Learning to Love (Writing) Again

Est. Read Time: 15min
This Month's Font: Pangolin

Surprising probably everyone - including myself - I actually did some (tangential) writing this month!

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Granted, I haven't actually written anything narratively.... but I HAVE been thinking REEEEEAAAALLLY HARD about my WIPs. That counts, right?

As I mentioned in my LRRC update, I had distracted myself by building a new Discord server. Aurora Morgen had really been grinding away at nir original story lately. Nearly daily, ne would send me a new message about a new idea for nir novel. I thought that maybe it would be easier to keep all of those conversations together on a server than it was trying to re-find them when interspersed throughout our DMs. I also thought that maybe having more eyes on this project could be of some extra help. So I included our mutual friend Dragnime and his wife. Then, as I thought more about this new server, I realized, "I really just miss having a writing group!" Naturally, that lead me to invite two of my friends from my former writing group (that unfortunately disbanded with the 2020 shutdowns). Now there's five people on this little baby server (Dragnime's wife hasn't joined yet).

Aurora is still mostly hammering out the details for nir story in our DM's. Prior to yesterday, Dragnime had posted a couple of things, but was originally relatively silent. The two writing group friends said "hi" in the generic greeting channel, but haven't really interacted more than that. Me, on the other hand? Oh, I've been utilizing the crap out of this new server. Might as well, right? I built the dang thing!

I have massively infodumped on this server! I spent a couple of days just giving bios for each of my OCs. Did you know I have 18 of them!? Because I sure as heck didn't until I started posting about them on Discord! That doesn't even include my Scum & Villainy NPCs such as Mevakor or Maggie or my fleshing out of Banshee the pirate queen. I also didn't include my original reworks of canonical X-Men characters for my conversion of X-Future into Glitches. Or any of Jolene's "Lost Loves and Paramours"... that's another 11 characters right there (a full dozen if you count me reworking Rensin into an original character). Good gravy, I'd easily have over 3-dozen OCs if I went that in-depth!

So, who did make the cut?

1. Lia
2. Willow
3. Trish
4. Shawn (Willow's brother)
5. Amara
6. Jolene
7. Kriv
8. Emerald Gaze
9. Arianna Snow (nee Pamela Sheppard) - an old D&D character and inspiration for my Tumblr blog title
10. Elymoxa
11. Aubrianne
12. Natalie
13. Connor
14. Colton
15. Zetelica
16. Artie
17. Anna-Marie
18. Jynna

Some of those are SUCH blasts from the past, aren't they? For you long-time readers, do you remember who all of them are?!

I also use Spotify playlists like they're Pinterest boards. I have five different ones dedicated to either individual stories - such as Seduce with Caution or I Don't Care - or dedicated to just a single character - such as Jolene or Trish. (The fifth playlist is for generic X-Future "vibes"). You best believe that I shared all five of these playlists on my Discord server. I also included my Google Doc explaining exactly why I picked the songs I did for Jolene's playlist, why they are in the order that they are, and what part of her narrative each song is supposed to represent. Like I said, musical Pinterest boards....

Since Dragnime did start sharing his world building ideas, I had decided to do the same. I linked to the two stories I had up on Fiction Press that talked about my build of Gyateara (which I haven't really touched since 2014!):

• The Divine Legends
• The People of Gyateara

If all that isn't enough, the other day I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. I dove back into S&V and my list of original alien builds. That's how I spent most of my downtime at work. Just... sat with my Google Docs list of 11 original alien ideas, complete with physical descriptions of them and some cultural breakdowns. The doc is nearly 30 pages long! I mean, it's a bulleted list with images included, but... still...

That document also reminded me of the struggles I've had in trying to sort out how to actually share all of my Glitches and Scum & Villainy world builds. I want to do a sort of fandom wiki, but I can't seem to figure out how to do so for original content, and everyone hates the actual Fandom site anyway.... I tried using World Anvil instead, and I've enjoyed using it. However, I quickly hit my limit of free articles, and I can't afford to pay the subscription fee to keep going on World Anvil.

If any of you can help me out with building these two fandom wikis, please let me know!

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One of the bigger posts I shared to the server - outside of my massive OC list - was about my plot bunny ideas. It's not even all of them. Admittedly, I've kind of moved on from about 5 ideas since I last posted about my plunnies back in 2022. Even so, I ended up with eight ML fanfic plot bunnies. The ones that survived the "I'm over it" ax are:

1. Non-magic game streamer AU
• This is probably my frontrunner of new ideas I want to develop
2. The PV of ML (Felix as Chat Noir and Bridgette as Ladybug) co-exists with canon
• Obviously ignoring season 5, so no sentibeing shenanigans and Felix isn't romantically attached to Kagami
3. Adrien is in need of a fake girlfriend, and decides on Marinette
4. Rewrite of canon so that Gabriel is actually a decent father who loves his son
• Especially since the Agreste Saga is over, I really do want to work on this. I'd have to sort out how to handle the whole sentibeings BS though....
5. Adrien tries out the concept that “if you want the truth, ask the same question 3x” on both Ladybug and Marinette, to surprising results.
6. Another retelling of the 12th chapter of Remember That Time When... by MostLovedGirl. This time focusing more on Adrien’s isolation after Marinette literally locked herself away from him.
7. Adrien discovers that Ladybug is Marinette, and tries to figure out who this boy is that she’s in love with
     7b. Adrien finds out HE’S the boy that Ladybug keeps turning Chat Noir down for
• May or may not be a separate story from the above plot bunny
8. Master Fu backstory filling in the time between the fall of the monastery and when we meet him in Origins. Mostly focusing on the 1940s and WWII.
• Probably the one I'm the least interested in still....

Beyond those 8 fanfic ideas, I've also had an original isekai story living rent-free in my head for about two weeks now. I mean, given the number of romance isekai/transmigration/portal fantasy stories I've been consuming lately, paired with all of the isekais my husband had been watching the last couple of months, I'm surprised it kept me this long to come up with an isekai concept myself.

This specific idea was the spawn of "romance isekai" and "multiple people are isekai'd into the same world but might not realize they aren't the only one". With regards to the manhwa I read, I'm thinking like I Will Live the Life of a Villainess, where both the female and male leads were isekai'd into the same story, but weren't originally aware of that fact. Thankfully, they realized fairly quickly that there was someone else in this fantasy setting that was from modern-day South Korea. Also, one of stories I started reading a little while ago, Divorcing My Tyrant Husband, has both the female lead and her romantic rival isekai'd from modern-day Korea. The rival - Aisha - has no clue that the female lead - Robellia - is also from another world. Finally, there's At Your Mercy. Granted, this time only one person appears to have been isekai'd, but this is the second time it's happened to her, and she's transmigrated into the same story as a different character. The male lead/romantic interest is starting to realize that these seemingly two different people are actually one-and-the-same - in a spiritual sense - because they have the same telling ticks and mannerisms. 

On my husband's side of things, he started watching So I'm a Spider, So What? In that, an entire classroom died together in an explosion and reincarnated in this new fantasy world. At first, the classmates didn't realize they weren't the only one to get isekai'd. Once they realized they weren't alone, they also discovered that it was the whole class that was reincarnated. They just didn't necessarily know who in this new world was a reincarnation of their former teacher or classmates. They also weren't necessarily reincarnated in a way that was easy for them to find each other. The one classmate was reincarnated as the titular spider, for instance. Since spiders mature faster than humans, she was basically an adult with kids of her own by the time she finally meets up with her former classmates; all still teens.

Anyway, all of those ideas blended together in my head to come up with this isekai concept:

A loving, devoted, happy couple dies together, but, perhaps it's so sudden that they don't realize they died. They are then isekai'd to the same new world. Maybe it's more of the South Korean "transmigration" style where they possess a teen/adult already in that world and take over from that moment on. Either way, neither member of the couple knows that their partner was transmigrated with them. They are nowhere near each other when they wake up in their new bodies.

But... red string of fate and all that... they manage to still gravitate to each other somehow. They both, however, are still wondering if it's possible to return to Earth and their loving spouse (not realizing their spouse is no longer on Earth either). They can't give up on their spouse. They are actively ignoring the tingly feelings they are having whenever they are around their reincarnated spouse because they have no clue, and falling for this "new" person feels like a betrayal still.

But!

There's these little mannerisms. These flashes of their old lives/personality trickling into their new body, and their spouse notices. "Am I just projecting?" the spouse wonders. "Am I falling for this person because they remind me so much of my love?" It doesn't even occur to them for the longest time that maybe their spouse was isekai'd with them.

They continue to dance around each other in a slow-burn romance before SOMETHING happens where they both instantly realize "Oh, shit! We're both from Earth! Does- does that mean you're who I THINK you are????"

Huzzah! They have re-discovered each other! Obviously, other exterior drama would be mixed in, but, hey, at least they are reunited in this new life!

I have no clue where to go with this concept, but I just can't stop thinking about it. Would I be able to recognize my husband if he were in a different body? Would he recognize me? Would we be able to find each other and fall in love again? We claimed as much in our vows, but it would be interesting to see if it were as true as we'd like to believe. 

One of the bigger questions I have to figure out is: what kind of exterior drama would there be that would continue to tug at this romance? For I Will Live the Life of a Villainess, there's the power struggle for the crown between the isekai'd male lead and his younger brother. Meanwhile, the isekai'd female lead is trying to survive the execution her character originally suffered, all while battling against a potential third isekai'd character. In Divorcing My Tyrant Husband, very much the same thing: Robellia just wants to survive the death the character suffered in the original novel, but, in her attempt to survive, she is unintentionally undermining Aisha and making her a bigger enemy. For At Your Mercy, the female lead is trying to sort out the mysteries of (1) how did she return to Earth from her original transmigration, (2) how did the character she first possessed end up dying, (3) why/how is she isekai'd a second time into the same story, and (4) can she recover the poor reputation this second character she possessed has without raising suspicion of the character's possession? In So I'm A Spider, So What?, there's the political pull of the secondary main character banding his former classmates together when said classmates and their teacher and the classmate who reincarnated as a spider all got reincarnated into opposing factions. Also, the lead was reincarnated as a spider in a magical world where people indiscriminately kill all monsters. She has to figure out how to survive! 

Soooooo, yeah.... what kind of external drama should be going on that would cause the leads' lives to be rough even after they refind their true love? Also, would my knowledge of regency-era hierarchies via the isekais I consume be enough, or would I have to do some research? What would be the tells each lead would show that would hint to each other that this person was once their spouse? What would cause them to finally feel safe enough to confirm it?

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Soooooo yeah! That's more-or-less the extent of my writing this month: updating my blog, helping Aurora with nir story, creating that writing group Discord server, and re-connecting with all of my OCs, WIPs, and plot bunnies as I infodump about them on the server.

It is nice to think about OCs again and talk about world builds for stories like Glitches or Blame Fate for This or Gyateara in general.

Now, to actually write something new..... It's been 8 months since I've published any new stories. Ooof. 

I just can't seem to lock in on anything that I want to narrate quite yet. I've been consuming content by the gallons in an attempt to spark ANYTHING. While posting to that Discord server has helped respark my desire to create, it also just had me dive back into character-/world-building. Nothing story wise. As for stories to tell, I'm still tapped dry.

In the meantime, at least I'm still - surprisingly - getting those AO3 emails letting me know that my stories are still receiving kudos. I do still have to squint at a lot of those kudos notifications; still unsure if they're actual people or just bots... especially all of the "guest" kudos that don't include a comment with them. For the most part, however, they warm my heart. And surprise me a bit.

While the kudos have more-or-less fallen off for I Think I Like You (Maybe More Than I Should) - which I fully expected, as an almost year-old ML fanfic - the kudos are still semi-regularly coming in for the even older You Pretended Not to Care! I even got a new comment on it!

What am I going to do with you, Edith Rudwick?

Edith and Killian are the formula of STRANGERS TO LOVERS!!! The author was cooking and they COOKED.

But this Fic! I needed this. I love this. It gives me the mind of Killian and you [censored] COOKED!!!
Sizzling and tasty.

10/10

EEEEEEEEEE!!! Totally awesome! Right? The better YPNTC continues to do the more I truly believe that my downfall is simply being in the bloated Miraculous Ladybug fandom. That, and the fact that my stories aren't all fanon "What If..." AU rewrites: What if Chloe got the Ladybug Miraculous instead of Marinette? What if Adrien allied with his father and Ladybug had to battle Chat Noir along with Hawk Moth (and maybe Mayura)? What if Adrien and/or Marinette were transgender or some other queer character? What if Adrien and/or Marinette were an amputee after a near-death accident/attack? What if the story followed Felix instead of Marinette and Adrien? What if Fantasy AU? What if Coffee House AU? What if No Magic AU? What if Adrien and Marinette grew apart but then reunited in their 20s? What if they believed the other one had died? What if Marinette and Adrien never met each other outside of their superhero personas when they were teens? What if Batman and his legion of kids existed in the same universe, and Marinette fell in love with one of the Robins instead?

You get the idea.

It feels like the biggest stories in the fandom are all "What If...?" AU stories.... And I'm over here writing slightly canon non-conforming content.... is that my issue? Or is it because I don't publish something new just about weekly? I'm still trying to figure out why I'm just so obscure in the ML fandom.

To be fully frank, both being virtually invisible in the ML fandom, and also failing to garner much attention in my non-ML fics because they're in dying/dead fandoms hasn't really helped much with my writing confidence. Adding some salt to the wound, as exciting as it is to talk to fellow writers again via my Discord server, there's also not much.... interaction there either. Dragnime and I are each posting about our own stories, but virtually no one is commenting on other people's stuff. It still feels like pulling teeth to get anyone to read my content.

Actually... it feels more like I'm trying to force-feed my content....

Scene from Disney's Aladdin
Edited into a meme by LycoRogue

Ooof. I'm going down a dark path. Let's jump back off of that real quick!

Instead, how about we focus on this month's positive. A blessing to reflect back on at the end of the year.

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Honestly, I think I've already told you all of my February "Good News"/blessings/positive vibes... whatever you want to call it.

I'm going back through my old WIP and plot bunnies lists. I went through my OCs and remembered some I haven't thought of in years. I looked back at my Gyateara world-build. I revisited my alien builds for S&V. I'm getting excited about writing again. I had a horrid close to my work day yesterday, but still delighted in the realization that it helped me think of a potential akuma idea for one of my ML fanfics. (Now to think of a name for a raging Godzilla-like monster born from a customer service worker snapping...)

I'm also taking pride that *I* did that! It wasn't some outside force. I was the one who decided to create this server. I was the one who decided it was time to talk about my writing again. I was the one who paused and reread through my old work. I was the one who jumpstarted my own love for my writing, and writing in general.

Plus, that awesome review on You Pretended Not to Care didn't hurt. While - as I mentioned - it feels like I'm struggling to force-feed my content onto ANYONE just so it's read and I can talk about it WITH people (as opposed to AT people), whenever YPNTC gets any love I feel like I could maybe relax a bit. That maybe my writing IS good enough that people WANT to read it. That I don't have to corner people with my stories going, "Did you read it yet? How about now? How about now? NOW????" People found my stuff all on their own. They took time out of their day to read it. They enjoyed it enough to leave some love. That's super cool. And each one of those kudos and comments is an inch of rope I can use to climb back out of this pit of self-doubt.

Thank you, dear readers. Love you all loads!

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Now to ride this high into actually writing something! Maybe I'll have actual advancement in any of my WIPs when I publish my March update. In the meantime, I'll catch you around the Ides of March for my next update of LycoRogue's Reading Corner.

Hopefully you can put down your daggers long enough for a nice read.

Original Content

I did it! Ah ha! I did it! I managed to come up with original content! I finished my original story for Ronoxym!!! So super happy belated birthday, Ron! Hope you enjoy your gift!

Speaking of birthdays, I want to quickly pause in order to wish a very happy birthday to Omnibladestrike who celebrated his this past weekend.

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I'm glad we could hang out, and the b'day cake you bought was super yummy! Thanks for that.

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Anyway, back to my writing!


It kept me exactly a month to do so, but I managed to finish the story I wanted to gift Ronoxym for his 30th. The whole process was a bit exhausting, and I feel like I exposition-dumped a touch in order to explain the world enough in this short story. So it's by no means the same caliber as the professional Urban Fantasy stories Ron likes to read. Regardless, I'm kind of excited for the world I built and the characters I created - although I fear Colton and Zetelica's voices aren't different enough??? - so I'll have to slot this world build away for a potential continuation.

Right along side the Gyateara stories and "Glitches"....

OH! Quick side note with regards to Gyateara. I mentioned last week that Hubby used the site donjon to help him quickly create a dungeon and NPCs for the "one-off" D&D session he ran for us. Well, as Hubby was poking around, he found a Random World Generator on that site. You can either input or randomize the following features, and let the generator do the rest:

• World Name
• Map Style: Atlas vs Antique
• Map Font: choose from 8 options
• Percentage of water on the planet surface
• Percentage of polar ice caps
• Geography: Yes or No
• This adds labels for things like 'mountains' or 'forests' or 'desert' etc.
• Rivers: Yes, No, or Many
• Cities and Castles: Yes, No, or Many
• Hex Grid: Yes or No
• Label Map: Yes or No

It takes about three minutes or so - depending on the internet connection - for the site to take your data and generate a world map. This isn't going to be the final one, but here's an example I quickly generated for Gyateara.

The main issue I have with this generator is that it doesn't seem to really break up
the main land mass into separate continents. So it would be more of a guide than the
official map, I think.

If you chose to have the generator create castles and cities for you, there's also a listing of what they're called and where to find them on your map.

So it's a really neat tool, and I'll have to spend some time playing around with it a little bit. At the very least, it's a nice way to randomly generate coastlines I can shift around to make continents, and come up with location names.

Likewise, I've watched 3 different YouTube videos this week who had World Anvil as their sponsor. I poked around a little bit after creating a free account. It seems like a great place to ORGANIZE everything, and it is so detailed with how much you can break down everything.

You can break each section down even
further into subsections.

However, there doesn't seem to be any image makers or generators, so donjon might be the best free option so far. I'll have to take everything into consideration when I get back to Gyateara, and even to help me organize Glitches, I think.

But back to my point!

My glorious point is that, along with Gyateara and Glitches, I now have this new urban fantasy supernatural story. The best bit is that the world-build is mostly done now - so it has a leg-up on any and all Gyateara stories - AND it is a story with only one or two main characters and potentially a completable story arc. Which is something I really struggle with for Glitches, which, due to its origins, has more of a serial series storyline and about a 14-character central cast.

Thanks to Ron and my desire to come up with something for his big 3-0, I may have found at least a foothold for my first ever marketable original story! I'm so friggen excited about this thing!

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Granted, I have had no comments on the story even though I published it on Friday. I also only have 52ish hits - I don't know how many people SEE my Tumblr post; just those who react to it - and but one fave. But it's an original story, so it's to be expected. My fanfiction followers on FFN and AO3 wouldn't get a notification that I have original content up. I'm also not nearly established enough in the Miraculous Ladybug or Fruits Basket fandoms for people to probably care about original content I publish to Tumblr. On top of that, because I do have the main character Colton get super stressed and drop the f-bomb a couple of times, I had to mark the story Mature on DA and FictionPress. I just don't know where the "course language" cut-off is between Teen and Mature, and I wanted to be safe.

So, it stings, but I get it. I don't have a platform set up for original content yet, and considering how infrequently I come up with something original, I don't know how long it will take to build it up.

However, a lot of you lovely people seem to be my fanfiction readers, so here's your heads up, in case you were interested and didn't previously know.

"Blame Fate for This"

On FictionPress       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

Colton has noticed the same woman following him every day for the past two months. However, when he tries to get away from his stalker things get way more complicated than he could imagine. He has powers no living creature is supposed to possess, and only Fate can figure out what that means for both Colton and the world.

Eh, maybe my summary for this short story isn't eye-catching enough.... Or the title? I'm just so bad at these things, and I was kind of rushing those elements on Friday in order to make sure I hit my self-imposed deadline. Anyway, the story is about 6700 words long, just an FYI.

As I mentioned above, I haven't really had much notice/love for this story yet. On Tumblr the only note I've received thus far was a bot-account liking it. I really need to delete that note, but I'm still waiting for Tumblr to fix my access to my account activity log in order to do so.

Over on FictionPress I've had 4 hits, but nothing else. No comments, no faves, and no follows.

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On the other hand, DeviantArt has had 48 hits and one fave. And this time the fave looks like it's actually a person! Whoot!

It's a slow grind, but I'm content with the story, even if it's little more than a jumping point for a larger story. Plus, at least one other person seems to like it. No mention from Ron, but it IS 6700 words, and he is a busy guy with ADHD, so I don't know if he's had the time/focus/energy to sit down with it yet.

Regardless, the thing to focus on is that I WROTE AN ORIGINAL STORY IN A MONTH! COMPLETELY FROM SCRATCH! The actual writing of the thing actually summed up to only about a dozen days or so. I don't know about you, but I'm impressed.

Small life victories, guys. Also, added bonus: the story is thematically appropriate for Halloween, so it's a great October story, if I do say so myself.


In the end, no matter what else becomes of this short story - and yes, it's less than 7500 words, so it IS still considered a short story by most writing sites/publishers - I at least have gears in motion for an original novel idea. And I reminded myself that I CAN come up with original content; I'm not just some parrot who skillfully mimics the work of others. So, it was totally worth the effort.

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Speaking of my fanfiction, however, the stats for my Kyoru stuff have steadily increased this past week.

Reminder of my stats from last week:

FFN: 466 views, 5 faves, 5 followers, and 8 reviews
AO3: 418 hits, 31 kudos, 2 bookmarks, and 17 comments
DA: 138 views, 4 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 1022 views, 40 faves, 7 followers, and 25 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 201 notes; 151 likes, 37 reblogs, and 3 comments

And now the stats as of this writing:

FFN: 648 views, 6 faves, 6 followers, and 10 reviews
AO3: 510 hits, 40 kudos, 4 bookmarks, and 17 comments
DA: 181 views, 5 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 1339 views, 51 faves, 10 followers, and 27 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 248 notes; 170 likes, 46 reblogs, and 3 comments

Now, granted, if you add up the Tumblr Notes the total is actually 219; 212 if you don't count the seven times the KyoruWeek2019 event blog reblogged my stories. I personally don't count them because those reblogs had nothing to do with whether or not the moderator actually liked my stuff; the stories were tagged for the event, and so the blog shared it. Getting back to the notes discrepancy though, three of those over-all notes were my responses to the 3 comments, and for some reason I have 26 "missing" notes. My Day 6 story says it has 25 notes, but only 24 are listed. Same with my Day 5 story: it says it has 41 notes, but only 40 are shown. The big head scratcher is my Day 2 story. That one claims to have 73 notes, but when you go through the breakdown of the notes it only has 49 listed, including my one response to the comment. I have no clue why 24 notes are missing. Maybe those are people who saved the story to their drafts, so it's not officially reblogged yet? Is that how Tumblr works? In which case, I'm screwing up the notes count on a LOT of Tumblr posts.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain those 26 notes were "missing" last week as well, which means I received 47 new notes over this past week. Not too shabby considering the event is over, so there aren't really any new promotions for my stuff. Plus the KyoruWeek blog has since shared a bunch of generic Kyo and Tohru stuff from the season 2 trailer and/or the manga.

OH! Speaking of shipping week events, I want to make sure I don't forget this again! Last week I went on about my own writing for so long - which, I guess is reasonable; since this is my writing blog and all - that I totally forgot to promote Cyhyr's latest. Just as I finished with Kyoru week, she started up Sylvix Week. It's a ship for the Fire Emblem: Three Houses characters Sylvain and Felix. You can check out her week of stories here: Sylvix Week 2019 I don't personally see the ship, but Cyhyr does such a great job with these stories that I don't even care about canonical evidence. They're adorable together the way she writes them.

Also, Taurus Pixie, via her blog, had suggested the Miraculous Ladybug story The Lonely Waltz by her friend ChibiRinni. Holy smokes, that story got me worked up. It was MariChat, pining for Ladrien, singing and waltzing, and talk about really SEEING the person one is in love with. Marinette mentally beats herself up over breaking Chat Noir's heart, and Chat Noir wants to punch the guy Marinette is pining over for not seeing how amazing she is. I was just this giant ball of energy after I finished reading. So, go! Read it! It's about 8000 words long, but I've conditioned you by now to be able to breeze through that no problem.


I've also found two awesome Fruits Basket fics that were promoted during Kyoru Week. First up was the one-shot Written on your skin by palamig. There's spoilers for the second half of the manga, but it is delightful angst and fluff. The long and short is that a student asks Kyo if he'd mind if the student asked Tohru out on a date. That night, while studying with Tohru, Kyo unintentionally shows off his jealousy with a pen. It's lovely, and Kyo and Tohru are written so well. AAAh! If you don't care about spoilers or you know the ending of the manga, you should go read it.

The other fanfic I found is a touch naughty. It's post-manga, and Tohru and Kyo are living alone far from any "adult supervision." They attempt to get a bit more intimate, but the mood is always interrupted somehow. It's got that same great "will they; won't they" tension, which is an awesome twist of the trope for an already established couple. It's called In Every Light That Shines and it's by crossingandromeda.

My final reading suggestion actually should have been promoted weeks ago. That webcomic about Hades and Persephone that I've been talking about off and on for the past year? Well the first chapter was officially published to Webtoon at the beginning of the month. So, please give Punderworld by Linda Sejic a try. The artwork is so pretty, and the story seems excellent, based on that first chapter and the teasers we've received all year.

Check out the full-quality and unmarked image here.

Again, I know I shouldn't be reposting work without the creator's permission, but I want to showcase her artwork, and I hope by putting on those intrusive watermarks it helps mitigate my faux pas. At least this way if someone finds her work via a Google search and stumbles upon this repost they know where to find the clean version....

Please don't yell at me, but I WILL remove all reposted artwork if the artists request it.

Tanuki Facebook sticker
by Yanare Ku

Anyway....

Aside from finishing up that original story for Ron, I've also broken back into One and the Same finally! I took a two-day breather after basically writing daily for the past two weeks or so, and then yesterday I cracked open my OatS folder. I've mostly gone back through everything I've written already, in order to put myself in that mindset again. I've also decided that a 3000-word "chapter" I've written has no true drama to it. It doesn't push the story forward, so I'm going to instead recap that scene in another chapter and "scrap" what I have.

It hurts to "kill my darlings," as it were, but it hurts less knowing that I'm planning a sort of "deleted scenes" collection after OatS is fully published. That way people can see the alternate scenes I've written before changing POV or scene order, the scenes that aren't told in either Adrien's or Marinette's perspective so they don't fit the overall narrative, and the scenes I like but don't fit in the story without bogging it down. Such as the one I just completed yesterday before realizing it has to be scrapped.

Planning that post-OatS project really eases the pain of all that "wasted time/energy" or the hurt of "this is really awesome, and I love how I wrote it; but it just doesn't work for this story." It also gives me freedom to play with point-of-view, narration, and describing the "mundane" scenes to better help me solidify the story I'm telling. None of it will be wasted effort. First and foremost, it wouldn't be wasted anyway, because it would all help me improve and better build the main story. However, it now has that secondary benefit of also still seeing the light of day when all is said and done.

I still need to figure out my akumas for November, and I still have that tricky middle where I want to build up the MariChat relationship, but I have to make sure the story still pushes forward while doing so. In other words: I have a lot to figure out still.

In the meantime, I may take another time out to attempt to draw my new Dragonborn D&D character Kriv. However, my main focus between now and November 1st is to finish going back through what I have of OatS so far, and prep for NaNo.

I also need to get some "Halloween Movies" in for the month! How have I not watched Sweeney Todd or Little Shop of Horrors or Rocky Horror Picture Show or Hocus Pocus or any of the Underworld movies or even Ernest Scared Stupid yet this year?

I'm such a slacker...

At least I have my costume situated. I'm glad I was able to find one that actually fit me. The straps are a little loose but are otherwise fine.

It looks amazing alongside Hubby's Steampunk costume. Plus, the Steampunk goggles Hubby got me for Christmas have a blue tint to them, so they also work really well with this costume. The only real concern I have is the choker Hubby also got me for Christmas. It looks amazing, but the lacing is so wide and my neck is small with all the extra chunk I've put on over the years, it looks a touch awkward on me. I'll have to see if I'm actually going to be able to wear it or if I'll have to pull and audible and hope Hubby won't feel like he wasted money on his gift.

Either way, I was able to find a costume that fit after all, and presumably it will also fit when I start to loose wait; at least, for a little while. So yay to that as well!

Who's ready for Halloween to get here already?

Found years ago via Google Image.
Most search results are not in English so it's hard
to track down the original artist. Sorry.
Please let me know if you know who designed this.

Chatting With My Zan

Heeeeeeey, guess what?

It's raining again....

Haruhi Suzumiya from
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
created by Nagaru Tanigawa 

I think we had a grand total of four hours of sunshine this whole week. I was outside washing down my porch furniture during some of it... and then promptly got pummeled by rain out of nowhere. It was sunny. There was a distant thunderclap. Rain came splashing at me. The worst part is that I have a covered porch, and I was pressed up against the outer wall of my apartment. Under normal circumstances, I could enjoy the energy being outside in a sun-shower gives me, but the winds were so bad I was STILL getting drenched. Worst yet was that I had my laptop outside with me so I could watch YouTube videos while I was cleaning, so I had to quickly scoop that up and sprint inside before it got too wet.

Yaaaay.... Raaaaain....

My one coworker says her yard might as well be a swamp or a moat at this point, and, frankly, I believe her. It's getting quite pathetic out there...

It's getting quite pathetic in here as well...

Yet another week where I didn't really do much of anything. Not a single word was added to "One and the Same," nor have I worked on yet ANOTHER side project.

Well... almost....

Friday I was quite surprised to see someone's name in my Facebook messenger list. Someone who either hasn't been on FB in a while, or at least hasn't been on the same time I have been in MONTHS.

This guy:

The Wonder Twins, as designed by Hanna-Barbera

Yup, I was able to chat with my Wonder Twin Ronoxym, and he reminded me that, just like Jayna, I truly do need my Zan in my life. It's great to just sit and chat with him. We were actually on messenger together for HOURS on Friday, which was FANTASTIC after months of radio silence.

Stupid adulting...


It was just great to be goofy with him, and to vent to him, let him vent to me, catch up on what's going on in each of our lives, and just go on and on and on about both "Game of Thrones" and "Avengers: Endgame."

Among all of that chatting, three things happened.

One: We jointly came up with a really cool fanfic concept for the MCU, which nagged at me the rest of the day, so I ended up writing up the rough concept outline on Tumblr. It has a major Endgame spoiler built into the concept, so be warned if you wish to check it out.

For those who want to know, but don't feel like reading the whole thing:

The long and short of the story is that Senior Citizen Steve Rogers, going by an alias now, befriends Young Phil Coulson in the 70s or 80s. Steve has aged and changed enough that Phil doesn't know he's talking to THE Captain America, and so this is a way for Steve to fix at least one regret in life: never giving Coulson a chance to befriend his hero. The two become close, with Steve and Peggy becoming surrogate grandparents to Phil, and it is actually Steve himself who inadvertently made Phil such a Cap fanboy. On top of that, it was Peggy who encouraged Phil to join SHIELD in the first place. Steve knew it would lead to Coulson's death, but he couldn't chance preventing Coulson from joining, and potentially never giving the Avengers a reason to unite to defend NYC in the first place. There's a lot more within the skeleton outline I came up with, but that was the meat and potatoes of it....

Anyway, I will most likely not take the time to actually write the thing more than I just did, so if anyone out there is inspired, you're welcome to the concept, just please send me a link once you're done, and a credit for the plot bunny would be nice. Not sure who would see it though, since the Tumblr post hasn't really had much love. The only one who seemed to have seen it was my buddy Skarabrae-stone, but still, the idea is out of my head, and the Plot Bunny has joined its brethren on my Plunny farm. That's enough for now.

Which brings me to the second thing that happened.

Two: I once again lamented my unintentional abduction of his Willow/Devon short story - meant to be only about 5 pages long, at most - which resulted in it being about TWENTY-EIGHT pages long, and sitting in WIP-limbo for almost exactly 4 years.... I admitted I went a bit overboard with the concept. I then expressed my hope that the editing skills and overall story crafting skills I honed slightly since I started work on “Peeping Tomcat” would be enough for me to re-focus "Please, Let Me Explain". This whole editing project is next up on my list once OatS is done.

As I discussed my need to go back and edit PLME so we could get back to writing and finishing it, I also acknowledged that I desperately needed to whittle PLME back down from the monstrosity I created.

To which Ron replied with: "No you don't. It'll be long as hell, and beautiful as all get out."

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Ron, you are a beautiful human being!

Those two, simple sentences killed a nagging paranoia that had been in my head for the past 4 years: I took over Ron's story, bloated it way past his initial concept, and now it's so overwhelming he can't/won't work on it, which means I'm responsible for killing his muse/inspiration for this story, and he probably never wants to collab with me ever again because I just bulldoze over my fellow-creator.
Now, not to say any of that is NOT true, to some degree, but the fact that he seems to genuinely enjoy the way the story has gone is a MAJOR weight off my heart. He hasn't continued working on the story because he genuinely has been too busy to think about it, not because he's mad at me or because I killed his muse or what-have-you.

This revelation led me to my third thing.

Three: My overall desire to work on writing projects again jumpstarted.

I opened up PLME again on Saturday, and just sorta skimmed through it. It wasn't as painful a read as I thought it would be, so yay us. Our writing wasn't cringingly bad 4yrs ago! Whoo! It DOES need polishing though, and I more-or-less know how to do that, so it is evident that I DID improve on my skills over the past handful of years, so that's also encouraging. Yay yet again!

I didn't actually start on editing anything, or take notes - aside from mental ones - on where to tighten or adjust, but that initial "let's take a look at this thing for the first time in years" happened, and that's kind of a big step.

Hacker Boy Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

I actually had a DRIVE to do something this week. It didn't really amount to much, but it did start up the gears again. I was motivated to read through PLME so I could get re-acquainted with the story. I wanted to bring up the Devon and Trish fight scene as well so I could finish that rework too. As well as maybe FINALLY come up with a title for the dang project!

I wanted to work on "Glitches" a bit more too, and even thought through some more world-build as I flipped through writing advice and resources on Tumblr.

OH! That reminds me! Random side note: I have a writing-focused blog on Tumblr now. The blog you are currently reading will always be where I talk about how my week went in the world of writing, as well as my over-all writing process and writing progress. It will be where I talk about my struggles of a writer, the joys of the faves and reviews, and promote my latest writing projects. The Rogue's Scribe will always be my main "writing blog." However, I have nearly 1650 Tumblr posts just chilling in my drafts folder to eventually sift through and reblog. At least half of those posts are writing related, but always felt weird to put on my main blog for whatever reason, even though it's a hodge-podge mess anyway. Probably because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to re-find the writing related posts when I need them again.

Anyway, for MONTHS now I wanted to do up a writing-centric Tumblr, and the thing that kept stalling this goal was... you know it... say it with me now...

I couldn't come up with a title for the blog. Which also meant I couldn't think of a handle for it. But I'll get back to this in a moment. For now, let's stay focused on the inspiration sprung from my convo with Ron.

So, still dealing with Happening Number Three: drive to edit. I wanted to work on PLME again. I wanted to rework the fight scene between Devon and Trish. Both stories wanted me to work on Glitches as a whole again. Part of me even wanted to work on world-building Gyateara a bit more. I just had this desire to Create on Saturday.

Sadly, it ended up not really amounting to anything, as I already mentioned, but it was the first time I had the DRIVE to even attempt anything writing-related pretty much all month - this blog not withstanding.

Sunday, that drive was still there, thankfully. So I cracked open my netbook at work for the first time this month, with every intention of writing another scene for OatS. I got a bit side-tracked though. Mainly because I wasn't sure whose chapter the scene should be yet again. I'm STILL having issues with figuring out the final chapter, and writing it in third person to test the waters isn't helping, so I wasn't sure if I should bother with the same tactic with this new scene I've been brainstorming for a little while now.

So I did the only other logical thing: I worked on yet ANOTHER outline for the story. This time I'm breaking down the overall plot into potential chapters, and then designating them to a narrator: Marinette or Adrien. I'm trying really hard to bounce back and forth between them: odd-numbered chapters are narrated by Marinette, and even chapters are Adrien's. With this concept I should be able to see whose turn it's supposed to be when I get to the scene I'm thinking of, as well as see if I need to actually shift things around a little so the chapter can actually be narrated by the other character. It helps me also see their respective character arcs this way.

I didn't get terribly TOO far with the outline before my computer died on me, and I was busy all day yesterday, so I couldn't get back into the outline, but it was still progress.

Teeny, tiny, barely anything, progress, but it's still more than I've done all month, and a step in the right direction. I got my foot through the proverbial door, and that initial push to write shouldn't be so hard anymore.

Plus, between the massive highs and lows of the latest Game of Thrones season, and the literally debatable plot-holes in "Avengers: Endgame," I've been talking about writing in general with a LOT of people lately: Ska, Ron, and Hubby, to name just a few. Talking about what we loved and what we hated with each episode or movie really brings up the questions of "what makes a good story? What is good storytelling? Are character arcs we're watching fulfilling, and why or why not? Is it a great subversion of writing in general if those character arcs don't feel complete? Was plot sacrificed for character growth? Was it the other way around?" There are TONS of storytelling and writing questions these stories present, and the (mostly civil) discord it's causing is FANTASTIC.

Love the episodes, hate them, thought Endgame was the perfect close, or believe the Russo Brothers need to re-learn how to write a solid script; regardless of where you are on the spectrum of feelings with regards to these bits of media, the overall discussion that comes out is awesome. And, frankly, Endgame left a LOT open - on purpose or no - for fantheories and fanfics to develop. Which means awesome content for me to devour.

If nothing else, these fandoms are erupting with their own creatives: fanart, fancomics, fanfiction, and/or fantheories. And these creatives are being used to either correct perceived wrongs in the canon presented in these conclusions to epic tales, or they are expanding upon concepts presented, or they're theorizing on how the canon could make sense.

People are being overly critical with the stories they're consuming, which is a bit terrifying as a writer, but at the same time it is invigorating to see so much discussion about storytelling surrounding me. It helps me see the pitfalls other storytellers are tripping into, so it's easier for me to avoid them in my own works.

Also, I'm in those discussions as well. I'm also being analytical and going into stories with a critical eye. I have my own criticisms for Endgame and Game of Thrones, as well as a few of the anime series that Hubby and I are watching, and even some of the fanfiction I've read this past week.

I won't go into details here as to what pulled me out of the fanfics, because I don't wish to shine a bad light on otherwise beautiful stories. It did help me understand what pulls me out of stories, though, and so I hope it will therefore help me avoid the same pitfalls in my own writing.

Which, I guess, brings me back to that writing tumblr... or... wriblr I believe they're called? Or something like that???

Along with studying the writing trip-ups of other stories, I've also been going through the writing advice I've had saved in my Tumblr drafts section. Mostly so I could finally empty out the drafts by reblogging them to my writing-centric Tumblr.

As I mentioned above, I've wanted to do this for MONTHS - at least since November - but stalled out by not coming up with a good title and/or handle for the new blog. I couldn't use LycoRogue, since that was attached to my main blog: Inside the Tree Trunk

You know, I don't recall if I ever explained the name of the blog. Basically, it's a nod to a D&D campaign Hubby briefly ran. My character Pamela Sheppard - going by the stage name Arianna Snow - had unintentionally charmed a nymph, who instantly became smitten with Arianna. The nymph was also a high priestess for her goddess, and since Arianna wasn't really of a faith at the time, she just sort of shrugged and told the nymph "Yeah, I'll follow your goddess, I guess." The weird pseudo-courtship the two had led the goddess to favor Arianna, and gift her with a magical tree. It grew next to the sacred pool the nymph watched over, and if Arianna knocked on the tree trunk it would open up into an endless trove for anything Arianna wished to hide within it.

So, since my main Tumblr blog is also an endless trove for anything I find value in and wish to save, I figured "Meh, this is my own magical tree trunk." Thus the name...

AAAAAAANYWAY, as I was saying, I couldn't use LycoRogue as my handle. I knew I wanted to somehow include my latest writing mantra - just get the shit on paper; dare to be bad - within the writing blog. I tried naming the blog itself Get The Shit On Paper or Dare to be Bad, but I couldn't use either phrase as my handle; they were already used. Not thinking of alternative names that I enjoyed, I gave up for months.

However, I guess also thanks to my convo with Ron, I finally went "Ya know what? Let's try one last attempt at that handle." This time I changed tenses slightly: Getting Shit On Paper. It's a bit crude, but I also kind of loved it, so that became my handle for my writing blog on Tumblr.

The blog name itself needs some work, but it gets the point across for right now: The Writer's Random Resource Guide, managed by @gettingshitonpaper.

There isn't much up quite yet. I need to find the time to go through all of those drafts - of which, again, there are over 1600! - and start setting up a queue of them. Still, there's SOMETHING up on it right now, so feel free to hit it up if you're on Tumblr and would like a generic resource blog.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to ride this wave while it's active, and work on some of my writing.

Catch ya next week!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Thus Ends 2016

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to manage it, since this is my last day off before the conclusion of the year, but along with this post I do have two others now started for me to publish this week. It should help me get back up to 52 posts by the end of 2016. Not exactly one per week due to two missed ones, but same amount of effort, I think.

I'd call it good.

I'm also going to have to go back to my NaNo strict mindset this week. I need to be able to say "I'm going to go write" and hide away so I can get these posts done. I'm going to go from my Post-NaNo writing recovery hiatus right back to ALL THE WRITING!

So, what am I planning, anyway?

Well, for starters, for a while now I've wanted to recap the books I've read, since I dropped the ball on that back over the summer. My first post will be a fairly lengthy one as I reflect on the sixteen books I've read this year.

When I commented in writing group that I've read sixteen books this year, Keaton seemed shocked. She's the type of person who either reads or listens to an audiobook about once a week; maybe even twice so she gets about 100 books in a year. So, I can understand that to her 16 books annually doesn't sound like much. She may even be as appalled as a lot of professional writers who swear that reading is just as important for an author as writing itself. Still, considering I haven't really read more than two or three books a year - and last year barely managed ONE - since college; a leap to sixteen books is a VAST improvement.

Anyway, I'll talk more about that in that post. My next supplemental post will be my new annual tradition of recapping the year. It's a nice way for me to look back on past years and see my growth. Same for other writers who might feel like they'll never get anywhere with their writing, or my fans who just like to see me improve. Having these yearly recaps turns my progress into a single post proving that I'm evolving as a writer, and that others can as well.

Writing used to be a passionate hobby of mine. That's it. A HOBBY. Something to do when I'm bored, excited, or need to work something out. Something to do when I felt like it, and only when inspiration struck.

Writing may be a calling of mine, but I never treated it as such. Now? Now there's some weight to it. Writing is a priority, sometimes over even cleaning my home, which I'm sure my mother appreciates....

I'm still nowhere near where I need to be to consider myself "serious" about writing. I'm still a year or so away from actually earning money with my writing. But it is definitely more than a "hobby" now. It is a commitment. It is a driving force. It is a life choice. It is as important as exercising, eating healthy, or socializing. It is how I keep well.

I just need to work on focus a bit more. I feel like if I can just laser-focus on a project, and follow it through for once, then I might finally be on the right path.

Between my passion for Jolene, and the fact that my backstory for the never-introduced Kizar doesn't fit Bear's world, I have been thinking a lot about Gyateara again. There hasn't really been much actual advancement in the world build, but I've been picking up a few ideas here and there that I might incorporate. I want to be able to finish building the playground that Jolene and her past can play on. I'd have to come up with a new love interest to replace Rensin, though, so I can keep it original once I transition Jolene from Laerrnesse to Gyateara. But once Gyateara's built, I can have so much fun!

I can redo my original NaNo story, hopefully whittling down the Legend of Zelda, Fable, and InuYasha heavy-handed fanfiction elements until they are either original, or unrecognizable as influences. I could finally run around with Natalie and Connor again. I could then "hop the pond" to the mainland continent for Jolene, and finally put Amara's story to paper. I might even play some more with Elymoxa, in a world where gnome-hate is uncalled for. Sliding down the southern coast, I can get to the desert lands for Kizar.

Each character could have their own mini-series of books, and then combined they could make up the Gyateara Chronicles - or something like that.

Then I could switch gears from high-fantasy to cyberpunk with "Glitches."

But for me to do either, I HAVE to finish world-building. I've been failing at so many of my writing-themed New Years Resolutions the past few years, but I think my main three for this upcoming year will be:

1. Write a new blog post every week; ACTUALLY hitting 52 weekly posts instead of this catch-up at the end of the year.
2. Continue reading; the exact challenge I'll talk about in that post.
3. Finish world building either Gyateara or the Glitches future.

Perhaps I should actually add a fourth resolution. One I tease Ronoxym about frequently:

• FINISH A FRIGGEN STORY FOR ONCE!!!!!

Obviously, "Lost Loves and Paramours" is my front-runner. I'm going to go back to Jolene's story in January, after I had time to really rest up from NaNo and the holidays. I'm going to aim to finish her story by March at the latest, and then edit over April and May. Come June, I should have a polished second draft that I can post for everyone to FINALLY read. In the meantime, maybe I'll post teaser chapters.

I think that's the trick. I did a lot better as a "plantser" than as a planner or "pantser" for NaNo. I needed a rough outline that I could then work with. I still listened as Jolene told me her tale, and it got a little side-tracked for a chapter or two, but I knew where I needed the story to go, so I could bring it back to center. Having that roadmap helped keep me focused; helped me keep writing; helped me win NaNo finally.

So, maybe 2017 needs to be thought of the same way: a story that I need an outline for, so that when I get sidetracked I know how to get back to center.

I won't plan out my day-to-day or weekly per se, but a monthly breakdown of what I want to accomplish - a visualization of my goals - should help. All the self-help time-management books and articles I read say to do that. Perhaps this will be the year that I listen. Knowing that I had a goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, and how many words I had to write daily - with weekends "free" - and knowing that it only takes up about an hour or two each day to hit that goal; it all helped me focus.

Focus is the main name of the game this upcoming year. I now have the discipline and drive. I'm reading more. I'm writing more. I'm established in my writing group. I have people who will hold me accountable. I now need to learn how to be FOCUSED. True, that means Ron's challenge to write a completely new story every week won't really help with that, but at the same time, maybe it will....

On the one hand, it ruins my focus, because I'm spending each week trying to think of something original. On the other hand, it refreshes my mind because I can take a break from whatever block I'm most likely fixated on. It also helps me learn to finish something, and in a short amount of words to boot.

So, I think I'm going to roll over Ron's challenge, but with some leniencies:

• Write a flash fiction or vignette of 1000 words or less every week. Bring these to writing group to read as well as post weekly here on the blog.
• Professionally owned intellectual property is not to be used for fanfiction. In other words, no fanfiction about books, shows, movies, songs, etc. However, if the X-Future boards or Bear's D&D campaigns inspire me to write side-stories, while technically fanfiction, they are fair game. This allows me to expand on my characters and help me better play those games.
• The stories can be in the same universe, but cannot be straight continuations of each other. No cheating by making the flash or vignette "complete" by writing another one or two in chapter form. Each 1000 words must be a self-contained story. However, if I want to write another vignette or flash about the same character, unrelated to any previous ones, or if I want to write another story within the same world/universe, I'm going to allow it. This way I can use this challenge for the main reason I'm rolling it over into 2017: World Building

See, I figured I can keep myself on track by forcing myself to write a 1000 word mini-story about either Gyateara or Glitches every week; building the world up with these stories. They can be more myths, or social studies of the different cultures, or explanations of the deities, or Slice of Life to get an in-depth look at the world from the perspective of different characters, etc.

I feel like the spirit of Ron's challenge - frequent writing not necessarily related to each other, and with a more succinct writing goal - is still there, but with enough wiggle room that it is still testing and growing my writing without flat out stressing and deterring me when I get a complete writers block. I'm sure Ron will say something if he thinks I need to tighten my belt with this challenge of his....

I'll talk more about my resolutions next week when I post my first blog of the new year, and I have two more blog posts I need to write this week. So I'm just going to say that 2016 as a whole majorly sucked for the entire world, and here's hoping 2017 makes up for it.....