I'm Hopeless

Ever had an entire afternoon (or day) with nothing to do and you think, "Perfect afternoon/day to sit down and probably get a whole chapter done"? And then you end up doing everything except writing.

Happened to me today. I had an assignment to finish but I finished it early, so I had about 8 hours to write. I got all excited about it since the last time that happened, it must have been months ago. I was even feeling inspired! (it's been happening less and less lately, so you can only imagine how excited that got me :P). Anyway, I got home, finished my assignment for school, and then decided to go take a quick nap. And then I decided to just put in a few chapters of reading since I haven't read a book in a while with all the homework I've had. After I got sick of reading, I decided to go make myself a sandwich (I'm not even a fan of sandwiches. I rarely ever eat them unless someone offers to buy me one from Subway, or unless someone offers to make me one). Then I went to make my brother a sandwich (I never make anything for my brother), and then I decided to go for another run (I already woke up at 6am to run -_-). And now I'm here blogging.

I'm not sure why I wasted so much time, and then when I won't have any time to write, I'll complain about never having time to write. I just don't get it. And it frustrates me. The worse part is, once I'm done blogging, I've got to catch a long awaited episode of Criminal Minds. I know. I'm hopeless, aren't I?

Aloha :D

Oh, wow. It's been a while since I've last blogged. I've been busy as hell with homework, and when I'm not doing that, I'm sleeping. Not what I call fun -_-

Anyway, I wanted to talk about setting today. Anyone ever set their story in a place they've never been to? I know I have. Actually, all of my stories are set in places I've never been to, and a couple of them are even set in places I hadn't heard of before I started researching for that particular story.

My writing teacher told us today that it's one of the worse ideas to set your characters in places you've never been to...but I have to disagree. It's hard, I won't lie, but it's fun, challenging and it even gives you the feeling that you've been to that place once you're done writing. And I love that feeling xD

I'm about to start writing a scene for TS that'll happen later in the book - way later - and it's set in...yes, you guessed it, Hawaii! From the beginning of the book, I've got Aeryn's mom bugging her about visiting them there. When things completely fall apart for her, she'll decide to spend her Christmas break with them in Hawaii. She'll take one of the guys with her at the last minute, and I have this one scene with them together at a beach bonfire and I just can't wait to write it. I've never been to Hawaii before, but one of my friends went there last month and hasn't stopped talking about it (yes, it gets a bit annoying after a full week). And I've been to the Caribbeans plenty of times, so I'm hoping things will work out for those Hawaii chapters.

But what do you think about setting your story somewhere you've never been to before? Ever tried it? Was it a complete disaster or the best thing you've ever written?

I do!

Let's talk weddings :D Not only because of the royal wedding that was broadcasted on every single channel the other day, but because I just came from a wedding and let's just say the experience was...mh, interesting.
This was my first wedding (I watched the video of a wedding months ago but that really doesn't count) and it was definitely something. The bride's side of the family is Catholic and I think Moroccan (not sure. Could be Arabic.), while the groom's side of the family is Baptist and most of them are Haitian. About three quarters of the wedding was in Arabic (or some other foreign language) while the other quarter consisted of chanting. I was so completely lost, and I wasn't the only one. On the groom's side of the church, everyone looked so confused and lost. No one was sure what to say (we ended up saying the end of every chant the priest was saying), whether to stand or sit (we ended up standing for about an hour) or what to make of things. At one point, the couple ran around the priest with crowns on their heads and that's when everyone started looking around with confused looks.

And my feet were killing me by the end of the wedding. The only comforting thing was that I knew it was going to happen. I bought these 8-inch heels last week and although the heel was strong and more or less comfortable, after an hour of standing I just couldn't feel my ankles or feet.

But this experience was very useful. Originally, I'd wanted to make STA's epilogue the actual wedding instead of the ten minutes before the wedding, but since I didn't know what it was like to go to a wedding, I settled on the latter. Now I can have the ending I'd wanted from the start, which has me all excited.