feather-dancer

[feather-dancer]

Due to AI obsessed shitheads locking down all fics. I've put it off because I want my stuff to be as accessible as possible but the latest data scrape means that's no longer an option.

[feather-dancer]

WE DID NOT NO. Trapdoor was like the last claymation for a long ass time, series 2 was cut short because the BBC felt it was too expensive, too old, a medium to keep bothering with. Fact Morph, Pingu and later Wallace & Gromit happened sure showed them. Puppetry which was biiig from the 60s-80s had already fallen off with weird exceptions like Noddy, Fireman Sam, Thomas the Tank Engine and Postman Pat bucking the trend.

OH MY GOD ANIMALS OF FARTHING WOOD we had a fucking magazine that had books or even VIDEOS OF EPISODES it was insane. Here kids! We gender bent a kestrel without changing the colours, an owl too and will give you lots and lots of death! Enjoy being horribly traumatised as these animals get hit by cars :)

So glad got photos of these when they got donated. Couldn't afford them but we got a record of their existence.

Well now I got funky older stuff to spend the afternoon watching, can't wait.

I /need/ to know about that tag. Did claymation Trapdoor somehow escape to other countries or were the eyes looking like "something down there, waiting to come out" opening just a coincidence.

A fun fact about Australian TV, especially Australian TV for kids, a lot of shows shown on the ABC in the 90s and 00s were direct ports from the BBC and associated broadcasting companies. I can't speak for what they're doing because TV and kids entertainment has changed so much since then, but in addition to Fireman Sam and Tomas the Tank Engine that I think everyone in the English speaking world got, I grew up watching The Trap Door, and Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, Gogs, Angry Kid, The Animals of Farthing Wood, and the Discworld animated miniseries, Gumbi, and a whole bunch of other weird shows from the time.

🤔 Did you get Plasmo? It was sort of like if The Trap Door and Farscape had a baby and that baby hit puberty and developed clinical depression IN SPACE.

[feather-dancer]

February is drawing to a close which means it's time for the round up again. Being a shorter month, continued cold weather and a week getting wiped out it's been sluggish. Still, it's not all bad as I'm happy to report:

As long as there are stars in the sky - Chapter one has been scrubbed

A Heart of Glass - Chapter one has been scrubbed

Focusing on Heart of Glass first, that chapter didn't need all that much fixing up outside the expected paragraph with dialogue issues and run on sentences. The opening had remnants of when it focused exclusively on Douxie meeting Morgana (If via Claire) again so this was cleaned up to flow a lot better. Otherwise it's been slight tweaks in wording, the odd typo, tense changes, removing redundancies and a surprising amount of right sentence, wrong place. There's been a few little additions here and there though nothing too dramatic, more pointing out Archie a smidge sooner as an example.

When these chapters are scrubbed will be putting the pov character in the chapter name just to make it clearer much like the Writing Memes have.

Ended up gaining another half a page and because I was curious, screenshot the before and after word count when it was updated:

Vs.

As long as there are stars in the sky though that was as expected: A slog. This was the third attempt to clean up that chapter and boy did it need it. As well as paragraph fixes, odd typo, removal of so so many redundancies and run on sentences, did a lot of other things as well. Did you know past me never bothered to put Trollish translations IN THE FILE? Well for chapter one they're there now plus some alterations! Sometimes I couldn't figure out a paragraph's original intent so had to strip it down and rebuild the thing. Not too often but Enough. Been some random pov switches that needed correcting which did mean some Archie dialogue was lost though saved it on discord. Quite a bit of dialogue in general has been tweaked to help with flow and just generally make more sense in the context? Smidge more Archie at Zimroc to further push the three of them get on so well given how important that will be. Did find a moment where time was a bit out of whack which has been fixed.

A very minor plot element has also been changed, specifically to put the amulet in the box sooner. Doesn't affect anything whatsoever just meant having to change a bunch of stuff because of it.

Back on the Trollish a moment, the most annoying part is without a doubt the html. If you caught me while doing that throughout the day there would be the updated version of the chapter, Trollish then the old version. It's much easier to put the html around existing text as you can double check it's working correctly... And also doing that as you reach it when scrubbing like this because it's such a pain to refind. If you were someone who did, sorry! Couldn't think of a way round it.

Ended up with bang on two pages with all the changes and here's the before and after word count comparison:

Vs.

Currently the Shame Chart is looking like this:

Please note: These thoughts of you is not included on the above due to being an already posted oneshot but will be scrubbed as well.

As per the polls both Stars and Heart of Glass chapter 2's are my next targets! I may temporarily wander off to chuck words in something else to give me a change from edits given I've been doing it non stop for a smidge over two months now. We'll see.

Also weather please warm up I am fed up of being chilled this is getting silly now.

[feather-dancer]

Neeearly done scrubbing the first Heart of Glass chapter. When it's done and the AO3 version updated I'll do the monthly writing round up.

[feather-dancer]

Huh, more Stars it is I guess! Thankfully it won't need anywhere near as much fixing as chapter one, it's gonna be the length of it that'll take a while. I'll start scrubbing away between working on the oneshots depending on what my brain is in the mood for :) Had a good few days break that was sorely needed so should be ready to go again tomorrow.

Crawls out the floor

It's taken three attempts all told but chapter 1 of Stars is finally scrubbed up and in the most readable state it's ever been! Gonna be a full thing on what I did in the monthly round up as there was A Lot. So in an important and related note:

For context because character limit:

A House Divided goes horribly wrong

Trollhunter Douxie

Oneshot/close enough wise as per the other poll this is the order I'll be going in:

Heart of Glass

These Thoughts of You

A Collection of Daises - Tumblr prompts

Any work to the Strickler fic will be after everything else is cleared off because there will be a bunch to do in a different format.

Still too cold to art to the point there's now multiple Brits also complaining they're having the same problem as me which is nice. I'd like to take gloves off I've had to wear them constantly since December. They help make things not worse but my hand ain't functional as it should be. Anyway if anybody wants me I need to ooze for a bit because I've been very bad about taking breaks. Cleaning up this chapter has been as brutal as I always figured it would be.

[feather-dancer]

Crawls out the floor

It's taken three attempts all told but chapter 1 of Stars is finally scrubbed up and in the most readable state it's ever been! Gonna be a full thing on what I did in the monthly round up as there was A Lot. So in an important and related note:

For context because character limit:

A House Divided goes horribly wrong

Trollhunter Douxie

Oneshot/close enough wise as per the other poll this is the order I'll be going in:

Heart of Glass

These Thoughts of You

A Collection of Daises - Tumblr prompts

Any work to the Strickler fic will be after everything else is cleared off because there will be a bunch to do in a different format.

Still too cold to art to the point there's now multiple Brits also complaining they're having the same problem as me which is nice. I'd like to take gloves off I've had to wear them constantly since December. They help make things not worse but my hand ain't functional as it should be. Anyway if anybody wants me I need to ooze for a bit because I've been very bad about taking breaks. Cleaning up this chapter has been as brutal as I always figured it would be.

[feather-dancer]

Psstt… do you still have a Ko-Fi? I can't find it.

I thought this was at the Archive for a sec and got so confused. It's just acting as a tip jar right now.

[feather-dancer]

As we're coming to the end of January (Finally) and it's a new year, figured start doing writing round ups again. It's been very cold for a chunk of December and all this month meaning the joy of swollen fingers, being forced to stop due to being chilled and the usual flare ups which aren't art friendly. Stuck writing only or not, much prefer it over last January where I was in a helluva lot of pain for a chunk of it.

So what have I been up to? Well one thing I've wanted to do for literal years is go back to several fics/oneshots that were written pre it being pointed out I had a bad run on sentence habit and fixing it. In the process I've been sorting out any typos (Surprisingly rare), repetitive wording, one case of time not being consistent, double spacing caused by keyboard errors, clearer paragraphing and generally improving flow where things are reading a bit janky. Last year I finished the two Fashionista oneshots and this month I've managed to clean up:

Along came a word - A writing meme collection

Savouring Memories

Currently at the time of typing this I'm on page 10 / 26 of Stars. This is the third attempt to scrub the thing and furthest I've gotten as it's got a lot more to fix than anything else I've touched so far. Did you know past me never bothered to put the Trollish translations IN THE FILE? That one particularly is driving me nuts. The last part I fixed up was:

Rest of the end of day tasks are thankfully light thanks to both the morning blitz and the bits and pieces in between leaving the seemingly endless amount of rubbish collecting (That one always annoys him) and sink clearing. After giving himself a smidge longer of rest, he cracks on because such a precious space deserves to be treated with the utmost respect even if the clientele didn't always carry the same curtsey. Not like a broom or a sponge was that unusual in his hands anyway, no matter how old he got it seemed the old chores of Camelot followed closely behind like a spectre. Ten minutes is pretty good going considering how bad it can be…

Also had to fight a weird bug which kept defaulting spelling to US English until I just removed it entirely. After chapter 1 is complete gonna be moving on to Heart of Glass as per the poll. Just want to finish chapter 1 first because it was originally written in a week, shows and was always the biggest one I wanted to go back and sort.

Currently the Shame Chart is looking like this:

Please note: These thoughts of you is not included on the above due to being an already posted oneshot but will be scrubbed as well.

This is everything I have kicking around somewhere including some that don't even have a title yet. I want this to be a year of finishing things and I def want to be on with clearing some things out post scrubbing. Stars third chapter has had 10 pages this entire time, Ghost!AU two, then there's the oneshots and things in my asks... Likely will poll what people are most interested in closer to the time. Still want to do something with those Not!Enrique test pages.

Anyways that's where we're at right now. Really hoping the temps pick up though I'm fed up of having to exist in endless layers and gloves while fighting my system's need to hibernate. Today having an angry elbow at typing is a new one though only taken one day off writing entirely this month so that's fair honestly. While doing this I'm attacking my reading backlog so if I suddenly appear on an older work of yours, that's why.

[feather-dancer]

As per the poll, another oneshot has been scrubbed to make it extra nice n shiny! This one is Douxie being able to have one last conversation with Morgana even if he doesn't realise it at the time and Claire finding him in the aftermath. Kinda ironic fixing up one on grief when somebody you've followed for years dies very suddenly.

Next up for me is continuing work on fixing up Stars chapter 1 and starting work on Heart of Glass. Still too cold to art annoyingly but least can do something useful.

[feather-dancer]

The funniest part of shortening the Decimaared Jim fic to fit on the tabs is you end up with THIS

While incomplete and focuses entirely on the run up to him going into the Darklands, did get a bunch of stuff plotted out. Figured Gunmar might have fun rooting around in Jim's memories so needed to get some ... stuff ... figured out.

It is with great regret I must inform people I started another timelime spreadsheet specifically for an AU where Jim gets Decimaared. I can't write it yet (Mostly as I want to do all the scrubbing first) BUT BOY I CAN SURE THINK ABOUT IT.

[feather-dancer]

The weather has been awfully cold this entire month so far meaning I've been stuck writing for the past 19 days instead however

All 83 parts of this collection has now been scrubbed making them more readable than ever!

Typos have been fixed, overlong sentences, janky wording, tense switches, paragraphs where they should be and some grammar issues. No doubt something will still be kicking around because there's always an escape but heavily reduced in either case. Also fixed a couple chapter titles that were mislabeled as well. Did not remember writing the majority of these and showed that for some reason writing in the tumblr reply box makes my brain miss things I can catch much easier in an actual program.

Each chapter is labelled by character, the prompt (With the exception of the 30 memory memes, they're in the description) so if one's not for you can always jump to another. Enjoy!

Meanwhile gonna continue working on scrubbing Stars, starting work on cleaning up Savouring Memories and hope the temps start going up. Getting fed up of swollen fingers and at constant risk of being chilled.

[feather-dancer]

Tempted to write something based on whatever the fuck Not!Enrique was doing in those sample pages.

Minus figure weather first tho. My hands and now one foot have been getting very painful because of this shit.

[feather-dancer]

Part of the reason I want to keep these fic recommend posts as I deal with the endless backlog is they don't age. The author might leave the fandom, they might even be no longer be with us, but unless they nuke it from their account it will still exist on AO3. Even in a small fandom, somebody finding a work from years ago is sheer luck and this has always been a way of helping not just whats on the first page be discovered. Aside from anything, kudos emails or better yet surprise comments never get old and I highly encourage it if you find cool shit.

While this will only effect those that reblog a recommend list on my account from now on, I've gone and added links to all 8 lists so you can hop between them at will. Should have long done it instead of only going forward it simply never occurred to me. Sorry about that. The main hop point will always be my pinned post here.

Scrubbing is still ongoing despite I'm struggling a bit because of the very cold weather/surprise flooding overnight. At the time of typing, fixed up to 34 on the tumblr memes collection and do not remember writing like 95% of these. Either way gonna be much more readable for past and new readers with the bonus of doing my brain so much good. Win win all round!

[feather-dancer]

Results are in and I'm belatedly seeing them due to busy/my system having a complete meltdown about the cold front. Due to Savouring memories being a single oneshot, after the tumblr memes are done (Currently on 29 which is a long one) that will come first, then Heart of Glass, These thoughts of you and finally daises. Stars will continue in between as it's needing A Lot of fixing. We'll get all these bastards scrubbed up and readable before you know it :)

Much appreciated!

Figure screw it. This is regarding this post scrubbing older works with the intent of making them more readable aka not rewriting nor deleting them.

How much needs fixing will vary so some will be quicker to do than others. The current longer fic being tackled is As long as stars are in the sky because it badly needs it. It's just taking a while because there's just so much of it.

[feather-dancer]

I started working on the tumblr memes yesterday (Already done 19) and man. I know I just threw words in the ask box at the time particularly in the ones I'm tidying at the moment but I genuinely do not remember a lot of these?? Nomura getting Angor little potted plants was a delightful surprise. Biggest issue seen with these is the run on sentences (Tracks for the time posting as it's pre anybody mentioning it) and double spacing as my keyboard kept doing at the time. This Otto one still has fantastic bite to it.

Man I miss these writing memes.

[feather-dancer]

Figure screw it. This is regarding this post scrubbing older works with the intent of making them more readable aka not rewriting nor deleting them.

How much needs fixing will vary so some will be quicker to do than others. The current longer fic being tackled is As long as stars are in the sky because it badly needs it. It's just taking a while because there's just so much of it.

[feather-dancer]

Debating if to scrub Heart of Glass next or one of the other oneshots. Stars is the big one on the list of course (And has been started), it's just cleaning up formatting/paragraph jank in non 40 page monstrosities helps me feel like I'm accomplishing something when life just won't stop for five minutes. Plus something I've wanted to do for years.

Only reason mentioned those two at all was purely as don't think anything will be added to it now.