#now i'm going to update my spreadsheets lol

[beansprean]

My Familiar's Ghost AU Masterpost

A wwdits season 5 au by beansprean!

Tag link

Early pages on Patreon!

Below are all the art posts in their relative order in the timeline (not necessarily in posting order). Those labeled in parts are considered "official" while others may be questionably canon lol.

Updated poster

A curse in the house + movie poster (part 1)

Guillermo rants to Nadja (part 2)

Guillermo confronts Nandor (part 3)

Being embarrassing by yourself in your room

A summoning is attempted (part 4)

Nandor uses his brain

Reunion (part 5)

Laszlo’s Lament (part 6)

Guillermo gets teased

My chemical ghost

On a mission (part 7)

Unfinished business and energy lore

Guillermo recalls his invisible antics

Hypnotized! at the gas station (part 8)

Cool Guy Stu (part 9)

Dickheads

What are U Storing? (part 10)

Meanwhile back at the house (part 11)

Opening the coffin (part 12)

Not a plothole

Meanwhile back at the...Nadja what? (part 13)

He threw off his groove

All according to keikaku (part 14)

Ghosted by a ghost

Switches too (part 15)

The confrontation part one (part 16)

The confrontation part two (part 17)

The aftermath (part 18)

Commercial break (part 18.5?)

We are not the same (part 19)

Huh. That's not what I expected. (part 20)

The Guide > the guide (part 21)

She fucking told you

The Guide’s first 3 way (part 22)

Recap

Lazzo (part 23)

Return of the baby part one (part 24)

Return of the baby part two (part 25)

#1 Dad

Bear hugs (part 26)

Me legit shipping Colin and Stu

Hey haven't seen you since you staked me (part 27)

Tell nandor how you feel or draw 24

It's all ducked up now (part 28)

On his wall a tally of unfulfilled orgasms (part 29)

[rain sounds] [thunder sounds] (part 30)

La verdad (part 31)

La verdad parte dos (part 32)

La verdad parte tres (part 33)

Rug pull (part 34)

Wet & pathetic (part 35)

Might as well be rattling chains (part 36)

Consequences (part 37)

Sentimental (part 38)

Back to the start (part 39)

Dust and Virgins (part 40)

What's cooler than being cool (part 41)

Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright?! (part 42)

Run. (part 43)

Did he rehearse this on the way over (part 44)

Mark me down as scared and- (part 45)

And now you're gay (part 46)

The Touch (part 47)

¡Olé! (part 48)

Do you really want to make me cry (part 49)

The ritual of legitimacy (part 50)

She's been very busy

Very, very busy

Red means stop!! (part 51)

Grabby hands (part 52)

Whack whack whack (part 53)

You didn't want ME anymore (part 54)

No no let him finish (part 55)

Thinking of him (part 56)

Here's where it gets weird (part 57)

Bonded (part 58)

Los goosebumps (part 59)

Green means go (part 60)

Trick or treat (part 61)

Hello corporeality, nice to see you again (part 62)

Bad memory (part 63)

He hasn't gone soft he's gone hard

Get u a man who can kick your ass blind (part 64)

You're yes then you're no (part 65)

Fancy lad in the regular room (part 66)

Baby's first drink, sorta (part 67)

Sneaky sneaking (part 68)

The ghosts of your familiar (part 69😏)

Shoulda stopped on red (part 70)

I'm not crying there's just a JERK in my eye (part 71)

Colin Spaminson (part 72)

Get expositioned, idiot

Red and Blue (part 73)

A familiar situation (part 74)

Excel spreadsheet light me up (part 75)

Continued in Masterpost 2 due to link limit lol

[mirandyficlists]

Fic Searches sometimes take Time.

Hey there my Mirandy Dandies hope you're all well.

After a number of particularly noxious Anonymous messages from someone, or possibly several someones, kvetching about oh so many shortcomings with my Tumblr site and my other actions in the fandom as a whole, I felt I needed to make this post to clarify a few things about:

What I do,

What I'm able to do.

What I'm willing to do

The way this platform works...something, bear in mind, that I can't change.

I am a diehard Mirandy Dandy and one of the things I love to do is to SHARE the goodness and to chat about fics whenever I can. Having been a victim of the loss of Angelfire and Geocities when so much amazing fic was lost to us in the Xenaverse and other of my earlier fandoms, when I became a Mirandy Dandy I was not going to see myself in the same limbo and made a point of fully harvesting all fics as they were posted and keeping external copies of my treasures, updated monthly whenever possible. I did this, by the way, from the beginning on LJ to the present and let me tell you, keeping track of and harvesting fics from LJ was not easy and took a hell of a lot of time copying and pasting but I did it to the best of my ability.

The Mirandyverse is now 18 years old (we should all buy us a drink…well in the UK anyway, lol.) and we have people finding the Dark Side every week. Now these newbies and youngsters have often never set foot on LJ, if they’ve even heard of it, some have never set foot on FFnet even not to mention places like Passion & Perfection and the Pink Rabbit Consortium, and therefor have missed out on some great gems and giants of the days when new fics came out thick and fast. Thus the difference between the 3732 fics recorded for DWP on AO3 and the 5422 fics I have listed on my spreadsheet. Added to this the number of fics that have since been deleted or lost in other ways and you end up with the Newbies truly missing out.  And so I try to spread the goodness as best I can and share my harvested treasures when asked, as well as letting the masses know about that on several different platforms.

Because I love the fandom as I do, a significant amount of my time is invested in it, but as with everyone, I have a real 3D life that demands my presence and attention regularly and sometimes exclusively when, well, when shit happens as they say. Add to this my personal disabilities and I sometimes struggle being able to do things and thus have to let some things, like fandoms, slide in order to cope with the day to day. But when I’m better I always come back. And my disabilities can bear good fruit too, in this case my fic Spreadsheets, necessitated for my enjoyment because of my medically induced memory problems but that have been used and enjoyed by the fandom as a whole. Silver linings and all that.

I am always willing to share the Mirandy goodness in anyway I can manage. I LOVE being able to send deleted fics to people who either haven’t read them or aren’t able to access their old favourites because they were deleted. Hence my spreadsheet which keeps track of the existence and whereabouts of about 97% of all Mirandy fics online. And also my Themed Rec lists, now numbering 157 different groupings. All of which assist me in helping out with fic searches which I always try to source whenever they are presented, and that sourcing includes seeking help of other Dandies on different platforms.  Now, just to clarify, none of these things are complete or exhaustive, but I do keep them up to date within the limitations stated above AND try to make sure to share them online at least every couple of years. I don’t mind doing it, it gives me pleasure, but to my nasty Nonnies from earlier and any other Trolls who might be lurking…I AM UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO DO ANY OF THE THINGS I DO FOR THE FANDOM. I do it out of love of the Mirandyverse and the vast, VAST majority of truly wonderful Mirandy Dandies.

Tumblr is, as we who tumble know, both glorious and hideous as far as social networking platforms go, and has always been meddled with by admin for the sake of selling it off and trying to monetize it into oblivion and not to actually improve the functionality for the users in anyway. And that is the arena in which I operate this Tumblr and adapt how I do so in order to accommodate my needs.

So just for your collective FYI specifically regarding Anonymous asked fic searches…

If you have sent an anonymous fic search and have not seen an answer posted for a very long while:        

I am NOT ignoring you.

                                I am NOT ‘being lazy.’   

                                I have NOT deleted your request.            

                                And believe it or not I have NOT forgotten about you.

I check my in box weekly to remind myself of the searches I am still tracking down, so

not getting a response to an Anonymous ask only means I have not yet found your fic, but I am still looking for the fic, when time permits me.

Because you sent an Anonymous ask, if I try to answer it and let you know that I’m still looking for the fic, the ask is removed from my in box and I no longer have it in an easily accessible place to remind myself to continue the search.   So instead, I keep the asks in my in box until I find the fic requested, which lets be honest my Dandies, given some of the descriptions or key points you sometimes give could be one of several thousand fics and it takes some time to sift through, lolol.  If you want to be kept updated on the search progress, then it is much better if you PM me directly so that I can communicate with you.

To finish off I do want to say, ANY Mirandy Dandy is ALWAYS welcome to contact me with asks and questions in what ever way best suits their needs all I ask is that you appreciate any limitations attached to your preferred method and behave accordingly.

The Mirandyverse is generally a stress-free and positive place to be and always has been, and it is my dearest hope that it continues to be a space free from the toxicity that often invades other fandoms.  To that end I will always continue to offer my services to fellow Dandies in a spirit of helpfulness and sheer Joie de Vive.

Long live the Mirandyverse!

[izloveshorses]

we're almost to the halfway mark, so i thought i'd share another progress update on this little (big) project!! (previous update)

i've almost finished drawing half of all the assets (according to my spreadsheet) and then we can start assembling them into a "book." the bulk of the assets are characters/costumes, but i've also completed several props and started working on some backgrounds as well. I need to decide how the book will be laid out before i make much more progress on those, though. i've been trying to hold off on finishing the principal cast because i think saving them for ~dessert~ will keep me motivated to power through the rest, but i'm so anxious to get to them because i want to play with them in photoshop and put them on their associated backgrounds like little paper dolls 🙈 so that's why ballet tuxedo!dmitry doesn't exist yet, and why i've yet to color the rest of anya's act ii wardrobe.

anyway. progress in my workflow is hardly ever linear, but you can kind of see how i approach the rendering process from these images, i hope. the drawing carries the weight of the image so that step always takes the longest, since getting the likeness, the proportions, the folds, and the expressions right is the most important. if any of that looks off no skillful painting or rendering can save it.

and then i always color skin first because everything else (clothes, hair) goes on top of skin. you can see the color palette i'm using is the same for almost all of them, though act ii requires a few more saturated hues than act i (bright blue, some reds, and green every once in a while). coloring the rest in doesn't usually take very long. once the flats are down i go in for a final pass, laying down those patterns and textures that always give me a hard time lol. and then i clean up and recolor the line work and mark it as done! since i'm working digital i use alpha lock and clipping masks for that.

director's cut commentary of each image included (under the cut bc this post is already so long):

anya's act ii lineup. her phtk outfit is the only one i've marked complete (the linework on the others is still black and need just a few more touchups). I've yet to lay in the flats for the maroon travel coat because i think the drawing needs more work. i might change a few things on big red, maybe her expression, but i haven't decided yet.

dmitry's act ii lineup (sans tuxedo). he just needs a final pass on the first two on the left, and then his finale look is finished, because it's the same from act i :)

vlad's act ii lineup. he's almost done, just needs a final pass on the finale and phtk outfits.

lily's act ii lineup. i'm going to redo the pattern on her neva club dress (linda cho i love u but god) but otherwise she's all finished.

the dowager's act ii lineup. she's done! :) maybe i'll find something to pick at later but rn i'm marking her done lol.

petersburg citizens from rumor! i think these guys are all done. there are more people i could include, but there isn't enough variation on the costumes to make it worth it imo.

neva club patrons. the only two marked complete are the two on the left, sergei the doorman/the male server and count leopold. i still need to find a good reference for the female server lol.

the press! just the men for now lol. i used the obc program as a reference for this one, so i'll get the two ladies in soon :)

the hussies! i've marked it complete, but. we'll see if there's more adjustments i can make.

there's still more i've completed that's not pictured, but i'll definitely share more soon. act i is nearly finished entirely, which is cool, and the only big ensemble sheet i've yet to make much progress on is everyone in phtk. i may end up just drawing one or two people from that and then copying them with different patterns because, honestly, the shape of the dresses and suits are all very similar. hopefully that won't be boring to look at lol.

if there's anything in particular you'd like to see/have any questions, or even suggestions, lmk!! and follow my 'anastasia illustrated guide' tag for more updates :)

[juniper-simblr]

Uberhood update Year one: introduction

I've decided to start posting about my uberhood again. There has been some changes since the last time. It's actually a new hood, because I've changed up my playstyle and my cc preferences. lol.

But a lot of the buildings are the same in some of the hoods- and in others they're brand new.. So it's probably best to make a new introduction to each hood.

I don't know how much I'm going to share of gameplay- I think my current preference is to post "neighborhood-summaries" instead of gameplays from each household. But I like to share pictures of my builds, so I'll at least continue to do that.

Also, I might post a little bit about the "behind-the-scenes" because I loooove my spreadsheet. I love tracking stuff and I know I'm not completely alone in liking spreadsheets, so I might post a bit about that as well.. lol.

There's definitely a lot of changes from the last time I played with an uberhood. The biggest change is how I'm playing with Belladonna Cove. This time around BC is my Downtown. All of the premades from BC has been made into downtownies (except toddlers because they can't me made into downtownies. They've been put up for adoption instead). (:

Anyways, I'll start posting introductions to the 'hoods from now on and I guess we'll see how much I'll post of actual gameplay. (:

[sentience-if]

Going around asking all my favourite IFs this-

My friend (who has written one and a half IFs so far) told me that she balances all the routes very carefully. If one choice reduces one stat and increases two others, then the other choice also does the same, though it might not be the same stats. She does this for most choices. She believes it's the only way to not have a route that's perfect or seems like the canon path.

I'm just starting writing an IF, but this does not seem to be working for me. Maybe I just need to add more stats?

Either way, do you agree with this? How do you balance your routes within the game?

Hmm, I guess it really depends on what your stats are and how much they actually influence the story. I'll put a read more cutoff here just in case anyone doesn't want the stats spoiled

I actually think less is better, for me anyway. Sentience only has two stats that are important beyond just flavor text: Humanity and Sanity. (though now that i think about it, Humanity is the more important of the two and has the most control over the story). You start at neutral (50/100) and raise or lower them along the way; different routes appear based on how far the stat is from 50. having two makes it pretty easy to keep track of and balance- I mean there's essentially only four options, like a punnett square lol. I dont always include all four, and sometimes i add a 'noncommital' option, but it's a useful structure

I weight different choices (for all stats, including personality and RO approval) like this:

1 point - minor choice, may not have clear implications

2 points - medium, has consequences but it's not hard to walk it back

3 points - major choice, will have obvious effects

I used to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of the max and min you could have for each stat, but i kept forgetting to update it so now i just have a bunch of test saves where i've maxxed out stats individually. only time will tell if it's a good system 🤷 I'll have to finish the game first lol

Also, you might consider if you actually *want* your routes to be balanced. I know a lot of people complain about "canon routes" but I really don't think it's that wild to have bad endings or endings that are more difficult to achieve. It *is* a game, after all, not just a story. And remember that the purpose of stats is so that you can make conflicting choices, so one single choice doesn't lock you in to a certain route

hope that helps :) good luck soldier

or if this made no sense at all, feel free to come back and tell me specifically what part of balancing isn't working for you

[ao3-anonymous]

Isn’t the data you just posted the same as the data last week?

Thank you, eagle-eyed anon! Yes, yes it was but now it has been fixed, so the newest post for 02/05/2024 is accurate.

And while I was trying to figure out why the same data showed up twice, I found a bunch of other issues in my code, so keep reading if you want to hear about the 10 other things I fixed while I was fixing that issue (thanks ADHD!)

As it turns out, it was the exact same info as last week because there was an issue in my workflow that caused it to not run properly so the data in the spreadsheet that powers the dashboard was stale.

But that prompted me to ask myself "didn't I build in a notification system that's supposed to let me know when something fails?" and when I investigated I realized they had stopped working last June and I never noticed (it sends EITHER a success or failure email every week, so I really should've noticed).

When I investigated that, I realized June was when I split the backend data sources between two Google Sheets because they were getting so big - originally I had them in separate tabs of the same sheet. However the notifications were still set up for only the original sheet, so I fixed that.

Also while I was looking at the sheets, I realized there were still a bunch of "Uncategorized" fandoms in the data, even though I removed that category from the workflow after realizing that they don't have fic counts on that Category page. So instead of pulling fic count, I was accidentally pulling a bunch of years and passing them off as fic count. I fixed that a couple weeks ago, but I didn't clear old data so I did that now.

THEN when I finally remembered the original problem I had been solving, I started trying to figure out whether the data hadn't been recorded for 2/5 at all (I save it in a JSON first) or if the sheet just hadn't been properly updated. While doing some checks, I realized that most of the categories had data for 2/5 EXCEPT Video Games & Theater?? Which honestly I still haven't fully figured out why, but I was able to manually run the size scrape for those two pages again, so at least they have data now.

Finally, while I was re-running the scripts to try to figure out why it wasn't running for Video Games, I had it start printing out various pieces in the loops and noticed it was taking forever to get through a category and seemed to go slower and slower by letter. Turns out a small error in my code had it looping through all the fandoms for a category starting with a specific letter (A) but then instead of moving on and doing B next, it was doing (A, B), then (A,B,C) etc. This wasn't actually causing errors of any kind in the results, but it was slowing the whole thing down and unnecessarily writing over the size count 25+ times for the fandoms at the beginning of the alphabet, so I've now fixed that.

The best part is even though I just wrote all of this out, I'm still not quite sure where in there I fixed the issue that caused the stale data in the first place lol. But at some point I fixed some other things, re-ran the "write_to_sheets" script (which I of course tried first thing and it didn't do anything) and this time it worked and actually updated. So hooray! And clearly this whole thing is being held together by spit & glue (it was a project I set for myself when I was learning Python) so maybe I should go back and rewrite some things now that I'm actually paid to do coding for my job and have a bit more experience. If you're still reading, KUDOS TO YOU and hope you enjoy my little project. [[Maybe leave me a heart in the comments if you do, because I accidentally spent way too long on this tonight and it's super late and I still have actual work to do (YIKES).]]

[iasmelaion]

Briefly surfacing from my new farm in Pelican Town (Greenwoods Farm, already in Summer and I am on that community center completion grind!!!) because new Stardew Valley update time is when I'm most reminded of the many and varied ways people play this game, since this is when I actually check the subreddit/tags/etc, and see the diverse ecosystem of SDV players:

Min-maxers who simply must make the most money as quickly as possible, and get the community center completed and achieve perfection in the most speedy and efficient way. Spreadsheets are involved. Schedules. Detailed calculations of the most profitable way to process a crop. (YES i have a SDV to-do list right now, and yes i am eagerly awaiting starting my ancient fruit wine empire [$$$$$], but I assure you I am NOT a minmaxer.)

People who like the fishing minigame. (I don't mind it, it's just that after 1000+ hours, I think I deserve to skip it. For my hand and wrist's sake, if nothing else.)

The people who take the Role Play part of Cozy Farming RPG seriously, and have whole detailed backstories for their Farmer and their interactions with the world and characters and the romances.

The people who take the Relaxing part of Cozy Farming RPG seriously and play a bit at a time, just vibing, not too concerned with making money or progressing.

The people who just restart over and over. (Don't understand it, tbh! lol I am Struggling on my new save without luxuries like the return scepter and obelisks and iridium sprinklers.)

The people who simply cannot function without their 103028 aesthetic mods that basically make the game look entirely different.

Relatedly, the people who are intense and detailed about decorating their farms or achieving the ideal, prettiest layout. (I care about this, I just kind of suck at it.)

The people who simply cannot function without their 158440 quality of life and expansion mods. (It's me. I'm in this picture. Tractor Mod and Automate, my beloveds. Stardew Valley Expanded, you are canon to me. I've done the game fair and square already, let me have this. also pour one out for PPJA, but at least we have cornucopia now. idky having frankly ludicrous crop variety pleases me so much, but it does)

Console/mobile players. thoughts and prayers, but seemingly every third post on the subreddit is console players asking when the update is coming out for console, does being a console player impact your literacy or something. like. someone JUST asked fifteen minutes ago. it is in the pinned post. sorry, that's mean, it's just very tedious and happens with every single update.

People who cannot play the game without the wiki (hello, it is me again, me and my dozen open SDV Wiki tabs. no, the Look Up Anything and UI Info Suite mods do not curb this behavior)

People who never check the wiki and simply. Muddle through?? (couldn't be me)

People who go the Joja route???? (i will NEVER do this, not even for the Steam achievement. the guilt and the shame would be TOO MUCH)

[literaticat]

The idea of reading a 25-40+ page contract seems mind numbing to me. Do you genuinely enjoy that aspect of agenting? Do you have to read them in excruciating detail every time or does your experience give you some room to skim? Sometimes, I fantasize about being an agent. But now I'm rethinking that fantasy.

It IS kinda mind-numbing! I don't particularly enjoy it! lol. I mean it's whatever, right? Like every job has some mind-numbing parts, I'm sure. It's better than digging ditches.

The good news is that because we have thousands and thousands of contracts across nearly every publisher, and an established agency boilerplate with nearly every publisher, we aren't reinventing the wheel every time -- much of the language in the contract is already set, it's been gone over, there's nothing new. So yeah, when I review a contract it's basically... multiple rounds of skims lol. Here's how it goes:

I compare the big points on the deal memo and make sure all that is correct and what we agreed upon -- advance, territory, sub rights splits, bonuses, anything else that was part of the initial offer. Since the deal memo is basically the 'highlights reel' this part is straightforward and you can skip around in the contract and make sure all those points are correct, easy. I make a note of any mistakes / typos I see.

I compare the whole PDF with another contract (either the last contract from this author/publisher, or another recent one from this publisher) using the Adobe side by side 'compare' tool -- this highlights every change that has been made and shows what was changed from one to the other. (IT'S A GODSEND FOR REAL). That way, I only have to concentrate on the places where there are changes. Now, obviously the terms will be different, the names will be different, the dates will be different, whatever -- so it'll say "484 changes", but the vast majority of those are not a problem. REALLY what I'm looking for is, is there anything where they have inserted some new language, or taken old language away. Probably there are only few dozen places where that is the case, and some of them won't matter, and some of them will, and some of them are just mistakes -- so I make a note of them. Mistakes, we can fix. If the language has actually changed and gotten WORSE, we'll want to try and make it better. (If the language has gotten BETTER, I'll want to make a note that future agents should look for THIS language next time.)

I look at our agency contracts database -- this is an air table where we have spreadsheets for every publisher with the best language we've ever gotten for various clauses, what arguments we used to get different language, etc. It's all helpfully tagged so it's pretty easy to use. So here, I'm skimming to make sure there's nothing new that other agents have recently gotten that I should ask for too -- and I'm checking the clauses I had a problem with in mine (see #2) to see if other people have tackled this already. If so, I make a note of what THEY asked for, so I can get that fix too. If not, I'm probably talking to my colleagues about what I should ask for. (Then I'll update that air table to make sure that any better language I got is in there for the next person!)

I then compile allllll those notes -- typos, mistakes, what I want them to change/strike/add -- and send them to the contracts person, and then they say yes to most of the asks and maybe no to some of them, and I make my arguments about why YES actually, and then they say OK or no can do or whatever, and when we are done going back and forth they send me back a revised version, which I just make sure they actually made all the changes they said they were going to make,

and THEN we get the copy to actually be signed, which I skim AGAIN just to make sure it's the most recent version.

WHEW! FIVE SKIMS! (possibly with a couple mini-skims in between lol)

[hypnotisedfireflies]

Prompt Update #2

Periodically, I want to address where my writing is at with prompts and upcoming stories. So here's update #2 of where I'm at and what is coming up over the next few months.

I have been trying to slow down a bit with my writing and that's kind of working, but there are still so many ideas. O_O So yay?!

As always, if you do not see your prompt on this list it doesn't mean it's not happening. This is just where things are presently at, and sometimes opportunities present themselves to bundle prompts together. I have addressed some as drabbles/bullet points (check the Asks Masterlist for these) and may have to do some more like that to keep on top of things. You guys have gone to the trouble of sending me these lovely ideas, I so appreciate it and don't like to keep people hanging.

Finish Snowqueen. That's a given. At this rate, it'll be the longest story of the lot.

Finish? Continue? The Ensemble. Next chapter is very Ellie & Tess with a serving of Lachie to fill a prompt.

The Western AU that literally nobody asked for will be released weekly from next Tuesday.

Early days of the Outbreak with Tommy and Joel. This currently has a five chapter outline. I can't remember who requested this and that makes me hate myself a little so please tell me if it was you so I can gift when the time comes, lol. I think it was you, @bignosebushybrows or @bumblepony ?? This is what happens if it doesn't go on the spreadsheet right away.

This wild card entry. If you know, you know. A four chapter outline.

Tessjoel Boston years + Bill and Frank stuff. Probably a one-shot.

Tessjoel's first physical fight. This is actually partially written; just haven't been able to complete it. A one-shot unless I can ... wait actually I think I can work that into the prompt about the good day in Indy. Which sounds like it won't work, but trust me, it will. Thinking aloud here. Okay, we're good now.

[halfagone]

Hi Halfa! You don't have to answer this, I'm honestly just a little curious and a little baffled -- but I realized you write a lot. It's very impressive! How do you organize and keep track of all of it? Especially with long fics like lex luthor's ascent. It seems a little daunting ngl. Is there a specific program you use that works for you in being organized?

Love everything you write btw! I'm always a little excited to find an AO3 update from you!

Hello, Anony!! And yes, I write... a lot. It's become a problem. Not that I'm really complaining right now either. XD There are a couple things I use to keep track of organizing everything. I do use the Google Suite, so I'm talking Drive, Sheets, and Docs mainly. I hate Google's autocorrect system but I'll write across three different devices at times so the Drive helps a lot with that. Plus it's free if you have an account so *shrugs*.

I use spreadsheets when I can. Mainly for word counts and WIP ideas. We are at 147 WIPs and counting, btw, woohoo! But as for my actual works, I say folders is probably the most useful thing for me. I color-code all my folders to make it easier for me to know which is which at a glance. I would also say- never be afraid to make a folder within a folder. It's some of the only ways to keep my drafts separated and out of the way.

I tend to save all my drafts unless I really do not like it, but multiple classes taught me that the file convention can make or break you.

This is probably the best example I have:

These are the drafts I saved from my attempts at the Lex Luthor's Ascent chapter 88, "The Prodigal Son: Return to Metropolis". As you can see I finally got it right on the eighth try, which was the final draft and the one that is currently published.

"p.d." stands for "partial draft", which means I didn't rewrite the whole chapter, just a significant portion of it. "v" is of course "version", and it makes it easier to figure out what is the newest, most updated draft. That's mainly because sometimes I will go through more than one draft in a day, so I can't really use the time stamps.

(Bonus points to whoever can guess the closest to how many drafts I have saved lol)

I don't... outline things. Which is probably a thing I should do, but most of my fic ideas stay in the brain box where they are cycled through periodically like a washing machine. XD

Spreadsheets, again, are a very helpful tool and I cannot recommend them enough. I absolutely loathed them in middle school but by the time I graduated high school they helped me so much, especially to keep track of my madness. lol I know a bunch of tricks for spreadsheets if you ever need them. ;)

At first it can be overwhelming, especially because I did not... keep track of them early enough which meant I had to catch up quickly. But if you put a little time into it at the beginning it's so much easier to just insert a row later on and then you're done for the day.

And also, thank you so much!! I'm so glad you've been enjoying my fics!! I am also so happy to hear they bring you a little bit of excitement too! I know I'm always so excited to hear other people enjoy my fics as well. <3 Have a happy new year!

[fishklok]

Hey I hope it's okay to ask you this but do you have any advice for writing quickly? You always seem to update your fics fast.

Sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for a while ;0; ironically defeating the purpose of your question lol.

I'll see if I can explain it to the best of my ability.

The most helpful thing to me by far has been incorporating writing into my daily routine. It has gotten to the point where I feel weird if I go to bed without writing. That's just a matter of perseverance. If you use Discord, the bot Sprinto has been incredibly helpful. Even if you're not in a Discord group with a lot of people, it can still help you a lot. I have Sprinto in my personal server and just being able to block out set chunks of time to write can be all I need.

But here's some more advice. Idk how universal this will be, so I'm just going to detail my process.

I used to over-plan as a writer. As in, I would plot out every trivial detail before I ever started writing. This was just a fancy form of procrastination.

This is part of my proto-outlines from 2013 (this would later be expanded into another outline). Not only would i plan out each story beat, but I would color coordinate the scenes based on what the main character was feeling during them. Maybe this method works for someone, but personally I found that it just prevented me from writing. It also tended to push me into a corner. As in "my character has grown and evolved since my outline, but my notes say they feel sad in this scene so...." It can lead to inconsistent characterization.

What has worked for me recently is to keep my plans as rough notes at first, and only write a formal outline once I'm deep in the story and it's too big for me to keep track of without a road map.

Here's my outline for one of my Metalocalypse fanfics.

My columns are "chapter, date chapter takes place during, ages of main characters, key moments". I also use a spreadsheet so I can easily add/delete chapters. I only make spreadsheets like this for fics that are so long that I need to keep track of the story. I also only include the dates if the time frame is relevant. Don't let yourself get bogged down in too much detail. Also you don't need to list everything that happens.

This is literally the only plot point I have in my current fic chapter:

That's it. That's all I have to go off of. But I'm currently 2722 words into this chapter and I'm still not done. Give yourself all the information you need to remember where the story is going, but still give yourself room to play with. Again, I only make these outlines once I feel grounded in the story I'm writing. Basically, treat your outlines like a map -- not a gps. As long as you know where the major roads are and where the destination is, you don't always need to plan out each turn.

That's the biggest piece of advice I have. Plan your stories out, but don't let your plan overpower your writing. Remember why you're actually writing in the first place. Having an end goal is the number one thing that keeps me motivated to keep working on a story.

And here's some general unorganized advice.

Find a reliable place to keep all of the writing ideas that plop into your head. Sometimes I get ideas for dialogue exchanges 20 chapters from now, but I know I won't remember them when I get to that point. Personally, I have a separate channel in my personal discord for out of context writing stuff, but even just a notebook will work.

Go out and experience life, and think about how you'd write it. I'm not just talking about major life events. The mundane details of your life can provide so much ammunition. Even if you're not physically writing, just the act of noticing things can really strengthen that muscle. Practice noticing senses you don't usually incorporate into your writing. What does the food you eat feel like in your mouth? What goes through your mind when you walk down the street? Really dig into everything you feel. Were you bummed that your favorite restaurant closed down? That might feel small, but if you take that feeling and expand on it, you can use it to express your own characters' sadness. Notice the world around you. View every experience as a potential piece of writing. You can easily milk 2 paragraphs out of that.

Your rough draft doesn't have to include every detail. If your first draft simply says "he felt sad", that's fine. "He felt sad" is three more words than you would have had in your wip if you didn't write that day. As time goes on, you can expand that sentence into exploring the nuances of how that character experiences sadness at that specific moment. Boom, 2 more paragraphs.

Think about which projects you want to see to completion. If you're only working on a story because it's popular or because you think you have to, it's going to feel like a slog. Now, I've definitely stuck with some fics even though certain plot points felt slow, but I continued writing because I was excited for what came after.

Reread your stuff. Not only is this useful for continuity, but it can be a great motivator.

If you find yourself struggling with a wip in a way that can't be excused to just writer's block, delete the last few sentences and see how it goes.

If you're feeling especially inspired, stop mid-thought/sentence before you end for the day. That way, if you're not feeling as motivated the next day, you can easily finish the thought and sometimes that's all you need to get the juices flowing again.

I hope I can make my advice more useful and specific than "just practice lol", but that's really the best advice I could give. I have slow writing days too. Lately, I'm lucky if I can get 200 words out of me. I've been really stressed lately so my daily word count has taken a hit. But the amount of words you write doesn't matter as long as you're consistent. It's a muscle. And like working out, doing reps with 5 pound weights is much better than forcing yourself to do 100 pounds and hurting yourself in the process. Just write a sentence. Just write a word. Maybe that's all you need.

I'll probably add more to this, but I hope this is helpful!

[saronai]

Diem's Daily Dragons Update

Again, this doesn't go live until Jan 1st, but I finally finished creating the spreadsheet of all the dragons in my bookmarked folder of favourite dragons on site so I could keep track of who I've done and randomize who I draw each day. Yay!

The current number of favourite dragons on site that have been bookmarked is actually 3 years worth of content and I'm sure I'll find and add more over time lol. Final count as of December 2023: 1130 dragons from 608 unique players. Now I want to figure out some badges for people who've been named. Maybe even a badge in 3 tiers for those named multiple times.

[steamberrystudio]

25/07/2022 Devlog

Hello everyone!

Just popping in with an update on Quill's route

Summary:

Finished the second big revision of Quill's route

Finished up proofreading/typo correction (round 1)

Scripted Quill's route into Renpy

Created the chapter title cards

Staged all the BG and major sprite changes

Set up preliminary scoring

The Ramble:

Okaaay.

So I've finished the second big revision of Quill's route, fixing some lingering issues and cleaning up the dialogue a little more.

I also finished running the script through editing software to catch as many typos and minor style/grammar issues as possible. Fortunately this only takes a couple of days because it's incredibly boring compared to other revisions.

But when that was done, the writing was ready to be scripted into Renpy. =O

By "scripting", I just mean I take the raw draft from scrivener, put it into Renpy, and turn it into functional code. This doesn't really take that long as I write in sort..."pseudo-code" anyway, so I mostly have to make indentation fixes and correct any small errors like forgetting a quotation mark, colon, or bracket.

I set up the preliminary scoring of the "romance points" - I don't really keep track of these while I write; I just make note of where the "stat checks" will appear. So after the route is all scripted, I go through and make a spreadsheet that tracks all the choices and what they're doing point-wise. Then tally up what is the total possible points a player can have at a given moment and I calculate whatever percentage I want to have the game check for. Again, doesn't take a terribly long time to get that done.

I created the chapter title cards for Quill's route and put them in the game.

And finally I have done the basic staging for major background and sprite changes. So this is basically me marking in the script where we change backgrounds (and what we change to and, if necessary, what transition is being used) as well as marking down any places a sprite newly appears on screen or gets hidden as well as the position that sprite needs to be in.

Even though none of the assets are ready yet, by noting the basic staging, once I have the assets ready, it'll make it much easier to code the backgrounds and sprites into the game.

So...in summary, I have moved into the next phase of getting Quill's route ready, which is where I'm no longer focused on writing but am starting to focus on the initial coding and asset preparation.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

None yet unless you want a screen cap of the code. LoL

Upcoming Weeks:

So now that the bulk of the writing phase is over (there's still beta testing which involves a lot of typo and continuity fixing. Which is technically writing...but the script is complete. Just needs to continue to be polished - though that will come later), I am moving into the phase of "There are literally 300 things on this to-do list and I am not sure which ones I'll tackle this week."

I do know that my immediate focus will be on prepping all the backgrounds for Quill's route. Quill's route, like Lance's route, is relatively contained in terms of backgrounds, so it shouldn't take long.

And, unfortunately, as a lot of the BGs are indoors, I don't think there's a lot of space for BG animations like in some of the other routes.

Once I have those completed, I'll put them into the game and go back through to make sure all the BG changes are set up correctly.

After that, I'm not totally sure. I may shift to working on some sprite stuff. Some characters already have sprites in the game - Quill, Morgan, Rory, and any Endgame people who show up. However, Quill, Morgan, and Rory all need additional variations or edits to their sprites. 

I have two other character sprites (Locke and Vale) nearly completed. Neither is in the game and both need more variations.

There are three additional unique sprites needed (Neel, Aritz, and Vic), then an assortment of "Bobs"

So there's a fair amount of sprite related work to be done.

At some point in this mix I will also be putting in the music cues. I'm excited to be able to use some tracks that didn't appear in other routes. OWO

And that's kind of it for now I think. The writing is really the biggest hurdle in terms of route completion and it's now out of the way. So I'm excited to be able to move to the next phase of Quill's route.

There is still a lot of work to be done but it's always a relief to be done with the writing portion since it's such a huge chunk of the process.

Anyway, I will see you all next update! *wave*

[fireolin]

Hi! How are you? I hope you're doing well.

I re-read The Wishing Hunt and I was amazed! You are really doing an incredible work! The fact that you're writing it on the go and depending on the votes to know how the plot may change is... wow! It's not easy, I can't even begin to imagine how hard that must be! When reading it on one go, it seems really well-planned. Truly, everything —the writing, the characterization, the relationship, the plot, the world-building, the so many winks to canon and more— is soooo but sooooo well done, and to think you started it a couple years ago!

I'm enjoying it a lot, and I'm so looking forward to read how the story develops. I just wanted to come by and tell you this, but I'll try to write a more detailed comment next time in ao3 (so many things to say). Thank you so much for writing such an engaging story!

Thank you so much for this incredibly kind comment. It's just so good to hear you enjoyed reading the entire thing again, and especially that it's all hanging together, lol. I won't lie, you're right that writing this isn't easy (but writing usually isn't for me, unless it's something quick and spontaneous). I'm tracking the plot events and emotional arcs through a spreadsheet with columns for each aspect, so I don't rely only on my memory. It's harder now because more of the plot is set in stone and drawing to resolutions rather than being open to spontaneous branching. (If I let it keep branching, it will never conclude - although it's the kind of story and world that could keep going if I wanted.)

I'm still loving the world and every chapter pulls me in as I write. My process takes a few passes, and by the end I feel I've 'discovered' that chapter, while at the start, sometimes I have no clue myself how it's going to work out, only faith that it will.

Even for characters that have smaller roles, I often need to sketch a back story so I can get to know them and write them in a way that works for me. A lot of that never makes it into the fic, but it adds to my sense of the world.

It means so much to know you're still enjoying this after two years, with my updates that are spread weeks apart. It's a labour of love for me, but I'm not sure how I'd keep going without the kind of encouragement you and others provide. It really makes a difference and motivates me, letting me know the effort is worthwhile.

Thank you again so very much for being kind enough to send this message!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 4/4/2023

Hey, guys, guess what! I still haven't finished my fanfic!!

It has been one million years and this thing is still broken. I keep trying to rearrange bits in order to make it work, and I've written a few new bits, and it's not getting better. I think it's getting worse. Why is this so hard??? I have forgotten how to write. I am so so so so so so sorry. I have a color-coded spreadsheet now. Is it going to help? I do not know. I am getting desperate.

I did send the first chapter to my beta this week, and she liked it, so at least there's that.

To be fair, I did not work on the fanfic a lot this week. I had a lot of other things that took priority. I also panicked because it was the end of the month and I had not drawn anything, so I drew a kinda sexy Renruki thing real fast (lol i just went looking for it to grab the link and it had 69 notes. Nice.)

Anyway, that's all I got. I'm gonna go back to working on my spreadsheet and see if it holds any answers for me. Once again, I am very, very sorry.

[w0rld0flight]

Wild how I put more effort into my Fire Emblem Heroes updates timeline than my school works LMAO

I had to categorize them by unit (That means their names and their subtitles), color, weapon type, move type, and debut game LMAO

Link to the spreadsheet (Please note that it's still a work in progress):

If there are any mistakes, please let me know so I'll immediately change them!

For now, I'm going to stop working on it for the night because I feel tired and my back hurts already LOL