#i think i probably won't be able to keep up with scheduled weekly updates like before but it will keep updating for sure!!

[otaku553]

Fire (Part 2)

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(Spade Pirate Sabo AU Masterpost)

And that is!! 18 of 18 pages!! It's this long because I didn't want to break up their fight. I hope you enjoy :)

I had to rewrite their fight like,,, 3 times lmao. I'm not very good at writing fights because I'm Incredibly Passive Aggressive and Very Non Confrontational. Thankfully my partner helped me out a bit with making the escalation feel natural, so hopefully their grievances and motivations read well. In the end, both of them are starving probably-emotionally-stunted teenage boys in a high-stress situation, and Tage is being faced constantly with one of the biggest sources of his trauma that he doesn't even remember-- of course he's going to lash out.

Fun thing I learned this time around, if I struggle with planning a chapter, it can kind of help to write it out in prose like I would a fanfic, and then translate it to comic form. This is how I eventually ended up with 18 pages of comic,,, because I can't really estimate how much I'll need to draw when I'm writing in prose. In turn, this did help a lot with adding more natural behaviors between dialogue, like Tage tapping his finger to fidget while crossing his arm, or all of their pointing and gesturing while they're arguing.

[whipped-for-kpop-fics]

Seventeen with an s/o that writes/produces songs? The s/o could be like a very famous one! for example: when fans see their name is in the credits of a song (kpop or even western music, cus why not be a global phenomenon 🤷🏽‍♀️) they already know it’s gonna be so good since they have a history of making amazing music, iykiwm?

THANK YOU SO MUCH! Also I love your work, you’re so talented and you always put stuff out so quickly but to the highest quality it’s quite mind blowing. ilysm!! 💗

🎶Who; Seventeen (individually) x reader, with a focus on Jihoon at the end 🎶What; headcanon, idol/producer au 🎶Wordcount; 570-ish 🎶Warnings; none, I don't think

-2024 Masterlist-

A/N - I'm not sure how to do individual reactions for this because I'm pretty sure they'd all be pretty similar so I don't want to be repetitive, so I'll write a general thought and any extra bits for those who may have an individual line of thought. Sorry it's taken a little while to write too, I really couldn't figure out how to write this so I hope this is okay. Thank you for the suggestion and I hope you like it

Also omg you're so sweet omg, that's genuinely one of the nicest comments I've ever had about my writing! Being told my writing is high quality feels insane in the best of ways! Thank you for saying that! I really appreciate it 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

He will love it if you're in the same industry as him, especially if you're well known because you'll know exactly what it's like to be him; the busy schedules and little privacy with people always trying to have a view into your personal lives. So you'll be able to bond over that from day one.

The biggest hype man for his partner; they won't all cheer the loudest at award shows because obviously, some of them are much too introverted for that but they will all shower you with praise for every award you win. But even if he doesn't cheer the loudest, he will all do his utmost to share every single new release you've worked on, sometimes his social media accounts will seem more like a fan accounts for you but it's very sweet and cute so the fans don't really mind.

Of course, it's not all fun times. What with how busy you both are, it's genuinely really hard to find time to be together so unless you move in together, you probably might not even see each other on a weekly basis. Though even if you live together, your conflicting schedules will probably make it hard to be awake at the same time so most of your quality time together is spent asleep.

So long as you both try to make space for each other in your hectic schedules and try and have a phone/video call every single day and send update/random messages to one another throughout the day when possible, you'll be fine.

Now, of course, I have to do a special shout-out to Jihoon, producer-songwriter extraordinaire. If anyone will understand how much he works, it's you. But the funniest thing is, he's actually the one I think will be able to handle all this the easiest.

Because I have this very vivid of Jihoon in his studio working away with his headphones on and his phone propped up in the matching stands you have in your own studios, your face on his screen showing you doing the exact same thing in your own studio. You can't hear each other and honestly, the calls are muted at both ends so even if it wasn't for your headphones, you wouldn't be able to hear one another, but just being able to glance down and see the other diligently working on the next chart-topper gives you both the energy to keep going. Every now and then, one of you will remove your headphones so the other will notice the movement and look at the screen to copy & unmute the call to hear whatever the other has to say. It's often asking the other's opinion on the track being worked on. Or one of you saying you need to go so the call needs to end. Though sometimes, Jihoon will subtly free one of his ears from his noise-cancelling headphones and unmute the call just so he can hear the tapping of you working away mixed with the random pieces of speech when you mumble to yourself as you work. You may not be paying him any attention at this point and he times it purposely so you never know he does it, but it fills his chest with happy warmth, and then he'll remute the call, fix his headphones and get back to work with a content little smile on his face.

[o-wyrmlight]

I haven't worked on A Toast to the Pigs very much.

There's a couple of reasons for that: Writers' block from not knowing how to proceed; the exhaustion and burnout of keeping up with the weekly updates; impostor's syndrome for how I write Kim's perspective; the fact that I haven't really read through what I've published of Toast for a good, long while; the hyperfixation I've had for Disco Elysium kind of fading to a certain extent; the prevalent issues that I've noticed in my writing style that I really, really want to work on improving. And don't even try to tell me that there aren't any. I know there are some rather egregious issues.

All of those combined makes it difficult to make me want to touch Toast in the first place, and there's a certain degree of shame that comes with that knowledge. And when I do want to work on Toast, I have such a hard time getting into the mindset of when I worked on it to such an extreme that it practically monopolized my time, just because it's been so long since I last touched it.

I recently tried re-reading it and I couldn't help how, despite how proud I was, something in my chest just kept periodically cringing, and I do know why: It could have been so much shorter. So much briefer. It's no wonder that it monopolized so much of my time in the weeks and months that I'd been publishing it; it's no wonder that I got so burnt out from it. 144,000 words over 15 chapters is not a normal, sustainable pace to keep, and there's so much excess fat and prose that could've been cut down to trim it up and make it neater. Not to say that I'm going to go back and cut down the already-published chapters, but currently, that's the big issue that I see with my writing: I need to learn to keep it brief, and I need to learn to identify what parts of the story would benefit from extrapolation and which parts won't.

I do want to finish Toast--very, very badly. I want to have a finished multi-chapter fic under my belt for once instead of leaving it not even half-finished. I'm just having such a difficult time nudging my brain in the direction to actually work on newer chapters. I've lost a lot of threads that I need to pick up and untangle, especially if I want to come out of it with something that's consistent and good. I know it's fanfiction--we do this for fun, we're all having fun here--but I want it to be good and cohesive, because that's just what I enjoy.

I love that people are still able to read it and love it even if they don't think that it'll ever be updated again. I love the comments that I've gotten so far and I love all of the fanart that I've gotten, too. I don't like this shame of leaving things abandoned, even if I can still appreciate the joy that old fandoms gave me for the time that I participated in them. I appreciate the story, I appreciate the fandom, and I appreciate you. I really want Toast to be a story that we can all be proud of.

So I'll keep working on Toast. I have Chapter 16 finished--more or less, in my old writing style, and I'm undecided if there are a couple of characterization changes that I want to make with it. So far, it's the only one that's 'done'. I'm undecided if I should keep it unpublished until I finish Day 2--as I said I wouldn't start updating until Day 2 was completely finished--or if I should dedicate my time to finishing the rest of Day 2 first. I'll probably drop a poll in a few days, see what y'all's opinion of the matter is.

Despite how exhausting it was to keep up with, having a schedule really did help me focus and push me to put my best foot forward to keep up with updates. Whenever I do start updating Toast again, I'll probably extend those deadlines to once every fortnight (every other week). I can't guarantee that regular updates will be anytime soon, but, well. It is what it is.

In the meantime, I'll be working on a Wattpad cover to crosspost A Toast to the Pigs, because that's something I've really been wanting to do for the past couple of months for some reason. I'll see you then.

[walkingstackofbooks]

What's the ideal length of a fanfic chapter?

I am at least a few weeks out from finishing my fic, but I'm just thinking ahead to how I want to put it up

It's a 5+1 fic, so has automatically got 6 chapters. (Julian is stuck for six consecutive days in a timeloop.) Originally, I was just going to post 1 chapter every week as I edited it, but while Chapter 1 is a friendly 3,500 words, Chapters 2 and 3 are both just over the 10,000 word mark, and I'm only halfway through Chapter 4 but it's shaping up to be at least 15,000, somehow!

So my options are:

The Original Plan

I aim to publish one 10k+ word chapter each week.

Pros: It's as intended, each "day" of the story happens in full, within its own chapter. Good if you like long updates?

Cons: Since I don't *actually* know how long editing will take, I might not be able to keep to a weekly schedule and timings may vary. Pretty lengthy chapters.

Plan 2:

I cut each of the original chapters in half for publishing, and either:

2a - I aim to publish two 5k+ word chapters each week.

Pros: It's still mostly as intended, each "day" gets published in full, just in two parts. Shorter chapters

Cons: Timings may vary again, since it's a lot to edit in a week. The story is split up slightly arbitrarily.

2b - I publish one 5k+ word chapter each week (cutting the original chapters in half)

Pros: I should be able to stick to the weekly schedule for sure. Shorter chapters

Cons: Each "day" of the story is cut in half, probably at a somewhat arbitrary point. 1/2 of Chapter 4 is still going to be 7-9k in length 😅

Plan 3

I publish one or two 3-6k word chapters each week. I'd think of the story as one long tale rather than as The Six Days and split up the current chapters into smaller ones at places I feel are suitable.

Pros: Shorter, more even, chapters. Better pacing Being able to stick to a weekly schedule (and possibly an extra chapter every so often)

Cons: Completely abandoning the 5+1 structure Story won't be told as intended

[rosescries]

oof that sucks may I ask why you r having a hiatus. Did I miss an update or announcement

Yeah, I made a note about on here I think.

But the long and short of it is that I was getting very low on chapters to publish. So I couldn't keep up with my weekly update schedule, and I still can't thanks to that whole not being able to write since January.

No motivation or time or energy makes for no writing. I'm having ideas (mostly original) but just... couldn't word when I got on my computer.

I have been able to write a little bit the past two days with this new interest! Nothing completed, but it's something. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things, but it probably won't be for a long while.

And under the cut for job related stress things that are likely major contributors to the problem. Which is very >:(

I have never experienced just highs and lows in my moods since... well never. Even my moods when I was dealing with the whole house situation weren't this bad. Extreme good moods that'll plummet into extreme bad moods. Multiple times I've had to keep myself from crying on shift.

And it's not even because of anybody. Everyone's rather nice (to my face) and I've only gotten one or two bad customers (which were just passive aggressive at the most). The shifts aren't bad, I'm mostly working 3-8. Management isn't bad either, accommodating and encouraging.

But damn it's just not okay. I constantly feel like I'm gonna throw up and I'm like instantly tired the minute I step behind the counter. It's fucking awful.

And just a little gripe that nothing can help, but I hate how busy it makes me feel. I feel like I have no time for anything else and the weeks are just going by so damn fast. And I have issues with time management to begin with, two months can feel like a week and two seconds can feel like a month. I hate it.

My family isn't helping anything either. Any time I try to talk about it, all I get is "well, you need a job so get over it." Which is not helpful and if anything makes me feel even shittier than before. My oh so supportive brother has also joked that he's going to disown me if I quite. But I won't survive a holiday rush. I get three people waiting in line and I start getting panicked sweats. A Thanksgiving or Christmas rush is gonna kill me.

[yoiku]

Just some thoughts and wonderings about my comic project under the cut. Comments and thoughts are very welcome if you might have any!

Now that I've finished the first sketchbook of comic draft (119pages), scanned all of them and sorted them into chapters... I'm thinking a lot about what kind of update frequency and page amount I should be going for. All I know is that as a start I want to post the entire starting chapter (15pages) so people can get an idea of what's it going to be like. Maybe I'll figure out a suitable pace once I've digitized/drawn clean a small amount of pages, to see what kind of pace I can draw them with in general. (I'm sure it'll get faster once I get used to the layout and tools and all that.) But I'm still wondering what kind of chunks should I update with to have a good "rhytmn" so to say, so that it doesn't feel like it's updating too few pages at a time and people would feel like it's difficult to stay on top of the story over time. That is to say, people like to read (web)comics differently anyway, some won't bother to check small updates weekly/biweekly etc, and will rather come back to read when there's been a bigger chunk of new pages. So far my chapters seem to be around 20 pages, with few being 30-40... Would be cool to be able to update a whole chapter/month and the larger ones bi-monthly... But I don't think I could keep up a pace like that, esp with the latter chapters that will have huge amount of backgrounds to be drawn. So I'm pretty sure I have to go with smaller chunks. Personally i feel like 2-3 pages/week seems doable, but I also feel like that's not very fitting with how the pace of the comic is. So maybe 4-6pages biweekly would be better...? I will of course have a longer break every now and then so I can keep up with the draft and allow myself proper breaks too, but generally I would reaaaally like to do my best to keep up at least somewhat of a steady pace >_< I know I work better with structure and clear plans, but I'm also absolutely terrible at keeping any routines and schedules of my own making.(And nobody can predict artblocks or depressive episodes q_q)

I've also struggled over trying to figure out the name/title for the whole thing for a few months now. I've browsed thesaurus for words and their meanings so much with no real progress x_x

And another topic of many questions has been I will I publish it. Am I just going to make a site of my own for it that I can fully manage myself (shitton of extra work tho and probably some costs...) Am I going to publish it on something like Tapas.io and maybe be able to make some ad revenue money on the side? Am I going to start a patreon to publish it on? (would definitely turn away people even if it's 1$/month to get access to it)

Another thing that definitely throws some sticks in the gears about the publishing bit is that I'm planning on having the spicy bits of the comic be optional. So people who aren't interested in reading sexual content can skip the spicy bits without it making too big of a difference in the depth of the story. Vast majority of it is fluff after all. Buuuut. The spicy bits. Part of me really wants to put those behind a small paywall like patreon, because boy would I need some extra monies and boy do I know that people who are into spicy content are often willing to pay for it too if it hits their interests. But this whole separation of parts in the chapters will make it difficult or weird to try and publish on places like Tapas etc, that have separate sections for PG/adult rated comics. Also if I'd simply publish it as an adult one and it will be 80% fluff... I think people who search for spicy comics will keep interest in it - meanwhile it would also not find the audience that will never even search through the adult section. If I published through my own site via, say... squarespace, I could throw a link to patreon or such at the point where the spicy chapters would be...? OR I could just upload all of it with the spicy bits and just put in clear a clear warning and option to skip past the spicy bit for those uninterested. + I could do the thing that public uploads are slower but you can access new pages earlier through Patreon. This would make it optional for everyone which would be the... kindest choice I feel, while still giving me the possibility of making some few monies perhaps. (one can hope eh)

I'm also thinking about putting other illustrations and content through the "patreon timegate" that many artists do -peeps who want to see content earlier/access some extra content can pay for it if they want. I don't think I could do enough content for a patreon to keep it interesting enough if I wasn't working on the comic. So that whole things is still a big question mark as well.

Many big think. Brain heavy.

[fluentlanguage]

#clearthelist October 2018: I Went To Wales And You Won't Believe This Crazy Language I Spoke There

It’s time again for my language learning update with #clearthelist, the monthly language learning round-up sharing language learning goals, support, and accountability.

What Happened In September?

After all the summer’s travels, it was nice to spend a consistent bunch of weeks at home. I got back into my usual language routine — only to the extent that that routine actually exists! I’m not a “1 hour at this time every day” kind of person. In fact that kind of schedule would drive me crazy, so instead I focused on the goals for the month and making sure I maintain that daily contact level.

All in all, a good month for language! Plus, I’ve now started meeting on a weekly basis with Lindsay and Shannon again because we’re putting on a Women in Language sister event in November. Make sure you’re on the Women in Language list to stay up to date!

In other activities, the month was full up with promo, planning and bookings for the next Fluent German Retreat, which will be Christmas themed in December. I. Cannot. WAIT!!!

Travel in Wales: Is Welsh Useless After All?

At the end of the month, my husband and I spend a week travelling in Wales. It was lovely, we visited the Brecon Beacons, I swam in a lake, we walked in stupendous landscapes. By all measures, this trip was a success.

Except…I hardly spoke the language! You may have read how much I spoke in just 3 days at my last Welsh visit, the Eisteddfod in Cardiff., and wonder how come I didn’t get as much practice in this time?

In truth, I couldn’t find anyone who spoke Welsh. You may have heard before how the Welsh language was pushed out by English over the last 100-200 years. In the Brecon Beacons, this is super evident. Lots of people told me about parents and grandparents who “got beaten up in school for speaking Welsh, so they stopped”.

Make of that what you will. I think it’s not funny.

Where I grew up in Germany-near-Luxembourg, it was common to head to another country and for the border region folks to be bilingual. Yes, even in a tiny language like Luxembourgish. No one EVER would call Luxembourgish useless. Yet here in the UK, people do it to the Welsh (and probably the other UK languages) all of the damn time. Why would you have this presumption that a language is “useless”?

Anyway!! Do you have thoughts about this? Share them in the comments below, or come to the Polyglot Conference, buy me a drink and let’s put the world to rights.

The Fluent Show

The Fluent Show celebrated European Day of Languages (26 September) in style this year, with a HUGE 20 language quiz edition hosted by me and Lindsay. We quizzed each other and you lot. I’ve yet to find anyone who recognised all 20 languages. Could it be you?

Listen Here To Take Our 20 European Languages Quiz

Language Goals and Progress

Let’s have a look how September went in terms of language goals. I’ve got a feeling about this one!

Listening

The goal was to switch the radio on in Welsh 2-3 times per week. I managed this in week 1 (starter’s enthusiasm) and in week 4 (the car radio had Radio Cymru). In between, I did watch a few shows on S4C including coverage of Ironman Wales. I’d say 8 out of 10 for this goal.

Reading

Sgwp, Sgwp, Sgwp. It’s the book that keeps on giving. I’ve not set up a pretty good routine of reading the chapter, highlighting vocab, looking it up and putting it into my notebook, and reviewing previous words while I’m there.

I got through more chapters in September, but feel like more reading in Welsh is necessary.

Speaking

Speaking was pretty great! I had two meetings with Nicky and arranged to meet my friends Dafydd and Gavin while I was in Cardiff on the Wales trip.

I also set the goal to get through Say Something in Welsh 2 up to level 18, and in fact I’ve just finished level 19. Da iawn!

Writing

Well…I did download the exam papers. But then I didn’t look at them in detail. In fact, I totally forgot about this goal so it’s time I got back to it.

Through instant messaging in Welsh, I’m noticing that slowly I’m better able to translate “what I want to say in my head” into Welsh language without hesitation. Writing is always a slower skill for me, because speaking comes naturally with my extrovert/gregarious personality.

But as my tax advisor said…”you can’t hand wave through everything”.

Monthly Contact Goal

September looks pretty good, with 22 days out of 30 checked on the “daily contact with Welsh log”. Even when I didn’t speak Welsh to people on my trip, it was contact every day through bilingual signage and Radio Cymru in the rental car.

Other Languages

There’s always a chance for other languages to sneak in, and I did a tiny bit of playtime on the Drops app in Chinese and watched some Netflix with French subtitles.

Goals For October 2018

In October, I’m planning a trip to Croatia and a talk at the Polyglot Conference in Ljubljana, so it’s a busy one. Are you coming?

In October, I want to keep up the current Welsh level and play with a few other languages such as Chinese. I’m hoping to spend a good amount of time with Lindsay and Shannon, so maybe I can annoy them with my practice of tones.

Listening

At this stage, I feel it’s important for me to get lots more realistic spoken Welsh input so it’s definitely key to keep that TV or radio habit up. The goal’s 2-3 times a week, as before.

Reading

It’s not a particularly inspired goal, but I will continue to make progress with Sgwp and have a book of short stories lined up for afterwards. Reading is such a great way for me to grow my vocabulary. At this stage it’s more helpful for new words than online lessons!

Taking into account the big amount of travel I’ve got coming up, my goal is 5 chapters of Sgwp.

I want to dedicate the rest of the time to picking up the good old Chinese in 10 Minutes a Day again. Perhaps I should actually spend 10 minutes a day on it and then I’ll learn way more Chinese!!

Speaking

I will continue to book in an hour or so every week for a virtual paned a sgwrs (cuppa and a chat) in Welsh when my friends can spare the time. I am also craving contact with more speakers, so am considering putting together a Meet-Up Cymraeg here in Canterbury in the next month.

Writing

Tricky! I do want to work on that exam paper, but this month I don’t feel ready. I’ll set a different goal and park this one. My goal is to post a Welsh language caption on Instagram at least once a week.

How Was Your Month?

So that’s it for this month’s goals! Be sure to check out the linkup for #clearthelist, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

By the way, if you want to hear more about what you can do when you’ve failed to meet a goal, check out September’s Fluent Show episode about goals with tips from me and Lindsay.

Are you setting goals, too? How do you feel about your target language and its usefulness?

Leave a comment below to tell me all about it!