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

We are the champions, my friends.

I JUST FREAKING WON NANOWRIMO!!!!

Gahhhh I am SO happy and excited right now! XD

Lookie at my graph:

Not bad for a first timer, eh?

Also, this is what my Scrivener word count looked like when I stopped:

Yay! I did it! *victory dance*

I still have about 10,000 words (at least) to write before the book is finished, but I WROTE 50,000 WORDS IN 29 DAYS!!!!

I'll keep posting excerpts if you guys want me to, though, until the book is finished. Let me know.

Speaking of, here's an excerpt before I try to sleep while happy dancing:

Slate got to the door, but hesitated. After a second, he turned around. “Hey, Ronan?” he said.
“Yeah?” she responded.
“I don’t want you to be with Jal,” Slate confessed.
Ronan blinked. “Why not?” she asked.
Slate took a deep breath. “Because I want you to be with me,” he said.

Those are the last words I wrote before submitting my word count and WINNING. Slate is a character that I thought I had figured out before I started writing, and then when I started writing him, he turned out to be COMPLETELY different to who I thought he was. He's awesome, though, I love him. He's also the character who speaks to me the most and gives me a lot the information. For instance, I had NEVER intended to have any sort of love triangle in my novel and then he goes and informs me he's in love with my FMC. Le sigh.

Okay, seriously I need to sleep now. It's almost 1am. Goodnight.

See you soon!
Emily

NaNoWriMo: WON!!!!

I think I'm gonna win this thing.

Arin’s house in the capitol was almost completely bare. There were a few dusty couches pushed into a corner that no one seemed to be willing to touch, but other than that, there was no furniture in the house at all. The entire place was filled with dust and dirt and smelled vaguely musty and spoiled. As Ronan paced the floor anxiously, dust rose with each of her footsteps. Eiley was sitting on the bare, dusty counter in the kitchen as Arin searched the cubboards for any non-perishable food they may have left behind when they fled the city. October and Nym were very subdued as Slate flipped a coin anxiously between his fingers, trying hard to think. Jal sighed heavily, knowing that he had to tell everyone what he’d found out.

Okay, so it's seriously not the best excerpt, but I wrote almost nothing that can be taken out of context tonight. I referenced the dust too many times, I know. Meh.

I have less than 2,000 words to go to 50,000. Tomorrow, I will win.

Also, hopefully I'll make a video tomorrow. Hopefully. No promises.

I'm sleepy. I have church in the morning, so I'm going to bed.

Goodnight, my dears.
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 48,232

P.S. There is totally a very good chance that I may be going to Vancouver in 2011 or 2012, and I'm already crazy excited. I've never been to Canada before, so I REALLY home this happens. Also, I'd be going to see a crazy awesome modern opera that I love, so yeah I'm reallyreallyreally hoping to go. Even though it's like two years away...

Computers that talk?! Egads!

Oh, jeez. I just signed on and realized I never posted anything last night. Luckily, I haven't...written...at all today. Maybe that's not such a good thing. Anyway, excerpt and word count. Fuller post later, maybe.

Jal scanned the page, which was mostly about Logan’s condition and how she was admitted and her progress since. “Date of admission for Logan Stidolph?” he asked the computer.
“November twenty seventh,” the computer replied in a cool female voice. “Date of discharge, November thirtieth.”
“Discharge?” Jal asked, confused. “November thirtieth? But that’s today.”
“Correct,” the computer answered.
“Reason for discharge?” Jal asked urgently.
“Tranfer to another facility,” replied the computer.
“Where?” Jal demanded. “Tranfer to where?”
“Information not available,” the computer said coolly.
“Why?”
“Information not available,” the computer repeated.
“Damn it,” Jal hissed.

Haha, I was watching the end of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation last night while I was writing, and figured there could be computers that respond to you in my futuristic world too. Also, they're touch screen. Ooh.

NaNoWriMo: 47,385

Here come the men in black, galaxy defenders.

Aw, see? I totally knew you guys were awesome. All of the comments on my last blog (er, the one before last, I suppose) were highly intelligent and thoughtful. You guys rock. I just knew it. :D

I loved reading what you guys had to say about the whole thing. This part in particular made me laugh:

Elisabeth:
The criticism I hear most is that vampires don't sparkle. Well then, find me a vampire and prove Stephenie Meyer wrong. They're fictional. They can do whatever the author wants them to.

Merani:
And I agree with Elisabeth: Vampires are fictional. They can sparkle if they want to. Leave 'em alone.

You people make a good point. Anything fictional can be bent to the author's desires. Plus, vampires are something that have been legend for centuries. Every region has a slightly different take on them. Just because Bram Stoker wrote Dracula doesn't mean he made the rules, right? Creativity and all that. Since vampires are, after all, FICTIONAL. Lol. You people are awesome.


Oh, excerpt:

“How did it get here?” Ronan asked, the pitch of her voice low. “What is it?”
“It’s a city,” Arin answered, his own voice full of bitterness. “The capitol, actually. It’s where the government works.”
“No, that’s not right,” Ronan answered, eyes on the skyline before them. “It can’t be right, the government doesn’t exist anymore.”
Arin turned his head an looked at her. “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

I hope all you Americans reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was nice. It was just my immediate family, because we live far away from the rest of my extended family, and no one was really available to come over, but it was nice anyway. The food was delicious! I'm super excited about all the leftovers we have, too. :D

I watched the end of the parade this morning, because one of the highlights of my Thanksgiving is always the parade, and we'd taped it, so we watched the rest of it in the afternoon in between cooking and decorating. After we ate, we went on a family walk (because the weather is finally starting to cool down) and then we came home and watched the Thanksgiving episode from season 10 of Friends, which is in my opinion one of the funniest Friends episodes ever made, and then the Thanksgiving episode from season 3 of Mad About You, which was also really funny, and then both Charlie Brown Thanksgiving specials we have.

I'm also really excited about it being officially Christmas season now! I love Christmas!

So, I wrote about four measures of a song today, and I couldn't figure out if I wanted it to be wizard rock or muggle rock. I'm aiming more towards wizard, since I think it could be really cool for my band to do, but I need a plot for it. I only have four measures. Anyway, I decided to try to write a chorus, to see if that would do anything, but ended up writing half of a chorus that has to be for a different song. May have figured that one out, though. It's been SO LONG since I've written any wizard rock. I wrote a ton when we were first starting as a band, so I've sort of written half of our album with songs left over, so I was taking a break. However, I think these two songs need to be band songs, so I guess I'm back at it again.

Also, I have found another favorite band. You guys responded really well to when I kept going on about "Poison & Wine" by The Civil Wars, so I thought I'd share these guys with you as well. Here is the video that made me love them immediately, and then after you watch that, go listen to their music on their myspace. They're SO GOOD! Just, SO good. You should listen. Okay.

And that is all. Goodnight.

See you soon!
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 45,166

Second post today

Please go read and comment the first post I made today. I will love you if you do. :D

“Are there any abandoned boats around?” Jal asked, panting from the walk, still weak from the three days he’d gone without food or sleep.
“Not any that I’d want to get into,” Slate replied as Nym put a hand up to help Jal stay steady on his feet. “Are you kidding? Any boat that’s still out here will have lived through a war and two consecutive years of rot. I’m not getting into a boat that could very well have a huge, unseen hole in the bottom.”

Why are my excerpts always about Slate! He's my secondary character!
(but I love him)

NaNoWriMo: 44,389

In defense of other human beings.

Can I just say something?

I realize this may or may not be taken well among people who read this, but I need to say it.

Why do we as a culture think it's okay to belittle and tear down any group of people? We focus on this when it comes to race and sexuality and religion (sometimes), but is a person whose tastes and opinions are different from yours any different than someone whose skin is a different color than yours?

I don't know about you, but I think not.

I'm going to come right out and say that I'm talking about Twilight here. Now, first of all, DON'T mistake me for a Twi-hard or whatever they call them, because I am most certainly NOT one of those. However, while I acknowledge that they books are pretty poorly written (in some sections, very poorly written), I also enjoy them for the entertainment factor. John Green recently posted a brilliantly written blog about Twilight, that I agree with %100, so if you want to know my views on the matter, that's what they are. So, no I'm not a huge fan of the series, but yeah, I do enjoy the entertainment they bring. I am in that probably %2 of the population that is really and truly nuetral. You can ADORE Twilight, and I'll still respect you*, or you can make fun of it, and I won't take offense (in fact, I'll probably laugh along).

Generally, this means I happily bystand at the Twiboxing matches between the lovers of Twilight and the haters of Twilight. I'm not on either side, so I just don't usually care.

However, this changes when one side crosses the line and starts being actually hurtful to people on the other side.

This has happened with fans to non-fans before, to a small level. People who love the series start mildly hating on those who don't, and while this is annoying, it actually does no real harm because the fan-haters are generally the less mature fans (I mean, the immature HP fans do this too, it's not new to fandoms), and the non-fans who are being bashed don't. . .care. But, with the release of New Moon, the non-fans are coming out in full force.

I get it, okay? I KNOW seeing Edward Cullen's face everywhere is annoying! I turned slightly to my right at the mall today and was greeted with an unexpected picture of EC at perfect eye level that made me scream because it was so startlingly THERE**. I understand that you would want everyone to just SHUT UP because you're not into what they are. But seriously, think about it. Wanting people to shut up and actually demanding that they do it are SUCH DIFFERENT THINGS, because with the former you're merely having an opinion, but with the latter you are forcing your will and opinion on other people who do not share it! That is beyond selfish, and no better than the immature fans who try to make others like it just because they do!

Worse, though, is something I just saw. There's this article/video of a man who decided to not only force his own opinions on others, but to do so in a hurtful and demeaning way. The fact that I am offended by this is not because I can't take a joke, it's because I won't stand for people treating people so poorly. This man seems to think that anyone who likes Twilight is just stupid cattle who he can treat how he wants. And, okay, so he pulled a prank. If it were just that, I wouldn't be so annoyed. I was kind of appalled, though, at the conclusion of the video: "Twilight Fans. Officially the dumbest people on planet Earth."

...WHAT?! Again, I'd just like to stress that this did not offend me personally lest you think I'm just ranting about something because someone badmouthed me. I'm offended, because this sort of generalization of people and then labeling them as the "dumbest people on planet Earth" is appalling! So, we can only respect people who share our opinions? Or is it just the ones we can control? I mean, are you serious?

Perusing the comments, most people seemed to be under the impression that the Twilight fans "deserved" it or "had it coming." Seriously? What did they possibly do that was so bad that they had this sort of hatred coming? Some even seemed to believe that people who were fans of more "acceptable" things like Batman wouldn't have been as annoyed had the same prank been pulled on them, which is ridiculous.

Most Twilight fans, I've found, are intelligent, friendly, caring people who just happen to like a series of books about vampires. I mean, watching the video, a lot of them even agreed with what they thought were jokes about Edward. These aren't the immature fans who will run you over with their cars (that they may or may not be old enough to drive) just because you don't like Edward. These fans can take jokes about a character they love. That usually shows some level of intelligence.

Why do people try to discourage love of something? Do we REALLY need to try to encourage hatred? Don't we have enough of that in the world? Even if you don't love what someone else loves, can't you just LET them love it? What is the harm? Is there ever any excuse for judging someone based on their opinions, especially to label them as less intelligent than others or yourself?

And I know that most of the people who regularly read my blog are super awesome people, so I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but you have (maybe accidentally) started thinking about Twilight fans as any less intelligent than yourself, please reconsider this idea. If we really want to encourage love, then let's push ourselves to encourage even the love that we don't share. Sound good?

As John Green (my hero, pretty much) so eloquently said:

There are books that teach us something about the world in which we find ourselves, and then there are books that help us to escape for a few hours the crushing pain of humanness. To deny that these books have value is to deny the reality of suffering (or, to argue, as the WaPo story seems to, that suffering is limited to young and/or uneducated people).

Let's not be among the narrow-minded and judgmental people who really convice themselves that this is true, okay? Let's not forget to be awesome.

I will update with my word count and an excerpt in a bit, as I'm still writing. Sorry for the long post. I really needed to get this out. Please comment and tell me what you think, and we can continue this and maybe end up with some sort of conclusion or something.

Also, no one even tried to guess who the people were in my banner thing yesterday. Is sad. :[

See you soon!
Emily

Ghost Whisperer: 1.12

*provided you're not an idiot, but if you're an idiot who doesn't like Twilight, I'll respect you no more than one who does.
**That's actually kind of a funny story. There was a guy passing me on the left at the time. I screamed, he stared.