Who ARE you?!

NaNoWriMo. Would you stop getting so close to me?!

I have found a general idea. I have a setting. Now if my main characters would just come together that would be real sweet of them. But no of course not, they gotta heave their ulterior motives, plot twists and general quirks that "make them realistic". Let me introduce you to problem person numero uno;

Meet Main character #1;

She is a mid-twenty year old, above average achiever. She is clear on the worlds politics, and understands what ambition means. Being brought up in the world where children are placed with promising young adults she was at a generally young age educated by a woman that tainted her whole life. She is genetically near perfect, with a strong bloodline. She places on the outer edges of the Prospect Triangle, ensuring her a safe life as one of the many corporations future heads. She is at peace with this and understands why the new world needed to replace the old one, the one where uneducated, barbaric people ruled "countries". She is knowledgeable, and reads much. Her preoccupation up to the age of 15 was studying basic foundation knowledge as other humans, but has since taken tests and landed a spot in a corporation working with evaluating children and placing them in households of matching adolescents. The only point on the Triangle where she is failing is the Social Adaptive Capabilities, where in casual conversation she is easily distracted and not clear in speech. She is ignorant to any conflict around her, yet is fascinated by the months Fairytales that come to her household of the time. She discusses them well with colleagues, and takes a special interest in articles with "past-progressors". These are old fairytales that have been reprinted. They feature things such as pop culture, art and other ingenuity that no longer seems to come out. She even learnt to read sheet music from a much earlier era as a passion. She also has an interest in baby things, such as shoes for tiny feet, and small mittens. She harbors a collection of them in her stow-away keep-safe. She is proud of her genetics but doesn't brag about results from the tests she has taken. Has promised herself that one day she will meet her Mother and thank her.

That is the introductory person, the person we meet before the plot has started.

The next person is Main character #2;

He is the Notor of Fairytales. Basically a journalist in our language, yet to be published for a long article, still working his way up but has since started given up on progressing past official documents. He is snide, rude, and often serious. He employs heavy sarcasm in his speech, a function often lost on the people around him. He pities the screwed up, wind-up people who strive for greatness and feels its just an imaginary carrot the corporations dangle in front of their noses. Loosely expresses this opinion in his papers but all sarcasm is lost in the readers. He was one of the most promising males in his division. This scored him an official job, and access to the function of marriage, something reserved for the very top ranking people. He and Female Antagonist are married, she will be introduced later. It is not a happy marriage because she is if possible the driest person ever. He does love her though, through all of it. They are one of the stories sub-plots. He is aware of all official things.

I can't decide completely on the perspective. I want to write it in the beginning as her story but then I am realizing that his story might have more to say. Probably going to use both in NaNo and then when I edit choose one that works best.

That's it for now. At least I have something to show for working so hard!

By Yours Truly,
ETBlogsHome 2013-10-18

So life rant.

Time to loosen up the joints and get back to writing. November is approaching faster than ever and my typing is going to crap,,, Spelling, speed and everything there is. Basically, I feel incomplete. And I need to rant.

I am not old. I am not at risk of reaching a point in life where it is too late to change totally. But, after a few hours alone in my room I am having an existential crisis. Here's the deal right now. The show-down. The whole picture.

I am approaching 20. That's not necessarily old. But in five years I'll be 25 and five years after that 30. Holy crap, by then it is too late. I have to have my life together by then. Being raised by divorced parents I need to have a family, stability and yes, I need children by then. I also don't want to rush such a thing with someone I don't know.

So: I need to know the person for like 6 months before you can say that you are a couple. Then the next step is cohabitation. That is at LEAST one whole year of dating. After that comes engagement, and I think you should live together for at least a year before you go into that just to be sure of what you are getting into. After that step is definitely children. God darn that topic. You can be as torn as you want about it right now, but you sure son't want to be the old mom later on, so after engagement I say 6 months to a year before you could be expecting. Then when the child is a toddler, maybe 6 years old, marriage. That is my plan. It gives you time to start a career and get a steady job before anything else. And let's be honest, you don't want to be fat or ugly in wedding photos. So you should definitely be like 30 when that happens.

Counting backwards, that means;

29; marriage
23; child
22; engagement
21; cohabitation
20; dating
19; introduction

That's it. That is all. I fully understand how unrealistic it is that things follow this meticulous plan, but come on! Can't things just go the way you plan for once? Why shouldn't they?

It scares me, I will willingly say so. That means I should be meeting the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, right now. Holy cow... I do have a boyfriend, but I am nearly 100 percent sure it is frowned upon to say stuff such as "So hey, before I turn 24 I want a baby. And just so you know, I expect a proposal before then! Yea. So no. Probably going to die alone. Rant over for now.

By Yours Truly,
ETBlogsHome

1st edition cover page for NaNowriMo 2013 novel

Here's the first edition of the cover I have made, because it looks awfully empty without it!

Okay, so I lied!

I didn't update as planned, but who ever does? I did however spend a lot of time thinking about my novel. It's such a long way until November, but still it's just around the corner and there is so much to do! Let's make a NaNoWriMo check list of what needs to be done (okay I just really want a good reason to postpone actually developing the idea at this point because usually that's where things get messy, untidy, and unclear)

Things a novel need:

- A title. A strong, poetic, special, non-cliché title. This does not necessarily need to be in place as writing begins.

- A setting. Work with geographical, historical and social. You can be ambiguous about one of three when writing, but choose wisely otherwise you'll end up being the bed-headboard-book-equalizer because you so uneven in yo language not even IKEA could assemble you straight.

- A main character. Or many, I mean let's be honest, isn't dual-narratives becoming a real thing lately? But be careful, or you might end up with half-naked characters (figuratively speaking).

- A plot. At least something that remotely resembles it. There are different types of novels, character based, plot based or setting based. (I made the last one up completely, it sounds awful, but the idea is there nevertheless) What did you start out with? It will be obvious to the reader what was there first; plot, character or setting.


Things I need:

- Lists. Of everything that could/would/should/might/will happen.

- A cover. I want to imagine the world and DO I wish I could draw. I have the hand-eye coordination of a one-winged seagull. Of course, they don't have hands at all... Poor things.

- Caffeine. Coffee is fine. Red Bull is better.


And what of this do I have as of this moment? Nada. Like literally nothing. I mean literally, as in there is so little substantial material written down right now we might as well not. Fret not. The day will come when ideas start coming to me again. Until then, I will blog selflessly in denial of the passing of time.

By Yours Truly,
ETBlogsHome 2013-10-06

Dealing with structure (when used to non-structure),,,

I am referring to life. Life organization, planning, having a goal, dreams, routines, customs, rules, ete. I like to think my life is ordinary. I wake up, go to work, go home, eat, watch TV, move to the computer, move to the bed, and read, then sleep, and then wash, rinse and repeat. However this has led to me having some issues with control. I like having things in order. I like time schedules, and clocks and notes and lists and other pseudo-psychotic ticks. You want to know what happens when things change that I can't affect? Boom.

I am lost, I help helpless, and weak, and oh God, are those paper clippings on your desk? A tidy workspace is a haven for productivity. *cleanliness is next to Godliness*.

Of course I am kidding. I suck at structure. Someone actually has to hold me to a routine at work for me to do it. Double standards such as making independent decisions versus "you-better-check-with-someone", are tearing me apart.

And yesterday we introduced a completely new system. Great. I'm not going to panic. Sigh.

HOW CAN YOU CAUSE SUCH DISARRAYMENT AND THEN LOOK THE OTHER WAY?!

WHY WON'T YOU TAKE SUGGESTIONS?!

*heavy breathing*

Okay. I'm fine. But responsibility on the workplace is important. I'm just not up there enough yet to be able to call someone out on it. I was clean out insulted today, because they didn't think I had the knowledge to be on our new systems, because I've only worked there for about 5 months, which was completely uncalled for, just because management thought I'd pick it up faster than someone who has been wokring on the same basics and resisted change for years on end. Ha to you, but I also hope you get over it soon.

As usual, I am more two-sided to a story than a 4 year old.

Well, no more talk about work tonight. I'm working on my plot for NaNo this year, so better get back to that. I'll probably make an update on it on Friday!

By Yours Truly,
ETBlogsHome 2013-10-02

NaNoWriMo 2013

I'm going to do it!!! Last time was in 2011, and I only made it about halfway, to circa 30000 words.

This time, I'm going for gold. Now I just need to find something to write about.... Plot updates coming soon

By Yours Truly
ETBlogsHome 2013-10-01

What I know and don't know

A couple of years back I was like any other teenager. I wanted to get a DSLR camera, and so I did (after much saving). I got it when I was 13, and since then... Well, let's just say that it hasn't been used much. I am a sucker for new challenges. However, if things get too hard, or there are no answers, I bore easily. Take this example of one of my first photos:

It is washed out, and bland, but I was so happy I understood lens flare! (This is also a good example of how opportunity meets luck)

However I progressed, and learnt that even though nature photos are "nice", I wanted "fun". And to me, fun means straight out life caught on camera! This is an example photo taken a while after winter passed.

An that is what colour coordination looks like. This was in aperture priority mode (AV on my PENTAX), 5.6 F, shutter speed 1/400 sek and an ISO of 200, no zoom, no flash. The light is actually coming from behind Mollie, but thanks to the low ISO, light envelops her even with a relatively normal shutter speed.

Here is another example;

This photo was also taken in aperture priority mode, 4 F, shutter speed 1/40 sek and ISO 1600, with a 18-55 standard kit lens, zoomed all the way in. The high ISO allows for bad lighting, but a high shutter speed as well. The aperture is relatively low, giving a very blurred background, and its manually locked to focus on a very small spot  around eleven o'clock.

This picture on the other hand;

is taken with ISO 400, 8 F, and shutter speed 1/125 sek. It's also worth to mention it's taken with a 55-300 kit lens. The "higher" aperture allows for the black to be blacker. The low ISO makes sure the colours don't get washed out. Shutter speed is balanced to show contrast and definition to the details of the birds and trees. SO. Balance huh? Can't be that hard! 

Everyone loves to see "Don't do this things". Here you go:

The lens is all wrong! This is the 18-55 lens. It is paired with a high ISO of 180, and a too low aperture of 6,3. It was taken in full manual mode, all zoomed out and no flash. Below is comparatively an image taken under the right circumstances:

This was taken with the 55-300 lens, zoomed out, without flash. The ISO is lowered to 800, and the aperture is 5,6. It was take on my cameras "Portrait mode" which means all I change is the ISO, and this is done on feel and trial and error.

This is an example of placement and alignment. The settings are identical. ISO 800, F 5,6, shutter speed 1/2 sek taken at 42 mm zoom with the kit lens. Many times you dont need to photoshop things like this, but to make them more attractive you could tilt them, or add a black and white filter, which is the cheepest editing trick you can do, but it works!

Well that last one might be over done to prove a point, but see what a little shuffling and black and white can do? Here are some examples of over worked photos:

I think that's all for today!