#12k of words and that spreadsheet is currently empty...

[tgmsunmontue]

WEEKEND WRITING GOALS

I'm not doing 'tell me what to write' this weekend (I have a lot of life stuff I need to do and my brain is playing funny games so I have to deal with it). So instead I am setting myself some goals.

Write and post (chapters) of the following:

Online & Anonymous (POSTED)

Saga of Solitude

Bingo #4 (Hangster Rockstar/Soulmates/Bodyguard)

250 words minimum on ALL other fics:

Bradshaw!Twins and one-night stand

To wake, perchance to dream

Cyclone/Maverick one shot

Celebrity Chef Bradley

IceMav - Getting to know you from the beginning (POSTED)

Life is too short to waste time matching sock

Barista Jake

Transformers AU (Snippet shared)

Dragon Rider Hangster (😶🤦‍♀️)

Secret Santa Fake Dating Fic

Thermodynamics (Glee)

Fine fine Sunshiney Day (Glee)

If you wish to follow along you can check out the progress on the Google Sheet. (If they're green I've done it, if it's red it's highest priority).

If I achieve all of the above (which is technically possible given my typing speed) I will record myself reading part of Team Player where Josh says Hard Deck repeatedly. This will (may?) be (apparently?) amusing because of my accent.

[ayankun]

I don't know if anybody else feels the need to crunch numbers and make spreadsheets for fun whilst writing for fun, but here we are

There's a nice empty void where the final scene is going to plug in lololoLOLOLOL. Literally everything else before and after this scene is in the can. (The can where they put film reels, not the garbage can)

Number crunching reports some interesting news. Yesterday I was like, "oh, 700 words should do it, 'cause it's more like part-2 of the scene before, and that one's short, too." Yeah. NO. That previous scene is tied for shortest, but it clocks in at ~1500 words. Overall average scene length is 2.3k, but that's because the first two are front-loaded double-wides and the ones that come after move through their piece a bit quicker; the second half is more like ~1600 each.

So I'm still looking at a half-day-up-to-full-day worth of words to wrap this up!!!!! The words are definitely in my head, words and images, and feelings, so it should be fairly straight-forward to spit them out, but I can totally see how "lol 700 words" can escalate to twice that amount without me thinking too hard about it.

1k+ seems way more realistic, and for pacing purposes probably important, so it's looking like the end product is going to crest the 12k mark after all.

Old me would have probably tried to stop sidetracking to do this kind of number crunching, or downplayed the fact that it was happening, but Current!Me is here to trust (and take notes on) the process. It's not wasting time/getting distracted if you I just accept it as part of the work being done. As an integral part of the fun.

The era has come for acceptance, no more self-critical talk, okay!!!!

(I'm also not stressing about the possibility that it somehow won't get done, too. It's not a possibility. I bit off just the right amount, this time, which is highly satisfying and reassuring.)

SIDENOTE TIEM

Writing this fic makes me feel the same way as watching the show makes me feel. Just, constant warm-and-fuzzies.

I don't think ... I'm not sure that I've ever mined a source narrative for my own ends and ... exactly replicated what I liked the most about the source material?

Usually I come at it with some sort of agenda, some kind of "yeah that's cool but what about this" extra "something" to bring to the table, to enmesh within the framework of the original thing. With HSMTMTS, I feel like I'm plugging in these same ol' agenda-driven hallmarks of myself as a writer, but . . . . no one will ever know. My motivations run parallel with those of the original.

I'm not writing to create something I want that doesn't exist; I'm writing to get more of the same thing I already love. This fic is technically an AU, but I don't think I've ever written more of a love letter to canon. Truly a remarkable experience, HSM is. It feels bespoke to me, everything I ever wanted, and I owe it a staggering amount for its influence on my life. Just, my whole entire life.

I'll be really glad to get this out into the world and see what the reaction is. If it ends up being my all-time all-star fic, I will be exceedingly satisfied with that eventuality. And if it somehow gets ignored, well, it'll have a home with my other two faves that literally no one has ever read, and that will be excellent, too, because I wrote it for me.

NEway this post is itself 500+ words so just take the time I spent writing this, multiply that by three, and that's how long it'll take to finish the fic, right? That's how it works, right?????