Then again, I read Jowy's Pixie's 50,000+ fanfic a couple of weeks back, so maybe I'm not slacking as much as I claim.
Anyway, this past week finally saw me writing a significant amount of prose again. Yay! Well, sort of yay... Considering I'm writing "One and the Same" during NaNo this year. So I either have to re-write everything I've done this past week, or "cheat" during NaNo by utilizing it. I could do my age-old "surpass 50,000 words by the amount I've brought into NaNo" to make myself feel like I didn't cheat....
It's only an extra 8500 words... I can totally handle that... right?
I mean, OatS is probably going to be another 80,000+ story anyway. I should be fiiiiiiine.
So, let's talk about those 8500 words I'd be bringing with me into NaNo.
It all started when I was working on the chapter Announcement for "Peeping Tomcat." I had Adrien asking Alya for Marinette's phone number, but it just didn't work for the story I was currently telling. I realized it would be an adorable add to OatS, so I tucked it to the side and reworked that scene for PT.
The scene still has Adrien talking about the soup his friends gifted him, so I need to rewrite and rework a large portion of it, but as it stands, I'm bringing in 1126 words from that scene.
Then, only a few days after posting the last chapter of PT, I was haunted by the ending of OatS. Not the true ending, but the All Is Lost moment. The scene where Marinette finds out that Chat Noir was spying on her in "Peeping Tomcat" and he knows she's Ladybug. She did NOT handle it well. The scene is only dialogue right now, but it is still 1369 words! Wait until I get description and inner reflection into that baby!
Last week I gave up on outlining techniques and just let Adrien recap PT for me in order to figure out where he was in his headspace. That scene is 2380 words long, but it's kind of wandering and needs to be tightened up.
Then there was what I wrote this past weekend.
I wasn't sure how Adrien was going to FINALLY figure out Marinette is boarderline obsessed with him, but I knew I was leaning towards the pictures in her room. Especially since I have the episode "Troublemaker" as a great reference on how he would react to such a discovery.
So... in short... I wrote the Crush Reveal from "Troublemaker" from the point of view of a Marinette and Chat Noir friendship taking an awkward turn one night when he visits her. It went kind of deep into their relationship, views of each other, and own self-esteem issues.
It ended up as 3666 words meandering through "Holy crow, she has a crush on me" to "No, I'm just studying the pictures because I like fashion" to "I'm nervous I'm not good at fashion, and I'm meeting my idol soon, and I'm afraid what he's going to tell me" to "You're amazing, Marinette, and these are just a few reasons why" bouncing back to "Ladybug is amazing, and this is why I love her; it's not just flirting" to "Why haven't you told Adrien you like him" to "I've tried, but I can't talk to him and when I tried writing a letter I forgot to sign it" to "Holy crow! Marinette wrote the unsigned valentine!?" to "Wait, so Marinette has had a crush on me since day one!? Me!?" and finally to "why not try telling him one last time you love him. I could help. *wink*"
It's all over the place, but I think I unpackaged quite a bit. I just need to find a way to spread it out throughout the story so it doesn't get completely dumped in this one 7-page scene.
It does help when I come across posts on Tumblr requesting for Adrien to freak out more when he figures out Marinette is Ladybug, and reasons why he should freak.
I mean, I had him freak, but not quite to the extreme as these requests. It makes me pause, and has me think that maybe poor Adrien needs to go through another freak out.
You can check out the great reasoning behind Adrien having an even bigger freak out than I gave him here. The long and short? Marinette is actually WAY more awesome and intimidating than Ladybug, and Adrien feels SHE is out of HIS league. The concept is amazing, and I'm a bit envious that I didn't think of it.
Point is, his initial "Oh, I'm so screwed now that I know my crush is on Marinette" freak out is done and over with. However, in the scene I wrote this weekend I did try to invert the freak out the Tumblr poster came up with. Instead of "Shoot, I like MARINETTE of all people!? How do I have a chance?" I gave Adrien a mini existential crisis when he finds out that she likes him back: "Like... WHY!? What's so special about ME that someone as amazing as Marinette would like me?" The kid's fatal flaw is his lack of self-esteem and lack of self-worth. Another Tumblr post actually went into great depth about how any and all of Adrien's and/or Chat Noir's bad behaviors can be traced back to his inability to come up with his own self-worth; he registers his value based on what others think of him. Anyway, I'm getting a bit off topic here....
I might go back and write a fanfic of my fanfic where I rewrite the chapter Crisis to better include the freak-out points from that original Tumblr post. Simply because they're beautiful and, as I said, I'm a bit mad at myself that I didn't think of them!
In the meantime, I think all of these scenes I've written has helped me figure out where I want to really go with "One and the Same." Ironically, writing out the scenes is helping me outline the story better.... I had a feeling it was going to work like that, which is why I started writing scenes in the first place. Get the major plot points I know I need to have in the story out of the way, then use the outline to figure out how they all fit together in the overall story.
Next up will be the birth of the MariChat friendship: Chat Noir finding Marinette at the Trocadero as she freaks out about her designs and future meet-up with Gabriel Agreste, which also ties in the conclusion of PT where Adrien is bringing some of her drawings to his dad.
I need to get a feel for how Chat Noir is going to organically work his way into Marinette's life while still keeping his promise to not spy on her anymore. This scene will be the tricky one. This one, and the actual conclusion when Marinette finds out Chat Noir is Adrien. Tricky, tricky scenes.
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| Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books by Bryan Lee O'Malley |
It's a bit jumbled, but I do vaguely remember that much, so maybe there's something there for an original idea? Something that I might be able to tie into my Gyateara stories? So I might bounce around with that idea now and again as a bit of a palate cleanser whenever I'm stuck with OatS progress.
I should probably also get back into reading something other than Tumblr in order to get more ideas. On top of that, I do have those brainstorming sessions with Rozsavaria, so maybe something will pop there too. She seems to be making ground with her story, so that's cool. Having a bunch of friends and family ask her questions and try to poke holes in her world build seems to really help her figure out how to plug those holes, and the story keeps growing because of that. I'm excited she's making progress. Now I just need to do the same with my story.
Half way through September, let's get this NaNo-prep started!
Of course, I can't post today without wishing a happy b'day to my Wonder Twin! So here's hoping Ronoxym is enjoying his day, but knowing him he'll be a busy bee today zipping around doing errands or going to classes before heading off to work. Regardless, Happy Birthday, Bro!
But, as much as I love Ron, there's an even bigger b'day today! Can we all give a shout out to ChibiSunnie celebrating her big 3-0!? Huge happy birthday to you, hun! I hope you can find some rest and relaxation today, you deserve it. Sending all the love.
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| Have a super-duper awesome birthday, Chibi! You've earned it. <3 |
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