DashCon

This thing. This thing right here.

It's basically tumblrCon and it's in 2014 and the tickets/trip can be my birthday present. I won't ask for anything else - I'm not kidding.

Just wanted to put that out there.

*sigh* Okay...

I still have to read my Philosophy extracts, read my English assignments, post to the boards, edit the next chapter of Twelfth Generation, get as far in Maths as I can, finish reading 'The Smithsonian Institution', and write for Camp NaNoWriMo.

*groan*

I think I'm just going to answer my messages and then try to go to sleep. Get up and work in the morning, when I'm (hopefully) feeling a little less achy and stabby.

#amediting

I am. And I'm realising that I might have a future in this kind of thing.

I can see issues with something I was sent right off the bat:

• Formatting
• Dialogue tags
• Varying tags too much
• No tags were needed
• Topic jumping
• Stilted dialogue
• Scenes/Bits that seem to do nothing for the story

But. I like to help. I really do. I'm just having a little trouble finding a balance between 'this is wrong, this doesn't work, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong...' and 'Oh, it was wonderful, Darling.' 

I don't want to come off as 'I'm better than you and these are all the reasons why you suck' but I really want to tear this thing to ribbons when I was only supposed to do light editing.

There are a lot of comments that I've made in the margins.

So.

I think I'm going to get through the couple pages I was asked to do as a kind of trial run and then pass it off to a friend to see if I'm being too harsh right off the bat. There's a lot I could pick up on but I don't want to throw it back to them dripping red ink. People get indignant when you do that.

Maybe stick to light editing for now and then just mention that there are things I'd like to work with him on and clean up? I don't even know right now...

I'll figure it out when everyone gets up in the morning. (That's one of the issues with being nocturnal - if you have a problem, you're either waking people up or waiting until sun-up. #vampireproblems)

Anyway. I'm gonna go and eat cold macaroni and cheese while I slog through the dialogue and try to figure out what to say about it other than 'fix this'. Am I a real artist yet?

Zydrate comes in a little glass vial.

A little glass vial?
A little glass vial!

(I'm on a Repo! kick. Again.)

I'm also having really bad ideas for books. Like, seriously my notes are a mess. I think I might take the rest of this month and clean things up and get them organised. My current system kind of sucks but I'm not sure what to do with it.

I'm thinking of doing WriYe in 2013. Yeah. (No one talked me off the ledge.) Maybe just a 300,000 word goal, though. I mean, it is for the whole year and that should give me time to go other things. Right? I think so but then again, I'm weird like that. Plus, it just looks like fun for some stupid reason. I probably won't do the whole validation thing for this, I just like the community. They keep me (relatively in)sane.

Too late. This is happening.

help.

Also, the 'Hire Me' page is back up top. (Please to be noticing it now.) It might need some tweaking as I get things figured out but for now, well, there it is. I wish to help you hack up a manuscript and then put it back together. It's like a puzzle you made yourself. Or something.

I don't know - I feel like things are happening and I'm all excited!

I feel like my ideas are a little more vivid for this next year. I mean, don't get me wrong, this month kind of sucks  in terms of how I actually feel, but I kind of think I'm close to figuring things out. I just have to work a little bit at a time, something that I'm generally not very good at.

So yeah. That's where all this is. The last week in December, I think I'll post up my 2013 Challenge page and the one for my goal-list thing for the year. I'd just like to have them in the open so that I'm more willing to work on them because people can tell if I'm not.

I'm either going to A) go back to editing and try to get that scene figured out from this characters perspective, B) go and try to figure out a better system for keeping my writing organised, C) spend some time working on outlining techniques and getting a rough idea of what my first two stories of the year should be, D) eat seaweed and play around on forums, or E) effectively say 'screw it' and go watch TV.

It's probably going to wind up being a muddled mix of most of these, actually.

Oh, well.

Have an awesome day, everyone. I hope you're having a better overall month than I am. (2012 really needs to knock this crap off.)

Feeling better

See this?

Of course you do.

This is a small part of why I'm feeling a little better.

This was quickly kept in check by GIMP being an unremitting douche and me trying to edit. (One of the comments made to myself was, in fact, 'STOP SWITCHING POV MID-SCENE. FUCKING HELL.')

...

I'm not nice to myself. Also, I don't need to curse as much as I'd like to sometimes. Anyway.

Really, I cannot get the text boxes to actually display the text I've shoved into them in GIMP lately. I have no idea why. I just... can't get it to work. So, yeah, taking a break for a little while.

EDIT: I got it figured out. I was on the wrong layer. I hang my head in shame.

So, I need the blurb-thing for the back and whatever else he wants on there and then we're done. Yay.

...

I'm working on a book cover, in case that wasn't readily apparent.

But our Christmas tree is up! I might snag a picture or two to post in the next update. It's really cosy-looking. I got to put the angel up on top. I've done that for twenty years now. Wow. Oh, and we fought with the lights, like always. It was kind of fun in a very frustrating way.

So, while I'm waiting, I think I'll go scrounge up some food and then settle in and watch TV or schedule things or edit or... I don't know, do something.

(It's a weird moment for me. It's like DO ALL THE THINGS combined with This Is Never Getting Done. I also have to pee, which I'm pretty sure is unrelated.)

Bye for now, guys. Thanks so much for putting up with me this year ^^ I bat-love all of you.

In which watching TV shows online is preferable to working.

Really.

I have not been able to focus on anything. All I want to do for the next day or so is curl up and watch TV. Just shut my brain off for a little while.

I've been working on a cover for someone. That's going pretty well but we're kind of at a standstill because there's just not a lot more I can do without more information.

So there's that.

I think I just need a break.

- Finish the cover
- Edit/Combine with 'second draft' (The Book is getting there. Slowly.)
- Set up your 'Hire Me' page again. (I offer editing services)
- Get your list for 2013 finalised
- Set up your project blogs
- Get some semblance of an outline (one that actually works for you) for January.
- Do everything else you're forgetting about right now

Yeah.

I have a lot that I'd like to get done. And no motivation to actually do it. Well, that's not true. It's more like there's a kind of mental block or something. It's not just writer's block either - it's everything.

*sigh*

Screw this - I am now a pony:

I am purple. My name is (apparently) Flare and I am purple. I love me.

(Also, I kinda wanna do this to my hair. It looks awesome.)

For right now, I'm going to curl up and watch shows. Tomorrow (or maybe the day after) I'll jump back on writing, editing and general creativity. For right now, though, I just need to relax.

I hope you all have a nice, relaxing weekend and I will see you maybe on Monday? When I don't feel the need to be a pony anymore?

Yeah. Maybe Monday.

Bye for now, everyone. Have an awesome weekend.

All kinds of things.

My scale reads 127 at this time of night. This is problem and needs to be fixed like now.

(I've also noticed that when writing for Heavy Rain - which will, for the record, require a major overhaul - and when planning for another project of mine, any issues with my weight seem magnified. Randy is underweight for his height and most of The Other Project revolves around not wasting the city's resources and not becoming a drain on the city. There is also a cap on ageing in that one. But that's neither here nor there.)

Life:

A decision has been made. I shall be an artist.

Of course, that means those so much stuff to figure out now but that can be done in fits and starts for a little while, until I stop panicking.

Writing:

There's the book.

This incomprehensible book.

Any other book, I can just write. Any other book, I can fix later and it doesn't feel so frightening. This one though... It's so... dark. And not in the typical way things I write are dark. It's a lasting darkness, something that has the potential to make this one of those books that stays with you for years.

And the least thing I want to do is screw that up.

So, it's to editing. To editing while I try not to ruin it.

Wish me luck.

Complaining Already:

Really. Everything I do looks cheap to me. I'm working on the site and everything I do looks cheap to me. I'm torn between being really professional with the white background and everything and thinking that that's just not what I do. This is not a bright company. It's a dark, horror kind of company. Our focus is on the unsettling, just not in an overly obvious way.

I want to use darker colours but I can't get a theme with them that I don't hate and I don't know enough about coding and CCS to make one.

So, you know, *HEADDESK*

I'm going about it in a different way now and I think it'll work out a little better like this. It's just gonna take forever.

FAKE Geekery:

I never noticed before but in the first volume (OMG, the art style changed so much 0.o) when Ryo is talking with Vikky at the station, he has his tie loosened, the button at his collar undone and he isn't wearing his suit jacket. In the very next scene without Vikky, his shirt is completely buttoned up again and he's fixed his tie.

I'm thinking that's one of the examples of him picking up on things and doing them without making a show of it. No jacket and his tie loosened is very similar to how he first saw Dee - namely, relaxed and not threatening. It's a less professional, more relaxed or easy-going look and so it shortens the psychological distance between him and Vikky at that point, meaning the boy may be more comfortable and more willing to talk.

Later, when Dee is around after Vikky gives them the information, Ryo moves back to the more professional side of the scale, fixing his tie. It's a small change but it still illustrates the distance between him and Dee.

Also, page 38 in volume one - Ryo is in street clothes. I hadn't noticed this before but his shoes have a decent heel on them in that shot - especially for a guy.

Anyway, it was one of those things that you notice on a second read-through.

Okay, I'm gonna go and try to get more things set up. (Just go down the list, right?) I'll see you all soon and hopefully I'll not be panicking and/or exhausted.

Twenty-Nine: It's really important that you let me get to ten.

It really is.

I feel like all of today has been me slowly counting to ten and being interrupted every time.

(I mean it. Everything from the editing - my pen hates me, the authors don't seem to know their characters and can your phrasing not be awkward for, like, two paragraphs? Please? - to life in general - she was not out of line. You do not need to step in and apologise for her. - has just been... Yikes, you know?)

I think I'll wait until the end of the month for a response (a real response) to the email I sent. Longer than that and I start getting suspicious.

On the upside, this is giving me a lot of experience.

I'm kind of looking forward to NaNoWriMo just for a chance to get back to writing. There's a lot I want to do and I'm feeling like just want to jump in but, of course, I'm very tired by the time I get the chance to jump in and I don't want to wreck my sleep schedule. Again.

So.

I think I'm going to pack things up, laugh at people asking stupid questions (or just being funny) on the NaNo forums and then probably fall on my face. Mental work is often more tiring than heavy physical labour.

Bye for now, guys. (I really need to learn to start setting this stuff up earlier so I'm not so drug out when I'm trying to post.)

Twenty-Eight: *tears hir hair out*

Let me tell you about things that annoy me.

- Improper use of semicolons
- Missing periods
- Extra space
- Atrocious formatting
- Inconsistent atrocious formatting
- Not starting your first chapter on the correct page
- Using your usernames as your author names on the cover
- Not spacing your chapters correctly.
- Back and front pages are nowhere near industry standards
- Too many '-ly' words
- You gave him a name - f'ing call him by it!
- No. Show me.
- These are separate ideas - why are they in the same sentence?
- OMG with the commas!
- Really? You screwed up the apostrophe?

And that was episode one of Jezzy's Editing Exploits. And, honestly, I'm very glad to have these things on hardcopy because wow. I mean, the story is fine all in all it's just that the writing... yeah.

I'm hoping that they don't get ticked off just because I found a lot of stuff. Even if they do, I've gotten a lot of experience from the books.

(It's not like I hadn't read them before, it's just that I wasn't really writing things down and then I couldn't find my notes so I'm basically having to do it all again. And I'm finding a lot more this time. So, yeah. Ow. I just really hope this is appreciated and not seen as 'Well, we don't wanna work with you anymore because you're just being a bitch'. No, I'm not - I'm being a good editor. Which you clearly need.)

Anyway.

I'm getting worked up over something that hasn't happened and might not happen. So. That was my day, mostly. That and marketing ideas for things that aren't mine. And some things that are.

...

I'm basically planning on being JtHM when I'm older (Jezzy the Happy Mortician). Cannot stop laughing over how well that works out.

So... yeah.

As you can probably tell, I am very tired and I've only edited 32 pages today.

All in all, a productive and tiring day that has left me with a lot of work that I will be happy to fall asleep and ignore for a few hours.

Bye for now, guys. Sorry for the quick, slightly ranting update but, hey, NaNoWriMo starts soon!

Twenty-Six: Beta Work and General Stress

Yes, I can't back out of it now...

(Just in case anyone didn't know, yes, I do offer editing and proofreading services.)

This is possibly one of the most awkward times but the beta-reading/editing thing is ready to start. I got an email this morning. (Technically, she said they're 'getting ready to get started on book three' so I'm not sure if she means starting writing or not. I kind of hope she does - that would give me some time to calm the hell down and read.)

I realise that this is a very good thing but still, kind of panicking about it.

Part of me is still kind of like this:

But the rest of me is pretty happy.

She offered to have me read and red line the first two books and mail them back instead of keep them so they could pay me for reading them and I might do that because, you know, money. I've made a lot of notes in the copies I have though, so if I could get new ones for that, it would be awesome.

Generally, red line editing just means going through and looking for things that would be underlined in red, like asdfghjkl;. It's basically proofreading. I'm not sure if that's what she means, though.

I also need to brush up my editing marks...

But that was the bombshell for today.

Along with everything else I was planning to try to get done.

I've also figured out that I need a cosmetology degree. Why? Because morticians who can also do hair and makeup (like, for open caskets) tend to be paid more since the funeral home doesn't have to outsource it.

Problem: It's eleven months and 8 thousand dollars.

So... yeah. I mean, you learn a lot but still, wow. 'Restorative Art' doesn't cover any of that or else I'd just do that and forget about it. (It's more about like mortician's wax and rebuilding facial structures - like, if you got shot in the face but you want an open casket. Neat, huh? 8D)

I also need a business degree, which really doesn't scare me - it's like almost any other college course. Thing is, if I'm taking the cosmetology course, I'll only have time for maybe one night class at the college and my schedule's pretty much full.

Then, it's four years (total) for a business degree and two years (almost) in mortuary school.

Stressful.

But that's were I am today.

I get the feeling that before too long I'll be all like 'Bring me my red pen'.

Because I'm stupid like that. (All I have to do is remember that all I'm looking for is flow and plot holes, basically. Their style is... not my style.)

So. I'm going to go and answer her email and see what she says. In the meantime, I think I'll go try to distract myself from the whole panic thing by working a little on that outline. The first couple chapters are starting to come together so I'm hoping that continues.

At least I can kind of plan in and around NaNoWriMo with all this. That's one good thing, at least. I knew I got that outline done early for a reason.

Things are slowly moving forward and that's a good thing. I'm actually really grateful for any work I can get like this - even if I am stupidly nervous. That's the thing though, I'm not perfect, but I've got a good eye. I know I do. Like with so many other things, I just need to start.

We'll be going to the rental house (the house we rented out) pretty soon to see what the damage is and start going through all the stuff they left behind so that'll be fun.

So, bye for now, everyone. I'm going to go write and try to figure out November.

*rolls away* *falls through trap door*

Okay so...

remember that editing job I spazzed about several posts back? (It was a while ago.)

Well, I contacted the client, whom I had been out of touch with this past month, and inquired about our contract. (Wow, I do not need to write like this - tone it down.) So they said that, since there's been a lot going on in their lives (it's co-authored) and since they're going to back it down to two books a year (so as not to over-saturate their tiny target market), I'd be paid 'significantly more' for my time.

I don't know what 'significantly more' (their words, not mine) means because it didn't feel right to ask but yeah. Feeling pretty good, actually. Kind of like:

but in a good way.

In other news... There is no other news.

Aside from the fact that I found an awesome, way too in-depth post about the history of Steampunk and have been struggling to find what to use as historical markers. (Upside: I'm almost done with the 'history of' section - about a page left to the minimum.)

And, aside from that, my mind is coming up with a soundtrack for the book I'm not writing. Why am I not writing? Because I am lazy and I have no idea where I'm going. Also stress.

So. I'm going to go and maybe work for a little while longer before I crash.

Bye, guys~ *waves*

*SCREAMS*

Seriously. That's about how I feel right now.

Reasons?

1) Editing job came though. I signed an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and everything! I'll get the hard copy books soon so I can catch up and then I'll be working with them and askjdflsdj

2) On another awesome note, I think I've discovered the root of my obsession with psychotic characters. Yeah. Those are the kind of major life-discoveries I make at this time of night. But at least now I can see how one psychotic character led to my current obsession with psycho, scarily intelligent, gender-bending characters with screwed-up backstories. Huh. Yeah.

3) I have books and mum promised to help me organise my room. That might not seem like something to scream about but to me it is. I love organising things... because I am weird, apparently.

4) Less awesome note: Our air conditioner is frozen. Like 'ice on the pipes' frozen. In the middle of the desert. When it's 80 degrees in the middle of the night. The hell? Seriously:

See this? All this white? That's ice. Those pipes are supposed to be copper-coloured, like the one in the front. Here's another one, closer up:

This is insane. It also means that we have no AC for a while because it won't run when it's an ice cube. Obviously.

5) Camp NaNoWriMo. Which currently can be summed up as 'If you talk about my word count, I will put forks in you'. But getting better. Really. Getting better. I'm starting to see more of a plot than I thought I had which is so nice right now.

That's about it for right now. I'm going to try to get to at least something approximating my actual goal and then calm the hell down about that editing gig.

I hope you all have a great day and I will be back soon to ramble at you and spam you with pictures of things you probably don't care about ^^