Sometimes, I wish I controlled my characters.

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo once again. I love the community of writers that get together and how supportive it is.
However...

I'm behind. 

Like... REALLY behind. 

Like 26,625 words behind.

I do have a good reason. Well, a decent reason. Okay, it's just a reason. 

Every day I sit down to write. I take a deep breath, put my fingers on the keys and begin typing. As I write, I notice that all my character does at the moment is whine. Seriously, all she does is cry and whine and complain about how hard her life is. 

I try and put her in situations where she has to interact with people-- she goes in a corner and sulks.

I introduce her to a new character-- she just imagines their life is better than hers and she sulks.

I leave her at home to wallow-- and she sulks

I've even tried writing from different parts of the story-- as still she sulks. 

she sulks like this....

It has gotten to the point that I am not enjoying this character. I was never raised to be a girl who whines about her life, I don't like characters like that. I like female characters who can hold their own and stand up to bullies. I like female characters that can take as good as they can give. That can be damsels but also heroines. 

It's not that I'm blocked, I know what I want to happen. I know how I want to get there and roughly the steps to take. But my character is just not cooperating at all.

I mentioned this dilemma to a few of my friends at work and both responded with "You know you control the story right...?"

You would think that is the case. Logic tells you that a writer controls the characters, not the other way around. 

In my situation, you'd be wrong.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I want to win this year, but I don't think I can do it with this story, and the idea that I can write a whole NaNo in a week is, frankly, out of the question. 

Sweeping Declaration.

Wow... I really suck at this whole blogging thing don't I?

*blows dust off poor neglected blog*

(this is a pointless gif of Zachary Levi hugging a pillow. Just because.)

Hmmm.... so what's new with me? Well I got a promotion at my job a few months back. Which has been exciting and stressful (but not in a bad way). It's been really great. The Husband and I have been staying in our nice cool house as much as humanly possible (due to the temperature being in the 100s here), and I've been forcing the books that I love onto my younger cousins and bringing about a new generation who is addicted to Marissa Meyer, Meg Cabot and John Green. I also recently beat Kingdom Hearts for the first time in my life, which for me is an awesome accomplishment. Now I'm working my way through Kingdom Hearts II.

In other nerdy news, The Husband and I bought 6 lightsabers... So each of us could have one of each color (Red for Vader, Green for Luke, Blue for Anakin). Fighting is so much more fun with lightsabers, and the seriousness of whatever we're fighting about wears off quickly when you're battling with lightsabers.

Now onto the reason for this post (other than making it seem like I'm much better at this than I really am), I miss writing. It's been far too long since I wrote anything. It makes me incredibly sad to think about all the time I spent on NaNoWriMo and how I haven't done anything since. Sure, my job has been eating up a lot of my time and energy, but I have to stop making excuses. So the other day I made a sweeping declaration on Facebook. I've decided to write a short story once a month for the rest of year. Weather the story is only 500 words or 5,000 I just want to get back in the habit of writing. The more I write, the better I'll get. I just have to force myself to do it.

So keep an eye on this blog, I'm hoping to post some of my short stories here. Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

apologies

I'm going to be attempting to switch things up on this blog this weekend, so I apologize now if you pop on and it looks all wonky.

Lizzie Bennet, have you heard of her?

Confession: I've never read Pride and Prejudice. Not for lack of trying, I've tried a few times to read it and I just can't get through it. I'm exactly sure why, I think the language tends to make me go cross-eyed. It's not much of an excuse, but I don't really have any other reason.

That being said, I LOVE movie adaptations of it. Bridget Jones' Diary remains one of my most watched movies of all times. Bride and Prejudice is one of my greatest finds ever. Even the Pride and Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy is fairly entertaining (in a "you'll get more of the jokes if you're LDS" kind of way). While the Keira Knightly version isn't horrible, there will never be a better adaptation of Pride and Prejudice than the one with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

While I can't seem to fall in love with Mr. Darcy on paper, I fall for him in every regeneration of him on film. While Matthew Macfadyen, Orlando Seale, and Martin Henderson are perfectly wonderful Darcys, Colin Firth will always and forever remain THE Darcy. You can attribute that to him being Darcy twice, but his Darcy is what made me love to watch every version of this story.

All that being said, there is a webseries that is worming it's way into my heart and causing me to look forward to Mondays and Thursdays (and sometimes Tuesdays and Fridays). Created by the genius minds that are Hank Green and Bernie Su, this webseries has kind of taken over my lunch time youtube sessions.



This modern adaptation is not only incredibly well made, but also, fantastically funny. Ashley Clements plays the part of the slightly socially awkward, nerdy, but still incredibly witty Lizzie Bennet to perfection. Her awkwardness is never uncomfortable, nor is it her most distinguishing feature. The rest of the cast is just as talented and watchable. Also, Darcy... amazing. Though I still view Colin as my number one Darcy, this series' Darcy, is "totes adorbs" and might be my second favorite.

I highly recommend this series. Seriously, click the video above and watch the entire series. And soon you'll watch the entire series in one day and be saying: