I loved this movie. At first, I debated waiting to just get it on Netflix, but then I decided that I wanted to help boost its box office. And I’m really glad that I decided to go! The comic book and video game effects were BRILLIANT, it was filled with the quirky nerdy humor that I’m a big fan of, and I laughed a lot. The storyboarding was far from perfect, and character development could’ve been taken way farther, but all-in-all, I enjoyed myself. Michael Cera did a great job, and it was awesome to see him kicking ass.

mood: gleeful
music: Waking Up – OneRepublic

Not pictured is Superman #702 (I’m mad that Red Robin #15 was sold out) and Netflix’s Vol. 4, Disc 2 of Batman: The Animated Series.

This is how I’m spending the weekend. Well, between the craft party (I need to finish my new photo collages), the ten-year cousin reunion dinner, watching Inception FINALLY OMFG, and hanging out with friends for possibly the last time before I leave and don’t get to see them for another three months.

BUT YES EXCITEMENT

Yesterday, I finished one of the Tiny Titans books, which was amazing and adorable and hilarious all at once, as usual. And I read the Artemis Fowl book today, and wow, it was really good! I love action/adventure books because so much stuff happens, but the characters are always so much fun, too. Also, Atlantis Complex thing made everything so much more fun. Orion indeed! When Jess saw me with the book she was like, “Didn’t you read those like when you were ten?” and I was like “Hell yeah! And why shouldn’t I continue reading them as they come out?” Other people (even avid readers) seem to grow out of children’s series as they get older, but I say there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a kids’ book, especially if you’ve been following it since you were little! And hell, I absolutely loved Percy Jackson & the Olympians, and that was definitely a kids’ book. Okay, honestly, I actually make a note to stay on top of the bestselling kids’ series. I dunno, adults just seem to have this tendency to take the fantasy/sci-fi stuff way too far. Takes away the fun of it for me. It’s the suspense of disbelief that makes the worlds people create for stories so interesting, after all.

Then again, this is coming from the girl who likes cartoons and animated films better than live action television shows and movies, so…

mood: ecstatic
music: You Found Me – The Fray

When Mark broke up with me, my writing and webdesigning both took a toll. I didn’t really have the energy for it, not to mention the heart. It wouldn’t be accurate to say something tacky like that he’d been my inspiration or anything (because I don’t need to rely on people IRL for inspiration when the Internet is filled with such amazing, talented writers and artists), but that major event shook up my world to the point that I couldn’t really function as the Elaine I was anymore. And I’ve mentioned repeatedly on here that writing and designing are at the core of who I am.

I tried doing NaNoWriMo this past November, but I just couldn’t handle it. Too much drama was going on in my life, and I was emotionally exhausted from everything as it was. I was in the middle of Live, Love, Dream, but the topic became too difficult to deal with. My only activity in writing pretty much consisted of long journal entries and posting chapters of Duelist’s Point on FF.net. Then, I started working on the superhero story that I’d conceived a couple of years ago in Vegas. And hot damn, this stuff started flowing out of my fingertips like magic! To this day, I’ve written over 25k words for it, which is the most I’ve ever done for any original story. I’m very, very proud of what I’ve come up with.

But fanfiction still wasn’t really striking the right chord with me. Blame it on the emotional scarring, blame it on how I’d become a big fat cynic about romance again, blame it on the lack of a fandom, anything. It just wasn’t working for me.

But then I started diving into the DC Comics fandom, and reading Superman/Batman stuff, and I remembered what I’d loved so much about fanfiction.

It gave me an escape — and something to believe in.

And so I finished City Love. I finished Live, Love, Dream. I began really thinking about what all those review/favorite/alert notifications I received weekly from my FF.net stories. And about two weeks ago, I started writing my first DC Comics fic. Finished it the day before yesterday. Posted it on worlds_finest last night, nervous as all hell about the fact that the people who were going to read it weren’t stragglers from a dead fandom or an old pairing — they were people whose stories I had been following for the past few months, people who floored me with their writing, people who were legitimate fans, legitimate readers, and legitimate writers.

I know it’s crass to say that a lot of the reviews I receive on FF.net are from quite a different crowd, but it’s the truth. Anyone who writes fanfiction knows the rep that FF.net users have. LJ writers are of a different caliber completely. And gosh, was I nervous to get back into the game!

But they loved it. It’s only been twenty-four hours, but I’ve already received twelve reviews, all of which sing high praises for the story, which isn’t even 2000 words long.

I couldn’t stop grinning like a loon all day.

I’ve still got it. In fact, I’ve got it much more than I ever had it before, seeing as the last time I was writing with the big guys was when I was a notable Darkshipping author at age twelve! I mean, I had my stint in Cars, and The Magic of Mistletoe has a whopping 91 reviews, but still. It’s been a while.

And DAMN, does it feel good!

And I think I’ve forgotten how big of a difference I can make in people’s lives with these stories — I mean, just look at what they did for me! Fanfiction pretty much got me over Mark and how bitchy and hurtful my friends were being earlier this year. A lot of my reviews mentioned that my story had brightened the reveiwers’ day. And let’s face it — nobody really needs to say that. A good story doesn’t have to actually affect your daily life.

But anyone who’s a real reader knows that it does. It really does!

So I’m going to really put my heart into this this summer. I’m going to try to churn out as many stories, continuations, drabbles, anything, as I can.

Because I love writing.

I love reading.

And I definitely, definitely love sharing with people who feel the same way.

mood: inspired
music: Show Me a Good Time – Drake

Once again, I will reiterate, I love the Internet. Earlier this year, the LiveJournal community help_haiti raised a whopping $115,000 in fandom auctions. Big-name writers and artists banded together with fans of their work to raise money to help in the rescues, recovering, and rebuilding of Haiti in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake. This time around, gulf_aid_now is providing monetary relief for those affected by the disaster in the Gulf.

It’s so inspiring what strangers from all over the nation can achieve when they band together to take action. It’s so inspiring that such a thing is possible at all.

Technology is the subject of criticism all the time, but I think we sometimes need to remember how much we have achieved through the Internet and all its different assortments of social media.

mood: pleased
music: Hello Seattle (Remix) – Owl City

Clark pauses for a moment, trying to find the right words. It’s always much easier when he’s writing.
- “And So We Meet And There Are Sparks”, by untitledno8

Today, I finished my latest notebook. I can’t tell you what feels better, the triumph of filling up a notebook or the excitement of starting a new one.

I love being a writer. I love it. Sometimes, it’s awkward because I don’t want to be that kid who thinks she’s the shit just because she writes in her free time. I never profess to be working on novels, because I don’t want people to think I’m this fantastic prolific writer. But people assume anyway, and then I feel like a poser. But then when I really think about it, it’s like, who cares? If they think I’m just trying to be cool, fine. If they think I’m going to be some bestselling author, fine. Neither of them are true, but what does it matter when I have a pen in my hand, blank pages to fill, and gigs to fill on my laptop?

I don’t care what people think of it, because how can I deny something that is so at the core of my soul? Ugh, that sounds so corny, but seriously? Writing is me. I might even venture to say that I’m the most me when I’m writing, if that makes sense.

I posted Live, Love, Dream a week or so ago. It’s the Heartshipping future fic that I started last summer, before the breakup. The official summary is “After a harsh separation from his wife Anzu, Yuugi learns how to survive a breakup, hold onto his dreams, and fall in love with a long lost friend.” The story details how and why Anzu and Yuugi’s marriage fails, along with how and why Yuugi and Ryou fall in love. It’s 14k words, probably the longest one-shot I’ve ever written, but I liked it as one unit better than split into multiple chapters. Gosh, I’m so proud of it. I think it’s all very realistic, and I can say that with confidence after experiencing everything that I’ve experienced in the past year. I also really like the story and the emotions involved in the story a lot, because it addresses my cynicism about marriages and people who just don’t work with each other no matter how in love they are, but it also shows the possibility of finding someone who gives you what you could never find in anyone else. It’s sobering yet hopeful, ya know? I dunno. I thought it was cool because I wrote over half of it before the breakup, and then when I read it right after the breakup, I couldn’t really…handle it. The emotions in the story just resonated with me too much, and I later realized that that’s a great sign. I dunno. I think it’s my favorite work of mine now.

I’ve also been working on my superhero story (I can’t figure out a suitable title!) continuously, which has been such a joy to write. I don’t even know how it’s all coming out so easily. I’ve never written so much material for an original story before. It feels so damn good. I’m working really hard on characterization, because I think that’s one of the most difficult things to get a really good grip on. With fanfiction, you have to make sure you don’t write your characters out of character, otherwise your stories will be unrecognizable as part of the fandom. With original fiction, you have to make sure your characters make sense and are likeable and relatable without being obnoxiously Mary-Sue-like. Also, the lines between cliched characterizations, interesting interpretations of archetypes, and characters that are just too random and original to make sense are really thin. So I’ve really enjoyed figuring that stuff out. Designing characters always been one of my favorite parts of writing, anyway. Since I was little, I loved creating characters. Half of my writing notebooks from when I was little are filled with scribblings about characters that I created and then never really used for anything, haha. I’m also getting a lot of practice in writing from different points of view. Right now, I’m practicing writing the story in the protagonist’s (1st person) point of view, which I never do, especially not in past tense. It’s been interesting. It’s so much harder to describe stuff from that limited of a perspective, but it’s also way easier to grasp the character’s voice and motivations that way. I dunno, it’s been neat! But I think that when I finish, I might go back and rewrite the whole thing in 3rd (maybe 3rd limited?) person, since I think that shows off my writing skills a little better.

Anyway, yeah! I just started a Clark/Bruce fic (from Alfred’s perspective, for practice on telling a story through the eyes of someone not really involved), and I want to finish my Charlie/Mike masterpiece, “Broken Glass,” this summer, along with my long-lost Darkshipping chapter story, “Fly with Me.” In fact, I’m going to check out FWM and post another chapter of “Duelist’s Point” right now! Woo!