The year started off so promising! Kate and I pushed ourselves into New Years morning even though I had a throbbing headache, and later that day we finished CP3. I promised a website for it and started the illustrations in March. I did so much drawing and it felt fantastic, but then I realized I needed to get a move on with my actual writing. I took a break that lasted months -- almost a year -- and it was eating away at me. So in the summer, I did a lot of Phantom of the Opera research and I got myself super prepared for NaNoWrimo. The time came and I was on top of it for about a week and a half when I was ambushed with schoolwork. Finals, oral presentations, papers, reading assignments that took me all night... On top of that, I had to figure out how to move out of my apartment before Winter Break because my roommate was being horrible to me for no reason. I used the break as a time to heal, I went to California, and I saw my Hatter, and Alice, and Jack Skellington, and princesses at Disneyland, as well as my awesome family. I found myself stirred with inspiration in the mean time, for film-making, for film-studying, for Nosferatu, for acting. That's what I did, and I guess I'm not so sorry because I know December 31 isn't a deadline for my creativity. I still have all the opportunity in the world to do whatever I want. If I'm going to be totally honest, though, I'm not that excited to write the following:

Here's what I accomplished in 2011:

1.) I wrote 63 pages of He's There. >< I'm not impressed by this at all, but it's better that I at least acknowledge what I did do. And, while I wasn't writing a whole lot, I did get everything figured out. I read The Phantom of the Opera twice, I put in the details of that book that I wanted to, and I admitted I had failed with some of my chapters, so I rewrote them. I feel good about the story when I didn't at the end of 2010.

2.) I made the Crystal Palace 3 website! And not only that, I created 10 new illustrations for it, and a poster. It's as legit as CP2 and, even if nobody visits, it's ready to be shown to the next person who cares, and who matters.

3.) Kate and I started Crystal Palace 4. Finallyyyy. Two years after I ambitiously predicted we would (July 2009), before I understood Kate's writing motivation record. But all things come eventually, and we started off with a great part one.

That's all I did. :/

I was about to write that I had better be careful what I put as resolutions now because I know this year will be busy too, if not busier and more intense as I work into my Film degree, but that's just not my style. I was talking to my mom about this. She was of the persuasion that you should always set reasonable goals; only set the goal you know you can reach. I said I disagreed - that for me the best way to do it was to give myself a full platter of ambitions, more like a table, actually, of tasty looking foods, and I can pick whatever I want when I go looking for something to eat.

I also thought aloud that sometimes, when you set a high goal, you don't make it, but you get further than where you may have been if you only shot for "reasonable".

That's why I like to give myself too many goals every year. I like that I have a choice. You can fill this cup, or this cup, or this cup. So~ I'm going to start listing resolutions. Or, should I call them... suggestions.

He's There
Seriously, Jennifer. You should be able to finish it once the plot snowballs. Start soon. Start this term. Then you can take a break if you want to.

I also want to get new website stuff for this. I'm devising a new enter page and I want more illustrations. I want to incorporate music (most likely My Brightest Diamond songs) on the site too.

Crystal Palace 4
I hope we get much done of this now that everything else is behind us. I also want a better writing strategy. I'm thinking we should  meet once a week and, instead of finishing an entire part, we can do as much as we're inspired to, and then plan for what comes next, giving ourselves a week to think of ideas. If we can keep ourselves excited and believe that what we next do will be funny, then the meetings should happen. I don't want to pressure her, I just think structure would keep her from drifting away from me and making it so I have to request, randomly, that we write.

Adventures in Wonderland
Oh... Not a thing got done for this show this year. No website, no fanfictions. I always had it in my heart, but my friends from the fandom were disappearing, there weren't many new episodes, and I was discouraged by the idea that I'd write something I couldn't share. The fandom was/is so much about sharing to me that I was never inspired when the sharing, from all ends, stopped. I hope this year that things will pick up somehow. I'd like to write a complete fanfic again! I want to finish the website, even if Melissa isn't a part of it.

Nosferatu
There should be fanfiction for this! I know it sounds ridiculous, but I've been having ideas. Writing ideas and film ideas. I knew something was going to happen with it somehow, and now the universe is gradually revealing the "somehow" to me and I'm really excited about having something new to be creative about. I can't decide yet what I'm going to do, but my ideas thus far are the following:

1. Rewriting the movie in my own words and with more elaborated, amusing dialogue. I got the idea from Kate's hilarious rewrites of Hansel & Gratel, and Rapunzel.

2. Writing a spin-off about Count Orlok spending more time in Wisborg than he did in the movie, and using it to try seducing Ellen, despite Hutter's discomfort. The idea came about when I heard N'Sync's "Tearin' Up My Heart" and since then I've just gone nuts with it and laugh about the possibilities all the time. I don't even ship Orlok/Ellen or anything, I just think that his attempts to make her attracted to him, blatantly in front of her husband, is funny.

3. Writing a story about meeting Orlok personally, with a Twilight sort of structure, obviously satirical and filled with suggestions that actual vampires are gross and can't possibly fall in love with anybody.

One more thing!

Vampire Santa
I'm not going to say anything about this. You can all be surprised if I decide to do it.

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Lastly, of course, planning for any other of my projects is always an option. Tilly & Jo, Unknown Color, etc etc... I'm even thinking something needs to be done about Huggle the Puppet. I also started a comic called The Phantom Couple. That was fun! Maybe there's room for these too.

Kay,
There's my obligatory post.
♥, Jennifer