Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Of Novels, Sleepless Authors, and Disgustingly Nice People

I've had plenty of ideas for blog posts and I've wanted to update my blog for a while, but nothing ever seemed good enough. xD But that's just what happens when you realize that you're not just writing to yourself. Other people actually read this random thing of yours called a blog... O_O

So... I've finally decided to just write one. This has no real point to it, other than the fact I'm going to try and talk about writing. Although I might go off on a few rabbit trails. You never know.

Anyway. National Novel Writing Month is literally the day after tomorrow. I mean, who cares about Halloween when you have November 1st to look forward to?! ;)

The funny thing is... I've thought about writing a different novel than the one I had planned. I thought of writing a fanfiction novel (which isn't really accomplishing anything on my part) and I thought about writing a novel about dragons, based on a dream I had once.

I guess I've felt altogether unprepared for NaNo this year. But it took something kind of big to make me return to my original idea for a novel. I won't say what it was, but I can say that I know I need to write that novel. For other people, for myself, for God. So, I'm going to write it.

Even after making that decision, distractions are still popping up at the wrong times. I just want to focus on NaNo, but a lot is going on right now. And some distractions I could avoid.

But the lack of sleep in this house is ridiculous and I'm not sure how to avoid that - other than praying. Everyone has been kind of exhausted lately, because none of us were really sleeping well for a few nights. It's mainly the cat keeping us up. Like last night when I was trying to be nice and let him sleep in my room.

He kept me up all night long.

He likes to sleep during the day and hunt at night, but the storms have been scaring him a bit. When I was just about to fall asleep at one o'clock in the morning, he decides it's the perfect time to want to go outside. So, he meows. And keeps me awake. Until five-thirty this morning.

I ran into the same door twice and spilled cold water on my feet just in an attempt to get him outside.

Needless to say, if this blog post doesn't make sense, there's a reason.

But that's just me complaining. Although it was a nice example of annoying/distracting things. I guess the no-sleep thing might be me preparing for NaNo without realizing it. NaNoWriMo is a time for no sleep, right?

Anyway, it's not just that that's distracting me. It's a lot of stuff. Church, school, family, real life. Those are far more important than writing 50,000 words in a month. Even fanfiction is distracting me. xD I had the sudden urge to update all of my unfinished fanfictions last night, but I had to tell myself, "NO. Not two days before NaNo."

Not to mention reading fanfictions. Why is that when I'm about to write a full-length novel I have the urge to read a ton of Legend of Zelda fanfictions? And THEY'RE DISTRACTING. And addicting. >.>

But I shan't (love that word) complain anymore. Like I said, I know I need to write that novel - and I will, no matter what might be going on.

You see, it's not that my novel is so spectacular that the world needs to read it. I don't think that anyone should read it, if they don't want to. But I know someone who really needs to read it, someone who needs to know he/she isn't alone. And that's the point of my book. I suddenly want to write it, and that hasn't happened ever since I first started outlining several months ago.

Now, I've been sitting here for three or four - maybe even five - minutes trying to think of something to say after that. There's honestly nothing to add to that subject right now. This blog post is really jumping all over the place. I knew that would happen.

But at least I'm posting! :D

Uh, anyway, as for the Zelda fanfictions... yes. They are very intriguing. I read twenty-five chapters of one yesterday since I apparently had too much spare time on my hands. Everything about the Legend of Zelda has always been interesting to me. I got Skyward Sword for my birthday and I love it so far.

The first Zelda game I ever played was Ocarina of Time and I played that when I was really little. My brother had given it to my sisters and I for our Nintendo 64 (we're cool like that). But I was just starting the Great Deku Tree when those huge spider things scared the mess out of me. o_O I was little, and scared of spiders, so I dropped the controller and ran screaming to my parents. It was terrifying.

I tried to play it more over the years, but those redead things scared me more than anything. xD Still do, sometimes. But I finished the game when I was twelve, I think. After all those years.

Even though Link was the main character - and definitely awesome - I still never found him to be my favorite character. Princess Zelda wasn't even my favorite character. Out of everyone in that game, I liked Grog the best. xD

Spoilers for Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (if you read these, the rest will make more sense)...

If you don't remember, or have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, I'll explain... Grog is the dude who sits under the tree in Kakariko Village when Link is a little kid. He says something along the lines of, "People are disgusting. My own father and mother are disgusting. You must be disgusting too."

And then, when Link is an adult, he finds that same dude in the Lost Woods, asleep. After Link wakes the guy up and shows him the blue cucco (chicken, I guess?), the guy is actually happy. He says that only nice people can cause the cucco to crow and that Link must be a nice guy. So, he orders Link to go get some potion from the old woman and if Link gets back in time, it will save Grog.

Link gets the potion and returns, but Grog is gone and replaced by a somewhat creepy little girl claiming that Grog had turned into a Stalfos (a skeleton monster sort of thing). Apparently anyone who stays in the forest for too long will turn into one and Grog did.

Honestly, I have no idea why Grog didn't just leave instead of asking Link to go get the potion. He could've easily saved his own life, but instead he turned into a monster.

End of spoilers.

You can think me weird, if you'd like, but that dude still is my favorite LoZ character.

His fate was unfortunate. And I was really mad at the games for a while because of it, but he's in Majora's Mask, so I wasn't too frustrated with them.

It's hard to explain why I like that character. I mean... he thought the whole world was disgusting. And he was my favorite. And I'm all about optimism. So... it makes no sense, right?

I guess I liked him because of his personality. I know. You're thinking, "What personality?"

But it's like... all along he wanted people to know that he was a nice guy. And it took one guy, just one single person, to notice that and almost save his life. And when Link realized he was a nice guy, he found that someone else in the world wasn't so disgusting anymore. Someone was actually nice.

And... well, that really speaks to me. There are so many people in the world who feel that they're alone, that no one understands. They feel like Grog. They hate the world, because they view it as simply "disgusting."

They can't find beauty in anything, because their lives are so beastly. They want others to know that they're not disgusting. They want people to see that they're actually nice, but they feel like no one is looking, like no one cares. So they keep hating the world. They believe that maybe they too are disgusting.

But then someone comes along. A nice stranger, a family member, a friend, anyone. And they show that person that life isn't so disgusting. They show them that there are nice people in the world. They show them that there is something to live for. And everything turns out all right.

(Obviously, not for Grog, but his situation was very different from normal, real life ones. XD)

So, I guess the point of all that was... Life does seem disgusting sometimes. Grog was right. But some people are not disgusting. There are people out there who care and there are people who are nice, whether you can see that right now or not. God is nice. He's more than nice - He loves you. And He's always there with you as well.

He doesn't make disgusting things. He makes beautiful things with life and light and love. He wants you to open your eyes and know that you are nice, that you're not disgusting. Because He loves you. <3

So... yes. The mysterious cucco dude is my favorite. But now you know the reason. It's both good and bad that it might have taken a video game character - one named Grog, at that - for you to realize the point of this blog post. Or maybe even for you to realize something very important about life.

Anyway, yeah. This post turned out better than I thought it would. A seemingly pointless blog post has turned into something I'm quite proud of.

God's just awesome like that. ;)

<3