I still have some "homework" to do; mostly boxes of odds-and-ends that I need to sift through, re-organizing my bathroom now that I have a new storage location, getting decent bookshelves for all of our books, and a few storage totes that are temporarily in my library.
So, I'm not 100% done, but, with her help, I'm up to about 90% done, maybe even 95% done.
The place looks amazing! Check it out! Excuse the "grossness" of the "before" photos. I'm sure now you'll understand why I was so stressed and constantly complaining about having to clean instead of write:
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| After |
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| Main Living Area: After |
OK, well, now that I flooded this post with pictures and free advertising.....
I spent the whole week writing! Can you believe it!? The beauty of not having to clean every minute I'm home! Also the beauty of finding some "just us" nights at home. I love my friends, and I get depressed when I can't socialize, but I need some "me time" too, ya know?
Anyway, I didn't do as well as I did the last leg of the summer challenge; I only wrote 4300-some words this past week. However, I did write every day. Well, technically, I didn't write any narrative on Tuesday, but I wrote the blog post, so I still had "writing time" every day the past week. SEVEN DAYS IN A ROW! WHAT!?
Monday went back to an "I'm not writing anything" day, but I did punch out a couple more pages for the work orientation handbook, so... that still counts, right?
I'm still grinding away at my first-ever "Miraculous Ladybug" fanfic, and boy do I need to scrap about half of it!
I know, I know. It sounds discouraging, and it sounds like I'm discouraged. Neither are true, though. I'm excited that I'm writing so frequently. I'm excited that even with a few stall days, I've been able to more-or-less stick with this story for a solid month. I'm excited that I've evolved enough as a writer that I'm actually WILLING to scrap bits to try to improve my work.
Even earlier this year, I don't know if I could do that. Which is the main issue with Please, Let Me Explain. I just didn't know how to kill my little darlings. In this case, I don't mean harming - or literally killing - my characters. I mean looking over a paragraph, or two, or a whole page, and go "this is crap; let's try that again." I just couldn't slim it down to make it work better.
This fanfic, though? I have no problem dumping every last word I did the day before and trying again. I've done it about four times now. To prove my point, I had started this month with about 6300 words already written for this story. This month I have written exclusively for this fanfic, and I have written over 10,000 words as of Sunday night. Therefore, the grand total written thus far for my Miraculous story is 16,630 words. Yet, when I do a word count for the actual story - with all the "crap" bits removed and rewritten - my grand total is 13,891. That's 2700 words that I've written since I started this fanfic, and decided not to keep. I have NEVER done anything like that before!
Fear not, fellow writers who know better, for I did not just delete and re-wrote. I know that "crap" written still holds golden nuggets somewhere. You just have to go back and look it over again with a new perspective. Or, maybe I had a beautiful metaphor or turn of phrase that didn't work then, but will work in a future story. There's even the more painful idea of the writing actually being beautiful and some of the best work I've written, but it doesn't work a lick with the rest of the story.
No, dear reader, I know better as well. I've cut out the parts that just didn't work for me, and pasted them into their own individual word docs to maybe peruse later. I now have my first ever "scraps" folder to sift through should I ever need them.
I also started up a notebook for me to keep separate thoughts in: what I want to make sure is included in the final story, what needs to be added, what needs to be removed, plot holes I need to plug, bits I need to shorten, scenes I need to slow-down and expand upon. It even has notes from the show itself to make sure the continuity is accurate. The most fun bits, though, is that I've started notes for fan-theories as well that I might want to expand upon either in this story, or as plot bunnies for future stories.
I'm actually having fun with this editing process. Something I never thought I'd ever mutter. I mean, who ENJOYS editing their work!?
Even with all this heavy editing that I've already started, I know even more must be done. I have the makings of a good story, I know I do. I just don't think I came at it the right way. That's where the notebook comes in, to help me find the right angle. I'm still going to push through to the end of the existing story, to see what else shakes loose. However, I feel it will be a complete rewrite when I go back through and make it into a chaptered story.
The rough part is that I want to stop work on this fanfic by the end of the week in order to spend next month working on the Jungle Movie fanscript again. I also need to get started on my notes for the Varekai fan-novelization I want to do for NaNo. So, I might not even finish the current incarnation of this story until the end of the year. I may even have to wait until January to get back into writing more Miraculous, because I was supposed to have a cleaned up Devon/Trish battle for you folks that I completely forgot about with this current obsession! So I REALLY need to finish that up and post it before the year is out! Especially since I promised it would be done last month, and again for this month.
Bad, LycoRogue! Bad, bad Lyco!
Even when I do finish the Miraculous fanfic - be it in December or January - I then have to sift through to find the true story, and the right POV to tell it in. Clean it up. I'm probably looking at March, maybe even April, by the time I'm done, if I really kick my butt in gear. I just couldn't wait that long before posting ANYTHING about this story.
Since the finished product may only barely resemble the one I'm currently writing, and since it will take me about six months before it is ready for the light of day, I decided to just take the plunge, and share a teaser.
I know, it's mean, and leaves people wondering for quite some time, but maybe it will also get people as excited about this as I am. I hope I don't get in trouble for posting a teaser on FanFiction.....
"Peeping Tomcat - Teaser"
Want to know the best part? I blame being in Chat Noir's head for this, but the pun naturally showed up in his inner monologue, and I loved it enough to make it the title.
GUYS! I DID IT! I CAME UP WITH A TITLE! It was fairly easy, too! Wha!?
OK, I've become a MAJOR Miraculous nerd over the past two months, but if it's helping me improve THIS MUCH in my writing, I'll go with it.
"Hey, Arnold!" did the same thing for my writing. It brought me out of a six-year slump and got me excited to routinely write fiction again. THIS is what's so amazing about fan fiction! Shows, movies, games, and books with such rich characters and worlds that the audience just CRAVES more than can be presented, these are perfect springs for Muses to drink upon. Writing blossoms, as does artwork, and even acting.
I've been a bit obsessed with listening to dubs of fancomics the past week or two. Seeing the other stories and the beautiful artwork Miraculous has inspired floors me. And, while I'm loving the vast majority of the voice actors practicing their craft with these dubs, there is a couple in particular that kills me. Nearly every night Hubby looks at me weird as I'm laughing hard enough to cry at their bloopers.
Give them some love: Princess Sakura Serenity and her fiance Isamu Mamoru.
Love should also go to their main partner in crime RileyChase Fox.
Enough gushing about them, though. I have someone else to gush over: Omnibladestrike!
Yup! You read right! I actually flaked and forgot to share his second chapter a week or so ago, but he's up to chapter 3 of his new story! He's afraid that he hit a wall on where to go for chapter 4, but maybe some love will inspire him. Go! Check it out!
Ok, well, if I'm going to take a huge chunk out of this story before I have to shelve it, I should get started on that! Catch you guys next week.
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