bellichka

what the fuck is this shit

It was so hard to get started today. I got 1690 words.... not feeling too inspired. Maybe it'll come to me once I'm able to sink my teeth into this a little further.

Okay, hi to the probably 1 person that reads this. I think I'm going to use this journal for my nanowrimo ramblings - do an end-of-the-day post how my word count's coming, and maybe include my mood and such.

So be prepared :)

So, as I'm sure my last entry had made apparent, I am thinking already about NaNoWriMo. I went into it last year so blindly that I actually decided to sign up for it about 2 days into it... I had no plan, barely a plot, no outline, no direction. So I floudered around for 20,000 words and admitted defeat. But for this year I have vowed not to repeat my mistake, and so I am planning. I was on nanowrimo.org searching for a plot idea, and somebody had posted this:

The main character (I always envisioned a man approaching middle age) is a hardened cynic, and tends to view the world with an angry, pessimistic light. One day, he's taking a walk in the park when he sees a little boy throwing pennies into the fountain, trying to get the "lady" in the fountain to catch one of the pennies in her hand, telling the man that if she catches one his wish will come true. The man, wishing to play along with the boy, throws one in, but doesn't make a wish. So, in lieu of granting his wish, the spirit of the fountain (who comes in the form of the lady statue) blesses/curses him by allowing him to see magic. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing everything: household spirits, imaginary friends, vampires, angels...

Well I thought this was a fabulous idea, but I've revamped it slightly. Oh the ideas that come to me while watching Scream 2. It goes a little something like this:

The main character is a man in his 40s-60s employed by a wealthy estate as their butler. He and the only child, a little girl, go for a stroll in a park. They come across a fountain, of a beautiful woman and her oustretched hands. The girl tells the butler/nanny/bitch that the children at her school speak of the tale that if you make a wish and then toss a coin into the statue's outstretched hands, the wish will come true. As he does not believe in magic or wishes coming true, he does not make a wish, but the coin lands directly in her hands. Thinking nothing has happened, they continue on their stroll, but before they leave the park, the main character sees the statue wink at him. He thinks this is odd, but says nothing.

He arrives home, and begins seeing magical creatures - ghosts, fairies, pixies, elves, unicorns, leprechauns, house spirits, vampires, etc. He starts freaking out, and returns on his own to the park, to the statue that winked at him. He shouts at her and accuses her of causing the new problem in his life. She says nothing, but appears to him later that evening in his residence. She warns him that he has upset the magical balance due to his lack of a wish, and that is what is causing him to see these creatures - that he is the one out-of-balance, so he now has opened a line of communication previously unopened.

So he asks he what he can do to restore the balance and make this all stop, and she assigns him three tasks - what these three tasks are, I have no idea, but I have two months. Anyway, so he completes these three tasks, and on the way he enlists the help of these magical creatures he, at one time, did not believe in. He comes to regard them as friends, and they him. So there's lots and lots of action and he finishes the tasks.

When he returns to the statue, he informs her that they all did it together, and she commends him for completing not the three tasks, but the unmentioned fourth task. He freaks out, saying that no more should be expected of him, but she informs him that the fourth task was to open his mind and accept what was around him.... that is the real task that would break the curse, and he had completed it. But in the end, he does not want to restore the balance, because he will miss his new friends and the adventure they had together. But they'll always be with him, things are warm and fuzzy, yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, I'm really excited about it! It's so great to have a direction.

x-posted from LJ

So I've been trying to make nice with the neighborhood stray, a big furry orange blob I have affectionately christened "Pussy Galore." For the past few days I've been putting some dry food out for it in a little gladware container - I know you're not supposed to do that, but I feel bad for it, and I want it to be my Pussy Galore. So I've been feeding it, and sure enough, it's been eating all the food I give it (but I haven't seen it, I've just checked and seen that the food has been gone). My mother and I were out on the porch today - she was cleaning, I was plastering, and she looked out the window, and she goes "BETHANY! PUSSY GALORE IS OUT HERE!" So I look out, and sure enough s/he was eating some of the food that had spilled in the grass (the container was empty). So I was like Imma go outside and see if I can make nice.

I walk out the front and around to the side where PG is scrounging for food, and I kind of whistle at it and it runs away - but not that far away, I still see it hiding in the bushes. So I say, "Okay, Pussy Galore, I can play your game." I walk back in the house and get the box of food I had gotten, and I start pouring some in the plastic container; well, by now s/he's intrigued. As I'm pouring, PG comes over to check out the situation, and decides that I'm okay after all. S/he starts rubbing my leg and the food box lol, and lets me scratch its head.

The cat seems to be in pretty good shape, s/he's an orange tabby (I think), definitely domesticated and not feral. But it's got no collar and a bunch of caked-on poop on its bum. Now I've never owned a cat (we're very much a dog family), so I don't know how normal this is. Do people normally keep collars on their cats? Do domesticated cats with a proper home normally have a giant clump of poo hanging off their ass? Do people bathe their cats? I have no idea how this works. But if it keeps on hanging around and doesn't seem to have a home and is still filthy, I'll take it to the vet's and just have it checked out and see maybe how old it is and if it has diseases and have them give it a bath.

I loves me some Pussy Galore, though. Any of you have any experience taking in strays?

( edit: here's a pic )

(I know I suck for x-posting, but I need all the help I can get!!!)

So. I'm thinking about NaNoWriMo again. Idk if I mentioned that in my last post, but there you have it. I spent a little chunk of last night in a big comfy chair, with the lights off and candles burning, no TV on, just thinking about plots and what sort of story *I'd* want to read and what I would be able to finish/flesh out. So I came up with a few ideas.... my favorites at the moment:

~ a series of children's fairy tales
~ 4 kids at summer camp who hunt for treasure

I'm leaning towards the latter, but the former would be fun. After all, it's 50,000 words, it doesn't matter how you achieve it.

Thinking about it with no distractions helped a lot, though. I think, in our fast-paced society, we don't really realize how much we can get in touch with ourselves by just getting rid of all the extraneous noise, lights, people, etc.

So hello to those of you who friended me back! I'm pretty sure I was LJ friends with all of you back in the day, and we just lost touch as I left fandom and whatnot. But if you don't remember me my ego will somehow deal :P I always enjoyed fandom people - their acceptance, quirkiness, fun personality, eagerness to try new things... just don't know if I ever enjoyed fandom itself.

Anyway, I've found myself unhappy with a lot of LiveJournal's recent moves - namely the selling to Six Apart, the inability to distinguish characters in books from real people, and just the fact that they have their heads so far up their own asses right now. So I was looking for a new home, cynical_terror mentioned this place, and here I am :) I like this a lot better than GJ and Vox, so hopefully I'll say here.

So thanks for friending me back, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of each other :)

And so I find myself with another journal, thanks to cynical_terror. :p

I have a livejournal | a greatestjournal | vox | and journalfen.

One more journal.

I will go where the people go, I cannot lead a revolution.

And somebody already made ohnotheydidnt. What the fuck is up with that.