#but alas! i am a completionist

[nonstandardrepertoire]

now that i have read Every Single Sherlock Holmes Story, i have moved on to reading Every Single Agatha Christie Story. her early output is. uh. u n e v e n, but! the current book does contain this crotchety MP whose sole desire is to never do any work and instead simply gad about vibing. his name is Sir Eustace Pedler and he is truly an inspiration:

Guy Pagett[, my secretary,] struggled up on deck after we left Madeira and began babbling in a hollow voice about work. What the devil does any one want to work for on board ship? It is true that I promised my publishers my “Reminiscences” early in the summer, but what of it? Who really reads reminiscences? Old ladies in the suburbs. And what do my reminiscences amount to? I’ve knocked against a certain number of so-called famous people in my lifetime. With the assistance of Pagett, I invent insipid anecdotes about them. And, the truth of the matter is, Pagett is too honest for the job. He won’t let me invent anecdotes about the people I might have met but haven’t.

(from chapter 12 of The Man in the Brown Suit — i'm reading it on Project Gutenberg, so i don't have a page number)

[nonebinary-leftbeef]

SPOTIFY THREW ME THE DIRTMOUTH THEME FROM HOLLOW KNIGHT AND IT PUNCHED ME IN THE DICK WHAT THE HELL. WHY DOES THAT NOISE MAKE THAT EMOTION.

[sundropotter]

Hermittober Day 1: Moon

I may be a day late but I was really fighting the demons not to give up on this piece. Alas I am a completionist and had to see it through!

[fowlfics]

Ten questions for writers

Thank you so much for the tag, @katia-anyway !

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

At the moment of writing this post, 253!

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

I just broke 700k with my last fic :3c

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Whichever one I'm obsessed with at the moment xD Currently, I am thoroughly within One Piece's grip. Before that, there was BNHA, but I have written for a couple other fandoms in far smaller quantities before.

4. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I used to! But it became overwhelming fairly soon. Moreover, a lot of the comments I get are simple emojis or "this was cute!" and while i do appreciate them - of course i do! it always brightens my day to see them! - i find myself at a loss as to how to respond. I don't like seeing a chain of my own "thank you!" comments responding in the same way to everyone, and it feels like i'm cheating somehow, like i'm artificially inflating my comments count ajsdhkajh So nowdays I usually only respond if someone asks a question or says something that I feel I can respond to with something more substantial than just a "thank you <3"

5. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge (unless I am forgetting, which is also possible lol)

6. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Oh, yes, plenty! Lemme dig up the receipts. Most notably there was a ton of fic telephones in Fic Fight '22 which I'm still not certain if I've got all of them jotted down xD

Then there was that one Stain & Aizawa & Izuku & Katsuki longfic we had started with (listing in the order on our tracking spreadsheet) Addri, myself, LadyE, Blanc, Sophy, Ryuka and Kooky! We initially started it as a November NaNoWriMo challenge back in 2022 (inspired by the joint Whumptober completionist thing NWA did) and we've got up to 40k before life had caught up xD

OH and of course the NWA Two Perspectives in Feb 2023, where both Brinn and I wrote 11k of the same EraserMic fic (fic 1)(fic 2) each in one person's POV, it was a lot of fun!

Other then those, there might have been instances of me co-writing with someone, but I do not recall them! (my memory is a sieve, if you wrote a fic with me and i forgor pls don't take it personally :crypuddle:)

7. what’s your all-time favourite ship?

There isn't one! I am a notorious multishipper, and I'll ship anything that moves in the vicinity of my current blorbo (cough cough Sabo the Revolutionary and April O'Neil being the. current victim of that)

The ranking of my fav ships switches pretty much hourly, with individual blorbos taking a longer time (it's been a mix of Sabo, Ace, Luffy and Law in any order for the past half a year or so) and fandoms being the slowest to rollover (BNHA to OP pipeline across 4 years)

8. what are your writing strengths?

I've been told I'm a speed demon xD You Are Loved (13k) got written over the first four days since my joining of MDL. I prefer to go all-in on a fic idea the moment I think of it!

9. what are your writing weaknesses?

If I let a story idea stagnate, I'll have to wait until I'm in the mood for that particular fic to write it again, and it could take months. I write fast, sure, but it doesn't exactly work if I have no words to put down on the page xD My writing is very motivation-based, which sucks for any kind of a schedule but alas, I deal with it

10. first fandom you wrote for?

Hmm I believe that'd be Danny Phantom! I've written entries for Phannymay back in 2017, but I have since moved those to an alt AO3 account due to the fact that I barely knew english at the time and didn't want those on my record xD

Tagging: @mangogreent @portgas-d-aroace @taizi @swordsmans @ceramicwings hi pookies <3

[fanworldbuildingfun]

I’m 35% into Valhalla and I need to vent a bit I have such a... Love/hate thing for this game???  I mean. From the “Mythology set” it would be my second-favorite, after Origins

(Which is an undisputed leader for the perfect mix of lovely world, lovely protagonists, and heart wrenching story which - most importantly - ties in to the Assassin lore)

Valhalla gets #2 after Origins for a very simple reason: while I may have issues with Eivor (not the writing; I find them pretty fleshed out, but for the moments when story decides to sod your dialogue choices and defaults to prideful hothead), I did not click with Kassandra, whom I decided to start Odyssey with. A little over 15% in, and I switched to Valhalla. I fully intend to see if Alexious would click better, after I’m done with Valhalla

(and just to clarify: I’m playing the “Let the Animus decide” option for Valhalla, co Eivor is female in main parts of game)

Now. One thing I have to mention: I’m a completionist and I’m easily sidetracked by non-mainline quests. Which means that, while I’m doing main plot quests in power level order and I’m only on Oxenefordscire Arc right now, I have a lever 5 settlement and 200 power for Eivor. Which means, I am at this point invested in the role playing aspect of game

And had a lot of time to tinker Eivor to my preferences Now, the thing I am having issues with: I have, as I mentioned, a love/hate situation for Eivor. I*like* how I got them acting at this point, and am managing to rock, more or less, the Hidden One aesthetic and behaviors now. Which yeah, comes with its own issues since you can’t really join the Brotherhood Point is, my Eivor isn’t going in guns blazing. They also aren’t going to get into your face and will consider other options if it’s beneficial for the situation. Even if it doesn’t exactly go with the “Dane” attitude to the problem Which makes the moments where the game goes more linear a problem Case in point, the start of Oxenefordscire. And the dialogue with Sigurd and Basim hit me right into the face. Because my Eivor isn’t going to toss accusations straight at Basim after seeing them act so odd. Not after having spent time running errands with Haytham and exploring old bureaus. The more likely option they’d entertain would be that someone got to both of them But instead, you have Eivor going all “Odin and Loki” in this situation - without any obvious reason?? I mean it would make sense if you play Eivor as the more aggressive type, but I did not. This kind of defeats the purpose for giving us the option to tune Eivor’s behavior - and in a scenario where, subjectively, Sigurd is the one acting more sus than Basim!  (Subjectively because, at this point, one can either see Sigurd as being influenced by sus Basim who has Agenda OR, as Sigurd being unreasonable and Basim appeasing him to avoid confrontation) Anyway. I’m hoping there will be some shifts further on because this has been frustrating me something awful Moreso than Dag being forced as a critic on Eivor while I’m busy running Eivor around and securing us alliances, and making exactly zero claims at being a Jarl (And I did get a bit spoiled beforehand, so with how the entire Dag situation is supposed to play out? I feel like I’ll be feeling all “sod it, I quit, peace out” by the end but without actual ability to do it. Would have been lovely if there was an option to at least have a talk where you seriously consider joining Hidden Ones but alas) ...This is going to get frustrating won’t it. RPG but not quite. I’d say they should have kept RPG elements at Origins level - at least when it comes to dialogue / personality. Call me spoiled but my basis for good RPG dialogue-pick comes from Bioware’s Star Wars games / Dragon Age series. And those won’t fit into Assassin’s Creed, unless we are talking Alternate Universe / Modern Time line game

[bereft-of-frogs]

is friday. have a list.

reading:

(finished) Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka: Still excellent, still thinking about the ending

(in-progress) The Great Transition - Nick Fuller Goggins: I got this from the person who runs the horror book club I go to. The blurb compared it to Station Eleven, perilously high praise, but I'm weirdly enjoying it. Weirdly because I was afraid the structure would get annoying and weirdly because it's doing a bunch of things I usually find annoying but I'm not annoyed? I think it's because even though there's a lot of social justice themes, it never really feels like the characters are lecturing at the reader. Like there have been some scenes where characters are lecturing other characters - but so far they've all felt like they were more about revealing about the characters and their relationships rather than being like 'see, I know about solidarity, look how good a person I am!' I also really like that the exposition is being given through one of the POV characters (a high school student)'s essays, which have comments from her teacher and the comments are all PERFECT - and sure enough the author's day job is as a teacher. XD

(finished) Light of the Jedi - Charles Soule: still not my favorite, but it does pick up once you get past the first part. I think the narration of that action goes on for a bit too long and doesn't leave much space to take in the characters or setting because so much is happening, one thing after another. But, as I said last week, infinitely better than doomscrolling

(in-progress) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: Ok the thing about Light is that I didn't really care about any of the deaths in it....until this book made me care. I think Gray is just a little bit more adept at character writing, I really started to fall in love with the High Republic and its characters in this book. I am sad though, given I'm probably going to have to skip Midnight Horizon to avoid getting derailed again, this might be where Reath and I part ways. I ended up loving Reath so much! But alas! Midnight Horizon was not my cup of tea, so I will have to say farewell.

(in-progress) Lord of the Rights chapter-a-day reread: Pelennor Fields today. DEAAAATTTHHH!!!!

watching (tv):

(finished) Silo (Apple TV): WHY am I still thinking about that finale?? why was that so good? WHEN is season 2 coming out?

(in-progress, rewatch) Altered Carbon (Netflix): to stop myself from just watching dumb commentary youtube videos while I'm cooking/eating dinner/etc I started rewatching Altered Carbon and damn it's just so good. I'm almost finished with the first season, I know the second is controversial/isn't quite as good but I still enjoyed it so will continue on

I'm in kind of a hangover post-Silo for the show I watch as part of my bedtime routine. I watched 2 episodes of Foundation and precisely 30 minutes of Severance before I fell asleep last night (I was just really tired because a certain Void Creature had me up at 5AM, not Severance's fault), so idk which I'm going to continue on with. Probably Severance, I'll get back to Foundation eventually.

watching (film):

The Strangers (2008): That scene where Liv Tyler is smoking in the kitchen and the intruder is standing unseen in the background is my LITERAL NIGHTMARE.

Hell House LLC II: The Abbadon Hotel (2018) and Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019): This is such a bizarre series because the first is slightly above-average found footage, the fourth is actually surprisingly scary, and the middle two are SUCH hot garbage, but. Completionist. I have seen them all now. The best scene in the third is with the cultists/demons scuttling around and I realized why it makes me laugh, they remind me of the wraiths in What We Do in the Shadows XD

Dune Part 2 (2024) - I SAW DUNE AGAIN IT WAS STILL GOOD. Aside, is Austin Butler in something the Youths (TM) like? Because I only know him from the awful Elvis movie I suffered through last year. The girl selling my ticket was like 'yeah I've seen it twice as an audience member and then I keep going up to the projection room to watch the duel because Austin Butler *heart eyes*' and I was like.....him? Really? Are the kids just horny for Harkonnens? I have questions.

video game update: I'm unstuck on cult of the lamb! I had the run of my life and got past the underwater level, it was great.

craft update: Skein still tangled, don't want to talk about it. But I've finished the short rows on the sweater vest and am onto the repetitive part! The next real milestone will be getting to where it joins the back under the arms, and I no longer have to purl. I can't wait.

weekend list -- just kidding it's a WEEK list because I'm on vacation! (technically I am dogsitting but I'm still taking a week off from work to go hang out with a dog, so that counts as vacation):

focus up to get through the workday. friends, it is 11AM and that is not going well, let me tell you

go for a run

pack / tidy up apartment so I don't come back to wreckage

non-writing things to do while at parents' house:

many walks! dog cuddles!

try out their fancy peloton thing, see what this cult thing is all about

knitting - planning to work on sweater vest, despite the fact that it is black and my parents' dog is so, so yellow... (she's a yellow lab)

laundry. so much laundry. everything that is in my apartment that can be put in a washing machine, is being brought. We've got sheets, we've got towels, bath mats, etc etc. My parents are paying me for dogsitting services in water usage.

read: I'm bringing 3 books I took out of the library yesterday which seems...ambitious...but maybe doable if I-

--don't scroll. seriously. I've blocked so many things, if I can just stick to occasionally checking my tumblr dash and maybe pinterest once in a while, I can get so much else done

writing to-do:

main project: longfic I am tentatively calling 'the station' (probably will change but this is at least better than my last working title which made no sense so I'm keeping it for now), I have 25k in a very rough draft, and am on chapter 2 of 12 in the rewrite (about 8k words). (It's probably going to be much longer than 25k, that was essentially just the self-indulgent scenes that came easily, now I'm doing the hard plot work, connecting scenes, etc, trying to go roughly in order so I don't have to do another full draft.)

start on the final part of 'omens and all kinds of signs': ideally finish a rough draft but we'll see, I have not started it at all, but I know it will feel good to finish it, if I can get some of the pieces together, that would be great

rough draft of the third variation on the tattoo theme (I have...900 words so far)

rough draft of an alternative POV to an already posted fic that's just an excuse to be shamelessly self-indulgent (I have ?? words scribbled in a notebook about it)

[wri0thesley]

Nat, Nat, Nat … regarding the missing voicelines topic 👀 have you noticed or seen anyone point out that Zhongli’s line about there only being two of the original archons left was unaltered? If Rukkhadevata was wiped from his memory like everyone else’s … then Nahida would’ve always been the Dendro archon … so shouldn’t he tell us that there are only three left instead?

(I’ve seen some surprisingly compelling theories that Zhongli is not originally of Teyvat, and tbh I just think that’s so incredibly sexy of him. He’s such an interesting character and I miss him a lot even tho he’s pretty much a permanent fixture on my team 😂 and this little detail really got me thinking)

Wishing you lots and lots of luck on your Yanfei pulls btw! The four stars being harder to get than the fives is possibly the wildest part of the Genshin experience tbh - I recently started playing another gacha (for a boy who looks like bottom coded Zhongli lmaooooo) and the rate at which I’ve been bombarded with the lower ranked characters actually makes me sick. 😂 Even worse is how the constellations can make or break a characters utility. I saw people on twitter talking about how Faruzan is only truly useful as an anemo support at C6 and I just … idk how Mihoyo expects us to live like this.

ooh i read a twitter thread about that and the 'zhongli is a descender/shade of the primordial one' theory just this morning!!! (here is the link for anyone else interested). every day i am waiting for the second part of venti's story quest because i KNOW it will be a massive lore drop, and also because honestly i think he deserves one by now fgbnkjfgjk.

i pulled SO MUCH on the last banner that had sucrose in for her and i didn't get her, just got lucky on one weapon banner ten-pull. i would like, one day, to c6 my kaeya - but alas! four stars are the true frustration of this game. i CANNOT play any more gacha games. my personality is too addictive and completionist. i'm being Reasonably Normal about genshin but another would truly bankrupt me fgbnkjgfn. i wish you much luck on YOUR pulls and rolls in whatever it is you are playing though!!!

[bthearst]

update #2.

NaNoWrimo, BookTwitter, Rejections -- oh my!

THIS IS A LONG ONE.

It's been a doozy of a month with the beginning of the holidays, nighttime knocking on my frosty bedroom window by 4:30pm, and the ongoing decline of the accursed bird app. The days keep coming and they don't stop coming.

Starting off this post with a celebration of the devastating total of 20k words achieved on this year's Nano project. It's only devastating because, as a completionist, seeing goals left unmet is the equivalent of taking 10d6 damage to the soul. Last year saw the birth of The Unbinding, with 50k written in November and another 20k added at the beginning of December to round up its first draft. I thought that with that manuscript currently being queried, I would be able to tackle a fresh new story, and this was my first mistake which turned into a necessary lesson, one I've been fighting for the last three weeks.

You see, The Unbinding is the first project that I have ever seriously committed to publishing through traditional means. I've been writing for upwards of 15 years and it wasn't until summer of 2021 that I came to accept that I could, and should, hold myself to the same esteem that I hold my favorite writers to. This meant that I would be buckling down, rewriting, and revising a story I truly fell in love with. Revising is like pulling teeth for me, so I established myself as a one-and-done type of person from the get-go. Outline and outline well, leave no scene unscrutinized. This meant I had a pretty solid base, an impenetrable one, when I began last year's Nano. So, five drafts in (five!), I decided that this was as good as the manuscript was getting. I called it a day, participated in two whole Twitter pitch events, and sent out my first query batch.

Every writer is different. I've read about writers pitching third drafts, fourth, tenth, twentieth, and landing agents. After all, the amount of revising that goes into a book is never-ending. After all, by the time some agents get back to you, you'll be another two revisions in.

This is hubris speaking. Don't you fucking listen to it.

I set this manuscript aside for three whole months. Had it sent to beta readers go through it while I focused on other things. And it was all well and good until I realized that nothing -- nothing -- that I put down on this year's Nano felt right. Every word felt rushed, wrong, empty, and while yes sometimes this is what it's like to write a first draft, I realized that I just wasn't having fun with it. The story may be good, but I was fighting something else inside my head that I didn't want to acknowledge, and that's that The Unbinding wasn't ready. I was tackling a new project and 'abandoning' something that held me in a vice grip for the better part of ten months.

"But, Mitch," you say, "if it wasn't ready, why the hell did you start querying it?!" One word (Or two, depending on how you look at it.): BookTwitter.

Twitter is the internet's hub for writers trying to break out into the scene. You have your users who post daily prompts for writers to QRT with their nifty little graphics and fun snippets of their epics, promos left and right, follow chains, the whole shebang. It's a place where young authors build a readership based off engagement and the wringing of the algorithm.

I am not a Twitter person. Sure I've been using the app in tandem with Tumblr since 2011, but I've never been savvy at it. Good lord did I try to be savvy though, engaging with said games and graphics but alas, I'm also not a graphic designer so my moodboards weren't as stunning as those WIP spotlights with 200+ notes.

That being said, I plucked a handful of books during my year-long foray into that side of the internet. It's a great platform to find diverse books by diverse authors, but it's also a place that is oversaturated with everything. Advice from querying writers, authors prepping for their debuts, agents searching for manuscripts, all going by at rapid speeds. The dreaded "this is what's selling so if you want to sell your manuscript you need to jump on it RIGHT NOW or else you'll miss your window".

So I did. Queer Gothics are in right now, I saw an opportunity, and I took it. Even when the story felt like it needed work, I went for it. I wanted to be in with the cool kids, wanted to make friends with all these hip zoomers clawing their way into tradpub. I focused so much on it that I lost sight of what truly mattered-- writing the story I need to write. Writing is rewriting, after all. I wasn't sick and tired of looking at this manuscript. In fact, I was still excited to work on it, make it into the best thing it could possibly be.

Since the whole Musky Man debacle started going down, I decided to simply cut back on my Twitter usage. It was making me miserable for a variety of reasons, but mainly because it isn't just for writing or the laughs. There's no way to curate that damn place, so one tweet will be about this cool new book that I would want to preorder and the next is about mass shootings and the government sanctioned genocide of trans people. As a trans QPOC, I literally cannot continue to split what little brain power I can spare towards creativity between doomscrolling and trying to squeeze myself into zoomer spaces.

I'm a writer. A cave-dwelling hermit. I am not designed to market myself, I do not have an algorithm-based software in my brain that enables me to build engagement, to grow my follower number on Twitter so that when agents ask me to link my profile on their query tracker submissions they can look at it and go "oh yes we can get a best-seller upon launch on these numbers alone!" It's exhausting. I'm an adult who's constantly fighting for their life, to make ends meet, to keep a roof over my head, to not spiral into depression every time I see another gut-wrenching article. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to blast on social media while also trying to write a damn book.

Shit's fucked, lads. I wish I had an answer to this. I don't. All I can do is step away, recalibrate, buckle down on creating, and start swinging again.

In short, The Unbinding is facing a major rewrite. Restructuring the plot for many a reason. Of the ten queries I sent out, I've gotten three rejections, and the jury's still out on the other seven.

I'm actually not discouraged by said rejections, either. There's this feeling of accomplishment that comes with every one I receive, an opportunity to learn, the understanding that I'm here, that I've done it, that I have something to put out in the world. It's daunting, terrifying, exhausting, but goddamn am I enjoying the ride. With any luck I won't get any full manuscript requests now that I've decided to go back in, but if it does happen, I'll just be completely honest with them.

I'm also fairly certain that my query packet was a hot fucking mess because I'm not joking when I say I have no idea what I'm doing. Beta readers? Critiques? Nah. I'm rawdogging this shit (for now).

BUT ALL OF THIS ASIDE---

The Wilds (first longer-ish play) has been workshopped and is currently in its second draft. What was meant to be a one-act has grown to a considerable length, but we're going with the flow and seeing where it takes us.

The Untitled Folk Horror story is still in the pre-drafting stage. I'm knee-deep in research, found some good sources while learning that my researcher badge on campus has finally been revoked thanks to me graduating last May, so things are getting a little harder to find. Who knew it would be this hard to find anything about a colonized culture from its own people rather than their colonizers, especially when two whole powers did their best to destroy everything during their invasions? Hurr.

So yeah. This concludes this very long post. Went to the library today to pick up a book I had placed on hold, ended up walking out with three whole books. Said book is What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, and depending on if the mood strikes, I'll write a little review on it on here!

Cheers.

[so2voice]

Possible project list ramblings

Stories I'd like to podfic:

What else is there? By ForgottenVice It has always been you by ULTIOcean hey, share the weight a little by Tossawary A Child Once by Tossawary Scum Villain AUs by Feynite [Ch 23 Stardew/harvest moon; Ch 34-35 Free Guy]

ForgottenVice's What else is there? made me all kinds of happy to read. The 1994 animated film of the Swan Princess was probably one of my absolute favorite movies growing up, so I have a soft spot for Swan Princess fandom adaptations. I honestly can't remember if I've asked permission to do this one yet, so we'll probably drop a comment on the fic at some point soon because I do think I'd like to podfic this one.

So far, I have the blessing for ULTIOcean's fic, It has always been you (which I adored reading while it was being posted). I am beyond grateful for the permission. It is, however... an intimidating sized story (361,825 words!) and over 3 times the size of anything I've done as of yet. This project, if I decide to tackle it, will likely take many, many hours over many, many weeks (months? years?) to complete. That knowledge alone is pretty daunting! ULTIOcean, your fic is a behemoth! ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚

Why Tossawary's fics? Well, besides the fact that everything I've read by Tossawary has been adorable and heartwarming, I've been told my SQH voice is uniquely good? Either way, I'd love an opportunity to exercise that character voice. He's fun to do. I've asked Tossawary for their blessing, so, we'll see?

As for Feynite's Scum Villain AUs - these are more of a pipe dream. I adore the Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon games (150+ hrs spent on Stardew alone, ah, woops?). They're so relaxing and low pressure. I also absolutely loved the Free Guy chapters Feynite wrote. Alas, I have two basic rules for stories I will podfic and I don't think these will ever meet either of those requirements.

My rules, in case you are wondering: 1. The fic must be a completed work (or a completed part of a work). 2. I want author's explicit permission to narrate their story.

• Why the fic needs to be complete? I don't want to start something and stop in the middle. I'm a completionist. If I start something I want to finish it. Also, I don't want there to be a big gap between recordings. Life circumstances change. The sound might suddenly change drastically between an earlier recording and a later one. I at least want the sound to be relatively consistent within a story/work.

• Why do I want author permission? So, yeah, I know a lot of the big-name authors (looking at you, Feynite, you magnificent writer, you) have notes in their profiles giving blanket permission for other creators to make sequels, inspired stories, or podfics of their works, etc - still, I really prefer permission from the author before I start a project like this.

This gives the author the opportunity to tell me if they know whether someone else might be working on one of their stories. I don't want to podfic something someone else might already be working on. For me, at least, the time commitment for a project is pretty huge. I'm not interested in doubling up on content. The idea of "version comparisons" gives me far too much anxiety.

It also gives the author an opportunity to tell me if they want something stated or worded in a particular way when I'm giving credit.

This rule might change if my feelings shift on this - but for now, I'd like an author's expressed permission to narrate their works.

[dashawfrostart]

This Week In "Time & Again" #21: The Storyboard Is Done! The Further Adventure Awaits

So far - and that is indeed final for my paper sketching - the storyboard of Chapter 6 consists of 54 pages. Of course, not counting any framing material such as the cover arts as well as any bonus materials, it's roughly 20 pages longer than Chapter 3 that's been the biggest chapter up to this day.

This is massive, let me tell you. Especially massive when remembered that it's done virtually by one person alone.

Since my plan is so grand, and, unfortunately, there are no reliably working AI tools that might've sped up the colouring and/or sketching for the final product, AND with the progress hindering factors such as life outside art 🤣, the work might sprawl out within time and space. I am ready for it. Alles ist gewiß in Ordnung. I am very well aware of the amount of work that lies ahead of me, and I will not cancel my plans because of any possible oversights (because I have none 😁). As I said before, I am very committed, and no less determined.

What I am aiming at doing however is to try and shrink it to no more than 50 pages (which will make approximately 25 pages per part, for Chapter 6, just as Chapter 3, will be also split into two parts). That will be done through trial and error and perfection of the panel placement on every page. This is gonna be a headache - but it will be very well worth it 😁. Time for me to explore the new horizons after all - that's something I was willing to do for a long time. Now even stronger than before.

I foresee Chapter 6 to be a slap in the face, a hit with a frying pan, a loud squeak of a kazoo right into one's ear. It should be - and will be if done right (and I already put A LOT of thought into how to execute it properly!) - one of the most remarkable chapters of "Time & Again". It's been like that in my mind ever since I wrote the draft for the chapter. It's a daring experiment - and of course and selbstverständlich - it's not gonna be for everyone. It will not become your average comic read for your average relaxing after-work comic reading evening 😁

I've never talked about it before, but I always sketch the storyboard prior my work on the panels arrangement page by page in Inkscape, because I want to see the full picture and how the story unfolds as a whole. One could call it a rough draft of the entire chapter. Once I'm satisfied with my approximate storyboard sketch, I start to work on transferring my sketched ideas to Inkscape page by page, to create mock-ups as well as final arrangements. Of course, as I keep working on it, the things might get altered and/or swapped.

There are currently two primary objectives on my list of artistic things to work on for "Time & Again".

The first one is, of course, just keeping up working on the chapter itself. Since the storyboard is done, I will get to the panel and text arrangement as soon as my editor-in-chef returns back to me. Right on.

The second objective is revolved around a certain real life event that I am 85% prepared for already. Unfortunately, that objective includes a series of side quests that are advised to be completed in order to get the "total completionist" medal. Earlier I was thinking about releasing the "Clean Cut Editions" of all the previous chapters by the end of summer - but alas, trying to balance out all the activities, with the amount of work on Chapter 6 as well as some real life endeavours, I simply don't have time to finish it all up until the end of August. It's in my best interest though to prepare it by mid-October. Which clashes with my primary objective to work on Chapter 6 - and that chapter is already a witch's brew by default, let me tell you!.. But I'm trying to juggle with my time and resources as best as I could, so I foresee myself coming up with certain resolutions.

Check back often: a very exciting announcement is about to happen soon 😉

In the meantime, while my editor-in-chef is still working on ridding my script of shameful typos that I might've missed due to having to re-read and meticulously refine the same parts of the text 50 times in total until my focus and brain are both a mush, I will most likely start working on the cover artworks and promo arts. And the cover arts will contain references to a certain famous franchise that the readers with highly inquisitive minds have, indubitably, already noticed the hints at earlier 😉 (dammit internet, I cannot find the screenshots from neither Bloodborne or Dark Souls games that say "inquisitiveness ahead" although we've seen them numerous times when playing)

P.S. ... suddenly, it finally hit me: Oktoberfest is nearing. Which makes me wonder why, throughout all these years that I've spent with Lothar's presence in my life, I have never ever - not a single time, not once - drawn him all dressed up and excited about that traditional German festivity. Instead, for some reason I've grown really accustomed to drawing him Halloween-style numerous times. I even had an old artwork portraying him wearing a skeleton onesie in the company of Freia and Fjolvarr... which is very odd for him to say the least (not odd though considering how much I love mocking at that individual, because he deserves that, imo). Perhaps, the answer to that question lies ahead of us in Chapter 6, for it will shed light on Lothar's past and his peculiar relationship with his motherland. But canon or non-canon - I think that still might be a fun idea to draw something Oktoberfest oriented one of these years 😁🍻

P.P.S. Here, I did it: I made a new post within a reasonable timeframe. Das ist einfach schön ^.^ Now... only gotta post more artworks before this blog turns into a "text-only" endeavour 😅

[btsmosphere]

2022 Writing Roundup

Tagged by @here4theheartbreak forever ago!! I’ve had this sitting in my drafts for a bit but only getting it up now because I just couldn’t come up with answers for some sections, but since I have some I wanted to post it anyway! It’s always nice to look back on the year😊

Fandom: bts

Total fics: 11

Total words: 43,143 note: I only included word counts of what I published because I am lazy :)) I have written some wips this year that have yet to see the light of day, but some of them have been going since 2021 and I cba to try and figure it all out

~Favourite Things~

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. Why? This has got to be Still Waters Run Deep, written for the ghibli collab this year. It’s a only fic I really got my teeth into this year, while a lot of my other work was quite short. Not that that’s a bad thing, but Still Waters felt like much more a labour of love for the fact I pushed it longer than I intended, and it’s still something I enjoy reading!

Top 4 current WIPs - if anyone’s been paying attention to my blog, you’ll have heard a lot about certain wips, which still haven’t made it out and I’m sorry! Here they are:

Supercharged is the big one - and by big I mean it!! This is the longest thing I’ve ever written as it stands and it’s still not finished! Started in 2021 and still persevering, this is a Jungkook x reader enemies to lovers with superheroes, villains and all the trimmings! Highway to You drabbles (I’m grouping this into one here) - I have more in the works for my Highway to You universe (2 stories are already out), which I’m very excited for. It’s a Yoongi x reader mafia au, childhood friends to lovers and stuffed with my fave hurt/comfort Sunken Heart - another story that’s been kicking around since the dawn of time, demigod!Namjoon x royalty!reader mythology au set in atlantis. I promise I haven’t forgotten this one! Autumn drabbles - I had a great time writing 3 bullet fics for 3 hyungs this autumn, and I planned one for every member, so maybe you’ll see those this fall!

Favorite Line - I have a few lines that make me smile this year, but I’m gonna pick the most dramatic one haha: Lightning washed the nightmare in white. - from Still Waters Run Deep. I liked it when I wrote it, but I appreciated it even more when I was reading this part to my bf and he paused at that sentence to tell me how effective he thought it was!

~Question and Answer Time~

Top 2 Resolutions for 2023

Hmm, actually write? I’ve had big chunks away from writing in 2022 and while that’s okay, and breaks can be helpful, mostly these were not. I wanted to write, just never got down to it. When I took part in a november writing goal event, I loved it! just getting myself motivated without that is a challenge Start daydreaming again! In line with my first resolution, I think this is a way to get me motivated. I still daydream of course, but it has shifted to some other fandoms, and while I still love bts, I don’t have their stories on my mind all the time, even though they are stories I like. When I start dreaming up scenes, the need to write them follows, and it’s fun besides :)

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than, or about what was expected? Why? I can’t say I really had any expectations, but I have to say less than what I expected. I had been tailing off but I thought I might naturally swing back up again in terms of writing, but alas.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? How was it? I haven’t really done anything on this blog that I couldn’t have predicted.. maybe the bullet fic series? I usually am a bit of a completionist but I found the bullet fics gave me some freedom when working from just a concept/aesthetic, as I did in my autumn drabbles. It was a refreshing change to write! Oh, and they were all in present tense? took a while to get used to and a while to switch back, but it fit the ~vibe~ in terms of other differences, I’ve written a few things behind the scenes for new fandoms, but that’s just for my personal enjoyment at the moment :)

What’s your most popular story with readers?

Heaven’s Open - 534 Number 45 - 178 Won’t Tell - 170 Ride or Die - 139 Still Waters Run Deep - 124 The Web part 6 - 121 Say it with Flour - 94 Autumn with Namjoon - 78 Autumn with Hobi - 58 Autumn with Jin - 36 Trade my Life - 10 (at time of writing, notes are probably a bit different as of posting date)

The magic of Jungkook wins out this year with 534 notes on Heaven’s Open!

What was your most productive days/day of the week/month, etc in terms of writing? October and November! In October I got inspired again by the season and I was buzzing to create again, I started with the seasonal drabbles and then in November I took part in the BTS Writers’ Club’s wrimo challenge, where I wrote something every day! I only posted one fic off the back of that but I wrote over 10k words that month, mostly behind the scenes with longer wips :))

~ Fics Written in 2022~

In chronological order of posting

The Web (part 6) - Jimin x reader You made it out of the web, mostly whole. But will you be able to overcome the damage done to you and your family?

Say it with Flour - Namjoon x reader This had always been a bad idea. You, notorious for kitchen disasters, attending a cooking class. Maybe it could be what you needed to fix your terrible cooking skills - or maybe you could meet someone who makes it so much worse!

Won’t Tell - Jin x reader You aren’t the only one sneaking out at night at hogwarts. In fact, it appears to be a popular pastime - shame it also happens to be extremely banned. Oh well, he won’t tell if you won’t…

Number 45 - Namjoon x reader The man at number 45 becomes the highlight of your shift… Five times you delivered something to Namjoon, and one time he gave something back to you!

Still Waters Run Deep - Taehyung x reader down at the riverbank is a boy whose eyes hold each swell of the waves, whose hair ruffles like the reeds. but the peaceful magic of the river may become your only sanctuary when wilder forces come into play

Heaven’s Open - Jungkook x reader it’s never a good time for the heavens to open, trapping you to wait out the storm. but your own piece of heaven is stuck right there with you - maybe the rainclouds will shed some light on the cold front that has formed between you and Jungkook

autumn with: hobi - “are you cold?” - college au ft. apple picking, chasing leaves, wearing each other’s clothes

autumn with: namjoon -  “you kept this?” - established relationship ft. a carnival, getting lost in a good book, a kiss for good luck

autumn with: jin -  “I hate you - I love you too” - childhood friends au ft. a graveyard, a thunderstorm and seokjin’s sweater paws

Ride or Die - Yoongi x reader yoongi isn’t sure when he became so accustomed to your ineffably cheery presence. until he sees that innocence crack, he hadn’t realised how far he would go to keep it there.

Trade my Life - Jin x reader once, you were just two children giggling in the corner of the dojang, trading equally in punches and hugs, everything a game. but that was long ago, and now that man stands day after day outside the door which separates your two worlds. is the throne really worth leaving the barrier unbroken?

[artpastmidnight]

whumptober2021 ー no.31(prisoner)

*please click on the image if it’s blurry* Please DO NOT USE/EDIT/REPOST. Likes/REBLOGS are ALWAYS appreciated🖤

[girlucifer]

obsessed with noelle & susie's relationship. with simeon & lucifer, i always wanted them to be like [hates each other viscerally except for those moments alone while the two stand idly on the balcony and look up at the stars that twinkle far above their heads and the world almost stops when the two meet gazes and their hearts thump in their chests and they aren't sure what to think anymore, all that they know is each other's names that fit so perfectly on their lips, almost like a wave of nostalgia that washes over them where the two are thrown back into time when they were the best of friends, best of lovers] OR maybe lucifer -> super obvious with his little crush on the angel vs simeon -> why is he staring at me like that. whatever. what's mc doing i wonder? ❤

[lorenzobane]

What spring does to cherry trees

"You know, Ga-- Elim," Julian says. They're lying in bed- one of hundreds of trysts, but this was different. This one, or so Elim had been told, portends extensions. Consequences.

"There was an Earth writer, Katheryn Schutlz, who wrote upon meeting her wife that her wholeness, her completeness as a person was what made her fall in love."

"Is that so? Normally earth writers are so preoccupied with writing love as a completionist exercise."

Julian chuckles but runs a gentle hand over Elim's cheek. Elim's not sure he has ever felt as seen in his life. Open, willing to love the man in his bed. Eager to learn how the kaleidoscope mind next to him viewed the cosmos.

"No, she argues that love is curious. It's eager to learn how the mind of a beloved partner works. And that love, a real one, isn't concerned with creating a partner's mind that fits them but rather focuses on the remarkable ways that they are similar and different to you. The way that mind can keep yours awake.”

"Hmm," Elim says, dodging a response.

"Yes, and she highlights how important growing, learning, and unlearning the way a person is a mystery to you is, in some part, the definition of love."

"I have often argued that human romances, especially of the pre-Federation period, were unusually prone to make love a cure or solution. Not for anything patriotic, but rather to fulfill some... neurotic sense of the alleged self. They seemed to wish that somehow a partner could, alone… create a separate context. So, I thank you."

Julian laughs again, his face splitting into a wide, fond smile. "Yes, you have. But alas, I fear you've missed the context of the conversation. What I mean to say is, I guess... What I'm saying is that I am attracted to your wholeness. I don't know if I ever understood her until now."

(I love you,” Julian says and Elim finally understands.)

"Oh?"

"Yes," Julian says, soft and slow. And then finishes with a sweetly erotic whisper of, “I want/ to do with you what spring does to the cherry trees."

Elim doesn't know what cherry means, but he gets the impression. His body flushes a vibrant blue when he quotes back. "The blue joy/ of the kana plant blooms for you."

(Subtext: I love you too.)

Julian’s smile, tender and expansive, spreads across his face.

And, even though they rarely came to the same answers, Elim is reminded of the joy, the love, and the loyalty of asking the same questions.

[imanes]

Hilo my lovely miss imane ! I know you get a lot of book related asks so you may feel free to ignore this if it’s something youve been asked before ✨ anyways the gist is: i hve been depressed n burnt out for years n i miss reading (for leisure) so much. I have been trying to get into more reading for the past few months but alas... the depression has uhhh Destroyed much of my cognitive capacities. So i was wondering if you had any recs on some short but simple and enjoyable (fiction) books to read to help me build back my focus concentration etc etc. Ive scoured through a lot of online rec lists but somehow so many of the short books that people recommend require so much brain power (or at least... to Me it feels like they need a lot of brain power to read). sjdhfhd idk if any of this makes sense but honestly i trust ur judgement so any recs u give i will truly appreciate! Hope you have a lovely weekend <3

hi babe! sorry i answered this in my head as soon as i saw it but then forgot to actually physically answer it lol bad habit BUT my number one go to books that always get people out of their extended reading slumps is the kate daniels series by ilona andrews which is an urban fantasy series that is significantly less corny than a lot of its contemporaries lmao. there are 10 books which can be a bit daunting but they're soooo quick to read and so enjoyable. it's perfect to build back focus as well bc the first couple of books are very straightforward and don't require a lot of mental bandwidth as far as understanding what's going on is concerned. someone in the past asked me on here the same question and i gave them this exact recommendation and fast forward a couple of weeks later they were DEEP into the series so this recommendation is tried and true. i hope u give this a try and let me know if it worked for you <3 the first week is only so-so and you can start at the second book to be honest, i only re-read the first book bc i am a completionist and for nostalgia's sake but there's a huge recap at the beginning of book two as well as a big jump in quality in terms of plotting pacing and writing so there's that to take into account. once again sorry for the delayed reply and have a lovely rest of the week <3

[veliseraptor]

Which Assassin's Creed are you up to? I've never personally played the franchise (not my gaming style), but I am a huge fan of watching my husband play and really love the games. My favorite is Odyssey (Alexios is a gem!), though Black Flag is also wonderful! Wishing you many happy pillagings!

I am currently playing Black Flag and very much enjoying it! Though my rational self is like “c’mon Lise do we really have to finish everything on all of these locations” the answer is yes, who are we kidding, this is just manageable enough that I’m going to be a completionist about it.

I am already being like “where female protagonist though” and I know it’s a long way until I get one of those. alas. :(

but I’m having a lot of fun! like, more than I would’ve expected, all things considered - it’s not really my usual gaming style either.