So Many Plot Bunnies!

Well, it figures that the last week of Writers’ Huddle's Winter Writing Challenge would be the ONE week I actually hit my goals: A weekly blog post AND at least 8hrs of writing.

Oh well, at least I got there eventually.

While it is usually advised to figure out one writing project, and then stick to just that one until it's done - otherwise you run the risk of twenty started projects, but no completed ones - I have to credit my heavy writing week to having a sort of Writer's ADD.

I have multiple writing projects in the mix that I kept jumping between. My two big ones involving Gyateara - A Race for Destiny and Amara's future tales - are mostly research and brainstorming while I world-build. The converting of X-Future in to its own world is similar. So, those are large projects I keep bouncing back to, but they don't involve actual writing yet. Therefore, I need other smaller projects that allow me to write.

Thanks to the X-Future girls I was able to do just that. I currently have five snippets in the works; at least one of which will eventually become canon. First up is a conversation between Ripley and Lia. As I was falling asleep a week ago this interaction popped in to my head; something that has been happening frequently as I pass out, but more on that in a minute.

The tale - once done - will be sort of filled with spoilers, and so I might as well throw one out now.

***SPOILER ALERT***

The tale - although not originally birthed from the song - is highly influenced by the song "Say Something" by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera.
Here's the song for anyone who doesn't know it, but would like to:

Heartbreaking, right? Sorry about that.... Queen of Emotional Angst and all that...

***END OF SPOILER***

Another project I have in the works is one that will become canon. To avoid another spoiler I won't give any names, but an X-Future couple is going to "get away" for the summer break. A much needed vacation. So I was given the task to just write it all out, and then we'll post it as part of a "summer time skip" on the forums.

The third tale may also become canon as another solo-roleplay. Hearing that, I'm sure you know who it's for: Trish. Who else do I solo-play so frequently? Although, that does remind me that I have a Willow solo-play that I might convert in to a Snippet. So keep your eyes open for that.

Back to Trish. Yes, once more Trish is in my head. I haven't played her since early January and the girl is going stir-crazy in my mind. Her story is simply her FINALLY recovered from her injuries. She was just as stir-crazy on Injured Reserves as she is in my head, and so she wants to stretch and push her powers. She had a bit of a creative project while she wasn't able to move too well, and now she's going to put it to some use in the cold locker The Brotherhood has for when she wants to practice her fire control.

A fourth project actually just came up Friday night, and so I'm not sure I should really count it... As with the Lia/Ripley conversation, this interaction also happened upon me as I was falling asleep. It's like my half-awake state is perfect for channeling these characters as I witness their arguments. This time a character you guys don't really know to well: Nys. Devon stumbled upon her on the streets, rescued her - so to speak - and she became his traveling companion. Although Ronoxym will swear up and down that there is nothing between Nys and Devon, anyone who ISN'T Ron can see that there clearly is, at least on Nys' side of things.

Anyway, the fourth project I'm currently working on is Nys getting in Willow's face about Devon. It's kind of cute seeing Nys trying to be all intimidating. However, Ron hasn't really written Nys too much, and so it's a bit tough for me to know her well enough to write her. I know she can go from meek to protective, from serious to mischievous, and from easily intimidated to the one doing the intimidation. She's complex like that. She's actually a lot like Cyhyr like that; another thing Ron will deny to his grave.

So, I'm sure once I'm done with the interaction between Nys and Willow and I show it to Ron he'll have some rewrites of his own. He'll have the same "that's not how she talks/reacts" comments that I had about Willow in his interaction between her and Devon. He'll most likely derail my story as much as I derailed his. And then we'll have another collab in the works.

Speaking of which, the last project I have in the works is still that collaborative effort with Ronoxym. He added a little bit, but this week was mostly me going back through the whole thing and beta-reading/adjusting a few things. He would then respond, add them in, tweak some himself, and the back and forth would continue.

Right now I believe we're up to 14pgs and over 8100 words. So much for this being a Snippet. Companion story, here we go! Considering we're FINALLY in Devon's head I have to wait completely for Ron to continue with his story, and then just adjust Willow's reactions. I have no clue how much longer this story is going to be or where it's going to go.

The problem there is that I'm so invested in Ron's story that I can't really focus on any of the above ones I have in the works. Probably why I have so many of them. I try to work on something to keep my mind off of this story, can't focus, and try a different story instead.

RONOXYM! YOU NEED TO WRITE MORE!!!! SCREW THE FACT THAT YOU WORK 80HR WORK WEEKS AND ARE HALF ASLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DONE! I'LL FIX IT!

I've actually gotten moderately good at deciphering what he's trying to say when he mistypes in his pseudo-sleeping state.

So, yeah. I'm obsessed with finding out where Ron's story is going to go next. I try to do other things, but I can't distract my mind from that tale. The more I try to refocus my mind on something else the more I write, but no projects are done quite yet. We'll see if I do better in the upcoming week.

Now, for the final mini-challenge of the Winter Writing Challenge. We actually finished on a rewarding high note. We were supposed to treat ourselves; whatever that means.

I did something different, however. Last week was a week where I finally got back in to video/computer games, TV shows, and finishing books I've had in queue for months. I'd like to think I treated myself a LOT last week. Because of that I felt silly doing so again this week. So I considered this week's mini-challenge completed last week and I tried again to do last week's task as this week's mini-challenge.

In other words, I tried something different with my writing.

First of all, I did start up a whole bunch of projects all at once. I never do that. I write until I'm done with one story before moving on to the next. The exception being my chaptered stories; obviously, otherwise What Is Truly Meant To Be and A Race for Destiny would both be done by now...

The other thing I tried was to ignore actions while writing. I didn't write any scene description or any action blocking for the characters. I just wrote dialogue. I didn't even stop to write who was talking. It was just back and forth like listening in on a radio drama or a phone argument.

Once I was done with the dialogue I was planning on going back and filling in all the extra stuff: setting, action, reaction, who said what and how. I hadn't tried writing like that since high school. That's over 10yrs ago already, kiddies!

What tale did I give this treatment to? Ripley and Lia. I feel that in most cases writing out the "blocking" helps with the story. I better picture how the characters are interacting with each other that way. I know where they're standing/sitting in relation to each other. I know if they're throwing things or are standing with a cocked hip. I know if they're snuggling or ignoring each other. I know if they are pleading, yelling, laughing, or rolling their eyes. The way something is said is just as important as the words themselves; sometimes more important.

However, in some cases pausing long enough to write out how the characters are acting within their environment slows me down too much and the argument fizzles out. The reaction from the opposing character comes too slowly and the passion dies off. That's why I tried this tactic with Ripley and Lia.

I had tried writing the argument out the way I heard it in my head, but after three tries of the argument dying half way through I decided to try one last time where it was literally just their dialogue. Ripley came off a bit harsh, and so I have to go back and rework that, but for the most part the argument worked beautifully. Out of the above projects this is the closest to completion. I just need to go back and put in the action and setting and whatnot.

I also need to figure out how to get them in to the argument. It's almost as if they got through the argument once as I was falling asleep, aired out their grievances, and refuse to relive the fight. No matter what I try they just won't get back in to the argument. So the dialogue I have is already mid-fight. Eh, I'll figure it out.

So, for this upcoming week, keep your eyes open for the possibility of the following Snippets:
 - Willow Solo-Play of her doing a private training session on Mount X. Angst ensues....
 - Ripley and Lia having an argument about where her commitment is and whether or not she'll give up on The Institute.
 - Trish Solo-Play of her doing a private training session in the Cold Locker with her new craft piece.
 - Nys telling Willow to step off in regards to Devon. Although, this one might be severely delayed depending on the rewrites Ron has.

Writing out a full summer vacation will be a bit of a task. I'm not sure how long that will take. I'm also foreseeing the Willow/Devon story to be another few weeks before it's done. However, I'm going to try to push Ron to finish before the end of March. We'll see how that goes.