Trying to get it write

I am attempting to write a book.

This is not something new for me - friends of mine from high school may remember my attempts at book writing back in those days; friends from uni (particularly those that did the creative writing course with me) will surely remember my NaNoWriMo attempt, and those closer to me may remember the other numerous attempts that have come in between. Readers of this blog my recall a certain promise to get a script going involving a modern day Northanger Abbey. But I refer to them all as attempts. None of them have progressed any further than a couple of thousand words (30 000 in the case of my WriMo attempt of 2009) and the ideas behind them still intrigue me and are still lodged somewhere in my brain, waiting to be rekindled, they have all essentially fallen by the wayside. Once this happens, it is incredibly difficult to pick them back up again. I lose my train of thought, that particular style of writing that was being used, and no matter how hard I try to get it started again, I just cannot get back into that novel's particular rhythm.

This time is different. This time I am trying really hard not to let my novel fall by the wayside. I have great plans and I am not going to let myself and my silly little brain get in the way of letting me succeed. This time it is personal.

So what is my next great attempt about? I am hoping to write up a detailed account of my year in Korea. I don't know how many of the people reading my blog received my fortnightly updates, but many of the people who did read them insisted that I should attempt to write a novel. They said that they all thoroughly enjoyed the short(ish) accounts that I provided them with, and thought that my adventures would make a brilliant book. And so I am trying to put it together piece by piece, trying to figure out what should stay in and what should stay out; who I should mention and who I shouldn't.

Of course, there are aspects to this that remain very difficult. Pieces of information were intentionally left out of letters for example (my parents and grandparents don't need to know about my semi-drunken escapades), and I am sure that some of my friends would not appreciate their own personal lives being put on display. Does that mean that I shouldn't include that information in the book? Does it mean that I should change names to protect anonymity? Should I do all of this now, during the writing stages, or should I finish writing and remove the dodgy bits later during the editing stages? Ah, life's great questions.

Regardless of these questions that keep pestering my mind, I am moving forth. I am not very far into the writing of the book yet, and still have to figure out how I am going to lay everything out, But I am writing, and that is the important part. As long as I keep doing that, I am sure that this one will pan out. Hold thumbs for me.

Oh, and the question for today: Would you object to being referred to in someone else's novel?

My World of WoW

Just because I am doing my 30 day book challenge doesn't mean that I am going to forget about my other blogging duties. Today, I thought I would talk about something that has been taking up a lot of my time and that has been on my mind a lot lately. And what else would that thing be but... World of Warcraft.

Yes, that is right. I am indeed a little more geeky than many people realise. I am an avid WoW player. This wasn't always the case. It all started when Grant got into the game back in 2008. He created a character, and most of his time was spent playing said character at nights and on weekends while I sat in the background reading books, taking naps and watching series. Life went on in this manner for quite some time until I started complaining that Grant was spending more time playing the game than he was spending with me.
What was his solution to this problem?
Creating me a character.
And so Risuna, my human warrior, was born. At first I didn't get what all the hype was about. And then I started getting really into the game. And then I took over Grant's computer because all I wanted to do was play the game.
What was his solution to this problem?
Create me my own account.
Of course, that wasn't really a solution to my addiction, but it allowed him to indulge in his addiction while I indulged in mine. There was a minor problem with this solution, however, and that was that transferring of characters between accounts was not only costly, but also not particularly timely. And so, while I saved up my pennies and counted down the hours, I created myself a new character to level while I waited. And so Khalla, my night-elf druid, was born.

I had tons of fun playing with Khalla and decided that I far preferred having a druid to having a warrior. They were a lot more fun to play with because they could shapeshift and, compared to my warrior who could only DPS, had a lot of options to play around with. I could DPS or tank or heal as I liked, and being able to change between the forms meant that I never really got bored. Before I knew it, I was level 80 with Risuna, who had by this time already been transferred to my account, lagging behind at level 65.

I could have continued to play on with Khalla forever, venturing into dungeons and raids to my heart's content. But unfortunately, Grant got bored with the game, as he inevitably does, and decided to cancel his account. Though he did offer to keep mine going, playing with him was part of the reason I had so much fun playing the game. Without him, it just didn't seem worth it anymore. And so, towards the middle of 2009, we both cancelled our accounts and the joy that I'd had playing WoW faded into the back of my memory.

By September 2010, I had just about forgotten about my days of WoW playing. They seemed like a distant dream, until they were refreshed by a friend of mine who became obsessed with levelling his character in time for the release of the Cataclysm expansion. Watching him play brought back all the good times I'd had levelling my own characters, and I begged Grant to reconsider opening our accounts once again. After some hmming and haaing, it was decided. We were going to try again. But on the European server this time around. This meant that we would have to start fresh, creating new characters. Because all of Grant's friends were playing Horde characters, it also meant a changing of sides, something that I wasn't particularly looking forward to. I had always been the good guy (or gal). I had always been the one keeping people in line rather than the one toeing the line myself. But there wasn't much choice in the matter - if I was going to play again, and if I was going to play with Grant, I was going to have to switch sides and become the bad guy (or gal).

And so Keillan, my tauren hunter, was born. Her name was a bit of a tribute to Khalla, the lost druid that I had loved so much. The tauren race, being one of the original few that could become druids, are not well known hunters, but I wanted to try something new. I didn't particularly like the look of any of the other characters (besides the blood elves, whose choices in profession were few), and so I decided to stick with my tauren and become a hunter. And I have found that I quite enjoy it. If I cannot become another animal, at least I can have them as pets.

I recently managed to level Keillan up to 85, the highest that Cataclysm will allow you to go, and am currently running her through heroic dungeons to gain justice points and try to gear her up for raiding. And so, this is what I have been spending my time doing. As geeky as it is, I am a WoW player, and I am proud of it.

So my question for today: What is your strangest/geekiest/most embarrassing pastime?