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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| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc. |
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"
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.
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