#evn if a little frustrating with how quickly the year passed

[moonshine-nightlight]

Like for 2023, I wanted to look back on my goals at the beginning of 2024 and see how the year actually shook out. Plus it should help me make my goals for this new year. see below!

Honestly, i was a little nervous to read this back because I know i'm dissatisfied with the amount of writing/editing/etc work I did this year. Not specifically in myself, but like, the world lol. 2024 went by very fast for me and had a lot of day job work time (and then brain tired whenever i wasn't working) that a lot of other stuff fell to the wayside, which any extra energy i did having going it family and friends, as well as general relaxing to recover from the work times.

Nothing's Wrong With Dale: What i thought would be the most difficult part and what i knew was the main bottleneck, was my own edit of NWWD and that is 100% what happened. I finished the edit from 2nd POV to 3rd POV but i never finished the final edit after that. I've completely gone through chapters 1-11 and then i've handwritten the edits for 12-17, but I need to finish typing them up and then do all the rest of the edits. I don't think I've had a chance/the bandwith to work on edits since October. Without that done, I haven't hired an editor or commission a cover etc. At least I was realistic in the post about my timeline, but i still with i'd been able to work on it more.

Long Stories: None of this got done lol. i didn't finish my outlines (i did work on some) and i never picked/kickstarted my next long story on here (or anywhere). June was when i hoped to have handed off NWWD to an editor so it does make sense that if i never did that, the rest of this didn't happen.

Short Stories: Similar story, i had though i was finally freeing up and started posting Courtship Confusion, but then i was put on a new big project at work, which is objectively good for my career but has made my whole end of summer/fall much busier than expected (plus a diff project blew up in our faces, which was not my fault, but was my problem). I really thought i was going to be able to finish writing and posting CC when i put up the first two chapters. oh well, hindsight and all that.

My work busy season stayed busy through at least May and my final project issued at the end of June instead of May so all that was a lot more than i thought it would be, or that it has been in the past. And it got busier in the Fall in August, instead of October so just lots of work work this year. If it doesn't get under control, I'm gonna need to rethink my job, the point of the office job is to be able to afford to do fun things and enjoy my hobbies, not just to work all the time.

Voluntary Sacrifice was a fun story I didn't hav planned at all, but I'm glad i was able to complete even 1 short story this year.

thanks to everyone for sticking with me through this dry spell, i definitely plan to come back with more stories! 💙Stay tuned for my 2025 plans, i plan to pull that together in the next day or two.

2024 Writing - Plans

similar to last year, i wanted to post a little look forward at my plans for writing this year are. the necessary disclaimer: this is 100% high level, optimistic, ideal situation and subject to change but i still like thinking about it and posting for anyone who's interested. see this post for last years!

so, i like separating things out it mini goals/sections so see below:

Nothing's Wrong with Dale: with DSM self-published under my belt, I'd like to focus on the NWWD publishing journey next! The main obstacles/costs are time and money. Hiring an editor and a cover artist are the pricey-est part of the process but my own edit (first to convert everything from 2nd POV to 3rd POV and then another high-level edit/revise once i've got it in the right POV) will take the most time and needs to be done before i hand it over to an editor. Then after the editor takes their time (and NWWD is much longer than DSM), and finally i need to process all of their edits as well. And i need to do all of this while i do my day job lol.

i've already converted the first 11 chapters to 3rd POV (i hav some IRL friends/betas who only read that version, so if u feel like the tumblr version took a lot of time lol). the timing of being able to publish this year will all end up depending on how quickly i can do all that and kick off the part of the process that depends on outside parties. Even if i manage to self-publish in this year, i don't expect it to come out until lik December and even that's ideal, super best case scenario.

Long Stories: I want to outline both A Perfectly Ordinary Research Position and Shadow Diplomacy and then pick one to be the new long story on here. I do what i call a chapter outline and a scene outline, which is confusing to not!me because the scene = a chapter on here. i should probably rename that process lol. (NWWD was 11 'chapters' and 35 'scenes' for reference).

once i pick a project, i just hope to post as many chapters as i can. Since this will be new, long, and likely just building steam, i actually think it'll be my lower priority after the Short Stories and NWWD publishing, but we'll see. i'd like to start putting that up in June, according to my tentative 2024 schedule.

Short Stories: Since i didn't get as many of these done in 2023 and they've been haunting my brain longer, i want to for sure get some of these shorter stories done. learning from last years overestimation lol, i plan to post 3 short stories: Courtship Confusion, Feral, and finish Free Piano: Haunted, in that order. i'm excited about all these stories and will let me cover 3 different types of pairings (although technically all are Reader) which is fun. All have been outlined and have parts and pieces written. I wish Feral and FPH could both happen in the fall but the timing just doesnt work out so summers gonna b a little spooky lol.

The schedule i worked out makes it so all this will be possible, but also basically has no breaks in sunday postings after my haitus which is beyond optimistic but i lik to start overly confident lol

Hiatus: this is also your reminder that my work has a specific Busy Season which honestly started already (lucky me) and i will b beyond busy Jan-March at a minimum. i hav more projects than ever with my promotion, a lot to learn, and a lot to juggle so minimum 6 day work weeks will be the name of the game - but hopefully all goes well and i'll get a nice bonus i can feed directly to my editors lol

anyway, that's where i'm at right now and I'm looking forward to all the exciting writing and publishing to come in 2024!

Feel free to send in any asks about upcoming/current stories!

Thanks again for all your support in 2023 and Happy New Year!

[cocowriteskpop]

Dance With You | Kim Young Woo

Reader(You) x Monster Woo

Rating: PG13 

Your whole life you felt like you didn’t fit anywhere. You were adopted into a chaebol family when you were twelve. they groomed you, trained you and gave you a great education. You were grateful but you weren’t happy. They’d neglected you baser needs love, attention and understanding. It was by pure coincidence that you bumped into Tres every time you dined at your favorite restaurants. The two of you became lunch buddies and met regularly. 

During one your lunch dates Tres invited you to come  by the studio. You were wary about it but eventually took advantage of the offer. You’d been coming by the studio regularly watching them practice in the morning and going to lunch with Tres during their break. Everyone apart of Woo Fam welcomed you warmly well everyone except Youngwoo. For the first time in almost forever you felt like you fit. 

You breezed into the Woo Fam studio with a smile on your face. Today was the day you’d get your lesson. After watching Woo Fam practice for over a month you wanted to try it at least once. Pushing open the door from the reception area to the actual studio you didn’t hear the usual laughter. Glancing around you didn’t see member coats and bags. There was no sign that anyone was there until you heard the click of a phone. 

Youngwoo was standing in front of the sound system his back facing you. Dumping your belongings in a corner you approached him. “Youngwoo what gives?” You asked. 

“Don’t worry you’ll still get your lesson.” He spoke with his back still facing you. He was intentionally letting you know that you weren’t worth his time or attention. “I know that” you clipped out “I just wanted to know where everyone was at.” 

Youngwoo picked up on your clipped tone and set his phone on the sound system. He turned you quietly assessing you. He was so used to seeing you in jeans and loose t shirts that your curves took him by surprise. Surprise gave way to attraction as he continued to openly stare at you. He admired the way your sports bra cupped your breast wishing his hands could do the same. His eyes traveled to your stomach and was again surprised to see you had a belly ring. He didn’t peg you as a girl who would have piercings. 

He raised an eyebrow “nice  piercing.” You knowingly smirked “really?” You questioned. Youngwoo nodded his head “when’d you get it?”

“A few years back.” you replied. Youngwoo studied you more intently now in the month that you’d been showing up at the studio he filed you away as some uppity chick wanting to slum it for a while. Maybe he judged you too soon. 

“So where’s the Woo Fam? you asked again. You didn’t like that the conversation was veering into your personal life. Especially with Youngwoo. You knew what he thought of you and your presence in his studio. You didn’t feel the need to correct someone who judged you before you even opened your mouth to say hi.

“They have the day off” he gazed at you in a way that let you know he knew you purposely changed the topic. 

“Oh well” you said with a smile “I guess you’ll be the only one to see me make a complete fool of myself. On a laugh you turned your back to him and walked towards the opposite wall that was covered in mirrors. 

He studied the way you hips swayed while enjoying the view of your ass. he was baffled by the tattoo that covered your lower back. A lotus he mused. 

“Why a lotus?” You could hear the curiosity in his voice. You smiled inwardly before looking over your shoulder at him. “To remind myself that beautiful thing grow out of mud.” 

Yeah, he definitely been wrong about you Youngwoo decided. 

While you stretched out in front of the mirrors Youngwoo returned to his phone to pick a song. 

“You do yoga right?” Youngwoo asked remebering something Tres had told him. “Yeah, twice a week. Why?” 

“We won’t have to start with balance.” He tried to study your body professionally this time but failed. He couldn’t stop wondering if you skin was a smooth as it looked or how soft you’d feel under him. Would your body mold to his if he held you?

“We’ll work on your isolations” he decided quickly trying to shrug off the impulse to run his hands through your hair. 

You rotated your head and shoulders perfectly but you couldn’t rotate your chest without rotating moving your your shoulders or stomach. As if sensing your frustrations Youngwoo stepped behind you. He placed one hand on stomach and the other between your bodies against your back. “Try now.” He whispered in your ear. 

Shivers crept up your spine. Your ass was pressed against his dick. His fingers were splayed across your stomach. You took a deep breath in a attempt to concentrate when what you really wanting to do was melt into him. You could so easily get lost in the mutual desire you shared. Instead you took another deep breath and tried the move again.

You’ve been meeting with Youngwoo twice a week for over a month. It wasn’t something the two of you talked about. It was kind of just silently agreed upon. Every lesson was felt like tempting fate. It’s was dangling meat in front of a tiger eventually the tiger was going to jump you. In it’s own ways that was pretty hot. 

You breezed into the studio as you did every Saturday for the last month. Today you came bearing food. You heard female laughter as you pushed the door open with your hip. 

“I can’t believe you agreed to help that little twit Woo.” 

You stopped in place they obviously hadn’t heard you come in. Arie and Youngwoo were leaned against the speakers. They looked extremely close, too close and you didn’t like it.   

“She’s not what I thought she’d be.” he retorted. 

“Please” Arie rolled her eyes. “She’s just a little rich bitch slumming it.” Youngwoo winced at Aries’ hasrh words. He couldn’t evn chaste her because he once held you in the same light. Arie would just have to meet you to understand that the description didn’t fit you. Over the last month he’d spent hours with you alone. Talking to you, touching you just being in your presence had gave him something he didn’t think he’d have. Peace. 

What started out as a favor to Tres had become personal. Youngwoo constantly fought with himself on weather or not to make a pass at you. He didn’t want to ruin the still fragile friendship he had with you. 

You cleared your throat finally announcing you presence. Youngwoo made it clear by his silence had no intention on standing up for you. 

“Did I get the day wrong?” You asked knowing you didn’t. “No” Youngwoo ran his fingers through his hair as he checked the time on his phone. “I just lost track of time.” 

“Oh well” You glared at at Arie “I only brought enough for two.” You  lifted the bag of food. 

“I’m not hungry.” Arie replied 

“Good” you smiled slyly “’cause you know us rich bitches don’t like to share.” You weren’t talking about the food. 

Youngwoo had to stifle his laughter with his hand. You smirked at him before removing your coat. 

You didn’t know what pissed you off more. Arie calling you a rich bitch or Youngwoo not coming to your defense. The situation ate at you as you ate your bagel in silence. When you finished you tossed your trash then turned to Youngwoo. He was still talking to Arie but you really didn’t give a fuck about that. 

“Mr.Kim” you said condescendingly “are you ready to start?”  

Arie stayed through half of the practice before telling Youngwoo to call her later. You rolled you eyes but bit your tongue. their was never any use in arguing with people like her. She summed you up and judge you before she even got to know you. Like Youngwoo and you were kidding yourself if you thought he liked you. 

“Your stiff.” Youngwoo commented massaging your shoulders. “Yeah” you stepped out of his embrace. “Maybe we should call it a day.” 

“Your mad” he stated. 

“Damn right” You turned to face him. You couldn’t keep biting your tongue. “You know I thought we were at least friends.” Embarrassed by your outburst you ran your fingers through your hair. “I should go.” you said it quieting before walking to get your things. 

Fucking Arie. Youngwoo swore inwardly. he realized to late the effects Aries’ words had on you. “(Y/N) WAIT!” he yelled across the studio. When you didn’t heed his words he came after you. 

Grabbing you by your wrist he tugged until you were facing him. “Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic? Arie’s opinion doesn’t matter.

“What I think” you pointed your finger in his face. “Is that a man I kinda liked was letting some girl he’s fucking talk about me.”

“You kinda like me?” He asked drawing you closer to him. 

“That’s really besides the point Youngwoo.”  

“But you do kinda like me?” he asked again. When you didn’t answer he pulled you to him. 

“I kinda like you too” He kissed you. He let go of your wrist wrapping his arms around your waist. You tilted your head deepening the kiss. he slid his tongue past your lips and tasted you. Moaning against his mouth you entwined your fingers in his hair. Molding yourself to him he nipped your bottom lips. Breaking the kiss Youngwoo rested his for head against your. 

“Damn that shit was hot.” While untangling your fingers from his hair he nuzzled your neck. “I waited a long time to do that.”

“Not what?” you asked him.

“Now you become my girl.” He slapped your ass playfully. 

“Just like that.” 

“Just like that baby.” His words came out muffled because they were already back on yours.