(What Do You Do With) The Problem With Writing Original Fiction For The HSC

Or, And now David isn't the only one to have publicly updated within the last 8 months
In Which I Struggle Not To Dismiss Frankenstein As Badfic, I Read Too Many Yuletide Fanfics, & I Succeed In My "Acquire A 2012 Diary" Quest

The problem with writing an original short story for the summer English assignment is "what do you do when the plot bunny only ever visits with crossover fanfic ideas that sound like they were written on crack?" (For actual examples from this past year, see the next post, pretty much.) Anyone with ideas is welcome to chime in, in the comments.

As you may have noticed on Twitter, I have invested in a kikki.k diary for the coming year(it was on sale, and it was pretty, and I saw Yun or Gina with one last year, and it has a notebook and other things). I've already started using it, and hopefully this'll stick.

And good God, preserve me from the horrors of reading my diary from years gone by, I understand why no one wants to read the assorted dreck of teenage girls. It's horrible.

The rest has been moved to its own post for whining and condoning possible copyright infringements (i.e. talking about fan fiction in a non-negative light)

How Do I Shop Online?

Or, Things Should Be Looking Up About Now (Hopefully)

Today, today, today...
What's been going on this past week?
Well, today was, well, a reasonable sort of spring day. Not too froid, not too chaud, and I got to take my jumper off. Bit of wind. Nothing happened that was metaphorically life-threatening.
Oh, happy birthday Abbi!
*really ought to make that blinkie .gif, if only for this purpose*
Wait, give me a mo...(probably about 1/2 hour, but anyway.)
Aw crud...I'll do it later.
No! Don't even think about touching Firefox, you!
I ❤ Lily Allen's music. Really.
I watched Marie Antoinette (the film) last last Friday. I have decided that I will be writing a comedy, at least in the middle bit. That bit's mostly filler, anyway. What fun one can have with a biology textbook and a time machine, I wonder? 
Would do a picspam, but meh.
Also, I need an SD card.
I really, really do not want to open Firefox. Before you ask, 4 windows, in excess of 100 (and probably 200) total. This is an XP computer. I am running iTunes 10 AND Word '10 AND Google Chrome. ...yeah, not good. No! Not even for fanfic!
Oh, and we set up chairs in the hall today.
I'll stop there now.
Oh, and please answer the question posed in the title in the comments. That is, if you read it. *freaking schedule slip* *grumble*

one line sentence to summarise your novel?:

It's not going to be one line or one sentence, but still. Right. Big breath in.
Right, remember M. "Let's send convicted criminals up in that there hot air balloon when you demonstrate it on my lawn in front of a big palace outside Paris" (no, he didn't say exactly those words, but words to that effect.)  a.k.a. M. "'L'état, c'est moi'" (as attributed by Mr M_f_______ (remember the bad ox drawing?) on the 22/2(Final hint: Me: "It wasn't Louis XIV who was in power just before the Revolution, it was Louis XVI." Mr M_f________"That's what I said, you must have misheard."))? He's Mr Protagonist. (No, not the one from Snow Crash; it's just a title.) Weird things happen to him before his execution, which he didn't make it to before more weird things happen and...pan camera to reveal the Paris of 2003 (or so.) He's picked up by future employees of the time travel organisation that's responsible for the weird events (which weren't recorded by history, because of a Stable Time Loop), and more weird stuff happens, and then there's a timequake and Paris sometime in 2010 finds itself juxtaposed with Paris sometime in October 1793, complete with guillotine, Mme "'Let them eat cake'", and angry mob and everything's all penned in by a force-field-esque barrier. And that's the planned first three chapters (and all I've really worked the plot out for.) It'll make more sense if you read this in the context of my blog, what with no link support in Formspring and contextual information on the blog. I mean it; this isn't just advertising.
And why did I mention my English teacher? It's because we were studying Macbeth and he brought up "the divine right of kings". And no, I really must go to bed so I can't furnish a linky for that one.

Qu'est-ce que vous voulez dire? (What were you going to say?)

Novel novels

Well, I promised myself that I'd put up a a short story from the setting of the story when I had enough time to do so. This is NOT that story. After all, it had too many spoilers. Nothing really that I've not already spoiled here, but it would be too explicit were I to post it up now. So. You'll have to wait.

Friday

Anyway, so I woke up at 11:10 or something, after having slept from 4 pm the previous day till quarter past midnight; then staying awake coughing till my muscles hurt, then sleeping from about 4 till then, realised that the French program was on, and FINALLY getting a chance to listen to the French program.
Then Mum was fretting about getting me to a doctor, because of my coughing fit.
Brunch was bocconcini, roughly chopped, with bolognese (with bacon) sauce and basil on a halved roll. As in halved along the length. Tasty.
Then I watched "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" from a copy made by Alexandra's friend's mum (who has also been Mum's friend since they met), which had Korean subtitles, till 3, when I got changed in anticipation that Mum would take me to the doctor's. I knew the booking was at 5, but...yeah. (that means I've been wearing this for 10 hours. No wonder it's got stains.
So then, we get lost when we go to the doctors at West Ryde (because the doctors at Carlingford Court were fully booked and Mum forgot how to get there and what the address was) and we end up waiting for 45 minutes and I found myself watching "Millionaire: Hot Seat", which I despise.
As I was watching, I found out that the name of Porntip the elephant's baby's called Mali now. BUT WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD NAME AN ELEPHANT FREAKING "PORNTIP"?!
And then we went and bought medicine at the pharmacy in Carlingford Village, and I see that they sell my old variety of Impulse, which I'm running out of. But Mum lets me buy hand sanitiser, at the very least.
And then we get home, I'm all eager to post, then Dad gets it in his mind to permanently fix the Ethernet cables in place because the WiFi fails. And to make the place "neater".
So then, I eat a bowl of Neapolitan ice cream with 100's and 1000's at 1am IN THE FREAKING MORNING, because Dad was busy with cables. That. Is. Freaking. AWESOME.
And then I've basically been posting/messing with WMA since.
Ooh, and don't forget massemailing the whole of Anu's notes' mailing list combined with my contacts to give them desperately-needed information for the Ag exam on Tuesday. Which I haven't started studying for yet.
Oh, and what kind of guy orders the first people in a manned hot-air balloon flight to be criminals, only to be talked out of it? And I have to write this guy for my novel? At least the balloon looks cool. Here it is.

I say, that's a damned nice balloon.

Des vacances inutiles

Nothing happened much.
I have no idea where Anu's shopping trip is at at the moment. (Ooh, repetition. I like.)
Haven't done any homework. Unless you count several checkpoint questions and approximately seven lines on coastal management, none of which have anything to do with the case in point (it's a framework).
Haven't gotten any further in the writing of my novel, unless you count three poorly-researched paragraphs and reading a biography on Marie Antoinette ([spoiler] Yes, she's a relatively minor character. You can't really not have her in the book if a main character happens to be from that time period. Not by accident, either. [/spoiler])
I ran out of croissants sometime on Sunday, I think it was. There goes 5 glorious croissants aux jambon et fromage.
Haven't bought any clothes.
Haven't gone out with somebody.
Haven't optimised the source code for the blog.
Haven't told Dad I want a job.
Haven't told anybody in the flesh my plans for the novel. Or even that I'm writing one.
Haven't set out the plans for the novel.
[/list]

In an interesting coincidence, I was born on the same day as:

• 1995 – Former South African defence minister General Magnus Malan and 10 other former senior military officers are arrested and charged with murdering 13 black people in 1987, (all the accused are later acquitted).
• 1995 – Brandon Soo Hoo, American-Chinese actor, Tropic Thunder (was born)

...
And I haven't even got a job yet.
Way to go, Wikipedia, for reinforcing my inferiority complex. [/sarcasm]
What a funny date, Feburary the 29th. I'll not mention what happened on that day.
In any case, as I was saying before I got distracted, in a weird coincidence, I was born on the same day as the previously mentioned Marie Antoinette. Weird.
Any case, it's - will you look at the time, it's 3:07‽ [interrobang character]
Must be off. This will probably be my last act on the computer for the ostensibly Friday 16th of April.
Wait.
DOCTOR WHO'S ON RIGHT NOW‽
Also, yeah, I haven't congratulated the Euro trip people on returning safely. 
Now for the questions.

• Does Paris have cobblestones?
• How full of cars is the Champs-Elysées?
• Is it possible for a room to not have a view of the Eiffel Tower?
• Is it possible for an arrondisement ditto marks? 

Night, then.

La vie en rose

First, read the title. Then read the tags. Then read the rest of this post.
Is your mind blown yet? No?
Are you sure?
Postmodern versions of "La Vie En Rose".
Now, if you don't know, it's rather a old-fashioned, symbolic song. After all, it was recorded just after WWII.
Now there's a rock version with the same name (but different lyrics) and a weird synth-pop version.
Yeah...
In other news, I downloaded about 13 of these tracks, most of which were covers of the Edith Piaf version.
The one Han gave to me was WEIRD game music, full stop. Have to dig out the links...
In other other news, one of these tracks inspired me to write a bit of the first novel in my new series. Well, not new, the idea's been around for a a few months.
Also, this refers to last Saturday. I'll be posting up um..yesterday...in a few hours, when I'm rested.

Des rouleaux

Just to get the record clear: I don't own/have a copy of Jason Derülo's music. Justify to me why and maybe I'll buy some. (I don't hear any French. Do you?)

But his original surname? FREAKING. AWESOME. (but not in French, I'm sorry, if you look it up, it's like roule: (n.) roll (context of paper))
Desrouleaux. You've got to admit, that sounds more badass than DuPont or Delacour or some other French name like that.
(NTS: put character in called "de la Cour" in novel. (Must work at Versailles.))
(@Bonnie: You want a name with an "x" at the end, marry a Frenchman. Or someone who lives in a once French-dominated area. (If you can find any Viets with a French surname, that is...))

Mary-Sue-ism, Crapsack Worlds and procrastination

Bit of explanation before I launch headlong into pure fantasy territory: I just sort of randomly settled on the Idiosyncratic Episode Blog Post Naming because, well, it was funny listing random things and finding some way to link them in-post.

Well, here goes. I'm writing a novel. It has French in it (well duh.). It has time-travel. It has French characters in it. It has the French revolution in it. It has THE. BIGGEST. FREAKING. PALACE. IN. HISTORY. (i.e. Versailles) in it (look, they installed toilets!). It has really, really fancy clothing. And I think Kevin Rudd makes a guest appearance somewhere. On a train (because they're running away).

What it hasn't got:

• Gratuitous shots of le Tour Eiffel.
• Gratuitous shots of le Arc de Triomphe.
• Gratuitous death/executions.
• Mary Sues.
• An optimistic view of characters.
• More than one scene written.

Yeah, that'll help sales.