1.

The novel formerly known as TLOL is now officially Hurricane Forever.

Because I think I'm funny.

2.

Thinking about allegories in my work.

They never used to exist, but now I see them left and right.

I think that will probably be the topic of my next Monday post. This week's one was pretty crappy and I apologize for that.

3.

Hurricane Forever is going surprisingly well. My current process (well, my current planned process anyway) is to write the novel and add comments to the synopsis as I go along to fix things.

So far so good.

Previously, all the clay was just random lumps. This time it's like I put the clay into the mold, popped it out, and am now reshaping it a bit.

1.

I have given up on WriteWayPro for now.

It's both flexible and not flexible enough.

2.

Here's a paradox for you.

The story that my heart would like to write is a grand story of great love and great tragedy.

The story that my mind would like to write is a novel on the rise and fall of nations, cultures etc.

This is the fundamental conflict that drives and hinders my writing.

1.

This post is brought to you by ScribeFire for Firefox. As opposed to Windows Live Writer.

I do miss the many keyboard shortcuts that WLW had though. Like Ctrl+Shift+C to open up categories, and the ability to have it remember links, so when I mention Nadia, for instance, it'll link to her website automatically.

Especially since most of them don't work.

2.

In my attempts to procrastinate all things synopsis/studying, I have switched my choice of browsers from Chrome to Firefox and have decided to delete Opera completely from my laptop's consciousness.

This is followed by me jazzing it up, with Echofon -- I really want something that has Reply All and immediate shortening of URL and ability to change views with a keyboard shortcut -- and Scribefire, to be followed by something for an RSS Aggregator and something I can use for Gmail when I can't connect with Outlook.

3.

I'm also currently contemplating putting an end to my attempts to finish my synopsis as it is clearly going nowhere.

But I think I'm going to see whether I can dig up one of those list things for the Three Act Structure, which asks you stuff like inciting event, climax, etc.

This I'll input into Excel, with each of those items on the left column, and Acts I, II and III across. Because in every Act, those items ought to link up somehow.

1.

I just want this damn synopsis to be done.

I can’t remember if I tried this before or not, with TLOL, but I’m pretty sure I have.

I am nearly at the end.

That’s what’s making it so frustrating.

2.

Thinking about how I’ll start over. Probably not with WriteWayPro which has been crashing lately and irritating me and breaking my flow when I have one.

And you know how it is with Murphy. It only crashes when I’m in the flow.

I may have to start calling WriteWayPro Murphy, at this rate.

Bah.

Self-Improvement

1.

I have a fetish for it.

I like to be able to say ‘I’ve done this in ____.’

It’s less that I want to be a better person, but I want to be better prepared to take over the world to seize every opportunity that comes my way, and just to do things better.

2.

In 2007, it was learning to be more extroverted.

That one was hard.

But it was a good year for that. I think it made my first year away from home a lot easier than it would have been otherwise.

3.

2008 and 2009 was meditation.

The reason why it was the same in 2009 was because 2008 was a bust.

So was 2009, come to that.

4.

Which is how we ended up in 2010.

I’m looking for my replacement for meditation, if that makes sense. A way for me to clear The Space in My Head. Hence 1-2-3 and The Year of Starts, to enable more Stabbing Fabric with a Needle.

I decided that this year, I am going to attempt a multi-pronged approach. 1-2-3 is active, whereas stitching every day is passive.

We’ll see how this one goes. 1-2-3 is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. *bangs head*

5.

I periodically do this with my gadgets too.

I have given up on Outlook. Chrome has to go. Word doesn’t quite fit my writing needs so now I have WriteWayPro. Twitter is better with a Twitter client rather than on web. So forth.

I may settle for Google-izing my laptop in the short-term*, but I doubt I’ll actually do that. I don’t like Chrome. I really don’t like Chrome.

6.

I think that everything can be improved. It’s just a question of whether the improvement is worth the time you spend getting there.

I am, after all, an economist. Marginal marginal marginal!

*Defined as for the next year to eighteen months, as I’ll almost definitely switch out my current laptop for another, or at least get a secondary.

1.

Odd.

I swear I’m undergoing difficulties…but WriteWay tells me that I’ve written over a thousand words in the past two days.

And I would say that WriteWay has lost its mind (a theme so prevalent in my life right now that it ought to have its own tag) but for the fact that I thought about it, realised that I have written one completely new scene, and added to two others.

2.

This novel has been different in every way.

The writing of it has been surprisingly easy. Not that I don’t wrack my brains over the plot and so forth, but I have never felt like I’ve to cut myself to bleed the words out onto the page.

Nor have I wanted to throw out this entire draft to start all over, despite the fact that I am nearly at the 10k mark.

3.

Still thinking about January-in-February.

Joely said she’d be my accountability partner for it.*

I dread the thought of getting up early to scribble three pages before class, though I know what’s good for you is often hard to do.

It’s the logistics of it that bother me. I don’t know how I want to do it.

I do know that I want to get up in the mornings to do it.

But do I do it by hand on paper and toss it? Open up a new word doc every day, write it in an email and send it to sooper-dooper-sekrit account? How?

* If you’re interested, just ping me. I am Cardinal Emily of Gmail, with a full-stop between Cardinal and Emily. Apparently there’s another, more evil Emily Cardinal out there.

Going on writing hiatus for the next few weeks.

Writing economics essays is not a conducive environment for writing fiction.

Besides which, I need to consider whether I will actually splurge for WriteWay. I like it, but it is still 30USD that I could use for something else.