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!