It just seems a shame since 400+ readers seeing the weekly links to my writing would have been exciting.
Speaking of, you can find the seventh chapter of "Peeping Tomcat" in the normal three locations.
I still don't know how I feel about this chapter. I love the beginning of it. I enjoy the confusion Adrien has. Emotions, especially teenage emotions, are a jumbled incoherent mess. I'm just nervous that it was a bit TOO jumbled. Most of the second half of the chapter is inner turmoil instead of dialog or even action.
Eeeeeeh.... I don't know.
And it seems my readers aren't sure either, based on the 24-hr stats being a bit smaller than they have been....
Real quick note on that "new stat" up there. As I mentioned last week, I revived my Tumblr blog. Last week I actually remembered to promote "Peeping Tomcat" on it, and I'm going to try to remember to promote my story updates and blog updates on my Tumblr from now on.FFN: 548 views, 2 faves, and 1 new follower
AO3: 197 views, 2 kudos, and 1 new review
DA: 19 views and one new fave
Total Results: 764 views, 5 faves, 1 follower, and 1 review
**NEW STAT**
Tumblr Notes: 7 likes
The AO3 review
**It's a bit of a lengthy review, which is mostly the reviewer talking about the parallels between Adrien stalking vs Marinette, and the double standard of how it's creepy when Adrien does it, but enduring when Mari does. It's nothing against my writing, though... so, yay?**
Well, between posting about "Peeping Tomcat" late Friday night, and my normal 24-hrs later check-in Saturday morning, I had seven people like my post. None of them - except for the darling ChibiSunnie - are one of my 24 followers. That's 6 new people to have found PT, and possibly 6 more views on AO3, which is the link I use on Tumblr to try to pump up my popularity there.
Anyway, this week's 24-hr stats aren't terrible, but they are the second-lowest since I started. The first week of PT had higher stats, then the low point of the second week, and then it's been over 845 - leaning closer to 900 - views each week. So seeing only 760 was a bit deflating. It was also the first week to see less than 7 new favorites within the first 24-hrs. Same goes for number of new followers. I usually get at least six. The views on FFN and AO3 individually are also among the lowest numbers since I started posting. DeviantArt views stayed at the new higher average, though, so there's that.
Since 8:30, Saturday morning, my stats have increased a little bit. Again, possibly because the latest episode of Miraculous didn't premiere until Saturday. They're now closer to my average.
At 1151, I have more views thus far this week than I did the entirety of the fifth week: the week that I posted my first akuma attack chapter. Since this story started gaining steam and averaging 1300 views a week, the Mimicker week seems to have been the weakest showing at only 1142 views. The weird thing is that it is tied for the most popular chapter over on DeviantArt, and is where most of the DA views come from. Chapter 2: Itch, being the runner up on DA.FFN: 814 views, 5 faves, 4 followers, and 3 reviews
AO3: 308 views, 8 kudos, and the aforementioned review
DA: 29 views, 1 fave, and still no comments
Total Results: 1151 views, 14 faves, 4 followers, and 4 reviews
Tumblr Notes: 16 likes
FFN reviews:
1. This was so lovely! (by my now faithful reader Cassy1994 who has reviewed every chapter except for the first two)
2. Awesome chapter! Your akuma was super creative, and the battle ended in a nice way. Also, I like that you delved deeper into Chloe’s personality great job! You write the characters really well as well! (obviously a review of chapter 5 specifically)
3. **See below for final review; it's lengthy**
Some other fun side-stats are:
- FFN now has 72 total faves, and 72 is my favorite number.
- AO3 is now up to 100 kudos! So, while FFN seems to be where I get more traffic, and love by way of followers and reviews, AO3 is by far more generous with kudos/faves.
- I'm now up to 30 total reviews between both FFN and AO3.
Speaking of reviews, here's that third one from FFN:
Jowy's Pixie: Just spent all morning reading this story and wow! I'm officially hooked, I don't know why I didn't spot this story sooner, I'm annoyed that I didn't. But hey, at least I found it now.
It's so nice to have found a Miraculous fanfic that looks deep into the characters' emotions and the descriptions of the world around them. It was awesome getting a glimpse into Adrien's mind throughout his - umm - little ordeal I guess? Haha. I really love this idea! It broke my heart reading about how Adrien longed to have a life and a family like Marinette's. Your characterisation of the characters is on point, especially Adrien and Marinette. Reading this fic is so believable, I feel like I'm reading real episodes of the show with every chapter which makes this story all the more enjoyable. Everyone turning into Chloe during that akuma attack was hilarious and I was laughing and smiling through that whole chapter.
I'm very intrigued to see where you are going with this story. I have a pretty good idea which has me even more excited to read and if you surprise me, that's going to be even better. Adrien's exchange with Plagg at the end of this latest chapter was so sad to read. Adrien certainly seems so confused and lost right now. Poor little sunshine boy. Anyway, keep up the great work and I look forward to more! Good luck writing!
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| I really need to stop being lazy and redo an Ugly Cry face, because this one is kinda scary... |
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| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc |
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| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc |
Anyway, I was listening to "Mayday" by TheFatRat, and the song just threw a randomly dark fanfic concept into my head.
So why would the akuma I'm thinking of plead for Ladybug and Cat Noir to purify her? Going back to Miss Bustier, after getting purified she lamented being a supervillain. It was clear throughout the whole episode that she did not want to become akumatized in the slightest. If that's true, then what makes my original akuma idea different? What sets her apart so that she actively wants to get rid of her powers? And why can't she trick Hawk Moth into taking them back?
In a handful of episodes, when a supervillain goes rogue and doesn't follow Hawk Moth's goal of capturing LB's and CN's Miraculous, Hawk Moth has threatened to take the akuma back and remove their powers. If my original supervillain wanted to get rid of her powers, why can't she just sit still and not do anything to attempt to get the earrings or ring?
Then I thought about a Justice League Unlimited episode: "Epilogue". If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should try to track it down, and have a tissue handy.
There's this whole plot dealing with Terry McGinnis talking with Amanda Waller, whom most might now know as the woman in charge of the Suicide Squad's missions, among a slew of other things. Terry rages about Bruce Wayne, and how he doesn't want to end up just as cold, uncaring, and alone simply because he's the new Batman. Amanda then tells Terry a story about a time when Batman was the only one in the Justice League who managed to peacefully end a conflict due to his empathy. She hoped it would show Terry that while Bruce is disconnected from people for a reason, his compassion is still there.
This story-within-a-story part of the episode is what inspired me when I thought about "Mayday" and it being an akuma supervillain singing it.
In the flash back to Bruce still being Batman, a powerful girl codenamed Ace is terrorizing a city - I think it's Metropolis - and so the Justice League is called in. Ace is still fairly young, maybe about 14 or so, and has spent her life being fairly cruelly experimented on to test her reality-altering powers. I can't recall if it ends up being a side effect of the experiments or if it was unrelated, but Ace ends up growing brain tumors that are rapidly killing her. In her childlike panic, she creates a sort of Wonderland within the city, but Amanda informed Batman that the tumors were going to cause a brain aneurysm at any moment, and the resulting psychic backlash would cause massive destruction and loss of life.
Amanda felt the only solution was to kill Ace before the aneurysm. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Justice League, Batman had no intentions of ever doing so. He managed to become isolated from his team, and calmly approached Ace. She lamented the loss of her childhood due to the experimentation and training, and the fact that she wouldn't be able to experience normal life since she didn't have much longer to live. Bruce empathized with her, and her telepathic abilities let her know he knew exactly what it was like to lose your childhood so young. In his calm, compassion, and empathy, along with his willingness to stay with her so she wouldn't die alone, Ace became less afraid of the end. When she had the aneurysm, she was at peace, and so the psychic backlash didn't happen. Instead, everything returned to normal.
While I don't know if I'll to the same extreme as JLU and have my akumatized supervillain peacefully die, I did want those extreme, traumatized emotions to be what makes her different from Hawk Moth's other targets. She didn't feel slighted, wronged, or rejected. She didn't have a bad day. She is constantly fighting with depression or PTSD or suicidal thoughts or something along those lines that isn't the "easy fix" that Ladybug and Cat Noir usually go up against.
I also planned on having Hawk Moth accidentally akumatize her, since it's happened before - see: episodes "Gigantitan" and "Zombizou" and even "Despair Bear" to an extent - I was going to have HM try to akumatize someone else, but the akuma found our poor victim instead. Her negative emotions being a much stronger beacon for the magical bug.
I don't have all the details figured out, and I definitely want to finish off the WIPs I already have on my plate first. However, as one of those enticing drabbles authors post on Tumblr to promote themselves, I did share the scene I wrote when Hawk Moth discovers he can't control the girl, or remove the akuma from her.
You can check out my tease on my Tumblr page:
Fused Akuma
I didn't bother noting the 24-hr mark, but as of this posting I'm up to 11 notes. Nine are likes, and again, none of them seem to be people who are following me anyway, so they somehow found me kind of out of the blue. Yay, Tumblr tags! The other two notes were people reblogging my story. One of those reblogs was by one of the 9 people who liked the story, and they also added "Oh my god! So good!" when they reblogged it. Technically, there's a 12th note, but that's just me thanking the person for the reblog and comment.
Now, 11 notes on a post is barely peanuts on Tumblr, and two reblogs aren't going to really puff up my visibility on the site. However, the fact that even that many people found me is so cool to me. I know that I'm new to the site, and therefore I'm bottom of the totem pole. Everyone has tens, if not hundreds, of people they already follow, so finding me is quite the task.
Plus, it's just a little something. Nothing major, and nothing incredibly emotional - either in the warm fuzzy, or heart-wrenching senses.
I'll have to work more on getting at least a small bit of writing done to post semi-frequently on Tumblr in order to start getting the traffic the big-names get.
Alright, so my checklist has become:
- Edit the next chapter of Peeping Tomcat so it's ready to publish each Friday
- Write something new to post outside of PT each month
- Get the draft of "One and the Same" done before I'm finished posting PT so there isn't much of a lag between stories.
- Finish re-reading "Ready Player One" and get started on Rick Riordan's latest Trials of Apollo story "The Burning Maze"
- And now write semi-daily shorts to periodically post on my Tumblr to try to drum up traffic.
*wipes brow*
Being a writer is hard work! It's a good thing we FINALLY have some nice weather. This was actually my view while writing my post this morning:
Well.... at least, it was my view from 7am until 10. Then it just opened up in a massive downpour coupled with thunder so loud it not only rocked my apartment a couple of times, but it sounds like buildings are coming down around me! Those clouds are LOUD when they sumo wrestle up there!
Still, I always found thunder storms kind of soothing. Might be good "stay home and write" weather.
Oh, and one more thing, since Mother's Day was this past Sunday in the US.
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#Humblebrag. |
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