, 2007

One note to add: This blog might be weird, but I don't really know. I don't have experience with blogs, but I think most of them are organized in reverse chronological order (with the newest entry at the top), but that doesn't make sense to me. Mine is going to have newer entries at the bottom, older ones at the top. So the page doesn't get too long, I'll delete the entries and start anew every month.

Anyway, on to the actual writing portion! I've made some last-minute changes to my WriDay story. Firstly, the cat lady has a name! It's Kaori. Also, she is being reduced in age. I figure romance is a good filler (which I'll need plenty of if I'm going to reach 50k in 24 hours!) and that just isn't really in the cards for an older person. She's still a cat lady, though! I'm thinking that will come in in this way: a door-to-door insurance salesman comes calling and somehow they fall in love... Yeah. I'm not good at planning these kinds of things ahead of time.

Also, I downloaded the awesome free scriptwriting program Celtx to use for Script Frenzy. It has everything from character and script sheets to actor info and shooting locations, not to mention the script itself. It auto-formats everything for you - in movie or stage play form! It's certainly going to make June a lot easier for me. I recommend that anyone who wants to write a script try it - remember, it's completely free!!!

May 29th, 2007

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do WriDay on Saturday. Poo! I ended up staying up late, sleeping in, mowing, and then playing with Celtx for the rest of the day. I did get a good chunk done on the script I'm playing around with for Script Frenzy practice. To reiterate from last time, Celtx is the bomb! It is the most amazing free program I have ever used, and pretty much tops the list of paid for ones also. Congratulations to everyone who did do WriDay, and especially to those who finished all 50k. You guys rock!

June 4th, 2007

The script is going great. I'm on Scene Six and have just under 2,000 words. I'm about 400 words behind from not finishing my quota yesterday, but I'll catch up today. My plot's gonna need some work. I'm pretty much through the plotted beginning and now have to work out what's gonna happen next. MC Annabelle has been thrown overboard, smacked on the head with a barrel to induce amnesia, and rescued by the pirates. Right now she's on her way to the galley to help Grub make lunch. They're all just gonna have to hang out for a while until something exciting happens.

June 5th, 2007

Ugh. I'm horribly behind on my script and starting to hate it. Quite a change from yesterday. *grumbles* Is it week two already? No! It's only day five. Must push on... Maybe something interesting will happen today. I can dream, right?

Hey, what's all this negativity??? I CAN do it! (I hope...)

June 6th, 2007

Wheee! I love my script again. I got a TON of new ideas last night when taking a shower. Hopefully I can make it long enough, though. Right now I don't think it'll reach 20k, but maybe if I add some more stuff. Anyway, yay!!! Captain Chip's life is about to be ruined, but oh well. I may fix it towards the end.

June 7th, 2007

Week two doesn't start till tomorrow, but I'm feeling it today. I have some ideas, but nowhere near enough to fill 20,000 words. However, I am about a tenth of the way there, though I didn't write at all yesterday. Baby steps, baby steps.

On the happy, happy side I keep getting attacked by random ideas. I have two so far that are so awesome I'm afraid to write any more on them. One is about life after death (tentatively titled Purgatory) and the other is a group of folks who's memories have been wiped and are trying to find out / remember who they are.

June 12th, 2007

Script Frenzy is going great! I'm already a fourth of the way done (5k, people!) and ideas just keep coming. No Week 2 blues for me! I should definitely be able to make 20k by the end of the month. At least I hope. I've plotted everything expect the very end, so hopefully that will be enough. Well, if it's not I can always add more character/setting description as filler! :-D

There is one thing that just sort of happened that I wasn't prepared for. Currently-eight-year-old MC Annabelle wants to fall in love with thirty-something captain chip. I was thinking about doing one of those "five years later" type things, but then decided against it. I do really like this new idea though, so I think someday when I have time I'll just go back to the beginning and do some tinkering to change her age to, say, sixteen or so. This sort of age different wasn't as highly frowned up in the 1700's as it is today, was it? I think/hope so...

June 13th, 2007

I'm pretty happy with myself right now, because I've just finished making posters for my script and next month's novel using The Sims 2. I used to play it for hours on end, but now that's all I seem to use it for. Oh, well, it works.

The script's going okay, though I'm still a bit behind. I haven't worked on it yet today, but I hit 6k yesterday! I have decided to adjust Annabelle's age for a romance with Captain Chip, but I won't due that editing until after the month is out or I have reached my goal, whichever comes first.

I'm starting to get some ideas for JulNo already! The title just sort of came to me a few days ago - A Requiem for Sanity. It's going to be something about a college-aged girl who has anxiety/depression issues and feels like she is loosing her mind. I'm looking forward to working with it, though thats all I have for now.

June 17th, 2007

My script is going awesomely! Though two days behind, I'll be reaching 10,000 words today (the halfway point!), which is awesome. I wrote over two thousand words last night and planted the first seeds of the mutiny while watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and half of the second.

I also made two (very simple) icons to add to my gallery, one for SF and one for JulNo.

June 19th, 2007

I reached halfway on my script yesterday, and later today my pirates might actually do something pirate-like! They're going to be attacking and plundering a merchant ship. Yup. And shortly after that there will be a mutiny. Yup. And the captain will be shot. Yup. And now I'm rambling. Yup.

Anyway, I'm uber excited because the plot is plotted all the way to the end. Winner's bar, here I come!

June 24th, 2007

I love Script Frenzy! I'm 76% percent done at the morning, and that'll be even higher by tonight. I finally staged an attack on a merchant ship yesterday, and Chip and Izzy's subtle romance is progressing nicely.

What's on the docket for today? Angst! Love! Blood! What more could you ask for?

Also, today I'm adding a new subsection for SF to the site to showcase my funniest typos (okay, and the not so funny ones, too). Check it out!

June 29th, 2007

WAAAAAAAAA-HOOOOOOOO! I've done it! I hit 21,206 words on my script today and also finished it. Chip and Izzy fell in love and had their final scene kiss. The scene where she's all worried because he got stabbed through with a sword was PERFECT. It helped so much that I found the perfect song to go with it to write along to. The inaugural Script Frenzy is almost at its end and I will be one of the winners! To reiterate: WAHOO! I will definitely be there again next year!

July 3rd, 2007

I've started JulNoWriMo and am so far staying on track. I found a wonderful system where you write down your word count from the pervious day and then what it should be by the end of today and every increment of three hundred words inbetween. When you can cross of the in-between goals it makes writing 2,000 words a day go a ton faster! I have to do this instead of the average 1,612 or so because of all the days I'll be busy and not able to write. (By the way, I changed the story I'm writing from psychological drama to werewolves. Go figure. See the full description on my JulNo page.)

And since I'm already making funny typoes in Wolf, I've added a subsection to the project page to showcase them for you. The ones I have so far are pretty funny, so be sure to check them out.

JulNoWriMo

CosmicalKari — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:42:59 CDT

JulNoWriMo is exactly like the original NaNo except for two things - it takes place in July an has a lot less people. The goal is still 50,000 words, the time thirty-one days.

Not surprisingly, I changed from my stated novel idea two days before the month began. ;D Now I am doing a story about a seventeen year old girl named Sara Calhoun who is turned into a werewolf but doesn't know it. She keeps blacking out at night (when the savage mind takes over). Animals, and eventually a person, keep turning up dead and Sara wakes with bloody clothes and sheets. Eventually she figures out what's going on with a clue from her Culture studies on mythological creatures and goes to find the one who turned her. Then she finds out about her werewolf duties and tries to deal with what has happened to her.

I already make a teaser poster for it using a random photo snatched from Photobook and Paint.
I failed to mention it before, but obviously it is titled Wolf. At first I wanted something a little more descriptive, but then I decided that simpler was better. The name actually came from a poem I wrote during the April Fools challenge about someone's transformation into a werewolf which I hope to incorporate into the story at some point.

Script Frenzy

CosmicalKari — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:28:33 CDT

As of June 29th: I've done it! I finished up with 21,206 out of a goal of 20,000. Yay me! And I will certainly be joining in the fray again next year.

Script Frenzy takes place in June and is an offshot of NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write a 20,000 word stage or screenplay in thirty days. Right now I have absolutely no clue what I will be writing about, but will most likely take something from the plot generator on the homepage on midnight Thursday.

Check out my blog to see how it's going.

<Click to visit the website.

My screenplay, A Pirate's Life for Me, is about a teenage girl in the 1700's who is thrown overboard of her ship in a storm during a crossing from England to America.. She is rescued by pirates, but has amnesia, so she decides to stay with them. Eventually, she falls in love with Captain Chip Adolphus, and finally admits her feelings for him after a few close shaves.

I made a poster for it using The Sims 2 and Paint, and here she is, pretty as a picture:
(If you were wondering, CosmicalKari is my screen name on almost every writing site I'm a member of.)

SoCNoC

CosmicalKari — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:04:39 CDT

SoCNoC is short for Southern Cross Novel Challenge. It is hosted by the website www.kiwiwriters.org, which is based in New Zealand but accepts writers from around the globe. The challenge takes place in July and the point is to write a 50,000 word novel in 31 days.

My story is going to be historical fiction. Is is about a young girl who is traveling between America and England on a ship when there is a storm and she is thrown overboard. She is rescued by the crew of a different ship, but has developed amnesia. She has no idea who she is, where she came from, or where she was going.

I've decided to drop this challenge and am instead using the plot of Script Frenzy. Maybe I'll try SoCNoC next year.

More Icons

CosmicalKari — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 14:22:32 CDT

		This is my favorite! It so perfectly describes the aura that is NaNoWriMo.
	.
I made thissn myself using Paint, so it's nothing fancy.	This one is also my own work.

NaNoWriDay

CosmicalKari — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:45:00 CDT

The point of National Novel Writing Day is to write 50,000 words in a 24-hour period. The next one takes place on Saturday, May 26th, and will be my first time. I'm a little nervous, hoping I don't totally burn out during and/or afterwords.

I don't really have a plot for it yet. I'm planning on just writing random craziness, whatever comes into my head. I also have been cutting up index cards for the past few days and writing random prompts on them like "killer robots," "Star Trek," and "spider." Yeah, this should be interesting.

My current idea centers around a crazy old cat lady and her cats (that's one of them in the picture). I have absolutely no plot, but a vague premise is better than nothing. Only two more days to go!

Writing Icons

CosmicalKari — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:14:12 CDT

Here is a selection of favorite writing icons that I have found. Please note that most of these were swiped from PhotoBucket are not mine.