#tgm aftershocks related

[the-navistar-carol]

Finished the last chapter of “Aftershocks.” All that’s left is the epilogue. God help me

[the-navistar-carol]

AFTERSHOCKS DOC HIT 300 PAGES AND THE METAPHOR THAT DID IT WAS EITHER MY MOST GENIUS OR MY WEIRDEST ONE YET

[the-navistar-carol]

Sometimes the inspiration that hits isn’t for actual writing, it’s for watching a movie second by second and pausing after every line of dialogue to write it all down just so I can cut 80% of it when I do the actual writing later

[the-navistar-carol]

Clearly Aftershocks.

Oh hell yeah. I love this fic skjfkdjs

Let's pull a snippet from "Aftershocks (iii)," shall we?

Another step forward. Another shaking inhale. A new sting behind her eyes. “But you’re not. As a WSO, I’m trusting in my pilot that he’ll bring me home. Every goddamn time. I’m trusting you, too!” A lump began to rise in her throat. “It’s not just – it’s not just whatever you have to prove, to – to – to God knows who, Bradley, it’s my life up there, too!” She didn’t have to look down to feel her knuckles whitening on her helmet chinstrap. Fuck, this was familiar.

[the-navistar-carol]

CAN THE US NAVY PLEASE STOP TRYING TO RECRUIT ME I AM JUST TRYING TO WRITE FANFICTION

[the-navistar-carol]

@zee-has-commitment-issues I am writing "Aftershocks" and every time I have to write "Error" i have to remind myself that I cannot take away their callsign because you are Error and it might be Tonal Whiplash if the name Zee appeared in my fic

[the-navistar-carol]

HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. RED FUCKING ALERT.

I seriously didn’t think I’d get this far in any writing project.

When I started “Aftershocks,” I hadn’t written any kind of project — save for ongoing RP servers — other than snippets for Star Wars that were only connected by the virtue of having the same characters in them.

And then along came Top Gun, and then a few months later, Top Gun: Maverick.

I cannot tell you the degree that my writing got kickstarted. “Aftershocks” started as a joke, back when it wasn’t named. It started as a joke, as in a “oh lol some oc/canon headcanons for the vibes,” it started from nothing. Back when it was called “Laugh’s On Me,” as a reference to “Dancing in the Dark,” I didn’t have everything planned. Just… vibes, mainly, and some scenes that I wanted to hit. Like the first bar scene.

(The proto-character that would become Marisol “Floodgate” Carter was the original love interest, and holy shit am I glad that I didn’t do that.)

Nobody saw my Top Gun hyperfixation coming, and I certainly didn’t. But it’s given me friends and it’s expanded my horizons and it’s given me so many things.

But most importantly, it made me start writing again. And I am beyond grateful to a pair of Navy propaganda movies about funky fruity pilots for that. Huge and Major Props to @zee-has-commitment-issues, because I would not have written this if she had not egged me on to at least try it and not leave the scenes disconnected in my Bear app.

“Aftershocks” hit 100,000 words. Holy fuck.

[the-navistar-carol]

New "Aftershocks" chapter tomorrow :D

[the-navistar-carol]

In doing barebones research on aircraft carriers for "Aftershocks," I have started getting email ads for the Navy

AGAIN

[the-navistar-carol]

In honor of the "Aftershocks" doc hitting 125k, here are the next four chapter titles -- though the first two are still works in progress!

13 - Coffin Corner

14 - Duchess

15 - Learning and Living (NAME WIP)

16 - Aftershocks (iii)

17 - Test Drive (still in progress!)

I thought I had written four chapters ahead, not FIVE. oops

@zee-has-commitment-issues come look at these

[the-navistar-carol]

"Aftershocks" has hit 125k words on Ao3 and over 150k words in my master doc!! We need to do something to celebrate, all three (four?) fans including myself. I am taking suggestions, including no context spoilers (within reason)

[the-navistar-carol]

rereading my own work and it’s like damn babygirl how did you write all the tropes that I love???? for FREE????

[the-navistar-carol]

I was talking to @zee-has-commitment-issues about a potential post-Aftershocks fic, maybe like a 5+1 centering around this character named Twister that I mentioned once last chapter through Floodgate’s POV, who remembers him being a dick during their time in flight school, and the following happened:

[the-navistar-carol]

@protectgeorgeweasley and @jackdaw-kraai are going to be on my headstone as the cause of my death, actually

[the-navistar-carol]

Thinking about Vacay and Rooster as besties and I’m like. She’s Slider’s niece, as per a decision I made yesterday, so then the natural question becomes — did she ever meet Rooster as a child, who was staying at his Uncle Slider’s to give Carole a break and it was his turn because it was Ice’s last time and—

and just so happens to meet a young Vacay, at her Uncle Ron’s over a weekend because the idiot double-booked himself, now he’s got two kids over the same time, what else are they gonna do? hopefully get along? And they do, like a house on fire, and now Slider’s cursing his shit luck that not only do his niece and “nephew” get along, but they’re both goddamn menaces.

And while in “Aftershocks” they would have only met a couple of times as kids, I could have totally leaned into the whole childhood friends trope. I still can, technically, but kind of the whole point is that Vacay is friends with the background characters, so I’m sticking this in here to say where I could have gone

[the-navistar-carol]

I have read the comment left by @missezri at least six or seven times. It brings me so much joy. That scene between Hangman and Omaha was prewritten WEEKS before I even started writing the actual chapter. I love it I love you oh my gosh