MMORPGamer - End of the Year Slump

I've been away for a long time, and I didn't even post last year's column. Oops! This week column should be up in a few hours, and it features a bunch of fun info that goes along with the end of the year and the look forward into the future.

I've been peering at The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, thinking that I might be doing it as my own resolution for the first three months of the new year. The idea of Morning Pages and Artist Dates really excite me. I simply can't not do it!

Meanwhile, my WoW characters have been flourishing as Pete and I have put together a guild on Greymane called Rayne of Epick Faeyre. The name's just a goofy epic fumbling of the warlock spell from the game, meant to display our hope for a large group of like-minded players that help each other out and enjoy each other's company in guild chat. For information on joining, send a /tell to Murael (me) or Knara (Pete).

Edit: Here's the column, safe and sound and not too late.

MMORPGamer - Holiday Treats

Though it's technically Friday, I'm posting this to add the new MMORPGamer here. It's MMORPGamer - Holiday Treats. The links to the others are in the sidebar, but today's news includes info on Fury, EVE, L5, Blizzard, Lunia, and Guild Wars.  

There was a ton of news this week and only one letter.  The column is going wonderfully well, and the only thing I'm in want of is more reader response.

On Writing for Happiness

I haven't written much save the last MMORPGamer since NaNoWriMo.  The break was needed after such an intense writing journey, but the post-NaNo blues have hit hard.

I've already planned my projects for the rest of the year and for this blog, but I missed actually writing things.  This hit me on the side of the head as I felt actually happy to be writing my final paper for my critiquing class this afternoon.

If you need to write, write.  If you aren't sure if you need to write, write a ton and then go cold turkey.  If you experience withdrawal symptoms like me, come back to the light.  Write.

New MMORPGamer and Hopes.

Today I've posted a new column discussing the latest MMORPG news served alongside my opinions and letters submitted by readers. It can be found here.

I'm still trying to put together my list of tasks for this year's Big Fun Scary Things list. I know that I'd like to review books or read them in the least. Perhaps I should review video games and movies. That would be more polishing to my writing skills. I also need to get onto my web design and game design skills. I'd like to go through a book course on web design, which should be simple enough to do.

To review, here's my to-do for the year: Write reviews for games and movies, take a web design book course, read more books. This is shaping up to be a great list.

What's Next?

Now that this blog has fully chronicled the creation of the rough draft of my first novel, which still doesn't have a title, the original purpose has been fulfilled. I intend to use this to continue to chronicle my progress and serve as a spot for my musings. I'm going to be participating in the second Year of Big, Fun, Scary Things. It's an unofficial event held by the Office of Letters and Light (NaNoWriMo's nonprofit) that is basically encouragement to do extraordinary things.

At this point, I have not resolved everything I'm going to do for my Year. I know I want to start writing reviews of books (to foster writing and reading more) and to get my book ready and out to agents. There will be a few more things on the list, of course, but I haven't yet come to any other conclusions.

Day 30.

Today is the day. After last night's burst of creativity, I woke up a bit late and went to class. Once there, the muse hit me over the head again, and I started banging out words. I came home and almost immediately went to it, writing down as much as I could, and as of approximately five minutes ago, I've got a novel on my hands.

That's right, my word count is 50045 and the novel is finished. I'm so excited and I don't know what to do with myself. I know I'll reward myself somehow, but I just don't know how. Ahh!

As for this blog, I'll be keeping it around. I've got to check on my production somehow, eh? I'll continue to adapt the format as I see fit until I can settle into a rhythm of production and cool advice or quotes.

But for the present, I'm going to be taking a break from writing. I've got 50,000 words to edit soon, but I feel like I've got to take at least a week to cool down from the marathon that was NaNoWriMo.

Day 29.

I know that it's technically day 30 by the time I write this, but it's been a long day 29, so don't blame me for the tardiness. I didn't write anything until about five hours ago when I wrote about five hundred words. Then about an hour and a half ago I decided to go as far as I liked tonight. I wrote my first romantic/erotic scene, and ended up exactly where I had planned tonight. My word count is a crisp 47,292 at the moment.

There's only one more day left, and I'm terribly thrilled. I've never finished a NaNoWriMo before or a novel. I don't know what in the hell I'm going to do, but it's going to be rest for sure. I'll think about that when I get to it, though. It's important that I finish tomorrow's word count, otherwise I won't have any reason to celebrate.