#camp nano july 2022

[myheartalivewrites]

2023 Writing Round-up

Thanks for tagging me @kiwiana-writes @cha-melodius 🩷 I've saved doing this for a little while just because I wasn't sure I was quite done for the year.

JANUARY

Happy NY (E, ~11k) started in 2022, finished in 2023. Henry and Alex meet for the first time at a NYE party, have a super intense hook-up--and then Alex disappears. An NYE story in two parts.

Down by the Water, I Saw You (E, ~63k) another fic that started in 2022, finished in 2023! Exes to lovers, meeting on holidays/vacations, angsty-emotional-horny.

Tumbled Down and Tangled Up (E, ~4k) canon divergent, hooking up for the first time in THAT hospital cupboard.

FEBRUARY

Started writing Deep Blue, wrote Don't Wanna Be A Fool, no idea why I didn't publish it straight away. I've got a feeling I was a lot shyer back then.

MARCH

Don't Wanna Be A Fool For You (E, ~6k) roommates to lovers, mutual pining, Henry-based angst.

APRIL-JUNE

Gave myself a nice little patch of writer's block. Read a lot. ✌️

JULY

Love and War (E, ~11k) WWII training camp 1st meeting, no angst. Had a lot of fun writing this in one day.

Finished writing Deep Blue and started posting it.

AUGUST

In His Wildest Dreams (E, ~11k) went on a big family holiday, wrote this incredibly horny post canon somno fic. The way the brain works is truly baffling.

Awakened (E, ~2k) a little Alex POV follow-up to the fic above, again: super smutty. Uh, also written on (a different) holiday for some reason.

SEPTEMBER

Oxford Days (E, ~6k) my ode to slutty Henry, a roommates in Oxford fic.

Deep Blue (E, ~76k) started in July, finished in September, don't know which month to put this in. Seaside dreaminess, angsty writer!Henry, lawyer/waiter!Alex, pining while fucking.

Just like that. (E, ~10k) roommates + getting together + prostate orgasms + lots of feelings. Most surprising performer of the year for me.

OCTOBER

Twice the speed (of you and me) (E, ~17k) Alex/Henry/Pez threesome, some of my favourite smut I've ever written

NOVEMBER

NaNoWriMo! I managed to reach 50k on my NaNo project, but that means very little fic writing was done.

"Please, I need you to." (E, 0.1k lol) rimming drabble-ish for Smutsgiving 2023

DECEMBER

Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured (M, ~3k) bickering co-workers getting trapped in a cab together (and figuring shit out)

***

2023 has been SUCH A YEAR for writing RWRB fic, it feels really good to see it all lined up like this. Open tag for everyone who wants to do a little self round-up!

Here’s to more next year! x

[radiowrites]

2023 Writer Year-In-Review

Hi, I’m RaisedonRadio & FortressofmyPast on AO3 and FF.net. This is an on-going tradition since 2015. Check out my past year-end posts: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Tagging a few, but if you come across this, consider it an open tag! You’re welcome to tag me back, I’d love to read it!

@writercorianarose @shesailsships @talesofsorrowandofruin @azdesertwillow @goneahead @littlemissfandomworld @dreams-of-kalopsia @halleyuhm

Big change for me compared to last year—in addition to NaNoWriMo, I actually posted fanfics! I tried to add some new questions to this year’s edition, I hope they might even move out of my tiny circle.

Total Word Counts: 51,920 for 2023 NaNoWriMo 15,570 on 2022 NaNoWriMo project 19,193 for July 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo (mostly fanfics) 28,310 in published fanfics (this number is overlapping with camp nano, I wasn’t paying attention, so I’m not going to add everything together)

Total Number Of Completed Works: 10 Total Number of WIPS worked on this year: 10 or so How Many WIPs do you still have: 23

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? I wrote way more than expected! I seriously didn’t think I would do NaNoWriMo again. And I published ten fics! That’s ten more than last year!

Did you take any writing risks this year? The NaNoWriMo project was definitely a risk for me. I basically had an idea and no outline. It was quite a challenge to my perfectionism issues—I had to basically never reread anything and just keep going, fully aware that I can better foreshadow the ideas that came up halfway through in the next rewrite.

Biggest Surprise: I wrote for NaNoWriMo again, which I was pretty sure wouldn't happen lol, and hit the word count, all through discovery writing, and having very little idea where I was going with it.

Biggest Disappointment: I dropped that above mentioned project the moment November ended! I can tell it has potential, hidden in there. I will definitely return to it.

Do you have any writing goals for the new year? I’d love to at least finish the first draft of the 2023 NaNoWriMo project, bringing it to a tentative end so I can actually reread it and go from there. And keep writing fanfic, and maybe even work on the 2022 nanowrimo project…

Fanfiction Questions Below! (if you don’t write fanfiction feel free to skip or rework the questions for your original works.)

Fandoms I’ve written in this year: I wrote fics for 7 different fandoms! For the following kdramas: Island, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Memorist, Royal Secret Agent, W: Two Worlds, May I Help You?, and a little Korean Web drama called Handmade Love.

Your most popular story of the year? That would be Besides You with 327 hits and 47 kudos. However Superhero got the most comment interaction with 4!

The story that was easiest/or most fun to write: I Think He Knows was fun to write! I do just love brooding with a heart of gold formerly immortal male leads.

Hardest story to write: Rescue Me, Superhero, Restore, and Prayers & Promises were four works that I had left for dead, and came back and found them to be basically finished and just needed proofreading. (So just in case anyone wondered how I turned out three of those in like two days: they were actually done and I was hellbent on getting them out of my WIPs list)

Your sweetest story: That would definitely be Superhero. I altered my normal narrative style to better fit the child’s character, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Your saddest scene: I feel like I hit a lot of angst this year, but nothing really sad?

The sexiest moment you’ve written this year? *coughs* I wrote five pieces of smut. (Half of my fanfics were smut this year?!) Umm, I’m torn between Beside You and Don’t Blame Me? But also Never Be the Same and Take On Me???

Your favorite tag: (whether you use it the most or just something witty/perfect for the story) My brother announced to me that he reads all my tags (he was trying to embarrass me about one of my smut pieces) so I did a shout out to him in the next fic. He saw it within the day, I was actually impressed.

Most unintentionally telling story: (have you accidentally or purposefully exposed a detail about yourself?) Religious guilt seems to be a reoccurring tag this year. In all seriousness, not quite sure why, but yet it kinda makes sense? (its complicated lmao) And for some reason not one, but two fics ended with marriage proposals?! (I’m so single.)

Are any of your fics named after/heavily inspired by music? I’m RaisedonRadio and it would be concerning if—checks list—less than 8 of the 10 fics weren’t named after songs, haha! (I’m actually just really bad at naming fics…)

Good To You and Besides You are both songs by the band Marianas Trench, and are heavily inspired by the songs. Rescue Me is by OneRepublic, one of those more vibes than lyrics inspired. I Think He Knows by Taylor Swift was definitely on repeat for that fic, as well as Don't Blame Me. (Poems), Prayers, and Promises was more a steal the name of the song by John Denver, for some reason I think Cold by Corbyn was on repeat when writing that one. Take On Me was named more for the similarities between the MV and the series! Never Be The Same was for the vibes of the song by Camila Cabello but not really the lyrics.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Maybe it’s cheating but I’m not sure if I can really choose? I know it’s not a common writer sentiment but I really do like them all for different reasons.

Like I churned out Good To You and Besides You within ten days of each other in July, after not writing any fanfic basically for a year and a half.

And then I pulled Rescue Me out of the dead drafts pile and made myself work on more description.

I Think He Knows was my first foray into a brand new fandom.

Don’t Blame Me is one of my rare canon divergence fics.

Restore was another dead draft that I found to be mostly complete, and decide to release into the world even if I knew there was so much more I could have done with it.

Prayers and Promises was not only another new fandom, but for some reason, I decided to write for a side character. It’s still sitting on just 1 hit and that makes it all the better that I really wrote it for myself.

Superhero was out of my comfort zone of writing for a kid’s perspective and I was so happy with how it turned out.

Take On Me was a draft sitting at less than 1k words and I challenged myself to finish it before the new year, and got it done in two days.

And then, to finish it all off with the intense desire to have ten fics under the belt for 2023, I wrote Never Be The Same in less than two days for the last drama I had watched, and the speed that the last two fics were actually finished was a huge change for me.

Fanfiction risks you took this year? I wrote fanfic for not one, but two fandoms that I had to create the first tags for on AO3! Also, as I started to slip into just writing for kdramas this year, I’ve basically become my own proofreader and editor at this point. Any mistakes are my own, lol.

My favorite part of fandom this year: That would be getting two kudos and a comment on I Think He Knows, one of the fics that is the first in its fandom tag. To actually connect with more fans of such a tiny project was so cool!

Thanks for reading and here’s to next year!

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

Hi, I've been meaning to do this for several months, executive dysfunction got the better of me, and it's 1 in the morning (or, it was, but then I fell asleep while writing this, but 95% of it was written at 1 in the morning), but, hi, hello, your friendly neighborhood [insert adequate descriptor here, I'm too tired to come up with anything right now]!

I have not posted anything original on this blog for. uh. months. my best guess running at actual long form not fulfilling a tag game thing is november. of 2022 (I can't check I'm on mobile). which is much time ago! (the last tag game fulfilling writing posting was in like may) hi, I'm not dead and I haven't stopped writing forever, I just had one fucking hell of a year for mental health and school and moving up schools

but! it's summer now, I'm some twenty ish days into break, and I suddenly have spoons again. wow. I forgot what that feels like. I've done So Many Things recently it's insane, anyway--

I have been writing things! I'm doing an impromptu (as in started it on July 13th) camp nano challenge of typing up 3000 words of the massive amount of Enna's prequel I handwrote in a notebook at varying distressingly late hours of the night. I am actually decently close to done with that, I got a shitload done the other day, that's to say:

this lovely little blog of mine has been unintentionally mostly dormant for a while now, but it has been woken up and there will be things here again! tomorrow, even! (or today. timezones.)

lots of things have changed, in the stories, I have finally figured out a MASSIVE AND HELLISH plot hole in Enna's prequel story, and it's all figured out now, and I'm so fucking happy it's awesome can my brain feel like this all the time please the serotonin is excellent, but fixing that plot hole means that I need to redo so much lore and and backstories now it's ridiculous

to everyone who's sent me asks and tagged me in games and etc in the last few months/year. I'm sorry. I'll do most (hopefully almost all) of them. (Sleepy especially, I'm sorry, I'm not really sure if that means anything to you I probably sound like a broken record but I do mean it genuinely, I'm sorry, I will answer all of the ones you've sent me)

[sovvannight]

My Year in Writing, 2023

And this is another situation where I wish I could pull up last year's post to use as a pattern, but I can't because my writing blog got deleted, so I'm feeling a little lost.

But I can at least see the graphs I made last year in my writing progress tracking spreadsheet, so that give me a bit of a hint as to what I would normally post here.

I wrote 183,465 words on 2023. It's my third year in a row of increases (thank you, Julie and the Phantoms!) and my first year over 150k, which was my goal for the year. I'm at 856,124 words since 2017.

I'm also super excited about winning NaNo for the first time since 2017. November was my most productive month, followed by February, when I spent most of the month working on Baby, This Rain Changes Everything, which I guess I was just excited about because I had a lot of 1k+ days.

Part of the 44k increase from 2022-2023 was due to NaNo, but I also increased my average daily word count for non-NaNo months from 291.8 to 387.5. And I do write every day--December 31 was day 2,395 of my write-ever-day streak.

What I Wrote

Other than 2% of my words for the year for Garfield, a Teen Wolf Movie fix-it fic, everything else was for Julie and the Phantoms: 81% on various scenes for Electric Boogaloo, 12% for Baby, This Rain Changes Everything, and 5% on two different AU fics that I may convert to original fiction instead.

Plans for 2024

So, the saying goes something like, "Write a million words, throw them away, now you're ready to be a writer." I didn't realize it until I was writing this up, but I'm going to hit a million words next year.

And I have to admit, in the last few months, I've started to think about writing and publishing original fiction. And that's partly because the JatP fandom is dying--I'd think the drop in kudos was because I suck, but I've seen declining kudos for new fic by big name fans, too, so it's not just me. No judgement on the fandom, it's just the nature of things. I've left a couple of fandoms myself because of a new hyperfixation. But at the same time, I had this AU idea in the spring, and thought to myself, are you really going to write a whole novel-length fic for 20 kudos?

I think I'd rather earn a couple hundred bucks instead, which seems like about what I would net if I self-pub. And I'm poor, so any little bit helps. Plus, I don't know, I just feel ready. It's partly because I read some pretty bad books this year, and it's like, OK, this got published, and in one case it got optioned and made into a TV show, and I feel like I can do better.

So, my plan for 2024 is:

Write the last ~9 scenes for Electric Boogaloo.

Write season 3, AKA the Electric Boogaloo sequel. Boogaloo is probably going to reach somewhere around 300k total, but I'm aiming for something more like 150k-200k for the sequel.

Finish the two Arrow fics I still can't give up on, even though I haven't worked on them in years. One just needs another 2k, and the other maybe 15k.

Transition to original fiction, taking the idea I had for a JatP boy band AU and "filing off the serial numbers" as I go. (Or something else--who knows what I'll be most interested next fall!)

In terms of word count goals:

I want to hit 50,000 for NaNo in November. For April and July Camp NaNos, I want to write 1,000 a day, so 30k and 31k.

I want to take it somewhat easy in the three months after NaNo events, so May, August, and December - 600/day, or 18,600 words/month.

For the other six months out of the year, I'm going to try doing "NaNoWriWeek" or 1,667 words/day for the first week of the month and then 600/day for the rest of the month, which will get me around 25k per month.

All of this totals up to about 300,000 words.

[void-botanist]

My Year of Writing

After reading @theskeletonprior's review, I thought I would write one of my own. Original prompt by @maguayans (whose blog theme on desktop is excellent for writeblr and might be something I borrow).

Part 1: Spotify Wrapped version

This year was all about The Fourth Android and bringing it from a half-baked rewrite of an older story to something edible. To that end, I wrote 158,587 words:

30,000 for Camp NaNo in April

30,209 for Camp NaNo in July

50,363 for NaNo 2022, plus

18,013 for a May goal and

30,002 for a June goal.

I archived a lot of those words as I iterated, though, and my current draft is sitting at 43,278 words right now.

Obviously Dez was on my mind the whole time but I also invented a ton of new characters as I fleshed out species concepts and the cultural geography of the world. I also frequently got distracted with other stories in this world and started writing extra scenes about characters who had captured my attention, several of whom are on Dez's future space crew.

My Spotify Wrapped was boring. It pretty much just said "hey you got real into pop this year. We probably classed all the 80s rock and 00s indie you listened to as 'nostalgia', which is silly. Also you still listen to a ton of Approaching Nirvana, like you're in the top 0.5% of listeners". If you want my recommendations, go listen to Wreck of the Day (the song or the album or both) by Anna Nalick, and literally anything by Approaching Nirvana (but I have probably listened to the albums Cinematic Soundscapes Vol. 1 and Illusions the most). Also go (re)appreciate that 38 Special and Fitz and the Tantrums are bands that exist.

Part 2: A More Detailed Review

General

This year I continued working toward improvement, in both my writing and art.

With writing, that looked like getting more invested in planning and analyzing my own work. I finally accepted that the typical plot charts I find don't make sense to me when I try to use them, and not because I'm trying to make my stories Special (TM). Something just doesn't connect for me, and that's okay. That's not the only way to get plot structure. Instead I spent a while figuring out how to use Scrivener to outline in a way that works for me. I also tried to apply my own media analyses and those of YouTubers like Princess Weekes, La'Ron Readus, Jessie Gender, NerdSync, and James Somerton to my own work, to consider what works and what might not.

With art, that looked like learning more tools and tricks in Clip Studio Paint and Procreate, changing my settings to help me not mess up my arm constantly (adjusting my pressure curve!), and drawing at a higher resolution. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference that has made in the way my work looks and how it feels to edit it. I tend to draw small, so I'd never thought about it much, but wow everything is so smooth now. I've also been working on accepting that the imperfections in my work don't make it bad, and that being a slow and indecisive artist is also fine. angrymikko, Nadiaxel, and Chroma Moma on YouTube have been super helpful to me as I try new styles and ways of working and just having fun with my art. ronillust also makes delightful art memes and some tutorials.

P.S. if you're on desktop and you despise the format of YouTube's Shorts page, you can play Shorts as regular videos by changing the "shorts" portion of the URL to "watch". You can also set up Redirector to do this automatically (I wrote a tutorial for this on my main blog).

Writeblr

I was so much more active on writeblr this year, especially during the last few months. I followed a ton of other writers (I won't list them all here but I've been trying to reblog from them to make sure people are also aware of them) and started posting some excerpts of my own work and participating in ask/tag games. I'm having a very good time so far. Please feel free to tag me liberally in future games and prompts!

WIPs

I started working on The Fourth Android after I lost NaNoWriMo 2021, where I was working on Triad and I ran out of steam after about 28k words. On the last day of NaNo I just sprinted some stuff about Zel and Anni and a fledgling form of TFA in which Zel is a journalist and Anni teams up with her to locate Dez, who has absconded over some misunderstanding. Then I thought, what if I just worked on this? So I did. Triad is still going to happen, but it needs a lot of restructuring to work properly.

As always, my writing went from high angst to low angst as I developed that first TFA concept further, which I think speaks to how I just like stories about people being friends. Which is, you know, a pretty broad qualifier, but I find that even in stories with high stakes and high drama the thing I find most delightful is friendship dynamics (can you tell I'm thinking about Hunter x Hunter as I write this? I got kinda into that too). A lot of my thinking about character arcs has been related to "how is this friendship interesting?" and the cultural worldbuilding I've been doing is going to help me explore some of those dynamics. (This also applies to romantic couples, not least because friends to lovers is the only thing that seems to work for me in my writing.)

Books and Other Things I Consumed

I read a fair bit this year, especially compared to the last couple years (I'm actually pretty proud of this because I read maybe 2 books in all of 2019 and 2020 and only got back into reading last year). Like Harrowben, I've starred my favorites.

*The Expanse series 4-7 by James S. A. Corey (4, Cibola Burn, was a particular favorite just because I love stories set on alien planets. Overall I think The Expanse could use more theys and gays, but I'm pretty happy with it)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (I enjoyed how clever this one was, and also it has robots. For some strange reason I have become incredibly interested in robot stories)

Artemis by Andy Weir (honestly I think about this one a lot. I think it had some of Weir's character writing flaws as seen in The Martian but the worldbuilding was pretty compelling and I'm a sucker for epistolary bits)

*Fearless by Shira Glassman (a wonderful quick read about snowstorms and lesbian moms. I also bought several of Shira's other books but haven't read them yet)

*Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (I rarely buy books in physical form anymore but I did buy this one after I read it. Superb. Waiting for the sequel)

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (I enjoyed this one a lot. I can definitely understand the criticisms, and the formatting was kinda weird. But on some level I felt like I was reading something that was in my own genre)

Currently reading

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian (the sequel to The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. It's just a super fun read)

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano (the sequel to Finlay Donovan is Killing It. Honestly disappointed in this one, especially compared to the first book. There are some excellent moments but there are also a lot of things that don't really seem to make sense, and I'm very frustrated with the romance part of it)

Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse book 8) by James S. A. Corey

Books I started and plan to finish (I often put down books because they're not what I want right at that moment)

Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan

The Doctor's Discretion by E. E. Ottoman

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Murmuration by T. J. Klune

I won't list out all the shows I watched but I do think that Hunter x Hunter, Exception (the Netflix anime), Mob Psycho 100, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners have all influenced the way I think about my writing and to some extent my art (seriously the color and visual storytelling choices of Edgerunners are so interesting and cool). In video games, the environment design of Hades, Risk of Rain 2's Survivors of the Void expansion, and Slime Rancher 2 really fascinated me, and I spent a ton of time using Sims 4 to build places that exist in TFA to better visualize them. (I really want a game that is just Sims 4 build mode, but with more detailed building capabilities and endless building space. I just installed Sweet Home 3D, which might do it for me.)

Here's to another year of writeblring and creating. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the stuff I mentioned above (especially Exception if you've seen it), and/or your recommendations for anything but especially cool stories about robots/androids/gays/theys.

[dreamstormdragon]

Camp Nanowrimo 2023!

I’ve declared this awhile back, but I forgot to do so on tumblr so uh... we’re fixing that right now. It’s fine don’t worry about it.

So, little confession...

I’ve been working on HyperForce: ReIgnition since November of last year so I’m going into this April with 50k already under my belt from this project. There’s a LOT, I haven’t posted yet, but that’s the rough draft that will still be edited and posted as usual.

I’m using Camp Nanowrimo as a motivator to work extra hard and run towards at least the middle point, if not further in, because I really wanna see this project and everything I’ve imagined so far through.

So, I’ll be posting updates here mainly, while ReIgnition will continue it’s posting schedule. (Can find the rest of where it’s being posted over at @hyperforcereignition   ) 

What is Camp Nanowrimo y’all might be asking?

​

It’s basically National Novel Writing Month but the April and July versions, where you usually have more time in the year, versus November, where you have to manage thanksgiving and all that stuff.

Also, the word count is more... forgiving?

Like, 50k is the GOAL but not the permanent one and you can set your own goal. For me, I’m aiming for another 50k cause I’m hoping at least, I can get to the middle point of this story, if not finish the first draft so all I have to do is edit and post.

I’ve done Camp Nanowrimo a few times, but I took a break in 2022 for mental health, but I’m back and with a vengeance. I’m doing this as pure self indulgence for myself. I’ll be posting word count updates and a copious amount of memes.

Honestly Nano’s evolved a lot over the years. I don’t even remember there being a fanfiction section but now there is which is awesome.

If you wanna join me on this crazy adventure, with working on a project during April, go for it!

[crystal-lillies]

Very Quick Little Positive Recap for 2022

Once again very last minute but I am determined to keep up this tradition even a little bit. So here we go in no particular order, some positive things from the last year.

Glass Onion holy shit what a film what a good time for it what a stellar gem

There's that Respect for Marriage Act that just got passed, which is great

Going off of that, even though Roe got overturned, there has been such an outpouring of support and fire to get something even stronger put into place, just like the Respect for Marriage Act did.

And the $10,000 student loan forgiveness? Holy shit. Yeah it's being stalled for the time being, but it's a matter of time at this point, and payment will continue to be deferred without interest which is such a help to so many people.

Greta Thunberg roasting that trafficker so hard he gives his location away lmao

Doctor Who finished out Thirteenth Doctor's run this year! And while I have some mixed feelings about certain things, man did she go out with a bang.

Plus personally, I read SO much Doctor Who stuff in the first half of the year.

AND I wrote a Doctor Who fic! And posted it! After years of never posting anything properly on a fanfic site!

We got so many new shows and movies oh my god I can't even list them all but aside from Glass Onion we got Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Turning Red, The Legend of Vox Machina, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, The Woman King, Nope, Wakanda Forever, Thor Love and Thunder, THE OWL HOUSE HOLY FUCK

She Hulk brought my boy Matt Murdock some serotonin for once

THE SANDMAN WE GOT THE SANDMAN HOLY SHIT WHAT A GOOD SHOW AND WE GOT A SEASON 2 CONFIRMED

Plus we got first looks at Good Omens season 2

Got into D&D thanks to a work club and got to experience a module for the first time which was so much fun.

And with that I got into Critical Role in full force and that's also been such a fun time that will continue to be a great ride.

Spy x Family??? Amazing

10 years since Merlin ended and it still toppled all the ship lists and dominated the trending charts in December.

Pokemon Legends Arceus AND Scarlet/Violet dropped this year and despite the glitches in both, have opened the doors to open world style Pokemon games and more complex storytelling that hasn't been seen for a while.

Completed a Camp NaNo July goal and beat my personal record for NaNo proper in terms of word count.

I experienced a lot of new places this year personally which has been a great time.

Some close friends I know have done some incredible things during 2022 and so proud of them.

And I am probably forgetting things but there were a lot of things to enjoy in 2022. As with every year there is a mixed bag of good things and bad things but there has definitely been stuff to feel good about.

Here's to 2023!

[fey-touched-trilogy]

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review ->

I posted 110 times in 2022

That's 110 more posts than 2021!

19 posts created (17%)

91 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@author-a-holmes

@fey-touched-trilogy

@athena-anna-rose

@cwritesfiction

@nothingbutloveforyou

I tagged 110 of my posts in 2022

#fey touched trilogy - 92 posts

#changeling - 82 posts

#ari speaks - 76 posts

#arista speaks - 76 posts

#lizzy hail - 73 posts

#portal fantasy - 72 posts

#ari writes - 65 posts

#lila isabelle hail - 65 posts

#arista writes - 64 posts

#fey - 58 posts

Longest Tag: 35 characters

#whatever happened to madeline hail?

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Camp Nano July 2022 Sneak Peek

Image Transcript;

Sneak Peek!

It was too quiet, Nameer had told Andric the night before, standing in the Hunters equipment room and peeling off weapons and armor so they could be serviced.

The forest. The animals. The hunters had seen signs of kavians, but not encountered a single one.

Andric had been able to see the anxious tension on his friends face, but hadn't been able to offer the man any reassurances.

He'd been foolish. Lax. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed the signs—

He interrupted his own thoughts by knocking on the door to Lizzy's rooms, hard and fast, and waiting impatiently, shifting his weight.

"Come on, come on," Andric muttered, knocking again, louder, the firm thumps against the wood bordered on thunderous and, finally, he could hear scrambling movement on the other side of the door.

It was Cara who answered, eyes wide and confused as she stared out at them, but Andrics gaze immediately went over her head to lock on Lizzy, the fear that had curled around his heart easing just slightly at the sight of her.

She was only half-awake, with her blue eyes glazed, and her long dark hair sleep mussed.

"What's going on?" Cara hissed, clutching a dressing gown around her form, and Andric sucked in a sharp breath, before clenching his teeth.

"I can't say."

5 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

#4

Fey Touched Stories;

Prequel - Whatever Happened To Madeline Hail?

Book One - Changeling

Book Two - Darkling

Book Three - Fey Touched

Seasonal Novella - Once Upon A Fey Touched Holiday

The Fey Touched Trilogy is a Portal Fantasy and planned to be my debut novel series. I'd ideally like to publish Book One, Changeling, in the first quarter of 2023, so I'll be focussing on completing the entire trilogy in 2022 so that I can follow a rapid release schedule for the series.

My Newsletter is up and running! Sign up HERE if you'd like to download and read the series prequel, 'Whatever Happened To Madeline Hail?' and keep up to date on my publishing journey.

Whatever Happened to Madeline Hail?

When Madeline Hail makes the journey from the fey realm of Arbaon to the mortal realm, she thinks the greatest danger is to her heart. Instead, she finds herself quickly fighing for her life against rabid kavians intent on claiming her magical fey-blood for themselves.

When she is inevitably outnumbered and overpowered, making an unthinkable bargain might be the only way to save her life, but being alive doesn't mean she's safe.

Changeling

Fey go missing in the mortal realm. Everyone knows that. When Lizzy's mother is the next to vanish she is expected to grieve and move on. Instead Lizzy wants to find out what happened, but the answers she seeks can't be found in the fey realm of Arbaon. With the help of her best friend, Booker Reed, Lizzy is determined to retrace her mother's final steps, straight through an illegal portal and into the mortal realm. Whatever leads she expected to find, it wasn't an academy of vampires, and a world stalked by their rabid cousins, the kavians. Forced to rely on the vampires for protection, and secluded away behind the high walls of Speculo School, it quickly becomes clear that not everyone is pleased with Lizzy and Booker's investigation. ​With danger building the further they dig, the two fey need to decide if the answers they seek are worth risking their lives for. The longer they remain with the vampires, the more Lizzy begins to suspect that her answers instead lie amongst the deadly kavians.

See the full post

5 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

#3

30 Days to 70k - Camp Nano July 2022

Post nine, for July 11th & 12th...

July 11th did not happen.

We're not even talking about July 11th.

Suffice to say it was another zero word day.

On the other hand, July 12th went okay.

I wanted to get around 4k, I managed 1,833 words. I'm willing to take it and not complain, considering how the previous few days have gone.

The UK is also in the middle of a heatwave, to concentrating through the soup that my brain has become is... troublesome.

I'm going to try and get my seven day lead back for July 13th, but frankly, anything over my minimum needed word count (which is currently sitting at 1,642) I'll consider a win until this temperature eases off a little.

And that's my update, now someone pass me a ice cream...

6 notes - Posted July 13, 2022

#2

Work In Progress Wednesday - My Most Recent Lines...

The Fey Touched Trilogy

Work In Progress Wednesday; Most Recent Lines

"Lizzy Hail," Andric murmured softly, "the five-foot-three bundle of stubbornness and determination. The young woman who won't back down from anything. Not even a rabid kavian. Not even when I've spent weeks teaching her how to run from one. Whose telekinesis was strong enough to protect herself and her friend."

Carefully Lizzy opened her eyes, and turned to look at Andric. He'd moved even closer, and was now leaning one shoulder against the tree she had her back pressed against, staring down at her with an infinitely gentle expression that made her heart slam against her chest.

"What are you doing?" she asked softly, and the corners of his mouth twitched up into a familiar flash of a smile.

"I'm being honest with you," he answered gently.

- - Changeling by Arista Holmes (Chapter Thirty-Five)

Fey Touched and General Taglist under read-more...

@jezifster @cedar-west @faelanvance @noirepersonal @queen-kass-the-writer @athenswrites @thelaughingstag @talesfromaurea @authorminamoroz @bardic-tales @writeblrsupport

If you'd like to be added or removed from any of my taglists, please let me know <3

9 notes - Posted August 4, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

30 Days to 70k - Camp Nano July 2022

Post one, for July 1st...

This is a spur of the moment thing, I've no idea how consistent I'll be going forward, but I wanted to give a progress update for Day 1 of Camp Nano.

First things first, I'm a night-time writer. My most productive period of the day is between 10pm and 5am. This creates some unique challenges for Nanowrimo, since the tracker ticks over in the middle of my writing sessions.

Which is why, when midnight rolled around, I wasn't too worried that I hadn't hit my goal yet.

At the end of Day One, I had a word count of 2,069. 281 short of my minimum daily words needed to reach 70k by the end of the month. But, I logged my words, and kept writing! I was in peak time!

It's currently 5.40am. I stopped writing about half an hour ago, and my word count for July 2nd is currently sitting at 5,034.

And any words I add after I wake up this afternoon, and before midnight rolls around, will only add to that.

We're getting there! Experience with Nano tells me that the more "gap" I can give myself between what I have, and what I need, in this first week, the higher the likelihood will be that I'm successful, so here's to the next 5 days being just as epic!

How has everyone else done during the first 24-hour of nano? Tell me your word counts, or about your projects, in the comments, tags, reblogs etc <3

See the full post

10 notes - Posted July 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[writeouswriter]

Setting a Camp Nano word count goal of 7

[cvptainbucky]

do you ever. spend weeks prepping for nanowrimo and then just one day before your brain just goes "nah what if we hyperfocused on this other project instead"

[lionofchaeronea]

Well, I set out to write 50,000 words of a novel this July, and as of today I've passed 60,000. Let no one say I lack discipline, at least where writing is concerned.

[hideyseek]

LMAO @ ME THINKING A YEAR AND A HALF AGO THAT SETTING A 20K GOAL FOR CAMP NANO MIGHT MEAN I HAD A FULL DRAFT OF NARRATIVE!FIC BY THE END OF 2022 WHAT A FUNNY JOKE AHAHAHA ... ahahahaha ... haha... ah. ...

anyway the current "first draft" (this is the fourth fucking time ive done this — there were "first drafts" in april 2022, july 2022, september 2023, and my current doc which i started in october) is like 10k already 😭😭😭

ok it’s happening hello i am writing post-hakone kakehai fic for camp nano this year ! will i achieve a full down draft? only time will tell

[lizhly-writes]

So I should mention that I’ve been doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month.  Decided to go with my transmigration cnovel, and I set my goal at 31k, for a nice, achievable 1k per day.  Unfortunately, I’ve also been busy!  So that’s affected a lot of my free time and posting and stuff.  

Case in point: I should have ended today with 20k. I’m at 11k.  To reach my goal, I now have to do 1.8k per day, which is a bit less achievable.  Like, I can do it.  I did it in 2 hours yesterday. But all coherency and chronology will be lost and tossed under the table for scraps. I only have 1.5 chapter's worth of words that can be read ihave no goddamn clue what I'm doing.

Oh well.  Here’s something I wrote.

“What were you thinking,” Jiang Mingxi said lowly.  She was doing a very good job at playing the intense CEO novel character archetype.  Chen Lihua supposed that was only to be expected.  If anyone had asked her to describe Jiang Mingxi’s personality, ‘intense CEO novel character archetype’ wouldn’t be far off.  

“In general?” Chen Lihua said mildly.  “Well, I was wondering about lunch, and then maybe if I should buy anything for dinner, because I can make dinner with what I have at home, but it might be better if I went out and –”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“I’m sorry that my thoughts don’t satisfy your standards, but personally, I think dinner is a very important topic.  The general standard for living is three meals a day, so–”

“Shut up, I’ll buy you dinner,” Jiang Mingxi snapped.

Inwardly, Chen Lihua perked up.  Jiang Mingxi had expensive tastes but also the kind of pride that would make her pay for anyone she invited out, so dinner today was going to be delicious and – more importantly – free.

Outwardly, Chen Lihua said, “Oh, I don’t know.  Are you talking about eating out?  I really can’t afford–”  

“I’ll pay for you.”

“I really don’t want to impose.  I wouldn’t be able to pay you back, first of all–”

“I’ll do it it’s not that hard would you just shut up about dinner?”

Score, Chen Lihua didn’t say.  

[gonnauseanomdeplume]

Guys, I’m thinking about working on my golem novel for camp nano this month but I need motivation. I want to bring my total to 5,000 words which should be manageable but I could really use some encouragement to help. Does anyone have any prayers or tehillim that they feel help with motivation?

[encrucijada]

a camp nano attempt (despite my sanity) !

title: the walk of eurydice

genre & category: low fantasy, dark academia, adult

cw: obsessive behaviour, ritualistic sacrifices, mild gore, mental illness

themes & tone: hubris, love conquers all (at a price), reincarnation, melancholic, atmospheric, tender, yearning

about: classics major and ballerina thea bautista meets the ghost of dylan joyero at a party. in this modern retelling of the myth, orpheus has been dead for twenty years and eurydice must find a way to bring him back to life… if that’s truly even possible.

characters: thea bautista, main character in a tragedy levels of hubris but it’s fine cause she’s pretty | dylan joyero, the ghost of a bisexual hopeless romantic starving musician from the 80s | bailey cabrera, the pylades to thea’s orestes. equal parts no nonsense best friend and primary enabler | leon medrano, the pianist of the ballet group who dresses like he has a formal dinner to attend everyday | samantha vásquez, thea’s closest friend in the classics degree and is the one girl who brings a store’s worth of stationery to class

misc: it says here that as a classics major i have to write dark academia, all i know about ballet comes from the internet, what is this but an elaborate soulmate au, how the university operates is based on my country, the aromantic writes a romance book stayed tuned, book one of a duology, written in vignette/short chapters, dedicated to @rxinbowbright​

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Masterpost and Camp Nano July 2022 Announcement!

After a false start in April (because no one told me their names) I'm going to be working on Scrapbook of the Unexplained for July's Camp Nanowrimo, so I'm putting together a short masterpost with links to character bios and other pertinent information!

Summary

Character Bios

Matti Brinkerhoff

Lina Shaw

Jim McBride

Will Bauer

Other

Roggenwolves

Matti's wolf form (art)