writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia

From Dreamwalker. This was written in the early planning stages, and then discarded before NaNo so I could start fresh. Now though, I think I need to rework some of what I've written and revamp this bit because this impact of their 'first meeting' is better than what's currently written.

I was shocked at the face I saw as I stood in front on the class. No one else existed for a brief moment. All I saw was him. It was all the same. He had the brown curling hair, thick in texture. His eyes, under dark brows that lent well to brooding, were a warm brown. His nose was a little wide, but it was balanced by full lips all set in a brownish face that all told me he was mixed.

I'd seen that face before. I knew it topped a tall lean body well built for basketball or softball. I knew just how that mouth could smile, and what his laughter sounded like. I even knew there was a scar under his chin. He dressed casually: Old Navy with a dash of American Eagle, and he owned a Nike baseball cap in red and black.

It was in my bag. He was the kid from my dream.

He was staring at me now and I knew what he saw. Thin, slender frame, fitted jeans and an indie tee. Pale Irish skin marred in a few places by freckles, especially across my nose. He saw chin-length angled dark brown hair that tended to ever really look combed. Thin brows, blue eyes, a small nose and lips. Not thin, just a small mouth in general. He stared at me as I stared at him because-

He recognized me too.

So in an effort to keep posting regularly, here is another excerpt. I gotta get back on track writing/editing this.

( By the time I got home after the dance, I was completely exhausted. )

Trying to get back into posting here regularly, so here! Have an excerpt from Oneiric Chronicles! This probably will bee in Book 2, not Book 1.

"I know about you, Shannon." Diego's voice was deep and quiet, low enough for only me to hear him.

I froze where I was, paintbrush poised to swipe a generous splash of blue across the canvas. "What?"

"You heard me. Jared knew for a while, didn't he? Well, now so do I. I figured it out. I figured you out."

I went cold, an impressive feat considering it was already 85 degrees outside and the sun was beating down on my shoulders. Diego came closer, throwing his shadow over me and the painting. "You- you know?"

"I figured you didn't want to tell anyone else because you had no idea how we'd react right? But you told Jared, because you guys are so close." There was something about the way he said that that made me shiver, and remember all those intense looks, the ones where I thought he was reading me. Maybe he had been. "But the way I see it, we're your friends, and maybe we'd understand better than anyone. Maybe Jared wasn't the only person who could have been there for you."

Instead of his words making me want to confide in him, they just made me angry. "Would you stop it? Stop talking about him like he's dead! He's not dead, he's just-"

"Just what? Because you and I both know he's not at any camp. I'm his best friend Shannon, I deserve to know why I can't even get a hold of him. Where is he? Tell me where he is Shannon, and I'll forget the fact that you've been keeping secrets from us for months."

Ooooooh~

Sooo...I DID IT! I hit 50K during tonight's NYPL write-in! I've won my very first Nano ever! Did I win? Yes. Am I finished? Hell no. There's a LOT left to do. I also realized that this series would go so much better if instead of reasonably long books in a 3-part series, it was a 5+ book series of shorter novels. Just based on the sheer amount of crap that's going on. It's just too much to cram into three. It'd tired out the brain trying to go through all of that.



I deserve a huge reward! Excerpt coming soon!

Haven't posted here since last week. I broke 30k on Monday! I am feeling quite accomplished even though I look at my outline and go "wtf was this what I was supposed to be writing?" Because ummmm, it's not really? Anymore?

Also, I realized all my excerpts so far were like...um horrible nightmarish things and wanted to point out that YES THERE ARE GOOD PARTS TOO. There is ROMANCE or something like it. ANYWAY I am clearly on crack as you can see from the random caps, so here is a HAPPY EXCERPT OKBYE.

( Bow chicka bow bow! )

No, I have no idea who the hell Marisol is. Bitch showed up in my story without permission.

For those of you reading along. I haven't looked at my outline in two days and I have no idea where I am except that I have over 17k words of...stuff. So here's some stuff for you.

( You may want to not be eating when you read this )

My brain is so wiped that I'm going to bed before the 11 o'clock news. What is this?

Two days into nano and I'm at over 10,000 words. I'm incredibly proud of myself. I have no idea what the hell I've written but that's not the focus right now. I'm just opening my brain and letting words fall out and I'll worry about making editing changes and, well, sense later on.

I posted an excerpt in my nano profile, and I'll share it here.

"Hey! Wait for me!" I yelled and I picked up my pace, running around two small children playing with a pink and red colored ball. The sun shone brightly through the trees as I chased the figure ahead of me, and I held up a hand to shade my eyes from the suddenly blinding light. The figure ahead hopped over a low park bench, but I went around, suddenly feeling like I couldn't possibly jump that high. To my left, a flock of crows suddenly fled the tree they were hiding in, their cawing sounding more like laughter than like a simple bird-call.

I made the mistake of looking at them as they took off, and when I turned back to my chase, the figure ahead of me was gone. I didn't stop running though, even though I knew I'd lost whoever it was. I ran until I found an old playground in a forgotten part of the park, rundown, and rusting. The old metal slide had chipped paint and the bottom rung of the ladder was broken. The swings were in worse shape. The chains holding some were broken, leaving the swings to hang and move sadly in the wind. One swing was missing entirely, the two long chains dangling off into nothing. In the far side, near the broken sprinkler, a small child was huddled.

This wasn't whom I'd chased here, and yet I approached her anyway. She was maybe about seven years old, with brown curly pigtails, and was holding a small blond doll. I had slowed to a walk as soon as I reached the playground, and I kept a cautious pace as I came closer. "Hi," I said, uncertainly. "Are you okay?"

The little girl lifted a tear-stained face and looked up at me, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she just closed her eyes and screamed.

Yeah it was writing this that helped cement the fact that my genre has shifted from the last shreds of fantasy into horror and supernatural. Bring on the fear factor. I wrote a second scene similar to this one that...was creepier honestly, and I'll probably post that excerpt a little later.

I woke up out of my Thera-Flu induced sleep to wrote down a plotbunny. When I woke up for real real hours later, I sat down and proceeded to come up with two more secondary/tertiary characters for my nano novel. I'm surprised I hadn't realized how necessary they were until now. I've even figured how exactly how they fit in. They have their own interesting abilities that will help or maybe hinder the progress of everything else.

Oh and I added some more images to my last post. :D

Basically I had one of those brain-splodey moments AND IT NEEDS TO BE MONDAY NOW SO I CAN START WRITING. I'm going crazy with the pre-planning.

While going through my outline today, I realized something pretty terrible has to happen to the second main character in my story. Not the one whose POV it's from, the other one. This isn't just for the sake of something to happen; I realized that based on the circumstances, there's no way that after certain things happen (kidnapping, forced sleeplessness), there's no way he wouldn't be a little messed up in the head after this. It's a new conflict to work with, and something to propel the third part of the story along.

Now to research the effect of lack of sleep. It ain't gonna be pretty.

I've figured out a little more about two of the supporting characters as well, the twins Delia and Cynthia. I...just need a last name for them >.>

EDIT: And the four main characters all have names. Jared Williams, Shannon Reilly, and Cynthia and Delia Kostas. I also came up with a few more creepy creatures to add into my whole dream creatures roster. It also just occurred to me I pretty much have zombies in my story.

So I'm gonna try to use this to start marking progress on full length novels as well as posting the shorter stuff that I uh, haven't been posting. >.>

Anyway current projects:

1. birthday fic for Ai. No details for now because it'll be a surprise. Will be posted here when it's done. It's coming along well though, and I gotta try my damndest to get it done in time.

2. BB Shousetsu submission. Folkloric, slashy, pr0ny, will be posted when done. It'll be f-locked here, but I'm gonna post a link to the public submission as well. I'm thinking of submitting it to Torquere Press when it's done, if it fits criteria. My idea so far is very basic. I know it's going to be very vaguely like Brigadoon, but I don't want it to just seem like "a version" of it. Still the feeling of the town being there one moment and gone another is a big part of it. I only have a few sentences written.

3. The Oneric Chronicles. This is my Novel in Two Years project that's...not quite where it should be, but I'm still plugging along.

So that's all for now, but I'm in a hell of a good mood right now :D