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Anna on
November 23, 2011 – 8:45 am
Sometimes you happen on something really really lucky. In my case, the name of this blog was pure dumb luck.
It’s not only allowed me to blog about raiding, RP, PVP (on rare occasions), and expansion content, it’s let me blog about whatever character I want to play at any given time, without worrying about anyone finding it odd that my blog title is about Shaman healer raiding and I post about Paladin RP.
Looking forward, I think it’s even more fortuitous, as I’ll be able to have a space to talk about other games. I’m really looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic, Diablo III, AND Mists of Pandaria. While I have no plans to leave WoW, for the first time I have interest in two new games that will be coming out soon, and it’ll be nice not to have to shoehorn that information into another blog (or, gods forbid, create yet another one).
The naming scheme will continue – it’s followed me into D&D – and so there will always be Many Annas. WHICH Annas? Well, I don’t know either, but it should be fun.
Because there will never, ever, truly be too many.
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Anna on
November 22, 2011 – 7:51 am
After taking so long away from blogging, it’s been almost a relief to be posting again. It feels a little bit like an old coat that fits – something about it just makes sense, and I’m really enjoying the creative process of writing.
Unfortunately writing fic is just not that easy. While blogging is something that feels pretty natural, writing fic is like pulling teeth for me these days. It’s not that I don’t have ideas, I’m just so very very rusty when it comes to fiction. Dialogue doesn’t flow easily, characters are a little less familiar, things like that.
I’ve done a bit of writing – all of it posted here over the last two weeks – and managed to make it work, but it still doesn’t have the same flow or spark that I had when I was writing fic all the time.
What have I learned from this?
Well, your writing chops are essentially muscles – if you don’t use them, you lose them. While it’s easier to build back than it is to build up the first time, taking 10 months off can definitely leave you feeling rusty.
I’m hoping that if I continue the metaphor, and continue to to try to write little ficlets, the familiarity will come back. Along those same lines, it feels kind of like rebuilding a friendship after a long absence – characters are just easier to write when you work with them all the time. It’s easier to get into their heads.
Along those lines, I’m going to try to post ficlet ideas here again – the return of the Friday Five/Friday Fiction challenges. Yes, I know for a lot of us this week is Thanksgiving, but the wonderful thing about writing fiction is that maybe you won’t write it this week, but a little nugget of an idea might turn into something later!
Oddly enough, talking about writing a Thanksgiving/Pilgrim’s Bounty themed fic has me looking forward to writing it. I’m not sure which character yet (or characters) will be featured, but I’ve got a few ideas rattling around.
Do you have any tricks for getting the writing flowing? What about ficlet ideas that we could all do here, as part of Friday Fiction?
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Anna on
November 21, 2011 – 7:41 am
Dusting off the Alts…
- Aely!Priest is level 81, specced Discipline and slowly working her way through Hyjal. She may eventually be for healing, but there are a shit ton of buttons on a priest that I don’t remember how to use. Still, it’s shiny.
- Aely!Pally is level 85 and <thisclose> to being geared for heroics. She’s ret. Maybe I will learn pally healing instead of priest healing.
- Annie Mae is all ready to start leveling as a prot warrior, and will start in Vashj’ir before going to Hyjal, since having two characters in Hyjal at the same time might make me crazy.
- Annata is level 63, and will hopefully make an appearance at RP night.
- Annylais is waiting for 4.3 and the drop in XP needed to finish the zones in Northrend. I have no idea how I’ll level her, but if past leveling is any indication, she’ll be feral. Stealth is just too hax.
- Ancelyn is still in the mid 30′s, something I need to remedy. Same with Cuanyin, in his mid 20′s.
I… have a lot of alts.
Also going on with the Annas…
- I’m learning how to PVP again with my hunter. While I’m not any good at killing people, I am definitely good at being an annoying pain in the ass while other people kill things, so I’m having a good time. Also, PVP sucks a lot less with friends. I still don’t much like Arenas though.
- Annorah is finally wearing a full set of MATCHING Firelands gear, and has her 2piece T12 set bonus now. We’re working on Ragnaros, which isn’t such a bad start for a raid that did T11 for a total of about a month.
- I’ve done a little bit of occasional raiding with Angoleth as well, in TRI Hangover (they run Saturday mornings, hence the name). It’s a lot of fun, and a little disconcerting to see my 350 iLevel beastmastery hunter do the same overall DPS as my geared out elemental shaman.
Hope you are all having a great week! Since I work retail and then will be having about 10 people at my house for Thanksgiving, it’s going to be crazy around Chez Anna – not nearly as much gaming as I’d like!
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Anna on
November 18, 2011 – 9:33 am
Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Suicide. This post is rather upsetting to write and has the potential to be upsetting to read.
The White Ribbon Campaign
International Resources
RAINN
It came to my attention today that a fellow WoW blogger has been posting from the hospital after suffering a vicious attack. She is, understandably, shaken and in a lot of mental turmoil, though fortunately physically seems to be doing alright.
As someone with at least a little bit of understanding of how hard the healing process can be, I’m posting here in support of the Gold Queen. She will be in my thoughts, and hopefully the thoughts of the greater community, for as long as she needs that support.
To anyone who thinks “that’s just not right for her to talk about it” – how dare you decide what the proper response is of someone else who has been through an extremely traumatic event. The Gold Queen herself has spoken about how much of a difference “play” can make, and if playing WoW and blogging are things she can do to help cope with and heal through what’s happened, I have nothing but happiness that she’s found those kinds of outlets. There is no “right way” to respond to something horrible, just like there is no right way to grieve the loss of a loved one.
Trauma sucks, and each person heals as best they can. Ultimately, healing is an inside job. It’s up to everyone else to support that. From a healing standpoint, it’s important that Alyzandehas all the support and safe spaces she needs – as her community, that’s our job. (And I’m really impressed with the way the wow gold making community has pulled together for her, especially the White Ribbon campaign. It’s not a segment of wow blogging that I’m particularly part of, but their response has been outstanding.)
I learned about this through the Mental Shaman, the Apple Cider Mage, Matojo, and Misaweha - all of whom have good posts that you should read.
