#it's not as much as i had hoped i would have written since nano

[its-stupidhours]

I hit the next 10k mark in the big smir fic??!??!?

also chapter 7 is almost done??!?!?!?!?!?? (my goal is to get it done by the end of the month, especially bc the chapters correspond to months of the year and ALSO those months are technically THESE months of 2024 bc i made the dates and lunar calendar line up and chapter 7 is february (this month)) (don't ask why the dates and lunar calendar are important that's a surprise tool that'll help us later) (march (chapter 8) might be the first chapter i finish after the month it takes place in has passed, but we'll see. if I keep up the pace I'm at, it'll actually more likely be april that's after it's month bc i have NOTHING of april and may (the last two chapters) written shdjfkhj but, again, we'll see)

[theimaginatrix27]

Coming Soon to AO3: the Sisko'Brien Salamanders AU!

I could not go another day without making this post. Because I intend to start posting this fic as soon as it's no longer November in Australia.

A few months ago, I was on my friend @kintatsujo's Discord server, telling her and my other friends on there, quite earnestly, that I believed I was incapable of writing Sci-fi, and was particularly nervous about writing for any Star Trek series, because the fandom was big and old and intimidating, and I was a Fantasy writer! I couldn't possibly get all the technical stuff right!

And then I started nattering on about my ideas for a Star Trek series that I'd had floating in my head for about thirteen years, and as I was doing so, I started looking stuff up on the wiki, made a couple posts, absolutely trawled the blog of someone who reblogged one of those posts, found a Deep Space 9-themed Discord server (and about a dozen new friends!), and started having plot tribbles populate my brain, all squealing excitedly at being allowed to run wild.

And one of those ideas was sparked by this post, which I found on that days-long blog trawl I mentioned, and which delighted me so much that I started imagining some of the scenes. And then imagining the fallout. And then having my own ideas about how it would all pan out, and I knew this story was a keeper.

The important points from the post that set my brain off, in case you don't wanna click through:

Benjamin Sisko wouldn't abandon his salamander babies if he ever went through a Threshold scenario (as in the episode of Star Trek: Voyager for the uninitiated).

Since this is a human-specific mutation, the other parent would have to be one of the other human cast

DS9's Threshold is clearly an O'Brien-must-suffer episode.

The very idea of this happening was hilarious to me, so in hindsight I shouldn't have been all that surprised the plot tribble moved in and started breeding like mad.

I let the idea stew throughout October, and have been writing for the AU all month. And I've written about 30k for it so far! Not all of it's for the main/initial fic laying a great deal of the groundwork/surrounding the events within the post (but with my own twists on some of the ideas because I was imagining the characters' reactions as I saw them and they flowed better than the comments in the post), but I do have six chapters almost ready to go, and will probably keep writing stuff after NaNo because I wanna tell this story! The rest of what I've written is for the pre/conquel I started when I decided we needed to explore Sisko and O'Brien's experiences while mutated (and that is going to be a fun fic!), and the sequel! Because once I established some stuff about the babies (like their names and personalities), they wanted to be doing things! And those things might have widespread impacts, but I will not go into details because that's for when the sequel fic goes up! Which it isn't until I finish posting the Main/original fic!

Milestone will be coming to AO3 on the 1st of December Australian time, and I wanted to let people know it was gonna happen. I'm so excited to start sharing this with the fandom!

@reginaldbroccoli @laurelhach @vermin-disciple @apolesen I am tagging you specifically to thank you for combining your efforts to create the post that made this story possible, and also to let you know someone is writing the thing. And I hope at least some of you will be interested in reading it and won't mind that I couldn't wait until next Threshold Day to begin posting said thing.

[dracoqueen22]

BlorboWriMo Day 0

I have always loved NaNoWriMo. I've been participating since 2007? I think. Anyway, it's always been a great motivator for me, but in the aftermath of the official NaNo coming out in support of AI for writers, I can't participate in official NaNo anymore.

But I still love the challenge. I've had my story picked out for months. I've been plotting and planning. I'm READY.

So @mortalaura and I decided, NaNoWriMo is no more.

Now it's BlorboWrimo

Blorbo Writing Month! So strap in folks, because for the next thirty days, I'll be working on my chosen novel, and every day, I will post what words I managed to rack up, for few or for many. Follow along in my unedited, word vomit, first of the first draft as I write...

*drum roll please*

~ Trial by Sword ~

Originally, there was to be a Transformers fanfic by this name, set in my Sands of Fate universe, featuring a Deadlock | Drift & Cyclonus pairing and a whole bunch of lesbian swords.

I don't think I'll ever get back to the fanfic version, but I still want to capture the magic and worldbuilding I did for the fanfic version.

So I took all my favorite parts of that very AU fanfic, and turned it into an original fic.

Darvalon Talis aka Dart and Cecil Stormhold aka Cecil will star in Trial by Sword, a story set in my Tethers universe, though before the current main arc in terms of timeline.

Dart is a seamer, part Sea Krait and part Drylander, who has found his way onto Dryland in search of adventure. He gets swept up in a war as old as time between the Ori and the Templar, both of whom really want that shiny sword he picked up out of a shipwreck.

Sirene, however, wants to stay with Dart. She's said as much. But if she can get back to her wife, Vesper, that would be nice, too. Dart's found himself on the side of the Ori, caught in a desperate struggle to revive their sleeping goddess before the Rot can destroy all of Shandara.

Cecil is a templar. He was born a templar, he thinks, not that he's sure because he's never met his mother, and his father adopted him. He's the heir apparent, set to take over for the templar at some point in the future. It's his duty.

He wields Vesper, bestowed upon him after emerging victorious in a combat trial with eleven other hopefuls. Vesper chose him, over Seraphine, the other victor, who would have been meant for Sirene, had she not disappeared on her way home.

Cecil endures his burdens with grace, for the glory of the templar and their desire to unite the world under the peace and order of the templar banner. He will do whatever it takes to stop the infestation that is the Ori.

Vesper just wants to find Sirene, and she doesn't care what rules she has to break to do it.

When Cecil and Dart finally meet, sparks will fly, setting off a blaze that might just swallow all of Shandara. ;)

And every day, you'll get a chunk of their story as I post what I've written. Here's to hoping it entertains!

[writeblrgarden]

PLANT GROWERS - MEET THE WINNERS - ETLU

Meet Etlu, who got second place in our grow a plant event in november! Etlu goes by she/they, and you can find them at @etlu-yume. She has been writing for about 20 years, primarily fantasy or urban fantasy, and lately has been dipping their toes into slice-of-life.

Tell us something interesting about yourself!

"Interesting" is a tricky thing because it's so subjective! Like some people would say being able to speak/read/write another language is interesting, and others would just expect it, right? I guess in some ways I could be considered a quadruple threat - in addition to writing, I also am an artist, study languages, and played and performed with music groups on local and international stages.

Tell us about the WIP you'd like to talk about today.

Fangs with Benefits (not what I did for NaNo - but that's self indulgent and stays between me and the dust on my hard drive). Fangs with Benefits follows the story of a set of siblings, Sherry and Gael. After the pair are banned from donating blood, they are forced to move to the big smoke in order to chase medical treatment for a family illness. After a chance meeting, the pair discover the secret supernatural underground of their new home. Full of supernatural creatures, Sherry decides that there's a solution to their frustration with red tape at the hospital; Vampires. After all. It would be of mutual benefit to both parties. And so chaos ensues.

Describe your writing process. Do you like to plan everything or are you more spontaneous?

I'm a bit all over the place. I tend to do best when I have a game plan, something to refer back to (more often than not somehow it takes scenic routes between written points; go figure). However sometimes, particularly when later scenes will not leave me alone, I will just go ahead and write them out in a separate document. Once they're out of my head and down on paper, it usually becomes much easier to go back to where I had left off and keep going. That said, it's a work in progress and always changing. What worked last year may not work for me this year, and so on and so forth. I'm just hoping I can try and establish a better year-round writing habit in 2024 <3

What have you found to be the most challenging and/or rewarding about writing?

If you'd asked me this question prior to last November, I would have struggled. Maybe I would've said "a blank page/new chapter" is the most challenging thing (and, really, it still is). But. I think the most rewarding thing about writing comes in two parts; 1.) One is when you're writing for others or an audience. I can't really speak too much on this, since I've been super shy with my work and haven't posted much if any online for general consumption. But to the few people I do share with, seeing their reactions to the story progressing, screaming about characters or events. I know there's been times where those reactions have been the difference between opening up the document and writing a few more words that day, or giving it a miss. 2.) Two is when you're writing for yourself, using your writing to help process things that have happened or that you're struggling with. It may not make things 100% better, it may not change the situation at all. But somehow there's also a weird healing power to it, too.

Below the read more is more of our conversation with Etlu

What inspires you to write?

This is a hard question! I'm actually trying to work this out myself. I started to fall out of love with writing a while ago, and I'm still looking for my way back. I'm sure I'll get there, I just don't know how long it will take, or what form it will take. But I'll get there. <3

Share some advice for other writers.

Hmm. One of the classics is "you can edit a bad page, but you can't edit a blank one", which is very true. But I'm not sure that's the kind of advice I'd want to give other writers - or myself for that matter. Bad days happen - be kind to yourself. If you're working towards a goal, keep believing in yourself. Don't give up. You can achieve amazing things! (Said from 2018's cloud of cough medicine zombie fog and pulling like 30K out of nowhere in the last 2 days of November.) Also it sounds weird but don't start from a fresh document. Even if you're finishing a chapter off, just start the next one. I'm super bad at taking this advice myself, but it's easier to re-read a few lines and make tweaks before moving forwards than it is to sit there face to face with a blank page at the start of a session.

What do consider your writing strength?

I'm probably best at workshopping or bouncing ideas, and then never writing them. Does that count? haha. On a serious note I think perhaps my strengths with writing is my structural pacing. (Not plot pacing. I've already picked up some rushed chapters in the last 3 months)

What has been the nicest compliment you've received or what has been the toughest criticism you've received?

Actually today I had a message from a friend, just a simple spotify link to a song. They followed it up with comments that they had been ruminating about events of the last couple of chapters when it started playing, and it made everything hurt even more. It's been a week since they read it - to hear that my silly little story is something that they're still thinking about this long after reading it, that combined with music it brings out more emotion. It's the little things like that, that remind me what it's all about.

What do you love the most about writing?

I'm still trying to work this out. But it falls somewhere between research, the friendly banter with other writers while everyone procrastinates, and the way that your words and the way you write will be so very different to the next writer, that everyone has their own style.

[oh-stars]

Writing Stats - Quarter 1, 2024

I've always wanted to track how much I write every day. It's my favorite thing about Nanowrimo and Camp Nano is the tracking and seeing my progress in numbers rather than pages. Last December, @sparkstar-trash and I decided to do a mini Nano between the two of us from December 11th to January 14th. It was kind of a success, kind of a fail on both ends, but it did spark (no pun intended) a love for this spreadsheet I had made.

All that to say, I've been keeping track of my writing stats this year and decided that I would do updates every three months (mostly for myself so it doesn't overwhelm me in the end) to see how things change.

Below the cut, you can see everything and how I kept track of things!

I'm participating/participated in quite a few events this year so far. This first quarter, I've been working on: Steddie Love Month, Stobin Month, Steddie Omegaverse Valentine's Day Exchange, Stranger Things Reverse Big Bang, and Stranger Things Big Bang.

I also decided to embark on a 90 Day Posting Challenge to help encourage me to write daily and to make shorter pieces. It's been really fun so far and helped me accept that not everything needs to be perfect to be fun and post. Posting started February 1st, so I'm on day 61 of the challenge today!

January

Word Count Total for Month: 43,726

Average Words Per Day: 1,286

Average Words Per Week: 8,745

Highest Word Count in One Day: 6,377

Total Fics Worked On: 22

Fics Completed: 17

Days Written: 23/31 or 74.19%

February

Word Count Total for Month: 43,819

Average Words Per Day: 1,288

Average Words Per Week: 8,763

Highest Word Count in One Day: 4,775

Total Fics Worked On: 29

Fics Completed: 24

Days Written: 29 or 100%

March

Word Count Total for Month: 39,405

Average Words Per Day: 1,158

Average Words Per Week: 7,881

Highest Word Count in One Day: 4,464

Total Fics Worked On: 35

Fics Completed: 32

Days Written: 31 or 100%

Quarter Total

Word Count Total for Quarter: 126,950

Average Words Per Day: 1,244

Average Words Per Week: 8,463

Total Fics Worked On: 78

Fics Completed: 74

Days Written: 83 or 91% from the last three months, 22% for year

Longest Writing Streak: 64

Total in Writing Streak: 95,484

Thoughts:

Keeping track of my stats really motivated me to keep writing every day, even when I didn't want to. The monthly prompts and 90 Day challenge have gotten me into a really good habit of writing every day, no matter what, with smaller goals like the prompts being great starters for the fics I'm working on.

March was really tough and I lost a lot of writing time, so I'm pretty impressed I got as much as I did. Things have changed drastically in my life since I started this, which is so weird after three years of consistency, so trying to find this new balance is, well, a challenge. If it wasn't for @lady-lostmind and the Stobin Month prompts, I don't think I would have stuck with writing through my bad days like I did. And for full transparency, there are a few days where I wrote under 10 words that day, but they're still 10 more than I had and I sat down and tried to write. The intention was there, so it counts.

Either way, I'm really proud of myself for getting to this point, I have so many fics I'm working on or have planned and I hope the next quarter is as fulfilling as this last one has been.

Thanks to all of you who have read, liked, reblogged, kudos, commented, bookmarked, and rec'd my work. From vocal to silent readers, you've all cheerleaded me into where I am now and I'm really thankful to be in this position.

Now off to more sprints to see if I can't beat these numbers for the next quarter.

[asyouleft]

i really like your writing, you should become a professional writer! please keep writing fanfics too.

Thank you so much!

I have written professionally or at least published in the past original work! A very long time ago a friend and I had it online publishing business that we closed down once that friend had passed away.

During my time there I published a erotic m/m original work! It is probably one of my favorite things I've ever written and is still available for purchase under my pseudonym. However I have been working on a reediting of it lately because there are some things that I was never quite happy with despite loving it and I hope to have it relisted for sale. But if I'm honest if anyone's ever interested in reading it I will gladly set it out for free.

I've also done NaNoWriMo several years and finished quite a few pieces. I have an original m/f story that's kind of like an AU and an AU and an AU? Basically the same characters over different universes with roughly the same plot but different outcomes. I doubt I would let anyone read that because I wrote it when I was about 17 and it's terrible!

I do have a finished horror novel I did for NaNo a couple years ago, that I do allow people to read if they would like to. I've had good feedback on it but I've never passed it around anywhere.

I also have a couple other miscellaneous things I've written for NaNo over the years some were finished than others!

But yes I had always dreamed of becoming a published author but I am more than happy with my fanfic career! I mean I doubt it's a career but you know I'm more than happy with the over a million words a fanfiction that I have written since I was 12, lol.

[zuzsenpai]

How many works do you have on AO3? 39

What's your total AO3 word count? 844,252

What fandoms do you write for? Right now? Currently only for Ace Attorney and Digimon Adventure/02

Top five fics by kudos:

Turnabout Dishwasher (Ace Attorney

Glass Walls (Ace Attorney)

Thought Provoking (Ace Attorney)

Dragon’s Hoard (Ace Attorney)

On My Level (Ace Attorney)

Do you respond to comments? I was great at keeping up with them for years, but I had some mental health issues early this year that slowed everything down. I have SO MANY comments to respond to and it’s really overwhelming. I love everyone who sends comments to me though. It always means a lot and makes me smile.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I mostly write romcom so this one is hard. It is probably my Digimon fic called “It’s getting late and I cannot seem to find my way home tonight”. Even though it has a happy ending, there’s a really sad/angsty scene about Digimon partner loss in it.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? It’s Turnabout Dishwasher. It’s always going to be Turnabout Dishwasher. If you love an Ace Attorney character I can almost guarantee they have a happy ending in that story.

Do you get hate on fics? Not often. I had a troll once or twice (someone was homophobic about Daiken on my fic once and I was like ??????). The biggest example was when someone read Turnabout Dishwasher and told me my portrayal of Franziska von Karma was “wrong”. It really got to me because I actually thought I wrote an older Franziska really well. Fuck that person (can you tell I’m still salty about this lmao)

Do you write smut? Oh yeah. I believe the first smut I ever wrote was Daikeru, and I was really proud of it. Since then I’ve written a LOT more Daikeru smut, Jyoumi, Jyouchi, Daikenkeru…. You would think I would have written Ace Attorney smut at some point, but nope it’s all Digimon.

Craziest crossover: The only thing close to a crossover I’ve ever written is my Digimon Buzzfeed Unsolved AU. It’s really more of an AU, since I didn’t include any actual BFU people in it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, but if lore.fm ever has any legs, I guess my fic could get used on there. It’s adjacent to being stolen. But no, I’ve never had anyone plagiarize me that I’m aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No I have not.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? I have! I co-wrote two Ace Attorney fics. One of them was with two other people, which was REALLY hard to coordinate. I miss those people dearly and I hope they’re doing well. Incidentally, if someone ever wants to co-write a Digimon fic with me, I would be delighted and honored.

All time favorite ship? Oh dear this is NOT easy. For over 15 years my OTP was from the series that shall not be named. I was sad but I’m over it. Here’s what currently stands:

Daikeru (Daisuke/Takeru from Digimon)

Blackmadhi (Simon/Nahyuta from Ace Attorney)

Rocketshipping (Jessie/James from Pokémon)

Touya/Yukito (from Cardcaptor Sakura)

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Oh man, I feel bad but it’s a fic I wrote when “Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning” came out in theaters. The fic is called “The Universal Language of Friendship”. I was working on it during NaNo 2023, but ran out of steam quickly and have no interest in picking it back up. I liked it when I was writing it though.

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue for sure. I am known for my video game style text box gimmick that allows for most of my stories to be heavily dialogue driven. I’m also told I’m good at comedic writing.

What are your writing weaknesses? Pretty much anything that doesn’t have a lot of dialogue. I’m trying to get better at descriptive language and scene setting. I’m also weak at writing tragedy and angst. But I’m working on that and hopefully getting better.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? I only know English, so I imagine if I try anything in another language I would be pretty terrible at it.

First fandom you wrote in? It was Pokémon back and I was 11 or 12. I used to publish self insert Pokémon fic on forums. Also I co-wrote a TON of self insert Pokémon fic with a friend of mine, and we published it on our own tripod website back in the day. I guess this could be counted in my co-writing answer, but I’m too lazy to add it up there.

Favorite fic you’ve written? You would think I would say “Turnabout Dishwasher”…. But the actual answer is my Explicit Jou/Taichi (from Digimon) fic called “The Secret of Us”. I felt so inspired writing that story, and I believe it came out as something beautiful. It’s an incredibly rare pair, so not a lot of people have read it. But it’s one I go back to and reread and am like “yes this story is by me and for me”.

Tagged by: @gr8stoneddragon (I love you my friend thank you for tagging me, this was fun to do on a day when I really needed it!)

Tagging: @sloanerisette if you are interested!! And if any friends see this and want to do this, please please do it and tag me so I can read it.

[laminy]

Thank you for the tag @merriell-allesandro-shelton!!

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

How many works do you have on ao3?

Apparently 74! I'm not sure how that's possible but okay! Not what I was expecting. That's like twice as many as I thought.

What's your total ao3 word count?

2,178,053

What fandoms do you write for?

The works that I have posted on AO3 are for Bohemian Rhapsody Actor RPF, BoRhap/Queen, Ted Lasso, 13 Reasons Why, Teen Wolf, 6 Underground, Midsomer Murders, and Shazam. Pre-AO3, I wrote in a lot of other ones. Hypothetically, I write for Gran Turismo, but I've never finished any of those fics lol.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. I'm breathing in the chemicals (Teen Wolf) 2. and you know you don't have to go (Ted Lasso) 3. Fear and Self-Loathing in Beacon Hill (Teen Wolf) 4. you're the sunflower (Ted Lasso) 5. into the blue and sunny morn' (BoRhap Actor RPF)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, absolutely! I appreciate when people comment and I like the interaction.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I try not to have angsty endings! All my angst is sprinkled throughout the story (maybe more than sprinkled lol) and then they get a happy ending.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Since most of my fics have happy endings, I don't know what the happiest of the happy endings would be. Probably a fic in the ITBASM-universe, because I tried to make them all very happy (they deserved it).

Do you get hate on fics?

I did get a couple hateful anons on here in my day but they didn't stick around. Thankfully I've avoided much of that (knock on wood).

Do you write smut?

I do, I do. All M/M, though for my original NaNo story I'm apparently going to be attempting M/F and idk how that's gonna go lol.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've written two 6 Underground x Midsomer Murders crossovers because Ben and Gwil.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of! I hope not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I'm also not sure I'm aware of any.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not! I'll be honest that I really don't know how it works and I'm kind of a solitary creature in that regard. so, I don't know that it would be my vibe.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Everrrrrr? Oh my gosh I don't know if I could pick. According to my AO3 bookmarks, apparently it's Joe/Nicky from The Old Guard but I don't think so (and for the most part I avoid that fandom these days). I don't know, ever???? I still can't decide. I'm too finicky. I will say that a ship that I will always love and I go forever without reading and then I'll be in that mood again is Eggsy/Harry from Kingsman. Like, they're the old stalwart.

What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Probably those Gran Turismo fics I mentioned above.

What are your writing strengths?

I would say dialogue but I don't know if anyone would agree. I find it the most fun, so I enjoy it.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I don't know how to describe what people look like, because 99.9 of stuff I write is fanfic and readers already know what those characters look like, so that whenever I attempt anything original, I don't know how to naturally include some idea of "this person has brown eyes and is very tall." I see it done so badly sometimes and I just try to avoid that.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have done it before sparingly. Different languages, I know fics I've done have included French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Arabic. For most of them, I use Google Translate. for the Arabic, I watched YouTube and tried non-Google Translate sources. for the French, some of it I knew myself and wrote it as I know it (I am not fluent in French). I would never write an entire fic in another language but I think including other languages is fun and rounds out the characters.

First fandom you wrote for?

Probably shockingly, it was Friends. A friend and I wrote it together in the fifth grade. Handwrote it, actually. We had a notebook that we passed back and forth.

Favorite fic you've written?

Overall, every ITBASM fic because it's like, my universe, my world, my characters, and it covered so much time (and space, ha). I don't know that I could pick an individual fic.

[knamil]

Rambling about my comic \o/ and my plans for NaNoWriMo

Small confession: I haven't been playing diablo iv like I said I would. I did play it for almost 2 months straight when it released. And it was fun. And I did think about my comic while I played it. And a solution DID present itself. Well, a clearer understanding of the problem presented itself and from there the solution was something I could figure out.

So that was groovy and then Bliz released the big D4 patch before the first season launched and made the game feel really bad to play. Like they fixed zero things that were broken and broke many things that were working. And the worst part was that they did not know this would be poorly received. That was a sign to me that I should stop playing (aka the game wasn't fun for me anymore) so I stopped and have been chipping away at figuring out the solution for my comic.

I realized while playing d4 that it's been more than a decade since I wrote Remi and most people who will see my comic don't know her. The AU was written at a time where my audience was basically 100% mutuals who knew Remi so I didn't need to show who she was and the differences in her character brought on by events in the AU would be obvious. Now though, since people don't know Remi, it's difficult to say what's different about her and a lot of the things I wrote just don't have the same impact.

So the solution is I had to write more and now the comic is much longer. Like 3 or 4 times longer. or more. I realized this a few months ago as I re-paneled everything and the darn thing just kept growing.

Another problem is when I drew the first 15 pages I wasn't happy with the results. I felt like I was rushing and I wanted to really do my best on every page. Looking back, I realized that the action in page 13 doesn't exactly read like it's supposed to. Actually, most of the action was pretty lazy XD. But after not making a lot of progress in the past couple months it's pretty clear that I can either draw with the skills I have now or I can like... not draw.

Only one of those choices is going to get anything done.

So. NaNo presents an opportunity. I've always failed NaNo like I fail every time-based challenge (haha repostober I had one job and I had already posted the art and I still failed), but I want to use it to make progress anyway. While there are several more parts to go after this I'm hoping to get part 1 done by the end of the month.

I don't know if I'll post pages as I finish or wait till I'm done with part 1 or what, but I've started working on it again and I'm looking forward to getting somewhere.

[trickster-shi]

Wednesday 01/03/24

I am so not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I am pretty pleased about the work I've done on my writing projects this week.

Project Zander

Chapter Two, 1840 words

I finished the first scene of the chapter, which is from Darius' POV and I uncovered his core character strength and weakness while writing and then brainstorming separately. Darius is the tol sunshine puppy of the group, with seemingly endless sass and optimism, but that's actually covering up a lot of insecurities, fear, and mother henning tendencies. His internal thoughts are fun to write because he feels everything, worries about everything, and ties himself up in knots while trying to be brave and funny for the people around him.

They're in quite a pickle at the moment, so he's been incredibly introspective while the other two sleep, trying to figure out why they ended up somewhere they shouldn't have and how they're gonna get out of it.

He's also worrying about Zander and what he had to do to save Darius and Elivia in chapter one, and wishing the sisters were there to take over because Darius is very much not ready to Adult at that level just yet.

I'm still trying to work out some world building issues to marry this story into the ending of Fred and Taz's series that is not completely written yet, so that's also fun. I'm throwing in an alternate Texas circa 1940's or so, steampunk elements, magic, and gods into the mix with surprise time travel, so there's a lot of moving parts but I'm excited to tackle them.

Since I work Thurs-Friday, I don't know how much writing I'll get done those days, so it may be down to the weekend to make more significant progress. We'll see.

Home Across the Universe, Story #10

Untitled, 2987 words

I wrote the entire 2987 words today, so I feel really good about that. I've written a couple previous drafts of this story since October but they just didn't quite come together how I wanted, so I put it on the back burner until now so I could concentrate on NaNo and then Project Zander.

So far, this story is about Stiles taking advantage of a new opportunity and seeing where it leads. It will be pretty Stiles and Peter-centric, with some Derek POV scenes thrown in. I am still developing the Kate plot thread introduced in Boyfriend Achievements: Unlocked, so I don't know if she will be appearing in this story or the next one. It depends on how long this piece decides to be.

So far, this first part was Stiles and John talking over the new opportunity with lots of Stiles' inner thoughts and references to things that have been happening since Christmas. I would say that Stiles is currently the most hopeful he has been in quite a while, so that's really nice to write.

Still, you guys know me. I do love my angst, so I'm sure I'll get to weave some in there somewhere, but so far Stiles's only angsty struggle is that two someone's currently occupying the Stilinski home *cough, Mini-Stiles and Austin, cough* broke the coffee pot and there's been a creative punishment enforced to work off that debt to buy a new one. And Stiles hasn't had coffee first thing in the morning in a week.

He's quite testy about that. But the new opportunity has the added incentive of free, good quality coffee, so he's all for it, even if it does come from Peter.

Other Projects:

I haven't physically worked on the other projects currently occupying other back burners this week, but the following stories are still in active progress:

Into The Black Episode Two

I did restructure what exists of Episode Two during December and wrote around 1k-2k on it. It is currently sitting at 5,876 words. Mainly it was tightening up the narrative, so I cut out a lot of stuff that was dragging the chapter down and fixing stuff to move the plot forward. I'm excited about what I have planned for that episode.

Rabbit Come Home, Part Three

I haven't touched what I have written for the third and final story in a while. It's currently sitting at 16,636 words. I know what I want to have happen in my head but I've had a hard time actually getting it written down, so that one may just need to marinate for a while before I can finish it. I want to do my vision justice and nail the ending.

That's all for now. I'm going to finish up some things and head to bed. 5 am is gonna come way too quick, I can already tell *cries*

[pinkfadespirit]

End of year fic writer round-up

Thank you for the tag @barbex! And Happy New Year everyone!

I’ll tag: @fandomn00blr, @goth-surana, @aria-i-adagio, @johaerys-writes, @sulky-valkyrie, @glowing-blue-feathermage, @potatowitch, @noire-pandora, @factorykat and the others I’ve tagged below and anyone else who might want to do this. 

This year I published 4 new stories on AO3, completed one old one and completed the first draft of a new fic that I’m hoping to start posting in January. 

Words written (published or not, WIPs included!): roughly around 150k if I include DADWC stuff. This year started out a bit slow writing wise but it really picked up for me towards the end of the year when I did the DA Create-a-thon and Nanowrimo back to back. I somehow managed to write over 80k in those two months. I’ve slowed down a lot since but I’m still feeling quite positive about my writing after it, which is great!

Smut scenes: I think 3 published ones. One or two unpublished. And there are a few in the fic I’m still editing but they’re mostly glossed over. I may go back and add more to them but I’m undecided on that for now. 

New things I tried: I wrote Nanders for the first time – which was also my first time writing Nathaniel’s POV and my first Awakening fic in general. 

Fic I spent the most time on: the fic that took me the longest to finish was the life that, here, awaits, which I worked on on and off throughout the year. But that was several short chapters with long breaks in between them. So the fic I spent the most time actively working on must have been the Justnanders fic I wrote in part for Nanowrimo. It’s the longest fic I wrote this year at 40k and I’m still working on editing it. 

Fic I spent the least time on: My Secret Sanders gift is the shortest one I have on AO3, if that counts (I know author reveals haven’t happened yet but I’m pretty sure it’s no mystery which one is mine for anyone who is at all familiar with my work - and my giftee has definitely figured it out lol). If that doesn’t count then Trouble Sleeping would probably be it. I can’t actually remember how long I spent on it, just that it’s my shortest work from this year outside of DADWC stuff. 

Favourite thing I wrote: Probably the Justnanders fic. Not officially titled yet but I’m thinking of calling it Not To Disappear (shamelessly stolen from the Daughter song/album). I don’t know if it’s the best thing I’ve written, but I enjoyed writing it and I’m even enjoying editing it so far, which is surprising for me. I think the fact that I’m not rushing myself to publish it is helping a lot with that.  

Favourite thing I read: I read Holy, Holy, Holy by @little--abyss not that long ago and I loved it. Really loved it - like in a ‘it’s been weeks and I’m still thinking about it’ way. Also, The Place Where I Belong by @dismalzelenka is amazing and I think everyone should read it. 

Writing goals for next year: First, I’d like to finish editing and post the Justnanders fic. I’ve filled in most of the placeholders up to chapter six out of eight for that so hopefully that won’t take too much longer. After that, I’d love to get back to All Falls Away. I never meant to take as long a break from that as I did, but I think it was a good thing in the end. I feel excited by the idea of picking it up again so that’s a definite improvement on how I felt about it when I put it on hold back in February.  I also have a Handers modern AU in the works. It was my first nano idea for this year but I ran out of steam after the first week and switched projects. Now I’m having lots of thoughts about it again, mostly just working on a playlist and letting scenes play out in my head but I’d like it to turn into a full fic one day. My main goal is not to get so distracted by exchanges this year and make some progress on some of the ideas I’ve had on hold over the last couple of years.

[violets-in-her-arms-writes]

WIP Wednesday Tag

Thank you @rubywrite for the tag ! ♥ (even though it took me 3 days to answer XD) It forced me to write on my main WIP, so thank you so much !

RULES:

In a reblog (or new post/w rules attached) post up to five filenames of your WIPs, not titles, file names

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be something you wrote in the last 7 days (we're posting progress here. If you haven't made any, go make some and come back to post!)

After you've posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from, write 3 sentences on it anyway and then 3 more on another to share!

That's it! You can invite others to join in or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request.

I usually name my WIP documents with the (temporary) title, so I'm afraid it won't be very interesting but anyway, here are 5 of my recent-ish WIPs:

🦇 La Fledgling (version complète) → doc where I compile all the things I've written for this WIP, because otherwise they are separated in "chapter 1" to "chapter 11" documents, but I like to have a complete doc to know how many words I have

🧜‍♀️ Mermaid AU → not very original since this is, you guessed it, an AU where the two main characters of the Fledgling are mermaids (well, one is currently drowning but I only have 600 words, I'll get to the mermaid part one day). It's a baby WIP, something I write for fun when I don't feel like writing for the main WIP. I might try my hand at a soulmate AU next, but I need to decide what kind and that's gonna need a lot of thinking (15 minutes to three business weeks, basically).

🌠The Wishing Star → it was my Camp NaNo project, about a woman who wants to become a pilot in a war-torn galaxy but first has to serve in a postal ship. Unfortunately, the ship is attacked but the resistance, she discovers she's adopted and has to fight to liberate her birth planet. Poor girl. It's currently on hold, because I was tired of it by the end of April XD

🐍The Witch's Time (tome 3) → the love of my life and bane of my existence. I'm stuck in the middle of this book, I need to cut half of it and put it in the 4th book and figure out... so many things. I printed the first two and they are soooo pretty. Unfortunately, this third book is kicking my ass. I'll be back Llewella, I swear, but I need time. It's not you, it me (I say, like a liar). It's technically an AU of another project of mine, but it grew a mind of its own and now I'm attached.

👽 Le truc avec les aliens (tome 2) → technically, its name is "Empire Déchu, tome 2 - La malédiction de Suli" but that's way too long so I just call it 'the thing with the aliens' because, really, that's what this is. A novel. With aliens. And a poor girl kidnapped and hailed as the saviour of a dying sect who want to resurrect a dead guy.

Now that I'm face to face with a few of my WIPs, I realized a lot of them have English titles, for some reason. I mean... I know why "La Fledgling" is called that (hint: it's because i couldn't find a good equivalent in French. Come on, jeune ? Débutante ? That's... not good. I'm not writing about a noble woman making her debut in society, be serious). But the others are just... choices. It sounded good and now it's stuck. Ok, maybe not 'the wishing star' because I don't like this title, but for WsT it's too late. I'm three books in, I can't go back.

Excerpt behind the cut, because this post is getting a little too long.

Excerpt:

"What do you want?" I asked her without giving her a chance to say anything.

As much as I hoped she would call me with something positive to say, I had known Anaëlle Charles since kindergarten. If she called me, it was always a bad sign.

"Jo, dear, I could use your help."

"Yes, I know. That's why I asked you what you wanted, moron."

I got up from my warm and cozy bed, still talking, put my phone on speaker the floor, and began to fumble for my clothes in the dark. Where the fuck was my left sock ? I was pretty sure my shirt was inside-out, but I doubted anyone would notice where I was going. Wherever that was.

Please dont let in be the swamps again, I prayed while putting my boots on.

"I'm... in trouble."

I was about to tell her that, yeah, obviously she was in trouble, she wouldn’t be calling at four in the morning if she wasn't, but something in her voice stopped me. It didn’t sound like the «I’m lost in the swamps again» kind of troubles, not even the «I think my magic is trying to eat me (again)» kind of trouble, both of which I could solve with my eyes close (mostly). It sounded… Like the bad kind of trouble. The one I wasn’t awake enough for.

Before I could ask her what the fuck was going on and why she sounded so… off, she went on, her voice almost as low as a sigh. Her breath sizzled in the receiver and I could hear her fingernails clicking against something metallic.

Ana was good at pretending, but she always ended up betraying herself.

"I'm at 23 Boulevard de l'Aube. Come get me. Hurry."

She pulled the phone away from her, shouted something I didn't understand, and hung up.

Tagging : @ladyniniane, @flowerprose and @amewinterswriting if you want to play (even tho it's not wednesday...)

[readythefanons]

desk dispatch (early May 2023)

writing desk updates from your pal reddy

desk status: under control (patches of the desk's surface are visible, and the stacks do not exceed 3 inches in height = manageable but in the middle of some things)

General notes from April:

I used April's camp NaNo (NaNoWriMo=national novel writing month, which is in November. Camp NaNo is for self-set goals and is held in April and July) to work on an outline! I outlined the Petra/Sylvain fic, and I wrote about 10k >_> the outline is mostly there, but there are a few sections in the middle that could use some more attention

I finally succeeded in winning the "write every day" achievement for (camp) NaNo!!!!!

I posted "Place" in April which is an Adopted!Hilda AU. If you're reading this post, you probably saw at least one of the eleventybillion promos I scheduled for the fic. (five. It was five.) I started that fic in 2020, so it feels great to post it

What's in the can: NOTHING. I have nothing lined up to post. But...

The Leonie fan anthology (AKA Sunflower: A Leonie Fanzine) is shipping/has shipped! I have a fic in that one, and I hope that soonish I'll be able to post that fic to AO3 :) That piece is titled "not a circle, but a spiral"

I am poking the Leonie/Lorenz SciFi AU again. In a fit of productivity, I re-outlined the thing and I hope to poke the draft itself soon.

I wrote and edited 3k of thoughts on pronouns and personhood in the book Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. When I finally hit post on that, you'll see it on my book blog @reddy-reads but I might also bump it over here because why not. embarrassment is for other people. (disclaimer: not every blog on tumblr with "reddy" in the name is connected to me, i promise)

Miscellaneous thoughts: outlining

I might... love... outlining? To be determined. But it felt so good to work on the Petra/Sylvain outline, and it felt good to work on the SciFi AU outline. So IF these fics actually get written, then I might never go back to my no-outline ways.

What I liked about it: it was so satisfying to think about all the parts of the story and how they were supposed to fit together. It was useful to be able to plan out which characters would show up when and where. It was useful (but often felt bad) to realize that certain scene ideas I had weren't working (usually because there wasn't enough concept there). It was SO much easier to go "wait this isn't working" after only writing a few sentences instead of pages and pages. It was much easier to go "oh I need to introduce X earlier" in an outline than after writing (and posting!!!) whole chapters. It feels good to have a plan about where the story goes and how it reaches the ending.

Outlining (it's new to me): My other multichapter fics ("all things considered could be worse" in Netflix!Daredevil fandom, and of course the "Pull It Together" duology) were written without an outline! I knew generally what I wanted to happen and how the ending should feel, but I didn't know how I was going to get from A to Z.

(Actually... those fics BOTH started as oneshot responses to prompts on kinkmemes... and... the Petra/Sylvain fic was inspired by a post on a kinkmeme, and it was originally conceived as a oneshot. So, uh, credit for finally recognizing a pattern!)

Why I'm finally trying outlining: I've become increasingly aware that I have limited time and energy. I wish I didn't. I wish I felt limitless, but the last few year-or-so has just taught me that I only have so much bandwidth. (Which is a good lesson, even/especially if it's not really welcome.) So since I'm admitting that I have limited time and energy, why shouldn't I help myself spend more time doing what I enjoy (writing!) and less time doing what I dislike (not writing because I'm stuck). So that's part of why I have this fresh interest in outlining.

The other thing about outlining is that--well Leonie and Lorenz's stories were fundamentally pretty simple. The Matt & Foggy (Daredevil again) story was even simpler because it was a slice of life. It was hard to get truly lost there. The Petra/Sylvain story needs to fit together a little more precisely, and that means prewriting. AKA writing the whole thing, then editing and posting. I'm not looking forward to giving up my post-as-you-go ways, but maybe I'll end up loving it.

The last part of the "why suddenly outline and prewrite" puzzle is a little... uh... it's a little sensitive. I have ideas about Petra and Brigid that I want to express, but the themes involved (colonialism/imperialism) are delicate. I want to give myself the option of really thinking it through & maybe even getting an extra set of eyes on it before putting it out on the whole internet to see.

So that's why I haven't been posting as much. I'm cooking up something big, I hope people will like it.

Final goodies

Fic rec: Ruu has written a Leonie/Lorenz fic called "Of Conduct, Of Manners." The Jane Austen influence wafts off the page. It updates regularly, and the whole thing is already written :D :D :D

Writing podcasts: I like the writing podcast "Writing Excuses" and "Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo."

Media podcasts: I still adore "Be the Serpent." It's on hiatus but they have an extensive back catalogue. I got so many great media recommendations from them.

Writing essays: I enjoyed Diane Duane's blog post about her outlining style and approach. I used her "grocery shopping list" and it really helped me build my outline's backbone.

Writing essay 2: A discord pal shared this post with me, which helped me get past an outlining block. The bit about "stop writing scenes you don't want to write" was the magic ingredient for me.

Meal Idea: Vegetarian sushi bowl. Make some rice, season it into sushi rice. Add all the yummy veggies you want. Eat and enjoy. (I made the sushi rice, but then I mixed some riced cauliflower into it for extra bonus veggies. For topping I did avocado w a sprinkle of soy sauce, finely cut carrot, Japanese pickles [cucumber and ginger], and edamame. I also had nori to wrap it as I ate because I loooove seaweed.)

[inadreamerslibrary]

july camp nanowrimo day 04-15

word count: 15,009 / 30,000

i'm still here, i swear! i feel like every time i went to write an update post, i didn't finish it and forgot to return to it.

writing has been going okay so far. there was one day where i only wrote 250 words but i made up for it pretty easily. kinda starting to drag again, but hopefully that will change when i reach the chapter where the action starts picking up again.

i'm on part iii now, which i actually had a couple scenes already written. i rewrote them though bc a lot of stuff has changed in the plot since i initially wrote them. does this count as cheating? maybe, but it's helping me push through so i don't really care lol. plus i'm not copy-pasting everything, much of these scenes had to be reworked bc i made a ton of changes.

i'm also realizing i'm definitely not finishing this book within the next 15k-ish words. if i had set my word count goal higher, i might've been able to finish it, but having a lower goal is honestly helping me stay motivated. if it's too high, then i tend to fall behind and give up. so if i have to continue writing ~1k words a day in august, i can try that. i would LOVE to get this done soon so i can start revising. but i have so many hobbies that i often find myself drawn towards more than writing (as much as i hate to say it). i've been deep in the gaming trenches recently and finally playing games that i've had in my backlog for awhile. i always make sure i do my writing first before playing anything though.

also reached 50 pages with today's writing, so that means i'll be at roughly 100 pages when i hit 30k. so that's interesting. hope anyone else doing this camp nano is doing well :)

[the-missann]

Alright, so this is pretty much a set up from past me to actually do this.

So, recently, I've been extremely lonely and have been trying to find a way to fill that void. It went from me trying to play some mmorpgs to find friends, to giving up and just accepting company in 2D men by playing some visual novels.

I played Under Maintenance and am working on getting all the endings in A Date With Death and while I loved both those games, they brought me back to my roots of writing romance.

Since it's February and I'm single I was thinking about relationships and got these two idea.

1

I've never written a rom com before and after playing Under Maintenance I wanted to try my hand at one and got a super cute idea.

The concept is an struggling writer who works at a bookstore who starts to pull the attention of her boss after spit taking at one of his jokes at a company party. His interest in her soon spirals and he sees how miserable she is at work. He then gives her a week to quit or he'll fire her himself.

Wanting a break from her entire life, an upcoming holiday is the perfect time to try and relax. While going to see her family at her hometown, she's met with someone else who also happens to have family there, no one other than her boss--the one who's about to fire her.

I decided to make this a little Nano, but lord knows I'm gonna give up and miss my deadline. So, to try and make things possoble for me, I actually started on Jan 23 and got a decent 12k words already.

It you're interested, wish me luck in actually finishing it and I'll likely have some stuff to post about after this next thing I have planned.

2

Again, this is a set up from past me, but also in my bout of loneliness, I started to think about how much I hate the culture that only people you're romantically involved with can show you love and appreciation for your time and pressence. Personally, I would love to celbrate Valentine's day with friends, just to show them how much I care for them.

My rambling aside, this made me want to showcase something related to this and while I had another idea, I scrapped it for this one!

For every day in February, I'm going to post a short story about the many relationships in my stories.

My MC Cassie has TONS of relationships, so I figured it'd be best to show it by giving little in-universe stories about the romantic, platonic, and familial love she experiences with everyone I've brought to life.

This is just my small way of sharing all kinds of love and to show how we don't just have to me romantic to love each other.

So, hopefully, I won't flake on myself and I'll have some of it done by this time this post is up.

But, if you're interested, I hope you enjoy reading and I also want you to know that love comes in all shapes ad sizes so don't feel like you can't have what everyone else does, you just have to find it in your own way ☺

🍂

[gwen-tolios]

Because it's NaNo and because I'm a discovery writer, I'm leaving myself little edit notes for later. Twice now I've decided a scene is wrong and I need to change something I've already written, but keeping the words for now.

I hope my notes are enough for future me. Doing my best to keep them clear!

XXXXX Retcon since Mr.Huston’s death was staged to be a fall. Will reading would have been much earlier and Dorothy would have known she had cash when she saw the store. Meeting up with Sam is instead to 1) get an outside opinion that the idea is good 2) make sure her shifting her territory won’t cause issues. XXXXXX