'Sup 100 Pages?

That's right, I won Script Frenzy! I'm not even close to being done with my novel, so I'm going to write like hell today and tomorrow and see how long I can get it. One of my favourite characters just died, a twelve year old who was basically the most innocent, naive kid ever. Gahhh :( Needless to say, I don't really feel like writing anything right now... But I will press on, for Seth!

AHGFKF ALL TIME LOW!

If you are reading this because you want to hear about all my writing (non-existent at the moment) you should probably leave and go read a different post :) This is my summary of last night, and by summary I mean every single tiny detail.
Okay, so my mom and I started off to Toronto at eight am. All was well. We went to Yorkdale, had lunch, shopped for a few hours.
At three we set off for the Sound Academy. When we got there at about 4:00 (traffic jams!) she went to line up and I went to meet up with some other Hustlers (ATL fanclub). We waited out there until 4:45 when they brought us in for M&G.
They told us some rules and then All Time Low walked in. I freaked out for a teensy second, and then the three girls I was with and I went up to Zack. Our convo went like this:
Me: Hi! I'm freaking out right now!
Zack: Why are you freaking out?
Me: I love you guys!
Zack: Aw!
Then he signed my CD case and took a picture with me and gave me a hug. Actually, they all did that, so I'm not going to mention it for the rest of the three.
Then we went up to Alex. We didn't really say anything except like "Hey, what's up?" Before he did all the sign-picture-hug thing.
Next we went over to Rian. Our conversation:
Me: You teeth are actually as white as they look in pictures!
Rian: What, did you think they wouldn't be? Did you think they were photoshopped?
Me: Well, yeah!
And then as we were leaving he was like, "Thanks for the compliment, I think!"
Then we went to Jack. Jack was hilarious, although we didn't really have a one on one conversation either. He kept making all these funny noises and he drew a smiley face on my CD cover.
Then we got into the concert. I was second row, but The Summer Set played their set and I was pretty much dying because I was really dehydrated, I was so freaked out. So security pulled me out and I skipped Hey Monday's set, mostly because I don't like them but also because I needed water. I went into the middle for Yellowcard, who were awesome, and All Time Low, who were hilarious and just plain amazing. I found out they're coming back for a Canadian tour in late summer/fall, which is freaking exciting!
All in all, it was the best day of my life :) Also, pictures!

Freak - The Downtown Fiction

I'm listening to The Downtown Fiction's new album right now, and it's freaking amazing! It's actually not out until the 26th but they put it up for streaming or whatever it's called--let's put it this way, it's on the interwebs. And I love it :)
Speaking of music, TWO FREAKING DAYS UNTIL I MEET ALL TIME LOW. Ahhhhh!
Now, to the writing part...
Oh, wait, I forgot--I want to say that this is my 99th post, which isn't quite as cool as 100th but still. It's funny how my 100th with probably be about All Time Low.
Okay, now to the writing.
So it's day 23 of the Frenzy at 9:09 am. The forums have been down for the past two days or so. I'm at 87 pages, or 46, 692 words. I'm not showing any signs of slowing, eithe, which is exciting. Plus I read the first few pages (I know, I know) and they're not dreadful! How exciting :) I'm off to Starbucks now, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get a lot done today because a) Starbucks, and b) My older brother and I are pulling an all nighter tonight. He has his own reasons, but I'm doing it because if I want to sleep at all Sunday night, I'm going to have to be reeeeally tired.
Happy writing!

The Kids Still Have Their Say: Mike Bird

The Kids Still Have Their Say: Mike Bird: "On the evening of Thursday, April 14th 2011 the Buffalo hardcore community gathered at Mohawk Place to support Terror and Trapped Under I..."

Thanks For Nothing - The Downtown Fiction

One thing before I get to the writing part of this post: HOLYSHIT 8 DAYS UNTIL I MEET ALL TIME LOW!!! Notice I didn't use the word "see" I used "meet".
Ladies and gentleman, this was deliberate.
Someone on the Hustler forums (ATL's fanclub. Not, um, the other sort of Hustler) offered to take me as her guest to the meet and greet before the show. So I am going to meet All Time Low. In person. They will be within hugging distance. They will be within poking distance!! Now, this girl who offered me her guest pass kind of restored my faith in the world... /creeperness.
Now, about that writing thing I supposedly do...
It's day 17 of Screnzy, at ten minutes to four in the afternoon. I am at 69 pages, or 36, 949 words. I'm a bit ahead of schedule, which is good, because there's no way in hell I'll be able to write the day of the concert. Or the night before, I'm assuming.
Because come on, how many times in my life am I going to meet ATL?
If I have any say in it, a lot.
But I digress.
I'm trying to get past 70 pages today, so I'm going to go do some more work :)

I Feel Like Dancin' - All Time Low

GJDFGK ALL TIME LOW RELEASED A NEW SINGLE!! *Breaths deeply as not to scare off followers* Sorry, had to let out my excitement somewhere.
Anyways! It is Day Five of Script Frenzy and I'm on page 29, which is 15, 838 words, so I'm averaging about six pages, or 3168 words, per day. I'm quite proud but I really just wanted to get a head start on my wordcount, as I have a looooot of stuff to do later on this month--Friday I have a PD day, but I'm going to the mall with my best friend and some other friends because it was her birthday last Sunday. Saturday I have a Reach for the Top competition (I'm on the school team). Then next weekend, I might be going down to the states to get a dress for the wedding, then next weekend is a) Easter and b) All Time Low concert!!
So I kind of want to get really far ahead while I have time.
Also, because I can't really drink coffee after ten in the morning on weekdays because I have school the next day and I won't sleep, I've been drinking so much grape pop... it's weird. But also sort of a coffee substitute. And delicious :)

For You and Your Denial - Yellowcard

I'm listening to so much Yellowcard lately, it's mad. My favourite song by them is either the one in the title, Way Away, or Ocean Avenue. <3
So, April 2nd, 1:29pm, I am at 11 pages, 6,185 words and event number eleven on my plot outline.
This is bad.
Well, the page/wordcount is good. But I was supposed to write 1,000 words, about two pages, on each event, and I've only gotten one page out of each :P I think I'm going to randomly throw another subplot in there... just to make it longer :)
I am off to Starbucks soon, but before I leave, I must say that I just bought a fifteen dollar iTunes giftcard. For ever ten pages, I get a song. Also, I must point out that my computer recognizes Starbucks as a word.

More places to creep me!

Yes. I made a Tumblr. Because really, I need more things to distract me, especially with Screnzy coming up.
http://real-life-isnt-right.tumblr.com/

Paper Moon - All Time Low

Yeah, I broke my No All Time Low Titles rule. But, c'mon, new song! And there's only 32 days until I see them live (about that: OMGOMGOMG SOEXCITEDSOEXCITED HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLY!)... now that that's out of my system, let's move on :)

There are now eight days until Screnzy, and I'm getting a bit nervous because I'm not even close to being done with my planning yet. I think I'll get a lot done at Starbucks this weekend (going to Starbucks, as you may know, is my reward for getting through another week and staying relatively sane), because I always get a lot done at Starbucks. Here's hoping...
I'm pretty much done planning out most of my characters, and I quite like them. I'll try to discribe my main ones in one sentence for you:

Jeremy (Jem): The titular character, he is cocky, arrogant, and fancies himself as a bit of a hero.

Tate: Mischievous and funny, Tate is the main prankster of the group and is rather close to getting suspended--or she would be, if she weren't so likable.

Violet: Very serious and a perfectionist, Violet is a dancer determined to be the best, whatever the cost.

Ming: A slacker and bullied for his sexuality (he's gay), Ming is very loyal to his friends and is very brave--he's usually the one to put Tate's plans into action.

I admit, that was harder than I thought it would be. I'm not even going to bother trying to describe the villain in one sentence :)

Adorable - Artist vs. Poet

I've decided that I'm going to ban myself from naming the posts after All Time Low songs, because that would get out of hand (cough every post would be titled after ATL:)) Anyway, I've like Artist vs. Poet for a while now, especially their new stuff!
Back to writing news, I've been planning my Script Frenzy novel all break. So far I have my characters planned out and a vague idea of plot... at the moment I'm going through and writing out each plot point. So obviously, I spent the night procrastinating, and made THIS.
That is Alex Pettyfer, who is one of my favourite actors. I think he'd be perfect for the titular character of Jeremy (aka Jem).
Speaking of Alex Pettyfer, by the way, I just saw Beastly with my best friend today It's a retelling of Beauty and The Beast, the only Disney princess movie I liked as a kid. I know all the critics are giving it bad reviews and previously-mentioned best friend called it "cheesy" but I loved it and would definitely recommend it :)

Everything To Me - David Lehr

Alright, first of all, because I'm lazy, I'm going to start titling my blog posts with songs that I've been listening to lately. I just found David Lehr as as I was screwing around on Youtube, and he's AMAZING. I encourage you to go check him out!
Second, I've just now made the decision to participate in Script Frenzy in April, except like last year, I'm writing 100 pages of novel. I've tried scriptwriting, and I dunno... I just can't get my head around it. I prefer writing books, I suppose :)
So I'm going to spend March planning, which is a new thing for me--usually I have a sort of half-assed plan that goes for the first few chapters and then I'm on my own. So I'm officially going to be a true planner this year.
Alright. This is going to be fun :)
P.S. You know I've been posting on this blog since December 9th, 2009? Wow, that's like, a year and eighty days! And to think I thought I would give it up in a week :)

DONE!

Hehehehe happy :)
I finished my--well, technically a novella--at 33520 words. I'm pretty proud of it, actually, because well it's short, I think it might be kind of good, at least. Better than Outpost or the Coffee Shop Chronicles, at least.
And what I am doing now, you ask? Taking a break? Getting some sleep. NO! Planning my next novel! :D
Sometimes I wonder if I really have gone mad... Incidentally, since Friday night, I've written 7,119 words. HELLS YES.

Writing a short novel

Okay, first of all, word count on unnamed story at the current time (which my friend Katie has decided to call "Crayons and Cats" It stuck, so that is what it will be referred to for the time being): 30179. It's going to end up very short--35000 to 40000, probably, but I'm cool with that.
So I guess it's more of a novella. But I will still call it a novel, because--well, just because.
Also, a plot bunny jumped into my head yesterday, which is another reason that this novel is going to be so short.

Update, January 20

As of this minute, I'm at 26,401 words! That means today I wrote 2080, and this weekend combined I've written 4294 words! :) Wow to bad my weekend's over tomorrow and I need to go back to school... NOT! Yay, Family Day is tomorrow--I love Canada. So, I plan to spend Family Day holed up in my room ignoring my family. I see them enough anyways.
Also, I'm entering a contest called "Write On!". I'm going to write a few things that I might enter and decided on the best... here's choice number one. Thoughts? Critiques? It has to be under 600 words and this is 595, so that's why it seems fairly squished.

There are some people that you can do anything with, and some people you would do anything for.

For me, Blythe was both. Today, for example, the two of us are sitting at our spot, down by the river. It’s one of those hot, muggy summer days, you know the ones, where you feel nothing will go wrong? I mentioned that to Blythe and she agreed—today was definitely one of those days.

In hindsight, we were dead wrong.

Anyway, though, there we were by the river, totally comfortable. I was leaning on the old oak tree; Blythe was leaning on my legs. Her eyes were closed and she was dozing, which gave me the chance to stare at her without her noticing.

Blythe and I had been best friends since kindergarten and I had been in love with her for about as long. It was hard not to be in love with Blythe. She was beautiful—this is a girl who got scouted by modeling agents on the street. No joke. It happened once, in ninth grade, when the two of us were walking down to the corner store for pop and licorice. No one understands why we’re still friends—me, gangly and gawky and skinny, and her, blond and blue-eyed and slender. Not to mention that, but she’s actually, like, nice. You always think that the really pretty ones have to be jerks, but Blythe is the definite exception.

I felt her stirring and close my eyes fast.

“Jay?” she asks. “You awake?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Daydreaming. Sorry.” And then she said something, and I said something, and pretty soon we were just talking about aimless things.

Pretty soon it was late and Blythe drove me home. Despite being seventeen, I still don’t have my license. I’m terrified of driving, especially when I know that there are people like Blythe on the road—if you had to find one flaw in her, it would be her “brakes are for the weak” personality. Honestly, I’m shocked she hasn’t gotten killed or at least ticketed by now.

“By the way,” Blythe says casually, stopping at a red light and nearly giving me whiplash as she starts again, “did you hear that Tommy’s having a party tonight? His parents are out of town.”

“He never was very original,” I say. “I mean, anyone can have a party when their parents are out of town. It takes real guts to do something when they’re here.”

Blythe laughs, accelerating. I dig my nails into the cracked leather of her passenger seat. “Wanna go?” she asks.

“I don’t think so, Blythe,” I say, as she turns into my driveway and idles the car. “I think I’m going to go get some dinner and go to bed.”

Blythe frowns and so do I—I hate making her frown. “Alright. Do you mind if I go?”

“No—of course not,” I say quickly. “Have fun!” She nods and smiles at me, her mood changing in an instant.

We say goodbye and I do exactly what I told her I would—go inside, eat a sandwich and go to bed. I fall asleep almost instantly.

The call comes at 3:20 AM. I know it’s not good. Nothing good comes to you at 3:20 in the morning.

It’s Blythe’s mom. Why is Blythe’s mom calling me at 3:20 in the morning?

“’Lo?”

“Jay? I’m sorry, but you need to know…” She’s crying. Why is she crying? “There’s been a car accident… Blythe…” And she doesn’t need to say anything else. I already know.

Happy Family Day if you're Canadian, and happy Monday if you're anywhere else! Oh, and happy Presidents Day if you're American... do you guys get that off?

Progress Update

So, it's Sunday night. I said when back when that I wanted to get to 20,000 words by now. Where am I? 18,071.
Not good, but not too shabby, either. That means that altogether, I wrote 6,316 words this weekend. I'm cool with that.

Woo! Celebration!

I hit 15,000 words tonight on Unnamed Story :D Well, technically, 15,235, but who's counting? Which means that I wrote a grand total of 3,467 words today, so... pretty good day, all in all. Despite the fact that I broke a wire in my braces yesterday and had to get it repaired this morning... other than that, good day! I'm going to bed now, because I'm tired, even though I could probably get at least 500 more words tonight... I can barely keep my eyes open. I'll write tomorrow! I wonder if I could get to 20,000 by Sunday night? I'll try my best!

Awards are nice :)

JesiMarie, from This is a Blog, has given me the Stylish Blogger Award. I'm still not sure exactly what it is, but it sounds cool, and let's face it: I don't get that many awards.

It comes with some rules, though:
1) Thank the person who gave you this award and link back to them.
2) Share seven things about yourself.
3) Pass the award the bloggers whom you have recently discovered and who you think are great.
4) Contact the bloggers you've chosen and let them know about the award.

One? Done. Two? Well, sort of done... just look down a few posts, alright? :) Three... because I'm lazy, I'm only going to pass this to one blog, Fake Paradise. That's about it.

Also, I can't believe that I forgot to mention, but I just got a BlackBerry! Or, to be more specific, a Curve 9300. I think that's what it is, anyway.
Oh, and on that novel that is currently unnamed, I reached 11000 today!

Excerpt

First, a few updates: I'm done all my exams, and they went really well, so I'm a lot less stressed. I'm going into my fourth week of vegetarianism and it's also going pretty good, although my friends still look at me funny when I take B12 supplements with my lunch and ask why, exactly, I'm doing this. And last, I'm up to 7,777 words on what I've taken to calling The Exam Novel, though it has nothing to do with exams except I started it then. But to celebrate all the sevens, I'm going to post a short excerpt from Chapter One.

The air was cool, but warm enough that you could get away with wearing only a hoodie. It was the kind of night that you knew was going to be good no matter what you did, whether you went out and danced at a club until dawn or went home and ate Pop Tarts with your brother while playing COD. Addison inhaled, the air around her smelling like car exhaust and smoke, which sounded gross but was, in her mind at least, one of the most comforting smells in the world.

By the time she got to the apartment, the temperature had dropped even more, and she was shivering slightly. She knew that her face and eyes must have been red from the wind, and her choppy blond hair had to be a mess. She attempted to finger comb it in the elevator with no luck.

Finally, she got to the top floor. The fact that the door was locked should have been her first tip that something was wrong, but she didn’t even notice. She just figured that Rian was screwing with her, or something.

“Ri-aan,” she called, drawing her name into two syllables as she knocked. “Let me in!” There was no response, and Addison rolled her eyes. He was probably playing Xbox and got so sucked in that he was ignoring everything else. “Idiot,” she mumbled under her breath, but a smile played across her mouth as she thought of all the times she and Rian had used that excuse over the years: “I’m sorry I didn’t set the table, mommy. I was playing on the Nintendo.” It had never really worked.

Addison set down the Pop Tarts and rifled through her school bag for her key, finding it lurking at the bottom corner of the bag, under layers of books and discarded papers. Of course it was. Picking their dinner back up again, she pushed the door open.

“I’m back!” she cried, walking into the kitchen and setting the Pop Tarts on the counter. “I brought dinner! Rian?” No answer. That should have been the second clue that something was wrong.

Addison kicked off her shoes and made her way to the end of the hall, where her brother’s room was. “Hello?” she called, knocking softly on the door. “Rian?” Pushing the door open, she saw that there was no one there.

Her heart was starting to beat faster now. All Addison could think of was coming home all those years ago to this same apartment. No one was there—her dad was at the office, her brother still at school, in some club or sport—she couldn’t remember now. Her mom was supposed to be there, but she wasn’t. Addison remembered sitting on the couch, the apartment seeming empty and scary, and Rian coming home and sitting with her—because he didn’t know what was happening either. That was when Addison started to panic. Rian was her big brother, her five-year-old brain screamed at her. He was supposed to know everything.

Forgive the awful grammar/spelling :)

Exams... helped...me??

Huh. This is really weird--like, it actually felt weird to write it--but by procrastinating on my exams I wrote 5000 words on a new story. It was kinda like... "work...wrork...wrirk...writ...WRITE!" So that's what I did. And it's turning out well.
And I just finished my first exam :) Easy peasy. I have my second one this afternoon--my worst subject, math. Right now, I'm sitting in Starbucks (dear school: THANK YOU for being built within walking distance to a Starbucks. Thankyouthankyouthankyou). I'm pretty nervous, but then again--I did some calculations, and even if I get a zero on the exam, I still end up with a 62% in math. So... I'm a bit less nervous. But still...

Narcissism!

So in a break from studying (to see how I feel about school, by the way, look at the last post :)) I was like, "Yay! I'll post something on my blog!" then I was like... "Damn. The only thing that I can think of right now is exams. I already freaked out about that :(". But then I realized... "Why, my readers know nothing about me!". So, in a fit of self-absorbed teenager-ism, I present to you: The List of Things Rachel W. Loves:

1. Writing. If you haven't figured that out already... I'm sorry, you're an idiot. Get off my blog.

2. Reading. Less obvious, but you should still probably have guessed that.

3. Music. Without my iPod, I would die. Like, I would just collapse on my bed and cry until I passed out.

4. TV--more specifically: Skins (the UK version, obviously), Glee, House, and Lost.

5. This girl right here. Yeah, the really really pretty one on the left who isn't me, who looks like she's about to stab someone? I couldn't live without this chick. I love her more than my iPod and my TV combined :O She's the Cameron to my Ferris--actually, that might be switched, I can't remember which one of us is the Ferris and which is the Cameron (props if you get the reference!)

6. All Time Low. I know I already said music, but ATL is more than music to me. They've honestly gotten me through so much, I don't know what I would do without that band.

7. My netbook. His name is Greg, he's very pink, small, and covered in stickers.

8. John Hughes. Just... John Hughes.

9. My friends and my family < 3

10. Singing. I'm terrible at it, yet I still do it.

11. Big cities. I live in a small city, and some day I'm going to go out and make something of myself.

12. Sleep :)

13. All of you. Because without you, this blog wouldn't be here and I'd be stuck talking to myself somewhere.

Stupid Exams

Gah. Hate hate hate school. Hate exams. I really have nothing to say, but my brain is about to blow up from studying so hard. Gaaah.
Although I did my French oral exam already and the teacher showed me the mark--96%! So studying pays off... but still. Brain = about to explode.

Bookshop Musings

Going to be honest with you all here... The Coffee Shop Chronicles is non-rewritable. Yes, yes, you can all bitch at me for giving up on yet another project--not sure why you care, but you could, you know, if you like--but honestly, for the past week, I've been working on the rewrite, and I've gotten about 2,000 terrible and forced words. So I'm just going to take a break and wait for my muse to come back to me--well, technically, I'm going to take a break, tie my muse to a chair, and beat him up until he gives me an idea.
Same thing, really.

Never mind...

Damn it. Anyone know how to delete posts? (I really need to stop accidentally posting :P)

Progress!

On the rewrite of TCSC. Except you can't really call it a rewrite, because I did the first five hundred words and already it's nothing like the original. I might even need to rename it :$ Ah, well. I like it this way better!

Rewrites

First off, happy 2011! I was sick all through New Years Eve and New Years Day, so I missed my concert, which kinda sucked, but whatever. At least I'm better now!
However, while I was sitting in bed feeling sorry for myself, I pulled out TCSC and started reading through it. I found something out: It was bad. Really bad.
Instead of giving up like I normally would, though, I've decided to rewrite it from scratch. Change a few elements--mostly the main character, because she has all the personality of a text book.
That's about all that's happening around here... Off to create a timeline!