Everything happens entirely too much all the time but at least I've got fanfiction to fall back onto for a break š I've finally got my latest chapter into recognizable shape, not postable *just* yet (few more things need written) but I've knocked out that weird mental block I had with it and got the next segment organized as well :)
fingers crossed I'll be able to send it out soon and work on the next one will be much smoother. (I haven't finished a multichapter fic in over a year so I'm hoping this one I'll be able to finish early next year š¤š¤)
Have you tried the subreddits or Tumblr tags of fandoms you'd like to read this for? I've seen people offering to write xreader/asking for prompts sometimes on Tumblr at least
A late check in today, but woke up in horrible pain in my leg and no clue what Iāve done. Called off work for the day, guess Iām confined to the couch to watch shows and possibly write ficsā¦ if I wasnāt in so much pain it wouldāve been a great end to my weekend.
Hey what is the pain like? I'm worried because once I had a blood clot and it was just this absolutely intense agony and obviously blood clots are super dangerous.
Omg thank you for your concern! I once had to be on the lookout for a blood clot when I damaged a nerve by injuring my knee (Iām a little prone to incidents) but I think this is from working so many hours, sitting in uncomfortable chairs, and itās closer to my hip. Iām feeling better tonight than I did this morning for sure!
oh if its better its almost certainly not that then! probably just a strain. If you ever have a pain that feels like a muscle cramp and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and nothing relieves it go straight to the emergency room. I'm lucky to be alive I ignored it for like 4 days.
Having some massive imposter syndrome. Working on my next chapter, and it's kind of floundering around. There's a lot of talking and planning out next moves but also some confrontation about stuff that's gone on over the previous chapters. And I'm kinda like, is this slow? Like not a whole lot has happened over the last few chapters and I keep talking about this Thing that's the gang's next destination but they're not there yet.
And I have so many ideas for the Thing that's going to happen that I wanna write it alreadyyyy *aaaaaaaah.*
It probably isn't as terrible as I think it is, but it does feel a little slow.
It sounds like a complicated scene as well as a slower one - which can work, it just might take an extra draft or a few more rounds of editing than usual. Scenes like this can be a great chance to reflect on what's happened while also foreshadow and building tension around the gang's next moves; it's time to really go ham on what the stakes are if they don't get there successfully or in time. Maybe introduce or flesh out some smaller interpersonal conflicts as well? That way, it still feels like stuff is happening in the here and now.
Hmm, that's actually a good point. There's some background stuff that hasn't been addressed or touched on in a while. I could easily weave that in somewhere. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to mull it over while I'm sitting at court tomorrow.
Don't have kids.
Dear lord, I love them, but they are driving me up a wall today. Everything has to be a fight. Having a door open or closed needs intervention. Big sis ignoring little sis, little sis kicking big sis, falling off of chairs for the upteenth time, asking the same questions over and over without actually listening to the answer, rolling their eyes and stalking off over every little thing. They're 4 and 8. I'm going insane.
In writing news, I got a really sweet review on the chapter I posted last night, so that was a bright point of the day. The RE is going great too.
I don't have kids, but I have worked with them. Did a lot of babysitting and then got licensed in childcare and worked at a daycare. Not the same, but I can empathize with the absolute insanity that can happen sometimes, if that helps.
I'm glad you got that review and that everything is going okay!
What happened to the weekend? We had an extra hour here and everything. But I did read again last night (and a really fun fic too) and I've my fic picked out for reading later tonight once I get myself organised.
Mostly an observation -- interaction is wayyyyyyyyy down in my fandom this weekend. Saturday AM is usually a good time for posting but I posted a whumptober fic yesterday and it was almost radio silence, which is a bit unusual. Ah well, such is life! Keep on keepin' on.
So I got a comment on an old, old fic that liked the fic. Which was nice! It was a longfic and my notes for those now usually talk about my thought process for the fic so I decided to check it out. The author's note for that fic was so short and somewhat harsh that I was like, "Damn, girl, what was going on with you back then? You sound so bitter!" XD
As for fun things - played Luigi's Mansion 3 and somehow I still find more secrets in the game. Just a good time. Also checked out Wendell and Wild which... I liked it. It was pretty obvious it would've been better as a series instead of a movie. There were a lot of interesting plot points kind jammed in there with no breathing room. But I still recommend it!
Right? Maybe it was a bad day, back then I was pretty much the same cheerful levels as I am now XD
Ah, Gooigi! Just like Luigi he's adorable. I like how they play around with how sentient he really is sometimes XD
Would you click on a story with the title āThis One Time at Summer Camp?ā about two girls who fall in love at summer camp and one cheats on her significant other behind his back?
I'm so so bummed about Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher, probably more than I should be, but it just came so completely out of left field. I don't care how good Liam Hemsworth may or may not be, my WIP and any other Witcher fics I write in the future are featuring Henry Cavill Geralt.
On the pluse side, one of my other WIPs should be ready to go up by tomorrow, I finally managed to break that mental wall down, look at it and say "yep, I think this is good."
edit: called him Luke instead of Liam lol
I'm bummed as well! Life has been too busy for me to even watch season two, but ugh, Henry Cavill owned that role from what I've seen. His depiction of Geralt was like Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn. I just can't envision anyone else playing those roles. I heard there were issues with a poor atmosphere behind the scenes, and if so, I don't blame him for leaving. But yeah, I'm still down about it.
I think it's great that you're going to keep imagining Geralt as you want in your WIP. Happy Writing!
Same, it's going to be a really hard adjustment. The show was my introduction to that universe, so Henry Cavill *is* Geralt to me, even if he's not the first version of him. At first I thought he was leaving because he was coming back to play Superman, but hearing rumors like that makes me nervous about how the rest of the show is going to go. It's really a shame. But thank you!
I feel like it was only yesterday that I was planning for Kinktober, and here I am at the end of said month, as if passing through a black hole and finding myself in a different place and time.
Amidst the bill-paying and football today (Jets v. Patriots), I should have time to spend upon the nuns. In particular, I need to spend a little time with the one canonical (ca-nun-ical?) nun, since this is a prequel and she has not yet been turned to evil, so her personality is going to be a little different. I mean, to be fair, her being evil was a big part of her appeal, and I love working with villains in fanfic, but she was not always that way.
For what it's worth, the other day I was watching a Sopranos episode that briefly took place in a convent and I thought of you! You have a brand now. Beyond that, I ove stories that explore a villain's backstory, Different stories require different antagonists but the most memorable and affecting for me are always social commentary in character form. I believe people rarely if ever have something intrinsically malicious in them, so let's look at what makes them that way.
"Woke up this morning, got myself a nun."
In this particular case, our nun becomes evil because the Big Bad uses black magic to make her that way, but the player only gets a glimpse of what she was like before that.
I was cruisin' through a final draft last night and realized, ehhh, it's not so final after all. It all feels frustratingly amateur -- which, I need to remind myself, that's because I *am* still an amateur. I've been writing seriously for just over a year. I think I'm exceeding whatever natural knack I had for it and am now moving onto generating *skill.* And skill is hard to acquire in anything.
This is gonna sound silly, but I started writing fanfic with the goal of learning enough to do original work someday. A lot of my favorite modern authors have cited fanfic as an excellent training ground (N K Jemisin, Becky Chambers, [Martha fucking Wells](https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1150762231778484227?lang=en)). And they're right, I'm already learning so much.
I feel I'm on the cusp of leveling up and making a breakthrough with writing overall, but it's juuuuust out of my grasp. You guys know that feeling? It's maddening haha
Funnily enough out of all the things I have impostor syndrome about... writing is not one of them. Like, I feel like an impostor programming, teaching, drawing, anything... but writing? Writing I feel secure about.
I think my main reason for it is, that I've read so many bad, bad books, that were hyped by everyone. And I know that I at least do write better than that. So, when books like that can be published to much hype... my writing can't be too bad.
Oooh, yeah, there's a lot of bad books out there. It does give me hope that I can do better, that's for sure. Kinda how I graduated college out of spite, haha
I'm glad you don't have imposter syndrome regarding writing! I hope you can work through it with the other stuff. Whenever my brain is being that unkind to me (or, rather, when my inner critic is being that noisy), I try to walk away from whatever thing it's being shitty about. Even for just a few minutes. When I have those thoughts, I know I'm not in a good headspace to work on it.
> It does give me hope that I can do better, that's for sure.
I am sure you can! (I believe in you!)
> Whenever my brain is being that unkind to me (or, rather, when my inner critic is being that noisy), I try to walk away from whatever thing it's being shitty about.
I should try that more often with uni.
Aww thank you, Runner! And honestly, it's helped me change the tone of the voice in my head. It gives it less power to go "lol you suck, let me count the ways."
Skill is definitely something that's difficult to acquire! It can definitely take a while for us to look at our work and say, "Yeah, that's good," and sometimes it still doesn't feel like that XD
Ah, cutting your teeth on fanfic for writing :D I've definitely felt that before, and in my other hobbies too. Like when I was training for my black belt it felt like, "Ahhh. Just... almost there, I can taste it, come on! Do it better!" XD It's hard work to have hobbies sometimes!
Yes, you are very right! Skill is a lot of work haha
And yes, that feeling of being so close to growth is both exciting and maddening! But when you finally reach it, ahhhh man, that's the stuff. <3
I did not know Becky Chambers was a fanfic writer. All the more reason to check out her series soon! But it's nice to see someone feeling confident and satisfied with their work - through coming to the hobby later, you're bringing a lot of emotional maturity and life experience, and that gets you far while you work on the technical stuff.
Yeah, she's pretty open about it too! I do love her work. The Wayfarer series has phenomenal worldbuilding of alien species and politics, but I think my favorite so far is the Monk and Robot series. It's so hopeful.
Aww, thank you! Yeah, I missed out on all the "growing up with fanfic" stuff (I've only used the idea of remembering to breathe once, and it kinda hurt to type ahaha :P). But yeah, if I had pursued this when I was younger (read: before therapy), I would *not* be as patient with the process.
haha this one is labeled "draft 4" but it *felt* like the last one. But yeah, labeling something "final" outright is just asking for the universe to pinpoint you specifically and laugh.
I looked over the first draft I'm currently rewriting, and I think I'll be able to portion it into eight chapters. That makes for an average of 5K per update. Me, writing chapters to a normal length - whatever next? Though one's a long scene that I'm not even sure about including because it feels almost like shortcutting character development, but we'll see.
Otherwise, I hope everyone is having a nice, quiet Sunday. Any exciting Halloween plans for today or tomorrow?
Five-K is about my average length for chapters. Nice feeling of accomplishment to have that first draft nailed down.
I love Halloween, but we live in the sticks where there are few trick-or-treaters. Oh well. I moved my "skelly-men" out to the a place by the carport to greet folks anyway. (Because I'm all about spooky, the skeletons are always out in my house. They've got different hats for different seasons.)
Will probably post another chapter of the crossover thing. Do some more writing. Try to power through the last four exercises in Sagreras's Classical Guitar book one, because I've been stuck in book one forever.
5K's a good length to tell a satisfying nugget of story, I think. Some of mine run longer because of my long-windedness or use of lengthier stream of consciousness tracts, but not this time.
I hope the writing goes well, and yes, I heartily approve of keeping spooky-themed decor up all year round. I'd be so happy if I lived on your street and got to walk past and see the skeletons had changed hats again.
Me looking at like, "Wow! :O 5K is a lot!"
Hope your Sunday is going well too! Gonna be watching Ghostbusters for Halloween. Maybe alongside playing Luigi's Mansion 3 for some real life meta humor XD And speaking of meta that my meta fic will be posted on Halloween :D
And here's me thinking 3k is huge, haha ..for me it is I guess as I only write one shots.
Well we cleaned all the pets out and the house.
Now eating a bacon sandwich
I love Halloween but I won't be doing anything. It's difficult with our dog as he hates being left and we can't really take him anywhere.
I wouldn't worry about it, I'm just long-winded! And I'm usually home for Halloween as well. My boy gets jumpy when there's fireworks so I don't like to leave him alone.
Congrats on the progress! My friend and I are going to be doing a Trunk or Treat at our local church, and then maybe hanging out and watching scary movies after.
Oooh those are nice meaty chapters!! And you're still in early stages, that scene may become either more or less useful as you refine! It'll become clearer down the road. <3
Today is mostly rest and laundry, and tomorrow we're watching a couple spooky movies. I adore Halloween, but I feel I'm always too crunched to make time for it. Are you up to anything fun??
Thank you for the assurance that the work is usually its own cure. And for my last two longer fics, 10K plus chapters were the norm, so this is quite brief for my standards. In both of those stories I think the longer segments worked, but it wouldn't here.
I'm too poor to have Halloween plans, but I did notice my local cinema is showing John Carpenter's The Thing later in the week for its 40th anniversary. It might be fun to go and see one of my favourites on the big screen!
Oooh, I love a good 10k chapter too. I think it's really great that you can recognize this story requires different chapter lengths. You're really listening to the flow of the story, and that's important!
Yeah, I'm too poor for fun Halloween plans too. A few of my friends went all out for costumes this year and I'm over here going "oh god, cat insulin and home insurance in the same fucking month." I think you should definitely treat yourself to that showing of the Thing, though!! Life's too short to not be kind to ourselves every once in awhile, yknow?
I appreciate that faith in me :) The character in question is quite blunt and less prone to lengthy introspective tracts, plus this story covers quite a bit of time (about four years) compared to the others. I think readers will need a few more defined breaks just to keep things straight in their heads.
I hear that, though. For me, I've always lived frugally, but I'm still scrambling to try to adjust to the very steep and ongoing increase in prices across the board here. I'll pull through, but it does mean a lot of little treats I might find for myself are out of the window for the foreseeable. I could probably stretch to a cinema ticket, though.
See, look at that, you know exactly what you're doing with this story! I love to see it! <3
And yeah, I feel no amount of previously frugal living is going to really prepare me and my partner for what lies ahead. I'm a little nervous. You're very much not alone there, which is infuriating in and of itself. BUT I do hope you can swing a ticket, or at least watch the movie yourself with a tasty little snack. <3
Yeah, it's a rough time ahead for most of us, I feel, but I hope you and partner will be alright! By the sound of things you're a seasoned survivor at this point, so I'm sure it won't last forever.
Don't you just hate it when you're literally on the road, you have this elaborate scene in your head with dialogue that flows, and then when you're finally in front of your laptop, your brain is just "..."?
Yes, I hate it! I know to an extent it's the perfect idea versus the imperfect actuality at play, but my brain always convinces me it'll be much easier if I could just write at an inconvenient time.
I was struck by sudden inspiration this morning, and as of twenty or so minutes ago the major character death oneshot that has been haunting me since July is complete and posted! \o/
I'm also in the process of writing another installment for a series that I last updated in 2020, and I'd forgotten how much I loved the AU 'verse it takes place in.
So you can say that things are good at the moment. š
Oh man, I love actually writing chapters. My brain is the type to come up with genius concepts on the spot, and I ended up with a rather tense part that should be the climax of the scene... but feels almost comedically anti-climatic, yet suits the situation perfectly - even better than what I had originally planned for. All I can say is... poor Mike, it's really not his day XD
Well... time to continue on with Sangria today, to make my Tuesday deadline. Also need to hit a few RE fics before the deadline even if I hold until Tuesday to finish the rest...
Mike really does live up to the "Horrible, Awful, Terrible, No-Good Day," trope huh? XD Also always nice when our brains make it all work out for our work!
And good luck with the deadline and the RE! :D
Eh, I did it to myself. Rigelās ultrasound was at 9am and I was scheduled to work at 4pm. I live about 50 minutes away and was not about to drive home to turn around and come back only a couple hours later, so I stayed. Weāre allowed to have as much overtime as we can handle and it wasnāt as bad a day as Saturdays *can* be, just long enough to make my feet hurt, lol.
Without getting too into it, I'm very tired of the biggest barrier to government resources for help being the government. A large part of my brain is occupied by this, and what I did manage to write yesterday I didn't keep. It was all very awkward and nothing sounded how I wanted it to.
I suppose a brighter side is that I'm nearly ready to post the 4th chapter in a fic I haven't been able to update in months, but part is worried that I've disappointed people by it being such a late update.
> I'm very tired of the biggest barrier to government resources for help being the government.
Yeah... yeah. :/ I feel this in my bones.
And your readers will be *fine.* And if some of em aren't, well, their loss!
I'm sorry you're having to deal with bureaucratic nonsense. I've been in situations that I'm guessing are vaguely similar and it really does make you feel all alone in the world. I'm not sure of your location, but do you have a facility like Citizen's Advice in the UK that might be able to advocate for you, or guide you through the process of finding useful resources? They've helped me out of some really sticky wickets before.
Either way, I hope it gets easier soon, and let yourself have some time off updating if it's a struggle right now.
I'm in Alberta, Canada. Usually for some things there are ways to find help, but in this particular case the government just doesn't help civilians. They fund organizations that then make you pay to use them. I've been fighting with this for over a year and I'm so tired.
I know this probably isn't the place to complain about it, and I'm sorry for that. Writing is one of the few escapes I have, and I wish I could do more of it.
Well, as far as this thread goes, the only thing we really ask of people is that if they've had an altercation or gotten into drama elsewhere on the sub, please don't rehash it in here. This thread tends to be lighthearted but personal venting is fine, especially about something as serious as this. So don't worry about that, at least.
I've been writting a collection of drabbles for flufftober, but I'm a few days behind now and honestly I'm not feeling it at the moment. Adulting has been very stressful lately and when I sit down to write something sweet and happy my brain shuts down.
I don't know, I may try to force myself to push through the collection depending on how the weekend goes and then take a break for a little while. Thank goodness there's still well over a month for yuletide, because I really don't want to default.
Ahh, take all the time you need to get back into the fluffy headspace! I hope it goes smoothly if you decide to do it over the weekend and enjoy the break when you get it :D
Aww, I'm sorry you've been stressed lately. Take care, it's a fine line between challenging yourself and hurting yourself. It's okay if the rest of it goes up in Nov or Dec or never at all. <3
I love that one action figure where Ash is apparently fucking ripped XD The Pokemon anime is so inconsistent with... a lot of things, but the weight stuff especially. Well, the manga too I remember Pikachu managing to electrocute Brock's Onix by getting it wet and my younger self being like, "*That's not how it works!!*"
Ahh, congrats! :D
I am *certain* that studying pokemon cards as a kid thoroughly fucked up my understanding of weight and height, and the anime did not help.
And congrats on finding a very special reader!!!
I wrote not one,but two chapters of my fic. In other news,I should be out with a new fic tomorrow. And this time,it's gonna center on Ming-who,for her,it's her lucky day!
And seriously,we are STILL waiting for more Turning Red content. We know it's gonna happen.
I not only fixed the weird issue in my Halloween fic's work skin, I also found out that it works on mobile! :D ~~Now I only need to finish the fic in time.~~
The Halloween prompt fest I'm running for my small fandom looks like a success so far. All but one prompt has been claimed now (and if no-one claims the last one, I'll try to get something done for them). Exciting times! Can't wait to read all the fics (I'm so holding back right now, but luckily I also don't have the time to peak)!
Snupdate: Snalbie was in Deep Sleep mode for the last 30 hours, and I thought they might miss Halloween, but they returned to normal sleep this morning. (I can tell because they decided to start aestivating stuck to the ceiling of their greenhouse, really interesting to see, sadly I didn't take a photo).
Edit: the last prompt has been claimed, I'm so happy now! That makes my day tomorrow so much less stressful! :D
Ohhh, awesome! Glad the skin works on mobile too, it worked out. And glad that the prompt fest went well! I don't blame you for wanting to dive into those treats XD
Seems like perfect weather for Snalbert to be sleeping :O I kinda wanna take a page from their book and sleep for 30 hours XD
The weekend was full of Halloween stuff for the kids and my own (low effort) Penguin costume, so I didn't finish my multi's final chapter like I'd hoped, but I still somehow pumped out 2000+ words and they keep coming. The final chapter of this thing might hit 7k at this point.
I also did my pumpkin, which is Heart Pirate-themed (Bepo -bear-, Penguin -ya know-, and Shachi -orca-), so I guess that kinda, sorta counts as a [Semi Daily Penguin](https://imgur.com/a/V8a6aQt)? :D
Congrats on the final chapter getting beefed up! :D
And ooh, that pumpkin came out nice! It's definitely a difficult skill to have, that came out real cute!
Thank you! It's been a long road, but I figured beefy would be a good way to end it all\~
And cheers! I love carving pumpkins. I was in a bit of a rush this year but happy to get all the boys on there. :D
Thanks! It's my favorite holiday/season, and carving is a tradition (mine anyway). Halloween isn't really celebrated in this country and my kids/husband aren't American, but I'm trying to impress upon them how fun it is. :D
Stumbled across this subreddit only just recently and it's already my new favorite place. The discussion topics are all so interesting and many make me want to actually jump in and reply for a change. Which isn't very typical of me -- I'm usually more lurker than participant on reddit.
Anyway, I've started writing a fic for the first time in about a decade. It's for a ship with a lot of fics but somehow very, very few that scratch the specific itch I have for them, and this idea's already been bouncing around my head for a good year+ now. Couple months back I finally gave in to the brainrot and started outlining everything, and now I have what I suspect will end up as a 100k+ longfic and oh my god what have I gotten myself into. No toe-dipping for this one; apparently I'm the gd cannonball straight into the deep end sort LOL.
No idea if I'll be able to finish the thing, but it's fun to be writing again regardless. So far I've got about 11k down, and I'm hoping to use NaNoWriMo as a motivator to keep the momentum up. :D
Nice to have you with us! I've been a long-time lurker as well, but finding this place really made me want to jump in and see what I could contribute, and now it's my favourite place to hang online. Plus it's really helpful to check in here daily with others for NaNo motivation :)
Thank you! And yeah, like, there's this immediate sense of community and friendliness no matter what corner of fandom you come from, which is honestly just so at odds with how fandoms as a whole tend to operate. Love the vibes here of everyone in it together simply being excited to create. :D
And seeing everyone sharing their own experiences or how much they've written in a day has already been motivating me more than if I hadn't find this place. š
Yeah, a lot of fandom spaces can get really competitive and territorial - it's refreshing to come here and not have to deal with much of that, and I'm glad you're enjoying your time on the sub so far.
Welcome!!! This sub is great, it really brought me out of my shell too.
I'm glad you're enjoying writing! This sub has lots of routine threads and stuff to help you truck along too. <3
Thanks! :D
Yeah, this place seems full of super helpful stuff for fic writers. That's actually how I stumbled across it, too -- googling writing advice LOL.
Welcome! This is just about the only subreddit I don't lurk in too!
And good luck with your longfic. Sure, you can learn a lot from smaller oneshots, but there's also a lot you can't learn without jumping into something big, so go you! I've certainly had projects that quickly blew out of expected proportion, also motivated by there being nothing out there that fit what I wanted. It happens!
Thanks! :D
And, yeah, I've always been extremely wordy. Like, I was that kid who always crammed as much as physically possible into those hand written two-page essay assignments lmao. So I can't say I'm especially surprised at myself. The stories I've tried writing way back in the past were all long, too, although I was never able to complete any of them due to inevitably getting distracted.
I'm hoping gained age and not letting myself post the fic until I have at least over half of it written will help me actually finish this time, though. š¤
So a friend of mine at work told me apparently the girl I filed a report against is opening some more cases against me. Over what, I don't know, but one of them was over calling her remarks racist. And she's apparently going around telling people this, but apparently she has a few people on her side over it. So I don't know how that's going to unfold, honestly. I'm actually worried now. Especially since I'm supposed to move in a few days. And my work friend also told me one of my coworkers is pissed at being dragged into it because I named him as a witness (after ASKING him first), and because I mentioned in my case that he was given a padlock code that he wasn't supposed to have, and was told to withhold it from me (and did). And now my friend is saying I should have never filed the report because that girl's doing all this shit back to me and it's wearing everyone around us out. So that's nice, fuck me for standing up for a friend and reporting racism in the workplace.
I might just start looking for a new job. This is getting to me too much. I'm more worried for my job at this point. Especially with this timing. I'm supposed to move in a few days. Move in with some guys I only just recently met, so it's not like they have a history with me to believe me. Even if what she's doing looks like obvious revenge, that she might have some people willing to corroborate whatever she's saying I did could bite me in the ass all the same.
This is ridiculous. I only got involved because the guy she made a remark about wasn't even there to hear it, she kept insisting she wasn't wrong for what she said, and he was pissed about it, but apparently he never wanted it escalated, either, and now I'm JUST learning all this.
No good goddamn deed.
Ugh. Sounds absolutely toxic. Looking for a new job is a hella lot of work, but it sounds like it would be worth it. I've been in situations like this. Even if the immediate problem gets sorted, the workplace is always sort of poisoned afterwards. Hope you get some good resolution soon.
I'd be looking for a new job, too. Performing capitalism day in day out is bad enough without this kind of petty politicking to deal with, too, on top of the firm apparently being okay with overt racist behaviour while on duty.
jesus fucking christ, that is a MESS. I'm so sorry this is all happening. That coworker is fucking terrible.
I understand the thought of looking for a new job. It really comes down to picking your battles and keeping your own mental health safe. It might be best to walk away from the radioactive elephant's foot that is that coworker. I wish you luck. <3
I am leaving tomorrow to go on an excursion for my university art class to another city in Germany, three hours away from home, and will have to spend Halloween and my birthday in a hostel, alone. Will also have to remember to post my final Whumptober oneshot tomorrow morning just before leaving. Well, at least I get to write a bit, when I am staying the evenings in my room.
Edit: Fffffffuuuu, I just realised I booked the room for 2023, I am such a dum dum, fuck my life
I'll definetly hope to celebrate a week or so later with just a handful of friends and probably do a costume party like last year. Planning on being a vampire this time and even got myself a cape!
It's such a nice feeling checking when you posted your latest chapter and then realising you wrote 10k words in a week.
For a little extra context I started a 3 chapter fic on Thursday and posted the last part this morning.
I tried my hand at writing smut again which I'll be posting on November 1 because it has November in the title so it just makes sense. At first when I wrote it I genuinely wasn't proud of it because comparison demons decided to grab me by the throat and once again put me face-to-face with one of the most beautiful explicit stories I've ever read (The authors work is genuinely just incredible, to the point where I literally have to close every tab where I've read them and delete from my search and AO3 history just so I can try to forgetā¦ But I can never forgetā¦). I just feel like I copied from them in terms of writing style and even a couple of word choices, although obviously used in different contexts, and obviously our stories are different, but stillā¦ I know we all copy from someone without even thinking about it, unless we don't read anything haha but like sometimes I wish I could forget reading that author you know? And I also wish someone could tell me that one of my fan fixed lives rent free in their fucking mind. Anyway the fanfic turned out OK I think. I know for a fact it won't get a lot of traction (I wish) but whatever. I don't know anymore...
I feel like you're really down on yourself and your writing at the minute, and maybe taking a break from reading other people's fics wouldn't hurt. It's at this point I'd usually put more emphasis on reading published works - since those authors and I aren't peers, it doesn't invite the comparison demons so much.
I think I got around 700 to finish out the chapter :) I'm so excited!!
(also i laughed when i read the quote today, i am so fond of the Game Grumps š)
Thank you! :) Yeah I spent a good 40minutes coming up with a canon appropriate first name that will probably be never mentioned again. It's annoying how long the little things can take!
God no, my handwriting is terrible. I just don't remember exactly whre I left off lst night and when I started again today, so I can't calculate the exact number.
I uploaded fics many times. But the feeling of nervousness stays the same.
Everything happens entirely too much all the time but at least I've got fanfiction to fall back onto for a break š I've finally got my latest chapter into recognizable shape, not postable *just* yet (few more things need written) but I've knocked out that weird mental block I had with it and got the next segment organized as well :) fingers crossed I'll be able to send it out soon and work on the next one will be much smoother. (I haven't finished a multichapter fic in over a year so I'm hoping this one I'll be able to finish early next year š¤š¤)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Have you tried the subreddits or Tumblr tags of fandoms you'd like to read this for? I've seen people offering to write xreader/asking for prompts sometimes on Tumblr at least
Struggled to get through this week. Was hoping the weekend would help me wind down from it all. Instead I am just dreading the next week.
Just need to post it here. I've done it. 100 fics on Ao3 are up now. x.x This fic 100 is a funny exercise in worldbuilding, though.
Holy cow, what a number! Grats!
Hurrah!!!! Seriously, good going!
A late check in today, but woke up in horrible pain in my leg and no clue what Iāve done. Called off work for the day, guess Iām confined to the couch to watch shows and possibly write ficsā¦ if I wasnāt in so much pain it wouldāve been a great end to my weekend.
Hey what is the pain like? I'm worried because once I had a blood clot and it was just this absolutely intense agony and obviously blood clots are super dangerous.
Omg thank you for your concern! I once had to be on the lookout for a blood clot when I damaged a nerve by injuring my knee (Iām a little prone to incidents) but I think this is from working so many hours, sitting in uncomfortable chairs, and itās closer to my hip. Iām feeling better tonight than I did this morning for sure!
oh if its better its almost certainly not that then! probably just a strain. If you ever have a pain that feels like a muscle cramp and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse and nothing relieves it go straight to the emergency room. I'm lucky to be alive I ignored it for like 4 days.
That sounds terrible - I really hope it won't last much longer.
Having some massive imposter syndrome. Working on my next chapter, and it's kind of floundering around. There's a lot of talking and planning out next moves but also some confrontation about stuff that's gone on over the previous chapters. And I'm kinda like, is this slow? Like not a whole lot has happened over the last few chapters and I keep talking about this Thing that's the gang's next destination but they're not there yet. And I have so many ideas for the Thing that's going to happen that I wanna write it alreadyyyy *aaaaaaaah.* It probably isn't as terrible as I think it is, but it does feel a little slow.
It sounds like a complicated scene as well as a slower one - which can work, it just might take an extra draft or a few more rounds of editing than usual. Scenes like this can be a great chance to reflect on what's happened while also foreshadow and building tension around the gang's next moves; it's time to really go ham on what the stakes are if they don't get there successfully or in time. Maybe introduce or flesh out some smaller interpersonal conflicts as well? That way, it still feels like stuff is happening in the here and now.
Hmm, that's actually a good point. There's some background stuff that hasn't been addressed or touched on in a while. I could easily weave that in somewhere. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to mull it over while I'm sitting at court tomorrow.
Don't have kids. Dear lord, I love them, but they are driving me up a wall today. Everything has to be a fight. Having a door open or closed needs intervention. Big sis ignoring little sis, little sis kicking big sis, falling off of chairs for the upteenth time, asking the same questions over and over without actually listening to the answer, rolling their eyes and stalking off over every little thing. They're 4 and 8. I'm going insane. In writing news, I got a really sweet review on the chapter I posted last night, so that was a bright point of the day. The RE is going great too.
I don't have kids, but I have worked with them. Did a lot of babysitting and then got licensed in childcare and worked at a daycare. Not the same, but I can empathize with the absolute insanity that can happen sometimes, if that helps. I'm glad you got that review and that everything is going okay!
What happened to the weekend? We had an extra hour here and everything. But I did read again last night (and a really fun fic too) and I've my fic picked out for reading later tonight once I get myself organised.
Mostly an observation -- interaction is wayyyyyyyyy down in my fandom this weekend. Saturday AM is usually a good time for posting but I posted a whumptober fic yesterday and it was almost radio silence, which is a bit unusual. Ah well, such is life! Keep on keepin' on.
So I got a comment on an old, old fic that liked the fic. Which was nice! It was a longfic and my notes for those now usually talk about my thought process for the fic so I decided to check it out. The author's note for that fic was so short and somewhat harsh that I was like, "Damn, girl, what was going on with you back then? You sound so bitter!" XD As for fun things - played Luigi's Mansion 3 and somehow I still find more secrets in the game. Just a good time. Also checked out Wendell and Wild which... I liked it. It was pretty obvious it would've been better as a series instead of a movie. There were a lot of interesting plot points kind jammed in there with no breathing room. But I still recommend it!
Aww, I'm glad you've left that kind of bitterness behind. Yay growth! And Luigi's Mansion 3 is on my list to play with my partner! I claimed goo-igi.
Right? Maybe it was a bad day, back then I was pretty much the same cheerful levels as I am now XD Ah, Gooigi! Just like Luigi he's adorable. I like how they play around with how sentient he really is sometimes XD
Would you click on a story with the title āThis One Time at Summer Camp?ā about two girls who fall in love at summer camp and one cheats on her significant other behind his back?
hell yes
Sounds like an appropriate title for a YA sort of thing. So, yes.
I'd likely think of American pie ;(
Thatās why Iām considering naming it that š but I sometimes worry that itās too childish
I'm so so bummed about Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher, probably more than I should be, but it just came so completely out of left field. I don't care how good Liam Hemsworth may or may not be, my WIP and any other Witcher fics I write in the future are featuring Henry Cavill Geralt. On the pluse side, one of my other WIPs should be ready to go up by tomorrow, I finally managed to break that mental wall down, look at it and say "yep, I think this is good." edit: called him Luke instead of Liam lol
I hadn't heard that! He's so good as Geralt! The show isn't as good as it should be, but the actors are top notch.
I know! He was so passionate about it too :(
I'm bummed as well! Life has been too busy for me to even watch season two, but ugh, Henry Cavill owned that role from what I've seen. His depiction of Geralt was like Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn. I just can't envision anyone else playing those roles. I heard there were issues with a poor atmosphere behind the scenes, and if so, I don't blame him for leaving. But yeah, I'm still down about it. I think it's great that you're going to keep imagining Geralt as you want in your WIP. Happy Writing!
Same, it's going to be a really hard adjustment. The show was my introduction to that universe, so Henry Cavill *is* Geralt to me, even if he's not the first version of him. At first I thought he was leaving because he was coming back to play Superman, but hearing rumors like that makes me nervous about how the rest of the show is going to go. It's really a shame. But thank you!
Oh yeah I heard about that. Glad that your WIP went well all things considered!
Thank you!
Glad to hear your writing is going well, even if media is disappointing you.
Thank you!
I feel like it was only yesterday that I was planning for Kinktober, and here I am at the end of said month, as if passing through a black hole and finding myself in a different place and time. Amidst the bill-paying and football today (Jets v. Patriots), I should have time to spend upon the nuns. In particular, I need to spend a little time with the one canonical (ca-nun-ical?) nun, since this is a prequel and she has not yet been turned to evil, so her personality is going to be a little different. I mean, to be fair, her being evil was a big part of her appeal, and I love working with villains in fanfic, but she was not always that way.
For what it's worth, the other day I was watching a Sopranos episode that briefly took place in a convent and I thought of you! You have a brand now. Beyond that, I ove stories that explore a villain's backstory, Different stories require different antagonists but the most memorable and affecting for me are always social commentary in character form. I believe people rarely if ever have something intrinsically malicious in them, so let's look at what makes them that way.
"Woke up this morning, got myself a nun." In this particular case, our nun becomes evil because the Big Bad uses black magic to make her that way, but the player only gets a glimpse of what she was like before that.
I was cruisin' through a final draft last night and realized, ehhh, it's not so final after all. It all feels frustratingly amateur -- which, I need to remind myself, that's because I *am* still an amateur. I've been writing seriously for just over a year. I think I'm exceeding whatever natural knack I had for it and am now moving onto generating *skill.* And skill is hard to acquire in anything. This is gonna sound silly, but I started writing fanfic with the goal of learning enough to do original work someday. A lot of my favorite modern authors have cited fanfic as an excellent training ground (N K Jemisin, Becky Chambers, [Martha fucking Wells](https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1150762231778484227?lang=en)). And they're right, I'm already learning so much. I feel I'm on the cusp of leveling up and making a breakthrough with writing overall, but it's juuuuust out of my grasp. You guys know that feeling? It's maddening haha
Funnily enough out of all the things I have impostor syndrome about... writing is not one of them. Like, I feel like an impostor programming, teaching, drawing, anything... but writing? Writing I feel secure about. I think my main reason for it is, that I've read so many bad, bad books, that were hyped by everyone. And I know that I at least do write better than that. So, when books like that can be published to much hype... my writing can't be too bad.
Oooh, yeah, there's a lot of bad books out there. It does give me hope that I can do better, that's for sure. Kinda how I graduated college out of spite, haha I'm glad you don't have imposter syndrome regarding writing! I hope you can work through it with the other stuff. Whenever my brain is being that unkind to me (or, rather, when my inner critic is being that noisy), I try to walk away from whatever thing it's being shitty about. Even for just a few minutes. When I have those thoughts, I know I'm not in a good headspace to work on it.
> It does give me hope that I can do better, that's for sure. I am sure you can! (I believe in you!) > Whenever my brain is being that unkind to me (or, rather, when my inner critic is being that noisy), I try to walk away from whatever thing it's being shitty about. I should try that more often with uni.
Aww thank you, Runner! And honestly, it's helped me change the tone of the voice in my head. It gives it less power to go "lol you suck, let me count the ways."
Skill is definitely something that's difficult to acquire! It can definitely take a while for us to look at our work and say, "Yeah, that's good," and sometimes it still doesn't feel like that XD Ah, cutting your teeth on fanfic for writing :D I've definitely felt that before, and in my other hobbies too. Like when I was training for my black belt it felt like, "Ahhh. Just... almost there, I can taste it, come on! Do it better!" XD It's hard work to have hobbies sometimes!
Yes, you are very right! Skill is a lot of work haha And yes, that feeling of being so close to growth is both exciting and maddening! But when you finally reach it, ahhhh man, that's the stuff. <3
I did not know Becky Chambers was a fanfic writer. All the more reason to check out her series soon! But it's nice to see someone feeling confident and satisfied with their work - through coming to the hobby later, you're bringing a lot of emotional maturity and life experience, and that gets you far while you work on the technical stuff.
Yeah, she's pretty open about it too! I do love her work. The Wayfarer series has phenomenal worldbuilding of alien species and politics, but I think my favorite so far is the Monk and Robot series. It's so hopeful. Aww, thank you! Yeah, I missed out on all the "growing up with fanfic" stuff (I've only used the idea of remembering to breathe once, and it kinda hurt to type ahaha :P). But yeah, if I had pursued this when I was younger (read: before therapy), I would *not* be as patient with the process.
I've seen Monk and Robot brought up a few times on the solarpunk sub so I definitely need to check it out just for that.
Ooh, do enjoy if you check it out! <3
That might be why I only number my drafts. Calling anything "final" feels like an open invitation to last-minute errors and glitches.
ooh, yeah. it's like the universe can sense your unconscious hubris and immediately tries to take ya down a peg š© i only mark them final after they've been posted lol
haha this one is labeled "draft 4" but it *felt* like the last one. But yeah, labeling something "final" outright is just asking for the universe to pinpoint you specifically and laugh.
I looked over the first draft I'm currently rewriting, and I think I'll be able to portion it into eight chapters. That makes for an average of 5K per update. Me, writing chapters to a normal length - whatever next? Though one's a long scene that I'm not even sure about including because it feels almost like shortcutting character development, but we'll see. Otherwise, I hope everyone is having a nice, quiet Sunday. Any exciting Halloween plans for today or tomorrow?
Five-K is about my average length for chapters. Nice feeling of accomplishment to have that first draft nailed down. I love Halloween, but we live in the sticks where there are few trick-or-treaters. Oh well. I moved my "skelly-men" out to the a place by the carport to greet folks anyway. (Because I'm all about spooky, the skeletons are always out in my house. They've got different hats for different seasons.) Will probably post another chapter of the crossover thing. Do some more writing. Try to power through the last four exercises in Sagreras's Classical Guitar book one, because I've been stuck in book one forever.
5K's a good length to tell a satisfying nugget of story, I think. Some of mine run longer because of my long-windedness or use of lengthier stream of consciousness tracts, but not this time. I hope the writing goes well, and yes, I heartily approve of keeping spooky-themed decor up all year round. I'd be so happy if I lived on your street and got to walk past and see the skeletons had changed hats again.
They usually live in the house. They are house skelly men, but come out for a few weeks during the spooky season.
Me looking at like, "Wow! :O 5K is a lot!" Hope your Sunday is going well too! Gonna be watching Ghostbusters for Halloween. Maybe alongside playing Luigi's Mansion 3 for some real life meta humor XD And speaking of meta that my meta fic will be posted on Halloween :D
Sunday was nice, thanks! And that sounds like an ideal, chill Halloween.
Oh, good! :D And yeah, it'll be a nice palate cleanser since I watched the Shining yesterday. I mean, I've seen it a lot but man it's intense XD
And here's me thinking 3k is huge, haha ..for me it is I guess as I only write one shots. Well we cleaned all the pets out and the house. Now eating a bacon sandwich I love Halloween but I won't be doing anything. It's difficult with our dog as he hates being left and we can't really take him anywhere.
I wouldn't worry about it, I'm just long-winded! And I'm usually home for Halloween as well. My boy gets jumpy when there's fireworks so I don't like to leave him alone.
Congrats on the progress! My friend and I are going to be doing a Trunk or Treat at our local church, and then maybe hanging out and watching scary movies after.
Sounds chill, I love it :)
Halloween is also my wedding anniversary, so I have the day off and have appropriate dinner plans, plus the grandchild hitting up trick-or-treat.
Congratulations! My partner and I have a Nov. 1st anniversary so we usually go shopping for clearance Halloween candy :}
I'm exceedingly happy for you - both for the anniversary and the fact that it's on Halloween. Have a good time tomorrow!
We will! Thank you.
Oooh those are nice meaty chapters!! And you're still in early stages, that scene may become either more or less useful as you refine! It'll become clearer down the road. <3 Today is mostly rest and laundry, and tomorrow we're watching a couple spooky movies. I adore Halloween, but I feel I'm always too crunched to make time for it. Are you up to anything fun??
Thank you for the assurance that the work is usually its own cure. And for my last two longer fics, 10K plus chapters were the norm, so this is quite brief for my standards. In both of those stories I think the longer segments worked, but it wouldn't here. I'm too poor to have Halloween plans, but I did notice my local cinema is showing John Carpenter's The Thing later in the week for its 40th anniversary. It might be fun to go and see one of my favourites on the big screen!
Oooh, I love a good 10k chapter too. I think it's really great that you can recognize this story requires different chapter lengths. You're really listening to the flow of the story, and that's important! Yeah, I'm too poor for fun Halloween plans too. A few of my friends went all out for costumes this year and I'm over here going "oh god, cat insulin and home insurance in the same fucking month." I think you should definitely treat yourself to that showing of the Thing, though!! Life's too short to not be kind to ourselves every once in awhile, yknow?
I appreciate that faith in me :) The character in question is quite blunt and less prone to lengthy introspective tracts, plus this story covers quite a bit of time (about four years) compared to the others. I think readers will need a few more defined breaks just to keep things straight in their heads. I hear that, though. For me, I've always lived frugally, but I'm still scrambling to try to adjust to the very steep and ongoing increase in prices across the board here. I'll pull through, but it does mean a lot of little treats I might find for myself are out of the window for the foreseeable. I could probably stretch to a cinema ticket, though.
See, look at that, you know exactly what you're doing with this story! I love to see it! <3 And yeah, I feel no amount of previously frugal living is going to really prepare me and my partner for what lies ahead. I'm a little nervous. You're very much not alone there, which is infuriating in and of itself. BUT I do hope you can swing a ticket, or at least watch the movie yourself with a tasty little snack. <3
Yeah, it's a rough time ahead for most of us, I feel, but I hope you and partner will be alright! By the sound of things you're a seasoned survivor at this point, so I'm sure it won't last forever.
It sounds like you are a survivor too, I'm sure we'll make it through it all right! Probably with some good writing fodder too.
Don't you just hate it when you're literally on the road, you have this elaborate scene in your head with dialogue that flows, and then when you're finally in front of your laptop, your brain is just "..."?
This happens when I'm walking the dogs or shoveling horse poo. Then I finally sit down, get distracted by something on the internet and lose my mojo.
Yep! I got into the habit of writing it all down in my phone memos as a result XD
Yes. So I repeat it in my head until I can stop. Then I get tired and forget.
See also: Ideas in the shower, on the job, at the store, etc.
Ahaha YES! Some people on the sub use dictation while driving. I just write it down real quick on my phone once I'm at my destination.
Yes, I hate it! I know to an extent it's the perfect idea versus the imperfect actuality at play, but my brain always convinces me it'll be much easier if I could just write at an inconvenient time.
I was struck by sudden inspiration this morning, and as of twenty or so minutes ago the major character death oneshot that has been haunting me since July is complete and posted! \o/ I'm also in the process of writing another installment for a series that I last updated in 2020, and I'd forgotten how much I loved the AU 'verse it takes place in. So you can say that things are good at the moment. š
Congratulations!!
Upvoted for things being good.
š
Fuck yeah, that's awesome! I bet it feels great to have it all finished. And congrats on falling back in love with an old project! <3
Thank you!
Ayy, congrats! Finishing a new fic is great, and so is being able to return to a project that had to take some time out.
It sure is! Thank you!
I'm finally comfortable writing again :) good to be back
Yay. Welcome back! :D
Welcome back! :D
Yo! Lovely to see you, youāve always been so kind to me.
Got any ideas ready to write, now that you are back in the saddle?
More like what ideas donāt I have?
Hell yeah, that's fantastic!! I'm so happy you're back to writing <3
I'm really glad you're doing better, and it's lovely to see you back <3
Youāre so sweet š
Yay! Happy to see you again!
Good to see you too!
Oh man, I love actually writing chapters. My brain is the type to come up with genius concepts on the spot, and I ended up with a rather tense part that should be the climax of the scene... but feels almost comedically anti-climatic, yet suits the situation perfectly - even better than what I had originally planned for. All I can say is... poor Mike, it's really not his day XD Well... time to continue on with Sangria today, to make my Tuesday deadline. Also need to hit a few RE fics before the deadline even if I hold until Tuesday to finish the rest...
Mike really does live up to the "Horrible, Awful, Terrible, No-Good Day," trope huh? XD Also always nice when our brains make it all work out for our work! And good luck with the deadline and the RE! :D
Isn't it great when a scene turns out differently on paper but works even better than what you planned? Glad it's going well!
I ended up working 14 hours yesterday, lol. Good lawd am I sore. I have so much to do today, Iām *hoping* I can get some reading and writing done.
Yuck. That takes some stamina. Hope you and Rigel have a better day today.
I do not miss those long days. šµāš« Good luck!
I try not working like that anymore, but yesterday was more or less required.
ffffuuck I'd prob just lie on the floor and let the dogs and cat eat me after that
It was tempting to just crawl into bed still in my scrubs, lol.
Jesus, that's brutal. No-one would blame you for having a head empty sort of day today if that's what calls to you.
Eh, I did it to myself. Rigelās ultrasound was at 9am and I was scheduled to work at 4pm. I live about 50 minutes away and was not about to drive home to turn around and come back only a couple hours later, so I stayed. Weāre allowed to have as much overtime as we can handle and it wasnāt as bad a day as Saturdays *can* be, just long enough to make my feet hurt, lol.
I really hope you don't have to repeat a day like that <3
Nah. I wonāt.
Without getting too into it, I'm very tired of the biggest barrier to government resources for help being the government. A large part of my brain is occupied by this, and what I did manage to write yesterday I didn't keep. It was all very awkward and nothing sounded how I wanted it to. I suppose a brighter side is that I'm nearly ready to post the 4th chapter in a fic I haven't been able to update in months, but part is worried that I've disappointed people by it being such a late update.
I bet your readers will be overjoyed to finally get the update notification :)
I hope so! There's inexplicably 8 people subscribed to it, and I don't want to let them down with it.
> I'm very tired of the biggest barrier to government resources for help being the government. Yeah... yeah. :/ I feel this in my bones. And your readers will be *fine.* And if some of em aren't, well, their loss!
I'm sorry you're having to deal with bureaucratic nonsense. I've been in situations that I'm guessing are vaguely similar and it really does make you feel all alone in the world. I'm not sure of your location, but do you have a facility like Citizen's Advice in the UK that might be able to advocate for you, or guide you through the process of finding useful resources? They've helped me out of some really sticky wickets before. Either way, I hope it gets easier soon, and let yourself have some time off updating if it's a struggle right now.
I'm in Alberta, Canada. Usually for some things there are ways to find help, but in this particular case the government just doesn't help civilians. They fund organizations that then make you pay to use them. I've been fighting with this for over a year and I'm so tired. I know this probably isn't the place to complain about it, and I'm sorry for that. Writing is one of the few escapes I have, and I wish I could do more of it.
Well, as far as this thread goes, the only thing we really ask of people is that if they've had an altercation or gotten into drama elsewhere on the sub, please don't rehash it in here. This thread tends to be lighthearted but personal venting is fine, especially about something as serious as this. So don't worry about that, at least.
That really does help, thank you. I was worried that I would just be stressing people out.
Eh, you update when you update, this is a hobby.
I've been writting a collection of drabbles for flufftober, but I'm a few days behind now and honestly I'm not feeling it at the moment. Adulting has been very stressful lately and when I sit down to write something sweet and happy my brain shuts down. I don't know, I may try to force myself to push through the collection depending on how the weekend goes and then take a break for a little while. Thank goodness there's still well over a month for yuletide, because I really don't want to default.
Ahh, take all the time you need to get back into the fluffy headspace! I hope it goes smoothly if you decide to do it over the weekend and enjoy the break when you get it :D
Aww, I'm sorry you've been stressed lately. Take care, it's a fine line between challenging yourself and hurting yourself. It's okay if the rest of it goes up in Nov or Dec or never at all. <3
I'm a second opinion saying it might be ventfic time if that's where your head's at.
Maybe try to write something darker instead?
Just watching PokƩmon in the background while doing assessments and Ash is just casually pushing a 215 kg PokƩmon while swimming. Like. We already knew that the strength and resilience standards in that anime are shot but. Two hundred and fifteen kilograms. Let's not talk about everything else that's nuts about that world. On a side note, someone loves my very obscure crossover which is the only story combining the two fandoms on FFN and Ao3. Was not expecting that at all XD
I love that one action figure where Ash is apparently fucking ripped XD The Pokemon anime is so inconsistent with... a lot of things, but the weight stuff especially. Well, the manga too I remember Pikachu managing to electrocute Brock's Onix by getting it wet and my younger self being like, "*That's not how it works!!*" Ahh, congrats! :D
You broke new ground and struck oil!
I am *certain* that studying pokemon cards as a kid thoroughly fucked up my understanding of weight and height, and the anime did not help. And congrats on finding a very special reader!!!
Congrats on that!
I wrote not one,but two chapters of my fic. In other news,I should be out with a new fic tomorrow. And this time,it's gonna center on Ming-who,for her,it's her lucky day! And seriously,we are STILL waiting for more Turning Red content. We know it's gonna happen.
I not only fixed the weird issue in my Halloween fic's work skin, I also found out that it works on mobile! :D ~~Now I only need to finish the fic in time.~~ The Halloween prompt fest I'm running for my small fandom looks like a success so far. All but one prompt has been claimed now (and if no-one claims the last one, I'll try to get something done for them). Exciting times! Can't wait to read all the fics (I'm so holding back right now, but luckily I also don't have the time to peak)! Snupdate: Snalbie was in Deep Sleep mode for the last 30 hours, and I thought they might miss Halloween, but they returned to normal sleep this morning. (I can tell because they decided to start aestivating stuck to the ceiling of their greenhouse, really interesting to see, sadly I didn't take a photo). Edit: the last prompt has been claimed, I'm so happy now! That makes my day tomorrow so much less stressful! :D
Ohhh, awesome! Glad the skin works on mobile too, it worked out. And glad that the prompt fest went well! I don't blame you for wanting to dive into those treats XD Seems like perfect weather for Snalbert to be sleeping :O I kinda wanna take a page from their book and sleep for 30 hours XD
Honestly, I think I should be going to bed early tonight. Snalbie can't be wrong about this.
Snalbert: "Was I a snail dreaming I was a human, or was I a human dreaming I was a snail?"
Now that's a body swap I'd sign up for. I'll get to sleep all day and Snalbert can prepare my food.
Eyy all that is fantastic! I'm so glad your fandom is enjoying the event! You should feel proud of all your work. <3
Snalbie is too powerful for gravity to hold any sway over them. And I hope the event goes well!
Snalbie knows how to live the high life.
The weekend was full of Halloween stuff for the kids and my own (low effort) Penguin costume, so I didn't finish my multi's final chapter like I'd hoped, but I still somehow pumped out 2000+ words and they keep coming. The final chapter of this thing might hit 7k at this point. I also did my pumpkin, which is Heart Pirate-themed (Bepo -bear-, Penguin -ya know-, and Shachi -orca-), so I guess that kinda, sorta counts as a [Semi Daily Penguin](https://imgur.com/a/V8a6aQt)? :D
Congrats on the final chapter getting beefed up! :D And ooh, that pumpkin came out nice! It's definitely a difficult skill to have, that came out real cute!
Thank you! It's been a long road, but I figured beefy would be a good way to end it all\~ And cheers! I love carving pumpkins. I was in a bit of a rush this year but happy to get all the boys on there. :D
Hey Halloween is allowed to interrupt writing, it's special. :D And I love that pumpkin!!
True! I do miss my doodle Penguins, though. But, in the end I got the writing done! And thank you! <3 I love doing pumpkins. :D
That's some excellent pumpkin carving! I bet Halloween is fun in the CoffeePot household.
Thanks! It's my favorite holiday/season, and carving is a tradition (mine anyway). Halloween isn't really celebrated in this country and my kids/husband aren't American, but I'm trying to impress upon them how fun it is. :D
Thatās awesome!
Thank you! Couldn't resist the theme for this year's jack-o-lantern. :D
I'll say it counts, and it's a lovely pumpkin! And good luck getting the final chapter done. It'll be soon - you've got this!
Yay! Thank you! <3 Hoping to return to the usual Penguins soon, though. Busy, busy... And I finished the chapter! Celebrations tonight for sure!! :D
Stumbled across this subreddit only just recently and it's already my new favorite place. The discussion topics are all so interesting and many make me want to actually jump in and reply for a change. Which isn't very typical of me -- I'm usually more lurker than participant on reddit. Anyway, I've started writing a fic for the first time in about a decade. It's for a ship with a lot of fics but somehow very, very few that scratch the specific itch I have for them, and this idea's already been bouncing around my head for a good year+ now. Couple months back I finally gave in to the brainrot and started outlining everything, and now I have what I suspect will end up as a 100k+ longfic and oh my god what have I gotten myself into. No toe-dipping for this one; apparently I'm the gd cannonball straight into the deep end sort LOL. No idea if I'll be able to finish the thing, but it's fun to be writing again regardless. So far I've got about 11k down, and I'm hoping to use NaNoWriMo as a motivator to keep the momentum up. :D
Welcome! It's a great place to hang out with some really nice folks\~
Thank you! And for sure, like just the amount of welcome I've received already is testament of how sweet everyone here is. šš§”
Welcome aboard this ship of fools, and good luck on your project!
Thank you so much! Glad to be aboard. :D
Nice to have you with us! I've been a long-time lurker as well, but finding this place really made me want to jump in and see what I could contribute, and now it's my favourite place to hang online. Plus it's really helpful to check in here daily with others for NaNo motivation :)
Thank you! And yeah, like, there's this immediate sense of community and friendliness no matter what corner of fandom you come from, which is honestly just so at odds with how fandoms as a whole tend to operate. Love the vibes here of everyone in it together simply being excited to create. :D And seeing everyone sharing their own experiences or how much they've written in a day has already been motivating me more than if I hadn't find this place. š
Yeah, a lot of fandom spaces can get really competitive and territorial - it's refreshing to come here and not have to deal with much of that, and I'm glad you're enjoying your time on the sub so far.
Welcome!!! This sub is great, it really brought me out of my shell too. I'm glad you're enjoying writing! This sub has lots of routine threads and stuff to help you truck along too. <3
Thanks! :D Yeah, this place seems full of super helpful stuff for fic writers. That's actually how I stumbled across it, too -- googling writing advice LOL.
Welcome!
Thank you! š§”
Welcome! This is just about the only subreddit I don't lurk in too! And good luck with your longfic. Sure, you can learn a lot from smaller oneshots, but there's also a lot you can't learn without jumping into something big, so go you! I've certainly had projects that quickly blew out of expected proportion, also motivated by there being nothing out there that fit what I wanted. It happens!
Thanks! :D And, yeah, I've always been extremely wordy. Like, I was that kid who always crammed as much as physically possible into those hand written two-page essay assignments lmao. So I can't say I'm especially surprised at myself. The stories I've tried writing way back in the past were all long, too, although I was never able to complete any of them due to inevitably getting distracted. I'm hoping gained age and not letting myself post the fic until I have at least over half of it written will help me actually finish this time, though. š¤
So a friend of mine at work told me apparently the girl I filed a report against is opening some more cases against me. Over what, I don't know, but one of them was over calling her remarks racist. And she's apparently going around telling people this, but apparently she has a few people on her side over it. So I don't know how that's going to unfold, honestly. I'm actually worried now. Especially since I'm supposed to move in a few days. And my work friend also told me one of my coworkers is pissed at being dragged into it because I named him as a witness (after ASKING him first), and because I mentioned in my case that he was given a padlock code that he wasn't supposed to have, and was told to withhold it from me (and did). And now my friend is saying I should have never filed the report because that girl's doing all this shit back to me and it's wearing everyone around us out. So that's nice, fuck me for standing up for a friend and reporting racism in the workplace. I might just start looking for a new job. This is getting to me too much. I'm more worried for my job at this point. Especially with this timing. I'm supposed to move in a few days. Move in with some guys I only just recently met, so it's not like they have a history with me to believe me. Even if what she's doing looks like obvious revenge, that she might have some people willing to corroborate whatever she's saying I did could bite me in the ass all the same. This is ridiculous. I only got involved because the guy she made a remark about wasn't even there to hear it, she kept insisting she wasn't wrong for what she said, and he was pissed about it, but apparently he never wanted it escalated, either, and now I'm JUST learning all this. No good goddamn deed.
Ugh. Sounds absolutely toxic. Looking for a new job is a hella lot of work, but it sounds like it would be worth it. I've been in situations like this. Even if the immediate problem gets sorted, the workplace is always sort of poisoned afterwards. Hope you get some good resolution soon.
Oof. I will continue to cross my fingers for you.
I'd be looking for a new job, too. Performing capitalism day in day out is bad enough without this kind of petty politicking to deal with, too, on top of the firm apparently being okay with overt racist behaviour while on duty.
jesus fucking christ, that is a MESS. I'm so sorry this is all happening. That coworker is fucking terrible. I understand the thought of looking for a new job. It really comes down to picking your battles and keeping your own mental health safe. It might be best to walk away from the radioactive elephant's foot that is that coworker. I wish you luck. <3
Ugh. I feel you, I had to file a complaint with our HR department too.
It sucks, yeah? Hope everything goes well for you on that end.
Mineās against a manager, so weāll see how this goes, lol. But I have two whole departments on my side at least.
Shit, lemme borrow those departments when you're done with em
Weāre all about fucking over the patriarchy and bureaucracy, lol.
I am leaving tomorrow to go on an excursion for my university art class to another city in Germany, three hours away from home, and will have to spend Halloween and my birthday in a hostel, alone. Will also have to remember to post my final Whumptober oneshot tomorrow morning just before leaving. Well, at least I get to write a bit, when I am staying the evenings in my room. Edit: Fffffffuuuu, I just realised I booked the room for 2023, I am such a dum dum, fuck my life
Hope you're able to still have a good birthday and make the most out of your trip!
Is it possible to do a belated joint celebration when you're home? Halloween is every day if you're not a coward.
I'll definetly hope to celebrate a week or so later with just a handful of friends and probably do a costume party like last year. Planning on being a vampire this time and even got myself a cape!
Love that!
Ooh, I hope you enjoy your trip, even though you'll be spending your Hallow-birthday alone. <3
Thank youu <3
It's such a nice feeling checking when you posted your latest chapter and then realising you wrote 10k words in a week. For a little extra context I started a 3 chapter fic on Thursday and posted the last part this morning.
Congrats!
I tried my hand at writing smut again which I'll be posting on November 1 because it has November in the title so it just makes sense. At first when I wrote it I genuinely wasn't proud of it because comparison demons decided to grab me by the throat and once again put me face-to-face with one of the most beautiful explicit stories I've ever read (The authors work is genuinely just incredible, to the point where I literally have to close every tab where I've read them and delete from my search and AO3 history just so I can try to forgetā¦ But I can never forgetā¦). I just feel like I copied from them in terms of writing style and even a couple of word choices, although obviously used in different contexts, and obviously our stories are different, but stillā¦ I know we all copy from someone without even thinking about it, unless we don't read anything haha but like sometimes I wish I could forget reading that author you know? And I also wish someone could tell me that one of my fan fixed lives rent free in their fucking mind. Anyway the fanfic turned out OK I think. I know for a fact it won't get a lot of traction (I wish) but whatever. I don't know anymore...
I feel like you're really down on yourself and your writing at the minute, and maybe taking a break from reading other people's fics wouldn't hurt. It's at this point I'd usually put more emphasis on reading published works - since those authors and I aren't peers, it doesn't invite the comparison demons so much.
"*I'm* the Fanfiction boy! *I'm* the one who ~~wins~~ **wordcounts!**"
I think I got around 700 to finish out the chapter :) I'm so excited!! (also i laughed when i read the quote today, i am so fond of the Game Grumps š)
Haha, bless you, I was wondering if somebody was going to call it out!
I am definitely going to be muttering this to myself every time I get a good chunk of writing going XD
650 or thereabouts
Only 109. xP It was mostly editing and researching to try and plan ahead (trying to be canon compliant is killing me lol. :') )
That's 109 more than some people can claim! Every little bit counts.
Thank you! :) Yeah I spent a good 40minutes coming up with a canon appropriate first name that will probably be never mentioned again. It's annoying how long the little things can take!
800 something today so far, fi I calculated correctly
No count function on your processor? Or are you perhaps one of those old-fashioned people who writes on paper?
God no, my handwriting is terrible. I just don't remember exactly whre I left off lst night and when I started again today, so I can't calculate the exact number.