#FFXIV Write 2021

[nabaath-areng]

on the downside, ffxiv wont boot for me at all so i wont be able to continue msq for another 10 days at minimum....... <:-(

[shivasdarknight]

how long you would wait for me? how long I've been away? {ffxiv, wolestinien}

❆fandom: final fantasy xiv, ffxiv ❆characters: named warrior of light (Surkukteni), Estinien Wyrmblood/Varlineau, Krile Baldesion, Tataru Taru ❆relationship: wolestinien ❆dynamic: m/f ❆rating: e ❆key tags: xaela wol, bi+intersex+bigender wol, bi4bi relationship ❆content warnings: cursing, scars, canon typical depressive stuff, very glossed over smut scene that isn't really one but still is? ❆words: 12,389 ❆series: part 7/7 of WolEstinien Week 2021

Shadowbringers was a nightmare for Surkukteni. From all she'd put on the line with little to gain, she's emotionally drained - not at all helped by her brother's romantic drama that resulted in him being even closer with his two partners. Needless to say, the loneliness and ache in her chest has been fairly prevalent for quite some time now. All she wants is company - physical or otherwise - but she's not even officially with Estinien and she still wants for his company?

A bit of a tangent from that 5.1 scene where Estinien shows up to recount what happened in Garlemald. Lots of yearning in this one, especially with these two emotionally constipated dumbasses that just need to confess already.

{Read Here}

[noxtivagus]

Final. Fantasy.

[youngster-monster]

anon from the other day, back again to (attempt to) provide Moral Support literally been on the verge of exploding with excitement, i've been looking fwd to monachopsis 3 since around mid 2021 (or really when i started reading wc fanfic i guess) and so everytime i open tumblr and see something abt it i sit up a little straighter in my chair and start making incoherent animal noises over it but ANYWAYS. there are no words to describe the full extent of excitement i feel about reading the fic when its done SO 🎉🎉🎉🎉 BEST OF LUCK !!!!

anon I owe you my life ( < is also making incoherent animal noises over this ask)

Two years.... Thank you for your patience lmao

But it's looking like 2023 might actually be the year of monachopsis 3 for real this time!! Maybe!!!

[autumnslance]

LynMars's FFXIV Write 2024 Master Post

We're back again! The list and links for all of my completed prompts for this year's FFXIV Write. Stats and ramblings about writing will go under the Read More cut. Eventually these will be revised in some manner and tossed onto Ao3.

Asterisks again mean there's wolship nonsense happening.

01. Steer - Vignettes of less sociable times over Aeryn's life. 02. Horizon - WoL at the end of Ultima Thule, EW 6.0. 03. Tempest - WoL returns to Amaurot to contemplate, EW 6.4. 04. Reticent - C'oretta & Dark Autumn have a chat. Sort of. 05. Stamp - Aeryn finds a memento while cleaning, post-EW 6.0 06. Halcyon - Tanzel, Emelia, & understanding grief. Backstory. 07. Morsel - Zenos heading to Camp Broken Glass, EW 6.0. 08. Free Day! 09. Lend an Ear - Emperor Varis is very much alone. StB patches. 10. Stable - Hydaelyn as the avatar of Light. Endwalker. 11. Surrogate - Weird West AU. Unexpected new roles for the Strikers. 12. Quarry* - Dominants AU. Thavnair comes to Tural's aid. DT 7.0. 13. Butte - Dark Autumn versus seedkin in Xak Tural. DT 7.0. 14. Telling - WoL reflects on Emet-Selch's expected reaction. EW 6.0. 15. Free Day! 16. Third-Rate - Aeryn's annoyed by the Unbound. DT Role Quests. 17. Sally - Dark pays a final visit to a traitor, post-StB 4.1. 18. Hackneyed* - Aeryn, Thancred, & terrible literature. 19. Taken - A young wood warder tries to save his sibling. Backstory. 20. Duel - Wuk Lamat's challenge does not go as expected. DT 7.0. 21. Shade - WoL ruminates on some of their ghosts. Thru DT 7.0. 22. Free Day! 23. On Cloud Nine - A chocobo & her Warrior of Light. End ShB 5.0. 24. Bar - 2 different adventurers starting out. Legacy & ARR. 25. Perpetuity - Aeryn, Deryk, & questions of faith. EW 24man raid. 26. Zip - C'oretta helping out Hamon at the Coliseum. Technically DT. 27. Memory - In a future, music makes Iyna remember. EW Patches. 28. Deleterious - Aeryn & Shale discuss regulators & history. DT 7.0. 29. (Free) Deleterious 2* - Thancred & self-recrimination. ShB 5.0. 30. Two Heads are Better than One - Gulool Ja Ja muses. DT 7.0.

Previous years: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

Ended up a touch Aeryn-heavy this year, though Generic WoL, various NPCs, the other OCs, forays in the FC's AUs, and some supporting family cast members make appearances. There's even a callback to a previous FFXIV Write entry. Lots of Endwalker and Dawntrail due to recency bias, but it manages to span the spectrum from backstories through various expansions.

I only did 1 Free Day, due to having 2 solid ideas I ended up writing for that prompt. It was right at the end of my annual birthday vacation week, so I was pretty rested (may also be why they're among the longer entries!). Unusually, the rest of that week's works are not any longer than the others.

I'm also still working on some original writing, though, so that did cut into fanfiction time.

Below 500 words: #2 Horizon (347), #3 Tempest (415), #7 Morsel (499), #10 Stable (400), #13 Butte (477), #14 Telling (355), #17 Sally (464), #20 Duel (499), #24 Bar (462).

500 - 1,000 words: #1 Steer (944), #4 Reticent (581), #5 Stamp (588), #11 Surrogate (964), #12 Quarry (844), #16 Third-Rate (564), #18 Hackneyed (577), #19 Taken (915), #21 Shade (764), #23 On Cloud Nine (728), #25 Perpetuity (958), #26 Zip (592), #27 Memory (810), #30 Two Heads are Better than One (500).

Over 1,000 words: #6 Halcyon (2,479), #9 Lend an Ear (1,326), #28 Deleterious (1,099), #29 Deleterious 2 (1,231).

Shortest: #2 Horizon Longest: #6 Halcyon

Total: 20,382 words. Not my shortest but far from my longest. Comparing with the previous years, I can see a clear improvement in my grasp of both NPC and OC voices, and more confidence in general.

Even so, "Butte", "Sally", "Bar", and "Zip" were the hardest for me this year, and I may need to warm up to them. I love "Halcyon" for a lot of reasons, and am also fond of the lighter offerings in "Duel" and "On Cloud Nine." I like a lot of the others, particularly when trying to get into NPC heads (even if they're really weird places to be ffs, Zenos).

Not too many shippy entries this year, one of them for one of the AUs, one mostly talking about it rather than seeing it, but I like "Hackneyed" a lot as it's been awhile since I've written about Aeryn & Thancred's literary tastes (and opposite ways of treating their books).

These will eventually be revised and added to Ao3, and then we await next year!

[ffxivaltaholic]

FFXIVWrite2024: Master List

Prompt Master List:

Week 1: Prompt 1: Steer | Jellal Prompt 2: Horizon | Zhira Prompt 3: Tempest | Tlalli Prompt 4: Reticent | Tsirae Prompt 5: Stamp | N'akani Prompt 6: Halcyon | Ame Prompt 7: Morsel | Isanii

Week 2: Prompt 8: (You Pick) Prickle | Diarmune Prompt 9: Lend an Ear | Jellal Prompt 10: Stable | Ame/N'akani Prompt 11: Surrogate | Isanii Prompt 12: Quarry | Diarmune Prompt 13: Butte | Tsirae Prompt 14: Telling | Zhira

Week 3: Prompt 15: (you pick!) Lessons in Patience | Tlalli Prompt 16: Third-Rate | Jellal Prompt 17: Sally | Tsirae Prompt 18: Hackneyed | Ame Prompt 19: Taken | Isanii Prompt 20: Duel | Zhira Prompt 21: Shade | Diarmune

Week 4: Prompt 22: (You Pick) Homecoming | N'akani Prompt 23: Cloud-Nine | Ame Prompt 24: Bar | Jellal Prompt 25: Perpetuity | Tlalli Prompt 26: Zip | Isanii Prompt 27: Memory | Zhira Prompt 28: Deleterious | Tsirae

Week 5: Prompt 29: (You Pick) Divergence | Diarmune Prompt 30: Two Heads Are Better Than One | Dalain

Notes: Once again I am very happy to have completed the entire list.  It was fun to write and expand on my character's and their stories and to introduce my Hrothgal Tlalli, as well as bring back a retired character for one final prompt.  Thank you @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for everything and once again providing a fantastic month of writing! I hope you have a relaxing October! <3

Previous Years:

FFXIV Write 2023 FFXIV Write 2022 FFXIV Write 2021 FFXIV Write 2020

[valdiis]

Thirty entries, one a day minus a single make-up day where I did two. I wrote for four characters, one of which was never meant to be more than a background character in the first place. I don't have a word count and I'm not sure I want one - but I sure did write a lot. I've discovered that my comfy place right now is dialogue. I love writing snappy lines and character interactions, and I'm not as good with lengthy introspection or action scenes. This is a contrast to prior years, when I did write more long-form introspection.

If anyone is interested (ha) in my prior years, I don't do single collected link posts - though I probably should. You can find all of it below:

FFxivWrite 2024

FFxivWrite 2023 - scattered among my other blogs that year, so here's Aeluan, Daephrin, and Vy'thanis.

FFxivWrite 2022 - in which I focused solely on Vyth

FFxivWrite 2021 - this is an actual master post for once...

FFxivWrite 2020 - I think I missed a few prompts that year

FFxivWrite 2019 - oh man, we're getting into the ones that hurt because I either don't speak to those people any more or my grasp of lore was shaky - a lot of this has been retconned

FFxivWrite 2018 - man, my writing's improved since these days

FFxivWrite 2017 - the first year I participated, and I knew next to nothing about how anything worked in FFXIV because I'd just started playing

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write 2024 Master Post

Another year, another master post! Throughout September, this post will be updated to reflect completed prompts. Fills posted to Tumblr will remain raw and unedited, but in October, I will edit and upload to Archive of Our Own, and further update this post with links to the AO3 versions.

Fills run the gamut of the timeline; all content through Dawntrail is fair game. Please note individual warnings where necessary on each fill.

--

AETHERSURGE

--

Previous Master Posts: 2017 || 2018 || 2019 || 2020 || 2021 || 2022 || 2023

--

Prompt 01 [Steer]: The Constants of Adventure

Prompt 02 [Horizon]: High Flying

Prompt 03 [Tempst]: Levinstrike

Prompt 04 [Reticent]: Lominsan Girls

Prompt 05 [Stamp]: Missives from Aboard

Prompt 06 [Halcyon]: Promise

Prompt 07 [Morsel]: In Pie We Crust

Prompt 08 [Free Write | Telegraphy]: Aethergraphy

Prompt 09 [Lend an Ear]: Matters of the Heart

Prompt 10 [Stable]: Carbuncle Quality

Prompt 11 [Surrogate]: Maternal Instinct

Prompt 12 [Quarry]: A Rescue!

Prompt 13 [Butte]: A Sky Full of Stars

Prompt 14 [Telling]: Skin-Deep

Prompt 15 [Free Write | Deodate]: Lux Solaris

Prompt 16 [Third-Rate]: Scorched and Chipped

Prompt 17 [Sally]: War Paint

Prompt 18 [Hackneyed]: Bard Off

Prompt 19 [Taken]: Levinstorm

Prompt 20 [Duel]: Reach and Flexibility

Prompt 21 [Shade]: Vistas

Prompt 22 [Free Write | Rencounter]: Kith and Kin

Prompt 23 [On Cloud Nine]: What the Future Holds

Prompt 24 [Bar]: [SELF-DETERMINATION PROTOCOLS]

Prompt 25 [Perpetuity]: Endless

Prompt 26 [Zip]: The Heron Hike and Hustle

Prompt 27 [Memory]: Fragments

Prompt 28 [Deleterious]: Summer Heat

Prompt 29 [Free Write | Thanatopsis]: Only the Good Die Young

Prompt 30 [Two Heads Are Better Than One]: More Uxorio

[snoozedraws]

hello!! making a pinned post here for new followers:

i’m snooze and this is my art blog! this is what i consider my "main hub" and where all of my work, regardless of genre or content, will be posted! i like making OCs and writing comics. :}

✽ @snoozelocke is my nuzlocke comic blog, and my primary account - i follow/like from here!

✽ @pawmpadour is my ffxiv blog, where i reblog my and others' ffxiv art and occasionally post about my final fantasy guys.

i tag my art in the following ways for browsing:

✽ by year (ex: [ 2023 ], [ 2022 ], [ 2021 ], etc) ✽ by type (ex: [ comic ], [ illustration ] / [ painting ], [ sketch ] / [ colored sketch ], [ commission ]) ✽ by content (ex: [ pokemon ], [ ffxiv ], [ d&d ], [ ocs ], etc)

thanks!! \o/

[i-mybrunettelady]

20 questions for 20 writers

i was tagged by @accidentallyadorable, ty for the tag friend <3

tagging: @archesa, @thevikingwoman, @scionshtola, @antariies, @anneapocalypse, @ghostwise and whoever sees this and wants to participate <3

q1. how many works do you have on ao3?

i don't post all my work on ao3, but on ao3 alone, 28!

q2. what fandoms do you write for?

guild wars 2, wayfarer, ffxiv, blood moon, infamous, the exile <3

q3. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

tales of the red wayfarer - a cassander character study

overflowing - intellis pining

somewhere after midnight - cassmel post-sex cuddling and pillow talk

ties that sever, ties that bind - an inteus family study, currently being finished

songweaver - more intellis pining (all wayfarer works lmao)

q4. do you respond to comments?

always! they're few and far between so i make sure i do <3

q5. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hard to say... i write angst, but i write hurt/comfort, so like. by that alone it's ties that sever because cass cries by the end of each one and is very much alone so like. ties that sever??? bonus points go for scenes of an arson site also.

extra bonus points go to on theokleia, my mother which is a part of the ties that sever series, but a piece that haunts me to this day.

q6. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hm.. ones that gives me budging hopes are a flickering light, or a tale of two survivors (ffxiv) and my future will listen to me! i'm really fond of the endings of these two even if they're not typically... happy. i have happier endings but these two seem a different kind of happy to me. a wistful, hopeful happy as opposed to a typical happy.

q7. do you get hate on fics?

so far no and i hope it stays that way. i only recently hot my first hate ask lmaoooo

q8. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

yes! i write for.. pairings, moreso than one type. so far i mostly have mlm smut, and that's because they're cassander pairings and he is a bisexual/achillean dude, but i do want to write wlw smut if the inspo strikes, and i do wanna write some het scenes i have in my head (namely a crossover that's nyra/estinien atm tbh. i also wanna write nyra/mirka for that wlw stuff.)

i also have a nyra solo i'm very proud of :>

q9. do you write crossovers?

i wrote a wayfarer/ffxiv crossover (a flickering light), and i wanna write a gw2/ffxiv crossover (nyra and estinien!) i also wrote a wayfarer/gw2 crossover with mordrem!cassander (a story of how (not) to be a big head)

other than that i rarely write crossovers tbh

q10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

girl no god forbid :xxxx

q11. have you ever co-written a fic before?

a long time ago, yes, with @guildwarsgirl! it was a braham shippy one, and i wrote for braham <3

q12. what's your all-time favorite ship?

honest to god? i got a few ships i cherish and keep near and dear to my heart: cassmel (cassander and melchior, wayfarer), trammander (nyra and trahearne, gw2), elion (el and liv, gw2) and angelina and farro from blood moon! i may not write about all of them equally but i do cherish them deeply

q13. what's one WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i do have certain series i wanna finish, such as my nikartoirel apology trilogy, called trials and tribulations - parts 1 and two are out - and ties that sever <3 when ffxiv brainrot comes back, i'll probably finish the nikartoirel apology series.

one other thing i wanna finish but it's not high on my to-do list is nikartoirel bridgerton au <3 gotta love regency husbands

q14. what are your writing strengths?

character voice! on god i love character voice so much and it shows.

q15. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i technically am since english is my second language! so yeah, full speed ahead

q16.first fandom you wrote for?

gw2 baybee <3 back in 2021. my first fic was actually trammander <3

q17. favorite fic you've written?

please don't ask me that ;; but between us... my future will listen to me, ties that sever, ties that bind, say hi to yourself, scenes of an arson site, a gravitational pull !

q18. what are your writing weaknesses?

fighting scenes hands down

q19. have you ever had a fic translated?

not yet but if anyone wants to.. i owe you my LIFE,, i could also tecnically do it but translating your own work is hard as fuck

[stalwart-spirit]

16. Do you have the same OC (broadly speaking) across multiple fandoms or settings?

I saw that the answer to this is 'yes,' but I figured this would be a good excuse for you to talk about what bits carried over and which parts you shed to put 'em into FFXIV better and such!

I start levitating ominously. You do not know what you have started (thank you though, I love talking about my characters!)

As you said, yes, all my characters have started off elsewhere before FFXIV, mostly just lil guys I make up in my head! I'll take this chance to go into a little more depth though, since I can source some development art for some of them!

Saeed is a good example, since he goes back to 2016! I don't have any art I'm willing to share for this initial version of him cause it's so old and so basic, but he was made for a duel roleplay and art group back on deviantART, back when you had to draw out and write full applications for roleplay groups and contribute both roleplays and art to get little rewards and be involved in the plot!

Fast forward to 2020, and I decided to revamp him and use him for another roleplay group (same vibe as above, but based on Discord but hosting art and writing via dA)

These were actually some of the concept sketches I made to get a feeling of him! And yes, that IS an Emet-Selch quote I used for some dialogue, I'd literally just finished SHB I think when I made him. As you can tell, he had COMPLETELY different vibes to what he has now. More of a bastard, not someone that people could get along with, a lot more selfish.

Then I started playing FFXIV, and through that I met my D&D group who asked for me to join their group and current campaign in 2021. When thinking of who to make, I thought "Huh, party doesn't have a rogue or someone who can deception their way through things... I know a character I could use who does that-"

Above is some concepting sketches and other stuff from when I was first making him. Some of his old personality remained, but in the end it ended up being developed as he was like that due to some trauma, and eventually grew out of it and ended up being party dad with some wonderfully warm and close bonds with the party!

2023, I still adore this finale painting I made for the whole party upon campaign ending <3

Just as the campaign was wrapping up was when I added Saeed to FFXIV as an alt but now he's become my main! Honestly still shocked at how pretty damn close I managed to get him considering FFXIV's chargen limitations!

It's kinda what I do though, I get attatched and still wanna write and roleplay a character actively with others. His plot honestly transferred over super well, keeping the plot as a rogue rising to a position he never intially expected, fighting against a corrupt empire (though in D&D it was his own empire home that was being corrupted internally).

I also happen to play him in other games, like I have him in GW2 (no plot, no pics to share cause that's just when I take the nostalgic urge to play Baby's First MMO again) and he's also my Drifter in Warframe!

I could go on endlessly about all my other characters, especially since Saeed isn't my oldest in terms of creation, but this is already quite long, and they follow a smiliar pattern!

Also shameless plug, I have more art of him both on my Twitter and my website :^)

[shivasdarknight]

handicapped {ffxiv, wolestinien}

❆fandom: final fantasy xiv, ffxiv ❆characters: named warrior of light (Surkukteni), Estinien Wyrmblood/Varlineau ❆relationship: wolestinien ❆dynamic: m/f ❆rating: t ❆key tags: xaela wol, bi+intersex+bigender wol, bi4bi relationship, multiwol story ❆content warnings: cursing, arguing (it's constructive) ❆words: 3,243 ❆series: part 3/7 of WolEstinien Week 2021

Set around 5.55, Surkukteni and Estinien have a routine on how to destress and how to decide how the night goes. Some bout of strength or a competition because they're still rivals to their core. But for some reason, Estinien keeps winning and he knows something is up. This is basically just an excuse to pick apart Surkukteni's vie for power and where that's taken her, especially about how isolated she feels the further she gets into MSQ.

{Read Here}

[noxtivagus]

my skill is making nonsense out of nothing fr 👍

[icehearts]

— MUTUAL CATCH UP ✨ tagged by: @aethergazing & @sealrock thank you both 🫶 tagging: @tsunael @viiioca @wind-up-nhaama @chadhunkler @ishgard @sasslett if you feel like it/haven't already done this! LAST SONG: City Ruins (Rays of Light) from the NieR Automata ost because I convinced yet another friend to play it for the very first time >:)

CURRENTLY WATCHING: Dungeon Meshi

THREE SHIPS: SuleMio, AkiAngel, Esca/Theralt 👉👈

FAVORITE COLOR: Leafy greens, peachy pinks

CURRENTLY CONSUMING: Jack Jeanne, Witch Hat Atelier, Devout: An Anthology of Angels and of course ffxiv

FIRST SHIP: Heero/Duo from Gundam Wing lmao don't look at me

PLACE OF BIRTH: USA

CURRENT LOCATION: TX

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: no

LAST MOVIE: Dune (2021)

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: Attempting to frankenstein some vanilla mashups for Esca. Writing a few self-indulgent wolcred drabbles that may never see the light of day. Chipping away at some RP campaign ideas and procrastinating on original projects ehehe oops

[mariyekos]

2024 Writing Count

Oh yeah! I've talked about it on Twitter, but I don't think I've mentioned it here: I'm keeping track of my fics/wordcount for 2024! I did it back in 2021, and then kept track of it for a few months in 2023, but this year I'm back at it again with more detail than ever.

Here's what it looks like. The further I get the more I add onto it as different things come to mind. I love color coding things, so I have a system: 0 word days get red, 1-99 word days get yellow, 100-499 word days get light green, 500-999 word days get medium green, and 1000+ word days get dark green. I also highlight the end of each month in blue to make it easy to see, and milestones (like hitting 50k in January!) are in blue!

More details, including a view of all days, beneath the cut!

Month-by-Month

January was my best month so far. That's when I started the longfic I'm currently plugging away at, which got me most of that word count. As in, it got me over 50k of that word count, because once I realized I was so close to 50k not just for the month but for a single fic, I powered through to the end. January was a month where my main focus was getting ideas down rather than shooting for top-of-the-line quality. You can't fix a fic that isn't written, so step 1 is to write! Right now I'm actually going through what I wrote and re-writing it, which is slow work but worth it.

February was okay. March was a bad month for me, and where I finally lost my "1 word a day" goal. You can tell how hard I was struggling in the middle there, which was from a combination of lack of sleep, lack of time (work and FFXIV prog were exhausting, plus I was trying hard to get through FFVII Rebirth before being spoiled (I failed)), and lack of motivation/inspiration. I got absolutely slammed by doubt and feelings of inadequacy, combined with some realizations about my longfic which means I had to do a MAJOR overhaul that I was absolutely dreading.

April was pretty good! I got slammed by motivation to finish a fic that I'd struggled with before and finally finished and published it. I'd been hesitating because I felt like I was getting that vibe out of another fic, but after struggling with that one I went back to the one I'd eventually publish and had a blast. It was very self-indulgent and I've realized that that's okay! I've rambled vaguely on this blog about it, but it was the fic where I knew I was diving deep into a fanon interpretation of a character that's not really seen in canon, and was worried about how it would be received.

In the end I decided whatever. I know it's fanon, but I love that fanon and clearly other people love that fanon too, so I decided I'd just post it. It has a lower kudos:hit ratio than my other fics but honestly? I don't care. I had so much fun writing it and I got two (2!!!!) whole comments on it so I'm over the moon. If my writing makes even one other person happy, that's fantastic. This fic I decided was ultimately for me in the end, and internalizing that it's okay to be self-indulgent has helped me a lot. When you're okay with self-indulgence, it frees you from a lot of worry and you just get to be happy writing the stuff you love.

Of course, I'm not completely over that. I still really want to get things right. I still do check over things to see how well they align in canon and to try to fix characterization and so on. I still want my fics to be good- it's just that I've changed my standards for what a good fic is to be more about quality than being an exact replica of canon. My current fic (the now 88k Time Travel Fic) is undergoing a massive overhaul right now as I not only improve micro-level things like grammar and phrasing, but also as I work to improve macro-level things like overall flow.

That's the sort of stuff that I think makes me a better writer. It might not always lead to very high word count, but I don't always need to have high word count. Sometimes a low wordcount day where I feel like I improved my craft is more than worth it.

Take these two days in April- ~250 words a day, lower than my monthly average of 1,050, that I'm perfectly fine with because I did more than 504 words worth of work that day, IMO. You can see on the second one that I finished Before the Nightmare, which is one of the DMC novels. That day I didn't get in many words because I spent my time researching instead, and that was worthwhile! On the day before it, I spent time revising the timeline and outlining things rather than adding to the main body of the fic itself, which again I think was more than worth the time! Having WCs is a good method of tracking things. I'm a numbers person. Seeing big numbers makes me happy. But there is more to writing than just working on the stuff readers are going to see! More that is important and improves your craft! Which is why I decided to include outline counts, for one. That and I'm the type of person who writes full sentences or even paragraphs into my outlines that I will take almost word-for-word into the fic itself so I might as well attribute it to the day I wrote it, rather than the day I copy-pasted it in, y'know?

How The Tracker Works

Some other stuff you might notice are the following:

My notes are a mix of me commenting on what I wrote in the fic and me commenting on whatever's going on in my life. For example, on January 17th I wrote "Went back 2 boys fighting convo" which is about what I wrote in the fic, whereas on January 25th I wrote "Super sleepy. Too late" and on March 2nd I wrote "FFVII Rebirth is amazing." which is instead about why I only wrote so much! Going back to my 2021 word count, I found my notes to be a really interesting snapshot into what was going on in my life at the time, so I don't mind making it a mix of both.

In the above, you can see that the Daily WC doesn't equal the Diff (End-Start WC), because in the comments section I mention that I wrote 3675 for another fic. (The 3675 is from the Fic in the Fic box there, while the 801 is from my Time Travel fic, which is the one with 80k words). But on days where I work on multiple fics I'm usually feeling active enough to be happy to do the very simple math of adding two things together, so I don't mind having to combine a few. If you check the picture above this one for March, you can see that the Daily WC = Diff. for every day that has a Start and End WC. The ones where there isn't a start or ending WC is because I just used the word count function in my document program since I wrote so little it was easy to figure things out.

There's also the Fic List section way back in my first picture, which just includes every fic or fic-adjacent (i.e. tumblr posts where I basically wrote a mini-fic that I will one day turn into a proper post) included in the main word count area. I also included the number of days I worked on each by occurrence. Given the way I track things it does mean that a few fics will be missing a few days because I can only mention one in the fic box (while having it function) so only one gets counted per day, even on days I work on two, but it's close enough that I think it's still a good way of keeping track! I copied the document Geryon partway through the year once I started some major restructuring so that one's split in two, but for the count I made the function count both Geryon and Copy of Geryon so it's just up in Geryon. The reason it's split is that I decided to automate that section rather than doing things manually, which means it include the - day and splits Geryon in two which I wouldn't do if I was doing it manually.

2021 Word count Document

As you can see, things were a lot simpler back in 2021. Both in terms of visuals and things I was keeping track of. One of the biggest changes from 2021->2024 was the addition of the Start and End word counts for each day. When I was doing 2023 I realized how much I hated doing the math in a separate tab, deleting it, fixing the formatting, and then putting the number into the daily total.

Then while talking to a friend (@/dithorba) about word counts, she showed me her document which had a start/end count on it and I felt like my eyes were open. So often I would get to the end of the day and realize I had math to do but would put it off, then do it again, then again, and then trying to figure out my word counts would result in a ton of going through document history, restoring documents, checking word count, restoring it to a different version, checking word count, etc. It became a chore that messed with my totals. (Which is funny because I actually love math! That specific math just was a sticking point for some reason). Then Monse/dithorba showed me the way and I decided I'd add that into my document, even if it "clutters" it up a bit by adding extra rows. I still kept Daily Wordcount separate from the total though, since sometimes I'll work on multiple fics so the start to end count on one fic doesn't represent all the writing I do in one day.

2024 Daily Totals So Far

I got so close to all greens for April and I'm really bummed about missing it because I just plain forgot to write more on my one yellow day. Yeah I was struggling a bit, but I could've written more and forgot to make sure I'd hit 100 before going to bed. Oh well. It was a really good month otherwise. I'll probably revise the color scheme in the bottom row later on so it's more evident which word counts had the most days per month, but for now it works as-is.

Last but not least, here's a link to the twitter thread where I go on about this year's writing. It technically starts in December of 2023 because I turned my thread about my longfic into my thread for all my fic writing in 2024, so whoops to that, but good enough.

This post could be longer but it's long enough as it is, so I'll leave it like this for now. Maybe I'll come back and edit it with more information later. I'll probably RB with additions a few times in the year too!

[autumnslance]

LynMars FFXIV Write 2023 Master Post

This year's challenge completed! Congrats to everyone who wrote anything at all this month, even if just one prompt! Thanks again to @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for 7 years of this!

Previous Years Master Posts: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

Anything wolcred ship-related is marked by an asterisk* as usual. Commentary and stats for anyone interested below the Read More.

01. Envoy: ARR; Aeryn makes her Grand Company choice. 02. Bark: Dark has the wrong pie thief suspect. 03. Free Day! 04. Off the Hook: EW; Lucia & Maxima explore their new HQ. 05. Barbarous: HW; Aeryn's frustrated by the land of her birth. 06. Ring: EW; keepsakes & memories of Aeryn's mother. 07. Noisome: Dark & Iyna contend with ubiquitous seasonal flavors. 08. Shed: EW; Aeryn answers Zenos at the edge of everything. 09. Fair: EW; Azem's brother tries to ensure the future has his aid. 10. Free Day! 11. Once Bitten Twice Shy: ShB Bozja; unwarranted concerns. 12. Dowdy: Backstory; Aeryn's always had Opinions about fashion. 13. Check: Iyna discovers C'oretta's personal business. 14. Clear*: ShB; semi-poetic sweetness of coming together. 15. Portentous: Backstory. Zaine speaks to Tanzel about a decision. 16. Jerk: EW; Aeryn meets an old friend as the Final Days loom. 17. Free Day! 18. Fish Out of Water: Shb: G'raha gets used to his new life. 19. Weal: EW; Vrtra sees to his people and their home. 20. Hamper: In a possible future, Iyna answers academic questions. 21. Grave: Legacy; Zaine Striker returns to his childhood home. 22. Fulsome: C'oretta sorts through her parents' old promos. 23. Suit: ARR; what the Scions wore that most fateful night. 24: Free Day! 25. Call it a Day: Pre-ARR; Iron Summer contemplating his daughter. 26. Last: EW; a final conversation between ancients. 27. Sole*: Post-ShB; Thancred vs the perils of Aeryn's flip-tastic jobs. 28. Blunt: Post-ShB; working with Gaius, like it or not. 29. Contravention: EW; "In from the Cold" violates laws of nature. 30. Amity: EW; Varshahn & Aeryn discuss Thavnair & Garlemald.

Only 2 short shippy prompts all month! All 4 modern girls got a couple spotlights, various family cameos and backstories, a future prompt as is tradition, Zaine had a few posts, a few NPC-only scenes, a LOT of Endwalker, and even Ancient Icarus got a story, tying into 2021's "Destruct" prompt and how/why the siblings' souls have been connected through time and reincarnations.

A few of these are alternate takes on scenes I've touched on before, but it's interesting what a new prompt at a different time can get one to say, how we change as writers in what we focus on and how we say it.

This comes in roughly 300 words shorter than last year, at 18,493. The week of the 18-22 I had off work for my birthday, and that had the most 1k+ prompts, with a word count nearly double the other 3 full weeks. While the longer prompts are good, I'm really happy with how so many of the short ones turned out!

I was again trying to be realistic about my time, energy, not pushing free write days...and also working on an original writing project on the side, so I actually did do more writing over the month, just not FFXIV related!

(Also why some of my responses were in just under the wire...)

But this was a good break and exercise from that other writing, and let me try a few new things.

And comparing to earlier years--especially 2017 and 2018 when I was getting back onto the writing horse and feeling out my OCs--I feel like my growth as a writer, especially to be more succinct yet still evocative when needed, is evident. I've gotten a lot of practice in over time, and this challenge is one of the things that helped me get to where I can write an original story on top of my fanfic!

Breakdowns for funsies: Longest: 21 Grave; 1,652 words Shortest: 14 Clear; 106 words

Between 100-500 words: 1 Envoy; 2 Bark; 4 Off the Hook; 5 Barbarous; 7 Noisome; 8 Shed; 14 Clear; 15 Portentous; 26 Last; 27 Sole. Between 500-1000 words: 6 Ring; 11 Once Bitten, Twice Shy; 13 Check; 16 Jerk; 18 Fish Out of Water; 22 Fulsome; 23 Suit; 25 Call it a Day; 28 Blunt; 29 Contravention; 30 Amity. 1000+ words: 9 Fair; 12 Dowdy; 19 Weal; 20 Hamper; 21 Grave.

I didn't look at the totals until the end; I only checked some of the shorter ones during the challenge to see if they hit my personal "500+ words" cut off for adding a Read More to the posts.

"Grave" honestly could have been a lot shorter; I started the plot too early, and much as I like Zaine making one last visit to his childhood Nana, for the purposes of the challenge, I could have just focused on going to the lichyard to save myself time and energy, and wrote about the visit on my own another time. On the other hand, it's done now!

Not sure which is a favorite; there's a lot I like.

As usual, these will be revised at...some point (some more than others, probably) and added to Ao3, in my various series and threads.