Face Reveal... Kinda

I want to start off with something a little fun today. I know that I normally represent myself with long-haired redheads such as this:

or, more recently, like this:

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However, I actually have deep brunette hair naturally. Also, while my hair was LONGER than the above Bitmoji implies, I also got most of it chopped off for the summer last Tuesday. In the end, I figured it would be fun to switch up my Bitmoji real quick to give you guys a better idea of what I truly look like.

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Minor editing in Pixlr.com

Completely unintentionally, I wore the outfit my Bitmoji had on: black sneakers, blue jeans, and rust-red shirt. So I decided to take an extra 10min or so to edit the shirt so it truly is what I'm wearing right now: my Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time "Light It Up" shirt. It has the "musical notes" for the Sun's Song. It's my matching shirt to Hubby's "Make It Rain" shirt with the Song of Storms on it. Also... my shirt has the added nod to Trish and her theme song "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)" by Fall Out Boy.

Anyway, there I am in all my nerdy glory!

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I generally straighten my naturally wavy hair so it isn't QUITE as poofy as my Bitmoji implies, and I have wisps of bangs over my right eye (with the part on the left side of my head). Buuuut, close enough?

I like my LycoRogue persona being a long-haired redhead though - mainly because I tend to keep my hair long and I used to dye my hair - so I'll keep going with my usual Bitmojis. I just figured it would be fun to show off what I "really" look like.

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Just wish I could flip the hairstyles Bitmoji generates so my part/bangs are on the correct sides of my head....

AAAAAAANYWAY! You guys are here to find out about my writing.

Well... on the one hand, I've been fairly consistent, and I've even written nearly every day. On the other hand, I still only have about half the word count I should be at by now.

A previously sold (read: old) word count tracker for Camp NaNoWriMo
Designed by Miss Write
You can find other amazing (and really cheap!) trackers,
calendars, and planner stickers on her etsy: WriteMissWrite

I seem to be averaging around 7000 words per week, which isn't BAD, but It also isn't the 10,870 words per week I SHOULD be hitting. Also, while I wrote roughly double for "One and the Same" this week than I did last week, overall I wrote fewer words this past week. Yay...

I've been mostly editing this week, honestly. I just went ahead and jumped to that Final Chapter first draft file I had. The one where I wrote the 11pg scene in 3rd person because I couldn't figure out whose chapter it should be. This past week I've been rewriting this final chapter so it's that tag-teamed first-person POV. As I mentioned last week, doing so has greatly lengthened this "final chapter." I'm already up to 16 pages, and I still have 3 more pages of the original draft to rework, as well as the actual fluffy ending, which I never got around to writing before, ironically.

So, the first 11 pages are their own chapter, and apparently I'm doing multiple chapters of tag-teamed 1st person, as I predicted I would. I'm already 5pgs into the penultimate chapter, and, as I just mentioned, I still have at least 3 pages to adapt.

Now, I had hoped that reworking the chapter in the tag-teamed 1st person would allow me to definitively figure out whose chapter it is. I figured, if I just wrote without thinking about who was taking the lead, just follow the story as it organically came forth, just switch perspectives simply when the story called for it, then I could go back and see who had the larger page-time. That would be my narrator for the chapter, and I'd figure out what to do with the insight for the other character.

So I wrote. Then I counted. At first it DID seem like it was Adrien's chapter, as it should have been. The first exchange had Marinette roughly 200 words behind Adrien's section. Then she was almost exactly 300 words behind Adrien in the next trade-off. Then I got to the last exchange before I found a natural break for the chapter. Marinette more than doubled Adrien's word-count, which resulted in Marinette's total word-count for the chapter being 2879 to Adrien's 2804!

Seventy-five words! 75! That's it! Talk about even...

No wonder I had such trouble trying to figure out whose chapter it was! We'll see if the penultimate chapter is the same way. So far, after two exchanges, Adrien has over a 900 word deficit to Marinette. I shall see if Adrien will make up the difference later in the chapter, although, technically, this WOULD be Marinette's chapter again if I kept going with the one-per-chapter back-and-forth.

In the meantime, it's been fun to break Marinette's brain and Adrien's heart in these climactic scenes.

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Another episode of Miraculous Ladybug came out this past weekend. I think the fandom will forever refer to it as the Cringe Episode, and will hardcore hate on it - it's already getting a lot of hate - but I actually really enjoyed it. Yes, there were a LOT of cringe moments, and I was screaming at the TV A LOT, but I was also entertained. The reason I bring it up though, is because it actually allows us even more insight into the main four characters of Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino. It also is just a good reference episode for Marinette's and Adrien's respective feelings.

On top of that, this meta-commentary mini-essay I found on Tumblr goes further into an analysis as to why it actually was a decent episode, bringing forth things I need to make sure to remember when writing both Adrien and Marinette for OatS: None of y’all are actually understanding The Puppeteer 2 (spoilers ahead) written by skaylanphear

Everything that Skaylanphear stated made me realize something else that I think I knew kind of under the surface, but didn't fully grasp until I saw their meta commentary: Marinette has TERRIBLE self-esteem. On my reblog of Skaylanphear's essay, I added my own about the subject of Marinette's self-esteem and how it further explains away the "cringe-y" moments of the episode: my commentary is below theirs

That was actually what I worked on for the better part of 2hrs last night instead of working on OatS more... so...
Yay! I was still writing.
Boo. I wasn't working on the writing project I'm massively behind on.

Speaking of, how HAS my month looked with regards to overall writing? I know I have some Camp NaNo zero-days, but I actually only have one time where I just completely forgot writing was a thing.

Not the fantastic numbers I would like for Camp, nor the numbers I need to finish this story before the end of the month, but I AM still working on SOMETHING nearly every day. I'm getting in AT LEAST my five-minutes-a-day so I can avoid having zero-days. I'm trying to refocus on writing as the priority.

It's just been rough in doing so. I did a quick check-in at my Camp cabin so my fellow NaNoers would know I was doing fine, but I STILL haven't really socialized with them any further this month. As much as I would love to chat with those lovely folks, I just don't have the time. I'd lose at least an hour trying to read and respond to everything. Which is also why I've been kind of absent on FB and Tumblr as well. I just can't do very much online while working on everything else.

I have still tried to take time to read fanfics though. Although, ironically, I'm way behind on Skarabrae-stone's Avengers fanfics. I've been lame and haven't actually sat down to read any of them. I've only ever listened to the stories when she reads them at writing group. I need to take the time to read her stuff. If you want to go ahead and see what she's got, the latest one she seems to be updating is called "Not a Perfect Soldier."

As for stories I HAVE read, well, after some struggling for a few weeks, Taurus Pixie wrote a fun little MariChat story for her friend ChibiRinni. She published it on the 8th, but I was lame and neglected to promote it last week.

Experimental Kiss

Summary: Worrying about not being able to act natural around Adrien, Marinette finds some unlikely help in the form of Chat Noir. However, things soon take an unexpected and passionate turn as their role-play session goes a little bit too far. One-shot.

Word Count: 4,605
Rating: T

You can find this story on FFN

It is so sweet, and she's getting great reviews. Most of which are us readers freaking out over how awesome it is and begging for more. Although, I COMPLETELY understand that she already has an overflowing plate with her current writing and life, so it may be quite a while before she gets back to this story, IF she does at all.

Another fanfic I neglected to promote was EdenDaphne's. In all fairness, that was largely because she updated her story while I was visiting my mom, and then I got sucked up in finishing "Bitterblue" by Kristin Cashore and working on my own writing. I was feeling lazy yesterday, so instead of continuing with my own writing, I focused on FINALLY reading Eden's latest chapter.

Discordant Sonata

Summary: “Ladybug… I… What choice do I have? Hawkmoth, he’s ruthless and determined. And he’s… he’s not just my boss. He’s family. If I defied him, what would I do? Where would I go? He’d take my miraculous away if I even tried. I don’t have a choice.”

Enemies AU where Chat has always worked with Hawkmoth from the very beginning.

THEME: Forbidden love
PROMPT: Dancing

Current Word Count: 39,941
Rating: T

You can find this story on AO3
You can find the latest chapter - Chapter 8: Abbandono - here

Chapter 8 is probably one of the most emotionally charged chapters I've read, let alone the most charged she wrote. There's warm fuzzy family goodness, and a moment of concern and question of fleeing, and then a confrontation with shattering results, and an intense fight, and finally a heartbreaking plea before the chapter ends on one heck of a cliffhanger. It's just- It's good, okay!? I was audibly cheering and booing and gasping and sobbing. She did a good job, alright?

I actually decided to read Eden's chapter instead of writing because I was already in a reading kick, so to speak. Omnibladestrike seems to have built up his writing confidence after starting writing group with me. He even posted the first chapter of his story over on Tumblr: Moon Wing chapter 1

He also asked me to edit both chapter 1 - for any last-minute typos and the like he might have missed - as well as chapter 2 so he could prep that for posting. So, this past weekend, I edited chapter 2 for him so it's good to go for whenever he wants to update, and then went back to see what I could catch for chapter 1.

At the same time, ChibiSunnie was about to do up her dummy book for her childrens story "The Pumpkin Prince." I had offered before to give it a look-over so she had a fresh set of eyes looking it over. She was nervous that I was too busy with Camp NaNo, but she really did need to get started with her dummy book.

I mean, it's a childrens book! And it's something my Chibi is trying to get published. How could I tell her no!? I gladly took a few minutes to look her story over.

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So I was kind of in read/edit mode this past week anyway, which probably also explains why I was editing the concluding chapter(s) of OatS instead of starting on something new. While in the mood, I might as well keep up the momentum and read Eden's chapter, right? And I'm glad I did.

I had fun taking a break and going through so many other writings this week. Now to stop procrastinating and getting back to my own.

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I only need 20,885 words by the end of next Monday to catch up. A simple 2984 words per day for all 7 days, including this one. I can do that.... when I've been writing an average of 870 per day thus far.... Yup. I can do it....

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Now to go re-watch the "Cringe Episode" a couple more times in order to get inspired....