Check Out My Milestones

It's the last week of the month and, as per usual it seems, I again don't have a new work to post for the month. Yes, I've been posting Peeping Tomcat every week, but I wanted to post something new each month ON TOP OF the completed fanfics. So I really need to bunker down and try to figure out what to do with that.

I have two options in mind.

The first option revolves around the fact that Quarthix's wife recently got some D&D 5.0 rule books, and is planning to run her very first campaign. So, since I wasn't able to use her in Bear's campaign, I decided to revive Elymoxa. Now, one of the key changes to D&D from 3.5, which is what I first learned, and 5.0 is the new bit of character creation: Backgrounds.

In 3.5 you just needed to know your character's race, class, age, name, and physical description. You could fill in the blanks all you want from there, and a lot of people didn't bother with a back story. They just ran with this flat character until elements of the campaign filled them out. Not a bad strategy, and one I used often, but it adds a lot of depth to the characters and campaign to have that back story BEFORE you start role playing to help make decisions within the first few games; the time where non-backstoried characters are still kind of getting their footing.

Having the "mandatory" backgrounds part of character creation - complete with a chapter of potential backstories and the bonuses it gives the character - is very similar to how characters are built in Numenera. While it can be a bit restrictive - both me and Quarthix's sister were struggling because we felt our characters equally fit two different backgrounds - having the background options in the book can also be awesome in helping a player build a character.

While I did have to tweak the back story I already created for Elymoxa in order to fit the options available via the 5.0 D&D Player's Handbook, it also opened me up for a lot more possibilities than I originally thought.

For Bear's game, Moxie was just playful in an almost childish fashion, worse than most gnomes. She killed because she was told "this person/thing/beast is evil" and it was something to do in her otherwise humdrum life. She memorized all the bardic tales of mighty heroes and desperately wanted to be one of them. She was warned that her narrow and callused views of what makes a legendary hero vs epic monster could lead her to the path of corruption of one of the Prime Evils; turning her into little more than a hollowed out puppet within the Divine War. She shrugged off the warnings, claiming she was too smart to let herself fall into corruption. She eventually became bored with her village life and started out as an adventurer, where she quickly learned she was over her head, but her pride stopped her from returning home so shortly after leaving. Eventually, she would have joined up with the rest of Bear's campaign party: Mahtab, Korlmitz, Rensin, and any others those core three picked up.

Elymoxa 2.0 has these as her following official Backstory Traits:

• Her generic backstory category is Folk Hero.
• The defining event that made her the village folk hero was: She stood alone against a terrible monster.
• Two personality traits chosen were: 
• "I misuse long words in an attempt to sound smarter." 
• "I get bored easily. When am I going to get on with my destiny?"
• Her ideal is the Destiny tract: "Nothing and no one can steer me away from my higher calling."
• A bond to her hometown is: "I wish my childhood sweet heart had come with me to pursue my destiny."
• Her fatal flaw is: "I'm convinced of the significance of my destiny, and blind to my shortcoming and risk of failure."

Sensing a theme? I used the original backstory, looked over the options for Background, and "Folk Hero" seemed the closest to her personality. Plus, it gave me the trait "Handle Animal" which is sort of a running gag between me and my friends whenever it comes to my D&D characters. Once I chose Folk Hero I again scanned the potential sub-options through the lens of her original back story. The word "destiny" just popped up too much to ignore for someone who strived to become another legendary hero the bards sang.

I even debated changing her from a bard to a fighter, because bards sing about heroes while fighters tend to become them. However, in my mind she's a marksman who takes joy in the subtle slyness of seemingly harmless songs actually influencing and affecting the outcome of battle. So, for now, she's still a bard. One who strives to be the first to have other bards sing about? Or perhaps she believes she's the only bard capable enough to truly capture her exploits? She does have that cockiness of "I misuse long words in an attempt to sound smarter."

I couldn't resist giving her that trait. It just was too amusing to me, and seemed kind of fun. I just need to remember to MISUSE the long words when I'm playing her.

I have to evoke Couch Wittenberg from "Hey, Arnold!" and his routine misuse or mispronunciation of big words to sound smarter in front of his elementary aged students.

Er.... I need to evoke the speech patterns, not the harshness.... But you get the idea.

I also have that new added concept of a childhood sweetheart for Elymoxa. So I need to figure that out. And, worse of all for me, I had to pick a gnome! One of the defining traits of the gnome race is that they LOVE names. They have a clan name, but each of their parents, their grandparents, and even any aunts and uncles they might have all give the gnome a name. Then members of the community all give the child nicknames as they connect with each other. Gnomes could "collect" dozens of names, each more goofy and "fun sounding" than the last. When it comes to gnomic names, my husband can come up with them on the fly easily. Me? I'm totally going to over-analyze each and every one.

At least Elymoxa in and of itself has multiple nicknames built right into it: El, Elly, Mox, Moxa, and Moxie, which is why I gave her the name in the first place. In truth, I'm sure I could break down any part of her name to make a nickname.... Lym, Ox, Za, Elm, etc.

My other saving grace is that Elymoxa will be adventuring with humans, and, according to D&D Players Handbooks of just about all variants, humans tend to be "stuffy" when it comes to names. Having too many gets confusing to a human. So gnomes tend to stick with the clan name - their family/last name - one of their given names, and one nickname they can suggest the party uses. They most likely will also encourage the party members to come up with their own nicknames if they so choose.

When a gnome says "I pretty much answer to anything" they probably mean it.... But it does still leave me with a Clan name and favorite nickname to choose.

Okay, so Elymoxa's new back story, derived from the D&D Player's Handbook traits I selected, is one option for my monthly work. And probably the one I'll be going with.

I did say I had two options though. My second is to do something similar with what I did for "The Birth of the Mimicker". I'm going to be posting Mimicker's chapter - chapter 5 - this Friday, which means my next akuma attack - chapter 9 - is only a month from needing to be posted.

I'M STILL STUCK! I haven't figured anything out for Masketeer, or if I even want to use him, or save him for a later fanfic and create someone new. The big thing that is stopping me is figuring out how he attacks and where he akuma would be hidden. It seems logical that the akuma would be in his mask, but Mimicker already had her akuma in her visor. I would feel like a one-trick pony if I had both shown akuma attacks having the supervillain's akuma hidden on a piece of costume covering their face. Not to mention having both supervillains having names starting with "M".

To help figure this out, I might have to write out a "what brought on the negative emotions to be akumatized" story, as well as the first attacks before LB and CN could make it to the scene. Get all that "behind the scenes" info out of my head so I can move past this writer's block. But figuring out the akuma and the attack is only half the battle. I also still need to figure out how this attack could push the story forward.

Mimicker's attack is supposed to showcase Adrien's dynamic with Ladybug, his capabilities as a superhero, and his love for Ladybug. That last one is important. He doesn't have a crush on her. He's not smitten with her. He doesn't idolize her. He's legit in love with her, warts and all. Mimicker's chapter shows Ladybug kind of at her worst, but Adrien still loves her deeply and shows himself a true partner: picking up the slack when she needs him to, bringing her off her high horse, reminding her of her goodness, and encouraging her to be better.

The first chapter of PT has Adrien lament sucking as a superhero. The fifth chapter shows that he's actually pretty good at it, as well as the fantastic partner Ladybug truly needs. He IS worthy of being called one of Paris' Guardians, even if he doesn't believe so anymore after all the spying on Marinette he's done.

Showcasing the dynamic between him and Ladybug, as well as how he treats Ladybug as an equal instead of this pedestaled goddess, also sets up the struggle he has once he realizes he has a crush on Marinette. The reader, even if they haven't seen the show, should understand that Adrien isn't just some lovesick kid. He truly does love Ladybug, and realizing he has a crush on someone else should be palpably devastating.

Finally, showing off the Ladybug character should help hint that she and Marinette are the same person, or at least that they each share some of the same "off character" traits: Ladybug having Marinette's shyness and dislike of Chloe, and in turn Mari having LB's confidence and bravery. This is a way to have the reader see the same parallels between the "two girls" that Adrien sees.

I know what I want this chapter to accomplish. Even though Adrien's turmoil over Marinette, his relationship with her, and his disgust in his own spying on her are all put on pause, the akuma attack isn't a "filler" chapter. It has purpose still.

I just hope that once I'm done editing it this week I will have accomplished my goals the way I wanted.

The Masketeer though? I know the basic reasoning and purpose of that chapter as well, but I haven't figured out how to GET to those points.

While Mimicker's chapter shows that Adrien is a capable superhero despite his own self-doubt, Masketeer brings him back down. He won't be brainwashed by the supervillain like he did leading into the first chapter, or like he has in five different episodes throughout the series. However, I'm still debating if he'll at least be hit by the supervillain, like he did in three episodes: Timebreaker "killed" him when she tagged him and froze him in time, Reflekta effectively took away his powers when she turned him into a copy of herself, and Pixelator trapped him inside a picture until he could use his Cataclysm to break out.

He'll be distracted by his guilt over spying on Marinette under the guise of "getting to finally know her," only to project the things he loves about Ladybug onto a "more accessible person" - or so he thinks. He's also feeling guilty about "betraying" Ladybug by falling for "someone else." So he can't be his playful, carefree self around even her.

On top of that, while Mimicker had the added layer of making Adrien wonder if his newfound obsession with Marinette was any different than Louise's obsession with Chloe, I also need Masketeer to play with Adrien's inner turmoil. Perhaps pushing the weight of guilt that comes from lies, or hiding behind masks, or not seeing people for who they truly are, or.... I don't know, something like that.

I should probably pick a "moral" first, huh?

I also need to have Ladybug not be so flustered this time, aside from her concern for Chat Noir. She's the most capable superhero Paris has. While she'll always say that she can't save Paris without CN, she not only HAS saved it single-handedly on multiple occasions while CN has been brainwashed, but one of those times she was fighting against CN and four other villains!

She took out the recreations of RogerCop, Evillustrator, and Lady WiFi, while also stopping CN from attacking her, AND stopped the actual akumatized supervillain Puppeteer. All in one blow, I might add. Hence having the time to casually whistle as she walked over to the location of Puppeteer's hidden akuma.

Anyway, I need THAT Ladybug to come to the party to prove how important Chat Noir truly was in the Mimicker chapter. That he's her compass that points her in the right direction.

It would also show that, while Marinette may claim she doesn't have romantic feelings for CN, that partnership, connection, and concern isn't just one-sided; even if it is a bit skewed towards Adrien. Ladybug will show just as much concern for CN's unusual behavior as he showed about hers. She'll also try to be encouraging, but in the end it will backfire.

All the words of encouragement will just hurt him as it adds to his guilt, and then he'll become even more enraged that he can't talk to her because they agreed to never reveal anything personal. For fear that they'll learn each other's identities.

If only they knew that ship will sail in the next chapter....

A lot of undertone needs to happen in that upcoming chapter, and I have nothing! So, those are the two options I have: a second "spin-off" one-shot to help me build up to the ninth chapter of "Peeping Tomcat" or an origin story for my D&D character.

Which would you prefer to read? Let me know in the comments section.

As for the most recent chapter of "Peeping Tomcat"? Well, before I go any further, you can check it out right here:

FanFiction         ArchiveOfOurOwn         DeviantArt

This chapter has had roughly the same stats as the second chapter: a slight improvement, but not as massive a jump as the previous week. I thought a fluffy Adrinette chapter would get more love. I guess MariChat shippers really do rule the fandom, huh?

I have noticed another factor, though. I made sure the first chapter coincided with the premiere of the twelfth episode "Captain Hardrock" as well as the long-awaited arrival to Netflix in the United States. The show was all sorts of hyped up, regardless which country you watched from. The following week - the one that matched up with the release of my second chapter - there was no new episode of Miraculous. No real "drive" to send people to read fanfiction. The love and want of fanfiction is always there, but people seem more excited and hungry for it after watching a new episode. So, that could explain why the second chapter didn't seem quite as popular as the first.

Then, the next new episode "Zombizou" came out the same day I posted my third chapter, and it got a lot of love. Again, perhaps it was because people were excited over the latest episode and were hungry for fanfics.

This past Friday, however, there was no new episode again. It was supposed to air Saturday morning on Disney Channel UK, but I have no clue if it actually did. Normally I can find the episode that evening or the next day on YouTube. I still haven't found anything other than Spanish-language promotions for the latest episode, which is going to air in Spain and Mexico on May 4th, assuming I remember Spanish enough to have translated correctly.

So, for all intents and purposes, there was again no new episode for the week that I posted my fourth chapter. Which may again explain the dip in popularity increase.

Let's check the stats. First, that 24-hr rush:

FFN: 636 views, 1 fave, and 5 followers. But a surprising 4 new reviews!
AO3: 200 views, 3 kudos, 1 bookmark, but still no new reviews
DA: 9 views, 4 faves, and holding strong with no comments

Total Results: 845 views, 8 faves, 6 followers, and 4 reviews

Three out of the four comments were:
  1. This was so sweet! I look forward to more!
  2. Wow nice chapter
  3. I'm wondering if chats going to see Alya and Nino then start worrying because Mari is not with them

So, yay, all positive reviews still! I want to pause and talk about the other stats real quick, but then I want to touch upon that fourth review. It's a neat story.

So, my AO3 views do seem to keep dropping, but I've talked enough about that. I want to instead note that I DID get a new bookmark, so yay that I added at least one more follower. I'm now officially at 100 people following my story between FanFiction and ArchiveOfOurOwn. That's super neat!

I also want to clarify that the "four faves" with DeviantArt is one person liking all four chapters. So, yay that I have a new person favoriting the story, and also yay that they actually liked EVERY CHAPTER, as opposed to the previous faves. Small victories? Even if it isn't as "impressive" as having four new people? I dunno, I think I prefer the one new fan who liked every chapter I wrote....

Another neat thing that happened within those 24-hrs was that "Peeping Tomcat" was added to a FanFiction.net community.

FFN's community definition is pretty simple: "Communities are custom archives organized by active members containing hand-picked stories from community volunteers."

So, like a public "playlist" of stories. PT got added to "The Best, Funny and Romantic Fanfiction" although I'm not sure which category it falls into. I would love to say "all three" but I doubt it.

The description for the community is: "a community for either the best written work, or the best funny one-liner, or even just the best plot or character development. has romance, angst, comedy (especially comedy), and other genres as well as all fandoms that have taken my fancy." [sic]

The community has nearly 33,000 stories, and I can't seem to find a way to filter by fandom, so I'm not so sure how this community of 19 followers is going to really spread the word of my story - how it's even going to be found within the community - but it's still a neat milestone. Also, who knows? Maybe this community WILL help spread the word. I mean, yes, it is 33,000 stories to sift through, as opposed to the 12,300 if you go through the Miraculous topic search, however, if someone's willing to sift through all the different fandoms, I'm sure not all 12,300 stories are in this community. Which might mean I have more of a fighting chance to be found? Maybe? Probably not, but let's look for that silver lining, shall we?

Now, back to that last review. It was by someone named MadHatterLilith.

MadHatterLilith: Oh no. I hope it's not Louise! She might not be confident in herself but she seemed so sweet the way she tries to see good in Chole! (Which can be pretty hard to see most of the time.)
           Everyone needs a friend like Alya; her excuses sounded natural. If it weren't for Nino's "I don't feel a draft", it might not have even seemed like she was setting them up. But they also need a friend like Marinette who'll remind them that they're amazing as themselves and to not change just to seem cool. Adrien and Marinette's little popcorn and candy system and that hand holding part was adorable too. Even out of the superhero suits, they work well together lol Except when the popcorn goes up in the air instead, haha! Such a sweet chapter!

Hatter is such a sweetie for thinking so! But this story hasn't even hit the cool part yet.

As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm part of a fanfiction group on Facebook. About once a week the group owner adds a handful of new members. We always ask them what they like to read and/or write. Since the group is set up as 18+, mainly so no one has to worry about their language or the stories they want to share, most of the group does read more.... mature.... content. Which also tends to mean not many people are in fandoms intended for children, such as Pokemon, Gravity Falls, My Little Pony, or Miraculous Ladybug, etc. Well, one of the new members stated that ML was one of the fandoms she's really into right now, and I got excited. I gushed a bit over finding someone else from my fandom and, among other things, I asked what stories she would suggest I read.

It kept her about a week to respond, but last Wednesday she gave me her list. She decided to start at the back of the Miraculous collection - about 670 pgs worth of story listings - and work her way forward to the most recent ones, and I think she said she's now around pg 620, so she's making progress. She then gave me a list of sixteen stories, along with a notation as to whether the story was a one-shot, completed, abandoned, or on-going. She also included brief descriptions such as "sweet one-shot", "my favorite reveal to date", and "I'll probably favorite this author." All of the stories she suggested are now on my "read later" list.

The trippy part was the last story she suggested. I'm sure you have all guessed by now, but I'll tell you anyway. The bottom of her list stated:
"Peeping Tomcat" by Lycorogue (ongoing, 3 chapters. This one's really recent. First ML fanfic I read and I liked it right away. It even updates regularly!)

Again, we didn't know each other's handles at this point, so I just stared in shock! I had someone suggest MY OWN STORY to me! Someone who didn't know I was the author thought my story was good enough to pass along to a fellow in the fandom. That's.... I mean.... HOW COOL IS THAT!?

Now, I COULD have played it cool; not said anything until I posted the next PT chapter and have HER realize what she did. I could have also been like "Oh, my handle? It's LycoRogue... ;)" I could have been discretely humble: "Oh. Thanks. I wrote that." I could have done tons of things to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal, that it happens all the time.

Instead I decided to be the grateful nerd that I am and GUSHED:

Me: OMG! OMG! OMG! What's your handle!? I love you! That's me! I'm LycoRogue! Peeping Tomcat is my story! You're awesome for thinking it's good enough to share!

Yeah, I'm super cool that way....

MadHatterLilith: Holy crap! I can't believe I recommended a fic to its creator! But seriously, it is a really great fic! Thank you for writing it! It's the first ML fic I read and it's made me a huge MariChat shipper. I love the idea of Adrien just getting hooked on watching Marinette just being herself and that he realises he might be being a bit creepy by watching her. I'm also super excited cause he's actually trying to get to know her as Marinette because he honestly wants to know her instead of "hhm, she might be Ladybug" curiosity, you know? And how when Marinette thought she heard someone outside, she was slightly concerned. I loved how you wrote the characters.Although, I should probably write that in a review instead haha. But really, I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

Haha, I guess that was the motivation she needed to give that above review. So SO sweet of her to put in the effort. I'm still flabbergasted. But to move on, let's see how much more love my story has received since Friday?

FFN: 941 views, 5 faves, 12 followers, and 4 reviews
AO3: 317 views, 7 kudos, 1 bookmark, and 1 new review
DA: 10 views, 4 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 1268 views, 16 faves, 13 followers, and 5 reviews

The review said:
Poor Louise doesn't even see how her idol really is.

Check out that view count! And I'm now up to nearly 100 followers on just FanFiction alone! We'll see how much more that grows, shall we? In the meantime, I still have some more writing to do! Until next week, my lovelies!

It's All Brewing

I don't know why, but I've really been shying away from writing lately. I keep thinking "I should go write now" only to then think "Eh, I've got chores to do. I'll write eventually." Chores to do!? Really!? I mean, yeah, they should take priority with how sloppy my home is, but still. I HATE chores. That's why they're CHORES. I'm not entirely sure why they are now taking precedence over something I thought I had a passion for.

Something I DO have a passion for.

I've fallen off the reading horse as well. I do little to nothing hobby-related when I'm home, and I barely steal away 15minutes at work anymore. When I do have down time, I find myself struggling to stay awake. I do Sudoku puzzles to try to keep my brain active, while not really needing to focus on a whole. Strange way to do Sudoku, but I'm a strange woman.

Every now and then I get flashes of stories developing in the background of my mind, but I never seem to be at a point where I can stop and write any of it down. It just stays brewing quietly in my head.

Hubby and I drove nearly an hour away to go to a movie theater - we live in the boonies - for back-to-back showings of "Logan" and "Beauty and the Beast" last week. I did use the drive to think some more about my stories, but, as the driver, I couldn't really write anything down. The same thing always seems to happen when I'm doing dishes. Or when I'm falling asleep, and I know if I stop to write down my thoughts as I'm trying to pass out, it will just keep me awake longer.

Perfect timing, Muse. Perfect.

I have thought a bit more about "Glitches" lately, though. That was what took up most of my driving time when Hubby and I went to the movies. Mostly trying to build more background for Lia's father Cody. Namely, what his connection is to Chayse's mom - who I believe I named Emily, but I'm leaning towards Margaret now - or Chayse's dad Ryder. I feel like Cody has to be connected with either of them for it to make sense for him to think of working at the school/orphanage in order to bring Lia there to train.

I thought that maybe he was Emily/Margaret's brother or cousin, but then I couldn't have Lia crushing on Chayse, which is a big part of her early character development. I then thought that maybe Cody knew Emily/Margaret via her deceased friend Cecilia. Maybe Cody was another brother along with Dominic - whom I think I'm going to name Mateo after all - or a cousin. Having Lia somehow related to "The Glitch Formerly Known as Wolverine" wouldn't be bad. However, I wasn't really much of a fan of so many characters being connected to him. Dom/Mateo is connected to Emily/Margaret via his sister, he's also connected to Fidget and Lucas after rescuing them, and he's already pseudo-connected to Chayse as an unofficial sensei. If I bring Colette over to "Glitches", Dom/Mateo is also a father to her. It just brings too much focus to him. Makes him too much of a central figure instead of one within an outlying ensemble.

I then thought that maybe Cody was Ryder's brother or cousin, but same issue about Lia/Chayse. A childhood friend, maybe? But I already have that with Ryder and Willow's father. Having both women vying for Chayse's attention be daughters of Ryder's friends? Too coincidental.

Briefly, I focused around the woman who inspired the orphanage/school the series is based in. Cody was Cecilia's boyfriend. Problem with that is she died in college while Cody would have been studying on the other side of the country in Hawaii. Bi-coastal college relationship? It's a stretch to begin with. Plus, how would he have met Cecilia's roommate Emily/Margaret? During the funeral? Would that be enough of a connection to draw him to her school when Lia's powers surfaced? On top of those complications, there's the fact that I had Cody falling for Lia's mom while he was in college. The timing just wasn't adding up. I could only think of taking a page from the Kitty/Gambit X-Future book: Keahi and Cody fell for each other as she helped Cody cope with the death of a loved one. It worked better for Kitty/Gambit though because they were helping each other grieve over Rogue's death.

For right now, I've settled on Cody knowing Emily/Margaret when they were kids. They were childhood friends who built a sort of sibling bond. They aren't siblings, so the Lia/Chayse thing isn't taboo, but that bond should also prevent people from wondering if there was - or will be - a hook up between Cody and Emily/Margaret. I actually don't have much figured out about Cody, so everything's pretty much still up in the air.

There's a lot to figure out, which is why I was able to think about it for nearly two hours and still don't have a definitive answer. I get credit, though, for at least mentally working on it. Right?

It also occurred to me this week that I still haven't officially written up a backstory for Jynna. I have the broad skeleton of her past, though.

Orphaned at a young age, Jynna was a street urchin that was abducted by a cult. One of the few religious in the area, the cultists were zealots who believed the numenera was a gift from The Divine as a way of communicating with the denizens of the Ninth World; proof that the gods exist. Jynna resisted brainwashing during her initiation, which lead the cult leaders to submit her and a few other unindoctrinated to "The Tests." Jynna and the others were forced into surgeries that started transforming their bodies into mechanical conduits for the numenera, as a means of "helping" the initiates better "communicate with the divine."

It kept her until she was fourteen, but Jynna eventually learned to manipulate the numenera enough to help her escape. By the time she did, the other initiates were either fully embraced by the cult, or had died. She was alone in the world, and quickly learned all she could about the numenera as a means to better learn how to survive with her new body. After a few years of isolation, beatings, and near execution at the hands of scared citizens, Jynna figured out how to both utilize her new powers, and how to hide her mutilations.

She still loathed what she was forced to become, and attempted to become a jack; working the less-than-lawful career bracket. It didn't last because she was no longer a jack, she was fully a nano. When she hit adulthood she embraced her ability to manipulate the numenera; now knowledgeable about the nanites that made up the world around her. Not only was she a proud nano, but she added to her body enhancements. She wasn't quite human any longer anyway, so she embraced what the cultists made her. She tried to remain as human looking as possible, and will never again allow someone to force her through surgery, but she was no longer above putting herself through further transmutation. She loved being able to work the numenera to her will, and her goal in life was to learn as much as she could about the power. If no other reason than to be able to return to the cultists as a Divine Avatar, then promptly tearing them apart so they could no longer torture another child.

I still need to get it to Hubby to approve. Then, perhaps I could start working out more details, such as the name of the cult and where it's based. I'm thinking of having Jynna be mid-to-late twenties when the game starts; depending on how old everyone else is in the party. So, I also have quite a few years to try to fill in gaps about. Finally, one of the components of my character build - as dictated by the actual rules of the game - is that I need to select another player's character as the one party member who knows that Jynna is a cyborg. If I decide Jynna's no longer going to hide that fact - probably not from her partymates at least - then I need to come up with a dark secret the other character knows. For instance, a command word that would shut down all the mechanical parts of her body. I was thinking, being raised in a cult constantly trying to brainwash her, that she does actually have a command word. I'll need to figure out what the word is, and what it does. Should be fun.

Finally, on the "thinking about writing counts as actually writing, right?" front, I did use a prompt to start up another Willow/Devon scene. I only managed to get about four paragraphs in before I had to stop - I don't recall why - but I have been thinking about how the story goes. The writing prompt was "write about a sideways glance" so it's a fun scene to think about.

I really need to stop slacking off and actually get back to that prompt, and other prompts since I'm not even done with all 31 January ones yet. I also should go back to character building for "Glitches" to help with the world-build. Everyone else in writing group has at least one story they're trying to continue and finish. Something that they can share progress about, and I just have this long list of individual prompts. People could comment about my writing in general, but they can't share thoughts about my story building abilities like we do with everyone else.

I need to pick a project, and stick with it.

In the meantime, perhaps I'll read "Please, Let Me Explain" in group. I don't recall if I've done that yet, and maybe it will drive me to finally finish editing/writing the darn thing.

For now, though, I do have another prompt typed up for your reading pleasure. It's the first narrative about Jynna that I wrote a month or so ago. It's just a vignette, but it does hit the "under 1000 words" limit that Ronoxym gave me. So I guess this counts as another entry for his challenge. I don't know if I really set up a lot about Jynna herself in this short, but I hope I set up the Ninth World setting of Numenera well enough.

"The Future is Bright"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

Shackled to an Egg Timer

Excuse me for reviving an old meme, but....

*Sigh*

I'm a bit of a Sad Panda this week.

Due to the job chaos, I had to work my normal Tuesday off, but to make up for it I was given Thursday and Friday off. Sunday was the start of a new work week, so that was my "second" day off - since Tuesdays are my regular "first" day off. Anyway, this means that between last Tuesday and today I had THREE days off. THREE!

Yet how much writing have I done? If you guessed "pretty much none" you win!

I had days off! I should have had all the time in the world to write and read and elaborate on my Valentine's Day blog before today. Instead, I lounged pretty much all of Thursday since Hubby and I had the day off together. We considered it a belated Valentine's Day for the two of us. It was sweet having so much time to just snuggle with him on the couch, but A WHOLE DAY!? I needed the stress relief, but geez! Friday I did what I always do: get suckered into ONE task and spent all day on it.

Aside from tasks such as writing this blog, which have deadlines anyway, I have now taken to sitting with a kitchen timer next to me. It's set to hour intervals. Once the timer goes off, that's it. I move on to another task for an hour. Then another one. I might circle back to a previous task, but never in back-to-back hours. It's the only way to break me of my..... um..... anti-ADHD? I'm sure it's some sort of disorder in and of itself with it's own name. Over fixation? Regardless, I lose far too much time in my life due to my laser focus.

Spend seven straight hours on a forum catching up on old posts? How about four hours on DeviantArt looking at fanart? Five hours on Google Image trying to find reference pictures for a new character? Two full evenings - each a three-hour sitting or so - on doll-maker games trying to design a new character because I can't draw? Yeah, maybe I wasn't addicted to Facebook. Maybe I just don't know how to turn away from a task until it's complete.... or away from a distraction until a need - such as food or a bathroom break - arises.

So, now the timer is attached to my hip to keep me on track until I can learn to Adult better.....

Doesn't really help that I figured out the whole timer-thing AFTER last week's fail, though. I got barely anything accomplished when I only had to work four days.

I haven't even written on my writing calendar. I'll have to try to backtrack and remember when I wrote what. I know I only wrote two days last week; worst record this year. I also know that the last time I wrote anything was Wednesday. Such a long zero-day streak.

Either way, it's the good-old Chicken-or-Egg situation again: Am I not writing because I'm tired and cranky, or am I tired and cranky because I haven't written anything?

My performance at work has gotten kind of crappy as well. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm overwhelmed with trying a brand new tactic our Director of Sales wants us to follow, if it's because so many "losses" shook my confidence, or if it's because I'm not allowed to write at work any longer. It really allowed me to drift from a bad day for a few moments at a time, maybe as much as an hour, and then come back to reality completely refocused; centered. If my confidence was shook, I sat and wrote or read to escape for a little bit. By the time I was back I was ready to crush it.

Instead, my down-time is flooded with trainings, workbooks, studying, role-playing to practice the new technique, and stern talking to's.

So, the biggest selling point of this job for me - the downtime to read and write while still being a productive member of the sales team - is pretty much null. We'll see how I can re-adjust. I'll give it until my year point to see if things turn around.

In the meantime, how about I give you more details of what I did the previous week, since I didn't have time to really do so on Valentine's Day?

Well, to start, even though I changed up my Writers’ Huddle challenge goal, I STILL haven't managed to hit a week-goal yet. It's obvious that I didn't write a prompt a day this past week, let alone two, but even the previous week - when I was on a hot-streak - I wasn't able to fit two in. So much for catching up on the daily prompts by March 9th. I haven't even hit the January 13th prompt that I started the book with. My only real consolation is that there must be some sort of anti-writing-whatever in the atmosphere, because just about everyone over at WH stated that they didn't come close to completing their task this past week. In fact, I think, out of the years that I've been at the Huddle for winter challenges, this one has been the least productive over-all among the participants.

As for the prompts I already have written, I only had a chance to type up two of them, which caught me up to January 4th. Jynna's flash-story was from January 8th's prompt, so it will be a little bit before it's ready to share. I also haven't had much time to really delve back into her backstory in the meantime.

Well... OK, as I shared above, I DID have the time to either work more on Jynna or type up more prompts; I just didn't utilize it.... Point is, I don't have much new to share about her, but she does at least have a name. Yay. Also, Hubby's just waiting for the others interested in the game to build their characters, and then we'll be good to start playing Numenera, so... yay again!

I'm about half-way through "Heat Wave" and I'm trying to speed through the second half so I can still have at least one book done a month. So much for my new goal of two a month this year, huh? Darn Director of Sales messing with a system that didn't seem broken from our end. We were doing better than last year's sales, but I guess not better "enough" for his liking.

That doesn't really matter, though. Boss-Man wants us to focus more on sales and how to improve them while at work. It's understandable. How many office environments allow for an hour or so of employee downtime for things like reading or writing?

While I'm trying to get my act back together, I do have those two prompts for your reading pleasure.

January 3rd's was the first time I wrote for Amara in years. I'm still trying to lock down her party-mates' names, but for right now I just ran with what I had. Also, sorry for the poor title; I got nothing for it....

"The Courtyard"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

January 4th's prompt had me completely stymied, so it turned out to be a mildly-rambling, stream-of-consciousness, personal essay about writing prompts in general. It's only about 800 words long if you want to still give it a whirl.

"Trust the Pen"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

Now, let's try this "writing daily" thing again. Starting with creating a "sacred" writing time to keep me from constantly playing hookie from this part of my day. Time to go set my timer....

Super Quick Week Recap

Normally this is when I'd have my usual, long, weekly recap of my writing. Sometimes I'd even have links to new projects I've completed. Sadly, this week will not be one of those weeks.

There was some pseudo-major upheaval at work that threw everyone off their game for a few days. We should be back to normal, sorta, next week, but unfortunately, the upheaval includes me having to work today. To make up for it, I meant to write this post yesterday, but with the work-chaos I totally zoned out on what I needed to do; mostly because I forgot what day of the week it was. I ended up working on some Adulting that I've been neglecting for a while.

Still productive, just not on the priority...

So, super quick between Hubby going to work and my need to get ready for my day:

• I had a nice writing streak going, but broke it Wednesday, started it up again, and broke it again on Sunday. I WILL get a full week in at some point!
• I haven't managed to do my new Writers’ Huddle challenge goal of writing at least two new daily writing practice prompts. I have written SOME more, but I can't even say I wrote ONE per day. I'm hoping I can remedy that next week once everything has settled down.
• One of my writing prompts got me to write a bit about my Numenera RP character Jynna; pronounced Gin-nah. It's nothing groundbreaking due to it being a quick daily writing workout, but it was fun to write about her anyway. We'll see how much will be canon once Hubby learns more about the world of Numenera.
• I do have more of a physical description and rough background idea for Jynna, so I'll have to see what I can gather up for more of a bio next post.
• I have been fairly consistent with my writing prompts, being handwritten, hitting less than 1000 words. I just keep neglecting typing them up so I can send them to Ronoxym. I really need to figure out a schedule and stick with it. As much as I hate the concept of every minute of my day every day of the week being assigned to something - it completely takes out the ability to be spontaneous - I think that my life right now dictates that I really need to do precisely that.
• I finally found my next book for my reading challenge: "Heat Wave" by "Richard Castle" - it's a ghostwriter pretending to be the author main character of ABC's show "Castle." It has red on the cover, so I could switch out "Ready. Set. Novel!" with a narrative if I so choose. It has a silhouette of the main character Nikki Heat on the cover, so it could go for "Woman on the cover" category instead if I'd like. Since I don't have a book that I "gave 5-stars to" in 2015, I could just change that category to "Re-read a book" for this first novel. It is also the first book of a 4-book series, so I could possibly put it under the "Start a new series" category. Technically each title in the series has a play on the main character's last name: Heat, so.... "Name in the title"? So many options. We'll see where it ends up going.

I think that's all the broad recap that I have for this past week. I can't make any promises that I'll have time to go into further detail about anything before next Tuesday. Today is pretty packed, and the rest of the week might remain tight. However, I'll give it the "old college try." Otherwise, I'll elaborate next week, along with all the writing advancements I make between now and then.

In the meantime, won't you be my Valentine, my dear readers?

Hopping Eons into the Future; Yet Another Character Forms

Strike two for the Writers’ Huddle winter challenge. I got a little further this week; I opened a word document and saved it as the next chapter. I then began outlining the story arc of the chapter. Then I had to go to bed and didn't find time to touch it again since.

Even after two months, the feelings are still a bit raw for Jolene. I think, in order to finish off her backstory, I have to first figure out what her new present-day story will be. The more I focus on that and her in Gyateara, the less I should be thinking about her on Laerrnesse. I might be able to get back to my story then. Sorry, Shadow, you're probably going to have to wait until the end of the year to read her story now.

This leaves me in a bit of a pickle for the challenge, though. I already flopped the first two weeks, decided that maybe I'm just not in the right mindset to continue the story I set out as my challenge, and have four weeks left. Do I just pull the rip-cord?

Instead I went back to "A Writer's Book of Days" by Judy Reeves. It is now a week into February, and I'm still a month behind on the daily writing practice prompts. I've managed to crank a couple of those out over the week, but still not nearly enough for my liking.

While, including this blog post today, I'm on a nice five-day writing streak - longest I've had since the start of the year - I did miss three days last week. Also, while it didn't keep me four days of little stolen-away moments like the Amara story last week, I did have a prompt that kept me two days to finish due to time restrictions.

This whole working instead of writing thing while I'm at my job is really a hindrance.

I also didn't have time to go back and digitize my stories, let alone edit them. So I don't have anything new to share today.

Which reminds me, I had my journal with me when I went to Cyhyr and Ronoxym's for their Superbowl party on Sunday, and I completely forgot to have Ron read some of it as proof that I again wrote something under 1000 words. I also forgot to poke him about his challenge for this year: show me some sort of completed story/prose once a month; be it a full story, just a chapter, a flash fiction, an outline for a story, or a character bio.

I might really suck at this whole "Checking in on challenges for accountability" thing.... I need someone accountable for my accountability....

Anyway, my point was that I need a challenge that I can actually achieve, and writing more about Jolene doesn't seem to be achievable right now. I'm not excited about her any longer, and I need to find a way to jumpstart that excitement again. I also want to EVENTUALLY have my journal entries actually written on the day indicated, instead of a month later. So, while I'm trying to re-find my love for Jolene, I'll use the last four weeks of the challenge to try to play catch-up with the daily prompts.

I will now write two per day until I am caught up, or the challenge is over, whichever comes first. If I do manage to write at least two prompts per day, I will be caught up by the second entry on March 9th. Knowing me? I'll slack off some time and it will be about April that I catch up. Still, A GOAL IS SET!

We'll see how well this works, considering I struggle with just ONE prompt a day. Still, if I aim for two, I'm more likely to schedule the time to at least get ONE written. Right?

In the meantime, I've got yet ANOTHER character in the works.

For Christmas my family got Hubby the player's guide for a new roleplay game: Numenera. I don't have a name yet, but I think I have the broad outline for a character made up. The way you create your character for this game is that you are given the generic sentence "I am an adjective noun that verbs" and you fill in the blanks with the provided word types.

The adjectives are appropriately your "Character Descriptors." Within the core rule book, there are a dozen to choose from, and one of those can actually split depending on if you picture yourself using the stats for more technological or mystical purposes. The point of the Descriptor is to create your character's link to the starting adventure of the overall campaign. Depending on the Descriptor, you are given four options to choose from, as well as a bunch of bonuses for your character.

An example would be Intelligent:

You're quite smart. Your memory is sharp, and you easily grasp concepts that others might struggle with. This aptitude doesn't necessarily mean that you've had years of formal education, but you have learned a great deal in your life, primarily because you pick things up quickly and retain so much.

You gain the following benefits:
Smart: +2 to your Intellect Pool.
Skill: You're trained in an area of knowledge of your choice.
Skill: You're trained in all actions that involve remembering or memorizing things you experience directly. For example, instead of being good at recalling details of geography that you read about in a book, you can remember a path through a set of tunnels that you've explored before.

Initial Link to the Starting Adventure: From the following list of options, choose how you became involved in the first adventure.

1. One of the other PCs asked your opinion of the mission, knowing that if you thought it was a good idea, it probably was.
2. You saw value in what the other PCs were doing.
3. You believed that the task might lead to important and interesting discoveries.
4. A colleague requested that you take part in the mission as a favor.

~ Pg 35 of Numenera Player's Guide by Monte Cook

The nouns are the "Character Type," which is usually called the "Class" in other RPGs. There are only three to choose from, but they each become vastly diverse depending on the adjective and verb you choose. The three types are Glaive - your typical fighter classes, Nano - the mages, and Jack - short for "Jack of all trades"; your rogue-like classes.

On top of the adjective and verb attached to the Type, there is also diversity in the Type itself. Since each Type encompasses so many other generic RP classes, you can figure out if your Glaive is a brutish swordsman that used to be a town guard, or a primitive mountain man who has lived off the land his whole life, or a noble fighter of the people who believed he was blessed by some divine being. Player interpretation is key. Beyond that even, there are three different backstory options for you to choose from in order to pick how you became that skilled Type in the first place.

We'll use samples of Jack as an example:

You might hear people say that a jack is just the typical everyman (or everyperson), but don't believe it. You aren't like anyone else. You can do things that no one else can do because you do so many things. You're a warrior, you're a thief, you're a diplomat, you're a sage, and you're a spy.

When you choose jack as a character type, come up with an explanation for how you learned your wide variety of talents. Choose one of the three options described below. It will provide the foundation of your background and give you an idea of how you can improve....

Born Lucky
You seem to be better than most people because you are. Your ancestors were part of a genetic experiment, and your genes are superior to those of the average human.... Some of your genetic advantage might even grant you low-level psychic abilities that greatly resemble the "miracles" performed by nanos.

School of Hard Knocks
You learned things the hard way - on your own. Adaptive and canny, you express the true strengths of humanity in your ability to adjust quickly to circumstances, pick up new tricks to succeed, and ultimately survive when you probably should be dead....

A Cobbled Jumble
You're the product of generations of eugenics, bolstered by minor cybernetic enhancements, a few small psychic abilities, and the lessons of secret masters. In other words, you don't have one source of power or one explanation for your abilities - you have many, and as far as you're concerned, that's the best formula for success....

~ Pg 28 and 29 of Numenera Player's Guide by Monte Cook

Finally, and this is the part that makes things REALLY diverse, you have nearly 30 different verbs, or "Character Focus," to pick from. While the Descriptor gives your character bonuses and a reason for them to join the quest, the Focus gives you the battle options and your connection to at least one other Player Character.

Each Focus is about a page long, so I can't really give an example of the full concept. However, for the basic flavor, I'll sample the first focus: Bears a Halo of Fire.

You can create a sheath of flames around your body. You leave scorch marks wherever you go, and you can't handle combustible objects without first dousing your inherent flames. If you perform esoteries (or similar effects beyond the abilities of normal humans), all your effects are tainted with flame. Fiery visuals accompany your powers, and in some cases, your predilection for flame actually reshapes your abilities to take on a fiery nature where none existed before.... For example, force blasts from Onslaught are blasts of flame, and Flash is a burst of fire....

You probably wear red and yellow, or perhaps black.

Although most of those who take up this mantle are nanos, flame-wielding glaives and jacks are fearsome indeed.

Connection: Pick one other PC. Through a quirk of fate, your fire cannot harm that character.
Additional Equipment: You have an artifact - a device that sprays inanimate objects to make them fire-resistant. All your starting gear has already been treated unless you don't want it to be.

~ Pg 38 of Numenera Player's Guide by Monte Cook

So, even if every player picks "Glaive," there can be some vast diversity among the party. Between the 12 Descriptors, 3 backstories, and 29 Foci, just one Type can have over 1000 different character builds! And who's to say that one Intelligent Psionic Nano who Bears a Halo of Fire is going to be played the same as another? Player interpretation kicks in there to add even more diversity! If that's not enough, there's already expansions to the core books that add even more Descriptors and Foci....

SO. MANY. POSSIBILITIES!

I'm still struggling with my character a bit, though, mostly due to option overload. The personality that popped into my head is definitely more of the street-wise School of Hard Knocks Jack than the book-smart Nano, however, I loved the idea of the Port and Plug Nano. So, with over 1000 possibilities for me to build my Nano, I decide to start my very first character sort of "off-book."

She WOULD have mastered skills that would define her as a Jack, but this orphan was actually kidnapped off the streets by a cult who experimented on her. Cybernetic surgeries were done to "enhance" her, against her will. She eventually became strong enough with the numenera to break free of the cult, but a bit of her brainwashing might still remain.

She is now a Nano not because she wanted to learn about the numenera, but because it became her way of life. It is how she survived and how she will continue to survive. She has learned to live with the scarring and mutilation of her body. In fact, she now greatly sees the benefits of being able to master the mystical force around her, simply by plugging in a new piece of tech. She studies the ancients as well as nanites and how they make up the numenera force. She realizes that the more she understands the numenera and how it came to be, the easier it is for her to better wield it. She may not be able to undo what the cult did to her, but she will use it to its every advantage now.

This is still open to change, but based on the above build, my sentence is:
I am a Mechanical reluctant Plugs and Port Nano who Fuses Flesh and Steel.

However, I am also quite partial to the Descriptors: Graceful, Intelligent, and Stealthy.
I'm also quite partial to the Foci: Controls Gravity, Crafts Illusions, Focuses Mind Over Matter, Masters Defense, Rides the Lightning, Controls Beasts, Talks to Machines, and Bears a Halo of Fire.

In fact, prior to reading the other foci in their entirety, Bears a Halo of Fire was the one I was all but convinced I was going to take. Plus, Controls Beasts or Talks to Machines would have been fun with Shadow's Mountain Man character. I could mess with him with either focus option since the connections are for the selected PC to somehow disturb the beasts I control, which would annoy Shadow who would be One with Nature, or that the selected PC is terrible with technology and would make the machines I communicate with worse. It would end up biting me in the behind, but again, how flavorfully appropriate for a Mountain Man to mess with machines like that?

I also have a bunch of reference pictures for my lady - what I was working on for hours last night instead of writing or typing up my already written prompts - but I couldn't find one picture yet that depicts my character in her entirety.

Yet again a time when I lament not being able to draw....

I guess I should start with a name for her, though. I'm picturing something mildly Latino for some reason. Considering the world of Numenera is Earth eons into the future, who knows what name-structure is like? It will be fun to try to explore those options. I'll have to keep you informed with how I'm doing as I go.

By next week I should have at least one story typed up to share, as well as at least a name for this new girl joining the ranks.