I LIKE GOSSIP GIRL, OKAY

Okay, yeah. I've had a good month or so of intelligent writing on here. I'm going to talk about Gossip Girl.

I do realize how incredibly teenage-girl it is of me to like this show, but I have to know what haaaappeeens! I've been watching the show since season 1. It's always been my guilty pleasure, and I've always watched it alone. Sometimes that's nice, but it also means I have no one to talk with about it, because I seriously doubt anyone I speak to regularly watches it too. Anyway, I really like this show. I'm not sure why, really, but I have the INTENSE NEED to know what happens every week. I also kind of like the characters. Some of them, at least. I even kind of like the ones I dislike. I think my favorite character right now is Nate, which is funny because I really didn't like him all that much at the beginning of the show, or even the beginning of last season. I also really like Blair and Chuck. They're both still really complex characters even though they've both grown and matured since s1, which is nice. Jenny is ridiculously stupid, and honestly so is Eric right now, which is sad because he actually used to be cool. I don't blame Jonathan for breaking up with him. He's being a prat. I HATE TRIPP A LOT and I'm very glad Nate punched him in the face. I mean finally. He's stupid. And mean. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Serena, in that I am enthralled by her story and want to watch her, but I also get very annoyed by the majorly stupid descisions she makes. At least she's consisted with her character, I guess. Lily and Rufus kind of bore me sometimes, I'll admit. I used to like Dan a lot better, too. I liked him when he was dorky. Not as much anymore, though I can see him sort of going back to being likable, and I hope that he does. Vanessa doesn't interest me that much most of the time, though some of her storylines are cool. Her mother is Zoe from Firefly, which leads me to believe that her father is Wash. It must be so.

Anyway. I'm impatient for the show to come back on. This whole thing with Chuck's mom confused me and I want to know what that's all about, and I will admit that I want Serena and Nate to be together. Mostly because I think Nate is cool and I would like him to get something he wants for a change instead of just helping everyone else.

Do you guys watch Gossip Girl? And if not, do you have any guilty pleasure tv shows you CAN'T STOP WATCHING? I'd like to know I'm not alone, hah.

In other news, I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic for the first time tonight, and I was surprised at how good it was! It was super cute. I think part of that may have been that Hugh Dancy is just wildly attractive (I can't help it -- I'm SUCH an anglophile, and his hair is perfect!), but it had a really cute story. I love romantic comedies, because they're so easy. They all have similar basic plot structure, and there is no edge-of-your-seat biting-your-nails what's-gonna-happen to it, which is honestly just nice sometimes. It's nice to get away from all the real world uncertainties and pain and just escape into this world where the people will love and lose, and ultimately end up happy and together because they're meant to be that way. It's just...nice. I wouldn't want to watch nothing but romcoms, but I also wouldn't want to watch any movie genre exclusively. The consistency and stability of a well done romantic comedy can be extremely therapeutic, though. I would reccomend one if you're having a bad/stressful day/week/month. Unless you're a boy who's not into that. That's okay too.

I also finished the second draft of a short story I plan on submitting in a bi-monthly contest. If I win, it gets published online and in a magazine, which would be amazing. If that happens, I'm totally linking it here. If not, I could probably post the story on here if you guys are interested. Let me know if you are.

I need to sleep now. Goodnight!
Emily

Ghost Whisperer: 1.22
Books this year: 16

EDIT: I also forgot to answer Elisabeth's question as to which modern opera I want to see in Canada. It's called The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano. It's amazing! Here's a link to Marie Antoinette's aria, "They Are Always With Me", which is gorgeous and chilling. She's a ghost in the opera, so it's her memories of her life and especially her death.

NaNo Next Year?

Heeeyyy. So I read the comments on my last blog and they were SUPER HELPFUL, but I'm actually not doing what any of them said. But they were still SUPER HELPFUL, I promise! They made me really think about a lot of different situations and solutions and then figure out what my character would actually do, and since he himself is not a major jerkface, everything he does at least makes sense. I had a nice talk with my sister about it, and she was talking about how when a character does something bad for a reason that's relatable, people are likely to forgive him. So THANK YOU THANK YOU for your opinions. I've figured it out now.

Also, today I got an idea for what might possibly be my NaNo novel next year. I feel it's a little premature, but I don't control when I get ideas. I'm just mulling right now. I haven't even written anything down, though I'm going to soon. This one will fall much more heavily into the YA genre than Goblin Men (which is the novel I'm working on now, fyi), and not so much into the scifi genre, though there may be a slight sense of fantasy through dreams if that makes sense? I don't know, I just thought of this today while I was cleaning a bathroom. We'll see how far it makes it.

I am SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU! We got our tree the other day and decorated it and the rest of the main living area of the house, and now the living room/dining room looks like a lovely, Christmas celebration in and of itself. We have this huge advent calendar that is three little houses with windows and doors, and it's adorable. Right after we got it, my twelve year old sister decided there needed to be little people around it, so she brought out her Harry Potter figurines, which are almost perfectly to scale, and placed them around it. Including Voldemort. Who's standing on a chimney. Like an evil Santa Clause. It's kind of amazing.

Aaaand, like everyone ELSE on the internet, I have a formspring. So, if you want, you can go and ask me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and I will answer them. Yay!

See you soon!
Emily

Ghost Whisperer: 1.16
Books this year: 15

Help?

Okay, blog readers. For the first time (I think...right?), I am calling on you for novel help.

See, I have this love triangle because my so-called secondary character decided all of a sudden that he was in love with my FMC, who needs to marry my MC by the end of the book. Great. So far, this guy has been able to convince himself that, while he knows FMC really likes MC, MC isn't interested in FMC. Of course, this is completely untrue, but he's managed to make himself believe it. Trouble is, pretty soon he's going to catch them kissing. Now, I know him and I know that he's a fighter. I also know he makes really rash decisions when he's upset. He's acted vaguely controlling of FMC when he's found out she's doing something that makes him angry/worried out of his mind before, and he hated MC for a while because of the way they met. However, he and MC are good friends now, which is a problem right now. I know something is brewing in my so-called secondary character, because he's been making faces and stuffing down his feelings for quite some time now. SO, my thought is that he will somewhat-sort-of-kind-of accidentally let the corrupt officials know MC's secret, which will result in MC being captured and tortured. So-called secondary guy will be completely overwhelmed with guilt, of course, when he realized what he's done, but he can't be Judas, and I'm worried that's what this plot point will make him.

This is GREAT for my plot, actually. This will work really well. HOWEVER, so-called secondary guy is incredibly loveable and I like him very very much, and I want the readers of the book to like him as much as I do. I'm worried that if I allow him to do this, everyone will hate him.

So here's my question: after reading about this situation, would you hate so-called secondary guy for doing what he's doing, and if so, how can I write this so that you'd forgive him eventually?

I just don't know.

Any input is welcome and appreciated!

See you soon!
Emily