Found a Snowflake

It's been a bit of an interesting week.

Things are finally starting to fall back to normal at work, and I'm starting to get my free time to work on my writing while there, at least, over my lunch breaks. I still can't figure out that darn second akuma attack towards the end of Act II in "Peeping Tomcat," but I have thought of a slew of other potential akumas. I have them jotted down in my Miraculous notebook to possibly use in other fanfics. The main reason why I'm not using them in PT is because they just won't work with the story I have in mind. Either the idea of introducing that particular akuma is too large and deserves its own story, or the subplot it would bring up with the dynamic between Ladybug, Cat Noir, and/or Hawk Moth goes in the opposite direction than I want PT to go in, or there's no clean way to introduce the akumatized victim without going into a side-tangent in PT, or the battle wouldn't showcase what I need showcased in PT, or.... well, you get the idea. They just wouldn't work for whatever reason, but I do have a few fun ones.

Back stock for when I need akumas in other stories. Maybe I could even use one or two in "One And The Same" later this year.... Still doesn't help me now though.

Speaking of helping, even though she's pretty booked, since she was on spring break, I sent Cyhyr my story thus far. We both agree that her own stuff comes first. However, Netflix is FINALLY getting the American release of season 2 of "Miraculous Ladybug". It premieres this Friday - March 30 - and perhaps a read through my story is a nice pre-gamer? She offered to at least attempt. So that's sweet of her and I love her for even offering!

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I've also come to the conclusion that, while I love both Cy and ChibiSunnie for volunteering to beta for me, and while I know I will need the help of a beta, and while I'm nervous about having such a HUGE first chapter.... I also remembered that this is fanfiction.

Yes, I should try to be as professional as I can in all things I write in order to better prepare myself for this being a career. However, I shouldn't STRESS about it. Fanfiction is supposed to be fun. Even the "not so great" ones get love because people understand that they're done by novices, and people can see the story potential. It may be hard to find an audience that is willing to read a 7000-word first chapter, but they're out there, especially with the hype of the new season coming out this week.

In fact... I might cash in on that hype and post the first chapter THIS FRIDAY instead. Ride the wave of people swarming to fanfic sites.

I've gone through that first chapter about five times already, not including the three-plus versions I wrote before this draft. I can only find a few paragraphs here and there that might need to be cut. I'm still debating if I definitely should. Worse comes to worse, I'll take "Peeping Tomcat" down if Cy or Chibi have anything drastic they'll need me to change, and repost the revised edition. Sure, I'll lose any lovely comments/reviews people may have posted, but it's not the greatest loss in the world.

And so what if this isn't the most professional thing in the world? So what if the story seems lopsided because I have 7000-word chapters along side 2000-word chapters? Who cares if one week has a massive chapter update, and the following only has a quick-read one? Worse comes to worse, I'll double-post since I'll have them all done ahead of time anyway.

The point is that I'll hit the milestone of COMPLETING A LONG PROJECT. That in and of itself is huge! The point is that I'll also hit the milestone of weekly updates. The point is actually finishing, editing, polishing a NaNo story. There are a LOT of milestones within this story already. Having it be professional-quality perfection doesn't need to be one of them. Not yet anyway. I know I still have a ways to go until I hit that "I can publish a novel" part of my career. I know I'm about a decade behind where I should be. Thank you, College Professor. However, I also know that I've been improving more and more, and faster and faster, each year.

I'll get there. I still need to push myself to make sure I do. I don't need to KILL myself in doing so, though. And I can't use perfection - or the pursuit of it - as an excuse to procrastinate.

So, uh, I guess keep an eye out. I think I just talked myself into pushing up my publication date.

Oh! And since I'm on the topic of publishing, it IS the end of the month, and I still haven't posted anything. Although, it does sound like I'm remedying that on Friday.... Anyway, in an attempt to sort of clear my head from it being bogged down with PT stuff, as well as making sure I stick with my "something new per month" goal, I decided to work on a little side-project.

It's not done yet - I need to finish after I'm done with this blog post - but I'm hoping to have it ready to read at writing group tonight.

It occurred to me that I haven't worked on "Glitches" in a long time. I had a desire to write with at least one of My Girls. In the shower - where all the plot bunnies come to find me now, I guess - I thought of early in the X-Future game when Penumbra was wary of Devon, and was not a fan of Willow potentially flirting with him. For whatever reason, this became a scene in my head. I think it's a fun way to give some character background while also showcasing some of their personalities.

So, I have a little scene where Penumbra is lecturing Willow about the dangers of interacting with Devon. In response, Willow goes to bat for Devon, and tries to calm Penumbra with some flirtatious illusions. Penumbra is not pleased. In part, because Willow is trying to skirt around the problem instead of solving it, but mostly because Penumbra knows Willow doesn't think of her romantically, and hates being lead on.

I'm having some fun with it, but I'm sure it will need some polishing before I post. We'll see what the group says tonight. It will be one of the few times where I'll attempt to read something to them BEFORE posting it online.

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Who knows, though? Perhaps next week I'll have links to both this little one-shot as well as "Peeping Tomcat." How exciting would that be!?

Oh! And speaking of exciting things for this weekend. Cy and her hubby, my awesome Wonder Twin Ronoxym, are coming with me and my own wonderful hubby to go see "Ready Player One"!!!!

Ron and I have been super stoked about this movie for over a year now, so we're going to be unbearably excited and antsy all week! We are both sorry to our respective spouses.

Anyway, I even got this guy already as part of the hype and excitement:

This is the main character Wade's avatar while inside the online digital universe of the OASIS. I mean, I already liked the main character, but I think I'm particularly fond of this character design because he kind of reminds me of a gender-swapped Willow.

Or rather, Parzival could be a non-evil version of Willow's older brother Shawn.

All the more drive to finish writing that one-shot with Willow.

Which brings me full circle back to writing.

This past week Omnibladestrike has again struggled with his writing after having a nice spurt of inspiration. I don't know if it really helped him any, but in an attempt, I sent him the link to something called the Snowflake Method for outlining. I discovered it thanks to a fellow member of Writer's Huddle. If you'd like more about the method from the man who created it, you can check it out here: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method.

The long and short of it is to start off simple and small so the task of creating a novel doesn't seem so daunting. Think in the most broad strokes possible while still defining specifically your novel. Start with a one sentence plot summary of your novel: your "hook." Then start expanding out. Create a paragraph summary using roughly five sentences: The exposition sentence, the initiating conflict, the Act II conflict, the climactic conflict, and the conclusion. Or, as the author of the article Randy Ingermanson puts it, “three disasters plus an ending." Now expand each of those sentences out to be their own paragraph. Expand each of THOSE paragraphs out again and again until you have a detailed outline of your story. Do the same with your characters. Start with basic info: name, age, race, gender, etc. Then expand out. Create a sentence summary of their character arc. Now expand out the same way you did with the novel. As you expand on both your characters and the plot, and discover something new about either, go back and adjust the other elements accordingly.

This is actually kind of similar to the outlining that James Patterson talked about in his MasterClass. The idea is to have the most detailed outline possible without going into the nitty-gritty of dialog or specific problem solving. Yes, you know that your protagonist is going to save his love interest from a burning building by jumping out a window to safety. You don't need to know the specifics of which window, what safety, how long it takes for them to escape, etc. That's for the actual writing portion in order to keep that fun. Point is, you know that the love interest is going to be in trouble by being stuck in a burning building, and you know that she and the protag are going to get out safely, and you know what kind of injuries - if any - you want them to suffer. You have your entire novel, in pretty great detail, only taking up about twenty pages instead of two-hundred. MUCH simpler and faster to sit and read through your outline to try to find plotholes, slow spots, and poor character arcs. Take it from someone who has been struggling through editing both "Peeping Tomcat" and "Please, Let Me Explain", it is a pain to read through a long work to try to figure those bits out. Another struggle that outlining could avoid is the "wait, did I already explain that same bit elsewhere in this story?" Much easier to pick up on that in a 20+ page outline.

If you take the time up front - even if it's a couple of months - to do greatly detailed outlines, you won't struggle as much or hit writers block as frequently - if at all - once you get to the actual writing. This allows authors to punch out a much stronger first draft in just a few weeks.

In fact, I might even attempt to spend the summer Camp NaNoWriMo writing up such an outline for my November NaNoWriMo novel idea, and see how that turns out. Will I be able to hit the 50,000 word goal easier? Will the story actually be complete at the end of the month, instead of the word goal simply being met? Will the first draft truly be much closer to being publishable - at least, online - once I'm done?

I've been playing a bit with the idea of more detailed outlines before writing since I took the James Patterson class, but perhaps with the add-in of this Snowflake Method breakdown, I might give it more serious thought. I might even use it for PT's sequel "One And The Same" in an attempt to make sure it's done and ready to publish once I'm done posting all of PT's chapters. I could use it to work on "Please, Let Me Explain" and finally finish that project. I attempted to do the James Patterson outlining method with Ron, but perhaps the Snowflake Method is a better fit.

I'm actually pretty excited about trying this method out. I'll have to let you guys know how it goes once I have a chance to use it. If you end up trying it, or already have, feel free to let me know in the comments what you thought of it. Did it work for you? Did only portions of it work for you? Did your writing improve? Did it take away the fun spontaneity of writing by the seat of your pants, or did it make writing more fun because you didn't have to stress about "what's next"?

I'd love to know your thoughts.

Timeout

So, you know how I said last week that I was going to take a few days off to charge? Well, I guess it's only a break if you get back to whatever you're taking the break from. Whoops. I missed a step.

I didn't even think about the story this past week. I didn't open the document. I didn't send it to Cyhyr to start with her beta read. I didn't attempt to brainstorm that second akuma attack. Nothing.

I'm so good at this, guys!

I guess it's for the best; let it sit for a bit. Also, Cy has spring break this week. While it may mean the best time to read a 50,000+ fanfic, it's also the best time to recoup from her classwork. I don't want to overwhelm her. So I just left it at "let me know when you're ready."

Between her classwork and ChibiSunnie's classwork, I may not have beta readers until May. I have posted works without beta readers before, and I really want to be able to actually meet a deadline I set for myself; especially one I set back in September!

So.... the question becomes, do I just start posting the first few chapters without a beta, and hope neither of the girls think I should change anything? They could still help me by beta reading for the chapters I'd post from lay May on: so, roughly the second half of the story. The last third is the part I need the most help with. Do I trust my own edits for the first half?

I'm still not sure what to do with the first chapter though. It's so long! Who is going to read a 7000-word FIRST CHAPTER!?

But I still can't fathom what to cut, where to cut, what to do, anything. I put in a call for advice to the fanfiction group I'm part of on Facebook. As of this writing, I still haven't received any responses....

Our work schedule is back to normal now though, so perhaps I can get back in rhythm with my writing too. I need to work on a new story to post for this month. Maybe switching gears and working on that will re-inspire me.

Speaking of re-inspiration, the "Miraculous Ladybug" hiatus ended last week. It was so cute watching the latest episode. I was in hysterics watching the over-the-top King Kong references. I mean, they were bad. So bad. But in a beautiful kind of way.

Also, we got a bit more information that is pretty awesome. We got to find out Adrien's mother's name. We got a hint at what she did for a living - or at least tried her hand at. We officially found out Adrien's age. While we could guess, based on the age they are in, that Adrien is 13 or 14, and have that more-or-less confirmed in the second season episode where Marinette has her fourteenth birthday, Alix turned fifteen in the first season. So Adrien's range was 13 through 15.

Finally, we got to see Hawk Moth briefly chat with his kwami Nooroo before we see his transformation. We've seen this before, but usually draped in shadow. This time he gets a full Transformation Sequence, just like Cat Noir and Ladybug do. Same as Rena Rouge had in one episode. I have to say, while I get it since he's an adult and the superheroes are teens, I was a bit disappointed in his lack of flashiness and/or theatrics during his transformation.

There were some cute Adrienette moments and another reference to the bracelet Marinette gave Adrien in the episode "Gamer" which is pretty cool. I've also watched a couple of videos yesterday focusing on "proof" that Adrien likes Marinette, but just doesn't realize it yet. It's helped me kind of get more into Adrien's head. Maybe that, and whatever episode came/comes out this week, will help me reach the finish line with editing this story.

Next week, or the following since I'll have until Saturday, I should have my March story ready to share. Two weeks from today I'll either officially start posting "Peeping Tomcat" in weekly installments, or I'll officially post that I'm postponing, and give an estimate of when I'm postponing until.

Do you have any thoughts/advice? Feel free to let me know in the comments section below.

Now to get back to editing, or rewatching Miraculous, or reading more chapters of "Dominion".... Something....

I'm Done With Roller Coasters

This past week has been a bit of a roller coaster. Mostly a series of downs, but just enough ups to keep the “ride” going.

Last week, a coworker lost her dad after spending a week in and out of the hospital with him. I feel her pain, and I am so sorry for her loss. I'm glad I was able to be there for her. But a selfish part of me is exhausted from working nearly two weeks straight, Sunday through Saturday. My only time off was a snow day on the 2nd, and a half-day the following Friday. It's been mentally draining, and I'm a bit burnt out.

On top of that, I found out last week that a college friend of mine, who I knew was struggling with his depression, committed suicide. Another light gone needlessly. Another circle of survivors left behind wondering “What If” as they rack their brains wondering how he could have been saved. A lot of emotional drain to add to my mental exhaustion.

My friend is deeply missed, and probably more so than he ever fathomed. It saddens me that I've already advocated this so many times on this blog, but I will keep doing so until there is no longer a need.

You ARE loved.

You WILL be missed.

You ARE NOT a burden.

I know it's hard to ignore those dark voices in your mind telling you otherwise. I know that every day is a struggle to quiet those negative thoughts. However, you should know that there IS help. Please, PLEASE, ask for it.

And for those of you who think “Reach Out” is pathetic advice, because OF COURSE you would reach out if it was that easy, please read this article on HOW to do so when you're struggling.

And print yourself this image:

I'm actually going to share that link again, because it's so important:
10 Ways to 'Reach Out' When You're Struggling with Your Mental Health.

Keep trying to fight and hold on. Your life does have value. And I will keep using the limited platform I have with this blog to tell you that over and over again.

As one could probably expect with the week I just had, I wasn't really in the mindset to write anything this week. I still haven't come up with an akuma idea. I didn't finish editing all fifteen chapters of “Peeping Tomcat.” I didn't succeed in my goal(s) for Writers’ Huddle's winter challenge.

Progress was made, though. Mostly with reading.

Trying to avoid in-depth thinking while still escaping reality for a bit, I managed to finish off "Oblivion." It was definitely a strong second novel by Ali Luke. You can hop on Amazon to read my full review, but the long and short is this:

• Her already good writing improved.
• I loved the character development she had, including getting me to finally sympathize with Mark!
• The pacing was a lot more intense in this installment.
• I still think, much like in "Lycopolis," Kay – clearly the main hero – doesn't get enough page-time.
• I will always think there needs to be more Brandon, even though I understand why that wouldn't work from a narrative standpoint.
• My only critique is that the climactic fight scene has so many players and locations involved, along with multiple POVs. It gets a bit confusing at parts as to what exactly is going on. That's the only snafu for me, though.

All-in-all, while I had a similar thought with “Lycopolis,” I truly feel like “Oblivion” would make an awesome movie. Perhaps that can be a WIP for next year: a fan script adaptation. It would be good practice on how to cut a story down into 120 minutes of film. Finding what is truly essential, and how to visually showcase things that are perhaps easier to explain on paper. Might be a fun exercise.


I managed to download the Kindle app onto my dinky netbook so I could get started on Ali's concluding story “Dominon.” I'm about two chapters in and still firmly hate the set-up of the Kindle app. I don't know if e-books are more enjoyable to read on an actual tablet, where they are taller than they are wide, but trying to read on a computer screen means each page is only a couple paragraphs long. I'm not a fan of constant clicking to advance pages. If I had to read an e-book on my computer, I'd much prefer PDF files that I can read in Adobe Reader. The formatting is better for me, and I can just scroll down through the story instead of clicking "next".

It is kind of sad when it's a more enjoyable experience – when it comes to formatting and ease of reading – to go through fanfiction downloaded off of AO3, compared to the clunkiness of the Kindle app.

Oh well, at least I can now read Ali's latest book. I WILL be buying it again, though, if she ever opts to have a print version like she did with the first two. So, come on, Ali! Make double the profit off me!

It wasn't all reading to avoid daily drain this week. On Sunday, as a last-ditch effort to conclude my week with SOME progress, I went back through chapter ten of “Peeping Tomcat.” I then continued on to chapters eleven and twelve. I tried expanding both, but neither hit the 3000 word mark, so I ended up combining them. This dropped my over-all chapter count for the story back to fourteen. I still have the last two chapters to conquer, as well as going back to chapter nine. Also, after going back through what needs to happen in the ninth chapter, it may split into two: the akuma attack itself, and the aftermath of it before Adrien decides he HAS to confess to Marinette.

So, I have three, maybe four, chapters left to go before it's done. Not bad, really. The story, as is, surpassed the 51,000-word mark. Granted, I probably could have had the whole thing done in the six weeks if I really pushed, but about 80% done isn't all that shabby either. I still have enough that ChibiSunnie and Cyhyr should be able to get the basic idea and give me overall notes. And as for chapter-by-chapter notes, I'm far enough ahead that I could get started with those on just the intro chapters, and still publish the first chapter on April 6th, as I originally planned.

Right now the real sticky wicket is that both girls are really booked with their own lives. While Cy reassured me that she was super excited to start reading the story, and was antsy for me to be done so she could start reading, I also don't want to distract her too much from what else she needs to do for her own career. And Chibi is so nose to the grindstone right now to get her own story done that she barely has five minutes to eat. I know that she has to wait until May to start reading. I'm hoping that I can still get started on my postings and that she can jump in to help with the ending of the story.

My biggest concerns are as follows:

1. The first chapter is about ELEVEN pages long! I feel like it's just too long, but I don't know where to cut, or if I should chop it in half and have it be two chapters, or what to do with it.
2. Out of the first ten chapters, just about all of them average between 3500 and darn near 7000 words! Then, from the eleventh chapter on, I'm struggling to hit 3000 words! This story seems so unbalanced.
3. I still fear that I'm too inside Adrien's head, and that I'm making the story more complicated than it needs to be.
4. As it's my first fanfic within this fandom, I always fear I don't have characters in character, or the situation believable.

But I'm so close! Even if it ends up being a flop, I am sooooo close to having a 50,000+ word story DONE! I'm so close to actually completing a multi-chaptered story. I'm so close to being able to do something I never do outside one-shot stories: cross off a WIP from the list of stories waiting to be finished. This is a major milestone for me.

So, yay! Thanks to the reviewers and favoriters of the “Peeping Tomcat” teaser chapter and “The Birth of The Mimicker” for keeping me excited for this project. Thanks to Chibi and Cy for cheering me on and volunteering to beta. Thanks to my mom for always having my back. Thanks to Hubby for indulging me. Thanks to Ali for hosting the Winter Writing Challenge in order to keep me focused. Thank you all! I love my support group! Group hug!!!

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And while I'm on this high swing, how about I finish by wishing my sister and my god-son belated birthdays! Hope you both enjoyed yourselves!

Now to go relax for a couple days. Recharge. And get some more work done!

Painful Week

This week didn't go well.....

I am still trying to figure out that second akuma attack chapter. So far, I came up with about four potential akumas, but none of them would work with this story. At least I have something for other fanfics. So, silver lining, I guess. Doesn't help with last week's goal though. Meh.

I've been trying to "research," as it were, other akuma options. I watched a few episodes again to try to remind myself how the akumas are already used canonically. I also spent about four hours flipping through fanart and fancomics, as well as read about five different fanfics, to try to see what others do for their akumas. I know I did this already back around November, but with potentially new stories, I was hoping I'd have better luck. Sadly, it's the same now as it was then: virtually no fanfic writers attempt to have an akuma attack.

Most ignore them completely. The writers that acknowledge them tend to just deal with them "off screen." Only a small few actually have Ladybug and Cat Noir fight akumas, and when they do, the akumas don't seem very canonical. It's fine, that's what fanfiction is for, but it doesn't help me try to come up with something more "true-to-show." Most fanfic-original akumas are either generic superhero villains, such as a wolf-man who is out to protect the stray dogs of Paris, or they are complete fanservice, such as a slighted lover who is now playing cupid and forcing people to fall into intense lust with each other; creating random make-out sessions in the street. Or the akuma is a complete political statement, such as a guy who gets angry about being "friend zoned" and tries to force Marinette to fall for him, claiming to be the "nice guy" while borderline sexually harassing our brave heroine. Sadly, I have yet to find an original akuma that feels like something Zagtoons and/or Thomas Astruc would actually create. So my week of research hasn't been much of a help in that regards.

I did find a few new writers that I'm now following, and one or two new fanart/fancomic artists that I'm keeping an eye on. In that light, the research was a win, I guess....

On top of the lack of inspiration or proper guide, I put myself on bedrest most of the week. Apparently, I'm now an 80+ year old woman, because I threw out my back while picking up a piece of paper this week. Yup. I was moving a bunch of heavier things around the store with no problem. Then, fast forward about a half our, and I bent down to pick up a piece of paper the delivery team left on the floor. Somewhere in my bending down and standing back up I pinched a nerve or pulled a muscle or something. My lower back has been throbbing all week. I've been slowly cutting back on both pain killers and time off my feet as the week progressed, so I know it's healing, but it still kept me sort of laid up.

Normally, especially because I have a laptop, you'd think I would get MORE writing done, since I can't really do anything else, and I'm in one place anyway. However, I've been sleeping more than I would like to admit. Probably my body trying to heal. The pain, or the meds to dull it, also kind of fog my head. That, plus the lack of progress in my research, really kept me stumped.

What it DIDN'T keep me from is reading. That's been my main distraction over the past week: reading Ali Luke's second book Oblivion. While someone like Rick Riordan either stays equally good or falls into an uncharacteristic slump, Ali definitely improved on an already great writing style. I have been completely drawn in, and have to purposely stop myself after x-chapters or x-minutes, otherwise I would devour the whole book in one sitting. Not great when I'm trying to savor the stories, and I also would fall further behind if I just avoided everything with reading.

I have more-or-less been doing precisely that anyway, though.

"Should I write?"
"Yeah, open up the file."
"I can't think of anything."
"Give it another five minutes."
"I think I'd rather read more Oblivion, perhaps that will inspire me."
"Oh, okay.... I'll write later..."

And yet later never arrives. Does it ever?

At least I have the fun privilege of being able to fangirl about a book and its characters with the actual AUTHOR of said book. So, that's cool. She seems to get a kick out of my gushing about her work, and I'm having fun being able to freak out to the person who WROTE THE THING I'M FREAKING OUT ABOUT. That's just awesome to me.

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Another silver lining? I DID write/edit this week. I just polished chapter ten a week early, and then jumped over to chapter twelve to polish that one up too. I didn't do nearly as much writing/editing as I would have liked, and it was all for the "wrong" chapter(s), but it was better than no writing. Right?

OH! And speaking of which, I did manage to get something written before the close of February! About two hours before writing group, I went to take a shower. Man, I'm loving how my mind can wander in the shower - one benefit of my hair being so long it takes darn near ten minutes to wash! - because, much like the instant realization of the Lucky Charm I wanted to use for my one chapter, I also came up with a story for February.

I haven't played "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" yet, and it's been a little while since I've seen Hubby play it. Yet, that was precisely what popped into my head. I was trying to figure out an akuma, and somehow Link the silent protagonist, and his canonical reasoning for it in BotW, were what came up. Remembering the plot/canonical facts and events in BotW, presented via Link's lost memories and Zelda's diary, I wanted to show Zelda rage at Link for staying silent.

I practically had the whole thing written in my head as I showered and dried my hair. Managed to just barely get it poured out onto the page by the time it was my turn to read at group. My chapters for "Peeping Tomcat" are long. I will never get ahead of my posting schedule since writing group is only every OTHER week. I was excited about my BotW fanfic, written vaguely enough that it could be mistaken as original work. So I decided to not read any more "Peeping Tomcat" at writing group, and read that instead.

Granted, we only had about five minutes left of the meeting by the time I was done reading, so we couldn't really afford long critiques, but I did have a lot of people comment about how they enjoyed it. How it COULD have been original. How powerful and emotional it was. How a lot was said in such a short amount of time.

Why can't I write like this all the time? With such succinctness?

Anyway, since I wasn't sure if it would still be considered fanfiction to everyone, I went ahead and posted the story on fanfiction and original works sites alike.

"One Last Hope"

On DeviantArt     On FanFiction     On FictionPress   On Archive Of Our Own

The story has received only one review - "Good story obviously" - and a small collection of faves since it went up last Wednesday. By far not one of my most well known pieces, but I'm still proud of it. I think I'm most proud of being able to keep Link's, Zelda's, and Ganon's names out of the story so that it CAN be reworked, with only a little bit of tweaking, into something original. I might have to think about adjusting it to fit a Gyateara story someday.

I have yet to read a continuous, multi-chapter, WIP at writing group, and it bums me out that I had that opportunity with "Peeping Tomcat," but I think it's best for me and the other members if I just stick with these short one-shots and pick up generic critiques on my writing voice that way. We'll see where I go from here.

The big thing is to get back into writing my own stuff; to continue work on "Peeping Tomcat," but the struggle is kind of real. My one co-worker has had a family emergency that has kept her out of work all last week, and it looks to be keeping her on leave this week as well. So I haven't really had a day off except for Friday when the store was closed due to over three feet of snow in less than 24-hours. I also don't have as much down time at work as I thought I would, or I would normally get with said co-worker, so not much writing has been going on there.

I hope it's just the first week - maybe two - of the month that's shot, and not the whole month itself. I'm going to try to finish the writing challenge strong. Cheer me on, won't you? It helps.