"Thingies." 😂 I am a master of words.
I really need to get back into fiction writing. I have three half-finished books sitting in Scrivener, calling out to me to finish them, edit them, publish them! But I just don't feel creative enough at the moment. I'll open Scrivener for all of 5 minutes, stare at my words, then close the program again.
I'm supposed to be finishing a book this year. By September. And I haven't even really started! 😱
What I need is a NaNoWriMo/WritingMadness/Maynia event to kick my butt into gear. I also need to feel that love for my characters again. But with that love comes pain and heartbreak and I truly do not like inflicting that upon myself.
Writing Vengeance was painful. When Lyria dies and when Cael learns of her death, I bawled my eyes and heart out. I couldn't even think about the scene without crying. Writing it took literal years and I am aware it is poorly written even in it's published form because I just couldn't bring myself to deal with editing that properly. I wrote it, eventually, and that was good enough. If the reader doesn't like it, too bad. I told the story to the best of my abilities and that was that.
In Half Past the Moonfall, I had several thoughts on how to end it. My first one was that the main character, Katea, would end up transforming into the antagonist, becoming the new witch of the realm because everyone distrusted her and she grew to hate them. My second one was that Katea was simply crazy and she'd end up in a mental hospital forevermore, babbling about the Min Min Lights. And instead I went with the weak, happy-ending third one, where she finds the Min Min Lights once more and is transported back to where she feels she belongs.
But I cried with that too. I came up with these ideas on about day ten of NaNoWriMo, and every time I thought of option 2, I cried. I had inadvertently started caring for my fictional character and I didn't want to hurt her. I need to harden up. 😅
Now I have the sudden urge to create a sequel to Half Past the Moonfall. Not with Katea and the existing cast, but using the Min Min Lights and the cabin-that's-not-a-cabin, where nothing is as it seems, and the first idea I had where the person who stumbles into this magical place becomes the next big baddy of the realm. And it won't be a mushy festival of romantic grossness this time; it'll be what it should have been. 🤣
Great -- now I'm going to have four unfinished books sitting in Scrivener.
I think I'm going to prepare myself for an April Writing Fest. That gives me time to get into my character's minds, think up some random events, then incorporate the daily #freewrite prompt and come up with something hilarious. Why April? Because I predict too much other stuff happening in February and March, and April is the start of the next school holidays which will give me two weeks of non-exhausted at-home-time to sit on my arse and write. It also gives me a period of time to HYPE MYSELF UP! WOOO!
What I really want to do is write that full-length Joey and Jenny novel that's been sitting in the back of my mind for years (and has 8000 words currently written). But I'm finding it more and more difficult to write the Joey character these days. Where once he was a random, funny goofball, he suddenly became an idiot. I don't want him to be an idiot. And I also feel that since people have gotten to know Joey and Jenny in the five-minute freewrites, when I write them into a full story they might not seem familiar anymore.
Or maybe I'm just overestimating how many people actually even read those things. 🤣 There are maybe three whole people familiar with the characters, so I should just write however I please.
But then, because I'm planning on writing/drawing a comic using those characters... should I even write a book with them? ~pulls hair out.~
Some might say I overthink things. And I do. I massively do. I could simply find every five minute freewrite I personally like, make them easier on the eye, and put them into a compilation. There. September book done. Out of curiosity, I just filtered my blog for every freewrite I've ever done, and I found the first few featuring Joey, before Jenny even had a name!!
"Let there be light!" Joey exclaimed, clapping his hands with a dramatic flair, and again, louder and harder. Nothing happened.
I sighed and flicked the switch. Still nothing.
"Joey, did you remember to pay the electricity bill?"
"No. Did you?"
I sighed again, louder and huffier than the last one. It was his responsibility, not mine. Wasn't that the point of living under shared circumstances? We each had our share of the bills and responsibilities. His was the electricity and half the food and rent. Mine was the internet and the other half of the food and rent. Mine was also more expensive. The twirp.
Joey grinned, as though he heard me calling him a twirp out loud. "Now, now. Don't get feisty. And don't swear at me beneath your breath, either." He shook his finger from side to side. "The solution is simple." He waggled his eyebrows up and down, shifted his eyes left to right, and then his grin widened.
"You ready for this? ... Camp. Fire."
Oh dearest Jimini Jones. He's got to be joking, right? My shock must have been evident because he started laughing so hard he almost keeled over. But I had every right to be shocked! Last time we had a campfire, we almost burnt down the house.
Well, of course it wasn't so much 'we' as 'he'. It was all Joey's fault. Damn kid was a firebug. He'd flick the lighter on, flick it back off, adjust a thingee on the side, and whoosh! Next thing you know the flame is ten feet tall and the roof is on fire! The roof, the roof!
No. We could not have a campfire, there had to be another way.
"Freedom is being able to eat ice cream for breakfast. Every breakfast. Forever." Joey waved his spoon into the air and joyfully dunked it into his bowl, wiggling out a large chunk of chocolate ice cream which was very quickly shoveled into his mouth. "I'm so free right now," he said, his voice muffled and accompanied by satisfied mmmm's and ahhhhh's.
I raised an eyebrow and grunted, "Right. It's uh, five p.m. Just sayin'."
"Time is in the eye of the beholder! Or the mouth of the beholder. And this beholder has a mouth full of freedom."
Freedom wasn't free, and it certainly wasn't ice cream. Freedom was... no, I just couldn't be existential. Not right now. My stomach twisted and churned, reminding me that it was almost time for dinner. And no, we were not having any damned ice cream. I needed some nutrients!
Joey smacked his lips behind me, louder and louder after each bite, and I grunted again as I headed for the freezer, determined to find some protein. Mmm, chicken. Or perhaps some mince. I could make a fine lasagne! I whipped open the freezer and was greeted by a thick cloud of cold that left icicles on my face. I shook them away, the tiny pointed things flying every which way.
"Ouch!"
Though satisfied by Joey's pain, I didn't bother turning around. There was nothing in the freezer. No chicken, no mince, just dozens of ice cream tubs. There wasn't even a bag of frozen peas. Everyone has an ancient bag of frozen peas lurking down there! I mean, I don't even like peas... but, honestly...
"Well, slather me in honey and call me a fruitcake!"
"I don't need to slather you in honey to call you a fruitcake, Joey," I smirked. "Your fruitiness was evident long ago."
"Well, just slather me in honey then."
"Why?"
Joey wiggled his eyebrows and placed a hand on his hip, wiggling his butt back and forth almost as quick as his eyebrows sashayed across his forehead. "Why would you slather anyone in honey?" He winked and pranced away, leaving me and my mind boggled. There were plenty of reasons to slather someone in honey --most of them sexy-- but with Joey, who the hell knew what was going on in that guy's mind?
Smash!
"Oh, good grief," I groaned and hurried to a window before the better part of my mind could convince me otherwise, could convince me that I truly did not need to see whatever that smash was, or why Joey was hooting louder than a teenager staring at some large boobs.
Peeling back the curtain, I winced.
Bees. There were bees everywhere. And there was Joey... slathered in honey, covered in bees, surrounded by glass shards from the twenty odd honey jars he had just broken.
Slathered in honey, he had become lord of the bees.
Jam today, jam tomorrow... jam forever. A swish of the knife into the jar; another layer of jam over the bread. Raspberry, of course. Strawberry is for children and I most certainly am not a child. Not any longer. And never will be again, unless time travel becomes possible in my lifetime... and even then I wouldn't be a child, I would just be a creep watching my child-self being, well, a child.
Creepy.
I spread another layer over the top of the last, raising the jammy goodness by another half centimetre. This would be the thickest jam sandwich in the history of jam sandwiches. A pity it won't be eaten. No, no; there are other plans in place for this goopy wonder.
A giggle crawls up my throat but I stifle it before Jenny can hear. That would just not do. Where would the surprise be if she heard my nefarious plan? She's known me long enough now. She's probably wondering why I'm taking so long in the kitchen. She will check on me soon... sooner if I allow my glee to burst forth in a hail of gut-doubling laughter.
Another layer of jam. Okay. This will probably do; any more and it'll no longer be a jam sandwich, but a pile of jam with a side of bread. Maybe it's already that. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it sticks to the ceiling long enough for Jenny to raise an eyebrow. Then let the mayhem begin.
Ahhhhh, memories!
I miss the original Joey and Jenny, before Joey became a twit and Jenny became a cranky bitch. I would really like to summon the magic I felt for the characters back when I originally created them and re-write them properly.
I will have the opportunity for that in the comic I'm planning on drawing. But I also want to put them in a story. But it will have to be unrelated to the ongoing comic. A stand-alone story.
But I'm babbling and babbling far too much. According to the post preview, this has reached around 2000 words. This has become an entire chapter in itself! If only I could write this many fictional words at this moment in time. 🤣 Woe.
It is decided... April Writing Fest. Joey and Jenny. Published by September.
I will try to make this happen.
I need to hype myself up, and prepare to write-write-write. And have plenty of caffeine at the ready. And try to get some EXCITEMENT FLOWING! There's nothing sad here, nothing that'll make me cry and bemoan my fictional choices. It's happy. Funny. Will put smiles on faces. And I can do it!
That's the main thing, if I'm honest. Feeling EXCITED about my work. And, in my experience, the best way for me, personally, to get excited about something is to babble about it a lot.
Followers who are reading this... I apologise in advance for any upcoming babbling. 😅😉
Until next time! 📚📝