Saturday, January 7, 2023

I'm ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Est. Read Time: 28min


Well! Hello, friends! Yes, I'm alive!

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Boy, have I missed this blog, and you all as well! I had such a great rhythm going. Despite me grumbling about 2019, I was finally getting to the point where I wrote daily and I updated this blog regularly and I was finally falling into a regular routine. Then the pandemic lockdown threw me off my game. Here we are, nearly three years later, and I'm still clawing my way back to that routine. Sadly, one of the largest casualties was my ability to fit in time for writing in general, let alone time to work on this blog.

Hubby's schedule - as I mentioned in my last post waaaaaaaaay back in Oct 2021 - was thrown out of whack for the rest of the year as he helped cover for his manager's maternity leave. His schedule being out of whack meant mine was too. I couldn't sort out a good time to work on my blog, especially since it tends to be a multi-hour endeavor between writing, editing, and double checking on the simple HTML coding. After a couple of missed weeks, and feeling terrible about missing said weeks, I eventually waved the white flag. It was clear I wasn't finding the time to blog, or even time to do any writing that I could then promote via my blog. I needed to realize that and stop beating myself up about it.

It was a rough decision, but I knew I needed to let the blog go. At least, for a time.

"For a time" then became ALL OF 2022!

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I kept thinking to myself, "I should get back into blogging. I miss it." Especially after my cousin started blogging, I got the itch to return here. The timing wasn't right though.

I had written a couple of stories, and I thought I might promote them here. But the timing still wasn't right.

The timing never seemed to be right.

Well, it's now a new year. This is the first week of 2023, and I was determined. All other Adulting tasks be damned. I was going to publish a blog post! I was going to MAKE the timing right!

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I cannot, nor will not, promise I'm back to updating my blog every week. Nor can I promise that I'll even update every Tuesday (I mean, not only have I already missed the first Tuesday of the year, but it's now 4 days later! Sooooooo). I can't even begin to guess if I'll have a regular time of day when I'll publish (like how it used to be noon, Eastern Time). However, I will try to get back onto *A* schedule of some sort. I will also promise to get at least ONE blog post published each month. I'm going to start relatively small: 12 blog posts by the end of 2023.

I'll eventually work my way back up to my pre-pandemic New Years resolutions: reading at least one book a month, writing daily, updating this blog every week, and publishing a new story at least once a month. I'm not there yet. So... baby steps. A blog post once a month, with a stretch-goal of posting more frequently. Write a handful of stories this year. Finish one of my multi-chapter WIPs.

That's right! You don't really know about those, huh? Okay, I'll have to do a 2022 recap. But first, I was hoping you all could help me out with something. Considering how long I have been gone from this blog, and how this is kind of a new start, I also figured it could be a good time for a bit of a refresh.

I started off with my horribly outdated description of this blog. Then I added that "estimated reading time" up at the top. Figured that would help people figure out the kind of commitment they were settling in for. I've also been debating about my font. I know that on certain browsers or computer brands (*cough*macs*cough*) or on mobile you might not see my stylized font. It may just be basic Helvetica or Ariel or Times New Roman, etc. However, for everyone who sees my stylized font - called Coming Soon, by the way - I fear it might be a touch hard to read. I know it's a bit difficult to see the punctuation the way the font is written. In turn, I fear that makes my blog look messy and more unprofessional than intended. It was fine for my late 20s/early 30s, but it might not be what I'm going for anymore. Out of a LENGTHY list of font options, I narrowed it down to five alternatives to this font. I just couldn't figure out which one I like best. So, here's where you fine folks come in, if you could. Which do you prefer?

My case for keeping Coming Soon is thus: it's been the signature font of my blog for years, and I like that it had a "handwritten" look to it. I like that this blog has a "handwritten journal on a scroll" aesthetic. Goes with the blog title, I think. Kinda old-world.

Sticking with the "handwritten" look, one of the first options is Indie Flower. It also has the roundness that my actual handwriting tends to have. In truth, my handwriting is kind of part this font, part cursive. I do this weird thing where I splice cursive into my print handwriting in order to write the fastest for me. I can't deny that the punctuation is at least easier to read in this font than in my standard Coming Soon. I'm just not sure if the readability is overall any better. The words also feel a bit closer together between lines to me. Makes it all look a little cramped. Do you guys agree? What do you think? (Also, this is me testing what this font looks like while bolded and italicized, in case that helps with the decision)

The other option I picked out is Schoolbell. Much like Indie Flower, this font reminds me of my handwriting. Mostly how messy it is. While I do like that it definitely looks like handwriting, much like Coming Soon, I fear it will have the same pitfalls: hard to read, and will make the blog look messy and more unprofessional than it already does (in fact, it's probably worse. For reference, this parenthetical is in Coming Soon). Schoolbell might be leaning a bit too hard into the "handwriting style" thing. I do think it is a bit roomier than Indie Flower, when it comes to overall layout. So that might be a point for this font comparatively. Thoughts? Also, this is what it looks like bolded and italicized.

My third option is a bit closer to your more traditional Ariel/Times New Roman/Helvetica/Courier/etc style font, but still has that more unique rounded letter look: Unkempt. I feel this one has a similar issue as Indie Flower with regards to the lines feeling a bit cramped and on top of each other. However, I think this is definitely the most clean and "professional" looking font out of the ones already showcased, while also still kinda-sorta having that "handwriting" feel to the font. If that makes sense? My only other issue with this font is that I hate that the n and h look so close to each other to my eye. I feel like that could hinder people who already have reading issues. Any thoughts on your end about Unkempt? Here's the font bolded and italicized.

Continuing down the road of "more traditional" style font, I've also picked out Walter Turncoat. Much like Unkempt, it has a hint of handwriting style, but is still easier to read. I also feel like the all-caps design of this font will be easier for people with dyslexia to read. It feels similar to Comic Sans without actually being Comic Sans (and therefore hated upon). If I recall correctly, despite the hate it gets, Comic Sans has been stated to be easier to read for people with reading issues. Which is probably why it is used within comics. In the same regards, perhaps Walter Turncoat will make my blog easier to read for those who would otherwise have difficulties. Plus, there's the added bonus for me that this font reminds me of my father's handwriting. I'm just not sure how I feel about the all-caps, since I tend to emphasize words BY PUTTING THEM IN ALL CAPS and you may not be able to recognize the shift as easily. Thoughts? (Also: bold; italicized)

My final option is probably the closest I've picked to a "traditional" font: Josefin Sans. It still has a little bit of personality, so I like it for that. It might be the easiest for people to read, and have the cleanest look, which will help refresh this blog's aesthetic. The downside, for me, is the fact that I AM losing that "handwritten blog" vibe I've had more-or-less since I started this blog over a decade ago (dear lord, has it been that long!?). How do you all feel about this font? Is this the one I should pick? Should I pick one of the other options? Should I just stick with Coming Soon? Please let me know in the comments section below. (Also: bold; italicized)

In the meantime, I'll stick with Coming Soon until I make an official decision on the font....

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How about that 2022 recap, huh? We'll actually start before 2022. Way back in the summer of 2020, so I can first tell you about that multi-chapter WIP I mentioned at the top of this blog. That's where most of my 2022 went, so it makes sense to start there.

Well, back in the summer of 2020, I read ZenMisery's story Dressed to Confess. It's a WIP, and Life hasn't been the kindest to Zen over the past few years, so she hasn't updated since early 2021. Still, it's well worth a read as-is. Anyway, after reading her fifth chapter of the story - wherein young-adult Marinette and Chat Noir have a make out session interrupted by the fact that Chat Noir can't disrobe - I was inspired to work on my first Miraculous Ladybug smut story (with aged-up characters, obviously). Something about me and August... I tend to think the dirtiest thoughts that month, apparently....

Anyway, I had spent a few weeks poking away at that aged-up MariChat smut story that Zen had inadvertently inspired. None of it seemed to work, though, so I put it on the back burner. Then, December 2020, Zen had asked about the smut story. It got me thinking about it again and I poked some more. Still no progress. Fast forward to August 2021, and I FINALLY reworked the story to the point that I loved the opening chapter. At the same time, I surprised myself that it was an OPENING CHAPTER and not a simple one-shot story.

This has become A THING, and I quickly realized my "goofy MariChat smut story" had evolved into a fairly lengthy slow-burn with lots of sexual tension, flirting, foreplay, and fluff-meets-angst romance that just HAPPENS to also have sex scenes sprinkled in. This became quite the endeavor!

As I've slowly chipped away at this story - now officially titled Seduce with Caution - I've posted updates to my Tumblr (reminder that I'm @LycoRogue on Tumblr, if you want to find me there). Mostly, I've done a lot of pruning even before the story is done. I work on something, realize that it just won't work for the overall story, and dump the cut bits to Tumblr. Because I still love what I write and I want to share it with people.

Here are my cut scenes (and when I posted them, so you can see how long I've been working on this story):

On top of the above cut scenes, I also had a few moments of lament. Some were just generic "writing is hard, yo" while others were comments on how canon episodes of the series perfectly paralleled my WIP plot. Whoops?

I've also given mini-updates on my progress with this Tumblr thread (last updated Sept 20, 2022). Also, this update post from Sept 30, 2022. Finally, I have this teaser about love confessions turning angsty from Nov 17, 2022.

If you've clicked those "mini-update" links, you'll notice that I said I had signed up for NaNo again. It was my first attempt at a NaNo (including Camp NaNo's) since April 2020, and the first one that I actually participated in since November 2019 (I signed up for camp in April 2020 but didn't write a word during it). I had been on a roll with working on Seduce with Caution for a little while, so I figured I'd try my hand at NaNoWriMo again. It was mixed success.

As far as my normal standards go (and the loose "rules" of NaNo), I "failed". I didn't hit 50k words within the month. I didn't even hit a half-NaNo of 25k words. I also tripped at the finish line, and didn't write every day throughout November. My story isn't even half done either. "Failure" all around with those regards.

HOWEVER!

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Cropped by LycoRogue

When you look at my NaNoWriMo project from the lens of "I haven't written a significant amount in two years"? It was pretty successful! Using various story-plotting outlines (which I'll touch upon later), I managed to write up an 18pg (13,000+ word) outline! I OUTLINED, FOLKS!

I put a LOT of effort into this project leading into November. I did the NaNoWriMo-Prep course. I went through MULITPLE different plotting worksheets, as I mentioned. I started off with the Snowflake Method created by Randy Ingermanson. Then I went through the different options provided by NaNoWriMo. First up was the very basic plot outline most people might remember doing in school: Plot Rollercoaster. It has six main blanks you need to fill in: set-up, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. That's where you grab your broad strokes. It's where I made sure I had the six crucial plot beats needed for a story. Easy. After years of practice, I just do this naturally more often than not. From there, I went to the Jot, Bin, Pants method. This is where I went through all of the scenes I wanted, and sort of organized them into vaguely the order I wanted (Spoilers: I rearranged a bit the further into the process I went). I already had these broad strokes of my story for MONTHS now though. Maybe even years.

After double checking I had what I needed, I REALLY got down into the nitty-gritty of outlining. I started large: the 9-Step Plot Dot/Point (aka The Hero's Journey) outline. Three main plot beats per act: a set-up, rising action, and climax. It was a way to really see the flow of my story based on what I came up with via the Snowflake and the Jot, Bin, and Pants outlining projects. Then it was time to zoom in a bit more with the "Save the Cat" Beat Sheet (I never did sort out why it's called that...). This one is more catered to show/movie/comic book pacing. You'd think that would mean this one is right up my alley. Not quite though. Mostly because of the asymmetrical way this one is formatted: 5 plot beats in Act I, 7 beats in Act II, and only 3 beats in Act III. I still tried it, though, since there are more beats with this one than with the 9-dot one. That allowed me to break down my main plot beats into smaller chunks and see how they still land within this asymmetrical 3-act set-up. Finally, I found my true home: Katytastic's 3 Act/9 Block/27 Chapters outline. I had found a similar set-up years ago. Outside of trying my hand at the Snowflake Method now and again, the 3 Acts/9 Blocks/27 Chapters (or plot beats, in my case) method has always helped me the most on the rare occasions that I plotted out a story first. Sometimes it's great to be able to just break your story down to the smallest level; bite-sized bits to focus on and figure out. Then build back up and out.

First, you look at the overarching story. Break it down into "set-up", "conflict", and "resolution" for the whole story. Those are the themes of each act. Then, dive into each act. What is the set-up, conflict, and resolution of that act? You've now broken the whole story down into 9 blocks. Go into each block. What is the set-up, conflict, and resolution for each block's theme? Those are your 27 individual plot beats. If you keep to the base formula and have each of those plot beats be a chapter, you can break it down again: based on the theme of that chapter (determined by the 27 beats), what is the set-up, conflict, and resolution of that individual chapter? Just keep breaking down into smaller and smaller sets of 3: set-up, conflict, resolution. That way you keep tension but also allow your reader/audience feel satisfied that SOMETHING is being resolved throughout the story.

Granted, here we are, January 7, 2023, 2 months since I needed the outline to be complete for NaNo, 4 months since I started focusing on outlining the story instead of just winging it, and almost 2 full years of me slowly chipping away at this story, and yet I STILL don't think I have ALL of my plot points ironed out. I have enough to get a good portion of the story written and go from there, but not the full outline as intended. Even so, I DO have those 18 pages (13,000+ words) of outline! Far more than any outline I've ever done before. Larger than a lot of STORIES I've done before! Also, unless I shift things while writing/editing, it IS looking to be at least a 30 CHAPTER story! I mean, yeah, my preferred outline method (3/9/27) would have had me write 27 chapters either way, but still! The longest story I've written before now is Peeping Tomcat with 17 chapters! And that's STILL an 84k+ word story! Now, roughly DOUBLE that for Seduce with Caution!

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Soooooo, yeah. First major win of NaNoWriMo: I actually focused on my story, and allowed myself to dedicate time to my writing for the first time since February 2020. Second win: I WROTE A MASSIVE OUTLINE! My third win was the fact that I dedicated at least SOME time each day in November to writing. Be it an hour or ten minutes. Even if I only wrote 20 words, it was still 20 more than I had the day before. I did trip at the finish line, missing November 28th, and denying me the "checked in every day of November" badge. Still.... for someone who only sporadically wrote something since the pandemic hit? Writing even 20 words 29 out of 30 days of a month was a pleasant surprise, and yet another win.

Sure, in the end, I never once hit the daily-word-count goal of 1667 words, and I didn't even cross the 20k word threshold. However, I did manage 14,943 words. That's nearly 15k words that I didn't have prior to November. One of the chapters I'm not sure if I'm scrapping because it's a bit meander-y and unfocused, but that's still a win in my book. I STILL spent 29 days writing nearly 15k words. Worlds better than what I've been producing since early 2020.

I did take another break in December to focus on the holidays and getting back to that pre-pandemic schedule I had. But, it's a new month and a new year. Seems a good time to refocus on my writing. That was the main reason why I dedicated nearly this whole week to working on this blog again. It was why I was determined to finish and publish this post today. It HAD to be done before the first week of 2023 had passed!

Likewise, I'm aiming to have Seduce with Caution at least completed enough to have published the opening chapter by August 2023. That will be 2 full years since I wrote the opening chapter and liked it enough to run with it. Three years since I was inspired to write the story in the first place.

So, I hope that some of you fine folks will gently poke and prod at me to make sure I stay on-task for this story. Reminder again that you can find me on Tumblr and on Twitter both @LycoRogue. Also, as a way to entice you to bully me into finishing this project, here's the teaser I had up on NaNoWriMo.

Summary
Chat Noir is tired of Marinette acting like he’s not attractive or “sexy” enough to win over Ladybug despite them both now being 19. So, he decided to demonstrate his new flirting techniques on her. Problem is: they worked. Before she realizes what she's doing, Marinette is swooning. Thoroughly freaked out, they are now forced to independently struggle with two key facts: (1) Marinette needs to navigate her new desires for Chat Noir, and (2) Adrien has to sort out why he found Marinette's whispered pleas such a turn-on.

Excerpt

Indignantly, Chat Noir nodded to his abs, clearly instructing Marinette to run her hand across them as they continued their role-playing. Still fighting back more laughter, Marinette complied. She wasn't expecting the tinkle up her arm as her fingers roamed across each ribbing of his eight-pack.

“You like that?” Chat Noir cooed.

“Huh?” Marinette's hand shot back to her side as she glanced up at him.

Dropping his confident act, Chat Noir wove for her to continue to play along. A little whimper escaped his throat as he re-posed.

“Oh. Uh. Right. Sorry.” Marinette tentatively rested her hand back on Chat Noir's abs and hummed her confirmation to his question.

“Wait.” Chat Noir again broke character as he grabbed Marinette's hand. “This is wrong-”

“Yeah, sorry, I-” Marinette couldn't look him in the eye.

“-she wouldn't be seated,” Chat Noir continued. “Here, stand up for a second.” He pulled Marinette to her feet, then stepped closer to her, resting her hand back on his stomach. “Okay, yeah, it will be more like this. Awesome.” He then folded his hands behind his head again. “Okay, so from the top.” His casually goofy tone once more gone as he thickened his voice with honeyed sultriness. “So, you like that?”

Marinette rushed to catch her bearings, mindlessly falling back into her fictitious Ladybug characterization as she again hummed her agreement.

“And what about a man with a strong back?” Chat Noir pivoted, sliding Marinette's hand around his side until it was resting beside his spine. He was firm, and the curvature called for Marinette to run her fingers up to his shoulder. The superhero costume was smooth and welcoming under her touch, and Chat Noir's body heat sent a fever through her. She tried swallowing a couple of times, and couldn't quite get her throat to comply.

“Uh, Chat Noir, maybe we-”

He abruptly turned, and caught her hand. Pressing it to his chest so she could feel his rapid heart beat, he leaned in so their noses nearly brushed. “You know how I feel about you-”

“Wha-?” Marinette forgot they were role-playing. She forgot she was supposed to be Ladybug. Her whole mind went blank at the prospect of Chat Noir liking her.

His lips brushed against her ear, and his breath tickled the little hairs. “-you know you could have as much of this as you want. All you have to do is ask for it.” Chat Noir's voice was soft, silky, low, and challenging.

“Yes, please,” Marinette whispered back without thinking.

“Wait, what?” Chat Noir pulled back, his tone normal, and his heart racing harder against her hand.

“I- uh!” Marinette felt like she was going to melt. Her face, ears, and neck were all on fire. Her heart was pounding, her throat was still blocked, and her legs were heavy. She had no clue why, but in that instant she wanted to feel his weight on top of her, like when they were kids and he'd roll her out of the way of an attack.

“Marinette?” His own face, ears, and neck were vibrant red. He dropped her hand so it wasn't pressed against his chest anymore. “Wha- what did you-?”

Seduce with Caution coming August 2023!

Hold me to that!


Now, to be fair to myself, SWC wasn't the only writing I've done since my last blog post (time to get into that 2022 recap).

Halloween 2021, I had this small sprinkling of inspiration. A scene just popped into my head when I woke up that morning. No surrounding context. Nothing ever came of it. But I did still share the scene with Tumblr. Story Seed: Alya Rage Pins Adrien to a Wall in Defense of Marinette

A little over a week later, I had this short story crop up ("short" as in, 1579 words): Saving Marinette from an Akuma. Not sure why I only shared it to Tumblr and not to AO3, FFN, or DA... I might have to remedy that.

December 2021, I had this plot bunny that ended up not going anywhere, but might still be brewing.... Adrien Needs a Fake Girlfriend. I'll have to share my updated list of WIPs with you fine folks. I'll circle back to that.

Anyway, then in January 2022, my mind decided to work some overtime, and I had this dream: Miraculous Encanto?

I've also written and published 5 one-shots since my last blog post! So the past 14-some months haven't been ENTIRELY devoid of writing. Whoo!

I Just Wanted to Kiss You
Summary: Sometimes you just get overwhelmed by how much you love your partner, even when they’re seemingly doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 1401
Published: November 19, 2021

I’m Not Allowed to Love You
Summary: Ever since that night on the Palais de Chaillot, when Chat Noir refused to abandon Ladybug, things have been different between them. Ladybug blushes around him a bit more. She’s been more vocal about how upset and scared his needless risks make her. She laughs more at his jokes, and forgets to berate him for making them in the first place. She’s even flirted with him a bit more.
Adrien is fading from her thoughts as he’s slowly replaced by Chat Noir, and it terrifies her.
Then, one night, Chat Noir takes his shot, and asks Ladybug out one last time. Neither of them could have anticipated the can of worms that would open, and how painful her answer would be.

Rating: General Audience (Although, a bit of a CW here, there are references to Chat Blanc, and so death and destruction are both talked about in passing)
Word Count: 2363
Published: March 18, 2022

Cataclysm the Doubt
Summary: Barely three hours into becoming a new father, Adrien is not handling the life change very well. It’s a good thing Plagg is right there to get the twenty-something’s head on right. Being able to cataclysm physical things is certainly easier, but sometimes a metaphorical cataclysm is the best option.

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 1728
Published: May 13, 2022 (Happy Plagg Appreciation Day!)

Rolling Thunder
Summary: They say that falling in love is like a clap of thunder: sudden and dramatic and obvious. No one mentions that it can also be like rolling thunder: so slowly continuous it’s hard to remember when it even started.

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 4737
Published: June 14, 2022 (inspired by Finding Yourself in the Details by mostlovedgirl)

Is He Loved? Is He Happy?
**SPOILER ALERT: This story is based on the season 5 episode “Transmission (The Kwamis’ Choice - Part 1)”**

Summary: Marinette seemingly has everything she’s ever wanted. She’s again a normal girl with a normal life, and she has Adrien. However, the fact that Chat Noir - HER Chat Noir - wasn’t at the latest akuma attack is all she can think about. She never dreamed that she would lose him so entirely, and now she’s haunted by two major questions: Is he loved? Is he happy?

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 3552
Published: December 14, 2022

Circling back to my list of WIPs/Plot Bunnies, there's actually about 35-ish stories/story concepts on that list! It's kind of massive. Far too long to include wholesale in this already lengthy blog post. If you do want the full details, however, you can find them via my Tumblr post about it from last January. I still want to also share the list here, though, for simplicity sake. So you fine folks get an abridged version.

I feel like long-time readers will already know most of these, but there are some new ones since October 2021. After I'm done with Seduce with Caution and I FINALLY finish One and the Same, which one of these would you most like for me to work on next????

  • Fanfiction WIPs
    • Miraculous Ladybug
      • Seduce With Caution - Already talked about above
      • One and the Same - My sequel to Peeping Tomcat that has been in the works since autumn of 2018
      • I Don't Care - My interpretation of Gabriel and Emilie’s romance: how they met, them dating, their marriage, and their years with Adrien before Emilie fell into her coma (died?).
      • Love Square Fluff Week - Back before the pandemic truly hit, I was working on the 7-day Love Square Fluff Week writing prompts. I had the first 5 chapters up before I fell into my pandemic-induced writing funk. I just need to figure out those last 2!
    • "Hey, Arnold!"
      • What is Truly Meant to Be - an unintentionally abandoned multi-chapter fic. Arnold and Helga have graduated high school, and Arnold has moved back to Hillwood. He tries to win Helga back, only to discover she's already dating someone. Arnold struggles with the idea of moving on from Helga. Meanwhile, she struggles with the choice between staying with her supportive boyfriend or leaving him for the man she's loved since preschool (and still does love, if she's honest).
    • X-Future (a homebrew X-Men roleplay)
      • Please, Let Me Explain - originally written by my friend Ronoxym. I kinda-sorta hijacked it (and then overcomplicated it). Rono's character Devon is being shunned by my character Willow because she believed he had left the X-Men to join The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. PLME follows their journey as Devon desperately tries to prove his innocence and ease the pain his two+ year disappearance has caused.
      • Some Like it Flame-Broiled - another story originally written by Rono (based on some of my roleplay in the game) and then kinda-sorta hijacked by me. Also, my first foray into writing smut. In this AU of X-Future, Devon truly did become evil and join the Brotherhood, where he starts an antagonistic sexual relationship with my Brotherhood character Trish. This story focuses on one of these encounters.
      • Untitled battle between Devon and Trish - A knife-fight to the death between the canon versions of Trish and Devon after Trish takes Devon's girlfriend's parents hostage. The story is fully written already, but I was learning how to write fight scenes at the time, and it really needs to be reworked.
      • X-Future: The Second Generation Begins - My adaptation of the play-by-post X-Future roleplay into narrative prose. I don't think I'm even 10% of the way through the game's story before I got overwhelmed with how much there was. Still want to finish this project some day though. I just need to sort out an efficiant way of doing so.....
      • X-Future Snippets - an anthology of one-shots, shorts, flash-fiction, and vignettes - some canon; some not - centered around my three main X-Future characters: Lia, Willow, and Trish. They were a way of exploring their characters outside of the game. I don't know if I'll continue this project per se, but I do want to reconnect with these characters somehow. So I might start up a similar project, at least.
    • D&D
      • Too Many Names, Even For A Gnome - A character study for my gnome Elymoxa. I never really got a chance to play her, so I was using this project similar to X-Future Snippets. I don't know if I remember Moxie enough to go back to this project, however.
    • Cirque du Soleil
      • Varekai - I want to create a novel adaptation of the Cirque du Soleil show about the mythological Icarus falling into the mystical forest of Varekai (as opposed to dying in the ocean, as the myth actually goes).
    • World of Darkness
      • Lottie’s untitled story - This was my NaNoWriMo attempt back in 2014. It was about my Vampire: The Masquerade character Lottie. I liked the character well enough, but I don't know if I still remember where I was going with this story. Probably officially abandoned.
  • Original WIPs
    • Glitches
      • A rework of the X-Future world and original characters (the player characters) as an original story with no ties to X-Men or Marvel.
      • I also picture it as its own comic/webcomic run or a TV series, but I'm REALLY pipe dreaming with that.
    • Gyateara
      • Lost Loves and Paramours - My 2016 NaNoWriMo story where I explored the backstory I gave my D&D character Jolene Crisslebalm. I actually won NaNo that year, so I have 50k+ words already written for it.
      • The Race for Destiny - My first-ever attempt at NaNoWriMo, way back in 2012. It was an isekai where my main character Natalie is teleported to an island country within Gyateara. There she meets Connor, the fabled Chosen One who wants nothing of his foretold fate. Together they must take down a Great Evil in order to prevent the full destruction of the island nation. (I was young, okay? I watched a LOT of anime...)
      • The People of Gyateara - An anthology of the various cultures that make up the world of Gyateara.
      • The Divine Legends - the various myths and legends that the people of Gyateara tell.
      • Untitled story about Amara’s backstory - My first-ever D&D character. She's a half-elf scout-class loner who hates both humans and elves for their treatment and "othering" of her because she's a half-breed. This story explains that mistreatment.
  • Fanfiction Plot Bunnies (ideas I haven't started actually writing yet)
    • The PV (where Felix is Chat Noir and Bridgette is Ladybug) co-exists with canon
    • Adrien is in need of a fake girlfriend, and decides to ask Marinette
    • Rewriting of canon where only one thing is changed: Gabriel Agreste is actually a loving and attentive father.
      • Potential Title: When Love Matters
    • Non-Magic Game-Streamer AU; Adrien and Marinette are IRL friends who hide that they are also off-camera video game streamers. Same Love Square shenanigans as Marinette is still in love with Adrien, who is in love with Marinette's streamer persona without knowing it's her (and she doesn't know her main gaming partner is Adrien's hidden streamer persona)
      • I picture Marinette being the type of off-camera streamer who just uses an icon since she can design that for herself and she doesn't have the funds to commission someone to make her a vtuber model. Whereas Adrien has a catboy fursona he has a fully animated vtuber model for
    • Three different continuations of Ladybug’s Simp Squad.
      • An Adrien and Plagg one that's a touch angsty as Plagg asks Adrien why he didn't mention his swan dive off the Montparnasse Tower while battling Alya for Simp Supremacy. (spoilers: it's because he realized that she can't be Rena Rouge anymore and figured she deserved a win)
      • Marinette makes Nino a “#1 Rena Rouge Simp” sweatshirt to match Alya's "#1 Ladybug Simp" sweatshirt. (Alya then asks Marinette if she could have a "#1 Carapace Simp" shirt as well.)
      • Cuddly Ladrien fluff now that Marinette sees how much Adrien cares for her superhero persona.
    • Adrien tries out the theory that “if you want the truth, ask the same question 3x” on both LB and Marinette; to surprising results
      • Potential Title: The Rule of Three
    • Another retelling of the 12th chapter of Remember That Time When... by mostlovedgirl, this time focusing on Adrien dealing with Marinette abandoning him for an evening after she locked herself in the bathroom to hide.
    • AU ending to the NY Special that is also kind of a retelling of my story I Need Him Back. Uncanny Valley couldn't return Adrien's ring to him, so Marinette now has to pick out a new Chat Noir. Tikki and Plagg plot together to get Marinette to give the ring to Adrien. (I guess this could also be an AU of the episode "Kuro Neko")
    • Alya (as either herself or her superhero persona) pins Adrien against the wall and accuses him of hurting Marinette (built off of that snippet I shared earlier)
    • Potential collab with Taurus Pixie telling the love story of Fu and Marianne leading up to their departure during WWII.
    • Adrien discovers that Ladybug is Marinette, and tries to figure out who this boy is that she’s in love with. Along the way, either
      1. Marinette somehow discovers Adrien is Chat Noir and laments that she's been turning him down because she's in love with his other persona (and, likewise, the knowledge that the person he's been in love with this whole time is.... HER!)
      2. Adrien is shocked to discover that HE is the boy she's been rejecting him for and has to deal with that
      3. a combo of the two.
    • A companion story for the New York special. A look at some key scenes from a different character's POV in order to better explain the character's emotion showcased in said scenes.
      • Potential Title: See Through My Eyes
      • This is probably now an abandoned concept, seeing as how the special is a couple of years old now and a lot of salt over it has died down anyway.
    • Plagg’s POV of “Puppeteer 2”
      • Another one that's probably abandoned now; the moment has passed. I'm not opposed to working on it though, if my Muse returns.

On top of that list, I have 3 officially abandoned WIPs; all anthology collections of writing prompts. One is a collection of flash-fiction (stories under 1000 words), one is a collection of writing prompts I received from the local writing group, and one is a collection of writing prompts from a book that provides a new prompt every day of the year (plus one more for leap years).

I may try to revive the 365-day writing prompt challenge at some point, but I'm definitely not ready for that yet. I may also try to revive the flash-fiction challenge, but I'm again not quite in the right mind-set for that. As for the writing prompts from the writing group: (1) we haven't given out writing prompts to each other beyond maybe the first year that I went to the writing group, and (2) I haven't been back to the local group since the 2020 lockdowns. The library in the next town over opened up again before the one in my town did, and I think everyone transferred over to that group. I honestly don't even know if the group in my local library exists anymore or if it's just the one at the other library. Either way, their meeting is on a night that doesn't work for me, so I just haven't rejoined a local group.

Another form of "writing" I've been doing? I'm still the Games Master (GM) for Scum and Villainy! We've actually had 20 sessions in total since we started in July 2021! Granted, that doesn't sound like a lot, given that it's been 78 weeks, and we TRY to play every other week. Simple math: we should be up to 39 sessions. Well.... there have been a lot more scheduling conflicts than I had anticipated. But still! Twenty sessions! I don't know if I've ever been part of a roleplay game for this long (IRL time), OR for this many sessions! This is HUGE for me! Add in the fact that *I* am the one running the thing? Mind. Blown! In the best way.

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The playgroup has been on hiatus throughout November and December due to more scheduling conflicts. Same goes for most of January. So the fact that we've stopped on the 20th session is kind of fitting. Our 21st session is currently scheduled for January 30th, and I think the whole group is hyped and itching to get back onto the Stardancer. In fact, there's more crew than when I last talked about the game. All of that will have to wait for another blog post though. I DEFINITELY don't have the space to go over 16 game sessions in this already epic post!

If you don't want to wait, however, there is the World Anvil "world" build I started up in 2021. Sadly, I've been a bit neglectful and haven't updated it nearly as much as I should. Even so, it should still give you a bit of a taste: Procyon Sector.

And now we're back to 2023. This upcoming Friday happens to be the 13th. Another Plagg Appreciation Day for me. Which means I am again on the hunt for inspiration for a Plagg-centric story. If anyone has any ideas, I am open to them. Maybe I'll even have a blog post to go along with promoting the story on Friday. Jury is still out on that. In which case, I'm once more reminding you that you can follow me @lycorogue over on Tumblr or Twitter, where I will promote my writing. That way, even if I don't have a blog post about it, you can still catch when I have new fanfic published. I also publish to Tumblr, Archive Of Our Own (AO3), Fanfiction.net (FFN), and DeviantArt (DA). I made life easy for everyone and have the handle LycoRogue on all of those sites as well. If you follow me on AO3 or FFN (and maybe DA???) you'll get a notification whenever I post something new.

On that note, I feel like this is a good stopping point for now. Love you peeps so much! Thank you for taking this journey with me. Thank you for sticking with it all the way to the bottom of this epic post. I will see you next month (if not sooner).

Take care, friends!

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