#ayearofwriting

[drippingmoon]

Merry new year to everyone, again! 🥳💞🥂

I know it wasn’t an event this year, but writing a yearly wrap-up is really therapeutic, you know? So I decided to continue the tradition, and if anyone wants to join me, absolutely view this as an open invitation^^ Introduction is over, and now let’s see what 2023 looked like:

(spoilers: I adored it. I'm also probably going to make this my fixed post, in case anyone ever wants to catch up with me. And also because my second baby, AoS, is growing, and it doesn't have an intro, but I can't leave it out.)

Stats

Aquiver, Aglow: 181k (draft 4) + 195k (draft 5) + hmm, draft 6 is an outlier, because I didn’t rewrite from scratch, so I’m unsure of the written word count. I didn’t change much from draft 5, so I’d say an extra 15-20k. Total word count: 376k+

Remains of a Night: 120k 

Aberration of Sunlight: 134k

This was definitely my most productive year to date. And I got so hungry: the more I wrote, the more I just wanted to keep writing, and honestly? I’m proudest of myself for literally carving writing time whenever I got a spot into my schedule. Mostly it was from 8pm-11pm, but I had a mad run where my only free window was from 1am till I literally felt I was dying… I’ll talk about that separately🤣🤣👌

Though, I'm seriously understating it.

Like a lot of other people, I would have all these hours when I was younger when I didn't have anything to do, yet I'd still find some excuse not to write. "I'm waiting for the right time." "I'm anxious I'm not going to get it right." "Tomorrow! Tomorrow I can start right from the morning, and I'll have more time to write, yeah?" or "I'm too tired now, it's late..." and so the snowball rolled down and downhill and I found every reason under the sun not to write, now that I think about it. Sigh. So much time wasted. But I can't regret it either, because I needed those baby steps at that time.

And now! Now I do what I thought I'd never learn to: I prioritize, and I actually organize my daily stuff so it's not so impossible anymore to have a little bit of writing time. I don't take it for granted either. It feels like such character growth for me, I'm immensely proud of it.

And for the record? This year was a huge improvement over yesteryear mentally, too. It turns out, what I needed to get over my word count anxiety… was to be faced with people who literally didn’t give a fuck about it, and just cared about the story. One of the most unexpected things beta stage managed to do to me… was to quench all my anxieties. It’s as simple as that. I read and enjoy very long books. People also do that. So, I’m very happy to say I’m no longer in a tizzy about ‘quiv. It might kill my chances for trad publishing, it might not. I’ll be happy come what may.

Because it’s so simple how working on ‘quiv or thinking about it makes me joyous, and now I can just enjoy that freely. I will miss writing this story so much. I really will. But at least I’ll have it forever to reread, and I hope this thought brings comfort to everyone who also has problems letting go, like it does to me.

Let’s break it down a little, shall we?🤩

Aquiver, Aglow◇◇◇

My little star of the hour. How fond I am of it.

Like you could glean from above, ‘quiv went through three drafts this year. More specifically: in the first part of the year, practically almost as soon as February arrived. I knew it was getting closer to the final version, and gave me the push to finish all three back to back. I couldn’t justify anymore the bazillion AUs I do with rewrites (basically, WHAT IFs from events, WHAT IF it went this different way, WHAT IF Tyrone actually said this here… and so on and so forth. I wanted to test out as many pathways as possible, and did I exhaust every one of them in existence? Definitely not. I don’t think that can happen, you just keep getting new ideas. On and on. What happened, instead, is that these couple different pathways, at some point, cemented themselves as canon in my mind. I didn’t want to tease myself with alternatives anymore, and that’s when I knew they would be it. Some bits from the first draft, some from the third, some from the second. Some were even draft 6 originals!

It’s a bit of a weird process. I definitely didn’t need to reach draft 3, and meet Mezusa, because I could’ve feasibly made it work with just Yles in the story. It still would’ve made sense, though in a different way. But if I hadn’t… I might’ve missed one of the best characters I’ll ever probably have created, and the story (and Yles) is much stronger for her, if you ask me. 

For that matter, yes, full rewrites every single draft might take a lot of time and effort, but honestly I don’t think I’d ever change my writing process (save for the moments of frustration when I think I will lol) because of the sheer satisfaction of it. Whoever said so long never to settle on the first version, I owe you a beer and probably some curses as well lmao, but very lovingly. You shaped my writing life.

I don’t have much else to share about ‘quiv, other than it’s off with my beta readers my beloved, and maybe a tentative promise that, if anyone wants, you’ll be able to read this precious ball of hope of mine relatively soon. This story is so gentle to me. And as much as I loved to write and work on it, I dearly hope that whoever decides to give it a go, is treated just the same. That’s the only wish I have.

I also don’t know if I’ll go trad or self-published. Instincts say trad, because I fuckin’ suck at marketing (fact), and I know I’d grow resentful if I’d have to put so many hours into advertising when I know I could instead… write. I’m a writer. That’s the only thing I know how to do. Trad, however, might not be as kind on a ~200k as life’s been, so I might not have a choice. If it comes down to that… I’ll just treat it as I do everything. I don't love this story any less if I just write, publish without a fuss, hope that maybe, just maybe, a reader or two will stumble upon the story and we could talk. Maybe we can have the fun of our lives, create some genuine connection. I know that’s applies to a lot of writers. I hope we can accomplish it.

And so, I’ll finish this section of the wrap-up with a kiss to my ‘quiv, for all the warmth it’s ever brought me. It’s come so far, I know it can live distinct from me from now on. It brings me great comfort. And I look forward to the times I’ll reread it, and we can relive our best experiences together. Never thought I’d get to this point. Thank you, ‘quiv.

Remains of a Night♤♤♤

Mwhahaha! And because ‘quiv took all the pressure, this left AoS to be an extremely fun and spirited experience. Literally the chillest I’ve ever been writing. In many ways, it’s more my thing than I expected ‘quiv to be: I get to murder characters left and right, it’s more plot-heavy and banking on the tension created by a creature that horrifies the characters down to their marrow, but still the only way to defeat it is to know it better, which, uh, might have unpleasant consequences for them. It’s got chase and stealth scenes, and it always shoots me with adrenaline to think about them. In short, exactly my jam.

It’s not a new book, nope. You knew it before as Aberration of Sunlight, but from the get-go I felt it would be bigger than ‘quiv. Very fortunately for me, I had a place where to break it, and behold: there’s RoaN (book 1), and AoS (book 2). There might be a third book, which I dearly hope not because titling sucks, but it depends on the Sycamine arc. More on that in AoS.

One last thing to note, before we delve into the story (hoo-ray for earlier drafts, because I can talk more frankly about them). This is the culprit of my 1am writing adventures!!😫❤ My schedule became too packed, then NaNo came round and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to honor how AoS began, because it was last year’s NaNo, aaand I’m happy to say I won NaNo, somehow, with 56k down before I died. At that time, I only had one section left to write (from both books), otherwise, hahahaha, yeah, it wouldn’t have flown. Still, most of draft 2 I’d written in September-October, with my fairy lights, late nights, and cups of hot cocoa, exactly like how life should be<3

Alright. We’re going through them chapter-by-chapter again, exactly because I love seeing the titles so much:

ACT 1

Cracked Visor, Scorpion Grass

I did it! I did! Twas another shower thought I managed to get down in time. Bare broken sentences, but they did the impossible, and arranged this chapter into a structure I adore to bits and won't ever change. (And 'quiv's naughty voice left me alone for once and I could write it properly!) While I don't think I'll ever be happy with a first chapter (not as a concept, but the writing — part of me will always wish that the reader just had all the information already lol), this one is in the right place.

It pays its respects to the story of the broken helmet at the foot of a spaceship, and how it reconnects Madigan with all the people who'd suffered from being tethered to the planets when they yearned to fly, but the Beast punished them cruelly for it. It makes him feel phantoms of their efforts. The tone is exactly what I needed this story to start from: melancholy and numbly hopeless, against the backdrop of the Beasts's echoed cries.

Rain Through the Universe

Unlike 'quiv, because RoaN and AoS are way more plot-heavy, it's not as easy to change things willy-nilly (whereas 'quiv was all about character bonds and dynamics). As such, it's very similar to draft 1. Because of that, I'll frankendraft next (select and combine drafts 1 and 2, rewrite to connect them) and afterwards I'll try something I've always wanted to. (Scrivener keeps hinting at it!) I'm gonna split the chapters into scenes, and focus on those individually and how I can just rewrite them and set their purpose in stone<3 I'm excited!

As for the chapter itself, gods, I love the atmosphere. Just the wreckage of a sundered ship, and Madigan’s sudden madman appearance making a lasting impression on Spica, because how could it not. They no longer answer distress calls in that age, it just means more dead bodies. In fact, they're forbidden to. Madigan instead brings him what he himself lacks: hope. And a lot of crawling around while dreading the Beast's lambent eye opening, and oh my, the moments are really flying by😈👏 extreme fun for me as the writer.

Aberration of Light

If you remember, the books follow two timelines, which will connect at some point. The first and main one is Madigan and Spica’s story. The other is Holloway’s, in the distant past of that universe, and who’s been dubbed the most selfish man in existence. That’s important, because of how the Beast came to be. But that becomes important later. For now, a weird-ass new recruit has joined the ship, and the witchy crew will very soon start making bets if she’s the Beast in human flesh, which really wouldn’t bode well for their future.

Night Falls On Their Reflection

Draft 2 became Spica’s draft. It was high time. He didn't exist in the original idea beyond chapter 2, but he refused to die with his story untold. And now he's one of the most independent thinkers I've ever written. Now he's Madigan's son (yes, even at 25), best friend, back-to-back partner all in one, and I could watch the trust and mutual respect between these two forever. To be sure: Madigan comes up with the dumbass plans, and Spica's only too happy to follow him through everything (it is good fun.)

He's repaying the incredible kindness Madigan's shown him when answering his distress call, after all.

But it goes a bit further than that, doesn't it? Madigan is used to watching over myriad people. He's the Superintendent of his planet, and while he genuinely loves people, kindness is his default. It doesn't go further than that for him. He doesn't necessarily think people need, much less desire his presence there beyond Madigan extending help, and most of the time, he's content with that. Kindness does make him happy. And it should be the same with Spica now, shouldn't it? He's kind, but he's not Spica's family, nor ever will be. Yet he immediately feels a connection with the boy, that has nothing to do with bonding over escaping-a-cosmic-disaster. And so does Spica.

This is the moment when Madigan starts feeling guilty, for stepping where he should not. But here's the beauty of Spica's character: he's nothing if not dead sure of his own feelings, and what he sees with his eyes. It's okay if Madigan keeps unexpectedly taking steps back. For very long, there'd been nobody to support Spica's beliefs. So he does the same, as when he followed his heart to go into dead space: he believes in himself and Madigan, and that their paths aren't meant to diverge. They mean too much to each other for that to ever happen.

(In short, and legend says you can still hear me screeching about these two ten thousand years later, I love these two so much, and especially the parallels between Spica going alone into outer space and loving Madigan.)

(And, okay, obviously all these developments don't happen in a single chapter, but I couldn't stop gushing🤭🥰.)

Who Puts These Tombs in Ice

Overall, I think draft 2’s Luitgart performed worse than draft 1. Mainly it's the setting I want to revert (still an icy, sempiternally dark hell, but with different ice constructions) because some of the beats are a huge improvement, and again, I gotta combine the two. Otherwise, I’m still as obsessed about the Luitgart arc as I’ve ever been, and huge thanks to it for being so strong it could function as an ending of its own, allowing me to split the book.

Gettin’ into spoilery territory, but I have to un-kill Madigan so many times it leaves me in hysterics. That was what I was supposed to fix this draft. It got worse. Considerably.

(One constant: the chapter being a love letter to Madigan, and how his first answer will always be to help the other, no matter if they deserve it or not<3 and finally, finally, he gets acknowledged for it, and the favor returned.)

ACT 2

Lemon-Dotted Days + Remnant

Two Holloway chapters! I’m actually massively pleased with how they’ve turned out. Last year, I said the main issue was that I had an outline, and that never works for me. So I did what I do best and rewrote everything from scratch, and the result is both uncanny and… unexpected.

Unexpected, because I never in my life thought Holloway’s voice would make me laugh so much. He’s supposed to be unsympathetic, but then you get his interactions with Saintlark (the new crewmate, possibly Beast) where they’re contemplating the harvest of a nebula, and he’s harshly critical of it, which gives Saintlark hope… only to go deadpan One Moment Later: if they’d used the nebula to prolong their lives instead of bolstering the war, they wouldn’t have died like clown idiots. 

And, they could’ve maybe stolen immortality from the nebula. They would've had to share it with him, of course. Or he would've murdered them to get it.

That, my guys, is his personality in a nutshell.

I have a lot of feelings on Holloway now, and most involve me huffing and slapping my forehead while groaning, but oh my gods. Was it ever so fun. And wait, wait, wait. Since I'm talking of humor (apparently a lot of comedy fit into this horror lmfao) I have to show you guys the following section🤣🤣👏:

Corpse Snow

The drifters are set howling on the ice. They share glances, five separate vehicles nodding at each other. Madigan revs up the engine, splitting the air with a jet of steam and vibration.

The last of the marines are climbing into the box. A figure flashes past Madigan’s drifter — and he leans over, teeth grinding because of his ribs, and he does his very best to grab someone by the back of their suit and pull. Workout days were never his strength, though. He only succeeds in stopping them in the frost smoke.

It’s Spica dangling from his hand, expressionless.

Lieutenant Hahn instantly seizes on the situation. He throws Madigan a long, withering look. “Whatcha doing, Boss?” he asks softly, about to unhinge his jaw again.

Madigan nudges Spica into the drifter. “Picking up your boy.”

Spica gets the hint and deposits himself into the front seat, glancing from his father to his Superintendent. He seems to give up on whatever’s going on, and makes himself cozy in the frosty spot. And Madigan, of course, pretends not to notice Hahn’s drifter sliding closer.

“And you didn’t consider I might want to have my son with me?”

Madigan looks up and sighs. “Lieutenant, dear Lieutenant,” he starts pleadingly. “Why won’t you show some leniency to a poor, wounded man?”

Hahn’s drifter stops, summoning a breeze across the icy floor that gently rocks the other vehicle. His breathing distorts the comms with static. “And what exactly is my son right now?”

“My trusty navigator,” Madigan answers easily.

“Sir’s emotional walking stick?” Spica pipes in at the same time.

They both look over. Spica’s quietly turned to the navigation, as serene as daylight, seemingly oblivious to how Madigan's expression changes, lightning-fast. He quickly hides it under the guise of a polite mask, as the marines stir and turn their attention on them. They’re snickering.

Lieutenant Hahn throws up his hands, giving up on everything.

This is also the first 30k chapter I’ve ever written. It's everything I've ever wanted to do with ice.

Heart of the Void

The end of the book. Originally, it was the ending section to Corpse Snow, but since it already got so ungodly long, I chipped off that bit and I have to say I’m very happy with how it works as an epilogue! So it ends the frosty, weary journey, and I can’t see the two books as separate yet, but here we bid goodbye to the first.

Aberration of Sunlight♧♧♧

I did the unthinkable and created a fifth arc. This might not seem like much to you, but I was screaming bloody murder you guys😭😭😭. Sigh. It’s so sigh. For so long, AoS consisted of four clear-cut acts, but it was necessary. With the introduction of Sycamine, and making it two books, it was just needed. It’s still one of the worst things I’ve ever done because I was used to four😃💔

(The chapters continue from where RoaN left off – from chapter 10, to 21.)

ACT 3

Retro Spectrum

Sycamine, oh Sycamine. Definitely the break I needed before Days in Darkness. It made for a really neat beginning. It’s calmer, focusing on the knowledge they have on the Beast. It’s also a reflection on Procyon (their main star) and the story of the two straggler dog constellations, and what they'd been running away from. I liked the direction it took. It veered away from the Beast for a bit, so the tension kept expanding in the background. And when it returns, well... maybe they shouldn't have been so eager to see it again🤭.

It suffers from the same syndrome as draft 1’s first chapter… it’s there in the vicinity of the idea, but too much to the left. Not bad for a first attempt. The setting annoys me – I really don't enjoy writing cities, and AoS didn't change that. So, for our next try, I was thinking... maybe we don't need to be on the planet, but up close and veeery personal with it. It's a secret❤.

And, oh gods. I put a moustache-twirling villain in this. And then I couldn’t stop myself from naming some sucker Sweetman Calories. I don’t know what happened to me during those days, but I’m crying🤣🤣🤣.

Toast to the Light

Holloway and Saintlark’s story is slowly coming to an end. Unexpectedly bleaker than draft 1, yet it feels much more sincere. Holloway has a way of saying everything Saintlark needs to hear. No surprise. They did that to themselves.

Dissonant Recognition

Ahhhh, the Madigan-is-slowly-losing-his-grip-on-reality chapter, or maybe he should really stop staring into the suns. One of my favorites<3 Also because it features Moren (!!!) who has a blast staying in the grey morality area, because she doesn’t know if her actions could ever matter, or if she could change anything. Does she just exist? Is she a player or just pawn? Who knows. Besides that, she gets along great with Spica. They form such a teasing duo, the level of mutual respect they felt for each other on sight was a delight to write. My favorite ally of theirs, even if her destiny lies elsewhere.

Night Beneath the Elevator

Best title hands down, dethroning Solgesis. I’m going batshit crazy about the visuals, it's exactly my thing. This half-light slanted over an elevator waiting in a rundown basement to be boarded. And there's something underneath it, and always has been. Something insidiously creeping up and waving its tendril fingers at you as you're just waiting for the fucking thing to ascend. Immaculate, guys, I'm telling you, and I'm cursing my hands because I can't make a wallpaper of this. I want to eat that atmosphere.

Time-sensitive missions, y'all.

And why the heck did nobody inform me I was going to add Command as an actual character and have them talk with Madigan?! That entire convo, made up entirely on the spot but somehow with a direction, made me realize what an idiot I’d been for not doing it sooner. They mean so much to Madigan, after all.

(And Mariya. So much Mariya in these chapters.)

ACT 4

Loop System

Like Who Puts These Tombs in Ice, draft 1 might’ve done it better. Not Spica and Madigan, though, because of the sheer development Spica’s been through and the dynamic he’s managed to form with the crew. It's different from Madigan’s, but similar enough that it’s got Hahn commenting lightly: [Spica’s] picked up quite a few habits from Madigan, hasn’t he? Almost as if they’ve gotten very very close, huh? How about Madigan tell him more?

(I adore writing Hahn.)

Outreach

Another Holloway chapter. Doesn’t have the punch of the kids subplot from draft 1, but this just makes it worse for Saintlark personally, because, this time, the consequences are on her.

Days in Darkness

I knew the moment I first got the idea this would be my favorite chapter. Well, it finally happened in draft 2: when the entire crew is here, this time, and ready for the final countdown, to relive the experience of being trapped in a ship that's disintegrating. No more heroes left behind. I'd been so tired writing this chapter in draft 1, but this time around it was incredible. Everything went up sharply from here, both in terms of events and how on fire I was.

(Maybe less than the gorgon, but I was.)

ACT 5

Echo Terminal

The first of the two log chapters.

I've never written smoother, more visual chapters than in this period. Days in Darkness changed me so much, I was writing day and night by this point and couldn't get enough. Well, I hit my limit in the second half of the very last chapter, but I am beyond satisfied. Even the Beast's metamorphosis took me by storm, because I'd been wondering what the final verbs, the final images, the final design for it was going to be. I didn't expect it to come to me this early, and with such thrill. Those were my very best days of the year, and I toast to them.

(And I knew it was going to be fantastic when Halo's Warthog Run OST started blaring in my head, with as much adrenaline.)

Where, Now? + Solgesis

My beloved. The second and last of the two log chapters, but it’s Noelle Saintlark’s log.

Holloway’s timeline ends here. Or maybe it just gets carried into the future. I thought I’d want to rewrite his parts again, make the plot just a tiny bit more psychedelic and nonsensical because it’s so close to the Beast… but Solgesis put all my fears to rest. Even the formatting and layout is a bit of that special thing I’ve always wanted to try, and it really changes the perspective of the previous chapters. There's a new confession that stands at the heart of Holloway's stories.

Honestly, the only thing that needs urgent working on is the anger at the end of the chapter.

Anger is so hard for me to write sometimes. Not because I don’t connect with it, but because I feel self-conscious writing it. The wildest I felt it was when I tackled 'quiv's chapter 3 and Imera's Turning speech, both in quick succession (before I'd even written draft 1. I'd been taking notes.) Since then... I just thing back to how keenly I'd felt that anger, and I kind of intimidate myself out of it. Kind of like a natural resistence, I quench it from myself. Which is actually hilarious when you think about it. It’s like I’m going I BANISH THEE FROM MY BRAIN because generally, as a person, I dislike feeling and operating on anger. But no worries. I’m going to find a way around it.

Watch me😎.

What Goes Around…

(Now it’s the time for me to start crying some rivers, and, alright, it won’t be visible so I’ll say it: the chapter titles are holding a conversation, guys. They speak to each other. And sometimes it’s both sides of the same coin, like how What Goes Around (comes around) hints here. If you take two chapters, one from the beginning and one from the end (for example 1 and 21) it'll tell you a little secret. Okay, What Goes Around and Rain Through the Universe communicate through their plot, which I can’t spoil but of course it has to do with Madigan and Spica and how they first meet… but there is one title pair that does it best visibly. 

Lemon-Dotted Days and Days in Darkness.

And I hadn’t even planned this. All the parallels I wanted to draw… I feel like they built themselves, guys. They really did, and it makes me so wildly happy I don’t even know how to stop my hands from flailing.

And, with them being 21 chapters, they meet in the middle, on the one unpaired chapter.

Called Toast to the Light.

I friggin’ love everything.

New Sunrise, Forget-Me-Right

Of course, Forget-Me-Right is a play on Scorpion Grass. But it’s also such a gentle name for the chapter, because everything ends here. Lying on their backs, staring out into the universe, and it really, really is over. Just a dark horizon on which stars flare and bloom. And suddenly, that maddened rush to make every sacrifice count, to remember every soul they’ve encountered because the legend says the Beast absorbs you when it kills you – all that suffocating pressure dissipates. Lightness remains. Because they’ve protected each other.

For the first time in my writing journey, blood rushed to my head with such emotion I had to stop writing, which never happens. I had to look up and exclaim, holy fuck. But how could I not, considering how the story ends for the Beast? I am speechless. A lot of gorgeous surprises this draft.

Conclusion□●□

Whew, what a year it's been! As for how 2024 will probably look like, though I don't like making plans: finishing the beta stage for 'quiv, and tackling RoaN and AoS's draft 3. Thaaaat one I'm actually starting on Christmas, when I can (finally!!) reread draft 2 with my mug of hot cocoa (or maybe mulled wine for a change) and, no surprises here, I'm hyper stoked for that<3 <3 <3 I legit can't wait to see where the new draft brings them. I might not have set any expectations for them, but they're vying to keep up with 'quiv and I adore it🤭❤

As for my lovely friends... well, you know by how I spam your tags how much I adore you and wish you happiness forever🤩🥺🥳 I don't know what my activity will look like in the near future, so for now I won't be saying anything, and my semi-hiatus continues. Semi, because you're unforgettable and I crave to see what everyone's been up to and (!!!!) what you've written!

So let's meet in 2024 again, and all the best wishes to you, the reader🥰🥂❤.

[sarandipitywrites]

saran's year of writing (2023)

hey y'all! saw a couple posts like this floating around and thought i'd hop on the train, because this year has been WILD for my writing (in a really good way). let's start with the bullet points version and i'll put the details under the cut. here we go:

I JOINED WRITEBLR

shared snippets of my work with other, actual humans!

made friends?!

started (and finished!) draft 2 of Dead Roots, Dark Water

wrote 1 short story for every week in october (that's 5 stories in a month! that's great for me!)

first NaNoWriMo in 10 years (and i finished it!)

drafted and re-drafted The Art of Empty Space

started draft 3 of Dead Roots, Dark Water

details, links to projects, me getting maybe a tad too personal, and those all-important wordcounts under the cut:

I JOINED WRITEBLR

i just realized i only started participating at the beginning of october, but it feels like i've been hanging out with you all the whole year 😅 maybe that means i should cut back a bit? nah...

really though, this year was the year i started taking my writing more seriously (not in a 'gotta get published' kind of way, but in a 'writing makes me happier than anything else and that's enough reason to set aside time and energy for it without feeling hella guilty' kind of way) and seeing you all posting your work and being so positive and encouraging to each other was what helped me get up the nerve to join in. and i can say without a doubt that it's the best choice i've made all year. y'all are such a supportive community and i've never once felt like i was encroaching or didn't belong here (and for me, that's really saying something)

so i guess what i'm getting at is: THANK YOU! i've loved reading your snippets and projects this year, and i'm way more confident in my own than i've ever been 💜 y'all are good peeps

Dead Roots, Dark Water

word count (edited and written): 187,789

that's a lotta words! DRDW is both my longest work wordcount-wise, and the work i've dedicated the most time to... probably ever. and i'm SO happy with it, it's a little concerning (/positive)

DRDW is now on its THIRD draft, and (assuming i don't do a massive re-edit) should be ready to start posting in 2024! *excited screaming* i've never released anything i've written in its entirety (the snippets i've been posting are actually a lot more than i've ever shared before), so this is MASSIVE for me and i'm both excited and terrified! overall, though, it's a very, very good thing

Short Stories

this october, i decided to challenge myself to do several things i don't ever do: write short stories; write them on a timeline; and share them. and i did! i wrote one short story for each week in october, and posted them here. they're far from my best work, and due to the timeline, they never could have been my best, which oddly i think helped make it easier to post them? they were also the first pieces i shared here (or anywhere)! they're not awesome, but i'm proud of them and i'm proud of myself for sharing them

NaNoWriMo and The Art of Empty Space

i've done nano once before, ten years ago. i was in college and had a lot more time then (and a job where i could spend the entire day just writing - i didn't know how good i had it), and even so i remember struggling to reach my word goal. but by the power of writing everything in wingdings so i can't second-guess my word choices, i made it this year! and even though i decided to challenge myself by writing a romance-heavy project (something i've historically avoided because IT'S HARD FOR ME, DAMNIT), i love AES and its characters and that feels fucking awesome.

even though my brain decided to spring a surprise plot restructure on me and now i have to rewrite like half of it. it'll be better for it, though, so it's all good 🥲

What's Next?

my plan for early 2024 is, of course, going to be to work on draft 3 of DRDW with the hope of getting some chapters posted (they are LONG, so i'll probably post to tumblr in chunks and the full, unbroken chapters on Ao3 due to formatting). once that's ready, i'll be able to return my attention to AES and getting draft 1.5 all written up. i've mostly figured out where the plot's going there, so it'll just be writing it up to figure out the gaps. if i'm able to write something for november again next year (which i really hope i will; nano did some great things for AES), it'll probably be one of the other Jak & Daxter fics i have kicking around in my head, because i am Obsessed (and switching it up between working on fanfic and original fic seems to work well for my brain).

i've been not super active here for the last month or so because Real Life Work is kicking my ass, but hopefully that will calm down and i'll be able to do more of what i want: writing wild shit, reading your wild shit, and screaming about it together 💜

good vibes and best wishes to everybody in the new year 🥂

[theskeletonprior]

[ID: a greyscale banner of a skeleton reclining in rich silks, cropped so only the ribcage and part of the spine are visible. It reads ‘A Year in the Priory’ in white. /End ID.]

I saw a post going around by @maguayans​​ about making a year-in-review post, and it looked too fun for me to resist!

It hasn’t quite been an entire year for me. I started this account on January 18th, but the time has flown right by! I think it’s good to reflect, and this is the time of year for it, that’s for sure. I didn’t want to do it Spotify-style, so here we are. Just the bare bones.

On Writing

This year really marks the start of my taking my work as a writer much more seriously. It was also the first time I was paid for my writing (!!!). I opened commissions, although I only sold any to people I knew. I only published one piece of fanfiction this year, in January--just a little study of Silco and Jinx from Arcane. But I have a couple others that I’ve been fiddling with to keep me loose that I might even finish one day. In April, my husband and I launched our Patreon, and as of this month, we’ve released nine volumes of The Bishop of Black with a 10th on the way! We managed to put out a new volume every month, along with bonus side-stories. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together. In the summer, I came down with some terrible Gorr the Butcher brainrot, but the fic isn’t finished. It is, if I do say so myself, rather good, though. I also immediately became obsessed with Alchemy of Souls, but that fic isn’t finished either. I haven’t had an awful lot of free time, just in general, this year. I’ve struggled to make dedicated time for my projects. This blog has also begun to grow quite well! I reached my first major milestone in October, did a very fun giveaway, and then smashed that milestone to absolute bits. This, I attribute chiefly to the miraculous accident of a post that I made at 2am escaping containment. I did make an attempt at pushing out a few more words in November, but came away with a little more than 5 000 on RAVENOT, which is more progress than I’ve made in some time. I also released a polished first chapter, which stands as a sort of pilot for the project. Some folx were even kind enough to drop a little tip in my jar for it, which was lovely. I did get some little drabbles out, too. So I think I’ve been sneaking out the words fairly well this year. And that’s about it for 2022, as far as my writing goes. I wasn’t able to really get back to my bookmaking, but I’m getting pretty handy with Affinity Publisher and that’s got to count for something.

On the Future

I’d like to try to commit to a few things for 2023. Here’s the list: + complete a draft of one WIP for 2023 (spoiler alert: it’s going to be RAVENOT) + read every day + dedicate time to writing every week (collaboratively, and solo) + consistently include IDs for images in original posts + get back to bookmaking! I’ve been making nothing but x-folds and pamphlet stitches and it’s making me wilt

On Meetings

And I do want to shout out some of the wonderful members of this here writeblr community that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting this year. Warmest regards to: @flowerprose @muddshadow @pinespittinink @impaledlotus @inkspellangel and @calicojackofficial for being some of the highlights of my dash! And of course, I must give mention to those I know and love already: @rosieartsie and @magefaery​ <3

On Reading

I did manage to get a fair bit of reading in this year, all things considered. I would’ve liked to read more, but there’s been a lot for me to adapt to this year. Here’s the list (the ones I especially liked get an asterisk*):

Dune, Frank Herbert They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera When No One is Watching, Alyssa Cole Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin* Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Xiran Jay Zhao* Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake* The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger* A Dowry of Blood, S. T. Gibson* Nothing but Blackened Teeth, Cassandra Khaw Blood Scion, Deborah Falaye Terciel and Elinor, Garth Nix Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth*, Tamsyn Muir Woom, Duncan Ralston Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Eric Larocca manga Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost (1-5), Kaori Yuki* Jujutsu Kaisen (up-to-date), Gege Akutami* Boku no Hero Academia (up-to-date), Kohei Horikoshi Kimetsu no Yaiba (1-23), Koyoharu Gotouge Kaiju No. 8 (up-to-date), Naoya Matsumoto* Chainsaw Man (up-to-date), Tatsuki Fujimoto* Utena: After the Revolution, Chiho Saito JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (part 1), Hirohiko Araki

And that’s all, really. I wonder where we’ll be this time next year.

[maguayans]

AYE’S YEAR OF WRITING ‘22

Hi, hello! How have you been? I hope the season’s treating you well. It’s that time of the year again—to see how I ruled as a writer this year. (It’s already 2023, though. Happy New Year!)

GENERAL WORD COUNT: Forty-one thousand eight hundred plus words—pops confetti—across eleven stories! That’s not a lot compared to what I’ve written last year, but I’m pretty proud of it, especially because almost half of it was written within thirty days—thanks, Camp Nano.

If you happen to stumble upon my posts, you may know some of them: Lethal Bloods, Mariang Makiling, Red Complex, Crimson, Fair Waters, Maharlika, All in Favor, Say Aye, Red Cuts, Where the Poet Went to Die, Don’t Fall Asleep, and Tres.

Yeah…I don’t think jumping from one WIP to another is good…for me. But it’s fun!

WORKS IN PROGRESS: In addition to drafting the stories listed above, a few ideas came up and made it to my list of projects. It seems like I’d never run out of stories to write and talk about.

New WIP #1: Human x Deities — Once in a while the deities would come down from their heavenly, divine realm to visit the mundane (like tourists.) When they do, a human would accompany them (like a tourist guide). The story features the gods of Philippine Mythology, soulmates and reincarnations (I’m a huge sucker for it), shamans and glowing tattoos.

New WIP #2: Flea Market Isekai — MC enters a flea market at the wrong time and finds herself in the same market with a different crowd. The story features the wonderful creatures of Philippine Mythology.

There are also four new short stories. *eye emojis*

WORLDBUILDING: Maybe I didn’t surpass my word count last year because I was too immersed in ✨worldbuilding✨.

Tres. Following the decision to change the titles and revise the origins of the characters I immediately went to Tres’s worldbuilding — an island far, far away; isolated from the main population (which could mean a lot of things, but most importantly overlooked crimes, gore, and everything in between.) The island, San Angel, is modest and gorgeous, but like a multicolored amphibian in a rainforest, it is deadly. Lovely flowers grow by the earthen roads, and underneath lies the remains of those buried without tombstones.

Red Complex. The red strings universe is expanding. In addition to a novella called Red Cuts, there’s a short story collection featuring characters from the mundane and the Matchmaker’s realm.

The Morose Cat. There’s a mini worldbuilding series I call, The Uphill Town, introducing a town up the hill (where the story takes place) and what makes it so different…and magical. For one, there’s an abandoned shrine that cats always pass through, and where the veil between the mundane and the otherworldly fades.

Elementaliaverse. There are so many things I added recently to the project and the stories. Mainly: Mystique Heights, Fair Waters, and Maharlika.

Worldbuilding, my beloved.

WRITEBLR. I can confidently say I interacted with the community more in 2022, and it was so much fun! Hopefully, I could do the same and more this 2023, and participate in more writeblr events/activities. Speaking of which, here are two: 30 Days, 30 Lines Challenge (by blind-the-winds), and Trick or Treat Writeblr Halloween Event (by pluttskutt). Thank you so much for these!

BOOKS & READING. I read less than ten books, and I enjoyed them. I am open to random book recommendations in my inbox/messages. I'll continue reading reviews/posts about books—how I discovered The Great Library series. (A writeblr posted about how much they enjoyed reading the books, so I bought copies. They were on the third book then, If I remember correctly, and I wanted to reblog the post but I forget their handle.)

Crier’s War Duology, Nina Varela

House of Hollow, Krystal Sutherland

The Great Library (1-4), Rachel Caine

Intersections, B. Pigeon; Fell Marsh

MISCELLANEOUS/PERSONAL. We went on a trip for Christmas, and the funniest, most writer thing I did was buy a stick (an arnis stick, the vendor told me, though it seemed different), thinking it would help me write one of my WIPs. It was affordable, so I guess it was fine. ( A little Christmas gift for me, I told myself. But I did buy more than a stick from a gift shop. *laughs hysterically*)

INITIAL PLANS FOR 2023. Read at least twenty-five (25) books. // Finish at least one (1) draft. // Share two (2) short stories. 

I think...I’m going to be busy.

Thank you so much for reading! Enjoy the rest of the season. Stay warm and safe. Let’s hope 2023 will be kind and gentle. Cheers to more writing and reading and writeblr-ing!

If you have time, visit #ayearofwriting to see how other writers owned 2022!

[thelittlestspider]

Writing Wrapped! 🖊🎉

It was the best of times and the worst of times.

wip list 🤘 for the unfamiliar lol.

Your Top Genres (Writing, Reading, etc)

writing: horror, followed by scifi and fantasy.

reading: horror, gothic, fantasy, and scifi.

Your Top WIP/s (The WIPs You Worked on the Most)

Original: Definitely Carry Me. I worked my ass off writing that fic during the summer. I kind of got away from it for a little while because I was working on other fics, but she's definitely #1 this year.

Fanfic: I think I worked on Landslide the most, followed by Soul Alone. The thing about Landslide is I keep doing little rewatches of That 70s Show to get inspiration, and every time I pick it up I always think about something new I could put in it, whereas with Soul Alone there's not as much to pull from because it's a rare pair in a limited series, so sometimes I get burned out faster.

Your Top OC/s (The OCs You Couldn’t Shake Off Your Head)

Definitely Ray and Scott from Carry Me, and Peter, Carter, and Javier from By the Skin of My Teeth. I'm like obsessed with them. I think of them constantly.

Works in Progress Count

Oh God. Uhhhh. Too many lol.

Drafting/Editing Progress

Carry Me: So far in the actual word doc it's at like 4,706. Which isn't a lot but that's not including the random stuff scribbled in my notebook. Plus I have a lot of stuff I want to do with this fic re: experimenting. Originally BtSoMT was the experiment fic where I just threw stuff on the paper and hoped it was interesting (it still kind of is), but Carry Me is my favorite. It's my weird baby.

By the Skin of My Teeth: I think I'm slowly figuring out what I want to do with this fic. I think before I got caught up in like making it pretty and interesting to other people, and I forgot to make it fun for me lol. So I'm trying to make myself write for me more and worry less about posting excerpts or whatever.

Writing Reflections

I think in terms of progress, this wasn't a bad year. Last year I quit my job because it was really toxic and it was affecting my health, and then I got my old job back, which lets me write a lot more than I could before. Hopefully I'll make more progress before I have to change jobs again lol.

Reading and Book Recommendations

I have so many. I'm just gonna list them here:

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (tw: violence, suicide.)

The Bright Lands by John Fram (tw: sexual assault, violence, revenge porn, gore, mentioned prostitution, child pornography, homophobia.)

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson (tw: racism, violence, gore.)

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (tw: cannibalism, violence, gore, sexual assault, murder, disturbing imagery.)

The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton

A Lesson In Vengeance by Victoria Lee

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Vol. I (tw: abuse, attempted murder.)

(I want to add a note that some of these I haven't finished, but they were compelling enough I felt like I had to put them here.)

[contes-de-rheio]

A couple years ago, @personnedelalune (or was it @maguayans? unless you’re the same person lol) started an idea of reviewing your year as writers. I loved it, so allow me to bring it back.

Let’s be honest from the go, in terms of writing, this probably was my driest year… I've implemented a way to follow days when I write - actually, I also records days I "touch my wip", which can refer to plotting, worldbuilding, research... it's kinda an idea I stole from Lionel Davoust, his own variation of the (in)famous adage Write every day. Anyway, there are very few days I touched any of my wips this year.

And I missed it dearly.

Overall, I think I needed the year to 1) get through irl changes (moving, having, then not having and having again an actual manager...), 2) find the balance around the new rhythm dictated in a way by my daughter's needs. She's 1 year old now, growing well, and I feel like I'm getting my footing back. My brain starts making projects again. It's not yet turning back to my stories, but it has room for creativity, and that's a good start.

More changes will come next year. New challenges as well probably. But in the meantime, I can let my mind wander again.

So what did I discover this year? First, embroidery. It was something I had wanted to try for a few years, but never dared. I like repeating the same movements again and again, but, here, with the possibility of creating something unique. I don't know when I will finish my current piece, but maybe I'll share the final results here for once.

What else? Gardening. There's a weird peace that come to you when you do manual work. A way to really cut yourself out from all worries, to actually disconnect your brain from the stress of your life. We had a weekend of 4 days, where my partner and I spent 3 days revamping our garden, and for the first time, in such a short period, I forgot to even think about work.

I'll try to revive this blog, probably will take a slightly different direction than I have until now. Less writing tips, more strings of thoughts and small update posts. I also would like to take you on the re-reading of the Dragons of Jamaedo: I need to get to know my wip again, before I continue writing it, and hopefully finish it once and for all! Maybe you'll enjoy the ride :)

[void-botanist]

My Year of Writing

After reading @theskeletonprior's review, I thought I would write one of my own. Original prompt by @maguayans (whose blog theme on desktop is excellent for writeblr and might be something I borrow).

Part 1: Spotify Wrapped version

This year was all about The Fourth Android and bringing it from a half-baked rewrite of an older story to something edible. To that end, I wrote 158,587 words:

30,000 for Camp NaNo in April

30,209 for Camp NaNo in July

50,363 for NaNo 2022, plus

18,013 for a May goal and

30,002 for a June goal.

I archived a lot of those words as I iterated, though, and my current draft is sitting at 43,278 words right now.

Obviously Dez was on my mind the whole time but I also invented a ton of new characters as I fleshed out species concepts and the cultural geography of the world. I also frequently got distracted with other stories in this world and started writing extra scenes about characters who had captured my attention, several of whom are on Dez's future space crew.

My Spotify Wrapped was boring. It pretty much just said "hey you got real into pop this year. We probably classed all the 80s rock and 00s indie you listened to as 'nostalgia', which is silly. Also you still listen to a ton of Approaching Nirvana, like you're in the top 0.5% of listeners". If you want my recommendations, go listen to Wreck of the Day (the song or the album or both) by Anna Nalick, and literally anything by Approaching Nirvana (but I have probably listened to the albums Cinematic Soundscapes Vol. 1 and Illusions the most). Also go (re)appreciate that 38 Special and Fitz and the Tantrums are bands that exist.

Part 2: A More Detailed Review

General

This year I continued working toward improvement, in both my writing and art.

With writing, that looked like getting more invested in planning and analyzing my own work. I finally accepted that the typical plot charts I find don't make sense to me when I try to use them, and not because I'm trying to make my stories Special (TM). Something just doesn't connect for me, and that's okay. That's not the only way to get plot structure. Instead I spent a while figuring out how to use Scrivener to outline in a way that works for me. I also tried to apply my own media analyses and those of YouTubers like Princess Weekes, La'Ron Readus, Jessie Gender, NerdSync, and James Somerton to my own work, to consider what works and what might not.

With art, that looked like learning more tools and tricks in Clip Studio Paint and Procreate, changing my settings to help me not mess up my arm constantly (adjusting my pressure curve!), and drawing at a higher resolution. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference that has made in the way my work looks and how it feels to edit it. I tend to draw small, so I'd never thought about it much, but wow everything is so smooth now. I've also been working on accepting that the imperfections in my work don't make it bad, and that being a slow and indecisive artist is also fine. angrymikko, Nadiaxel, and Chroma Moma on YouTube have been super helpful to me as I try new styles and ways of working and just having fun with my art. ronillust also makes delightful art memes and some tutorials.

P.S. if you're on desktop and you despise the format of YouTube's Shorts page, you can play Shorts as regular videos by changing the "shorts" portion of the URL to "watch". You can also set up Redirector to do this automatically (I wrote a tutorial for this on my main blog).

Writeblr

I was so much more active on writeblr this year, especially during the last few months. I followed a ton of other writers (I won't list them all here but I've been trying to reblog from them to make sure people are also aware of them) and started posting some excerpts of my own work and participating in ask/tag games. I'm having a very good time so far. Please feel free to tag me liberally in future games and prompts!

WIPs

I started working on The Fourth Android after I lost NaNoWriMo 2021, where I was working on Triad and I ran out of steam after about 28k words. On the last day of NaNo I just sprinted some stuff about Zel and Anni and a fledgling form of TFA in which Zel is a journalist and Anni teams up with her to locate Dez, who has absconded over some misunderstanding. Then I thought, what if I just worked on this? So I did. Triad is still going to happen, but it needs a lot of restructuring to work properly.

As always, my writing went from high angst to low angst as I developed that first TFA concept further, which I think speaks to how I just like stories about people being friends. Which is, you know, a pretty broad qualifier, but I find that even in stories with high stakes and high drama the thing I find most delightful is friendship dynamics (can you tell I'm thinking about Hunter x Hunter as I write this? I got kinda into that too). A lot of my thinking about character arcs has been related to "how is this friendship interesting?" and the cultural worldbuilding I've been doing is going to help me explore some of those dynamics. (This also applies to romantic couples, not least because friends to lovers is the only thing that seems to work for me in my writing.)

Books and Other Things I Consumed

I read a fair bit this year, especially compared to the last couple years (I'm actually pretty proud of this because I read maybe 2 books in all of 2019 and 2020 and only got back into reading last year). Like Harrowben, I've starred my favorites.

*The Expanse series 4-7 by James S. A. Corey (4, Cibola Burn, was a particular favorite just because I love stories set on alien planets. Overall I think The Expanse could use more theys and gays, but I'm pretty happy with it)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (I enjoyed how clever this one was, and also it has robots. For some strange reason I have become incredibly interested in robot stories)

Artemis by Andy Weir (honestly I think about this one a lot. I think it had some of Weir's character writing flaws as seen in The Martian but the worldbuilding was pretty compelling and I'm a sucker for epistolary bits)

*Fearless by Shira Glassman (a wonderful quick read about snowstorms and lesbian moms. I also bought several of Shira's other books but haven't read them yet)

*Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (I rarely buy books in physical form anymore but I did buy this one after I read it. Superb. Waiting for the sequel)

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (I enjoyed this one a lot. I can definitely understand the criticisms, and the formatting was kinda weird. But on some level I felt like I was reading something that was in my own genre)

Currently reading

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian (the sequel to The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. It's just a super fun read)

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano (the sequel to Finlay Donovan is Killing It. Honestly disappointed in this one, especially compared to the first book. There are some excellent moments but there are also a lot of things that don't really seem to make sense, and I'm very frustrated with the romance part of it)

Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse book 8) by James S. A. Corey

Books I started and plan to finish (I often put down books because they're not what I want right at that moment)

Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan

The Doctor's Discretion by E. E. Ottoman

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Murmuration by T. J. Klune

I won't list out all the shows I watched but I do think that Hunter x Hunter, Exception (the Netflix anime), Mob Psycho 100, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners have all influenced the way I think about my writing and to some extent my art (seriously the color and visual storytelling choices of Edgerunners are so interesting and cool). In video games, the environment design of Hades, Risk of Rain 2's Survivors of the Void expansion, and Slime Rancher 2 really fascinated me, and I spent a ton of time using Sims 4 to build places that exist in TFA to better visualize them. (I really want a game that is just Sims 4 build mode, but with more detailed building capabilities and endless building space. I just installed Sweet Home 3D, which might do it for me.)

Here's to another year of writeblring and creating. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the stuff I mentioned above (especially Exception if you've seen it), and/or your recommendations for anything but especially cool stories about robots/androids/gays/theys.

[splashinkling]

a year of writing ~ 2021

imagine being able to look up at a mountain like that👀

Very much inspired by @drippingmoon and @sleepy-night-child because their posts were very awesome and I also wanted to write something awesome (shoutout to @ecwrenn for posting this great event!!)

Now get your snacks lads cause this might get long

Ok hold up. It's been a year?? A whole ass year?? 2021 just flew by like a damn freight train threatening to run me over while I'm walking leisurely on abandoned tracks (I've never once done this because there aren't any around where I am and I would never anyways cause it seems (and probably is) dangerous)

but enough bewilderment because there's actually a lot to get through and I know I'm going to ramble so let's get on with it. I'm literally going to pour my heart for all you people read because I'm feeling like being open for once and cause I've got more things going on than just Den, tho some of you know that already

(also because I'm being open, I'm being loose. so feel free to ignore my unnecessary vocabulary)

I'm going to mention late December too à la sleepy's way because those poor 7-14 days need some recognition haha

also we're going to do this first by project and by month (like Name/Title, Month-Month) because things intersect and everything and I have the compulsive need to organize this the way I need to (it's also sorted chronologically and I know that doesn't make sense if I'm doing it also by project, but I'm doing it anyways)

(okay I'm looking at this post-writing it. and damn did I not know how many things I wrote because this list is ginormous, but that might also be due to the padded rambling haha)

MST-S01, December 2020-October 2021

so this was the month I joined a new D&D group! (whom I am now temporarily, albeit possibly permanently estranged) and my first session was in the days leading up to new years!

I don't usually talk about D&D on here, but if y'all see dice on your dash, it might (almost certainly) be me.

anyways, MST-S01 wasn't my best character by any means, but I totally had a great time playing him/them during that time! I could ramble on more about him and further plans I had, but alas, I've got other things to ramble on about

Lost Mine of Crafting, January-October

My beloved D&D campaign! That I basically fully homebrewed! Due to some unfortunate happenings in October, I never got to run the last session of arc 1 😔😔 even tho I promised my players I'd do it before the end of the year when I was alright. I just never got around to it and now it's December 25th.

but omg let me gush about this a little bit because I never get the chance to-

so this is actually my third time ever DMing and my first time ever using a fully homebrewed campaign. major success all things considered.

originally Lost Mine was a crafting-based campaign. my players were supposed to be part of a company and make a living off of things they make. but no. they had to go on an adventure. they had to kidnap a penguin and make it their pet. they had to stop the random cult that keeps appearing and somehow save the ranger's sister and the NPC's brother.

I miss Lost Mine because I never got to finish it. but I don't know how I'll be able to get back into it. well I know how, with that finale (which would've consisted of a massive battle in a castle as well as plot-relevant fights) that I promised, but I don't know if I'll be able to execute it and/or continue into an arc 2

also fun fact, I could totally make this entire thing shareable because I wrote a damn summary for every session (I think there's like 30-something of them) and so that is definitely something I could do with my players' permissions 🤔

The First Born (aka Demon's Contract), March

aka the project that never really caught my attention

aka the first interactive fiction I tried working on this year

First Born was written as a response to a writing prompt. and the idea's there (where a demon receives a newborn in exchange for a thing that the human wants) but the motivation's not there. much less now that Den's a thing (same vibes and all) I also wouldn't know where I'd go with it as an interactive piece, so maybe a novel-style would suit it more? idk.

Tonight's Drink, Late May-June

A tie-in to my D&D campaign!!! it was for another game jam so it was stressful writing it within 2 weeks.

okok so Tonight's Drink is actually a bar in a harbour city (called Yesterday Bay) and this whole story is a prequel to campaign-time! I know I shouldn't say much more than that because Tonight's Drink is apparently something people would enjoy playing (so I'm told). but my players really did visit this bar and the Ranger got piss-drunk in it 🤣🤣

Sparks by the Fireplace, June

this was just a little scene snippet drabble thing that I ended up submitting to a game jam. also the second time ever that I used Ink, so that's nice.

Various Game Reviews, June-Now

this is an amalgamation of stuff that I wrote about games because I love games and I love writing games and I love writing about games. and all this is solely posted on Tumblr!

a couple I want to point out are my Littlewood and Hollow Knight ones because those ones are the ones I really really loved during the summer and I just had to gush about them, and now here are those posts where I gushed about them 🤣

I do wanna continue these, just not sure if anyone actually reads them haha. and also lists. those would be fun.

Genshin Impact TTRPG, July-August

oh lord I nearly forgot that I wrote this. but it was so fun at the time. a whole tabletop RPG based on Genshin. that might've been really fun. but I just don't have the time or the patience to keep up with the updates and tweaks the mechanics 🙃 so into the purgatory bucket it goes-

Demons in the Den, July-Now

Den 🥺🥺 and also the only traditional story writing I've done all year lmao and I started in the dregs July and I finished draft 1 in November. that's a whole 3 months and 59k words. I totally should've done NaNo but I'd been focused on Den at the time *sigh

y'all who've been following me know about Den. but those who haven't, Den's the WIP baby of this blog and I give it all my love and attention (especially the two main characters, Mara and Aliah because they deserve each other)

and okay but those unfortunate happenings in October totally affected my writing of Den. it was a tough time and Den was my escape, or at least my distraction.

Cozy Cold Night, December

my latest game jam endeavour!! something that ended up being way sadder instead of comfy. but the wintery vibes are all there!! this was definitely more like I had a scene idea and I wanted to see where it could take me.

also my first time using Bitsy! and it's super good for short stories!!

alright and now I wanna talk a little bit about being on Tumblr because that's something I wanna talk about.

apparently I've been here since June?? seriously? I didn't realize I've been here half a year. but the caveat is that I've only been a writeblr for like, since September, and even then I've only been interacting with anybody since mid-October and that means I've only been here for like 3-4 months??

that's absolutely wild.

y'all are amazing and very supportive! y'all wouldn't know it, but seeing people like my writing made that tough October bearable.

so this little section is a shoutout to all those awesome people I've met and interacted with during my short time here!

here's to more time spent with y'all!

I gushed on and on and I hope you're still with me because I'm going to continue gushing on and on, but this is the final stretch! so stand up for a minute, stretch, and sit back down because there's more to be talked about

and by more to be talked about, I mean that I'll brush up on ecwrenn's suggested content list 🤣

WIPs and Drafts

there's only one ongoing WIP and we all know what it is.

Demons in the Den

right now we're looking at Demons in the Den for the immediate future! Draft 1 is complete! Arc 2 is like, 10k words in (all in non-sequential order because I just wrote scenes that I wanted to write (so that means parts of the later beginning, and parts of the calm before the storm, and parts at the end haha) look forward to updates about this in January (probably!)

Things I figured out

here's the sitch, guys. give me deadlines (no "end of the week" shit, I need those 1 hour sprints!!). give me word limits and word goals. I have learned the way of my writing and that is quantifiable data. I need something to track and watch as I write! this is definitely something I'll take into whatever I write in the future because it's super motivating to me

also that I'm still no good at action scenes and I need to work on that. but also my descriptive writing is still on point (please allow me this slight flex/proudness haha)

Plans, Plans, Plans

my laundry list of things I need/want to do haha

first thing's first, I have to (and I mean I need to lock myself in a room and force myself) read over and rewrite Den to make draft 2. it might be this winter. it might be next summer. but I have to do it. because I want to and I want to be able to share it with y'all (also where, idk, but it'll be somewhere). and also finish arc 2, draft 1, but that's likely after arc 1, draft 2 however I do have the ending in mind already because it'll be so so good 🤣🤣

and then next... I'm gonna try and make a whole game! and I'll make game dev posts on here and everything, it'll be great (I hope!). I'm very much not sure which of my various ideas I want to act on. cause there's Night of the Winter Star, which is another interactive fiction game (this time in Choicescript). then there's this whole physical card game I'd been planning out that I nearly forgot I had lying around in my Trello (yes the whole thing is in there. no I haven't moved it anywhere else.) and then there's Flare Code, which is a whole damn RPG that I could make in who-knows-what and it'll take who-knows-how-long, but it's also my passion project. ah the options 🤔😔

also I want to interact more! even tho I don't have enough time 😅 Tumblr can already take hours from my day so I've gotta be careful with what I ask for. but meeting people on here would be really great! (even if I can only interact every so often) also events! I might wanna do those! especially since I've limited myself to only tag games and ask games so far!

oh and I actually really wanna change my pfp away from this damn eggplant plush 😔 it became a stale meme like a month ago (and I just might've found something to replace it with while I was looking for music to write this post to)

oh oh and I wanna chip away at my gaming and reading backlogs!! it's never gonna happen, but one can dream!

oh lord I've rambled on and on and for that I apologize 😅 gonna leave y'all with every single slime in a wonderful little animation from Slime Rancher (the first one, but super hyped for the second one) as my offering for having gotten this far haha

(can you tell I love that game? 🥰) (also idk where I got this from, I just had it on my computer haha credits to whoever made it tho!!)

[azusawrites]

A YEAR OF WRITING - 2021 IN REVIEW

Joining in on @ecwrenn's "A Year of Writing" which is a wonderful event that I would like to thank her for organizing! There were a ton of things that happened this year in terms of writing so it will definitely be hard to catch up, haha!

Banner credit goes to @personnedelalune!

WORD COUNT

During this entire year, I've struggled with feeling productive due to a variety of reasons, such as depression and burnout, and it always felt like I was lagging behind on my wips and the things I wanted to work on. So it was really surprising to see that rounded up, I have managed to reach around 300k words of both posted and unposted works!

That felt really wild, haha. Turns out that writing every day even if just a few words did add up little by little! Sure, some of the stuff might not make the editing process, but I'm glad to see there is still a lot of raw material that I can use.

WIPs

The two that I started this year are Mirror Marchen and Nocturnal Animals, which are both dark, urban fantasy (yes, I have a type) and fanfics for the Twisted Wonderland fandom. Mirror Marchen is posted and updated once a month as the novelization process tends to take quite a bit, but it's still the one passion project I want to see completed. It helped me polish my prose quite a bit and reignited my love for fairytale retellings as well. So far it's received positive attention and I'm very grateful for that! It really makes me happy to see others engage with something that brings me so much joy!

Nocturnal Animals is still a wip that I plan to release next year, as I wish to iron out all the kinks and creases, and make sure it's faithful to both the fandom and the VtM lore as much as it can! I told myself once that vampires aren't that fun to write, but it seems that is not the case at all. Dark fiction is surprisingly therapeutic to write and it helped me deal with stress and frustration, for which I am grateful! The modern urban fantasy vibes from this fic are weirdly healing and it contains some of the most beloved scenes I've written yet.

WRITING PROCESS

I started out 2021 with a lot of hesitation and panic in regards to my writing because I had never expected it to be so difficult to express things in a manner that I would be happy with. I'm a perfectionist by nature and an editing demon - I can go months writing and re-writing a thing and still not be satisfied, but lately, I've been trying to kick the habit and focus on the things that I do think I've done well! So, the things that I feel I have achieved this year are-

Better prose. I think it's tighter and flows better, so it makes the text sound more natural as well.

Introspective focus. Getting into a character's head is an extremely rewarding experience and I've loved doing that for characters like Malleus Draconia, who, as long-lived folk, will have a more nuanced and rather different take on things like life and mortality. Getting to express those notions in writing was very rewarding.

Character development. I've always loved making OCs, but never had the inclination to share them with others due to various factors so I've been just working at them little by little and focusing on developing them better. Now that I'm actually writing them too, it really helps with the visualization process since I can see them act out scenes and be influenced by events around them.

Themes. I've become bolder with the subjects that I write about, I think, and more inclined to take risks. And it feels like it paid off since my works are meatier as a result!

Editing more efficiently. Reading especially has helped me realize what sort of narrative I want to emulate for my own stories, so I've become quite ruthless when it comes to taking out and keeping in things that I do enjoy and think would help the story along.

PLANS FOR 2022

For the most part, it's just going on with what I have already started, so more wips will be completed and started, and more concepts explored!

Writing will become an everyday activity as well, owing to the fact that it really helped me pull through from my burnout regarding work and is also managing my depression more or less, haha.

Mirror Marchen will hopefully complete its first arc (Prologue) and starts its second one (The Crimson Tyrant) which will be accompanied by its own introduction and delve more into the worldbuilding and character introspection aspects!

Nocturnal Animals will be continued, and once the first draft will be written and edited, will be posted in weekly batches! It's the one wip that will explore a lot of dark topics and concepts so please look forward to it!

New works that I want to introduce here would be GOETIA, a fic for the Obey Me fandom along with a couple of oneshots pertaining to BNHA and Tokyo Revengers based on a lot of brainstorming and hastily written notes, haha! There's a lot of love and care put into all of these so I'm hoping it will come through as they will be posted!

I'm also planning on venturing into original fiction as well, mostly in the form of an IF horror story that I want to see come to life little by little, along with a YA gaslamp fantasy concept that is becoming maybe a bit too big for me to handle. But oh well, it's fun and that's all that matters!

Thank you to everybody who stuck with me during this year! It's really been such a joy to have you around and I appreciate your company and can't wait to see more of you during the following year! ❤️

[sleepyowlwrites]

Sleepy's 2021 writing wrap-up accompanied by a little salt but mostly cheerful exhaustion

this event was hosted by @ecwrenn thank you darling. I think I'm late but I only like being early to work. and this is not that.

I don't keep any kind of proper track of my word counts or progress, mostly because I don't really care - I know that I wrote this year and that's good enough for me, word counts are not a motivator - but also because I am disorganized and scramble around afterward of anything to clean stuff up.

here is a very general assessment of the writing that I did this year.

January - I wrote some poetry and meandered around in Youth Story (then temporarily titled Project: Black Rose) and Anxiety Story.

February - I existed, I think. it was around this time that I played (find the word) tag with Maybe Sorcery a lot. also somewhere in here I think we became soulmates but I'm not sure. that might've happened earlier.

March - I made a new wip intro for Anxiety Story (the title is Every Other Star is Silent) and promptly didn't work on it (the wip) for the rest of the year. this is fine. it's a heavy wip and I wasn't up for it. then I made a way-too-early-I-don't-know-what-I-was-thinking wip intro for Magick Story (the title is Spider Silk). I have worked on this wip but only in the worldbuilding department.

April - I did Camp Nano and wrote 21,079 words. it felt great. I tried to do the same in May.

May - I did not write 20K, 15K or even 10K. I started to suspect that I was experiencing some creative burnout. (not quite. I was, at the time, enjoying making doodle art of other writers' wip titles. that was fun and easy.) instead it turns out I was just having a WRITING BURNOUT and subsequently-

June - I didn't really do any writing until the very end of this month was I fell in love with a character and decided to write a study fic of him. and then I did that. after editing it's now at almost 8K. so that's cool.

July - finished that above fic, worked on Youth Story. at some point I made an intro that I worked very hard on. it's already not up-to-date so it's gone now, bye-bye. I have an informal one that works a lot better, and character intros! I worked on those in-

August - still loved that character so I wrote a sequel to my first fic, which is currently being slowly edited and sits at nearly 11K. the character intros were all created and gradually released in-

September - which was a funky month because my sister got married. this has nothing to do with my writing but it happened. by the way, I've been writing poetry all year. most of it is not up on tumblr, but I'll share almost anything in a find the word tag. seriously. I get a little crazy with those things.

October - it actually took me until this month to finish that sequel fic. by this time I have also created 200 wip title arts. also also I've been writing this ridiculously complicated crossover fic in my friend's dms and that makes it into find the word too. also also also I turned 28. hooray.

November - I was very busy at work and wrote poetry and did some tags and eventually realized that I would have to be on hiatus since I couldn't really write or post like I wanted to. oh right, at some point I decided I was finished with Youth Story draft 0. it's at like, 26K? I can't check right now because the docs are closed. I feel like my laptop just sneaky updated because why else would they be closed? unless a ghost did it.

December - I did almost zero writing because I worked overnights at work and just got more and more exhausted as the month went on. I wrote three? four? tiny flash fics and a tiny bit of poetry and then Christmas happened. and just finished happening, for me.

to sum up, I've written probably approximately 55K this year, which I believe is less than last year but whatever! I don't care. I wrote things, and they meant something to me, and also to some other (wonderful) people who said very nice things in tags and such and that's all I want, really. I just want to write things and enjoy it, and I did. so 2021 was not my favorite, but it had good in it. some of it I made by myself, some of it I shared with others, and some of it YOU - writeblr - gave to me. Thank You.

Love, Sleepy

[drippingmoon]

Yes, I know. I also have a calendar telling me it’s March 2025, hence the addition XD… but also, fuck that. We do what we want around here.

Nevertheless, it’ll be a much shorter wrap-up than usual.

I still mean to continue the tradition. These have started to feel like logs, which has made them even funner. It also absolutely hints hints, nudges nudges, that one specific Aberration of Sunlight has grown like fungi on my brain, and I couldn’t be happier about it. It is, after all, our sun of the year. Pun intended.

In real life terms… eh, it’s been pretty great, then it’s been the opposite of that, which means fantastically horrible and wrecked by health issues in my family… but overall, a normal human year, I guess? It’s spring, which means my neighborly pigeons have returned to the yard, and are probably going to nest in the central fir tree again. Bad decision. Their eggs kept rolling out and falling the previous years. But they do like the tree, and no cats get to them, and I guess we’re all stubborn in one way or another. One thing is certainly nice: they’re a cheery presence, and I love the staring contest we do whenever I prepare my breakfast. One of them always used to flutter away. Now he just puffs out his neck feathers, and I don’t know if they also share my occasionally goldfish memory, but he seems to have finally remembered me and is chilling.

(Or he’s finally gotten lazy enough. Also a family trait here.) 

Aquiver, Aglow

My baby! Is ready! 2024 saw the last of my beta readers wrapping up, and now it’s free real estate on to the final editing round. Much, much love to each one of my readers. You’ve all been a great help, truly. One in particular made a recommendation that blew my socks off… and I’ve come to another decision.

I’m not going to pursue self-publishing. I will never do the advertising bit myself. So! What my beta did, was to suggest I could turn Color’s chapter into a short story, at which moment, 1-year removed from ‘quiv, I realized, oh yeah, I can actually do that. Coupled with another dear beta basically telling me to my face the bonding between Anne and Tyrone had been realized to the level I needed earlier than my slow-burn-loving ass realized… I can actually, potentially, realistically, do this. Color’s is 15k-ish if I remember correctly. I can par ‘quiv down from 190k to 120k. It’s just going to be a biiiit of work.

Regarding that… yeah, I’ve just come off a great deal of editing and paring down word counts for AoS. (Had one chapter I shortened from 30k to 15k! And I did it! Still shook over how well it turned out! But the gist of it is, I wanna feel the wind under my feathers– cruise through writing again, for a bit, not edit my arse off again.)

So… I wrote ‘quiv’s final draft between AoS’s. I’m going to edit ‘quiv into her final form after I do another draft… of something.

Which brings me to it, but it’ll be another big decision.

Remains of a Night – Aberration of Sunlight

It’s also finished now! Full, edited 4th draft and everything.

My other baby’s also become so special to me, in different ways from ‘quiv. And… oh, this little story about a creature born in the pulse of the night (the Beast) hearing its every thought and cries for help, but still retaining so much curiosity. And in present day it’s become a living cataclysm, kickstarting our current story. Where two just as little guys go toe to void toe with it, trying to keep each other alive. I’m getting such a rush of adrenaline and love again thinking about it. Ah…

(Finished it at the start of March. When I simply combusted, burned alive again over my favorite adopted father and son duo. In which the son adopts the father.)

Yeah, so I’m a little at a loss. Though perhaps that’s not the correct term. Everything is in place. Editing took it further than I did ‘quiv (I… didn’t quite discover my editing process, since I already had the bones of it, but I perfected it, and it feels like sunshine in my chest), and honestly, everything I wish for currently is to talk and talk and talk forever about it because everything in me feels so alive right now, hahahahahahaha. Alternatively, I will substitute that for reading someone else’s thoughts… which means I will probably write up a beta post. Though I guess that also won’t be your normal beta.

But that’s not a talk for this log wrap-up.

Conclusion

Why am I at a loss? Hm…

Simply put, I am, and am not. It feels more like half-time, or a crossroads. I feel like a granny sitting on a porch with her shawl wrapped around her, and a mug of warmth in her lap, squinting and appreciating the crisp wind. I’m content, that is to say. I can start writing a new wip anytime now, but I’m in no rush. It’s great. It feels like clear skies in my mind.

And honestly… what the fuck do I do XD

So there’s Morning Right, which would be the direct sequel to AoS, yet not. The events of Remains of a Night and Aberration of Sunlight have ended, and we will still follow Madigan and Spica, but the book genre changes again (this is a maybe long and funny story, but if anyone is interested they can ask). Honestly, I intend for it to be an optional follow-up. Mostly because my brainrot is still intense, and I want to have it to read whenever I want, and so much content in it I’m already hyped for. But it won’t be AoS. Anyway, the condition I set for myself was that I had to finish AoS first… and that’s technically fulfilled. And I honestly do want to do it, but…

There’s also Infinity in Five, which is technically a spin-off of AoS. Or, uh, quite. I had to get a suicide mission off my brain in AoS to change the plot in the direction I wanted, and the best way to do it was to reserve it for a future wip. One song later, I had this concept (different worldbuilding, everything, from AoS by the way, though it’s still sci-fi. And this one has aliens) of five best friends being sent on a suicide mission on a planet, to blow up a dam, and despite all that, the story will mostly focus on how much they love each other. There’s also a ginormous centipede-like vehicle they steal from the enemy side. And it’s sci-fi. And it’s giving me the same fun vibes as AoS… and it’s technically a spin-off… so you see my conundrum.

And then there’s High-Noon Saturnalia, who was always going to be my next wip. It’s also fantasy, which I kinda crave to write again. With ghosts of places, gods, a desert reverting to an ocean as part of being the ghost of its place… and actually, the main point, the disaster cowgirl ex-wives and my first time writing romance. Which means it’s going to end well for none of the four girls. LOL. And now that I think on it, more plot twist than I’ve had since my Spirit (first big wip ever) days, and this is another one I’d love to start presently, at this exact moment. So what the fuck do I do, hahahahahahahaha.

I have faith in me I’ll figure it out… for suuuuure…

Either way, this concludes our log for this year! As always, I wish all of you happiness, and may the writing keep going! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve said this, but if any of you need to talk, my inbox is always open. Just keep in mind life can roll in like thunderclouds, and it might take a moment. But I always return:)

[druidx]

A Year of Writing - 2021 Writing Wrap-up

@ecwrenn suggested the Writeblr community do a “Your Writing Year in Review” post with things one has posted, so others can catch up on things they might have missed. This is such a wonderful idea, I just had to join in. So, with many thanks to her for organising, here is my Year of Writing.

Quick Stats

Total Written (rounded up) - ~85,500 words Average Words/Work: 886 Started - 44 works Finished - 38 works Published - 41 works Number of Works still in Progress (started anytime): 68 Mostly wrote in: July (7 works) & Feb (6 works)

Breakdown 

I’ve written quite a bit this year. A lot more than I thought, if I’m being honest. The dates on my spreadsheet are a little out of whack, but I’ve written somewhere in the region of 85k words this year, across 39 pieces (one of which was my on-going nano started last year, which had 52k added this year).

My longest work that was added to this year was The Ruby Falls (the aforementioned long-running Nano), bringing the word count to 128,274. The shortest work that was created this year was A Tea for the Sore of Head, with a word count of just 96.

It’s not too surprising that most of my writing was done in July, as this was the TES Summer Fest week. This was an event geared towards creators in The Elder Scrolls fandom, which I very much enjoyed participating in (many thanks to the organisers of TESFest). I also did a few prompts from the Homestead Spring and Autumn prompt weeks, which allowed me to stretch my writing muscles with some more original work.

This year I was advised by an editor friend to work on my subtext, so quite a lot of my drabbles have been towards stretching my writing muscles in that direction, or trying out fresh styles (Dearest Mama, May I Come Home? is a prime example of this). I feel like I’ve learnt a lot from these experiments, and I feel like my writing has advanced from what it has been for the last ~5yrs, so I’m very proud of that.

I spruced up some older Titan - World of Fighting Fantasy fics and published them to AO3, bringing the Published figure up by more than was finished this year. I also joined two new fandoms to write in - Starbound and Thunderbirds Are Go. I’m pleased at how well these first few forays have been, and I have some more stories planned in these fandoms as well. A couple of my original works have also seen a lot of success too, notably Before It Shatters, and received glowing comments.

Plans for 2022?

I have a lot of Big Scary IRL stuff that has to be completed by the end of Jan, and the Homestead is putting on a “Be a better writer” prompt event (organised by the above mentioned editor) in Feb/ March time which I’m very excited for.

My main project to tackle, thought, will be The Ruby Falls. I want to have finished it by April, to have it beta read and final edits by October and published to AO3 this time next year. How achievable that is, is anyone’s guess ^.^;

Of course, there will always be lots of other short stories added to the mix over the year, and maybe I’ll finish some of those 69 WIPs... But outside those few big milestones, my plans are mostly fluid, tbh :D

ICYMI

Under the cut are the things I’ve finished since 01 Jan 2021. List organised by universe & series, 99% links through to Tumblr.

Original works

Before It Shatters ~ 800 words Civil war shreds the land. The court priest meets with a state advisor to beg his intercession.

Dearest Mama, May I Come Home? ~ 480 words A young man in the 1800s regrets his life choices.

Can't Fool an AI ~ 415 words A spacefarer tries to claim he’s fine; his ship AI sees right through him.

Court Intrigue ~ 155 Words A woman's partner admires her dress, while being underhanded.

From Ham Park ~ 240 words A woman yearns for the freedom of travel.

Rocky Mountains ~ 126 words Description of the Rocky Mountains from a train out of Denver.

Starbound

Castles in the Sand ~ 1,100 words Lana Blake asks the Last Protector for help.

To Make an Ethereal Connection ~ 1,270 words An old Glitch sings, and the Narrator invites them to journey the stars.

Thunderbirds Are Go

Family Treasures ~ 1,720 words Grounded by injury, Kayo considers her family through the lense of trinkets.

Chin up ~ 1,060 words Hard-hitting questions come up during a training session between Kayo and Parker.

Cake Dress ~ 225 words Penny needs a new dress; Gordon makes quips.

Titan - World of Fighting Fantasy

Princess for a day ~ 790 words  Millicent gets a very special treat on her birthday.

TESIV: Oblivion - Haven’s Ember (Modern AU)

A Night to Drink To (AO3) ~ 1,030 words Where Martin, Baurus and Aderyn fall on the "drink" triangle

Better Homes and Gardens ~ 440 words Martin shows Aderyn her room in his & Baurus’ new house.

Bitter Winds and Rain ~ 1,070 words Aderyn is not coping well with Martin being in a coma.

It's fashion, baby ~ 360 words Baurus ribbs Martin of his choice of shirt

Night will Fall and Drown the Sun ~ 1,260 words Jauffre is not coping well with Martin being in a coma.

Shaving Accidents ~ 1,025 words Baurus is not coping well with Martin being in a coma.

The Insomnolence of a Troubled Mind ~ 700 words Martin can’t sleep, Baurus find out why.

TESIV: Oblivion - Misc

Accidents Happen (but they don’t usually end the world) ~ 500 words Martin trips and cracks his skull, dooming the world

By Any Other Voice But Yours ~ 1,163 words Martin returns to Kvatch with Lucien and Korbin; Lucien helps Martin relax after PTSD sets in.

Crimson Storm ~ 1,792 words Martin has a panic attack.

Honour Among Thieves ~ 875 words A thief and a spy have a late night chat about threats to the Grey Fox.

Marble Tombs ~ 506 words A study of the unquiet nature of Ayleid Ruins

No Rose Without a Thorn (AO3) ~ 3,036 words Modryn Oreyn helps an old dunmer... but all is not as it seems.

Of Garlands and Gladness ~ 1,342 words A travelogue style recounting of Bravil’s festival to Mara.

Technicolour Nightmare ~ 885 words You’re debilitatingly ill in the wilderness, will you survive?

The Steel Undone ~ 803 words Modryn Oreyn agonises about a choice that must be made to save the Fighters Guild.

Your Dads think you are Working Too Hard, and want you to Take A Break ~ 772 words Martin and Baurus extort you, the HoK, to rest and eat more.

TESIV: Oblivion - Rin

Bleach ~ 1,040 words A discussion about redguard hair

At First Blush ~ 3,860 words F!HoK & Methredhel end up on job that goes sideways fast, but kisses make everything better.

About a mentor ~ 510 words K’Rin L’Rue is asked what Arch-Mage Traven was like as a mentor

TESIV: Oblivion - A Slice of Life with Talis

Talis and the Terrifying Errand-boy ~ 850 words Mages are unnecessarily extra and scare the townies.

Talis and the Bilberries ~ 890 words Talis the Baker goes berry picking.

A Sweet Misunderstanding ~ 710 words Talis the Baker makes a friend

TESIV: Oblivion - Teas of Tamriel

A Tea for the Scorned ~ 210 words Teas of Tamriel columnist advises on a poison.

A Tea for the Sore of Head ~ 100 words Teas of Tamriel columnist advises on a hangover cure.

Malted Milk for a Goode Nite's Rest ~ 110 words Teas of Tamriel columnist advises on a sleeping infusion.

Potion for a Gaye Nite ~ 280 words Teas of Tamriel columnist advises on a potion of Banish Social Anxiety.

[monsterkissed]

2021 In Writing

I saw this event by @ecwrenn​ and it seemed like a pretty good excuse to sit down and process what has felt like a very weak creative year and actually crunch some numbers to test that theory.

As of today (December 28th) during 2021 I have written 410,965 words including drafts, editing and discarded material. This is significantly above my goal of 300,000! I’m very happy about that. On average I was able to write approximately three weeks in every month, but my longest streak of writing was 41 consecutive days. February was my most productive month at 56656 words and September was my weakest at 15987.

@holybikinisbatman​ also kindly put together a really neat little program for recording how much I write over the month which has been really useful for seeing where my ups and downs are.

(under the cut for more info on specific works and some beautiful gay graphs)

It’s very gay : )

Work-related burnout did put a huge dint in my progress following the summer. All my projects stalled very severely and my average words per month. I was able to switch to a less terrible, lower-hours job in order to make writing my priority, but it turns out that the psychological exhaustion of working in health and social care during a pandemic doesn’t disappear overnight. I’m still trying to get into the rhythm of doing anything at all that’s just for me and not for work.

I was inspired a lot by anthologies like “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed”, “Bloodchild”, and “Friday Black” as well as Clive Barkers “Books of Blood.” I also continued to keep up my reading on theory with some academic texts. Games like Disco Elysium and Inscryption also added a lot to the mill this year. I really think I have a better grasp on the kind of work I want to write: weird uncomfortable queer shit.

My wips suffered the most visibly for the burnout. I don’t think the quality has dropped because I still edit very stringently, but I haven’t had time to put enough care into them to meet that standard so updates have been slow over autumn and winter. The problem with an intensive style of long drafts and repeated editing is that it takes time and care and it’s frustrating when I have to sacrifice speed for satisfaction over quality. That said: People really seem to like all three? So maybe it’s fine?

Being No One, Going Nowhere had the most complex work done on it. A lot of tricky chapters I was really worried about executing that only got worse as I started to really second-guess everything I was writing in the tail end of ‘21. It’s still consistently well-received and getting new readers which is frankly inexplicable to me. People are consuming hundreds of thousands of words at a speed that I find humbling and alarming. Overall I think the transition from for want of a nail fic with some silly jokes to drama metacommentary with some silly jokes is going Okay. Even if I wish I could have written more of it I have finished the second act and I don’t see any situation bar death or disaster where it doesn’t either finish or mostly finish next year. But... there are also a few works in the series I would like to get done as well, including one that’s going to be just, just a huge bastard.

The Comrade’s Song is still my weird ugly peculiar child that appeals only to very specific people of very particular tastes (affectionate). It’s always been the one I work on at a more lazy pace so it by far has suffered the most for my burnout. That said, the reason I have never worried too much about updating it religiously is because it is something people are either going to like a lot or bounce off of. I am hoping to get one more chapter of it out before the new year because it deserves some love. There should be no reason this one doesn’t get done in 2022.

I Think We’re Alone Now exists entirely as a labour of love in more ways than one. If I had accurately estimated how deep in the weeds of it I would get while writing it would be done by now, but, unfortunately, Ideas Happen. I am simply not capable of making simple little stories any more, I think. If you can’t take a funny little fluffy joke and season it liberally with dread and anxiety then what is even the point? I would probably feel guilty about stretching out a gift fic this long if I were not quite sure the recipient does not mind, and at the end of the day this particular fic only needs to be good enough for exactly two people. But other people seem to like it, too, and that’s a nice bonus. 2022 should be the completion date for this one, too, and sooner rather than later.

All three wips also got fanart this year, which is still something I have difficulty grasping. I do not know how to process that kind of investment in the things I make but it’s all so pretty. I can’t cope in the slightest. I still have them open in tabs for moral support, and this has been a year when I really needed the moral support.

I got out a lot more oneshots this year than I thought I had before writing this post. Access: Authorised gets bonus points for being my first fic in a different fandom and I am really proud of how the voices came out. I watched a Lot of Star Trek this year and I feel pretty confident with how I translated it, and writing trans stuff is always a fun time.

I won’t go through all the oneshots I did this year, but Prelude was my shortest complete work at 506 words. As an experiment in dialogue-only fic I’m pretty pleased with it and I think it’s pretty effective with the length that it is. The Compromise was my longest at 10,415 words and it might legitimately be the best short story I have ever written. It does everything I set out to do with it and it’s a type of horror writing I hadn’t really dabbled in before. I think it stands alone really well and with some work I’d really like to try expanding the core concept to something original and novel-length.

In general I would like to spend the next year years writing more original stuff and looking into pro publishing. I don’t know if I’ll ever stop writing fanfic altogether because it’s just really fun and I like entertaining people and exploring existing worlds, but at this point I have had enough positive feedback on my writing as a whole that I think I could make some original things people really like, too. Original characters have always been a weakness, but over the past few years I have overcome a Lot of weaknesses I had assumed were just inherent to my writing. I have a couple of ideas for original short fiction as well, but that’s more a question of deciding where the best place to post them would be.

All in all I felt pretty bad about my output this year and that’s very silly when I lay everything out like this? For a Bad Year this looks like a lot more work than some people do on their best years, and I need to stop being so ridiculously prone to moving the goalposts on myself. In general I am really proud of the stuff I have managed to put out and I think the quality is consistently a strong reflection of the effort I put into it. My method of sprinting the first draft and then repeatedly editing might be intensive and slow but I am happy with the results; I think for me it’s worth the work. Going forward I would really be happy to keep up what I have, for the most part, been doing. Writing consistently, getting the work out, trying new stuff. I would love to break 400k again next year, but I think I am going to keep the target at a “low” 300k and just concentrate on getting that hit reliably. I think giving myself loose and reasonable targets to meet month-to-month in terms of updates would be a good idea. Not strict enough for me to panic over, just enough to keep me focussing on putting stuff out at a comfortable pace.

I need to do a lot of work on getting into a good headspace in general because at the moment stress is really putting a wrench in my doing anything for fun at all, so I am also going to try to do some more work on my mental health. I can’t be a good writer if I can sit down and enjoy a good book or game or in general relax and feed new ideas into the brain-mill.

[tiredlittleoldme]

[ID: A photo of a field with yellow flowers and a blurred tree in the background. At the center of the picture is written “a year of writing” in Playlist Script font, in white over the yellow flowers and the blurry sky]

Thanks to the wonderful @ecwrenn​ for this amazing idea !

Introduction...

Well, I’m gonna have to dig into the archives for this, I guess ! I think it was a good writing year for me, I did Nano for the very first time !

As for January and February, there wasn’t much to say, apparently ! I published prompts, wrote 500 words a day (ok, let’s be real, it’s sometimes a challenge). In February, I finished the first draft of The Sin Eater !

March got real interesting, I participated in the #chazzawriteschallenge ! This was not only a lot of fun, but also allowed me to think about my favorite things in my WIPs, in writing... Plus I discovered a ton of writers, so that was great !

In May, I participated in the #underwingchallenge, which reminds me that I should check in with my buddies !! Adoptees, adopters, reach out to your peeps !

June, July were very hard, I had a lot of health issues, spent a few days in the hospital (I didn’t write, but I read a lot. A LOT LOT). I still managed, especially in June, to write a few queer prompts for pridewrite2021, which was really fun (I’m especially proud (hehe) of my Ace Poetry.)

August was all about healing and getting better, getting slowly back into writing. As such, September felt a little more normal, as well as October.

But November... AHHH ! I did not plan for it. In fact, I even started Nano a few days late. I technically did 50k, but it was more planning, a few prompts about my characters (I learned so much about them, it’s INSANE) and no ‘real’ writing. But since my main goal was to really get back into my WIPs, my characters, my stories, I consider it a success !

December is, will be, mainly about reading, less writing, except this time, I won’t do it from a hospital bed ! As all of us, I assume, I do have a to read list as high as the Everest, so I’ll work on it a bit, so I’ll feel less guilty in January when I’ll realize how little I really read !

And now to the WIPs !

Progress in WIPs

As well as posting every month a little prompt (check #j’écrisdesprompts for samples of my writing, in French or English), I’ve worked quite a bit on my WIPs...

[ID: A photo of misty woods focusing on the bark of the trees. In the font Amsterdam Two is written “The Sin Eater“, in white]

First, about my little baby, the Sin Eater...

Like I said above, I finished writing the first draft early in the year. After letting it stew for a bit, I revised a few things, rewrote the plot and, now that I know where it’s going, I’ve started to edit/rewrite the first draft ! I know I said I’ve wanted to do character intros but I have to be honest, I completely forgot.

Plus, with all I figured out this November with my characters, a lot changed and I’m not sure what I would have said about them still stood. (For example, did you know that Melissa offered to help Eliott because his previous caretaker broke his wrist? That her and Jen were very nervous the first day she came to see Eliott?... I should post a snippet of their first meet, it’s really good...)

[ID: A green-blue-grey background with written “if this life of ours has to end” in black, in AC Real Adult font]

If this life of ours has to end (check out #wip:itloohte) is one of my newest WIP, and you’ll see that I have yet to talk about it.

If This Life Of Ours Has To End is the very wordy quite poetic (from a quote by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross) title of a very not poetic story. I will do a proper introduction at some point, but for now you will have to be content in knowing that...

... 20 years ago, Maeve and her friends saved the world. Sadly, before they could even celebrate, tragedy struck and their group of friends shattered. Now, Maeve is in charge of a small group of people who deal with all kinds of threats, from this world or others. She'd say she's over what happened all those years ago. But when her past comes back to haunt her in the form of old enemies, new threats, her best friend and a boy looking suspiciously like her former boyfriend, it becomes clear the past is not done with her and that she's not done with it.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this !! I do not know how long this is going to end up to be, but so far, i have roughly 110 k of content, sadly not counting the plot that... barely exists yet. It’s fine.

For the first time ever, I’m excited even to do some worldbuiding which... never happens. This is very exciting. As much as I love the Sin Eater and its ambiance, ITLOOHTE has some very excellent characters and some conversations between them are... probably amongst the best things I’ve ever written.

I can’t wait to share this with you guys.

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Project Christmas

(I did not make a banner for this project cause it hasn’t got a name yet!)

Very recently (about the same time I decided to read more than write in December), I started a new WIP (cause I don’t have enough of them...)

This new WIP is your basic run-of-the-mill Christmas romance, between two women who are not exactly excited at the idea of coming home for Christmas.

For now, that’s basically it.

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If you went VERY far in my archives, you might have seen Athena Jones (she’s a pirate, she’s got anxiety, she’s a lesbian), but this WIP is in hiatus for the time being, not abandoned, just. In hiatus. For the time being. I’m a writer, I swear !

Plans for 2022

Ah, so it’s there that I plan to do a lot of things I won’t do ! Ok !

Post a prompt every month.

Write The Sin Eater’s 2nd draft.

Do character intros for my Sin Eater’s characters.

Do an “official” intro for ITLOOHTE.

This is pretty “light” but I don’t know how the year will go. I have a bit more hours at work, so I don’t want to be like “Yeah, I’ll do lots!!” if I end up coming short on those goals.

Plus an entire 2nd draft when I don’t have any idea how to edit, when I never actually ever wrote a 2nd draft before... If you got tips...

Anyway, that’s all for now, I hope you are on holidays and/or spending time with friends and family !

Happy holidays, happy writing, happy next year !

[mary-is-writing]

(The banner is by @ecwrenn)

Hi there!! I read about this activity proposed by @ecwrenn and I thought about giving it a try. A Year of Writing is basically a newsletter to sumarize the writing you did throughout 2021, as a way of closing the year.

I don't have the greatest memory so it took me a little bit more than I thought to remember all I did this year, so I got my summary done by quarters.

It's under the cut, but before that I wanna say that I'm super glad I got into writeblr because I've met a lot of cool people who bright my day just by seeing them in my dash (I'm sorry I don't talk a lot on discord tho Dx). Even if my following is small I'm happy each one of you is here, and to know there's people who like and show interest in my writing has been a boost to my confidence.

Anyways, thanks!! It's been a good year. Now for real, here's my year of writing:

~ January - April ~

It was on February this year when I decided to change my blog to go into writeblr and I did the post that's pinned on my page.

Around that time I was writing the third act of The Monsters Only We See, as well as the outline for Where Camellias Blossom. After the many troubles a single plot hole on TMOWS story gave me, I finally reached the point where I could finish the second act and go fully onto the third. It was very exciting because I felt I was getting closer and closer to the end of the 1st draft after having to take a big detour to fix the plot hole.

Seeing that I was near the end of writing, I thought it was time to start prepping for another wip and I picked WCB. I had already wrote around 45 pages, but decided I wanted to take a step back and do the outline. And... Well I already new that the story in my head was long and I wasn't gonna be able to fit everything in one book, but the more I wrote the more I realized this needed to be a trilogy. After fixing stuff here and there post-writing, I managed to structure the whole plot on 3 books.

Then I got excited and also plotted a spin off. So the whole series has 4 books now I guess. Oh well.

On March I pushed myself and wrote 80 pages on 10 days or so for a contest and I was very proud of myself. I didn't won and, looking back, I get why: the stories there weren't that good. Still, I was happy to get them out of my brain and into words, and it was a good writing exercise. I'll never repeat what I did to make it to the deadline tho, that left me exhausted mentally and creatively.

It was during this time where I also did a bunch of posts about TMOWS and WCB, a new post a week for like 2-3 months. I thought about keep doing it but my writing speed is simplu not enough for it, and having to do weekly posts kinda stressed me out. So, even tjos I wanna keep doing posts like those, I think I'll avoid the weekly release format for now.

Ah, and on February, my comic celebrated its first anniversary!!! owo)/

~ May - August ~

Okay so one of the most important things of this year happened between this months because I finished the first draft for TMOWS!! I was so, so happy when I did, and ever since then I've been working on editing it. After the 2nd draft was done, I gave it to my first betaa readers and 2-3 said good things about it and also gave me insight of elements to change for the 3rd one.

Not a lot else happened here, I was mostly working on this wip and progressing on my comic, but also enjoying summer vacation and watching the Tokyo Olympics. I probably got a few new wip ideas but I'm too lazy to check them out and see which ones xd

~ September - December ~

So now, finishing the year I managed to do a 3rd draft for TMOWS. However, I think it's better to consider it a 2.1 version of the 2nd one, since the changes were minimal. I also submitted it for a contest and I'm expecting news about it for next year :D

But obviously, the most inportant here was Nanowrimo 2021!! Tho I didn't finish it I managed to reach almost 20K on WCB, so I'm calling that a win. I also realized a few errors on my outline that need to be fixed, so I'd been working on them as I write and thinking about how I'm gonna pace the first book, considering that many things and characters need to be introduced here and I want to make it as smooth as possible, without info dumps. It's gonna be tricky but, hopefully, I can do it.

(Maybe I can do a little bit of info dump and get away with it, who knows, we'll see.)

And I did the 100th page of my comic a few days ago, too! I believe it's already scheduled on Tapas for next year to be published.

~ Next year plans ~

A friend encouraged me to translate my works myself and tho I still feel intimidated by the task, I think I'll do it. So based on this, I want to open a BetaBooks account next year to get feedback on the translations I do, but also on the book in general (this won't happen if I get to win the contest tho)

I definitely want to find a way to publish TMOWS at some point next year, wether it is traditional route (via the contest) or indie route.

Maybe do something with Patreon, too? I saw somebody on Tumblr talking about using it as a platform to release book chapters and at the end give the e-book, but Idk if it'll work for me. And since my book releases aren't exactly gonna be regular, asking for a monthly payment seems like too much. We'll see, but I do wanna give it another look to see how I'll use it.

Of course, I'm gonna keep writing WCB and, hopefully, can also get a good progress on That One Wip I have in the back waiting for me. But next year's Nano is gonna be WCB again for sure, and it'll keep being that until I finish the trilogy I guess.

Thank you for a great year, and see you in the next one with more writing and more wips!!!

[witherednightmare]

( Banner made by @ecwrenn )

A YEAR OF WRITING

Hey everyone! It's been another year, huh? Have you all found a place to rest just for a little while? Take a minute to drink and/or eat something, take a deep breath. As of today, December 28th, it's only a few days until we have made it through 2021.

A big shoutout to @ecwrenn who had the idea to this intersting, wonderful little event! A personal event for everyone so to say!

To everoyne who has told someone who doesn't write that you are writing a book: How many times did they ask you something like "When is the book ready??? When can we buy it, lol?" - Too many times, probably.

LET’S REWIND.

2021 - A writing year of ups and downs for me. While daydreaming, creating playlists and moodboards, and screaming about my OCs to a friend has helped me through each of my days of this year, the actual writing has started later this year.  Compared to other writers on here that have been writing since they were kids or teens or young adults I am still pretty new to the writing game, roleplaying not included. I like to draw a line between these to things just for myself.

January to April, I don't remember anything from these months except for the release of Scrivener 3 for Windows. Great drop in March 2021, waited for it for so long and it was worth it.

May to June were two challenge months! In May, we had the wonderful Underwing challenge by the wonderful @jaxwolffwrites! Thank you for it! Even though I didn't have any adoptees this year (maybe next year? If the event will have a second year) I enjoyed the small conversations and rants about my stories and OCs a lot. A chance to think more about them and to consider questions asked I didn't think of before. And I am sorry that I skipped one question :(

June was the start of the 100 days of writing challenge which I followed for.... two whole days! Applause, applause, thank you!

July was as dry as the fields dried out by the hot summer sun.

August brought the first anniversay of Sacrifice! August 16th, yay! It's been an entire year in which I worked on a story solely created by myself. For someone who only did roleplaying with other people until then that was a big change and start of an exciting journey.

September, beautiful month, 30 days of birthday cake. Turning older probably gave my brain the kick in the butt it needed to reconsider my writing process. How I approach my own writing and for how long I want to be stuck in this loop of daydreaming, thinking of writing, not writing, feeling bad. Rinse and repeat. I found a blog that gave me the last push to face the demon in the back of my head that questioned everything I did. "What if people don't like this character or the new idea you added?", "Can you really change this little bit or would it disappoint people for [insert reason X]" or "Did you promise too much?"

And then October came around, along its buddy November and their little demon child NaNoWriMo. So I had to ask myself how I want to tackle NaNo this year. I don't do Preptobers, or outlines, or anything that forces me to sit down and do a lot of preparing. I do this at work and that's enough. So that was the chance to apply the new ideas I gathered from the blog found back in September. To tell myself the story in a rough draft. Just for myself, just for my own eyes, for no one else. If it's a messy hell of inconsistent thoughts - then so it be. So i started a new, needed rough draft for Sacrifice. That was my 'Preptober'.

November followed, and it hit me - us - in the guts. New year, new November, same, old game. Second NaNoWriMo for me to attend, and first one to win! With a word count of 50,006 words hit on November 30th I made it through the challenge! A damn roller coaster or highs and lows, of days with a word count of 0 up to 7,500 words in one day. Don't ask me how I did it, I am still baffled.

Sacrifice and Circus! Circus! became part of a trilogy in Project Soul. Third and first book, not enough material to connect them well yet but it was only the start.

And now - December. On December 1st I officially began the rough draft for Circus! Circus! while I put Sacrifice back into its drawer after devoting an entire month just to it. Struggled with the characters and story but that shouldn't be much of a concern for Circus! Circus!.

My writing notebook for the trilogy slowly becomes a partner in my time away from my laptop.

The first few words for the second book of the trilogy found their way into my mind and onto the page!

MY WRITING GOALS FOR 2022

Not a lot, to be honest. I don't want to push myself to hard and risk throwing away everything. Not as long as I don't have serious deadlines to follow. A possible goal is to finish one rough draft. It doesn't matter for which of the big projects - Circus! Circus! or Sacrifice. Or maybe we will have a surprise guest that will be done at the end of next year. On December 31st 2022 I just want to look back, pat myself on the back and say "Yup, I've made it. I can be proud of myself."

CURRENT WORD COUNTS - DECEMBER 28th 2021

Circus! Circus! - Rough draft - 9,475 words

Untitled second book - Rough draft - 115 words

Sacrifice - Rough draft - 51,855 words

BOOKS I'VE READ IN 2021

Please excuse the lack of real summaries. Can't do that.

Klara and the sun - Wonderful book, enjoyed almost every minute of it. Klara... I miss her so much... a baby... I hope she's doing well. Please read the book.

Frankenstein - Viktor, bitch boy. I hate him, I miss him so much. Don't want to say he's kind of relatable but... maybe... I am not sure... But he's a bitch.

Mister Haiduk's Shop of Wishes (German Title: Herr Haiduks Laden der Wünsche) - I don't know if it has an english version but meh. The titles promised more than the story delivered. Didn't fulfill the expectations I had. Like two to three characters, and it offered a few questions to considered for myself but all in all not a recommendation. Good premise, not such a good execution for my taste.

Six of Crows - Started it on December 27th, read two chapters. Like the story so far, will keep reading it.

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So, thank you for this year. Met some great people this year, and maybe I will be able to talk a bit more about my stories in the upcoming year. I wish everyone a peaceful start for 2022. Please stay safe, and as sane as possible.