this machine will not communicate

Ugh, this week.  For almost two months, I've been fighting off an ear infection.  My ear would start to close up, or it would start to get sore, and I would up my Vit C and take some decongestant, and things would go back to normal for 3-5 days, then the cycle would begin again.  Last week, it became clear that the battle was over.  It was like there was some sentient ear infection imp living in my ear, determined that I would get an ear infection, damn it!  Tuesday the ear was completely closed, and really started to hurt, so I called and made a doctor's appointment.  By the time I saw my doctor the next day, the swelling had begun.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have never had a severe ear infection, the swelling is the best part, really.  My neck, where the Eustachian tube starts; the ear canal; behind the ear itself.  By Wednesday night, the side of my head was so swollen that I couldn't chew, I could hardly open my mouth, and it hurt to smile and even swallow.

And then the pain, oh, the pain.  I'm not even exaggerating when I say that Wednesday and Thursday was in the top three worst pain I've ever had in my life.  Thank GOD, my doctor gave me ~*~hyrdocodone.  But even that was really only effective for about two hours.  I was supposed to take one every 6-8 hours, but those two days, if I made it 4 hours, I was very proud of myself.  (It was so bad Wednesday night that at one point I was actually hoping that my eardrum would rupture just so the pressure would relent.)

By Saturday afternoon, the swelling and most of the pain was finally gone, but as of today, the stupid thing is STILL closed up, and it's achy and tender.  I have this horrible premonition that I'm going to finish out this round of antibiotics, and then it's going to go nuclear again.  Siiiiiigh.

It was kind of embarrassing, when I googled home remedies, that everything I read was like "your baby probably has an ear infection if she's tugging on her ear and crying!"  It's just sort of undignified to get an ear infection as an adult, let alone one that's bad enough that I ended up calling in sick to work three days in a row.  Blergh.

Ugh, I've been so bad about posting and reading my flist in the past few months, which is to say, I basically have been doing neither.  I haven't been posting because I pretty much have nothing to post about - I work, and then I work, and then I write, and sometimes I do laundry and clean house.  I occasionally eat.  And it's not like I had been slacking off all year to find myself with my back against the wall come screenplay submission season; I have been writing steadily and consistently since September on the two scripts I'm submitting this year.  But this always happens anyway, and it's a particularly bad one this year.

I am really, really happy with the script I wrote this year, though.  Definitely the most polished first draft I've ever put together.  One of those where once I got the idea, the main plot was just there, ready to go.  There was some work on details and the nuts and bolts of scene building, but I didn't have to futz about with "oh how should this end" and "all right, I have a story, now what's the character arc and theme?"  So that was exciting.

I'm trying to get a revision done on a script I wrote last year; I didn't finish it in time for the first two competitions, and I'm very doubtful I'll get it done for Nicholl on May 1 (considering I'm on page 21, ahahaha).  But I should definitely have it done for AFF on June 1, and considering that's always been the competition I've done best at, that's what I'm primarily worried about.

So I'm going to start trying as best I can to catch up on like a three month backlog of flist; if you find a cascade of comments from me, that's why.  (And if you don't, that doesn't necessarily mean I didn't read, but just that I may have become overwhelmed in trying to comment on everything.)  I missssssss you guys, though.  I've felt very isolated lately, because obviously I haven't been really able to go out and do stuff with IRL friends, either.  Once a week I've been going out to eat with some friends from my writer's group, and that's kinda been my social lifeline.

(Sadly, one thing I've really, really missed is having the time to write fanfic.  I have all these stories in my head, but no time to write them down.  As soon as I'm past June 1, I'm definitely going to set aside a certain amount of time a week to write just for myself, just for fun, because whhaaaa.)

To add something of substance to this post: the first clip from the new season of Arrested Development!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

I think I'm taking way too long on the set-up of this novel.  But I don't know what I'd cut?  I think I'm just such a meandering writer when it comes to prose sometimes; definitely something I need to work on.



( Chapter Two: III )

I bet you guys are sick of seeing these posts on your flist!






( Chapter Two: I )

So I'm officially doing it for the first time.  Yay!  Like I have in the past for my NaScreeWriMos, I'm going to post what I have as I go, as a motivator for myself.  And hell, why not?  What am I doing this for if not to tell a story?  I am following NaNoWriMo guidelines and am not editing as I go, so there will probably be typos and I'll change things as I go and have to leave notes to myself to Bill and Ted things in later, etc., etc.  Such fun!

As always, feel under no obligation to read and/or comment. 


( Prologue )

I was baking last night, I had nothing else for my brain to do, so I had some epic imaginary fights in my head.  To quote the sages at ONTD, I was spilling tea and throwing shade, and it was marvelous.  Sometimes in imaginary fights, the other person bests you at every turn and nothing goes right; last night did not go like that.  I was brilliant and perfect, my stingers perfectly timed, everything escalating into the absolute perfect hissy-fit you never manage to actually have.

Both imaginary fights involved the same person, which I'm assuming is a hint from my subconscious.  Whom in this instance I must picture as James Callis from Bridget Jones's Diary, standing at the side of a boxing match, holding onto the ropes, screaming, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

I wish.  I really do wish.

Soooooo remember how I said to myself, "Self," I said, "do you think you can write approximately seventy pages this week?" last week?  And how I responded, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED"?

Yeah.



I did write twelve whole pages, though!  Which means that for the dual May 1 deadlines for Nicholl and Page, I only need to write an estimated FIFTY-EIGHT PAGES.  That breaks down to a little less than five pages a day!  I can totally do that. 

CHALLENGE FOR REAL ACCEPTED.

So because it proved to be such a great motivator the last two times I did NaScreeWriMo, I'm going to post daily page count totals.  YES I KNOW THAT NONE OF YOU CARE (EXCEPT MARTINE LOLOLOL, I ALREADY HAVE A TAG FOR THAT), but I am going to do it anyway. 


( Here, have a parakeet eating some chocolate. )

( January Writing Progress )



( January New Media )


Finally, I snagged this WIP meme from hearts_blood.  Post the first sentence (or several) from every WIP you're currently working on, even if it's very short. Then invite people to ask questions about your WIPs.  With any luck, you'll get talking about writing, and the motivation to take that WIP one step closer to completion will appear as if by magic!


( WIP Meme )

The Orphan Queen: 47377 words --> Daily Total: 1323 words

Can I write 2623 words today?  Stay tuned!

Announcing a new and amazing landcomm, unlike all other landcomms.  It's called...


Anything Goes is an interactive community with games, puzzles, challenges, and more!
Apply Today!
Phase 1 starts January 1st, but teams are being formed now.

Created by the awesome naushika, it's going to be kah-razzy.  Fandoms of any kind are not a prerequisite.  It's just going to be a super-duper huge amount of fun.  I asked Ron Swanson what he thought about ohanythinggoes, and he said the following:

The Orphan Queen: 44811 words --> Daily Total: 2733 words
Some Passing Shadow: (this is my zombie screenplay, previously unnamed) 6 pages --> Daily Total: 6 pages

Like a boss.  LIKE A BOSS.  Part of that might be attributable to the two venti coffees I had at Starbucks yesterday.  They might also be the reason I was up till midnight writing 2000 words of fanfiction.  Wheeeeeee caffeiiiiiiiiine!