Granted, that is largely because I've been working on figuring out the insurance stuff - spoilers: it did NOT get sorted out last Tuesday - and checking to see how much it would cost to get the body work done on my car.
I've been to the police station to petition for a copy of the accident report once it's done.... which it isn't yet. Apparently it takes roughly two weeks for an accident report to be completed. I've set myself up with a new insurance company... long story I won't get into. I've gone to one collision center that gave me the top estimate of "only brand new parts for that specific vehicle from that specific maker." He seemed to know what he's doing, and I trust his skills, buuuut, he himself was being very unprofessional while I was there. The next collision center was a bit of a disaster with the owner grumbling about how crappy new cars are, and how he couldn't give me a proper estimate without taking the front off my car first, and then he slammed my hood shut... which dislodged my headlight further and wouldn't let my hood actually latch...
He also gave me the low-ball estimate of "probably going to use all refurbished parts, and I couldn't see everything without taking off the front" which was about half of the quote the first guy gave me.
Needless to say, I am NOT going to that second guy.
Thankfully, my manager at work knew of another collision center in the next town over, and let me leave work early so I could get an estimate before they closed for Memorial Day weekend. I have to say, I am DEFINITELY going with these last guys, as long as their estimate doesn't come back as more than the first guy's.
See, I don't have the estimate quite yet.... I got there with about a half-hour before the collision center closed. They took pictures for insurance purposes, and checked everything out to see what I would need replaced. They didn't have the time to look up prices for the pieces, though - hence me not having the quote yet - because they were a bit more concerned with a couple of other things.
As I mentioned, the headlight got dislodged further while the second repair guy was pulling and shifting things to see around the front bumper to see what needed replacing. Which meant the inside of my hood looked like this.
The back of the headlight was now resting on my fuse box and was preventing the hood from closing all the way. The cracks in the headlight were now at the perfect angle to catch the rain we had been having off and on all week, so some water was already pooled inside a touch.
Also, with all the not-so-gentle tugging on the front bumper, it was now significantly off the main body of the car. When I drove my Cruze to the third collision place, since I'd be on the road for about ten minutes or so, going about 50mph (80kph) on the stretch of road connecting the two towns, I thought I'd be smart and bungie everything together. I have a whole package of those mini-bungies that are only about 3 or 4 inches long (~8cm). I latched two from the hood to the body, making sure to lace through the bumper as well to try to hold everything together.
The guys at the collision center were not fans of my ingenuity....
They were afraid the bungies wouldn't hold. The bumper could fall off the front too quickly for me to stop, so I'd run it over; popping my tires and/or tearing my undercarriage apart. Or I could cause an accident. Oooor, the bungies would fail and my hood would come flying back at me, smashing in my windshield, possibly dislodging and destroying my roof, or even get me into another accident. Then there was the headlight problem: it could scrape the fuse box and damage that, at the very least abandoning me with no electricity to my car, at worse it could spark an electrical fire. Plus, the water pooling in the headlight could also cause a short. The turn signal wasn't working either, or the fog lamp... and I have no horn to warn people....
They were NOT going to let me leave with the car like that. So, instead of pricing up my quote for me, they - completely of their own accord; free of charge - spent the next half-hour banging out the dent a little on the one fender so the headlight could lay in it properly. They also JUST finished repairing another 2015 Cruze that was hit on the left side by a deer. So they had a "replacement" headlight. It's not a permanent fix since this light is cracked as well, but the bulbs still work and the crack isn't so bad as to allow water inside. So it's a better option for safety reasons.
Also, don't worry, all of this work was after they took the pictures for the insurance company, and the original headlight is in my trunk in case the adjuster needs to see it in person.
They also managed to easily pop my blinker back in place and snap my bumper back on. Now, my bumper is in place, my hood closes, my fuse box is clear, and my lights work! Still need to get the actual parts replaced, but it's a good tide-me-over until I can get that police report and finally get some pay out from insurance.
Headlight from other Cruze that was hit by a deer
Bumper popped back into place and hood fully closed!
I felt really safe knowing these guys were looking out for me. Even if it was a ploy to try to win my business, it worked. Customer service will win you clients most of the time...
So that's been MY week for the most part. That, and being so mentally drained from this whole nightmarish rollercoaster that I just zone out on the couch when I am home.
There was really no way I would get my mind to work well enough for quality writing.
I DID manage to finally finish part 2 of my Meet My OCs series over on Tumblr. I had meant to post the first three in the series - all of the Real Life Inspirational Backstory stuff - on Sunday the 19th, when I posted the first part. When that didn't happen, I meant to post part 2 - the Real Life inspiration for all of my Gyateara main characters - on Monday or Tuesday. Some time relatively close to the original post. That also didn't happen.
So I figured, "I know! It will be a weekly series! I'll post part 2 on Sunday!"
Bitmoji
Missed that too. So yesterday I was DETERMINED to get this post done and published before it got any later. I hid out on the front porch, enjoying the sunshine for an hour or two after work, and COMPLETED PART 2! Yay!
In case you aren't sure what I'm talking about, what I started doing on Tumblr is give the background, and eventually I'll give the actual bios, of my original characters. I've wanted to do this since November, and I'm finally pulling the trigger on it. Part 1 talked about my inspiration for the two main story worlds I'm working with: Gyateara and "Glitches".
Part 2 talks about the real-world inspiration for each of my Gyateara characters. Things that wouldn't show up in their character bios. Things like Amara being my first D&D character and based off a mini Hubby had given me when we were dating. Or Natalie and Connor each being hodge-podge meshes of cliched anime protagonists. Or Jolene being my longest-running D&D character who also inspired my first winning NaNoWriMo story.
So, if you want the full details on those four lovely characters, check out my Part 2 of my Meet My OCs series. I'm going to try REALLY HARD to get Part 3 properly done for a Sunday update over on Tumblr, but I'll be sure to link here on next week's blog as well.
Biscuit Facebook sticker
by Ghostbot
I did manage to get more reading in this week, though. Taurus Pixie had her latest chapter of "Chat Vert" up yesterday, and I quickly devoured it. We finally get to see Adrien's perspective of what's happened so far. We also get to see his jealous, borderline possessive, tendencies whenever he sees Ladybug with another man. That man, of course, is the amazing Luka. So... his nervousness about losing Ladybug to Luka is quite justified. Just... not EXACTLY the way he's thinking.
Anyway... go check out the story!
In the meantime, I haven't written anything fictional all month. I've slacked off a touch once, I don't want to do so again. I guess that means this week's goal is to write up a nice one-shot to finish the month off with. Anyone have any suggestions?
Oh! And I used some of my "I'm doing brainless activities to zen out" time this past week to go through my Bitmoji app and save just about every image I could find that MIGHT be valid to use on this blog at some point or another. I think I have over 200 images. So, you'll be seeing a lot more of Cartoon Me from now on.
So, things got a little bit derailed for me this week.
And by 'derailed' I mean:
I'm fine, the guy who hit me is fine - although I did nearly strangle him... - and the car WAS drivable still... sorta. At least, it was until I went to get quotes from different collision centers. The repetitive opening of the hood ended up shifting the already dislodged headlight, and now the hood won't latch closed... Soooooo, I'm letting it just kinda sit and wait until I'm ready to drive it to the body center...
In the meantime, Hubby's one friend has a loaner car we're borrowing. Back to driving stick, and boy howdy is this car LOUD! Not only the engine itself - because it has one of those sports car spoilers on the hood or whatever - but the inside of the car itself sounds like a wind tunnel! But, the car runs well, I still remember how to drive standard, and it's a way for us to go from point A to point B safely. That's all I care about right now.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the accident, and a few other insurance complications - which I won't get into - getting my poor Cruze fixed up within a reasonable amount of time and within my budget may prove more challenging than originally thought.
That being said, it should be fairly obvious that I've been a bit... distracted this past week while trying to sort this out. I'm even late to publishing this week's post because I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday running around trying to get all of my ducks lined up. I'm just mentally exhausted right now, trying to handle this nightmare of a claim.
Thankfully, there were also PLEASANT distractions for me this past weekend. So it wasn't ALL doom and gloom.
First of all, a new "Miraculous Ladybug" episode dropped last Thursday. On top of that, all of the previous episodes that originally had only French dubbing were finally released in English. So Wolfhearted swung by Friday night - after my accident - and we ate Camembert and quiche and watched the latest four episodes: Silencer, Bakerix, Onichan, and Miraculer.
Friday also had an update for EdenDaphne's story Discordant Sonata. It was a lovely conclusion to her akuma attack chapter. A bit of a game-changer chapter, actually. So, if you're into Miraculous Ladybug, want to check out a neat Enemy AU where Chat Noir is allies with Hawk Moth instead of Ladybug, and want a story elevated with mood music cues and illustrations, go check out her story.
Now circling back to Silencer for a moment. Back when the episode first aired, I made an observation about the character Luka. Actually, I made MULTIPLE observations about Luka. One of them included excitement over the fact that Luka finally has distinct eyelashes!
Luka in his introductory
episode Captain Hardrock.
Luka in his most recent
episode Silencer
Another compare and contrast L:Silencer R:Captain Hardrock
Anyway the observation I wanted to actually talk about here is the fact that we got to see how much Luka truly loves Marinette in Silencer. I did up a quick micro-essay about it over on Tumblr, and it kind of blew up a little.
As of this writing, my post - Luka Defends - is up to 1581 notes! That's WAAAAAY more than any other original content I have posted on Tumblr!
It's good to see my boy Luka getting the love and respect he deserves.
Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.
It's been kinda cool to watch my Tumblr dash flood with "so-and-so liked your post Luka Defends" or "so-and-so reblogged your post Luka Defends" over the past month.
Another big post this past week was my answer to an ask Cyhyr sent me on Tumblr. She and I each shared a Tumblr game where 26 fanfiction-based questions are listed: A through Z. Your followers are supposed to ask you to answer the prompts/questions by sending you the corresponding letter.
Cy's ask for me was U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
It kept me a minute to really narrow down to three fic writers, but even so, I couldn't stop there. I included seven in total, as well as gave myself a self-promotion at the end. Now, when I talked about each writer, I tagged their Tumblr accounts. Both Baneismydragon and Edendaphne reblogged my promotions of them, along with gushing thank-yous that made me tear up a touch.
Now, naturally, if each of those ladies have large followings, their followers will like and/or reblog from Bane or Eden, which would still show up on my dash since I was the originator of the post. Either way, after a week, the post is up to 176 notes, 24 of those being reblogs. I've also seen notes along the lines of "I haven't heard of everyone on this list, but if they're grouped in with [insert favorite writer here] then I'll have to make sure to check them out."
And, really, that's how it should be.
I know I was able to get a few new readers out of my self-promotion, so I hope that also means the other authors were able to find an uptick in their writings as well.
If you're into Miraculous Ladybug and wanted to see who I included in that ask, feel free to check out my answer here.
Another original post I threw up on Tumblr this week is actually a touch old for you fine folks. With the English airing of Silencer, and the popularity of my Luka Defends post, I figured I'd see what kind of response I'd get for the story I wrote for Taurus Pixie. It's a relatively short one-shot, so I went ahead and posted the full story onto Tumblr. I also included links to my FFN, AO3, and DA postings. This way people could read the story on the site they preferred, but they now also knew where else they could find my work.
My posting of I Was Thinking Of You on Tumblr has 67 notes, including 10 reblogs; one of which included the added comment of "Ahhh this killed me."
So, not much by way of new content this week, but I did do a lot of promotion for myself on Friday, which seems to be working at least a little. Since Friday, I've had 5 new likes/kudos on Peeping Tomcat, 4 new likes/kudos for Woven Heartstrings, 2 for Build Your Own Luck, and a whopping 11 for I Was Thinking of You, along with one fave of the story. I've also received 3 new comments on my stories. Now, I have no proof that any of those were because of the posts I put on Tumblr this weekend, but it's possible that they are.
One of the new comments on my fanfics was for PT, and it asked me if I would be posting "One and the Same" soon. The question is probably in part due to genuine interest in the story, which is cool, but it was also probably in part because I wrote in my closing notes of the story that OatS should be out in March...
I haven't had the heart to message the person back yet to say that it's still going to be a while. I should probably use my guilt to motivate me to stop procrastinating with other projects, and just work on OatS again finally! It's been roughly a month. I need to stop dragging my feet.
That didn't stop me from ONE bit of new(ish) content on Sunday, and the intention of doing a daily-update series of about 17 posts.
That is, before the whole car accident thing...
Anyway, I have wanted to introduce the People of Tumblr to my original characters for MONTHS now, and this weekend I finally had the motivation to start writing up bios for everyone. Well, sorta. As I was working on the first bio, I realized that not everyone knows the Real World history for the inspiration of each character, or the worlds they belong in: Gyateara and Glitches. So my first task was to introduce them to the worlds.
It hasn't really had much love, and I kinda get it. I'm talking about my inspiration for world-builds for stories my followers aren't invested in because there's no actual story to read yet. I did mean to keep going with my series by explaining the Real World backstories to the creation of my characters. Then I would get into the actual character bios.
Buuuut, the car thing has been draining me, and I haven't had time to write this blog before now, let alone work on more of my Meet My OCs series.
Maybe I'll turn it into a weekly thing and post the next one on Sunday....
So, between now and Sunday, I should work on that next post in the series. I should also REALLY work on OatS some more. We'll see where my head is at while I keep battling insurances and whatnot.
With any luck, I'll be back on schedule this upcoming Tuesday. So I'll catch ya then!
In the meantime, I'd like to wish my father a belated birthday.
Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
created by Nagaru Tanigawa
I think we had a grand total of four hours of sunshine this whole week. I was outside washing down my porch furniture during some of it... and then promptly got pummeled by rain out of nowhere. It was sunny. There was a distant thunderclap. Rain came splashing at me. The worst part is that I have a covered porch, and I was pressed up against the outer wall of my apartment. Under normal circumstances, I could enjoy the energy being outside in a sun-shower gives me, but the winds were so bad I was STILL getting drenched. Worst yet was that I had my laptop outside with me so I could watch YouTube videos while I was cleaning, so I had to quickly scoop that up and sprint inside before it got too wet.
Yaaaay.... Raaaaain....
My one coworker says her yard might as well be a swamp or a moat at this point, and, frankly, I believe her. It's getting quite pathetic out there...
It's getting quite pathetic in here as well...
Yet another week where I didn't really do much of anything. Not a single word was added to "One and the Same," nor have I worked on yet ANOTHER side project.
Well... almost....
Friday I was quite surprised to see someone's name in my Facebook messenger list. Someone who either hasn't been on FB in a while, or at least hasn't been on the same time I have been in MONTHS.
This guy:
The Wonder Twins, as designed by Hanna-Barbera
Yup, I was able to chat with my Wonder Twin Ronoxym, and he reminded me that, just like Jayna, I truly do need my Zan in my life. It's great to just sit and chat with him. We were actually on messenger together for HOURS on Friday, which was FANTASTIC after months of radio silence.
Stupid adulting...
It was just great to be goofy with him, and to vent to him, let him vent to me, catch up on what's going on in each of our lives, and just go on and on and on about both "Game of Thrones" and "Avengers: Endgame."
Among all of that chatting, three things happened.
One: We jointly came up with a really cool fanfic concept for the MCU, which nagged at me the rest of the day, so I ended up writing up the rough concept outline on Tumblr. It has a major Endgame spoiler built into the concept, so be warned if you wish to check it out.
For those who want to know, but don't feel like reading the whole thing:
The long and short of the story is that Senior Citizen Steve Rogers, going by an alias now, befriends Young Phil Coulson in the 70s or 80s. Steve has aged and changed enough that Phil doesn't know he's talking to THE Captain America, and so this is a way for Steve to fix at least one regret in life: never giving Coulson a chance to befriend his hero. The two become close, with Steve and Peggy becoming surrogate grandparents to Phil, and it is actually Steve himself who inadvertently made Phil such a Cap fanboy. On top of that, it was Peggy who encouraged Phil to join SHIELD in the first place. Steve knew it would lead to Coulson's death, but he couldn't chance preventing Coulson from joining, and potentially never giving the Avengers a reason to unite to defend NYC in the first place. There's a lot more within the skeleton outline I came up with, but that was the meat and potatoes of it....
Anyway, I will most likely not take the time to actually write the thing more than I just did, so if anyone out there is inspired, you're welcome to the concept, just please send me a link once you're done, and a credit for the plot bunny would be nice. Not sure who would see it though, since the Tumblr post hasn't really had much love. The only one who seemed to have seen it was my buddy Skarabrae-stone, but still, the idea is out of my head, and the Plot Bunny has joined its brethren on my Plunny farm. That's enough for now.
Which brings me to the second thing that happened.
Two: I once again lamented my unintentional abduction of his Willow/Devon short story - meant to be only about 5 pages long, at most - which resulted in it being about TWENTY-EIGHT pages long, and sitting in WIP-limbo for almost exactly 4 years.... I admitted I went a bit overboard with the concept. I then expressed my hope that the editing skills and overall story crafting skills I honed slightly since I started work on “Peeping Tomcat” would be enough for me to re-focus "Please, Let Me Explain". This whole editing project is next up on my list once OatS is done.
As I discussed my need to go back and edit PLME so we could get back to writing and finishing it, I also acknowledged that I desperately needed to whittle PLME back down from the monstrosity I created.
To which Ron replied with: "No you don't. It'll be long as hell, and beautiful as all get out."
Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.
Ron, you are a beautiful human being!
Those two, simple sentences killed a nagging paranoia that had been in my head for the past 4 years: I took over Ron's story, bloated it way past his initial concept, and now it's so overwhelming he can't/won't work on it, which means I'm responsible for killing his muse/inspiration for this story, and he probably never wants to collab with me ever again because I just bulldoze over my fellow-creator.
Now, not to say any of that is NOT true, to some degree, but the fact that he seems to genuinely enjoy the way the story has gone is a MAJOR weight off my heart. He hasn't continued working on the story because he genuinely has been too busy to think about it, not because he's mad at me or because I killed his muse or what-have-you.
This revelation led me to my third thing.
Three: My overall desire to work on writing projects again jumpstarted.
I opened up PLME again on Saturday, and just sorta skimmed through it. It wasn't as painful a read as I thought it would be, so yay us. Our writing wasn't cringingly bad 4yrs ago! Whoo! It DOES need polishing though, and I more-or-less know how to do that, so it is evident that I DID improve on my skills over the past handful of years, so that's also encouraging. Yay yet again!
I didn't actually start on editing anything, or take notes - aside from mental ones - on where to tighten or adjust, but that initial "let's take a look at this thing for the first time in years" happened, and that's kind of a big step.
Hacker Boy Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.
I actually had a DRIVE to do something this week. It didn't really amount to much, but it did start up the gears again. I was motivated to read through PLME so I could get re-acquainted with the story. I wanted to bring up the Devon and Trish fight scene as well so I could finish that rework too. As well as maybe FINALLY come up with a title for the dang project!
I wanted to work on "Glitches" a bit more too, and even thought through some more world-build as I flipped through writing advice and resources on Tumblr.
OH! That reminds me! Random side note: I have a writing-focused blog on Tumblr now. The blog you are currently reading will always be where I talk about how my week went in the world of writing, as well as my over-all writing process and writing progress. It will be where I talk about my struggles of a writer, the joys of the faves and reviews, and promote my latest writing projects. The Rogue's Scribe will always be my main "writing blog." However, I have nearly 1650 Tumblr posts just chilling in my drafts folder to eventually sift through and reblog. At least half of those posts are writing related, but always felt weird to put on my main blog for whatever reason, even though it's a hodge-podge mess anyway. Probably because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to re-find the writing related posts when I need them again.
Anyway, for MONTHS now I wanted to do up a writing-centric Tumblr, and the thing that kept stalling this goal was... you know it... say it with me now...
I couldn't come up with a title for the blog. Which also meant I couldn't think of a handle for it. But I'll get back to this in a moment. For now, let's stay focused on the inspiration sprung from my convo with Ron.
So, still dealing with Happening Number Three: drive to edit. I wanted to work on PLME again. I wanted to rework the fight scene between Devon and Trish. Both stories wanted me to work on Glitches as a whole again. Part of me even wanted to work on world-building Gyateara a bit more. I just had this desire to Create on Saturday.
Sadly, it ended up not really amounting to anything, as I already mentioned, but it was the first time I had the DRIVE to even attempt anything writing-related pretty much all month - this blog not withstanding.
Sunday, that drive was still there, thankfully. So I cracked open my netbook at work for the first time this month, with every intention of writing another scene for OatS. I got a bit side-tracked though. Mainly because I wasn't sure whose chapter the scene should be yet again. I'm STILL having issues with figuring out the final chapter, and writing it in third person to test the waters isn't helping, so I wasn't sure if I should bother with the same tactic with this new scene I've been brainstorming for a little while now.
So I did the only other logical thing: I worked on yet ANOTHER outline for the story. This time I'm breaking down the overall plot into potential chapters, and then designating them to a narrator: Marinette or Adrien. I'm trying really hard to bounce back and forth between them: odd-numbered chapters are narrated by Marinette, and even chapters are Adrien's. With this concept I should be able to see whose turn it's supposed to be when I get to the scene I'm thinking of, as well as see if I need to actually shift things around a little so the chapter can actually be narrated by the other character. It helps me also see their respective character arcs this way.
I didn't get terribly TOO far with the outline before my computer died on me, and I was busy all day yesterday, so I couldn't get back into the outline, but it was still progress.
Teeny, tiny, barely anything, progress, but it's still more than I've done all month, and a step in the right direction. I got my foot through the proverbial door, and that initial push to write shouldn't be so hard anymore.
Plus, between the massive highs and lows of the latest Game of Thrones season, and the literally debatable plot-holes in "Avengers: Endgame," I've been talking about writing in general with a LOT of people lately: Ska, Ron, and Hubby, to name just a few. Talking about what we loved and what we hated with each episode or movie really brings up the questions of "what makes a good story? What is good storytelling? Are character arcs we're watching fulfilling, and why or why not? Is it a great subversion of writing in general if those character arcs don't feel complete? Was plot sacrificed for character growth? Was it the other way around?" There are TONS of storytelling and writing questions these stories present, and the (mostly civil) discord it's causing is FANTASTIC.
Love the episodes, hate them, thought Endgame was the perfect close, or believe the Russo Brothers need to re-learn how to write a solid script; regardless of where you are on the spectrum of feelings with regards to these bits of media, the overall discussion that comes out is awesome. And, frankly, Endgame left a LOT open - on purpose or no - for fantheories and fanfics to develop. Which means awesome content for me to devour.
If nothing else, these fandoms are erupting with their own creatives: fanart, fancomics, fanfiction, and/or fantheories. And these creatives are being used to either correct perceived wrongs in the canon presented in these conclusions to epic tales, or they are expanding upon concepts presented, or they're theorizing on how the canon could make sense.
People are being overly critical with the stories they're consuming, which is a bit terrifying as a writer, but at the same time it is invigorating to see so much discussion about storytelling surrounding me. It helps me see the pitfalls other storytellers are tripping into, so it's easier for me to avoid them in my own works.
Also, I'm in those discussions as well. I'm also being analytical and going into stories with a critical eye. I have my own criticisms for Endgame and Game of Thrones, as well as a few of the anime series that Hubby and I are watching, and even some of the fanfiction I've read this past week.
I won't go into details here as to what pulled me out of the fanfics, because I don't wish to shine a bad light on otherwise beautiful stories. It did help me understand what pulls me out of stories, though, and so I hope it will therefore help me avoid the same pitfalls in my own writing.
Which, I guess, brings me back to that writing tumblr... or... wriblr I believe they're called? Or something like that???
Along with studying the writing trip-ups of other stories, I've also been going through the writing advice I've had saved in my Tumblr drafts section. Mostly so I could finally empty out the drafts by reblogging them to my writing-centric Tumblr.
As I mentioned above, I've wanted to do this for MONTHS - at least since November - but stalled out by not coming up with a good title and/or handle for the new blog. I couldn't use LycoRogue, since that was attached to my main blog: Inside the Tree Trunk
You know, I don't recall if I ever explained the name of the blog. Basically, it's a nod to a D&D campaign Hubby briefly ran. My character Pamela Sheppard - going by the stage name Arianna Snow - had unintentionally charmed a nymph, who instantly became smitten with Arianna. The nymph was also a high priestess for her goddess, and since Arianna wasn't really of a faith at the time, she just sort of shrugged and told the nymph "Yeah, I'll follow your goddess, I guess." The weird pseudo-courtship the two had led the goddess to favor Arianna, and gift her with a magical tree. It grew next to the sacred pool the nymph watched over, and if Arianna knocked on the tree trunk it would open up into an endless trove for anything Arianna wished to hide within it.
So, since my main Tumblr blog is also an endless trove for anything I find value in and wish to save, I figured "Meh, this is my own magical tree trunk." Thus the name...
AAAAAAANYWAY, as I was saying, I couldn't use LycoRogue as my handle. I knew I wanted to somehow include my latest writing mantra - just get the shit on paper; dare to be bad - within the writing blog. I tried naming the blog itself Get The Shit On Paper or Dare to be Bad, but I couldn't use either phrase as my handle; they were already used. Not thinking of alternative names that I enjoyed, I gave up for months.
However, I guess also thanks to my convo with Ron, I finally went "Ya know what? Let's try one last attempt at that handle." This time I changed tenses slightly: Getting Shit On Paper. It's a bit crude, but I also kind of loved it, so that became my handle for my writing blog on Tumblr.
The blog name itself needs some work, but it gets the point across for right now: The Writer's Random Resource Guide, managed by @gettingshitonpaper.
There isn't much up quite yet. I need to find the time to go through all of those drafts - of which, again, there are over 1600! - and start setting up a queue of them. Still, there's SOMETHING up on it right now, so feel free to hit it up if you're on Tumblr and would like a generic resource blog.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to ride this wave while it's active, and work on some of my writing.
As I'm sure you are all painfully aware, I don't write short works. My blog posts, my stories, my CHAPTERS, are all long. Very long. Incredibly, "set aside at least 15minutes" long.
So, it would make sense that it also takes me a long time to write all of that, correct?
Normally, I get started on these blog posts at about 8am, and I USUALLY get my update written and edited for a noon publishing. However, as you have witnessed, sometimes those four hours still isn't enough time. I'm still late to publish. I just have so much to say; so much going on. I need to get it all out, and refine it, and edit it; polish it. Sometimes I need five hours, or even an insane six!
Today? Today I didn't even open Blogger until 10:30 this morning. Today, I didn't think I even needed to get started then.
Because I have nothing really to tell you this past week. I don't know what it is, if I'm feeling burnt out after my pathetic show at April's Camp NaNo, if the weather not knowing what it's doing got me sick, or if I'm just feeling overwhelmed by life in general right now. But this week I've been... lethargic? I guess that's the best way to describe it.
One night I even came home from work and passed out on the couch for darn near three hours. Ya know, because my job - which includes me sitting at my desk virtually doing nothing most of the day - is sooooo exhausting.
Last Tuesday evening, Hubby and I met up with Skarabrae-stone so we could watch "Avengers: Endgame" together. It was an exciting emotional rollercoaster of a movie, and it's been fun randomly checking in with Ska and a few of my other friends, just chatting briefly about the movie or sending Endgame memes to each other. But I'm not as obsessively focused on the movie as most seem to be.
In fact, I believe Hubby was right: we watched Endgame and Game of Thrones out of order. Episode 3 of the final season of GoT aired on April 28th. We went to watch Endgame on April 30th. Out of the two, the GoT episode was more intense and emotionally charged. Not to say that Endgame WASN'T, but I feel it would have been more impactful if we watched it opening night, and then amped up the emotional manipulation by watching the GoT episode. Even so, once the episode was done it was all but out of my mind for the rest of the week.
Apparently I just couldn't be bothered with lingering thoughts of anything.
Normally, since I still don't get a flood of comments/reviews in on my stories or blog, I can usually respond to everyone who commented. I generally do so within a day of seeing the review/comment. I actually take pride in taking that time to reply to my readers; build a relationship with them.
Responding to readers' comments is how Ali Luke and I became friends; she took the time to reply to each of my comments on her blog. It's also how I became such good friends with Taurus Pixie as I put in the effort to respond to each of her lovely reviews. I've also become friends with a couple of other readers, such as TLOS21, Nkemmer777 and ChubbyUnicornMama, after taking the time to respond to their reviews. That extra step in communication opened the doorway for more non-story related conversations.
It's one of the things I'm determined to keep up for as long as I can: responding to reviews/comments/fan mail.
And yet, despite "I Was Thinking of You" doing so well, and getting such lovely reviews - which I'll talk about in a little bit - I still have eight reviews sitting in my inbox, waiting for me to respond. They're glowing reviews, or at least positive ones, that I should be happy to reply to, and yet, I haven't. Pixie has also finished reading "Prescription for Love" and reviewed the last four chapters of that, and I haven't responded to her either, despite having warm fuzzy feels.
TLOS21 noticed that we haven't really chatted while I was "away at camp" and messaged me to see how I was doing. While I've mentally written responses to her and to those twelve reviews, I just get sleepy whenever I attempt to actually write any of them. My eyes are getting heavy just writing this, to be honest.
Two fanfic stories that I follow - "Chat Vert" by Pixie, obviously, I talked about that last week, and "When Duty and Desire Meet" by MidnightStarlightWrites and edendaphne - both updated yesterday. I was so excited to see both updates. It had been months since the latest WDDM update - I actually had to re-read the previous chapter to remind myself what happened - and it was equally exciting to see that Pixie's writers block was gone.
And yet, I didn't read either update yesterday. Mostly because I knew I didn't have the energy to write a proper review once I was finished. Sooooo, I read and commented on both this morning instead of working on this blog post.
This has been my life this week....
I'm not used to this kind of "meh" attitude and lack of energy. It HAS been annoyingly rainy this past week, and we HAVE been rushing through the last of the obviously-too-big-for-just-the-two-of-us Easter ham. Perhaps some sunshine and a new protein this week will be the reset I need. That, and I don't have to work three days in a row with a co-worker I constantly butt heads with. We just clash for who knows what reason. My other co-worker took a mini-vacation this past weekend, so it was just me and the co-worker I don't exactly get along with, which probably added to my funk this past week.
With some new protein, sunshine, and less stress at work, I'm hoping to be back to my normal self.
I still find it so odd that I was in such a funk this past week, though. Especially with such lovely reviews just sitting in my email for me to re-read whenever I want. I mean, check these out.
Ah, my heart
Very nicely done. Perfect gift for Taurus pixie. I really enjoyed the Luka and Mari moments, And I am almost wholeheartedly a Adrien/Mari fan. The writing is descriptive and brought me quickly. Thanks for a great read.
...Now I just really wanna watch that fictional movie :P
This was very sweet, thank you
This was super cute! Love it!
THIS FIC IS SO VALID I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A GOOD DAY
Side note, the "movie" that one review referenced was the romcom the girls were all watching in the story. It was such a pain to come up with a good concept on the fly. I'm terrible at that, actually. For those who either haven't read IWTOY yet, or forgot the movie they watched, here's the DVD cover summary Alya read to the group:
Gareth has always been a loner, and he was convinced that it was by choice. Then he met Julia, an independent motocross racer in town for a tournament. Suddenly, Gareth realizes he's not as happy to be a lone wolf as he once thought, and he tries desperately to make Julia part of his life. Problem is, she's been burnt before, and has become a bit of a loner-by-design herself, only relying on her skeleton pit crew for both racing and emotional support. Is it even possible for Gareth to convince Julia to take down her protective wall? Or will he be forced to learn to live without her again once the tournament is through, and she moves on to the next town?
So, uh, thanks, Reviewer, for thinking that plot was good enough to want to watch.... It actually validates the amount of time I spent trying to come up with it. I thought it was one of the low-points of that short story, so I'm glad my "low" was still enticing.
Anyway, I think the cream of the crop of the reviews for this story that I got this week was over on AO3.
I'm in tears. this was heart-rendingly beautiful. sometimes lukanette is written like some kind of consolation or pettiness, but this is the real deal. it was so romantic! i got dokis fo days.
on a real note, this reminded me of the only person I ever truly loved and how meeting them helped me get over my years-long schoolyard crush on someone else. that's how I feel about lukanette i guess; that Marinette isn't "moving on" from loving Adrien bc she has yet to have that chance, but she has the chance to love Luka bc he's interested in her.
-that's not to say anything about the canon, but it's an important distinction in this ship for me.
lmao look at me rambling and preaching away over this! thank you for writing this, i absolutely adore it!
I....
Aside from maybe Pixie, I don't know if I've ever evoked emotion like THAT before! At least, not enough for someone to let me know that I did! Not that articulately, at least...
So, thanks to that reviewer as well. I consider this a big win, and a bit of a milestone.
And I haven't even touched upon the four reviews of PFL that Pixie left me.
It was a good week for reviews. I even had a few faves of IWTOY over on DeviantArt, and you KNOW people generally don't bother going there for fanfiction!
So why didn't that energize me like it normally does? Why didn't that spark me to write more content for these lovely people? Why didn't I even take my netbook out of my work bag this whole week? Or open a word doc on my laptop while I was home? Why wasn't I motivated at all?????
I went to bed nearly each night this past week, mentally yelling at myself for not working on my writing any further. I was determined to at least attempt to figure some things out as I was nodding off. I know I need to shift some things around from Chapter 3 to one of my later "closing Act II" chapters. In fact, I now realize I need to almost completely revamp the opening of the 3rd chapter. The close of it could virtually be a chapter in and of itself, but the lead-in desperately needs to be reworked.
I am also now wondering the "validity" of my opening villain for the story, which may be why I haven't been able to properly figure out a way to take them down.
So... YAY! More edits before I even finish writing the thing. I hope if I can motivate myself to work on these tweaks this week I can get myself back on track.
Oh, and look at that... only a couple minutes late with my update this week. Guess I really didn't need more than those 90minutes to write this after all...
Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books by Bryan Lee O'Malley
