NaNo Meme

Bored. Not wanting to do homework for the next 2 hours. Rawr.

NANOWRIMO MEME!!!!

Working Title: Humanoid City
Genre: Science Fiction
Projected Word Count: uh...?

AT THE START DO YOU:
Have an outline?: yes
Know how it starts?: not really... I don't know which story I'll put first
Know how it ends?: same. Though I think I'll end it with a chapter about how things turned out for everyone.
Have your climax in order?: sure.
Know your main characters yet?: Most of them.
Plan to draw on your own experiences?: Some instances. Not too many though.

IS YOUR WORK GOING TO BE:
Funny?: Not really.
Serious?: Pretty much.
Sad?: Sometimes
Semi-Autobiographical?: Only one part of one chapter
Based on another story?: Nope. I'm reusing a couple characters whose own stories got scrapped though

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU PLANNED? HAVE YOU USED:
A paper journal?: notebook
Multicolored pens?: yep :D
A computer?: yesh
Index cards?: nope
Bulleted lists?: eh... somewhat.
Plot Charts?: Nah
Character Charts?: Not really
Character formulas?: Wha?
Favorite writing resource?: My Crazy Mind

ODDS AND ENDS:
A line you would like to use: "Don't worry. Seriously. If anyone tries to stop you, I'll drop kick them in the face. I have enough money that it won't matter."
A scene you would like to include: A scene where one of the characters (Jim) is up all night working because he can't bring himself to stop. I figure I'll pull an all nighter for that one and base it on the others I've done.
A cliché you would like to avoid: All of them?

FORWARD THINKING:
Do you expect to be able to complete it?: In November? Possibly not. We'll see how school goes.
Do you intend to complete it?: Oh yes. For sure. Like I said though, we'll see.
Would you ever try to publish it?: Yeah. Once it's been polished up and everything.
What do you expect to get out of this month of frantic writing?: Motivation and better time planning. I'm slacking and having NaNo gives me more to do. I always do better when I have too much to do than not enough.

NanoWriMo - part 2

I should be studying for my first final which is in... just over 2 hours. But I just don't have the motivation right now. So hi blog!

So, Nano story is already going under construction. I decided to take out the story "The Little Tailor." It's all fine and good, I just can't make it interesting enough. It'll probably be condensed and used as an intro.

To replace it, I came up with "The Mind of the Machine." But more on that later.

I started going through all the music I want to use as inspiration/mood setters for when I'm actually writing next month. I haven't even gone through 1/3 of the stuff on my hard drive, but it's alright. It'll give me something to do for the next couple of weeks.

Can you believe October will be over in just 2 weeks? Crazy, isn't it? Two weeks from now is November 1st! GAh!! So excited =D

I'm starting to solidify character names and basic personality outlines as well. Those are always subject to change, even while writing. It's pretty rare that I change names once I've started writing, but personality and background stuff change all over the place.

But anyway! Music!

I would LOVE to make playlists for each chapter/story section, but most of the music I use can't be found online at places like playlist.com. Amazing site, but my music taste is a little strange. So still looking in to that.

Does anyone know of a site where you can upload your own music to playlists? I don't want to make individual ones in my iTunes, though that is also an option. What do you guys do?

Here's what I have so far. It's all raw and hasn't been fine-tuned AT ALL, so many of these songs have the distinct possibility of a non-future on my list. But we'll see.

I look through the files that are sorted according to artist, so if it seems skewed in the early-alphabiet direction, that's why. I'll get to the later ones (hopefully) when I have the time. ^^;; haha.

"Lovers Scorned"

• "If I apologised" from Mirrormask
• "Wishing you were somehow here again" from the Phantom of the Opera
• "I'm with you" by Avril Lavigne
• "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne
• "My Happy Ending" by Avril Lavigne
• "The Scientist" by Coldplay
• "Enchantment Passing Through" from Aida (the musical, not the opera)
• "Radames' Letter" from Aida
• "Goodnight Julia" from Cowboy Bebop
• "Rain" from Cowboy Bebop

"Junkyard"

• "Baroque" by Malice Mizer
• "Path, vol. 2" by Apocaliptica
• "Go" by Asia
• "Requiem for a Dream" by Clint Mansell
• "The City is at War" by Cobra Starship
• "Otherworld" from Final Fantasy X
• "Crawling in the Dark" by Hoobastank
• "Down with the Sickness" from "Queen of the Damned"
• "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett
• "Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• "Rakuen" from DNAngel
• "City of Angels" by the Distillers

"Brother" or "Always Half, Never Whole"

• "Silver and Cold" by A.F.I.
• "Learn to be Lonely" from the Phantom of the Opera (film version)
• "Kiss Me Goodbye" (both English and Japanese versions) by Angela Aki
• "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" from Les Mis.
• "Javert's Suicide" from Les Mis.
• "Crawling in the Dark (Studio Version)" by Hoobastank
• "Frozen Flower" from DNAngel
• "Darkness" by Darren Hayes
• "Mad World (Full Version)" from Donnie Darko

"Heart(h) and Home"

• "Jinsei no merry-go-round" from "Howl's Moving Castle"
• "Koe" by Tsukiko Amano
• "You Showed Me" by the Backstreet Boys (yeah I know. It's a good song though, so no hatin')
• "Wandering" from Final Fantasy X (I think...?)
• "Caged Bird" from DNAngel
• "Mitsumeru Saki Ni Wa" from DNAngel

"Dancer in the Street"

• "[jibberish from non-transfered Japanese text] - Acoustic Version" from DNAngel
• "Boku wa Koko ni Iru" from "Full Metal Alchemist"
• "True Color" by Cyndi Lauper
• "Blackbird" from "I Am Sam" (remake of the Beatles' song)
• "風の辿り着く場所" from/by I Have No Freaking Clue
• "Ave Maria" - Cowboy Bebop Version

"Curiosity"

• "The Sore Feet Song" by Ally Kerr
• "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" by The Backstreet Boys
• "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" from "Treasure Planet," written and performed by Jonny Resnick
• "Flying Teapot" from Cowboy Bebop
• "Yagami Light's Song" from DeathNote

"Serenity/1000 words/Simon Says (Nothing)"

• "Shape of my Heart" by the Backstreet Boys
• "Sayonara Solitaire" from Chrno Crusade
• "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Mis
• "Always Know Where You Are" from Treasure Planet, performed by 98 Degrees(??)
• "Green Bird" from Cowboy Bebop
• "Flying Teapot" from Cowboy Bebop

"Asylum"

• "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette
• "Misera Cantare" by A.F.I.
• "Sekai no Yakusoku" from... uh....?
• "Introduction (Titles)" from "Edward Scissorhands," written by Danny Elfman
• "Darkness" by Darren Hayes
• "Opening Titles including Underground" from "Labyrinth," written and performed by David Bowie
• "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
• "Suffering Planet (remix)" from Final Fantasy 7 (originally)

"The Creator"

• "I Know He Lives" by April Meservy
• "Clocks" by Coldplay
• "Don't Give Up" by Eagle Eye Cherry
• "Concerning Hobbits" from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
• "Higher" by Creed
• "If You're Not the One" by Daniel Bedingfield

"The Mind of the Machine"

• "Easy as Life" from Aida
• "The Alchemic World - Two Years Thereafter" from "Conqueror of Shamballa," a sequel film for Full Metal Alchemist
• "Caged Bird" from DNAngel
• "Let Me Be Your Wings" from Thumbellina

Generic Music That Has No Specific Category but that Seems Useful in Some Way or Another:

• Same acoustic version as "Dancer in the Street"
• "Prelude 12/21" by A.F.I.
• "La Chanson d'Azmaria" from Chrno Crusade
• "Zanarkand" from Final Fantasy X
• "The Sending" from Final Fantasy X
• "One Day More" from Les Mis
• "Finale" from Les Mis
• "Music of my Heart" from "Music of the Heart," performed by N*SYNC with Gloria Estefon
• "Not One of Us" from "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride"
• "Heaven (Candlelight Remix)" by DJ Sammy and Yaonu

WOW That's a TON of music. This almost seems like spam haha. But there's so much music!!! It's insane.

I love this haha.

Ok. Procrastination over. Must study. Test at 9 and I have to leave in just over an hour. Yay!!

Wish me luck =3

NaNoWriMo

This year, I am once again going to try NaNoWriMo. I've made it twice I think and attempted it 3 times so far. Last year I didn't make it because of how sick I was. Not a fun time.

Anyway.

NAnO! I'm excited :3 I just wish November weren't so far away. Well, at least as far as that's concerned. As far as school work... November can just stay as far away from me as possible XD I have 2 major projects and a presentation for work and I have to write a chapter for a book we're presenting to the Dean of the Education Department. Stressful! Plus whatever other assignments and exams my professors feel like throwing at me haha. So yeah.

This year, I'm very set in my story. Most of the pieces are in place, I just have to start playing. Ironic... I hate playing the waiting game and yet that's what I'm doing.

This year, my book is called "Humanoid City." I'm not gonna say too much about it right now because I have no "off" button when it comes to my books. =P

Here's the info I have on my Nano page:

"Humanoid City" is a set of short stories all taking place in the same city on the Border Lands. There are different neighborhoods and many different lives, each with their own stories to tell. Each story is about the struggle between humans, androids, and humanoids (a mixture of the two). Everyone is different, and that's what makes them human whether they look like it or not.

Story Titles (subject to change and in no particular order):

1. The Little Tailor
2. Lovers Scorned
3. Junkyard
4. Half and Never Whole
5. Hearth and Home
6. Dancer in the Street
7. Curiosity
8. Serenity / 1000 Words / Simon Says (Nothing)
9. Asylum
10. The Creator

Yay!

I can't say too much about it because I don't want to be in danger of "self publishing" because then I can't go many places with my finished product.

If anyone out there is also doing Nano, please add me as a Writing Buddy! I love sharing this experience with other people.

For those of you that don't have ANY idea what I'm talking about, here's the idea:

NaNoWriMo stands for Nation Novel Writing Month. In the month of November, we are challenged to write 50,000 words of a novel that we start on Nov. 1st and no sooner. It's crazy but it's SO much fun. It gives me all the motivation I need to start writing again.

I find that, when I have too much to do, I somehow get it all done. But when I don't have very much I tend to get NOTHING done. Weird, isn't it?

Anyway. I'm just excited :3

A lot of my inspiration comes from Tokio Hotel, to be honest. It's a confusing story, but I came up with the idea when I was trying to remember song lyrics of theirs from a song that was stuck in my head. Then I remembered that the name of their tour for their newest CD (Humanoid) was called "Humanoid City." It really has nothing to do with them other than that, but the name inspired me, as does their music on occasion.

I also find that several pictures of theirs or those made by their fans give me ideas about the city itself and the way I think the people in it would look.

Here are some pictures that inspire me (since I haven't put up any pictures in a while):

Disclaimer: These are not my photos. They are pictures I found on the internet. I don't know where many of them came from since I simply did a Google Image Search.

This one is one of my favorites. The man here looks very much unreal and mechanical... until you look at his face. Then he doesn't seem so "inhuman" after all.

This one is just beautifully shot. The gears are well placed and the colors are soft and cold at the same time. I chose this one because her tears are oily and obviously inhuman when, apart from the tiny gears on her cheek, she looks completely human.

I like this one because it's simple. The unpolished feel of it is what makes it beautiful. The red of his heart is the only color he has, but I think it's the only color he needs.

This is my favorite. I don't know if it's "official" or not, but I don't care. I love many things about this. The colors and lighting are very warm except on his mechanical parts. His skin and his shirt look like they've absorbed the light, but his inner machine merely reflects it and doesn't take it in. To me, it looks like he's checking to make sure no one can see him. It also illustrates for me that "beauty is skin deep." When you tear away his skin, he's a different kind of beautiful. One that is raw and exposed and deep and has nothing at all to do with the face above. Even the skin on his arm is cut away a little. It's beautiful to me.

So anyway! That's all I have for now. I'm going to start compiling music for this project soon. Yay! =D I'll post song lists and things later when I can. I can't post music here as far as I know, but I can at least post song names and maybe YouTube links or something.

A lot of the music I'm going to use will probably be German. As stated, that's mainly what I listen to. But we'll see. I'm going to go through all my music archives and not just the stuff on my hard drive right now.

Wish me luck on my crazy endeavor! =D I'm excited haha.