Getting Back To Center

While January was less frantic than December, and February is shaping up to be more even-keel than January, this past week is still a bit of a blur.

Last Tuesday I read my Plagg-centric story at writing group. It had mostly positive reviews, but it might have also received the most critiques of all my fanfiction. Perhaps that was because it was mostly original content, and therefore I had more control over it? The biggest issues seemed to be the way I "breezed through" about 1000 years of Plagg's life with his previous owners, only to then slow down and talk about one specific day Plagg had with Adrien. The commenter wanted me to maybe slow down the "previous owners" overview... I... I don't know if I've ever been told I don't have ENOUGH detail in my stories before....

The other critique was that Plagg grew attached and started to truly trust Adrien a bit too soon for an eternal being that was abused, isolated, and tortured for so long just before. Maybe I did make things a bit TOO harsh for Plagg before giving him Adrien...

Whoops.

On a more positive note, ever since I posted about it, one of the group's members has basically been begging me to bring my newly minted hard cover copy of Peeping Tomcat to group. So I did, and got to talk about how awesome my sister is for publishing the copy for me. We then chatted for a little bit about why I can't actually sell copies of the book, but it was still awesome that my sister made me a physical copy to put on the shelf.

I could also look into how much it would cost to print off paperback versions for anyone who would like a copy, and then just gift them out. Can't get in trouble for that.

I also found a Tumblr post explaining DIY bookbinding, so there's also that option, but I feel like, in the long run, it will be cheaper to print from the company my sister found: bookemon. I could be wrong, though... I mean, I would just need to print off something like 274 pages and create the cover.... it might be cheaper to self-bookbind.

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Wednesday was my last day at the other store. It was fairly uneventful, but I will miss working with those ladies. They made the long-ish commute worth it. We did get a last-minute customer, though, so I didn't end up leaving until close to 6:45, and didn't get home until after 7:30pm. So I was just in total "I need to crash" mode when I got home.

Thursday was work and then D&D. We actually had some combat this go, and the party again got hurt pretty badly as we went up against just a few thugs. Hubby really needs to stop rolling high numbers for our enemies when at least Omnibladestrike and I are TERRIBLE at rolling decent numbers. I must have rotated between four different D20s to try to find one that wasn't going to kill Kriv.

Then, because I can't control my characters, Kriv finished the evening doing The Stupid, as per usual. The airship our party is using as a base doesn't have any meat options for food since the crew is Fae-touched or something like that. Not to say that we can't BUY meat to bring aboard for the party, but when Hakkim's wild magic can random him into spontaneously having a goat in his arms, why waste gold? Hakkim and Kriv jointly decided on having the half-orc cast a spell, and hope to luck into the goat. Hakkim jumped off the airship, used Feather Fall - because it was pretty much the only non-combat spell he has - and..... well... we did get meat....

A confused bear appeared on the deck in front of Kriv. Quarthix's character wanted nothing to do with these shenanigans and had already started back into the city to buy supplies, so Hubby let him decide which bear the rest of us would fight. He chose polar bear because we all enjoy the show We Bare Bears. Let me tell you, there's a reason Ice Bear is so badass!

Once the confused polar bear popped up on deck - with the party already down two members: Hakkim and Solf - Wolfhearted's character Gavin also kind of pulled a "nope" and popped below decks. Same with Omni's Kiatha - whom Kriv got the party calling Keith for short, despite her being cisfemale - so this left just Kriv and the bear...

It was Kriv's idea, AND he had to protect his precious Money Tree pot, so he metaphorically rolled up his sleeves and planned to get the crew one HECK of a feast.

Kids, do NOT let a bard take on a bear alone. It... does not end well for the bard.

Yes, Kriv was hit below 0 hit points and knocked unconscious. In D&D 3.5, you were still alive until you were knocked past -10HP, then there's no coming back. In 5e, you have to roll to pass a death check. If you succeed 3x, you're fine, just unconscious. If you fail 3x, you are officially dead; no coming back. Thankfully, when Kriv was knocked out by the Murder Rug a few weeks ago, I was able to pass my checks. I was nervous about being able to do the same this go. Especially since you get an auto-fail to one of your checks if you take damage again, and a confused and injured polar bear is not likely to let up just because its sole opponent is knocked out.

Thankfully, Hubby already had a contingency plan up his sleeve. The ship's captain Gilliam had been watching, and the second Kriv went down Gilliam used his magic to send the polar bear back to where he came from. He even magicked a fish in the bear's mouth as a form of apology.

So, aside from a few scratches the bear can heal from, no Ice Bears have been injured in The Stupid. And Kriv is still alive despite his party all abandoning him to his idiocy.

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR TEENS UNATTENDED, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE BARDS!

Ya-Ya
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by Birdman, Inc.

Friday I was planning on cracking down on my writing. I had the start of my Lukanette story, but I wasn't close to done, and I wanted to complete it by the 5th. Hubby had other plans for Friday night, however.

While wandering around the game store we found on our day-long date a couple weeks back, Hubby got a glimpse at the A Song of Ice and Fire tabletop miniatures game. It's your standard mini-army game where you start on opposite sides of the table and use rulers to determine how far you go, and then roll against each other to battle. It's similar to other minis games I've played: Ninja All-Stars, Gaslands, and Warhammer 40K*.

*Disclaimer: I have never actually played Warhammer, but Hubby does, so I've seen it played.

Anyway, Hubby bought the starter set, as well as a Heroes Pack expansion for both the Starks and Lannisters - the two factions obviously at war in the starter set. He was so excited to play it last Wednesday, but since I got home so late and just kinda crashed, we didn't get to play. Again, because of D&D on Thursday; we didn't play. So when I got home Friday Hubby already had most of the game unpacked onto the table, and already had dinner all set.

How could I tell him "I was planning on doing other things tonight" when I come home to that?

So we played ASOIAF all night. I am trash at these games because I'm a terrible strategist, but I was able to more-or-less hold my own. The game is supposed to last either six rounds or until one side hits 8 victory points, whichever comes first. It might have been because we were on our dining room table, so we had a play field of about 2.5ft (~0.76m) by 5ft (~1.5m) instead of the suggested standard of 4'x4' (~1.2m square), but I was able to get as many victory points as Hubby each round.

After the third round, Hubby and I both had 9 points. We decided to keep going the full six rounds to see who the true victor would be. This turned out to be a terrible decision because he started wiping me out at that point. In the end, after another 3 rounds, Hubby beat me 15 victory points to 11. Still not a TERRIBLE loss for someone who doesn't do well with these types of games. My air/bird ninja clan notwithstanding.

Even though Hubby and I wanted a "short" game, so we went with only 30pt armies, since we went all 6 rounds it still kept us until 10:30ish to finish playing. At that point I wasn't awake enough to try writing.

Saturday was Anime Night, as well as Wolfhearted's birthday!

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Wolf popped in for a bit before spending his birthday at the local gastropub; having great food, enjoyable beer, and playing pool all night. Hubby introduced Wolf to a gambling-themed anime to try to entice him to stick around, but anime isn't really his bag of tea. He did comment, multiple times, how much Goob enriched the experience though, because Goob Knows All when it comes to anime, and tends to give a running commentary on things like composers, writers, voice actors, certain culture references and how they were changed for the localization of the show, and frame rates.

We all shared the cake that Wolf brought over for D&D but we forgot to touch. Then he was off to the pub, and we were ALMOST back to our regularly scheduled program. While we were on Netflix - where the anime was that Hubby introduced Wolf to - Hubby noticed that the second half of Miraculous Ladybug season 3 was FINALLY up. I don't really remember now how it went down, but somehow the announcement of the new episodes somehow lead to us watching "Gamer 2.0" with Goob while Omni went to McDonald's to get dinner. The even funnier thing was, when Omni came back in time for the second half of the episode, most of Goob's questions about the show were answered by Omni and Hubby... ya know... as opposed to me... the obsessed fan. I would start to answer, but about a word or two in Hubby or Omni would jump in. It amused me how much they now know of the show.

Because of that, at the end of the night - I think after Goob had left - I hijacked our watch schedule to jump onto YouTube and show Hubby and Omni the ML Reanimation project for the episode "Dark Cupid". If you're a fan, or just a fan of fan re-animation projects, you should totally check this piece of work out. There are some fantastic artists/animators that I got introduced to in this, there are also artists I already follow that participated, there are fantastic visual gags, and the random puppetry had me in stitches each time. It's amazing.

Also, quick side note about "Gamer 2.0." When the battle select screen came up Goob started making jokes about who the villains looked like. Hubby paused it so Goob could keep joking about each of the villains, but then they had me actually go to the TV and name each of them off. I didn't get as into detail as to state the name of the victims that were akumatized, but I did manage to name them all. That was when I realized that there were some villains from previous seasons that didn't make the cut, as well as villains from earlier in the 3rd season. For instance, Style Queen is a playable villain, but Queen Wasp and Malediktator aren't. All-in-all, there are 10 villains from the first 2 seasons that weren't used, and only 2 season 3 villains making the cut, despite the episode being a later-season one. Also, while Reverser is used, he's not on the select screen. I'm surprised I never noticed any of that before.... I mean, the episode was one of the earlier ones that aired, despite it including a mid-season villain we weren't introduced to yet, so that might explain why I didn't notice the lack of season 3 villains. Otherwise... huh.... wonder why I never just noticed how many we were missing before.

Back on track, though....

Sunday was the Super Bowl. After work, I was planning on getting SOME writing done before Omni and Quarthix came over to watch the game. Instead I helped prep the food/apartment, got changed out of my work clothes, and ended up socializing. Darn me and my extroverted tendencies yet again!

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Monday was my first day back to Zumba! I hadn't been to a class since, like... mid-to-late-October. I was fearing going considering how much my knee now clicks as I climb stairs, I haven't done much exercising at all over the holiday/winter season, my great toe on my one foot has been sore the past few days, and I was feeling fatigued all day. But I FINALLY had my evenings free again for more than just one day a week - which is why I opted out of January classes - so I wasn't going to let all of that stop me! I even got home late - I worked until 6, I had to then pick up Hubby from work, and stop by the ATM because I couldn't remember if I had Zumba money in my bag still - and has about 10minutes to get changed, fill my water bottle, and speedwalk to class. I certainly had a defeatist attitude of "why bother; I'm going to be late and not have time to stretch and I'll end up killing myself" but Hubby gave me a quick pep-talk, and out the door I went.

I... didn't die!

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The balls of my feet were killing me when I was done, and my sinuses were on fire because I am a touch sick. But that's more-or-less it. My legs weren't as wobbly as I expected they would be. I even managed to walk normally back down the stairs to the street after class, instead of my normal "Oh, Lord, I gotta lean HARD on the railing as my wobbly legs inch me down these 20 steps." I also either remembered or quickly picked up the routines, so another win there.

Whoot!

The only snag is that I purposefully avoided Zumba in January because I was only going to be able to do the Monday night classes, and I figured that would do more harm than good. I only started up again this week because I can finally do both Mondays and Wednesdays again. Aaaaaand this Wednesday's class is cancelled because the instructor will be at her son's basketball game.

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Meh, I tried. And there's always next week....

Anyway, I attempted to at least work on this blog post last night so all I had to do was edit and publish today; leaving most of my morning free to work on my story instead. Alternatively, I could have worked on my story so that it was potentially done for me to share with you fine folks today.

Neither happened. I let the fatigue of the day - and mild exhaustion from exercising - finally overtake me, and I was in bed before 10pm last night. I thought "Hey, at least I can be well rested and wake up about 7am to start writing tomorrow".... that... also did not happen. Apparently my body needed that extra sleep - again, I'm mildly sick, but perhaps it's worse than I'm giving it credit - and I didn't push myself out of bed until closer to 8am.

So, yeah, even though things are FINALLY getting back to normal, I'm still a bit off-balance and need more adjustment time. Getting those daily stories done this upcoming week will be interesting....

Speaking of, what kind of progress DID I manage, now that I spent about 20 minutes rambling about my week like this is a diary instead of what it should be: a blog about my writing progress?

Meh. Knowing what I'm doing with my life help explains why I'm not writing, right?

Hacker Girl
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by Birdman, Inc

I have done some writing. I'm up to 3659 words in my Lukanette story, but I still don't have an actual plot for this thing; just Luka and Marinette kind of stumbling around each other while Luka asks for help and Marinette tries to figure out the best solution for him. Even I don't know what solution Marinette will give him, so I've been kind of letting the story unfold on its own. I feel like I have a bit to edit out and/or edit down now that I know some more details.

This is such an inefficient way of writing, but it's better than no writing at all, right?

I've also been doing a lot of side-research. I won't get into detail now as to what I've been researching, for fear of giving away the prompt before my recipient gets to read it, but my research and brainstorming has taken up quite a few hours this week.

My other bit of research is on Lukanette in the first place: How do others present their relationship, and how can I couple that with the canonical way they interact to better figure out how to handle them in my story?

Sadly, there hasn't been much that really helped me with that. Most of the stories I've skimmed either feel like he's out of character - more of an Adrien stand-in then actual Luka, or a genderswapped Marinette - or the plotlines are so divergent from what I'm working on that the interactions don't really help me much, or their relationship status is different than the one I'm working with, and so how they interact with each other would be different.

Fanart also isn't helping much, because most of them are just the two characters kissing or cuddling. There isn't much emotional diversity to them, as opposed to many Love Square fanart I stumble across.

So, in the end, I'm back to just relying on the canon interactions.

That doesn't mean I didn't find a good piece of fanfic I'd like to pass on, though. I actually got a lot of enjoyment over a simple little drabble. It seems to just be on Tumblr, and it's called "It’s mine now!” by KryptoRed.

Summary: Written for Lukanette February 2020. Day 1 prompt: mine

Word Count: 330 drabble

Rating: General Audiences

It's a cute little story about Marinette laying claim to one of Luka's sweatshirts, mostly because it smells like him, and that comforts her. As someone who 100% did this with my husband when we were dating, and still do it with his favorite sweatshirt now that we're married, this story spoke to me on an intimate level. It was just so me and Hubby, and I loved that.

Now, at the start of my Lukanette inspiration research, I did stumble upon a great MariChat story. It wasn't what I wanted inspiration for at the time, but I also couldn't resist the read. The story is Make Me Like You by Princess Kitty1

Summary: Marinette knows she should keep things strictly professional between herself and Chat Noir, but the more often he comes over, the harder it gets. (31 drabbles in which Marinette and Chat Noir goof off and fall in love.)

Word Count: 12,561

Rating: T for Teen

The story was written during MariChat May 2016, so it is quite the old fic, and was solely based off season 1 material, and just sort of went from there. It was such a visceral read. Princess Kitty1 truly knows how to write make-out sessions, but also those heartstring-pulling moments. The fear each has about the other discovering their identity. The confusion as they begin to fall for each other. The need to be together, despite the awkwardness while interacting in their other personas. It's all just so good and sweet. Also, since these were daily drabbles, each chapter is super quick to read through, and each moment is so self-contained that you can always stop whenever you need a break. (As opposed to me, who just HAD to binge the whole thing in one sitting last Tuesday night.)

I can't even properly remember how I found this story anymore - I think I saw fanart of the chapter Film Noir and was intrigued, and then figured "Meh, let's see how others handle MariChat, and maybe it will help me with OatS" - but I'm glad I did. Also, the answer is decidedly "nope" on helping me with OatS because the situations are far too different, but I did note some ideas I really did enjoy and would love to use at some point in future projects. So... yay? Either way, it was a good read. So, yeah. Definitely yay.

Now to try to get my act together so I can figure out how to finish this Lukanette story before I go to bed tomorrow night. I'm also anxiously awaiting the start of Fluff Week on Thursday... wish me luck.

I SHOULD have about seven stories by next Tuesday, but Fluff Week only has 7 prompts and is running 8 days - February 6th through 13th - so I may push back Day 1 until the 7th. Either way, be prepared for a BUNCH of writing rained onto you next week!

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Resolutions and Amazing Gifts

Ah, it's good to be back on my Tuesday routine. The stress of 2019 kinda rolled into the start of 2020, but it's dying down again a touch. My normal routine is still a bit off this month, however. There is a new hire at a different branch of the store I work for, and, for whatever reason, I'm apparently the Go-To-Gal for training new-hires. I've done so in the past, and I'm tapped to do so again this month. The added trick, however, is that the store she was hired for is so understaffed right now that the poor manager hasn't had a single day off in over a month! I thought MY December was rough!

To try to help a fella out, I'll be going to that store once a week to both train the new hire, as well as man the store - as it were - so the manager can finally have days off again. By the time I'm done training the new-hire at the end of January, hopefully she'll feel confident enough to run the store once or twice a week so the manager can continue to have his days off, and I will no longer have to commute roughly 90minutes round trip each week.

My own poor manager now has to work six days a week in order to cover for me being at the other store on one of her normal days off. So this is not the greatest arrangement all around. But it helps give someone his days off again, and it trains someone new, and I'm getting paid mileage, so it all works out, I guess.

Still, I won't be home until closer to 7pm on the days that I'm down at the other store, which means still no Zumba for me. I feel like it will do more harm than good to only go on Mondays, especially since I haven't been able to go for two months already. Soooooo, guess February will be my grand return finally???

Dear lord, I'm going to die when I go back....

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by PRANEAT

I also missed the first Writer's Group meeting of the year because I had to work on Tuesday - which was the 31st, so technically NOT the first of the year, but close enough - and I'll be working again when our next meeting comes around on the 14th! Which means I'm also going on month 2 of no writer's group meetings. This is killing me!

Hopefully, I'll be able to make the meeting on the 28th. Otherwise, February will be my true Restart Month: back to normal work week, back to Zumba 2x a week, back to Writing Group every other Tuesday, etc.

In the meantime, January is going to be more of a "trial run" for 2020.

I heard recently that the best way to create lasting New Year's Resolutions, and other such new routines for the new year, is to start the new resolution/routine in December. That way you can get into the routine and iron out any problems with it before the year starts. You would be less discouraged then - because if something falls through or otherwise fails you have time to correct it before the new year, whereas once in the new year you feel like it's not worth trying anymore - and you are more likely to continue with the resolutions.

So I'm a bit late to the party with this "trial month" attempt. However, December was far too chaotic for me to do a trial run of anything. I just completely collapsed and crumbled last month, and adding to those stressors would not have done anyone good.

Instead, I'm using this mindset of January being the "trial month" for my resolutions and new routines to try to refine things. Especially since I wasn't TERRIBLE with my resolutions last year. As I noted last week, I definitely tripped through my resolutions a lot, and fumbled quite a bit, but in the end, I didn't give up on them, so that's a win... right?

Let's check out how well I actually did with those resolutions, shall we?

2019 Resolution #1: Try yet again to write at least 4 out of 7 days of the week

With the chaos of frantic cleaning for my mom and sister to visit, I somehow packed my planner in a "safe spot" that I cannot find right now, so I don't have the stats for January through June of 2019. I vaguely remember them being fairly good with keeping to this resolution. I also did fairly well in July, working on One and the Same during my Camp NaNoWriMo. The rest of the year, though????

• Aug: This was the start of me slipping with my time audits. I only have 13 days marked as having written; 4 of those were my weekly blog posts.
• Sept: Even worse, I only have 11 days marked as having any writing progress.
• Oct: Thanks to Kyoru week and trying to finish my original story gift to Ronoxym, I have marked that I wrote every day for the first 18 days of October - minus Monday the 14th. I don't have any days after the 18th marked though, so I think I only wrote my blog for the rest of the month? Totaling in 19 writing days. Still not very good.
• Nov: Ironically, I only have 3 days marked on my calendar, but I also did the worst with keeping up with my time audits in November. I know I at least worked on my blog, and then on my story at Group, every Tuesday, and I have a single Thursday marked as having written something, so I know at least 5 days were spent writing. I know I was stressed in November, and certainly didn't write daily, but I feel like I wrote more often than 5 days....
• Dec: Ug. December was the worst offender for forgetting to do my time audits. I only have 2 days marked on my calendar, but I know I wrote a blog post for 4 out of the 5 Tuesdays, and I wrote my Plagg one-shot on the 13th. I also got my ML Secret Santa exchange done by the 24th, and had worked on that for a couple of days. I want to give myself the benefit of the doubt, and say I wrote at least 10 days out of the month???

So, yeah... didn't do too well with this resolution during the back half of the year. I'm hoping I can get myself into a much better routine so that I don't slip around July again, when life starts to get more and more frantic for me.

2019 Resolution #2: Finish and post my fanfic sequel One and the Same

I don't know what it is about this story that is so hard for me to write! Clearly I just full-on failed this resolution/goal, but I didn't give up on the project either. So there's that. I worked on it for every NaNoWriMo attempt. It was my project for April's Camp NaNo, and again for July's Camp, and once more during the original NaNoWriMo in November. I've chipped more and more and more away at the project. I've solidified scenes. I've gotten rid of others. I've strengthened the plot concept. I've gotten the rough draft past 50,000 words. I. Just. Can't. Complete. The. Dang. Thing!!!!

I think part of the delay is that I feel like this story isn't as strong a showing as Peeping Tomcat was, and I want both stories to be equally good. Especially after the long wait, I don't want to disappoint my patient readers by having One and the Same feel inferior. So it's certainly a struggle, and OatS beat me in 2019, unfortunately.

2019 Resolution #3: Post at least one new completed story per month

I mentioned this last week, but I both succeeded and failed at this goal. I did not manage to post a completed story every month. I DID, however, manage to post over 20 completed stories this past year. While the resolution did state "at least" one story - already implying that I'd write more than one in any given month - and therefore should cancel out the abundance I produced in August and September, I'm still going to call this resolution NEARLY successful. A... B+ grade for the effort I put in to complete it and the added "extra credit" stories to make up for the "missed assignments", as they were.

2019 Resolution #4: Win NaNoWriMo again this November

Yeeeeeeaaaaah... No. This did NOT happen. Fail. Super fail. Nope.

HOWEVER, I also didn't give up attempting to write in November. I kept wanting to. I kept telling myself it wasn't working, and yet I pushed on. I chipped away word by word right up until I left to visit family on the 29th. I made sure that this was NOT going to be my worst showing at NaNoWriMo. It is only my SECOND worst showing; I managed to irk out a little more than 3900 words. Still 3900 more than I had going into November, right? So... yay?

2019 Resolution #5: Continue my weekly blog post routine

I was so close! I had gone MONTHS without missing a post. I may have been days late, but I got it done before the week was out. Then, in June, I tripped and missed a week. I was going to make up for it by writing my normal blog post, as well as writing up my feelings about the novels Graceling and Bitterblue that I had read over the summer as a bonus. I wanted to wait until I finished the trilogy, and never did get a chance to read Fire, so that bonus post was never written. I tripped again in November. While I also kinda-sorta tripped last week by having it be my first post of the new year instead of the last of 2019, I'll leave it to you to decide if I was down 2 or 3 posts in 2019. Either way, 50 posts out of the year is fairly consistent. It seems to be my norm: out of the nearly-ten years that I've had this blog, I started writing in it weekly back in 2012. Since then, I have written 50 posts/year 3 times - including 2019 - and more than 50 posts also 3 times. I have only managed to write once per week in 2017, but even for that year I missed weeks and then double-posted later so....

As for that "reading challenge" I was going to write up, and post later? The one that became "Meh, I'm reading a lot of fanfic this year; I'll just try to track the words read"? Yeah. That ended up going virtually nowhere, sadly. I did read a lot of fanfic - especially in December - and I did manage to read at least three professionally published novels. All-in-all, though, I feel like I slacked off in my reading.

It may simply be because I read quick fanfic one-shots while on brief work breaks, and so mentally I slotted them away as "don't count" for whatever reason. So I'm going to try to do better with that as well.

Which brings me to....

*~*~* New Year's Resolutions for 2020 *~*~*

To be completely frank, they're going to more-or-less be the same resolutions as 2019. As I said above, my goal this year is to REFINE. So let's see if I can do better with these goals this year.

2020 Resolution #1: Try yet again to write at least 4 out of 7 days of the week

I must tackle this goal first and foremost by getting into the routine for my time audits; track where my time is going so I can better see when my best writing time even is. These audits also hold me accountable for my time. Plus, they really do help when I reflect back on the year and try to see how frequently I did get to work on writing.

I also need to get back into finding set times to write. I have an alarm on my phone that goes off every night at 8pm, telling me to go write. However, due to TV shows Hubby and I wish to watch, socializing, or just chores getting delayed, I haven't actually stopped to write at 8pm in MONTHS. Maybe even all of 2019! So clearly that is not a good time for me to write. I fear that my best writing time is in the morning, before I start my day since I have such limited time post-work day. Which means training myself to actually slide out of bed instead of hitting snooze for an hour so I can cuddle my husband. We'll see how well I do with finding a more routine writing time.

It does help when I routinely work on this blog every Tuesday morning from about 8am until.... whenever it is I get to finish it. So maybe a similar routine will help with consistent fictional writing as well.

2020 Resolution #2: Finish and post my fanfic sequel One and the Same

I. Am. Determined!

I have lived with this story for so long, and I've had TWO WHOLE SERIES SEASONS to give me new fodder to work with. My readers have patiently waited for an extra YEAR past what I promised them. I can't keep delaying this story. I'm going to try to be realistic though. So here is my sub-goal breakdown:

• Jan: Get my bearings. Re-read what I have of OatS. Re-read PT to get back into the feel of the story. Re-read and re-tweak my outline.
• Feb: Get back into a writing rhythm. Refine the outline using the notes I took in January. Refine what I've already written for OatS, again using the notes I took in January.
• March: Now that I'm back in rhythm, and no longer distracted by other writing projects, start working on figuring out the dang akuma attacks, as well as other "middle bits" that have been halting my progress on this story.
• April: Use Camp NaNoWriMo to finish the rough draft of this dang story!
• May: My manager's daughter is getting married in May, so I might be working extra hours the last week of April. If this hinders my writing, use May to finish the rough draft. Otherwise, use it to recoup from Camp, and work on other projects. Let OatS sit.
• June: Polish OatS. Go through and edit what needs to be edited so that the "rough draft" is in its nearly-polished form at the very least, and the first chapter is as good as I'm going to be able to make it.
• July: Spend Camp editing OatS so that I can post a new chapter every week, just as I did with PT.
• Aug: Finish polishing up OatS in order to get ahead of my posting schedule; having the whole thing as perfect as I can make it before the end of the month. Keep publishing new chapters weekly.
• Sept: I will most likely be publishing weekly chapters still. Use this time for any catch-up spill-over from August, and focus on the next big writing project; whatever that is.

We'll see how well I stick to this scheduling. Encouraging words and gentle pokes/prods to stay on track are appreciated.

2020 Resolution #3: Participate in at least one fandom event per quarter.

I switched this one up a bit. Last year, when I gave myself the goal to write a story a month, it was partially a way to make sure I kept writing as a priority. It was a means to hold me accountable so I wouldn't slack off. It was a way to train myself to produce a bit faster. Most importantly, though, it was supposed to be a way for me to build up readers.

My name would pop up in feeds more frequently. I would be closer to the top of "recent uploaded" lists within the fandom tags on FFN, AO3, and Tumblr. There would be more content for readers to consume if they liked one story, and that would give them a better feel for my over-all writing. Hopefully, that would lead them to like my writing in general and want to subscribe to/follow me. Also, if I posted moderately frequently - once a month - then perhaps that would also be enticing to readers: this content creator does so with moderate regularity. I knew I wouldn't be as quick or popular as those who posted daily, or at least weekly, but it would be a start.

In the end, I fear that my drive to complete SOMETHING monthly forced me to focus more on those monthly stories, and less on OatS, which could have helped with my overall delaying of the project. Especially when some of my time was spent just trying to figure out WHAT to write. Sure, there were points where inspiration struck and wouldn't let go - Prescription for Love in March, Love Taps in June, Sparks for the Moment in July, and both Painfully Close and evolving Stranger in a White Dress into I Don't Care in August - but most of the months had me painstakingly plan something, and usually as a gift for someone.

Participating in events will probably have a fairly similar affect on OatS, sadly, since I will be working on those stories instead of dedicating that extra time to my main project. HOWEVER, events usually come with prompts. Sure, there were days during Kyoru Week where I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to use the prompt, but there were also days where the story came fairly quickly. Prompts help direct me, so I'm not as stressed trying to figure out what to even write about. Truthfully, that was part of my issue with the fandom gift exchange for Christmas. I didn't really have much of a jumping point, whereas I had more direction when writing my gifts for Taurus Pixie and ChibiSunnie throughout the year. For February's Secret Admirer exchange, we will be provided with two prompt ideas from our giftee, and I know it's going to be Lukanette-centric, so it should be a lot smoother sailing than the Christmas exchange was. In theory, these prompted events will be less stressful and easier on my creative muscles then pulling a random story out of thin air monthly. And, most importantly for my over-all goal for the year, much like with my monthly posting attempts, I hope participating in these events will help get my name out there more. Part of the draw of the events is that the host will reblog the participants' works. This puts it in view of the event's followers: an audience of the other participants, as well as non-participants who may have followed specifically to enjoy the new content. That is most likely a much larger audience than what I currently have.

The long and short of this resolution is that I hope it helps ease my stress of having to come up with something new monthly. I also hope it helps me learn to produce faster, it helps refresh my creativity when I run into writers blocks with OatS, and it helps increase my name recognition within the fandom(s). On top of all of that, I hope that - while I have two different events in February already - cutting down to one event every quarter - January through March, April through June, July through September, and October through December - will also cut down on the overall distraction from OatS. We'll see how this new resolution fairs compared to my "once a month" one from 2019.

2020 Resolution #4: Plagg Appreciation Days

Another new one for the year. I need to recover from my poor showing at NaNo last year, so I won't aim to "win" this year; just to again participate and maybe succeed with a half-NaNo. So, instead of having a NaNo-focused resolution, I'm instead focusing on a fun, semi-sporadic fandom event I want to get trending.

Since the show Miraculous Ladybug includes both a black cat themed superhero and a black cat looking super being, I love the idea of focusing on those two boys every Friday the 13th. People equate that day with black cats and bad luck, and the reason Chat Noir has the powers he does is precisely because of the black cats and bad luck connection. Add in that we don't get to see Plagg on screen nearly as much as we do Tikki, and Chat Noir rarely gets a chance to shine in the show, it is very often that Plagg is overlooked, and Chat Noir is only used in MariChat romance fanfic or as a main character in a demon  or enemy AU. They need better representation than that, so I wanted to turn Friday the 13th into Plagg Appreciation Day (and/or Chat Noir Appreciation Day) within the fandom. I already wrote two Plagg-centric stories on the last two Friday 13ths since I came up with this concept. I want to make sure I hit both Friday 13ths of 2020 as well, and possibly get the concept trending within the fandom.

For those who would like to help me with my stretch goal by participating in Plagg Appreciation Days, we have a Friday 13th in March, but we don't get another one until November. Poor Plagg, at least he had three relatively in a row: September, December, and now March... One every 3 months is pretty cool....

2020 Resolution #5: Continue my weekly blog post routine

This will forever and always be one of my resolutions, until it becomes second nature to me. I will attempt to write one blog post each week. I will try to not miss a week and then have to make up for it via a double-posting. I will try to plan ahead so I have the blog post ready ahead of time on Tuesdays where I work or are otherwise busy. Considering it's already past my noon posting time, and I was three days late in posting last week, I won't bother attempting to post at a regular time. This year is just "once per week; preferably on Tuesdays" and I'll build from there next year.

2020 Resolution #6: Track my reading

Once again, due to how crazy December was for me, I neglected to find an official reading challenge for 2020. I also neglected to write one up myself. Instead, I'm going to try again with simply track my reading: How much do I read, how frequently do I read, how much do I read in fanfiction compared to traditional publishing, etc?

With the frantic pacing of this year, I don't recall going back and reading anything yet. Great start, huh? Especially when a friend of mine has already blown through her first book. Still, January is "Trial Month" this year, so I have time to "catch up", as it were. So, from now on, at the end of each blog post, I will attempt to include a QUICK recap of what I read that week, to better keep track of it all. Along those lines, I am a fan of fantasy, urban fantasy, "modern" sci-fi - so stuff set before 2100, Steampunk, and comedy. If anyone has any recommendations, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Now, if you couldn't quite tell based on my post being roughly 80% about my resolutions, I haven't really done much writing yet this year. I spent last week cleaning, working, and trying to get my blog post up. Then post-blog-publishing on Friday, it was back to cleaning. Saturday was the tail end of last-minute cleaning before the fam showed up, then it was a weekend with them. They left about 3pm on Sunday, and then it was time to do more cleaning; mostly 4 loads of laundry.

Yesterday I just needed a break. After I was done with work, I picked Hubby up from his job, and we did quick grocery shopping. Then we made dinner, ate, and I crashed. I tried going through the countless Tumblr posts I have backlogged, or read and comment on reviews I received, or read and comment on Taurus Pixie's latest blog post, or reply to ChibiSunnie on Facebook. Each time my mind just went, "Nope. We're shutting down now. Catch ya tomorrow."

So I did indeed hit all of that - minus the Tumblr feed - first thing this morning to make sure I had the energy to do so. One of the reasons this post is late... but... priorities.

I did intend to spend last night starting this blog post, as an attempt to get the post written Monday nights, and simply edited Tuesday mornings; making it easier to publish on time.

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With laundry caught up on, I don't have to do that tonight, and with Hubby and I doing our shopping last night, that's another chore I usually do on Tuesdays and don't have to. I also don't have writing group tonight, so that's two extra hours in the evening. Perhaps I can use all of that newly found time to get back to writing. I'd love to give you an update on that next week.

In the meantime, though, holy smokes did I get awesome gifts this Christmas!

Hubby had given me the SOFTEST throw blanket in the shape and style of the Hylian Shield from the Legend of Zelda franchise.

Found on Amazon

He also got me a set of Steampunk D&D dice that are brown and yellow with gear designs on each side. There was also a bunch of "little things" sprinkled throughout December, but those were the two "main gifts" from him.

I also got a copy of Muppet Treasure Island from my sister-in-law. This has to be my favorite Muppets movie, and up until Christmas, I only had my VHS copy. My father-in-law gifted me a journal, pens, and a book on grammar. My manager also gifted me a journal and pens, because people are enablers of my addiction to journals/notebooks. My other co-worker gifted me a room escape game that will be fun to try out.

I already shared last week the story that I was gifted in the Secret Santa exchange.

Then there was my mom! I got two new bracelets with encouraging inscriptions on them and other such positive meanings behind them. She also got me an assortment of books to help me with writing prompts, and world building, and even map drawing! Whoot! Then there was also the friggen Ocarina!

Found on Amazon

I've wanted one pretty much ever since I found out they recreated the Ocarina of Time from the Zelda game of the same name. I kept delaying my purchase for whatever reason, but Mom swooped in and got one for me. Now to try it out and see if I can actually learn how to play the thing. It didn't really go well when I tried learning the alto horn and trumpet in middle school, but that was MIDDLE SCHOOL. I'm much older, more mature, and more determined to learn now.

I'm just nervous to start with anyone around. I'll most likely be squeaky and out of tune to start, and I don't want to annoy anyone with my practices. I'll keep you posted on my progress with that, though.

I also got a message from ChibiSunnie last week, wishing me a happy new year, and to digitally gift me my annual Christmas card. Look at how amazing it looks!!!!

Christmas card created by Chibisunnie
See the full-sized image on her art blog

EEEEEE, it's steampunk Kyoru! I love it! You can see how much I love it in my reblog of it. I'll spare those of you who didn't click that link by simplifying my feelings to: LOOK HOW PRETTY! EVERYONE GIVE IT LOVE!!!!


Now... as much as I hate stating that one gift in particular "won" over all of the other fantastic and amazing and heartfelt gifts I received, I'm certainly leaning towards stating that my sister kinda "won" Christmas this year.

Last year, while I was still gushing about how well Peeping Tomcat had done the first year it was live, my mom asked for a Word document version of the story. It's hard for her to read it off the sites I posted to, and for some reason she wasn't a fan of the PDF or other e-reader download options available off of AO3. So I went ahead and sent her the original document.

A little while later, my sister also asked for the file. I found it odd that she needed her own copy, but I ran with it. For her, I sent the Word document as well as the PDF. About a month or so later, she asked me about the image I used for the PT cover:

The official cover art I used for
my FFN and AO3 postings

The banner image I used for promotions
since it took up less space.
I also used this for each of the AO3 chapter titles.

My "spidey-sense" was tingling when she asked for the cover art images. I had suspected that she was planning on doing something with them to help commemorate my first novel-length bit of writing.

That was back in like May or June, though, so when my birthday came and went and I didn't get anything, I just shrugged it off, and kind of forgot about it.

Until Saturday, when I opened my sister's gift, and saw this.

I flipped open the book and....

MY SISTER FRIGGEN PUBLISHED MY FANFICTION FOR ME!!!!!

Now, it isn't available for public consumption in physical form; it's not for sale since it is fanfiction and I don't have the right to sell a story filled with someone else's characters and world-build. Still, IT'S FLIPPIN' PUBLISHED! I CAN PUT PEEPING TOMCAT ON MY BOOKSHELF!

How cool is that!? How have I not thought to do this myself?

The poor thing was having one heck of a time with the story, though. The formatting kept fighting her - must be a family trait - and my copy is actually the third one she bought, which is why I didn't receive it as a 35th birthday gift. The first publication turned out way too large - from how she described it, it sounds like a Coffee Table Book - and so that's now my mom's copy. She likes that the font is so large, so it's easier for her to read. Plus, Mom prefers reading physical novels over e-books. The second version was with a matte hardcover, but my sister wasn't a fan of how that turned out, and there were still formatting errors within the text, so that's now her copy.

My copy still has - I think she counted six? - formatting errors in the text itself, but the gloss finish cover and size were closer to what she wanted to get for me, so that's the version I now own. I don't mind the errors. As Hubby joked, it's probably fewer than what appears in most professionally published work. I'm just so friggen excited about having a physical copy of my work like this!

Maki Natsuo from the anime Love Lab

So, super duper humungo thanks, Sis, for the gift. It is suuuuch a motivational boost for my writing! Plus, it's further incentive to get that re-read of PT done so I can better get a feel for OatS.

Also... now I know where to go to print off a physical copy of OatS once I finally have THAT story done!

Okay, it's now 2:30, and this is yet ANOTHER epic post. So I'll cut off here. Until next week, you guys.

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And the Failing Continues

This NaNoWriMo is not going well. I'll confess that right now.

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I guess I just haven't been in a good mental state lately. I debated caving in and working on a different story since "One and the Same" has been such a pain. However, I don't even have motivation for THAT. No new plot-bunny ideas, no inspiration for existing ones, no drive to work on converting Blame Fate for This into novel-length, nothing. More often than not, I end up staring into the void.

Not even last week's writing sprints at Group helped me. In part, I think it's because it was a bit less organized than it usually is. We must have been rusty.

I always thought we had done ten-minutes-on, ten-minutes-off. Or maybe it was 15 and 15? Well, this go we did 20 and 20, and the first 20 was already in session when I showed up at 6 last week. Apparently the three ladies that were there at about 5:30 decided to go ahead and start early, so they were in the middle of a sprint when I arrived. Then the discussions were an awkward 20-off because no one really had enough to say to fill the full 20, but whenever we decided to wave the flag and just cut the discussion side early, THAT was when someone had a question about their work or wanted to read, and then we had to cut them off in order to get back into writing. We also ended up ending our last writing session at like 7:45, and the library closed at 8, so we didn't have the full 20minutes to discuss what we just worked on, but that somehow meant we weren't going to bother discussing anything????

I hope it runs smoother tonight. I also hope I become inspired. Most of last week's sprints were used to slowly edit more passages I already wrote, and filter through my many different outlines I have for this dang story. In the end, I think I wrote 250 words, none of which I think I'll be keeping, even though they are literally the only words I've written so far for NaNo.

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I had actually used my spoiler-y rundown of my outline that I posted here last week. I had more things figured out, and I hoped using that "outline" as my latest one could help.

It did not... on the writing end of things, at least.

So, my first outline was exactly how it sounds: a bulleted list of plot points I wanted throughout my story. When that didn't work out for me, I went with the Snowflake Outline method created by Randy Ingermanson. The problem I had with that, though, was the dual storylines for Adrien and Marinette, and how they should intertwine in a manner that works with a basic three-act structure: inciting incident, call to action, central conflict, end of Act I, first culmination, midpoint, main culmination, third act twist, climax, and resolution. I studied the four-act structure to see if that could be a good alternative, but I just can't break down my story that way.

I also tried to write something a bit more in-depth for my outline at one point. So I have a 4pg document where I have paragraphs describing what happens in a sort of Sparknotes type summary. Things have changed so much since I wrote that, and the middle still has things like "insert MariChat goodness here" so that hasn't really proven helpful either.

I attempted to break down the chapters; knowing who would have what chapter, and how many I'd be aiming for. This is how I know I'm looking at roughly a 25 chapter story. This outline helped slightly, but it also still has a large chunk of the middle missing with similar "MariChat Goodness" notes without any real thought as to what those scenes are. There's also chapters in there that I don't know if I need, but I have them there to keep the alternating pattern of Marinette gets a chapter, then Adrien does, then back to Marinette.

All of this means that last week's impromptu outline here on my blog was outline attempt number... five??? Not including updates to the other outline formats. It was better, and I started filtering it into that chapter breakdown outline, but it still left me wondering "do I need this chapter?" I already have so many scenes for that "deleted chapters" project I'll publish once OatS is done. I really don't want to needlessly or even intentionally add to it if I don't have to.

So my latest outline attempt breaks things down even FURTHER. It's been a slow - oh, so painfully slow - process, but I think I'm FINALLY getting somewhere.

I now ask myself five questions for each chapter:

1. What is the scene I'd like to show?
2. Whose point-of-view should it be in?
3. Which plotline - either main or sub - does this scene cover?
4. What does the scene resolve with regards to that plotline?
• Alternatively: How does the scene CREATE the new plotline?
5. How does the scene advance that plotline?
• Alternatively: How does the scene CONCLUDE the plotline?

I even break down those questions further. If a scene actually covers multiple plotlines, what are all of them? How does each plotline interact with the other ones in the scene? How does each one advance their part of the overall story?

And that's my key: how does the scene push the story forward? I keep getting stuck because there are lovely, fluffy, breather chapters in the middle. People will most likely keep reading just for the fluff. That's how a lot of fanfiction words - indulgent fluff that doesn't necessarily resolve much more than our own desires for the characters to cuddle or blush or kiss - and it's something fanfiction readers gladly consume; me included. There's nothing wrong with writing fluff. There's nothing wrong with fanfic chapters pausing the overall story in order to have fun self-indulgent, fanservice-y chapters. I want to stress that by no means am I trying to shame writers who do this, or shame readers who love this, or state that it is an invalid storytelling tactic. It totally is valid, and lovely, and great for when you just need a lovely pick-me-up.

For ME, however? If I'm writing self-indulgent fluff, I try to keep it as a one-off that people can just quickly flip to whenever they want. For my chaptered stories, I try to write them as close to professionally as possible so that I'm well-practiced for when I write an original story to try to publish. So I'm pushing myself now to always focus on the "how does this advance the story?" question. I was able to almost instinctively create always-advancing chapters for Peeping Tomcat, so having to THINK about how each chapter pushes the story forward has been hard.

For an example, I'll use PT. If you haven't read the story yet, and still wish to, I'll throw up a spoiler warning.

• Chapter 1: Mistake
• This chapter establishes the plot and subplots of the story
• Main Plot: Adrien enjoys becoming Chat Noir and spying on Marinette in order to learn more about her.
• Subplot A: Adrien's feelings for Marinette are more than he realizes
• Subplot B: Feeling inadequate and inferior as a superhero
• Subplot C: Adrien's rocky relationship with his father
• Also sets up the next chapter by having the readers ask the question "will he spy again?"
• Chapter 2: Itch
• Continues the main plot of Adrien spying, while giving further justification as to why he slid down the slippery slope.
• Also covers Subplot A in that he questions why he's so intrigued by Marinette
• Sets up Subplot D: Adrien trying to find a way to promote Marinette's work; AKA the Marinette's Portfolio subplot that will spill into OatS.
• Also sets up the next chapter by asking the question "how will he stop his new addiction, and will he be caught?"
• Chapter 3: Opportunity
• Continues the main plot by giving Adrien an "out" of his new obsession of watching Marinette.
• Continues Subplot A by having a sweet moment between Adrien and Marinette, potentially hinting at more than friendship between them.
• Mildly continues Subplot C by commenting about Adrien finally being ungrounded.
• Continues Subplot D by having Adrien ask about Marinette creating a portfolio for his father to see.
• Establishes the Status Quo - sort of - of Adrien's dynamic with Marinette
• "Adrienette Goodness" but with a point. I need to do the same with the MariChat scenes in OatS
• Sets up the next chapter by establishing the scene: they're going to the mall to watch a movie.
• Chapter 4: Normal
• Mostly focuses on Subplot A by making Adrien question his feelings for Marinette, and her feelings for him.
• Also sets up the akuma attack in the next chapter.
• Chapter 5: Mimicker
• Mostly focuses on Subplot B by showcasing that Chat Noir actually is a partner on equal footing with Ladybug.
• He's even crucial to the battle, because he's the one keeping LB in check so she can focus on what's important: defeating the akuma. If it weren't for CN, she wouldn't even know where the akuma was hiding since she wasn't going to listen to the person who had the best knowledge about it.
• Also showcases how Adrien feels about Ladybug, which will affect Subplot A
• Sets up the next chapter by already hinting at parallels between Ladybug and Marinette, as well as Adrien's focus on Marinette; his addiction to watching her calling to him slightly even during the attack.
• Chapter 6: Parallels
• Equal focus on the Main Plot - Chat Noir recapping his week of spying, as well as him spying again in that chapter - as well as Subplot A in how he views Marinette.
• He starts really seeing parallels between Marinette and Ladybug, hinting at him realizing his crush on Marinette
• It sets up the next chapter by having Adrien wonder what it would be like if Marinette acted more relaxed and confident in school.
• Chapter 7: Confusion
• Main focus on Subplot A: Adrien truly questioning why he likes watching Marinette, as well as questioning his feelings for Ladybug if he's starting to grow a crush on Marinette.
• Subplot A now shifts to Does Adrien Like Marinette for Marinette, or Because She Reminds Him of Ladybug
• Nods to the Main Plotline by having him spy on her outside of the costume, and question his addiction to watching her in the first place.
• Sets up Subplot E: Confessing to Marinette/Ladybug about his spying
• Minor advancement of Subplot D by having Adrien ask for Marinette's portfolio in the near future.
• Sets up the next chapter by having him feel guilt-ridden over his betrayal of both Marinette and Ladybug, as well as sets up his inability to sleep
• Chapter 8: Guilt
• Main focus is on Subplots A and E.
• Subplot A is advanced as he watches Marinette's attempt to give him soup. He now knows that she's more than a proxy for Ladybug.
• Subplot A shifts slightly again as Adrien is now torn between his affection for Marinette and his love for Ladybug.
• Subplot E makes up most of the chapter as Adrien struggles with whether or not to confess, and when would be the best time to do so.
• Touches upon the Main Plot with Subplot E
• Sets up the akuma for the next chapter
• Chapter 9: Terravenger
• Largely focused on Subplot B, especially since Chat Noir is too distracted by the Marinette/Ladybug thing to be any proper help during the attack.
• This is to show the contrast with the first akuma of the story, and how this whole story's plot is affecting him.
• Partially Subplot A with Adrien's conflicting feelings for Ladybug and Marinette - and his concern for Marinette's safety - being what is distracting him.
• Sets up the next chapter by bringing Adrien to his lowest.
• Chapter 10: Failure
• Starts with Subplot B: he is at his lowest with regards to feeling unfit to be a hero, especially with the add-on of misusing his powers to spy
• Subplot A: he focuses more on his relationship with Marinette, and thinks of her even when talking with Ladybug
• Hints at Subplot C as he thinks about his life without being Chat Noir anymore
• Teasing Subplot E as Adrien again debates letting Marinette know
• This chapter doesn't actually have the best transitional bits, but it does end on such a low note that perhaps that's what got people to continue reading?
• Chapter 11: Truth
• The main focus of the overall story; everything was aiming for this point, and the remaining chapters resolve what happens in this chapter.
• Main Plot of Chat Noir spying escalates as his spying reveals who Ladybug is
• Subplot E initiates the chapter as Adrien decides he HAS to confess, and do so ASAP
• Subplot A: He falls further for Marinette, but then finds out who she truly is, sending him in a whirlwind again
• Sets up the next chapter by asking the question "now what?" with regards to Adrien's knowledge 
• Chapter 12: Crisis
• The Main Plotline now asks the question "what does Adrien do with his knowledge of who Ladybug is?"
• Subplot A switches back to "Does Adrien like Marinette for Marinette, or because she's Ladybug"
• Subplot B now has the added layer of Adrien betraying Ladybug's rule of keeping their identities secret, and his concern of how this might affect each of them continuing as LB and CN.
• There's also elements of Subplot E as Adrien goes back to questioning if he should confess, and if so, how much should he confess.
• It sets up a minor plotline of Plagg and Tikki being twins kept apart because CN and LB can't know who the other is.
• It sets up the next chapter by asking the question "How will Adrien act around Marinette in school the next day?"
• Chapter 13: Decision
• The Main Plot is advanced by Adrien deciding what to do with the information he garnered from spying.
• Subplot A is advanced as Adrien decides he definitely loves Marinette for who she is, not because she's Ladybug. He realizes he's loved her from day one, but didn't realize it because his love for LB was too great. Subplot A then changes to "How to get Marinette to Love Chat Noir?"
• Subplot E is hinted at as Adrien tries to figure out how and when to confess without losing Marinette or his miraculous
• Another chapter that didn't have a great build-up for the rest of the story.
• Chapter 14: Announcement
• Mostly focuses on Subplot B, with Ladybug telling all of Paris why Chat Noir is the reason she's even a hero.
• There's also some Subplot A as Adrien again realizes a relationship with Marinette isn't worth anything if she can't also love Chat Noir
• Sets up the next chapter by suggesting a Chat Noir Appreciation day
• Chapter 15: Heaven
• Adrien at his highest throughout this story
• Resolves Subplot C by having Gabriel visit his son, speak kindly to him, listen to his suggestion, and allowing Adrien to hang out with his friends instead of doing a signing for the Gabriel brand.
• Has elements of Subplot A as Adrien gushes about how amazing Marinette is.
• Nods to Subplot D as Adrien asks if he can still collect Marinette's portfolio soon.
• Sets up the next chapter by having an akuma attack
• Chapter 16: Appreciation
• Largely focuses on Subplot B by having Chat Noir late to the battle, debating his worth again, then helping figure out the akuma, and finally going through the appreciation festival.
• There's of course instances of Subplot A as the duo hangs out during the festival.
• Nod to Subplot D again as Adrien again references the portfolio
• Hints at Subplot E as Adrien wonders what to tell Ladybug when they meet up later.
• Sets up the last chapter with the LadyNoir meet-up.
• Chapter 17: Purpose
• Largely touches upon Subplot E as Chat Noir confesses to misusing his powers, but still leaves the plotline unresolved since he doesn't confess to spying with them, spying on MARINETTE with them, or knowing that Ladybug is Marinette.
• The open-ended, unresolved nature of the Confession Subplot creates one of the main subplots to "One and the Same"
• Touches upon Subplot A more by having Adrien just bask in his newly discovered love for Marinette.
• The resolution to the Wooing Marinette as Chat Noir subplot becomes one of the main plot lines in OatS
• Subplot B is resolved. Chat Noir feels honored by the appreciation festival, he feels more capable after the latest akuma, he knows Ladybug thinks of him as an equal, and she didn't shame him after his confession. He still feels guilty about withholding information, but he's confident he can keep her secret, and that he IS a good superhero that Paris equally needs.
• Subplot D is partially resolved as Adrien picks up the portfolio
• The Portfolio subplot continues in OatS

OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!

It's a lot easier to create outlines like that AFTER the story is written. I guess this is why a lot of experts say to not focus on a cohesive plot or subplots until after the first draft is done. Then you can go through - as I did - and see what plots you have, and how they flow. I'm not waiting though. It's been over a year, and clearly the story isn't going anywhere as is. So I'm trying to break down the outline similar to how I did in that spoiler section.

As I mentioned forever ago now, it has been helping, although it's still a painfully slow process to fill in the bits I don't already have written. I'm still trying to figure out akumas too.

Wolfhearted was over the other day, and suggested someone having a terrible day, and the simple thing that pushed them over the edge was a button snapping off their favorite shirt. It's an easy fix, but we've all been there: something simple now feels like the end of the world due to stress. I even thought of naming the akuma Last Straw or Breaking Point or something along those lines. The button would be the akumatized object. I even thought of the villain spreading their stress and poor luck by jinxing those they interact with. Kind of a combination of Reverser and Troublemaker. I like the concept. I'm really feeling it.

It won't really work for my story though. I can't really see how a jinx-causing akuma would benefit the two main chapters I have in mind for akumas. My main problem with akumas is coming up with ones that have the proper attack and purpose for the story. Canonically, akumas usually have some sort of significance in pushing the Civilian Plotline forward.

• Weredad dealt with Marinette's supposed heart break
• Gigantitan showed Marinette that perhaps complicated plans aren't the best way to achieve something.
• Oblivio gave Marinette and Adrien a chance to get out of their own way when it comes to their relationship
• Glaciator focused on how Ladybug treats Chat Noir's love for her
• Ikari Gozen taught Marinette to better appreciate Kagami, as well as taught Kagami to allow others to take the lead on occasion. 
• Miracular showcased how dangerous it is for Hawk Moth to know who another wielder is. 
• Gorizilla focused on Adrien's need to see a movie starring his mother, even if it means trying to escape his father, bodyguard, and fans.
• Desperada taught Adrien that he's best suited to be Chat Noir, and shouldn't try to change to appease Ladybug.

So on and so forth. As for the akumas I created for PT, their purpose is a bit more broad:

• The first one needed to trip Ladybug up somehow so Chat Noir can shine and showcase his superhero prowess.
• The second one needed to be difficult enough to pose a potential threat to Marinette so Chat Noir would be distracted. It also needed to be difficult enough that it was a trial for Ladybug, but not so difficult that she couldn't solve it alone.
• The final akuma needed to be simple enough that readers wouldn't mind it being sort of handwaved over, and it needed to showcase Ladybug and Chat Noir being an equal team again.

So, for OatS, my akuma needs are:

• Something that can establish the Status Quo between LB and CN, but also showcase the threat of an LB and CN reveal.
• Akuma 2 needs to get Marinette and Adrien to focus on their new arrangement with the balcony.
• Akuma 3 needs to be another handwave-y villain, and there might be others that need to just be mentionable without much more to go off of.
• Akuma 4 needs to be a very physical akuma
• There may need to be an Akuma 5 as well, but I still haven't figured out the purpose. Perhaps this could be where that bad luck akuma could go?

My point being, I'm not entirely sure if a bad-luck-causing akuma works with my overall story, but it could be a start for figuring out ones that WOULD work with my story.

I... I just don't know.

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The last two episodes of Miraculous Ladybug season 3 aired/are airing this week. I hope that maybe watching those, and then backtracking to watch the season finale that randomly aired about a month ago, will help me sort things out better.

That doesn't help me now though. What helps me now is potentially that new outline breakdown. So wish me luck. And send me some surplus energy you might have because I am toast.

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I hope to have some better news for you guys next week.

Finally, before I go, I want to send a grand thank you to any military personnel who might be reading. Yesterday was Veteran's Day in the US, and I want to show my greatest appreciation to those who have volunteered for service, and those who were drafted into service. You all are, or have done, work I can't imagine being strong enough to handle in any shape or form: physically, mentally, or emotionally. Same goes to military family members; I can only imagine the stress and drain of having a family member in the military, and you all astound me with your resilience and positivity.

So, thank you, Veterans, for your service.

Sorry, I've had this image for so long
I have no clue where it originated from.
Possibly created by Felix L. Griffin