Are you sure that we are awake?

When Real Life and NaNoWriMo mixes

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 07:15:24 GMT

[mood| blah][music| Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue - Kids]

So. I decided on a 50,000 word novel on student life. One thing good about it is that I can draw insparation from just living. The bad thing is, I've been clogged with work and writers block, so I've achieved a measly 5000++ words so far.

I didn't want to post this up first, cos it was part of a conversation that I had this morning. But since its part of NaNoWriMo, I'll just post it due to the fact that I've got nothing else to do. u__u

The Way Life is Lived

Is this the kind of life that I want? Going shopping with people that I barely know? Going out for supper at the mamak stall at 12.45 am with casual acquaintances? Watching horror movies at midnight with my classmates? Clubbing at Zouk and Passion on Friday nights?

Although my classmates have teased me (although in a friendly way of course!) about being boring, and the perils of living a boring life (i.e a life without clubbing or drinking coffee at Starbucks), somehow I still don’t feel that I’m missing out a lot on what ‘normal’ college students my age do. I don’t hang out in Bintang Walk on weekends, and most of my Saturday nights are spent in front of the computer. The latest I ever sleep on weekday nights is 12 am, and turning in any later than that would probably be due to a bad case of insomnia or a cup of strong coffee.

Well, its not as if I won’t do those things. Its just that, I’d rather go with someone I feel comfortable with, cos I know that we’d never run into those awkward pauses of conversation after a while. I’d hit the clubs like a shot if I knew that my friends were with me, and I knew that there’s no one for me to make a good impression on. I’d rather go with my friends knowing if that I find dancing boring we can head into the nearest café and have a cup of bubble tea.

But of course there are those niggling times when you feel one of those; "Hey, it seems that I’m missing out on something in life here!" moments. That is, when you hear about how wonderful it is from those people who do those things. It makes me wonder if I’m actually missing out on all the fun

Its not that I want to go out clubbing every Friday night. Its just that I wonder how it would be like. But then at the same time, I feel that if I were to head to the club, I’d end up making an utter fool of myself as that is quite likely to happen. I don’t want to club, I don’t want to drink and I don’t want to watch scary movies at night.

I don’t really find it super fantastic to go out to get a drink or to go clubbing/partying with people I’m not so close with. Well, it could be natural for most people, but maybe not me. Maybe its because I tend to be a bit shy? Well, around people I'm not too close with, at any rate. Anyway, I’m not the most outgoing person. But that's only when I get the automatic vibes of the type of people I'm not going to get along with. It's simple though. When I say I like anime and if they give me an odd look, I know that its time to shut up and not to get fangirlish.

To me, its like my idea of a good Friday night is watching a DVD with a chocolate bar, and later going online to the wee hours of the morning, blogging or reading fanfiction. People may call me boring, but I like my life like that! I don’t find it boring!

Maybe to my friends, my life might be so protected and predictable. They crave adventure and occasionally take a stroll on the wild side. I’m happy to go about my daily routine and stick to the things that I know that will be there. People might say that I’m boring and that I have no life, but somehow, it doesn’t bother me so much as it used to. I’m happy with the way I’m living, thank you very much.

Like watching the hands of the clock move....

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 15:58:35 GMT

[mood| contemplative]
[music| ]

There's this saying that goes; "Paint what you see and write what you know".

Which discouraged me a little at first when I appraoched yesterday with a blank new document on MS Word. I had this long thought out story of werewolves and vampires, and maybe a pyscic telemarkerteer thrown into the swirling metropolitan New York life. It had a good plot, I had figured the names for the character already, and was all set and ready to type out this fantastic story in my head.

It struck me after writing 2 lines that I couldn't go on with writing that story. For the simple reason that I've never been to New York. Well, other than what I've watched on TV, anyway (namely CSI:NY and Without a Trace) and most of the NY I know basically involves psycho killers, missing people and a pile of rubble of what was formerly the WTC. I don't know about the lifestyle there, their geography, the way people on the street talk, just about noting that would make my story seem convincing.

Hopeless, I tell you!

How could I write a minutely detailed story about characters living in a setting that I had hardly a clue about. So poof! went that story about werewolves, vampires, and a psycic telemarketeer called Cassandra Cypress. Even if I were to go on with that story, and replace NY with KL, I doubt that would really work, as although I'm wildly imaginative, the mental image of a female werewolf, aged 21 walking down Petaling Street, haggling with the vendors for a fake Louis Vuitton bag is just beyond me.

So that idea was scrapped. Wham bang! Mel hits a writer's block, which happened even before the story was written.

But then, slowly, my mind began to gravitate slowly towards the "paint what you see and write what you know" idea. The most logical thing was to write down what I knew. So what can I say that I really, really know, inside out and can tell anyone about?

The only thing my mind could come up with was student life. What was it like to be a student, and to wake up late for classes, and not do homework. How horrible it is to get to school on a cramped public bus and meet all kinds of weirdos on it. About friends, and the fights that we get into and the good times we have. About scouters camps and how difficult it is to take a bath in the school bathroom at 6.30 am. About disgusting cafeteria food, and how my bag always ends up getting inevitably lost in the library's Locker Lane.

Paint what I see and write what I know.

I can say for sureity that one thing that I truly know is how to be a student. And that's what I intend to write about.

And the hard bit is where what do other people think of this idea? Would you be interested in reading a story about a normal, everyday, nothing special student. (I mean, I could think that the idea was fab, but most readers would find it boring) Thats when you come in. Would that be a good idea? Lousy one? Interesing? Mediocre?

Since this is supposed to be my writing journal, I'd love to hear what you guys think. Should I or shouldn't I?

In the immortal words of Schmacbeth; "Tw write, or not to write. That is the question."

Obligatory Introductary Post

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:51:18 GMT

[mood| creative] [music|These Boots are Made for Walking - Jessica Simson ]

"King Sleep was father of a thousand sons -
indeed a tribe - and of them all, the one
he chose was Morpheus, who had such skill
in miming any human form at will.
No other Dream can match his artistry
in counterfeiting men: their voice, their gait,
their face - their moods; and, too, he imitates
their dress precisely and the words they use
most frequently. But he mimes only men..."

Ovid's Metamorphoses

That in a nutshell is why I chose the username. Maybe because I'm still obsessed with Greek myth, although my earlier enthusiasm for it may have peetered out.

Unlike my other LJ (artemis_obscure ), this one is a writing journal. I've thought of making a new one for some time, but have put the idea off because I don't write enough to get a writing journal, and because I'm just too plain lazy to get off my laurels and make a new account.

So why the sudden creation of this journal? Simple. This is mainly due to the fact that the National November Writing Month (or affectionately known as NaNoWriMo) is just up around the corner, and I feel that it would be better to put whatever I can churn up this month into here, than releasing a whole lot of bad grammar, lousy plot and even worse spelling onto my already tortured Friends page.

Basically this is to be a sort of daily report, with stuff that I post up. But then again, its not an ultimate gurrantee that I post every day, due to the fact that I'm as lazy as a pig after a good meal at most times. I'll post as frequently as possible, about the story that I'm (about to) write and see if I can make it and hit the 50,000 word criteria as the NaNoWriMo has determined.

Here's to a new writing journal then! =)