#Me trying to write a project initiation document

[terrythemerry]

Alma notes/logs + some of my thoughts on them.

Warning these notes are very spoiler heavy and talks about a lot of late game content.

@elffees

These are some of Alma’s easiest to find notes and on the surface they paint a picture of a kind, maternal woman worried about the kids she was forced to leave behind. Two words jump out at me in the last two notes though “sacrifice” and “choice. I’ll talk about that at the end though. The next part is where things get messy.

These are all her notes, the rest of this is going to be a bit of a rant because these last few notes are the ones that make my blood boil.

Alma never planned on rescuing them. While putting on a motherly facade she planned on leaving all of the Sarentu survivors to rot until their life support gave out. The only thing that made her act was the fact that wonderful Priya found out we were there, otherwise no one was coming for us.

Then there is how she refers to the children in “The Final Option”. She talks about all the potential glory and accolades she’ll get once she “has” them. Not when they come to her, when she possesses them. She acts like she doesn’t know in the notes, but she admits in game that deep down she knew they were going to steal the kids and killed Na’vi and let it happen anyway so she could have her little project. This is the “sacrifice” she’s trying to frame in the note “Back to Tap”. Personally I don’t see how a genocide and kidnapping is in anyway a “sacrifice”, sounds more like a war crime to me.

Last is the School Records and two things important to note are the initials in the document and the of “additional note” versus “note”. The initials show that only two people wrote in this document AC (Alma Cortez) and JM (John Mercer). Every single section degrades the children and talks about the “best” ways to manipulate them to TAP’s goals before being followed up with an “additional note” by Alma saying the opposite. The thing is I fully believe that Alma wrote the original sections and that the “additional notes” have been edited in later to try and cover her involvement in TAP.

The thing that makes me think this is Alma’s position as teacher and Mercer’s note. Alma was the one who spent the most time with the students, she’s the one who observed every aspect of their day to day, so she is the only person it would logically make sense to write about their temperaments and interests. Mercer had other things to do besides sitting around a classroom all day watching these kids, same for Harding. They’d be able to step in as discipline and for surprise inspections, but Alma was clearly the main observer. That means all the coded talk about discipline(abuse) and skills(usefulness to the RDA) is all her.

Mercer’s note was the big tip off to me that she retroactively edited the document. Mercer’s only note is that Aha’ri was killed. It was probably entered immediately after her death, because Mercer doesn’t care. He’s meticulous, organized, compulsive, etc. He doesn’t see the children as anything more than a tool so he has no shame in updating the document like it was a regular note about a generator going out. Because he entered it immediately the entry was logged as “note”.

A lot of websites will mark a comment as edited after a certain amount of time has passed. I feel like this is the case with the “note” vs “additional note”. The second giveaway is that Alma’s final note calling Mercer’s murderer is also logged as an “additional note” when there is no reason for Alma to manually input it herself. By that logic all of the additional notes were logged long after the original document was made and it’s just Alma’s way of trying to minimize her role in the abuse at TAP. This means that all of the suggested “discipline” aka brutal bone breaking and beatings was recommended by her in certain cases.

Alma isn’t a good person, she has a toxic savior complex and will go to any means to see that vision met. She might be on the right side, she might be doing good things now, but she is not a good person. Maybe she can be forgiven one day, but she’s still in toomuch denial about her own involvement to be forgiven this day.

[joelhappyhil]

DAWN’S BETA IS OUT!

I’ve been writing and refining this for at least 3 years now, and I intend for this to be the final major update before releasing the game in full. I’ve got a ton of things to say about this update but if you just want a link to the game it'll be below.

Here’s the link: https://joel-happyhil.itch.io/dawn! Below the option to purchase at full price there will be a bunch of community copies for any who want to download but can’t/don't want to pay.

For those who know nothing about it: DAWN is a Battle Shonen (a subgenre of anime and manga) inspired tactical TTRPG that I’ve been developing since I started my last major release (Star And City 2E).

I consider it the result of everything I’ve learned with writing and game design, it has the most collaborators I’ve had on any project, and it’s a product I’m incredibly proud of. Also, its precursor, Advent Dawn, was the first game I ever posted on Itch.

I want to note that this version is in no way complete, and should be read as such. There's the obvious missing art and text to start (which I’ve marked with a WIP image).

This version will likely have issues, as this is the first time this version has been shown publicly. Despite this, I’ve done as much as I can with my limited testing, I feel the book is a presentable and enjoyable product for any who’re interested in it.

I’ve also started a Itch funding tracker that’ll be active for the first 2 weeks because this update is a big deal to me and I want to see how much support I can get for the final release. I appreciate any support you give because of it, but don’t feel pressured to.

You may know I already ran a Kickstarter campaign for DAWN, this is why I haven’t set up any rewards for this itch funding, as I feel it would devalue the support I got on that initial KS, I just like to see numbers go up.

I can’t express how much I appreciate any amount of support. If you're interested in testing the game there’ll be a Discord link in the document that you can use to find my community, where I’ll be trying to test the game at least weekly and answer any questions asked.

[thesiltverses]

You folks have so many worlds inside your brains! Do you have any tips for keeping your different ideas organized?

I have a bunch of story ideas but they are starting to clump together into something like The Amalgamate from A Lonely Broadcast.

This is a really interesting question, because for me a big (and very useful!) part of creativity lies in amalgamation; it's taking old discarded story ideas that weren't working in their own right, and finding new and exciting ways to stuff them into a new idea - as background elements, as one-off episodes, as secondary storylines or characters.

The obvious example that comes to mind is Douglas Adams raiding his own Dr Who scripts to write his novels.

Or to give one example of ours: S1E4 of The Silt Verses was a short story idea I'd had about a bickering couple tramping through the New Forest in the UK, and the boyfriend (who keeps marching ahead and insisting he knows the way) ends up getting transformed into a deer and pursued pitilessly through the woods by a hunter-god, while the girlfriend escapes.

And it wasn't working, because 1) the story arc is just 'douchebag man dies horribly, non-douchebag woman runs away and lives', which feels predictable and 2) because it's a two-hander, there's not really a mechanism to gracefully explain what the antagonist is or how its curse works.

So I left it alone for a couple of years, we were writing TSV, and I thought - oh, maybe the girlfriend isn't the protagonist at all, maybe she can be the antagonist instead.

But the key ingredients there are time, space, and prioritisation, and it sounds like your frustration lies in having all these ideas at once and losing the shape of them because they all start to blend into one.

I guess from what you're saying, I'd advise you: decide which of your story ideas is a sapling, and which are seeds.

The sapling is the idea that feels furthest along, is the strongest-defined, and has the most space to grow. Focus on that one, build its shape, get it really clear in your head. Try not to get distracted, give yourself time alone with it.

The more clearly you've defined this idea and the more detail you have, the less you'll be tempted to bring in extraneous or muddled elements from other drafted ideas.

(To avoid said distraction, the key for me is really terrible file management.

I use an unfoldered Google Drive system, so that the 'recent documents' and search function are the only way to find my work. I keep all the documents relating to my sapling project open in different tabs, so that they always refresh back up to the top of my recent docs.

That way, any irrelevant seedling draftwork is rapidly buried in the drive, and I'm not going to spot it by accident while navigating to my current work. I have to be actively thinking about it to remember it exists.)

When your creativity's starting to feel strained or the initial plot and character momentum is no longer there, take a step back and check in on your seeds.

Maybe a couple of them are looking like they could be set aside and earmarked as a future big idea, maybe a few more don't feel quite as strong any more.

Dissassemble the bad seeds, atom by atom. What was the really good part of this idea? What can you gainfully repurpose? Take those components back to the sapling and see if you could benefit from jamming them into exciting places further into the storyline.

Since your sapling was already so strongly defined, they should add interesting new dimensions to it rather than confusing it (in theory).

I don't know if that helps, but I hope it does!

[scamanderishredmayniac]

Salamanders and Suitcases prompt challenge for Newt’s birthday event 2024: Day 1 - Far Off Countries!

Before I my caption properly little message. Please ignore the wonky writing. I don’t know why that didn’t come out straight, procreate went crazy when I copied and pasted a long piece of text from a word document app. I think it broke procreate, anyway it messed up big time. So please just ignore that and pretend it’s straight. If anyone knows how to fix that mess, then please let me know. All I wanted to do was add text to my picture. Honestly technology can be stupid some times, even if I do love it at other times.

Onto the picture then. Ok I initially started this years ago, maybe 2017? 2018? I can’t remember, think it was before I’d seen Crimes of Grindelwald anyway. I was inspired by some fan art I think it was MuggleNet who had posted them and I think I’d seen them there first; of an idea that what if Harry and Co had instagram? The illustrations were beautiful, and the captions were fun. So of course it was only natural that when I first saw Fantastic Beasts, I wanted to try one for Newt. But the thing with FB is that it doesn’t take place in school, so I couldn’t do a fun scene like the original illustrator who I’d been inspired by, I had to come up with something else; so I thought I’d do one with Newt and Frank instead. I don’t know why I thought of that, I was just stuck for ideas, and I just went with the first thing that came into my head. The instagram icons are the old version, because in the picture that I’d seen, they’d done the older version of instagram and I thought yeah why not? So there you have it.

Anyway it had been sitting in my drafts for years, I’d started it but got side tracked with other new projects and ideas so it just got buried and, I just couldn’t get back into it. But I decided I needed a kick in the backside to finish this, so I thought I’d enter it for this years Fantastic Beasts event that took place for Newt’s birthday instead. The event can be found on @salamandersandsuitcases profile.

For this prompt the word was Far Off Countries, so I thought it would actually be quite appropriate. Although essentially I had a different idea, but decided it was too difficult and would take too long to start from scratch, since I felt like I needed at least one piece of work up at least. And since I had this one half done, I thought it best to just go with it, besides I needed that kick up the backside to complete it, otherwise it could have been sitting there for another 100 years.

I hope you like it!! I’m actually quite pleased with it considering the colour palette got messed up because I selected comic strip, when selecting the canvas. Which apparently has a lighter colour palette than all the other ones. Well I didn’t know that till it was too late. Not to mention the wonky writing at the bottom. But I like it all the same. I hope you do too. Don’t forget to click that heart and reblog!

[idontknowreallywhy]

This one accosted me while I was trying to write something else (which appears to be A Pattern for me and writing… well… anything actually). It is very much inspired by many enjoyable conversations / informal therapy sessions with @astranite who shares my “what’s really going on with Scott” headcanon, and at the same time helped me figure out what might be going on with me too. Thank you for everything and for helping me nudge this into something shareable.

It’s also inspired by @sofasurf’s amazing set of fics about Scott’s struggles in the early days post Jeff disappearing. It’s absolutely right that after an initial crisis his brothers and grandma would have put in measures to stop him needing to work so hard and bear it all alone and I love how she tells that story.

And yet… we have Scott who 6 years later is still up late sat at that thrice-darned desk.. brothers aside, he’s CEO of a company that would employ a lot of competent people to sort out all the nitty gritty paperwork. So why is he still frequently found asleep there 6 years on?

This is my attempt to figure out some of the Reason… and not in any way a side quest distracting me from my own Big Document nemesis. Nope.

It is, however, 99% projection for which I hope you’ll forgive me. Hopefully it’s not too out of character.

Sort of an emotional hurt-comfort thing. The ending is very silly because that is apparently how I roll.

Trochilidae

Scott shook his head irritably as his eyelids drooped and flung out his hand to grab his mug… which promptly took a nose dive off the desk.

Allowing himself to face plant the polished wood for a moment he acknowledged he was, at least, lucky it was empty. Something he really should have remembered as that would have been the 5th time he had raised it to his lips only to be disappointed at the lack of caffeinated wake up juice within.

Not that it was doing any good. He scowled. It never did. The miraculous transformation from ‘Sleep of the Dead’ to ‘Alert and Ready’ that the brown stuff could bring about in Virgil and Brains remained a mystery to him. Drinking it kind of kept him grounded though, maybe that was just habit by now. Nevertheless… he shoved his chair back and stood up, glaring at the chunks of ceramic on the floor: a job for future Scott. He went to get a new mug.

Re-entering the living room, he surveyed the scene. All was quiet. Deep breath… stretch out shoulders… he tilted his head from side to side to shift the tension in his neck with a satisfying series of cracks.

1am. No problem.

He was nearly done and then he could get to bed and get a solid 4 hours oblivion before his morning run.

Back at his desk, he took a fortifying gulp of focus juice, put on his determined face, picked up his tablet and swiped up to open the annual report again. He blitzed through another three paragraphs, noted down 4 questions for the board, one for the accountant and one further point to follow up with Jack, the Tracy family lawyer, before his eye was drawn to the broken mug scattered across the floor.

Probably shouldn’t leave that.

Gordon might wander by in those flimsy deck shoes and mortally wound himself.

He laid the tablet back down, pointed at it and muttered” don’t go anywhere” to the document that had been tormenting him. Blinking rapidly as he realised quite how little sense THAT had made, he crouched down to nudge the scattered fragments into a pile he could scoop up into the waste basket.

From this angle he realised there was a lot more than just decimated mug and coffee splatters down here… there were crumbs galore, odd, sticky patches and… yes he was pretty sure that the mysterious patch of shadow tucked away under the back corner of the desk was the better part of a club sandwich. He shuffled over, crablike, and reached underneath to retrieve it, sniffed it cautiously and was just concluding it was unlikely to be worth the subsequent food poisoning when John’s hologram popped up in front of him. He didn’t even glance up to see the inevitable raised eyebrow.

“Don’t even say it, John.”

Obediently his space-brother remained silent.

“I’m nearly done. I’m just signing off the annual report for the board meeting tomorrow.”

“From… under the desk?”

Blue eyes were cast upwards as Scott strode over to the kitchen to dispose of the rancid but weirdly tempting sandwich. There was no liner in the food waste caddy. He tutted and placed the plate on the counter top to deal with in a minute.

“Obviously not, I just spotted that Gordon had left something gross lying around and we don’t want a repeat of the taco incident.”

“Okay, and what are you doing now?”

Scott looked down at the cleaning bot in his hands.

“I… well it’s clearly not been working, the place is a health hazard so I was just going to see if I could…”

This time he did raise his eyes to meet the eyebrow of judgment.

Holding up the bot for John to examine, he grinned at his little brother and shook it gently.

“Look it has googly eyes! I bet that was Gordon.”

“Unlikely to be causing the malfunction. Get Brains to take a look at it tomorrow. Or Alan, he needs the practice.”

“True. Oh, did you see the note his teacher sent through?” Scott returned the bot to its housing and jogged over to his desk to pull up the email in question. He sat down and started to type a reply.

“Scott.”

“Mmhmm?”

“I saw it. It’s non-urgent.”

“Yes but while I think of it I might as well…”

“It’s 1:27am. Why don’t you just sign off the report and get some rest. It’ll keep.”

A melodramatic huff and the offending document was returned to the screen.

“You’ve been reading this for the last four days, Scott. What’s the issue? Can I help?”

“There are just so many points I need to follow up before I can put my name to it.” Scott highlighted a particular paragraph. “What if the data this is based on is inaccurate? I haven’t seen it!” He stabbed at another “These assertions here… is it ok to say that? I need to check the industry standards for…” he gestured vehemently “six or seven of these baseline metrics. The grammar in the narrative paragraphs feels clumsy. And I haven’t even started proof-reading it for typos yet!”

Scott took a deep shuddering breath and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, weaving his fingers into his hair and gripping slightly harder than was comfortable as if that would ease the headache he knew was starting.

“The accountants have checked it, the divisional heads have checked it, Jack has been all over it at least twice. Virgil and the engineering team went through it with a fine tooth comb last week, they’ll know the baselines. I’ve checked it myself. Even EOS had a look.”

The response was barely audible.

“But what if… it’s not good enough? If someone missed something and… I didn’t spot it…”

“You don’t have to spot everything Scott. We pay smart people very generously to spot things. As CEO you are allowed to rely on them.”

Silence.

“Please… can you trust us?”

Holding his breath to fight a wave of nausea, Scott flipped to the final page of the document and added his digital signature.

With ninja-like speed John had saved the file and forwarded it to the board.

“It’s done, big brother. Go and sleep in your actual bed for a change.”

A swift shake of the head and muttered curse as big brother realised he’d gnawed through his bottom lip again.

“Can’t.” He stood up and paced the room.

“You know, maybe you shouldn’t have caffeine so late. Even Virgil…”

Scott’s snapped explanation that it made no difference whatsoever and that John KNEW that was forestalled by a series of beeps followed by a low hum as the cleaning bot started trawling across the floor.

“EOS?”

“Yeah, I asked her to see whether a firmware update would sort it.”

“Right.”

The brothers watched in silence as the little machine zigzagged around the room, bumping from one obstacle to another in an apparently haphazard fashion.

“It doesn’t seem very efficient does it?”

Scott sank suddenly to the floor in an effort to hide the fact his legs had turned to jelly.

“No, but it’ll get there in the end and everything will be done and it will all be ok.”

He snorted at his brother’s lack of subtlety and rested his forehead on his knees, concentrating on breathing evenly. He was fine. It was all fine. Again.

A few minutes passed before he noticed a faint high pitched giggle and his moment of peace was interrupted by the cleaning bot repeatedly bumping into his hip. He lifted his head to glare at it only for his eyes to make contact with the outsized googly ones jiggling wildly with each collision. His shoulders shook and he pressed his lips together to try to contain the rush of emotion rising up in his chest.

“EOS!”

As John turned to lecture the AI about when it was and wasn’t appropriate to annoy older brothers, the bot froze, all unblinking innocence gazing up at him. Scott let slip the smallest chortle then, after a beat, exploded, throwing back his head with howls of laughter, tears running down his face

It took him a while to compose himself enough to notice he was now lying on his back on the living room floor, John smiling down at him like some benevolent heavenly messenger. Smugness permeated through EOS’s voice as she enquired whether the Commander was much better now. He hiccuped. Then nodded. As he peeled himself off the floor and patted the cleaning bot absently, Scott found himself seized by An Idea.

And so it was that as Gordon awoke with his dawn alarm to find a 6-day old sandwich with giant eyes watching him from his bedside table.

The screech of a horrified squid echoed through the villa and was swiftly followed by the slamming of doors and the thundering of feet as most of its occupants tore to the rescue of a brother in distress.

The eldest brother remained precisely where he was, warm and comfortable, listening to the chaos and bemused voices. He smiled to himself and drifted back off to sleep.

[AO3]

[ingravinoveritas]

Hi! need some reassurance here. Am i the only one who is sad because we don’t know if we are gonna to see Michael and David working together again? Between the strike (which I totally support) and amazon not renewing GO, nothing is certain right now. I just miss them, i miss the interviews and i need new content. Note aside, I really don’t like the personal content that GT is posting on IG, like the video of David at the festival. Maybe it’s because I’m still new to the fandom and I’m not British, so i’ve a very different kind of humor, but her content somehow irk me… I don’t know. And don’t let me start talking about AL: she seems so phony and rude and i get nothing but bad vibes from her. Why does she always mock Michael’s appearance? I know, it’s none of my business 😅 So yeah… sorry about the rant!

Hi there! Grouping these together, since I'm a bit overdue in addressing some of this.

So as of this writing, the WGA strike has been resolved (hooray!) and the writers are back to work (including Neil, whom I believe is returning to writing GO season 3). SAG-AFTRA (of which Michael and David are both members) is continuing its strike, however, but hopefully it will also be resolved soon.

That said, I am definitely with you in feeling sad about not knowing when Michael and David will work together again. I believe the renewal for S3 is still pending, so it is indeed a time of uncertainty. My hope is that if/when the SAG strike is resolved, we might perhaps get some interviews with Michael and David that we otherwise were unable to get when GO 2 first came out. It may be too late to promote the season, of course, but we have to remember that earlier this year, Michael was popping up on nearly all of David's TV appearances (The Last Leg, Have I Got News For You), so even if a formal project isn't currently in the works, it hopefully won't be too long before we have the chance to see them together again.

To the rest of your Ask and @phantomstars24's, I've had multiple people asking me about what happened with Anna and her being called out, so for those who might've missed it, what occurred was that two weeks ago, someone left a comment on one of AL's Insta posts (the one with the photos from the "family holiday" in Sweden the weekend prior) calling her out for her repeated comments about Michael's appearance over the last few years:

Several comments from people defending AL/attacking the commenter followed these, and the next morning, she responded with this comment (not on the chain of already existing comments, but separately):

My initial impression was to be surprised that she responded at all. If the callout commenter's words truly meant nothing and weren't worth responding to, why say anything? But AL chose to reply, and that was her decision, so here we are. What is strange to me, though, is that she also chose to flat-out lie about something easily provable, given that her comments about Michael's appearance have all been well-documented on her Insta and Twitter over the past three years.

The second thought that came to mind is that this seemed like another attempt on her part at being Georgia--i.e., wanting/trying to give a witty "clapback" to a criticism. Instead, her comment comes across as insecure and insincere, with "magnificent hair growth" being a particularly egregious example of laying it on thick (who even talks like that? No one talks like that.). I was truly surprised to realize this comment was written by an almost 30-year-old woman, as it reads more like a teenager having a fit--though in fairness, there are plenty of teenagers who are far more mature than this.

There is also the notion that we are or somehow should be jealous of the "banter" in her and Michael's relationship, except that this misses two key points. One, that it's one thing for Michael to be self-deprecating about his looks--and that even if he is, it doesn't mean he doesn't feel hurt and is therefore possibly making those comments as a deflection--but it's something else entirely for her to make them. It speaks volumes about her character that she would see/hear him saying these things about himself and instead of wondering if he is okay, decides that it gives her the go-ahead to add to it and snark about his appearance. So many of us have felt self-conscious about our looks at one time or another, but without any response from him, it comes across less like "mutual banter" and more like "one person progressively making passive-aggressive cutting comments over time about the other." Which brings us to the second key point, which is that "in-jokes" are only funny to the people who are in on them, and similarly, banter is only mutual if we are able to see his end of it. The problem is, we never do. Michael does not interact with her on social media (even from his "private account," which many of us have known about for years, as he used to use it to interact with Kate, Sarah, and Lily all the time, yet he doesn't use it to interact with AL, for some reason).

Curiously, this would have been a perfect moment for Michael to do exactly that, or to say something on Twitter in her defense. Of course it is entirely possible that he felt he didn't need to say anything--which is his prerogative, just as it was AL's prerogative to respond. But it's quite interesting to realize that at the same exact time AL wrote that comment, Michael was on Twitter talking about touching David's chest and referring to him as the Thin Dark Duke, and then kept tweeting about GO fandom stuff for the next three hours. Choices.

All this to say that, in my opinion, there was nothing genuine or graceful about AL's comment. And again, you could say well sure, she felt attacked, so there was no obligation to stand on ceremony or mince words. It's just interesting that her comment went in the direction of defensive and sarcastic instead of saying something like, "Michael and I love each other and can handle a bit of teasing." And I truly do hope Michael's fans who rushed to her defense take a step back and realize that she is not a nice person. This is not how a nice person, regardless of who they are dating, talks to other human beings. And she will never reply to them or thank them for doing so because to her, they are a means to an end.

In any case, there was a recap of the callout/clapback situation with AL, for anyone who missed it. To your comments @nightingalecottage, please do not apologize for ranting. As I've said before, I want my blog to be somewhere folks can have these discussions calmly and civilly, and I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to message me with your thoughts. And as always, I'm very aware that I could be wrong about all of this, so I urge folks to read what is here and decide for themselves. Thanks for writing in! x

[aswegoalong72]

As We Go Along FAQ

Who are you?

I don’t like to put my name on the internet, but you may call me GB; those are my initials! I’m 24, chronically ill, and gay + trans. I have a girlfriend, three cats, and like to cook and clean when I’m not working on this novel series! I do art as well, although my condition usually prevents me from doing too much. I follow from @tolbachik, and my art blog is @tolbachik-art. (More about the novels under the cut!)

About the novels

What’s the story about? As We Go Along is a multi-novel series documenting the history of the Lyratet, and their history from the discovery of a safe passage to the northern hemisphere of their homeworld, to the eventual settlement of the galaxy.

So, science fiction? Yes, although I try to keep it as realistic as possible. No warp drives, no replicators, no energy swords; just good old regular physics and technology! Expect relativistic travel between stars, quantum computing, fusion power, and O’Neill cylinders as the most advanced stuff you’ll see. What even happens in it? A lot! I try to portray day-to-day life, with less of a focus on the science-y side of things and more on personal interactions and character growth. Ultimately, it’s about finding your place in the world and universe, and loving one another.

How many books are there going to be? One collection of short stories, three “prologue” novels at about 72k words each, with three larger novels following them and one last short story collection. Originally, it was going to be a stand-alone with only one book (the book I’m currently writing), but I’ve since expanded the universe very heavily. There’s a lot to explore!

72k word prologue novels? That’s already a lot! How many words will the regular novels have? At least 200k each, if not more. This is a saga, documenting their entire history and every little detail in it. It’s going to be a lot, but chances are I will cut the larger books into halves for easier readability, and to not deter people from getting into them. Still up in the air, really!

When can we expect to read it? When it’s done. I’m chronically ill, so it takes me awhile to get even typical household chores done, let alone a book! That being said, as of 1/1/24, I’m close to halfway done with the first book. I will be starting the prologues when I can, at which point I will start releasing them slowly. That way I have time to get the others finished!

Are there any other aliens in it, besides the Lyratet? Yes. I won’t elaborate further, though; I don’t want to ruin any surprises! Is it gay or trans? I mean, I guess? The gender binary on Reyal doesn’t exist in the same way it does here on Earth; “male” and “female” are very loosely defined. Physically, the only difference between the sexes is genitalia and a bit of height/face shape. On top of that, being equal to one another is an important part of life, so there’s practically no discrimination for relationships not following traditional “male/female” as on Earth. The author (hi) is gay and trans, so I guess if you count that too, yes.

What kind of “read” is it? Slow. I focus a lot on worldbuilding and character development. The Lyratet live a slow-paced life, and as such, I wish to reflect that in my work. I do try to keep it entertaining and interesting, though.

Is it family friendly? Yes and no. I would give it a PG/PG-13 rating, personally. It covers some very dark topics, like cults committing terrorism, some heavy violence, swearing, and there is some drug use. On the same note, there aren’t any references to sex really apart from a couple maybe wanting to have a child together. I’ll have a comprehensive list of warnings once I go to publish it!

Can I read it early? No. I will need beta readers at some point, but I won’t release any early versions to the public until it’s ready.

Where does the name "As We Go Along" come from? This Monkees song! I feel it describes the whole feel of the project very well. I have playlists for the story, but I'm going to refine them more before I put them out here. Where does "72" in your blog title come from? You'll see :)

What inspired you? Silent Running and folk music from the 1960s/1970s! Also, The Millennial Project by Marshall T. Savage.

About the Lyratet

Lyratet? Lyrat? Which one is it? Lyrat is singular, like human. Lyratet is plural, like humans. This is in Trel, a diplomatic language made to facilitate goodwill between nations on their homeworld, Reyal. Pronounced lee-raht, lee-raht-ett. Lyrat stands for child, as in “Child of Tenav” (Tenav a Lyrat), and Lyratet is “The Children of Tenav” (Tenav a Lyratet). “The” is usually defined by the suffix “te” in Trel, but the word Lyratet is special in this case.

Who are the Lyratet, even? They’re a cold-loving, communalistic, and herbivorous race from a planet slightly larger than our own, orbiting a K7V class star some 41LY away. They’re also incredibly religious. What conflicts should I expect to see? On Reyal, warfare isn’t very common. Religious wars died out centuries ago, primarily due to both sides not wanting to lose any followers before reaching “salvation”, whatever that may mean to them. Slaying one another is considered exile worthy, since they’re descended from prey animals. Keeping together and keeping each other safe is above all else. Nowadays, conflicts are settled through heated debates and international court.

I mean like, conflicts in the book. Man vs. nature for the first four including the prologues, man vs. man for the last few books. Of course, it isn’t just all that; conflicts between people will arise.

Can I make my own Lyrat character? Give me time to make a comprehensive historical timeline and get some reference sheets, but yes. I won’t consider them canon, but you do you! Just don’t like, claim the entire race concept as your own or sell designs based off it. Typical stuff, y’know?

I don’t think herbivores can become civilized. What’s your explanation? Starchy, fast growing, calorie dense tubers. That, and their social structure and their early languages helped to keep them safe from predators. If you ask them, though, they’d probably say Tenav, their star, guided them.

Why are they religious? Are you? Surviving the early days of civilization wasn’t easy, and they made sure to thank whatever powers they believed in (mostly Tenav) for making it through the day. Since then, their religious fervor has grown heavily. Atheists are in the minority, with only ~700,000 out of Reyal’s surface only 2024 population of ~13,000,000,000 not believing in anything. Also, no; just agnostic. Three eyes? Why? That's overdone! I will be honest, the Lyratet are based off of a design I got yeaaaaars ago from a friend, @bubbykat! I've tweaked it a bit since then, giving reasons as to why they evolved like that. Reyal has many, many fearsome predators. Through evolution, they took up an extra eye in the center of their head, giving the impression that they were more dominant than they actually were. It doesn't move, and is more vestigial than anything.

What’s Reyal like? Reyal has no seasons, and is divided into three “bands”; Northern Hemisphere, Equator, and Southern Hemisphere. It has a 33 hour long day, two moons, and a thick atmosphere. It isn’t tidally locked to its star, and has an orbital period of 3.27 months. It’s about 1.28x the size of Earth. It's dominated by numerous freshwater and saltwater lakes, with only one major ocean in the Southern Hemisphere. There are large cyclones above both poles, where the temperatures regularly drop to -153f on the surface.

If they don’t have seasons, how do they keep time? Nowadays, they use Tenav’s solar cycle and pulsars to keep time. As of 2024 in the Gregorian calendar, it is 23,514. It adds up as follows: their first cultures emerged 231,388 years ago, they count in base 8, and the average solar cycle of Tenav is 23 years long. So, it all adds up to the current date being 23,514! Still working on how to subdivide it.

What other objects are in their system? Order from Tenav is as follows: Syt, Inner Belt, Kouteb (dwarf), Omat (dwarf), Reyal, Alkan, Olena, Lejag, Outer Belt.

Reyal has two moons; Ro and Velgae. Alkan has one, Fel. Olena has six major; Heva, Thrallit, Eynaje, Selex, Lipeya, and Prasto.

[guqin-and-flute]

ALRIGHT. I've decided. I have officially moved Holding Me Holding You to my finished 3zun AU documents! 🌈✨🎉

Narratively, I'm too pleased with the full circleness of this last chapter to have this be anything but the end of this particular fic. The comfort--THE IMMEDIATE, NOT REALLY TIME SKIPPED COMFORT, I PROMISE YOU I'M FIXING IT--will now be in the next fic because it will structurally be different and serve a different narrative purpose in the overarching story.

I hope no one feels bait and switched by me having labeled this as hurt/comfort initially as the comfort doesn't really balance it, but I'll try to rectify the tags on Ao3 to reflect the journey the fic took!

I'm SO fucking happy and proud that I finished my first long form, multi chapter fic. It's a goal I've struggled to achieve my whole writing life (which started in like 2nd grade). I have honestly never officially finished a long term writing project. I wasn't sure I could do it (mostly for ADHD reasons but also others, as well). So closing this off here is proof to myself that I CAN. It took uhhh several years but I can!

I may look back and be less than happy with pacing or structure, sooner or later, but what's important to me right now is the proof that I did it.

The comfort and Nieyao meeting A-Fu fic will be set at most a week later (as A-Yao and Da-ge will get moving pretty quick once they hear the news that oops they have a son) and will be a multi perspective, h/c, what-happens-next fic. It will have some angst because it's 3zun (and middays 3zun, at that) but nowhere NEAR the level of Holding Me Holding You. I mean for it to be a softer recovery, where are we at now fic.(Also probably much shorter but I know better than to promise THAT anymore 😭)

Thank you so much for all of your continued support and love of this AU! Your tags, your comments, your asks, your theories, art, and ideas are all huge boosts to keeping me going. The fact that you read and like it at all is still so, so awesome to me.

I intend to finish my streak of finishing long form chapter docs and this is the first step of doing it, which is oddly healing from past internal narratives I've assumed about myself and my abilities. I'm gonna finish what I have planned in these AUs, damnit!!

So thank you for coming along with me this far and I hope to see you at the finish line! ❤️

[unidentifiedlyingobject]

Why is it so difficult for me as a neurodivergent person to start a simple task?

(disclaimer: this is off my own experiences as someone who has adhd and there are a multitude of other reasons as to why this is, this is just something I've found over my years)

so you need to do some work

easy

all you need is a writing implement and a laptop and your books and some spare paper and what if someone messages you, you need your phone too right? lots of stuff to collect let's goooo

but obviously you need more than just a writing implement don't you? you could really do with an entire pencil case -- where is the laptop? oh you've found it. but it has no charge. umm charger?

?!?

no idea, let's start collecting the books you need... nope they're not even in your house

you left all the documents at work or school or whatever (because although you rely on ultimate organisation to operate at all, you do not have the organisation skills to live up to that)

no problem... you can just look things up on google. good thing you have a phone and ooooo tumblr that fanart is gorgeous you absolutely have to reblog so that more people can appreciate it!! oop almost forgot your Duolingo streak, good thing you're -- didn't you mean to do something? ahh yes looking up stuff

it's ok the laptop charger was underneath the sofa you've got it running now

so you have some resources to use on your phone because all your books are in your locker and it's a sunday, you have a working laptop, you're gradually running out of energy that you initially needed to even start the project?

pencil case, you've found that too

that's good

spare paper is all the way upstairs so you fetch it u p s t a i r s

d o w n s t a i r s then collapse back in your seat in front of the laptop and honestly you don't have any more motivation left to do the work

People ask why it takes so long to build up the energy to do simple tasks

I don't know about neurotypicals, but to us neurodivergent folk it seems like every small thing is actively fighting against you to prevent you from trying to create an environment that is uncluttered and prepared so that you have everything you need to even start a project comfortably

(please feel free to add anything I've missed on this particular matter if you reblog)

something that helps if you find yourself too overwhelmed by preparing everything: just take a break, go listen to some great music or read a familiar book or play a musical instrument loudly and badly

and don't feel shame, executive dysfunction is something that so many of us have to overcome daily, looking after yourself is the best action you can take today

[mejomonster]

Okay so hello friends I discovered this site today, when trying to find an app/place to write with low distractions:

So its got: dark mode, light mode, you can set a timer (good for a writing sprint), you can set a word goal, it shows just your writing and word count at the bottom, it has a tool to export your writing as a txt file when done. Its features appear the same on laptop or phone, useful if you're like me and sometimes type on the phone.

Of particular note: you can only backspace through a word, not further. I'd suggest trying to write for a while before deciding how you feel about it. I was initially annoyed, since I couldn't delete a sentence I disliked and could only really fix small scale initial typos. But I just started typing // when I didn't like a prior line so I could just go delete it later in editing, then I continued writing the sentence I'd want instead. After the first several minutes, I decided I kind of like this feature. Why? Because it got me to WRITE. I couldn't really second guess myself much, because re-reading and editing wasn't an option during writing. It will be an option LATER, but not during this writing sprint. Justwrite as another feature, doesn't really let you scroll up. Annoying to me, somewhat, since I couldn't scroll up and double check I was remembering certain details right. But it makes up for it again in getting me TO WRITE. I wrote 3000 words an hour in Justwrite. Just because I HAD to move forward and just tell the fucking story. A lot of what I wrote was good stuff! And I left myself little // to find and fix bits I wanted to work on more. And maybe useful in a story sense, I found my scenes felt they were flowing in pacing better. Possibly because I had to write them timely enough to remember what I was writing ToT (I don't have the best detail memory) so scenes couldn't dawdle long enough to get super stuck or linger on something for an amount of time that would start getting a reader lost or bored. In summary: the particular quirks of not allowing much backspacing and not much upscrolling? Make for faster writing, and a bit more of an incentive to keep a writing flow going while its fresh in your mind.

Anyway I wrote 7000 words today thanks to this site (and the app version on my tablet).

I really appreciate Low Distraction writing tools since seeing even just words underlined or editing tabs above a document quickly gets me distracted. Some current favorites: justwrite (site and app), https://novellla.web.app/ (I like this but I prefer the computer version as the phone version has no night mode), Writer Lite (a phone app I love for organizing writing as it works very minimal distraction but lets me change fonts and organize chapters and notes and projects and check word counts by project/chapter/entire directory - in that app I've written 192,000 words this year, it backs up to google drive and I have not explored exporting options yet but its definitely my favorite phone app for writing project organizing), notepad (when Im om my computer Im not kidding - the lower the distractions the more likely I'm going to use the tool), and honorable mention app.gethermit.com (its a useful site for sharing writing to someone to look at with password protection, and its also got projects/chapters organization, I both appreciate that it includes spellcheck and also hate that it's spell check means I NEVER write on the site I just use it to quickly store a copy paste writing backup online so I can open it up on another device).

[hecatesbroom]

How I organise my (fic) writing in Notion

@this-geek wondered how I organised my works in Notion, and considering I'm nothing if not always happy to ramble about anything concerning lists and sorting my various things, here we are ;) thanks for giving me an excuse to talk about this haha

Under the cut because I have unfortunately rambled quite a bit (sorry!)

Okay so first off: I really only use Notion for my fic writing (I prefer to work on original projects in physical notebooks or Word, for reasons unknown to even me) and I only keep my first drafts in here. I move on to Google Docs for second drafts (again, who knows why I do this? I sure don't!) Anyway, onto the organisation:

This is what my main page looks like! I have some fancy sidebars I never really use, the to do list is horribly outdated, and I haven't updated that quote (from one of my favourite book series: The Locked Tomb) in ages, but I still think it looks nice!

The thing this is mainly about, though, is the part in the middle that says "all fics". This is what Notion calls a database. It's basically one gigantic collection of pages (in my case: fics) that you can add tags to and display in various different ways. I prefer gallery view because it allows me to add a picture to the overview if I want to. I used to do this for my Locked Tomb fics and it looked pretty fun:

The thing is that it's also a lot of work to find pictures to match your fics (and nowadays I'm more focused on writing than all the thing surrounding it) so my Golden Girls overview looks more like this! I still like the gallery view because it gives you a little preview of every wip :)

As you can see, there's lots of different tags under the titles. The stuff you see in this view is a quick overview (mostly to help with sorting, so all my posted wips line up, and the rest shows up according to which state of unfinishedness they're currently in)

When you click any fic in this view, you'll be taken to the actual fic, and its complete overview of tags & info! I like to keep track of a lot of things (when I remember to, anyway). Here's a little overview for the things I tracked for the finish line :)

Created: shows me the date I started the document (and therefore the fic). Very useful! I love this feature a lot

Fandom: is mainly there for organisation purposes! I set my gallery view to toggle per fandom, so it's all sorted into neat little sections thanks to this tag

Characters: pretty self explanatory

Type: I've got several categories here: "one-shot", "multi-chapter", "drabble", "ficlet", and (reserved for one AU in particular) "i honestly don't know anymore"

Status: again, there's quite a few options for this one: "plotting", "writing draft 1", "1st draft", "2nd draft", "finished", "posted", "hiatus" and "abandoned" (which I rarely use)

Quick summary: is where I play around with my ao3 summary whenever I'm bored and don't really feel like writing

Draft 1 wc: I usually just put the final word count for the first draft there, unless I remember to track individual writing sessions (in which case I add those word counts as well, like in the example above, because I love looking back on the process!)

Draft 2 wc: I tend to completely retype a fic into my google docs for the second draft. Once I've done that I put the end result into my Notion doc

Finished wc: after I've reread and edited my 2nd draft, and possibly managed to have it all get a little out of hand (like you can see in that doubled word count for the finish line, lol) I put the finished word count here!

WC goal: is just a fun way to see what my initial idea was for the fic (I try to set a goal when I've got a general idea of what I want the work to look like, and always end up exceeding it)

The rest of it is just my writing, basically! Scroll down from there and you get the body for the fic :)

I hope this was somewhat helpful! I'm not a pro at Notion by any means, but if you have any questions or need some help, feel free to ask! I'm happy to try to help out!

[chaos-incarnate-sleepyneo]

What is this Tumblr Page about?

Aight lets do dis. I'm bad at tumblr so bare with me! This is gonna be a long one…

This tumblr page is intended to present the journey between my character/sona Neo (@aimdoesart) and @sleepyzz0h characters Noon and Evening. This all started when a close friend of mine initiated a silly discord roleplay that has since become a super elaborate and story driven project over the past year, so we have decided that we would try to compile the literal thousands of art pieces and mini comics into something that others could view easily and perhaps enjoy alongside us right here on tumblr! We have an idea of how we want to finish this story, but as of now it's still not done! I have began to write everything that has happened thus far in the story in google docs and boy have I been considering making this story into a fic.

While this story is mainly focused around the relationship between Neo and the two brothers, there are plenty of other friends who have contributed to this project as well and together we've created a whole world that expands well beyond the scope of me and Sleepyzz 3 main characters. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has worked with us and will work with us in the future on this project. Anytime someone else's character or contribution is mentioned in this story we are going to enthusiastically bring recognition to them, because the more people involved in this D&D-esk project, the more alive the world feels. Every character is 3 dimensional with their own strengths and weaknesses and it's been an adventure exploring the depth of each and every one of them. The environment of which these characters reside is explored and directly affects the characters goals and aspirations. The differences in society in this fanciful universe have me personally captivated and frankly in a choke hold.

We can't wait to share everything we've got here on tumblr. Granted it might take some time because we have to sift through so much work, but we hope y'all will like our story as much as we do! Special thank you to @neko-rena for being the reason this project started in the first place. Without you I never would have even met Sleepyzz. So, thank you! With much love -AIM/ Neo

[TLDR] This Tumblr page showcases a year-long project documenting the evolving story the characters, Neo, Noon, and Evening, originating from a goofy Discord roleplay. The collaborative effort involves a diverse group of friends contributing to a rich, three-dimensional world. We would like to express our gratitude to to our friends and collaborators as we plan to share the compiled artworks and mini-comics here on Tumblr, emphasizing the complexity of characters and societal differences within this fantasy universe.

[requiesticat]

Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Chapters: Completed Fandom: Ace Attorney; Miles Edgeworth: Investigations Rating: Gen Notes: Post-Canon; Oneshot

Summary: Blaise has recieved a lot of mail during his tenure as the head of the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee. Not all of these letters are pleasant. Sebastian became privy to it eventually, and it's only now that Blaise realizes what it means.

-

I was thinking about how the general public would potentially react to corruption in the Ace Attorney universe. What would happen if the villains got death threats? Hate mail? Etc. Would they handle it well? It lead me to write a short fic with that premise.

This was partially based on a scene from Koe no Katachi, a manga that has similar themes.

Two o'clock had come and gone. That was when a courier passed out deliveries around the cell block once a week, ensuring letters were distributed to their recipients. Some inmates got packages that had been weighed and stamped, to detect that contraband wasn't overlooked by censors. You were lucky if you did, but most received plain envelopes from family and acquaintances.

Blaise only had one relative left.

He sat at a wooden, government-standard issue desk, staring down at the pile of unopened messages that slowly built up day by day, threatening to topple off onto the concrete floor. One envelope lay crumpled, torn next to a folded sheet of beige stationary. Whoever the sender was, they'd used force when scratching haphazard cursive with a pen, causing ink to bleed in spots. The words swam as he went over them again, reading line after line in silence, face impassive. There should have been anger. And on some level, there was. Blaise could easily have crumpled it up and tossed it in a small trashcan with the others, sent by disgruntled citizens who'd been following recent news. He felt none.

When they still lived together in the townhouse, Blaise had caught Sebastian lighting the fireplace multiple times, to discard envelopes under the guise of fueling flames. Not all. Only a handful from the mailbox, dutifully brought inside and hidden when the teen assumed noone was present. Blaise had yelled at him each time, demanding furiously that he stop - but threats weren't enough to keep it from happening. Sebastian had just stood there each time, head bowed, crying and apologizing profusely as he faced punishment. Did as he was told, for awhile. Then the disappearances continued. Never bills, documents faxed from work, or bribes. Sifting through ashes after the fire died down revealed half of them were addressed to Blaise, though some had been intended for Sebastian, according to the addresses that were included.

Now, he understood why. 

All Blaise could think of was how much of an idiot he'd been.

Blaise Debeste, it read: You are disgusting! Why are our tax dollars used to prolong your execution? Your whole lot is disgusting, and it would be better for society if the whole operation collapsed! I hope you rot in jail. GO DIE!

Most of them were like that. People poured out their hatred for the Committee on paper every week, sending graphic death threats, obscene epithets, ransom notes, all calling him every name under the sun. It should have been obvious, but he had never realized it, not until the very end. These were the ones that got discarded. He'd been so used to getting them initially - even expected it to happen, as his career plummeted into ruins - that the sudden lull seemed almost too convenient.

Sebastian had been trying to protect him the whole time. It stopped when Blaise was arrested, and now noone was left for him to hide behind, or use as a scapegoat. He was stuck living with it; the knowledge of all that he had done. But more than that, he was alone.

Disgusting.

Monster.

How could you?

Coward!

GO DIE-

A tear splashed, marring ink so that it blurred into the paper like watercolor paint. His vision was blurring, now, making it impossible to discern anything legible. Blaise hadn't realized he'd been crying until wetness slid down his cheeks, dripping off his nose. He'd taken off his goggles to prevent them from fogging up, even if there was no point to wearing them.

Slowly, he wiped at his eyes with an arm that hid the letters from sight.

"That kid really... pisses me off."

[callmearcturus]

Do you have any advice for finding people to write fanfic with? You talk all the time abt your collabs with punct and it sounds like in addition to providing a second opinion, the two of you really help motivate each other to keep working on stuff :)

UUUUUUh I am uniquely not the person to ask this I think, lmao. Instead of "coauthor" lets say "collaborators," because that's much more common for me.

Because for the PT Benji AU, that one is pretty unique. Punct had the initial idea and I think we haggled a bit over "well SOMEONE has to write this, the idea is so fucking good" and I started turning the brainstorming sessions into an outline. Then because I know Punct and their skill level, I jsut started.... Poking them to hop in and directly help? And that submission scene two(?) chapters ago, I just fully asked them to take a swing at writing it and I'd revise, which worked fabulously. Hell, just last night, Punct reworked the outline for the last 2 chapters of act one, and it's amazing.

For me, cowriting is difficult because, uh, my speed and intensity. As you may surmise, I write Very Fucking Fast and I have a lot of ideas about the Process, so I often feel like... Roping someone in to work with me is a huge ask.

You know all those posts you see about how writing is a slog and how blank word documents stare back at you and, like, that genre of post? I don't relate to those. When I am entrenched in a project, I often have to STOP writing or I risk literal physical injury. (My worst injury came from writing TSAD, never fucking let ANY human type at that speed, folks.)

I am, frankly, a freak. So as we started collaborating, I told Punct "hey bruh, I know that I am like really intense and i work very fast, please know I DO NOT expect that from you, okay." And reiterated it a few times. /looks over at Punct. So they better keep it in mind!

Anyway, enough conceited clarification, onto the point of your question.

How do you find people to create stuff with.

The number one thing that I will keep saying until I am blue in the fucking face is: post positive stuff you are interested in.

I do not hateread. I try to keep drama to a minimum on Tumblr. When I see opinions and takes I disagree with, I tend to post alternative takes in a hopefully positive manner instead of trying to take down others. I think there is a big habit in fandom for people to go "UGH why are people posting X when they should post Y." And that bitching never actually gets you more Y, it just makes everyone less excited about creating stuff.

When you are looking for collaborative souls, you are looking for people excited about creating stuff. So you need to telegraph that's what you're into in a constructive way. But I think an unfortunate pitfall a lot of people fall into is... Just announcing it.

When I got into Mission Impossible, I didn't do a lot of "hey I'm into MI now, pls come talk to me about it." Instead, I started making posts of why I was into it. Here's some batshit stunt facts, here is a treatise on Ghost Protocol's deep unorthodox streak, look at these pics of Ethan from Fallout.

They're like setting out treats. Sometimes, you lure in people who are willing to say "yes, and." And when you find those people, you keep track of them and see if they continue to be willing to play with you. Then you sidle up and go "so can I pitch you on an AU." And you put them in a cardboard box and carry them away to Discord.

There's more I could say, like how sometimes I try writing towards specific people (like how KTOWL was written at @thedoublepp and I feel like I learned a tremendous amount by doing that) and honing writing based on that, buuuut this post is long.

[powerful-niya]

2023 Reflection 𐙚🧸‹𝟹

🧸🥞🪐🩹🧋

— "Everything has changed and yet, I am more me than I've ever been."

-Ian Thomas

2023.

Upon reflecting on 2023, I would describe it as a year filled with challenges—a beautiful challenge, teeming with opportunities for growth, exploration, and surpassing my own expectations.

"Trust the Process" served as my guiding mantra throughout the year, urging me to persevere through the initial struggles of ideas, projects, and experiences, pushing forward with resilience….

until the very end.

Yes, 2023 was challenging.

Busy.

Stressful.

But it was also inspiring.

Uplifting.

Joyous.

✨Looking back, I'm genuinely amazed by all the multitude of accomplishments I've achieved in the year of 2023.✨

I've…

🧸 Successfully graduated from Community College

🧸 Embarked on a journey at a University

🧸 Enhanced my driving skills

🧸 Secured a job

🧸 Joined a college club

🧸 Formed connections with new people

🧸 Delved into learning Japanese

🧸 Embraced baking as a new hobby

🧸 Explored new foods

🧸Made tons of moodboards

🧸 Got a lot more active on Tumblr, Discord, AO3, Wattpad

🧸 Entered Two Writing Events: Fest No Jutsu 2023 & NaruHina Month 2023

🧸 Took part in a personal Q&A session for Nhmonth23.

🧸Received FanMail: Nhmonth23

🧸 Wrote… a lot.

🧸🥞🪐🩹🧋

This year, my approach to writing took a significant turn. I've actively pushed myself to step outside my comfort zone, delving into writing alternative universes (AUs) that I've never attempted before—exploring uncharted territories I never thought I would. It's been a transformative journey, challenging my creativity in new and crazy ways.

𐙚🧸‹𝟹 - This Year I have written 467,449 words: give or take. (Naruhina)

(Also) In all I have made 55 moodboards (Naruhina)

🧸🥞🪐🩹🧋

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨2023 mч wrítíng єndєαvσrs ୧⋆˚｡⋆

⋆˚｡⋆thє undєrlчíng єvíl

NaruHina

✨nαruhínα mσnth 2022✨

Prompt: Fairytale, Gifted & Cursed + Enemies to Lovers

Wattpad | AO3 | FF.Net.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨Published in May 2023 ୧⋆˚｡⋆

⋆˚｡⋆αuє rєvσír

NaruHina

✨nαruhínα mσnth 2022✨

Prompt: Angel & Demon + Lost & Found + To'oborni

Wattpad | AO3 | FF.Net.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨Published in July 2023 ୧⋆˚｡⋆

⋆˚｡⋆kíss mє, thríll mє - nαruhínα smut cσllєctíσn

NaruHina

Wattpad | AO3

⋆˚｡⋆Eighteen One-Shots Completed: May - Dec. (2023) ⋆˚｡⋆

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨Initally published in May 2023 ୧⋆˚｡⋆

⋆˚｡⋆thє tєll-tαlє hєαrt

NaruHina

✨Fest No Jutsu 2023✨

Wattpad | AO3 | FF.net.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨Published in October 2023 ୧⋆˚｡⋆

⋆˚｡⋆nαruhínα mσnth 2023

NaruHina

A part of the 'Kiss Me Thrill Me Smut Collection'

⋆˚｡⋆Five One-shots Completed: Dec 1 - Dec. 31 (2023).

Tumblr | Wattpad | AO3

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨Published in December 2023 ୧⋆˚｡⋆

⋆˚⋆୨Conclusion୧⋆˚｡⋆

In the grand scheme of things, 2023 has been an exhilarating and wonderfully chaotic journey that I'm sure I'll fondly remember. ✨

Far from being a tough year, it turned out to be quite remarkable for me. I achieved a bunch of things I never imagined, ventured into uncharted territories, wrote Ooeshots/fanfics I never thought would come to my head, and created a plethora of mood boards—a hobby I find truly enjoyable.

The only reason why I began to do this whole 'reflection post thingy.' is because I was inspired by many others here on Tumblr who were taking their time to reflect on the passing year and their accomplishments.

I decided to give it a try, and now, I think I will make this a personal tradition.

Each year, I'll document my successes, reminisce about what I've done and achieved, and immortalize it all in writing for my own reflection.

🧸🥞🪐🩹🧋

2023 was truly amazing, but I have a feeling 2024 might just top it.(this is me wishful thinking, haha).

I'm truly looking forward to all that lies ahead!

#Goodbye 2023

✨Happy New Years! ✨

- Powerful_Niya

[ga-wsc-fmp]

Reviewing my initial timetable

When beginning this project i planned out a timetable of the things i expected to get done each week. Here I will review the accuracy of this, and at the end I will create a new, updated timetable based on current progress.

Here's my original timetable:

Weeks 1-3 were all about research, and I did spend this time researching the themes, however I also got distracted trying to learn some Unity as well, since at the time I wanted to attempt to do this project in a different engine to challenge myself. This led to the intended 3 weeks to last much longer. In fact development only started during week 7. This is an unacceptably long amount of time, and meant i had spent over half of the project time just on the initial research stages, leaving me with only around 5-6 weeks to actually develop something. This was terrible time management on my part and I fear my grade will be affected as a result. I intend to use the remaining time as best as possible so I can end this project on a high note, even if it means I won't be able to do everything I initially wanted to do.

Weeks 4-6 were supposed to be prototype creation. Here i would create an incredibly bare bones concept version of the project, which would act as a way to showcase the general idea of the project. Unfortunately during these weeks I was still in the research stage. I have only recently begun actual development and as such I am still in this phase, just multiple weeks later than I'd hoped.

Weeks 7-8 (In week 8 at time of writing) were supposed to be the final stages of the MVP, finishing up any necessary extra menus and getting people to play test. Unfortunately as previously stated this was not met, and I am currently in week 8 about halfway through the prototype phase.

I am sorely concerned about my ability to come out of this with a finished project. I expect i may have to skip out on a lot of aspects I'd have liked to have completed, such as creating an in-depth example battle, as well as some nice assets.

Absolute worst-case scenario, I do still plan on developing this further even after the FMP is over. I would love to realise the initial idea i had planned, regardless of whether it contributes to a grade or not.

With this, we can safely conclude that my initial timetable was terribly inaccurate and needs a drastic rework. So here's a timetable for the remaining time that's hopefully more realistic:

Weeks 8-9: Finish basic menu's and actions, creating a solid prototype. Get some feedback on this and make any necessary adjustments accordingly.

Weeks 10-11: Polish out the prototype and add any other needed features. Also import some assets such as music, sound effects, sprites, UI elements, and backgrounds. If there is time then create some of these myself otherwise find free to use assets online.

Week 12: Finish any unfinished features, or discard them if there isn't enough time. Spend rest of time testing and bug fixing. Do NOT start creating new features beyond this point unless absolutely necessary as well as realistically and easily achievable. Week 13: Project should be in an acceptable state to hand in. Fix any drastic bugs if absolutely necessary, otherwise spend week creating an itch.io page for the project, as well as a game play video and working on needed documents to review the project. Also make sure Tumblr blog is all up to date and any drafted posts are finished and posted.

Hopefully this timetable should be more accurate. I will need to discipline myself these remaining weeks and avoid any distractions. I will set myself schedules and reminders to keep me organized to the best of my ability. I should be minimizing my leisure time for the remainder of this project if I want a good outcome.