#I've officially reached over 20k words on this story

[kinun]

I'm crying at my own bad jokes that I put into my own tmnt version that I'm writing.

Why am I like this?!

[thedawningofthehour]

"Rip in peace it's like 500k word"

I have reached the point in my life where I seriously ask myself, is that too much?

Like, for so long I've read so many books and fanfics that that amount of words means nothing to me.

Just to give you an example, a while ago I read 'Heaven official's blessing' a novel that is over 3500 pages long in less than a week not counting the breaks.

+100k fanfics? Two days at least.

The most recent novel I read 'Iron widow' is 400 pages long and I read it in one day.

A chapter of your TFTS, 15 minutes max.

Dios, que recuerdo leer TDOTH un dia y al siguiente ya habia alcanzado TFTS

I don't know what's Dishonored

The longest fanfic I've read was Checkmate for Danny Phantom, which was nearly two million words long. It has a sequel which is now finished, but it's been like a decade and I am just not rereading the whole thing in order to enjoy the sequel lol. Part of the reason for the word bloat was that the author put in long flashbacks to previous scenes in the fanfic, so a lot of scenes were essentially double-counted, and they included absolutely everyone's POV. It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was a lot of telling instead of showing.

Dishonored is a stealth game that takes place in a steampunk-esque world that's obsessed with whales. You're the bodyguard to an empress that you're also banging, and in Dishonored 2 you play as their daughter, who the unmarried empress just had without explanation and everyone just pretended like she knocked herself up because they were not going to say anything to her face. I don't think it really crosses with the usual TMNT fandom interests-like, pretty much everyone in the Rise fandom watched SU, and everyone in the Dishonored fandom played Fallout, but the Rise fandom doesn't seem to play that type of game. Which is cool, but that's why I don't really talk about The Red Queen much.

I think the word count bloat with The Red Queen was partially due to the nature of the Dishonored games, where the player is not an active party to most interactions and most storytelling is done by witnessing conversations and events happening in front of them, and I was writing as Daud, the angry knife dad with dozens of adopted children, who is very introspective and emo. Doth is much more dialogue heavy and the POV characters talk more, which I think helps moves things along.

Also I can more easily cut away from tedious shit, like 'getting from Point A to Point B,' where getting into and out of places is a major Thing in Dishonored and you'd be cutting out a lot of story if you didn't include it. And as an added bonus people actually read doth. The Red Queen was very unpopular and was written for a very small, actively dying fandom. I'd get like two comments for a 20k chapter. Doth has been much more rewarding.

[lonsdalewrite]

2023 Writing Review + December Writing Summary

This was a very productive year! I actually entered A Summer with the Immortal in a pitch event (though nothing ended up coming of it), finished the first drafts of The Claws of the Ounce and The Gift of Gloves, and started two new projects. June and July were the two most productive months I've ever had!

This month, I had kind of bad writer's block so I didn't reach any of my goals. At least I got something done.

A summary of my current WIPs (for both December and the year as a whole) under the cut:

THE CLAWS OF THE OUNCE 🫀

FIRST DRAFT

Words written this year: 63,706

Total word count: 114,730

Date completed: July 31

SECOND DRAFT

Current word count: 25,400

Words written / added this month: 4,000

Current chapter: 7 out of 28

Snippet:

Three seconds of clicking scissors, and Ash’s whiskers lay in the sink. A delicate arrangement of silver threads over white porcelain, one crisscrossing over the other two. They looked like… Like nothing at all.

Notes:

A third of the words for the first draft were written during Camp NaNo.

I really like the way the second draft (kind of a rewrite lol) is going, even if it's slower than I expected.

Goal for January: Get to 30K. (Setting them really low this time.)

Goal for 2024: Start querying it.

THE GIFT OF GLOVES 🧤

FIRST DRAFT

Words written this year: 25,025

Total word count: 38,725

Date completed: August 20

SECOND DRAFT

Current word count: 4,275

Words written / added this month: 1,038

Current chapter: 2 out of 9

Snippet:

And then, like a lightning bolt crackling into the earth, a revelation came to her. The restlessness in her heart awakened and roared out in joy. She’d found something. By all the spirits of the world, she’d found something.

Notes:

This story just doesn't want to be written quickly. Progress was really slow this year again (apart from June, when I got a sudden burst of inspiration and wrote 7K for it).

Goal for January: Get to 10K.

Goal for 2024: I don't even know...

FOREST IN A SHADOW BOX 🦋

Date started: June 1 ("officially" - I wrote the prologue back in March)

Word count: 33,585

Words written this month: 2,045

Current chapter: Just finished 10 out of 25!

Snippet:

The moss-covered statue at the city’s border was a familiar face. (Well, a familiar torso and pair of legs, at least. Most of its upper half was too overgrown and eroded to really be knowable.)

Notes:

This is the sequel to A Summer with the Immortal, and tbh the reason why trying to get ASwtI trad-pubbed makes me nervous. I guess if ASwtI doesn't sell well enough for a sequel, I can always share FiaSB some other way...

Goal for January: Get to 40K.

Goal for 2024: Finish the first and second drafts.

THE MYSTERIES OF THE APRICOT SUN 🌇

Date started: October 3

Word count: 11,560

Words written this month: 2,755

Current chapter: Just finished 4 out of 32!

Snippet:

Darby spun on her heel and dashed between the two nearest palms. She accidentally bumped against one of them, and had to dodge the bird-catching tendril that flickered out of its crown with a dry shkt. Luckily, she managed to do so without losing any speed. Sorry, tree, for triggering your reflex. No food for you right now.

(I drew a different moment from this scene! Please look at it, I'm really proud of it.)

Notes:

Writing this story feels great, because I've had the seeds of it taking up space in my brain for a good while now.

Goal for January: Get to 20K.

Goal for 2024: Finish the first draft.

Tag list: @kirsten-is-writing @emwhyarentyouwriting @time-to-write-and-suffer @unstablewifiaccess @ashen-crest

[chaseadrian]

okay so i have a question bestie! so, I've asked mello this, but i also wanted your opinion. I am planning to go way out of my comfort zone and write a pretty long fic (60-70k) words which i will write over a month and post eventually. i wanted to ask if you have any tips for how to write longer fics. i have already created quite a long outline, but i haven't started the official fic yet. like do you have a certain way you do it? is there anything specific i need to know before starting it? anything is helpful, you are one of the best fic writers i know so I'm asking the best, thank you so much <3

omg well first let me say what an undertaking!!!!

i actually have personally never finished a long series. i always get to around 20k and then fall off, live wire is the first series i’ve stuck to and even with this i’m writing it super slow. i think my best advice is to reread it as often as you can. you’ll catch inconsistencies and find ways to string together plot the more you familiarize yourself with the story.

don’t rush yourself, and don’t get complacent with first drafts. i have such a hard time doing more than a first draft for my fic, one shots often are posted after i’ve reread it twice (once right after i finish writing and once right before i’m about to post) but i spend so long while writing making sure there are no typos, grammatical oddities, or plot problems bc i hate doing multiple drafts.

the outline is fr your best friend, write every thought you have down there so it’s on paper even if it doesn’t make it into the fic. but i’m so proud of u for reaching out of your comfort zone!!! good luck n if u need anything i got u!!