#i REALLY wanted to finish this next chapter already i literally haven't updated that big story in almost a year

[charleecat-bat]

about to go to bed so i can pass out cause i've been awake all night and the sun is up but i wanted to try and finish writing the next chapter of my big cat boi story

unfortunately i keep thinking about this one detail/idea i want to explore in a future chapter and it invovles him just... snapping and losing control and actually attackin gsomene.

question is idk what i could do to have this happen, what would have to trigger him? who would it be? just not sure yet and idk who i can ask to discuss ideas.. hmm

[kinardsevan]

im just curious, what are your thoughts about finishing your fics? i know right now it probably seems impossible as it does reading them, but just wondering. your writing is so good & i love it so much 💙 do whatever works for you, just was wondering 🫶🏻

i was actually planning to address this ❤️💙

So. Here's my current mindset:

I did start a fix-it fic last night. I have another idea swirling around in my head atm for another version of one. My brain is at this point quite literally wired to create. (Even if I'm only doing ceramics and painting this semester 😛). Those will get finished.

-Empty Bones will continue to see updates. Especially with my need to put the icky feelings somewhere. I'd be lying to you if I said I haven't considered writing another whump fic solely based off of Tommy really fucking shit up for us all last night. But that idea may live in my head (or on my hard drive for a while). I don't know how often they'll come, but they'll still come.

-the devil doesn't bargain has always had plans to get wrapped. i just need to find the time (and creative outlet) to do so. I know where it goes and how it ends, it's just getting there.

-never til now... right now I don't have an answer for that.

But I'm not stupid. I know why you're asking.

ANEURYSM FIC:

so I'm not going to lie. I haven't written much on it in weeks, solely because of the amount of work that goes into it. I know where the next scene that's been in my head for a few weeks goes, I just haven't actually gotten to putting it down. I went through a stretch in the past few weeks where I worked or was at school for 24 days straight and barely wrote during that time. As it sits at this moment, chapter six is just under 11.5k. I view it as reaching roughly 20, possibly 25.

the problem lies in the fact that the end of this story is so FUCKING happy. when I tell you I already have part of the wedding night written and all the emotion that goes into it... there's so much work and thought put into it, but right now, if I'm being honest with you... finishing aneurysm fic might not happen. this week was already gutting me before the show aired last night, and that really felt like being kicked while so many of us were already down. so to that end, I really struggle to be able to find a way to want to touch it when it really requires me to tap into a certain part of my creativity that feels really broken right now.

I know some of my friends have said that they're done, and that they're not going to finish their stories, or have even posted what they had written so far. that's fair and valid. i won't be doing that, at least not right away. i will work to finish them as long as there's an audience who wants to see them come to fruition. I really want to believe in the part of fandom that says that it's more than just when a couple is together on screen, and that there will be people who continue to write bucktommy because I truly do enjoy doing so, and I enjoy reading it. This couple brought me back to fandom and fanfiction in a big way, and right now I can at least tell you that I'm not done with it. I don't know how long it will take to roll out updates, or what happens with my relationship to the show, but I know that much.

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 1.9.2024

Bleh. I was holding off doing this update, hoping I was going to be able to report that I had finished That Stupid Scene that I have been working on since before Christmas. I had so many thoughts in my head while I was cooking dinner and then, when I actually sat down to write, they had departed. Maybe they'll be back tomorrow.

In any case, I did make a huge amount of progress this week. It was hard! I had a lot of writing time, which was nice, except that I spent a lot of it staring out the window or clicking on my other browser tabs, which is always very irritating. However, I did manage to get most of it written, and it hit all the bullet points I needed it to. I basically just have to wrap it up and transition into what happens next. It shouldn't actually be that hard, I'm just tired and I'm not sure I can swing it right now. It's a big scene, too-- I clocked 4,375 words on it this week in addition to the 900 I already had, so it's probably going to be about half the chapter.

I've had a feeling for quite some time that I had not actually budgeted enough space in the outline for the back half of this fanfic. The thing is, though, it is nearly always the case that an extra chapter manages to sneak in somewhere along the way. I decided to just leave the outline as it was, and that way, if an extra chapter appeared, then my pacing problem would sort itself. That...may be happening. I am not entirely sure. I'm in sort of a weird place where I simultaneously feel like I am very close to done and also very, very far away from being done. Hopefully, in the next week or two (that is, when I finish Ch 7), that will sort itself out. Either that, or I'll just keep writing chapters, like Zeno's fanfic. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen. I will die.

Ugh, I want to post. I am wallowing in the pit of it's been so long since I posted, I feel like I have literally stopped existing, and I keep getting dumb urges to "just take a little break and write a short one" (note that I do not actually have any ideas towards "a short one", it's 100% urges only). Anyway, I definitely do not want to do that, because I want to finish this one very, very badly, and it's taking long enough as is. What I should probably do is polish up Chs 5 and 6 and send them to the beta, but that would require coming up with a name for the art museum that I placeholdered a bunch of times in Ch 5. I actually named it in Ch 1 and then decided I didn't like it and needed to rename and I just haven't yet.

Speaking of names, I've also fallen into It-Needs-a-Title Madness, where I start to go Actual Nuts because I can't think of a title for this stupid fanfic. I forgot that in addition to staring out the window, I spent a lot of time looking through the lyrics of songs on my Ductwork playlist and googling for, like, "phrases with injury" in them. I hate this. It's such a waste of time and yet I do this every time. Why can't you pay someone $10 to name your fanfic for you? Can I just call it "Ductwork"? Does it even matter? (it does matter. I regret every terrible title I have ever slapped on a fanfic in a fit of "Fuck It, We Post")

In other news, I drew all seven days last week (the theme was fruits and vegetables). I took yesterday off, but then I drew a can of soup today, which was hard. It's cool. The people in art club are very nice. I am really hoping to draw a Rukia for her birthday. I have never drawn a bankai Rukia, and I'd like to give it a shot. I bet it would be a lot easier if I could resist doing a full body shot, but somehow, I always do a full body shot. We'll see!!

[seyaryminamoto]

hey hopefully these aren’t too many questions but im asking mostly because I forgot if you had said so, how is our favourite couple currently where you’re writing & how far ahead are you compared to where the readers are at? and finally how many parts will Gladiator be? I’m sure you have said it already but Im sure I have forgotten!!

Well, they're a fair amount of questions, haha, but that's fine :D

I'm still around 50 chapters ahead, but I've had to invest most of my time into art exclusively over the past weeks, it's why I haven't been able to write as much as I usually do. I was at a 60~ish chapter advantage, I'm not doing double updates atm so that the gap won't get too big to be manageable anymore. I'm pretty sure we all want to keep the update rate steady and constant all across Part 3... so the more chapters I write in advance, the better.

And Part 3 is the final part of the story, worth mentioning. The way I structure Gladiator, each part has its own particular identity as the status quo shifts in some way (Part 1: will-they-won't-they, Part 2: when will they get caught?, Part 3: all hell breaks loose), and each of them have certain storytelling climaxes that basically mark the conclusion of each part, so to speak. For Part 1, the climax was also very literal as it's when Azula and Sokka finally go all the way :'D for Part 2, the climax is the Combustion Man fight, and for Part 3... can't tell you that but I'm expecting you can guess at it pretty easily, haha. After each of these climaxes, we've had some more story to cover before switching to the next bit... Part 3 will feature the longest post-climax chunk of story since we have a lot of loose ends to tie and I would hate myself if I finished everything too quickly. Hopefully all that I just said makes sense? :'D

Also, not sure if you wanted to know this exactly but as things stand, I've posted 7 out of 33 arcs for Part 3... and I'm due to start writing arc 20 :'D Part 3 has a LOT of arcs but they're generally shorter than they were before, I feel? Definitely shorter than in Part 1, where they were the longest in the story altogether, I believe.

As for your other, spoilery question...

Currently, Sokka and Azula are in complicated territory. Which I'm sure comes as no surprise considering what's been happening in the story as of late...

Azula's position is extremely precarious even in what stability she has found, and she has far too many complicated motivations pulling at her from all sides, too many people to protect, all of which comes into conflict with the position she's stuck in for the time being. Sokka continues his full dedication to waging war, but while he's doing well at it, the enemy's upping the challenge in what's coming, and as much as he's trying not to be rash and to make his decisions carefully, he has nooo idea how uphill things are going to get for his push in the near future.

It's worth noting that Sokka and Azula have been able to communicate through their spiritual bond a few more times, as well as having multiple chances of noticing something's wrong (or occasionally, right) with the other, even at a distance. Their communication hasn't always been effective in informing them about what the other is doing... but they're learning about each other's movements through other sources now, too. As expected from our chaotic and beloved pair... neither one is to happy about the other's position atm. Which makes it really interesting to me that in all their frustrations about what's going on, the faith they have in each other really doesn't waver.

I don't think I should say much more than that, but I will say I'm looming closer and closer to their fateful reunion, it will still take some time but not a lot, all in all. I only have two big battles left to write before we get to what we're all waiting for... so I really, REALLY want to finish all the art so I can get to that ASAP XD

[imogenleewriter]

💫🎈💝

(I just found this in my drafts. I haven't read the answers properly, but I saw down the bottom that I'm talking about releasing a new WIP which is Save Me, and it's been out for over 2 weeks now. Also, I can see that I said that ychiits was the 15th most commented on. It's actually now the 11th (!!!), So if some answers seem off, it's just because it's at least 2-3 weeks old, but I can't be bothered reading through and updating).

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback? All of them! I am SO SO SO blessed by the number of comments and feedback I get. Like... I don't even know how to explain it. Actually, I DO! If you sort all 42,000+ Larry fics by comments... my fic, which I started uploading less than 4 months ago and has only been finished for a month, is 15th. The fifteenth most commented-on Larry fic EVER. INSANE!! Like, that's so crazy, and I'm so, so thankful! But out of everything, there are two types I've obsessed with. The first are Tiktok videos about my fic. In a few days, two people (with large platforms) have reviewed it, and it's so amazing listening and watching people talk about it! It's so surreal.

The second are comments I got really early on. Two in particular stick out and I'll post them here:

But honestly, the fact anyone goes out of their way to interact at all means so, so much to me and there was no way I'd have gotten the fic done (or moved on to the next two WIPs if it wasn't for that).

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change? This is a weird way to write this question. I'm going to assume they mean process as opposed to style. I have a lot of coping techniques to fall back on when writing based on my mood. Best case scenario, I'm in a good mood, I know exactly what I want to say, I'm focused, and it all just comes out.

Worst case, nothing is working, and I spend the whole time procrastinating and answering questions like this in long detail.

Overall, yes. I'm a pretty big planner because that's what works for me (and I like weaving things through my fics, and that's hard to do on the run). I work out the goal of each chapter before writing it. Sometimes that's easy and it's literally just a sentence and everything flows.

The more stuck I get, the more I write out what the goal of the chapter is. And then break it down into scenes. So by the end, I might have 1000 words of notes about what needs to be included in the 6000-word chapter.

I'm very... immersive and try to get into characters' heads. One example of this is I have a notebook for each fic that fits the character's personality. So, like.. (okay this is weird), for my current WIP YMAEWK, Harry is a singer so the notebook I have for the fic is a leather bound one because I feel like it suits the fic/characters. Then another fic coming out has a teacher in it so the notebook I use for that is quite plain and gives off highschool teacher vibes.

And yeah, just a really big plotter. And when I struggle, I come back to the plot.

Okay, that was a lot.

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Lol, so I have a burner ao3 account where I post things that I don't want to be associated with my actual account. Mainly just for pure smut so I get better at writing it. I wrote an outrageous one-shot that I was embarrassed to post even though it wasn't associated with me at all. Every few days I get an email saying it's gotten kudos and every time I'm like.. you have to be kidding me.

In general though, all of them. The fact they have readers is crazy. I'm surprised by the PA fic because people already seem invested which is great.

I'm really interested to see how a new WIP I'm releasing in two days is going to be received because the premise is so different to anything I've done.