#whew I have too many wips and here I am writing 2 new things

[somanywords]

2024 Fic Writer End of Year Roundup

Thanks so much for the tag, @moodymelanist!! It's gonna be a little less interesting today since I only published 2 fanfics this year, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to do a little reflection on this new year's eve. :)

🎲 Answer and then tag three or more creators to keep the game going!

How many words did you publish on AO3 in 2024?

43k! Fun face, that is my 2nd largest yearly wordcount (having only been publishing on AO3 for three-ish years).

2. How many fics did you complete this year?

I completed a solid 2 fics! I had planned to complete a few more, but time got away from me this later half of the year...

3. How many in progress or ongoing fics did you start this year?

Oh, now here's a question I can be longwinded about ;) Good heavens, quite a few. By my count, I worked on 29 WIPs, 16 of which were born in the year of our lord 2024. Whew! Next year should be a year of completion and posting for me, if I have my way!

Noble WIP mentions: The Becca Barnes centric "they survive the war" AU that lives in my head RENT free right now; The fake dating modern AU where both Steve and Bucky are dear idiots; The post canon look at Jack and Les's relationship that I still don't know how to finish; and the 5 Six of Crows ideas I have fighting to get put on paper.

4. What was your favorite thing you wrote?

This is so sad -- I have to pick between two like a terrible parent. I shall simply tell you what my favorite things about both were.

For tin cans with string, I had that beautiful clear view of the horizon the whole time. I knew where I was heading with vague island shapes to stop by on the way. For I saw you in a movie I heard it in a song, even though I had to rewrite so much while figuring out the story's arc, it was so FUN the whole time. 😌

5. What piece was your most experimental or different from your usual style?

I'd have to go with I saw you in a movie I heard it in a song -- this was my first time writing for Newsies in a modern AU, which was new and experimental and entertaining. I really wanted to keep the characters feeling true and familiar despite their new setting/location.

6. Did any fics surprise you - either while writing or their reception?

I've gotten a LOT of comments on tin cans with string with people telling me they cried for parts/the whole thing, which...I wasn't expecting? Like, yes, that fic is heavy and melancholy in parts, but that I created a work that gave readers emotions and feelings is so wild to me. I'm beyond happy about that, from an evil writer's point of view!

7. Do you have a fic you wrote and loved that went under the radar? (This is your sign to reblog/repost it!)

The Stevebucky fandom is so large and thriving that the Newsies fandom is very small and very young in comparison, so I guess I saw you in a movie I heard it in a song would fit this bill. (Check it out, if you're so inclined!)

8. Who is an artist that inspired you?

This year? Hmm, @quezify and their gorgeous egg art is always inspiring me, and this year I even got to participate in the eggtober challenge! So fun! (And that's probably why I didn't get a fic posted in October when I was planning to...)

9. Who is an author that inspired you?

Oh my gosh, I am inspired by most everything I read. If it's right up my alley, I go crazy and want to be just like it and write a hundred things, and if it's not for me, I spend way too long thinking about how I'd write it more to my own personal tastes. I couldn't tag everyone, but all my friends and mutuals who share their gifts with us are simply incredible and I'm so grateful for them all!

10. Who is a new author you discovered?

Hmm, I'm not sure! I find most of what I read on rec lists, and then occasionally check out an author if they checked off a ton of ingredient boxes for me. My brain is short circuiting trying to recall

11. Did you do any collaborations? How did it start?

Not yet!

12. What accomplishments are you proudest of?

Both the fics I published this year were challenges to myself--tin cans with string was a specific set of new ingredients to challenge myself and a start to finish timeline and I feel like I really accomplished everything I set out to with that one. I saw you in a movie I heard it in a song was part of a mini-bang, and that was my first bang event of any kind, and I'm super proud of myself for getting out there and participating.

13. What did you learn about writing or creating this year?

This is a personal one I learned about myself this year: sometimes the clear vision and motivation is there. When it isn't...no deadline is going to force it to the surface. I can finish a project to meet a deadline, but I will not be happy with the end result. There's no rushing the soul of a story.

If anyone has any tips on "growing a muscle" to combat this or creating a way around the problem, I would love to hear it!

14. Any advice you'd like to share with new or aspiring writers?

What @moodymelanist said: if there's an idea you want to see, start writing it! I promise you, others would love to see it too. Also, don't be afraid to really focus on something smaller: one facet of a character, one scenario where the character reacts. Every time I start writing a new fandom, I tend to throw EVERY idea I have into a massive fic that never gets finished. I have to start smaller, start exploring. :)

15. What are your creative goals for 2025?

In regards to the original fiction I'm working on constantly, I'd love to have a few chapters of my novel to share with friends and family. I'm in draft 2 right now, wrestling with inconsistency and plot, but I'm getting closer. Fanfic wise, I'd love to share a lot with you this coming year! 2024 was a rest year for my fic sharing, and let 2025 be a partying year, amen. :D

Whew, if you made it all the way down here, thank you! And I'll pass the tags on to @blurglesmurfklaine @piedoesnotequalpi @tessabennet @zenaidamacrouras1 @dharmasharks

@hipsterdiva @sparkagrace and anyone else who sees this and wants to join <3

[butchgwenwhyvar]

the lovely @batdad tagged me in this!!

Author Name:

It’s all under Iamprongsie on ao3 (that’s a capital i, not a lower case L)

Fandoms You Write For:

Literally just star wars. There’s a few voltron legendary defender fics on my ao3 and I still have some plans for new vld fics but it’s mostly the clone wars. I think there’s some percy jackson in there as well? that’s really old though

Where You Post:

on ao3, with links to my tumblr

Most Popular One-Shot:

Now My Friends Are Dead & Gone, a fic about Obi-Wan going back to Padme’s apartment ten years after her death, complete with obianidala feels and angst

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

Lol the only multichapter up on my ao3 is And All The Stars That Scream, a Cody/Rex vs order 66 fic. There’s only one chapter up and while chapter 7 seems to be coming along nicely, chapter 2 is a little bitch and I don’t know how to fix it

Favorite Story You Wrote:

Idk if it counts but at the moment my barrissoka medieval au is my favourite! it’s not posted yet because I’m still setting up the relationship in it but I have lots of plans for it and I’m really proud of the worldbuilding and plot!

Story You Were Nervous to Post:

Tried to Be Chill (But you’re so hot that I melted) was very much a labour of love and I was absolutely terrified when the time came to post it; I’d never seen a c/c modern au with Cody and Rex so it was uncharted territory and I set it in Australia, so there were in-jokes that no one outside of South Australia would get and I still don’t think it’s very good, but it got good reception and I’m writing more for it!

How Do You Pick Your Titles:

I usually go through the songs I listened to while writing the fic, or sassysnowperson’s hozier generator! (that’s mostly on wips though atm) - I also find lines i like in the fic itself and see if I can turn them into titles (see: hey when you get married, fading, eleven men left)

Do You Outline:

Kind of? if it’s a oneshot that I write in one sitting, no, but if I’m writing a longer scene I’ll plan out what I want to happen if I know I’m not gonna get it done. 

I don’t usually make plot outlines aside from ‘and then this happens!’ at the bottom of the doc but if I think up good scenes then I’ll write dot points on what happens in and then rearrange them to further the plot

How Many of Your Stories are complete:

Not Many. I still want to do more in the gallipolli au (maybe Ahsoka as Nancy Wake in WW2, carrying her older brother’s legacy as a fallen ANZAC, who meets the Skywalker twins, all prominent members of the Maquis), modern au will never be finished because there’s currently four stages planned (obianidala/codex university shenanigans, ahsoka as a highschooler/the kaesoka b plot, the twins in high school, and the repcomm spin-off I’ve been poking at this week), medieval au has a heap of stuff that I wanna keep a surprise, and of sand and death stars still has two movies to go. Things that are over tho are the blue lights verse, I can’t really think of anything to add to that and maybe now my friends are dead and gone and stuff like fading and ghosts of the resistance

In-Progress:

Star Wars modern au

And All The Stars That Scream: Chapters 2 & 7

Barrissoka Medieval au

Ruusan/Besany and Ordo/Jusik fic

Coming Soon:

Hopefully AATSTS by the end of October, Ruu/Besany by the end of October as well, Medieval au by the end of February?

Do You Accept Prompts:

Give me all the prompts!! I love writing them and it really helps me to write something even if it’s short when my creative levels and concentration are 0 thanks to school

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For:

Medieval au! AATSTS!! MODERN AUUUUU!!!! (I honestly don’t know I love all my wips at the moment)

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions:

this always makes me anxious but @sassysnowperson @fallsouthwinter @wingedbears ? 

[palimpsessed]

Hey lookie there! A super obnoxious banner I will probably dispense with because it is so obnoxious. Anyway.

I was tagged by so many very, very lovely people today! So thanks to you all for sharing and asking me to share, too! 🥰 @aristocratic-otter @amywaterwings @phoxphyre @effing-numpties @vampire-named-gampire @seducing-a-vampire @ninemagicks @bazzybelle @captain-aralias @xivz @banjjakbanjjak

I have taken a post-COC breather on WIPs because I am burnt out. I also intentionally did not have anything planned because I was supposed to be having surgery at the beginning of January. But things being what they are, that got canceled. So instead of spending the next 8-12 weeks catching up on reading fic, I guess I will now have time to do some work?

So. Lately, I’ve been overrun with fic ideas. As we are looking ahead to the start of a new year, I thought it would be fun to share what kind of things I’m planning on my slate for 2021. No promises on if/when these get going/finished, but I’m excited about all of them, so I’m hoping I can keep up that excitement as I go!

1. Simon Snow and the Missing Magician

My Scooby Doo AU! Okay, so I’ve been promising this one forever (the first piece of fanart I ever did—my first tumblr post!—was for this story!) But it’s been a much slower process than I thought. Part of that was me trying to outline (hah!) and part of that was me trying to write an all Simon POV (fool!). Anyway. I think I got a good idea for it today that can help me retool as I get my head back in the game. I know I said no promises, but I swear to Stevie, I will finish this! (And it’s only part one! Augh! 😆 )

2. Val-un-tine’s Day

"A holiday dedicated to enemies. To show the people you loathe most how much you hate having them in your life." This...speaks for itself, I think? Will I get to it before the day in question? Who can say?

3. Slings and Arrows (or...Eros?) (how punny do I want to be? 🤔)

An Eros (Cupid) and Psyche AU! I wrote a line in my Regency fic where Baz compared Simon to something “sculpted by Praxiteles” and in my brain I was just like, “yes, Simon as Eros and Baz as Psyche, I will make this happen!” Anyway, other than getting my copy of “The Golden Ass” off the shelf, this is about as far as I’ve gotten with the idea.

4. My secret smut fic

Okay, it’s not really a secret, but if I give you the title, I feel like it will give too much away, since it is a quote that I know you all know. But I’m really excited about it and if I pull it off, it will be fucking beautiful.

5. An untitled Beauty and the Beast AU

I think the way I’m doing the roles in this will be different to how people would expect. At least I’m hoping they are.

Okay, that’s enough of that. (I have more I could share, but I won’t. I’m already feeling exposed! 😂)

“ART????” You may ask. Well, I have a few plans.

1. Illustrations for A Man of Letters

I only intended to do one from the final chapter, but then I wrote the rest of the fic and loved it and there are multiple scenes I want to see, so... I’m hoping to do multiple pieces.

2. COBB

Maybe??? (Part of me is terrified of having responsibility to someone else’s fic and part of me is excited.)

3. Portrait series

This one’s been kicking around in my head for a while. I think I’d like to continue them all in the same style I used for my Agatha one.

4. Fire series

I’ve talked about this one a bunch. So many of the most pivotal and emotional moments in Simon and Baz’s relationship feature fire in some form and this would be a series to highlight that. It’s just... going to be a long series. And part of me wants to wait till AWTWB is out and I can do all the books together. Also, I don’t really know how to draw fire yet. So I guess I should figure that out, huh?

Whew! Looks busy, but I’m so excited to dig in on something soon!

Tags!!! If you’re still with me after all of that, it’s after midnight here, so not really Wednesday anymore. That said, if you happen to see this, and you haven’t posted your own WIPs yet, then this—THIS—is your official tag! @ you!

[bnha-scenarios]

☕️ Special Thanks ☕️ 

As always, thank you so much for the coffee! Your kindness are very much appreciated! ♡

Emilija | Regan | Nela Kovaříková | 1 Anon

Onwards to the progress update.

I had. So. Many. Things. That I actually wanted to complete.

… Alas, work decided to be a bitch and swamp me with things to take care of. To put it simply, there were a lot of issues that caused a lot of overtime work even on weekends, so I had to step away from coding most of the time so I won’t burn myself out.

So yeah, I didn’t manage to complete a lot of features, though I did dabble on some stuff here and there. I’m not happy with the rather small progress either. But life happens, and there are just other things that are more important sometimes. So we just have to let it go and look forward to the next month!

I’d say that this month I was quite productive in terms of organization and planning instead of the actual coding. I have at least identified what I need to write for the ‘free activity’ time of the game, which makes about 30-40% of the gameplay itself. However, actually writing the scenes and executing it is a different effort altogether, which I have only started to embark on.

Still, it’s crazy to think that the development for the full game has been actively going for around three and a half months now. Whew. Knowing that I have a tendency to hyperfocus and then get tired of something after a short time frame, I’m going to at the very least give myself a pat on the back for still keeping this project up and running until now.

More details below ↓

Added Route: Kirishima

Let me preface this first with a declaration: I won’t be adding any more love interest after this. Please please please don’t make me do it 😅 Going through all the plans and re-setting up things to figure out how to add him in was such a painful experience…

But anyway. I will be adding this boy’s route to the full game, because a lot of people seem to want to have him in the game. He does seem like a fun character to write, so I thought I’ll give him a chance.

Gameplay

Places, Schedules, and Hanging Out with the Boys

I think you would have noticed from the last two devlogs, but there are several activities you can do in-game. One of them is to visit a place of your choice at a certain time in a day.

Some places can be unlocked when you reach a certain threshold in a specific stat, and there are others which will be unlocked when you reach a specific threshold in a character’s affection meter. Nai will message you whenever you manage to unlock a new place to visit, so keep a lookout for that!

But what happens when you visit a place?

Well, each character has their own schedules -- which you should be able to figure out either by coincidence or by talking to them at school when prompted to do so. Your Quirk will allow you to see the unlocked schedule of each of the characters, so my advice would be to check it out before deciding where to go! If you manage to come to a specific place at the correct time, you will bump into them. Normally, this will trigger a set of actions you can perform: Talk, Action, and Skinship.

Talking is a safe way to increase your love interest’s affection meter, especially in the first half of the game. More topics can be unlocked under some requirements. Generally, it doesn’t matter where you are, the topics you can talk about will be the same. There are topics which might trigger different reactions depending on how high your love interest’s affection is, so have fun finding them! However, be warned that most topics can be selected only once!

Action is another safe way to further increase your love interest’s affection meter. Unlike talking, different places have a different set of actions you could select from. More actions can also be unlocked under some requirements. Responses to this doesn’t exactly change based on the character’s current affection level, and it’s not limited to one time only.

Skinship is a riskier way to boost the affection meter: simply put, it’s a high gain with a high risk. Consider the character’s current affection level when you’re selecting from this list! He might not like it if you go touchy-feely when you’re not that close yet.

On the other hand, when his affection is high enough, you’ll find that you can have a lot of fun choosing the various options here. So be smart, bide your time, and have fun ;)

And that’s not all! Interaction is a two-way street, so depending on how your love interest views the main character, he will initiate Talk, Action, or even Skinship. There’s a lot of variations in here, and I hope you’ll have fun with this mechanic! I certainly am having fun while also pulling out my hair out of frustration designing this and trying to put the mechanism to control this into code…

Progress-wise, I think at the very least the functions for controlling this specific mechanic have been 80% completed. The actual writing however, is another story. There are still hundreds that I still haven’t had the time to write yet, and most of them are not yet coded in. Those who have been coded in still don't have sprites and music, so really, I’ll just say that the writing progress for this part is less than 1% completed….

On the left is the currently WIP full game project, with what I would say around 2-4% dialogue scripted in. And on the right side is the completed demo project.

…. Can you see how much effort the whole game is going to take me now? I did say to strap in and relax, cause this is going to be a long ride. And I wasn’t kidding lol

"Nai"

Although throughout the first week, the story will flow as your environment / characters around you teaches you on how the game works, I’m aware that the game mechanics might be hard to understand for casual players who aren’t too used to playing otome games (or games in general). Which is pretty much why I’m giving you a ‘helpline’ of some sort, in the form of another character.

Why a character? Because I can and I want to. Shush 😆

If you’ve played the demo, chances are, you’ve encountered a name which you had no recollection of existing in the canon My Hero Academia universe. Well, you’re right. Like the player’s character, Nai (full name: Namae Nai / 名前 ない) doesn’t exactly exist in the canon universe, but she’s here to help you throughout the game. (She’s also there because if she wasn’t, 1-A class members becomes odd number in total and that just feels weird to me -- plus, the team exercise system in Heroics wouldn’t exactly make sense if the class has odd number of students)

For those of you who hate Original Characters with a passion (why tho), you don’t need to worry too much. She won’t be an intrusive character in the plot and will mainly not contact you unless she really has to (seriously, her full name literally means ‘no name’, so give her a break, ok?). And if, even then, you still hate her, well.... Too bad you won’t be able to enjoy the game, I guess.

For those of you who don't mind her existence: I hope you’ll take a liking to her dark sense of humor and appreciate her helping you get through the game!

Others

Fixed some bugs regarding unlocking Special Moves from certain activities and games.

Played around and customized the ‘input name’ for a little bit, so it wouldn’t awkwardly sit on the bottom of the screen. I have 0 talent in designing UI though, so the background still stays as a black screen -- but at least it looks more prominent now.

Added a little sign to indicate which route the player has entered. I think it’s pretty cute! Hopefully you’ll like it.

Assets

Those who follow me on Twitter would have seen this coming, but anyway, I’ll be using TMGS OSTs as the main character theme for the four love interests. Hush hush, okay?

Other than that, unfortunately I didn’t have time to do any assets gathering this month.

Writing

Nothing much to say here. I think I managed to script around 50% of the events in the first day, but honestly I’m not completely satisfied with it so I might go back and tweak them a bit. Still a lot of scenes to be written!

Plans for December

I'm not too sure whether there would be much progress for the next two months, since there are so many things happening and deadlines to be met at work, which is making me really unmotivated to do other side projects in my free time lately. I also feel like I haven't been taking care of my health enough ever since quarantine started, so I'm trying to get back into doing more exercises and looking for healthier food options, which also cuts into my free time and motivation I guess.

With that said, I'll still at least aim for getting some scripts coded in -- particularly for the events in day 1. Other than that, maybe hopefully some assets gathering for supporting Kirishima's newly added route, and finishing up the coding parts that I was unable to finish this month.

I'll see y'all again at the end of next month!

[gottaenjoythelittlethingzz]

@mastery-in-procrastination, who is busy doing some awesome things for the community, was kind enough to send me this ask: “How long have you been working on "The Reaper's Only Daughter"?” Tumblr ate the ask, but I was able to save my answer! I may have gone a little over broad in my explanation. Thanks for the question, now sit back and experience the journey. 

Ah yes. My origin story. I remember it like it was yesterday. Allow me to take you back, to before the beginning...

2018! For me it was the year of television (as ‘17 had been the year of the movie). I vividly remember searching for shows on IMDB to compile a sort of list in January. Some well-known, some old hat, but two in particular stuck out to me. Two my mother specifically enjoyed and had for many years. Sons of Anarchy and Shameless. I was finally at the age to where I could start enjoying these shows and so they were added to my list to be watched later. I remember reading the description of SOA and looking through pictures of tough guys on motorcycles. I knew I had to watch it!

Fast forward to May 15th. I was nearing the end of my high school/senior year. I believe I had taken all of my finals at this time and just had a few meaningless things left to turn in for one or two classes. I had just finished The Punisher (thank the godz) and was ready to start the next series. It was again between SOA and Shameless and I have never made a better or more damaging decision in my entire life than when I hit play on the pilot episode of SOA at 7 am as I was getting ready for school that Tuesday morning. Mind you, my school was a dead zone as far as internet goes, but the media godz were shinning down on me that week. I chased the signal every single day.

For the next 6 days, it was all I thought about, all I watched, all I wanted to talk about! I watched 92 episodes, roughly 70 hours of content in 6 days. Though my mother has seen it many times (as it is also her favorite series with her favorite actor(s) in it) I retold her the stories (nearly every episode, or several at a time) as I watched them. She was the first person to see me “live react” to a show in text or otherwise. She enjoyed it because she hasn’t had anyone to talk to about the show in what is now nearly 5 years and she liked hearing my takes on things. 

I stopped talking to friends, I stopped eating (not really so extreme, but I mean...), and on the last 3 nights I hardly slept. I watched it absolutely everywhere! That Friday I skipped school. I reasoned I wasn’t doing work anyway and it wasn’t going to hold me back. If my memory serves me correctly, I watched the finale of S3 through S4 and maybe a little more on either side (but for certain these 14 episodes, technically my favorite in the series) in one straight sitting. In truth, nothing was going to be able to hold me back from this show. I was hard pressed to leave my room, much less my house which made work Saturday difficult. I told my coworkers I was watching it as I jumped up and down waiting to go home (business was slow you see) and I actually left early. I have a bad habit of watching things while driving (don’t do it kids! Listen to your mother!) and actually watched an episode on the way home. 

I ended up pulling an all-nighter on Saturday trying to finish it as I had more plans Sunday. Well, it didn’t work. I fell asleep around 4 am with 4 or 5 episodes to go. I watched a few episodes to and from where I was going in the car, but on Sunday night May 20th, 2018, I watched the final two episodes of the series back to back and a weight had been lifted off my shoulders (it also left a hole in my heart, quite literally). I was no longer susceptible to spoilers and I knew the “secret”. What’s more, I completely, 100% agreed with the creator’s decision as to how and when he ended the show. 

SOA was the first show that ever captivated my attention in such a way. I was never bored, not for a minute. I wouldn’t call many of the episodes fillers even now that I’ve watched each a couple of times (too many to count, for research purposes, I assure you.) And it is one of the most consistent as far as new ideas and character development/design I have ever seen. What's more is I absolutely adore the main cast and characters alike. It honestly took over my life and has changed it for the better. So much so, that it was still all I thought about for several weeks after I finished it. To the point where I had to watch it again top to bottom, though it took me about 2 weeks while sleeping that time. I’ve never watched a show like that, before or since, no matter how much I like a series.

Alas, life goes on, there were more shows to watch, and for the next month or so I turned to watching Shameless (another story entirely) and, though I didn’t want to, I stopped thinking about SOA for a time. That was, until I started thinking about moving to college. My mother had an SOA poster that use to be in her office that she gave to me to put in my apartment. I wake up every morning to see it hanging over my bed and I am reminded that I should be writing TROD. I went down to my college apartment about a week before term started. It was the first time I was technically on my own, though I have roommates, and you will never guess what I did during that week. Go ahead, guess. I did 2 things, actually.

I rewatched SOA, though this time I stopped on series 5 (and if you’ve seen it you may know why) and I “broke down” and created a Writeblr. I’ve always loved to write and actually was in the process of shelving what was originally meant to be my first novel length WIP (on the grounds that it did not have a plot to hold the characters together) that now hasn’t been updated in 6+ months. During this third rewatch an idea came to me. “What would it be like to be in this world?” More specifically, “What would it be like to be a woman in this world”?

This was apparently the right question to ask. The rest is history, swirling into a big black and crow feathered blur. I spent a few months creating Schuyler. I slowly stopped talking about the shelved WIP online and started answering questions for her instead. I figured if I was going to shelve 1 project I had better have another to replace it with, and so TROD was born! I nearly immediately had a character personality and a title when I started. The name Schuyler and her family lineage to link her to the canon story took more time. But while I was thinking of all the technical stuff I was also imagining all the fun scenes that would take place in this imaginary novel I was picturing.

I spent so much time thinking about it, specifically the first chapter which you have seen is now available to read on this blog, that the first time I sat down to write I wrote out 5,000 words flat. Many remained in what is currently “the final draft”. This had never happened to me before and I was inspired! I have been working on it ever since. As far as physically writing for it I have only been writing TROD for about 4 months. But in actuality, TROD has been a project a long time in the making. Nearly 9 months of thought and devotion to a Fandom nearly gone, but I’m here now to carry the torch!

9 months in and I have 6 moodboards, a chapter, and far too many tag games/posts to count. I have roughly 30k words written (continuously, obsessively tweaking the first 3 chapters) and another 2k or so of notes (outlines, dialogue lines, and ideas for scenes). This is actually the first story where I’m consulting a sort of outline (my own that I’m always adding to, but also the canon story) and it’s been my best writing experience to date!

This project is going to be long. Longer than anything I’ve ever dreamed of taking on before. I still have much to explore, plot kinks to work through, and many months, if not years, of work to go. But w/o SOA I would have never become so involved in media (as now I want to make it my career), met some of my favorite actors, created my Writeblr or been inspired to continue writing, and I certainly never would have entered into this inclusive community or met so many awesome writers!

*Whew. That was a lot. But SOA and my WIP TROD means a lot to me as you can see. Thanks so much for the ask. Feel free to stop by anytime! 

I’m also going to tag @themildestofwriters as I know you may be thinking about diving into this series yourself and I want to both warn you and wish you well if you choose to do so!

And @aspire2bu, as I believe I saw you post recently about how you first got into K-pop in the first place and I found it interesting. Hopefully you’ll find this interesting too!

[alaskawritingmom]

             L… O… N… G          P…O…S…T             T…O…D…A…Y

I have some news! I am part of a wonderfully talented group and have been kindly invited to join them on this Love, Christmas 2 Collection.

But before I venture further into that, I wanted to talk about changes in my world. So, its August, the month where U.S. children return to school. Remember we have 11 children (long, complicated story. OF COURSE, I’m writing a book about it but not in this arena. I’ll keep you updated as there are updates.)

But, for now, lets focus on the new upcoming events. I have the first book of Cian and Molly’s story done and the remaining two of the trilogy outlined. WHEW! I’m excited to finish them and that is the only WIPS I am working on as I promised to have it earlier in the summer and things…LIFE… got in the way.

Anyway, we are homeschooling again this year but adding our 8th grader (our youngest. Her brother will graduate in November with plans to go to college in January.) Hope the heat moderates for us ALL!

Next, IT IS MY DAY TO PURCHASE for this lovely box set below, so … $.99cents

Which means it’s your day too! PRE-ORDER TODAY!

Amazon US;  http://bit.ly/2LuvC2

Amazon UK:  http://bit.ly/2LC2UK

BN:  http://bit.ly/2LC2BN

iTunes:  http://bit.ly/2LoveC2

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2LC2Kobo

***

CONTEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s a Chance to have my Novella dedicated to YOU! (Or any one of the 25 Author’s works) First requirement is to ENTER!

Enter HERE

Christmas Movie (Box Collection) Contest 

Calling all Christmas lovers!

Do you love movies of the holiday season? If so, the Authors’ Billboard needs your attention! This coming 2018 Christmas, our authors—New York Times and USA Today Bestsellers—will be putting together a multi-author box collection of brand new, never before published stories to dazzle everyone, but we require your participation.

The title of our collection will be LOVE, CHRISTMAS 2 and the theme of this bundle will be Christmas movies. We want to use YOUR favorite holiday movies as the titles for our books. If you and your movie title are chosen, one of the novellas will be dedicated to YOU. The author will contact you for your name or the name you’d like her to use in the dedication. 

Sound like fun? Please enter the contest by naming your special movie in the contest entry form.

You may enter as many times as you like. So what are you waiting for?

Here’s what the winners will receive:

Twenty-three winners will have his/her favorite movie chosen as the title and possibly the theme for one of the novellas.

That particular story will be dedicated to the winner.

And the winners will receive a free copy of the box set (eBook only).

Ho, ho, ho! And good luck!

Enter Contest HERE

  This week’s recommendations:

amzn.to/Poppyflynn   amzn.to/WitnessProtect   amzn.to/SCartwright

NEW AUTHOR

Calling all Christmas lovers!              L... O... N... G          P...O...S...T             T...O...D...A...Y I have some news! I am part of a wonderfully talented group and have been kindly invited to join them on this Love, Christmas 2 Collection.

[writerdaniellemichael-blog]

Let’s Talk About Goals

As January draws to a close I find myself reflecting on my New Years Resolutions. Honestly? I really dislike the idea of New Years Resolutions. Why? Because resolutions are basically wishes. Things you want to happen. I want to get in shape, I want to write a book, I want to be a better friend. Sure they are all great things but without a plan and without focused goals they will only ever be wishes. 

Dreams are achievable, you can work towards your dreams. As Kim Chance always says (along with a lot of other people), “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” If you want to really make things happen in life you have to work for them. Goals help you lay out a plan to achieve those dreams in a set amount of time. After all, many self-help books and high school personal finance teachers will tell you that you have to make SMART goals. If you are unfamiliar with SMART goals they basically stand for Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time-bound. You can read more about them here: 

 http://hrweb.mit.edu/performance-development/goal-setting-developmental-planning/smart-goals

When I make my goals I start big and break it down into smaller bite-sized chunks. After all, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You can break your goals down to quarterly (3-month period), Bi-monthly (2-month period), or even monthly. It is all about what works best for you. I choose to use quarterly goals. So each quarter I create a list of goals that help me accomplish those bite-sized pieces and work my way toward my final goal. These quarterly goals give me direction for what I need to get done over the next three months to become successful. For some people three months is too long of a time, they will procrastinate until the last month and then be overwhelmed by all they have to do. For me the three months gives me flexibility because my schedule is forever changing, it allows me to pick up the slack in some areas and get ahead in others. Some goals are things I want to accomplish each day or each week. For these goals, if I complete my task 75% of the time or more I will consider the goal accomplished. 

Accountability is important in setting goals. Some people are perfectly fine being accountable to themselves. Others, myself included, find they can rationalize themselves out of guilt for not accomplishing their goals. Share your goals with other people who will keep you accountable. Share them with a partner, a friend, a sibling, a parent. Though probably not your dog. While they can be great listeners, they aren’t so good at the accountability part. Unless of course, your goal is to walk your dog more. 

Part of my accountability is to share my goals here for anyone to see. I plan to review my goals later to see if I was indeed successful or if I end up a big, fat, failure. So without further ado here are my 2018 goals and my Q1 goals. Note: I do have other personal and financial goals that I won’t be listing here, but don’t worry my husband is a great accountability partner. 

2018 Goals

Writing: 

Finish draft 1 of my WIP.

Finish draft 2 of my WIP.

Find Beta Readers for my WIP.

Fully outline WIP #2.

Reading:

Read 36 books.

Have 75% of books read be from my own shelf.

Write at least 1 review a month.

Try at least 1 new genre each quarter (I might push myself more on this I haven’t decided yet). 

Read at least 1 middle-grade novel each quarter (again I haven’t decided if I will push myself more on this, I would like to write a middle-grade series eventually so I want to read more of it).

Track reading statistics and seek out more diverse reads.

Social Media:

Grow my Instagram platform.

Blog regularly.

Engage in the online writing community through Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Quarter 1 Goals

Writing: 

Write 30,000 words for my WIP.

Finish draft 1 of my WIP.

World build for WIP # 2 - flesh out characters

Reading:

Read 9 books

Read 7 books I already own.

Review 3 books.

Read 1 book from a genre other than fantasy. 

Read 1 middle-grade novel.

Research reading statistic to track.

Track reading statistics to create a baseline.

Social Media:

Get 300 Instagram followers (@writerdaniellemichael if you want to follow!)

Get 500 Instagram followers.

Do a 500 follower giveaway.

Write 1 blog post a week (yes, I know I am already failing at this one. January was a bit of a rough month for me).

Participate in Kim Chance’s #ChancetoConnect once a month.

Whew, that was long. I promise I will try not to be so lengthy in the future. I am writing this because I am already behind on my January goals. Instead of saying Oh well, messed up already, guess the whole year is a dud like I might have in the past. I’m saying Oh well, January didn’t go as I planned, time to refocus so I can have a positive quarter. 

What are your goals for the year? Do you use quarterly goals? If you do feel free to share them and we can be accountable together. 

Happy reading, Happy writing! 

-Danielle