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| Calendar made by David Seah. |
I had totaled some of this up two weeks ago, and I still didn't include the emails or messages I wrote in November, aside from the anecdote I wrote to Chibi. However, for the full count of everything else....
- Posts about "The Seven Deadly Sins": 695
- Observation about "DuckTales": 34
- Post about my WIP "When Love Matters": 563
- Posts about my WIP "Glitches": 5067
- Post promoting fanfics I'm reading: 344
- Post promoting my progress on "One and the Same": 373
- Facebook posts talking about what I'm thankful for: 717
- Anecdote Chibi counted for me: 1494
- Go Vote blog post: 2975
- In-story Calendars are the Key blog post: 2839
- All the Writing; None for OatS blog post: 3758
- No Time for Writing blog post: 2138
Yeah.... nearly 21,000 additional words NOT put towards my current WIP. Meanwhile, there wasn't even 13,000 words put TOWARDS the WIP. Clearly I was real focused this year.... go me.
To be fair, I do have most of Act I completed...
- Chapter 1: I just need to figure out a transition between chapters 1 and 2, which needs a specific catalyst.
- Chapter 2: mostly done before I even started NaNo; I just need to find that transition from chapter 1.
- Chapter 3: majorly needs polishing, and I have a notation about a third of the way in to add more to transition from the start of the school day and the end of it. For the most part it's done though.
- Chapter 4: I think it is the most ready-to-publish bit I have thus far.
- Most of chapter.... we'll call it nine? I just need to work up to that part of the story.
Okay, so that was most of Act I, but what about everything else sitting in my WIP folder? Regardless of when I wrote it, how much of OatS DO I have done? Well, I was surprised to see that I have 27,637 words! I would have also hit half-NaNo status if I counted all the words in my WIP; not just the ones I wrote in November. Super neat, but still not winning.
What if I combine forces? Let's see... 20,997 words written outside my WIP, 12,865 words written for OatS within November, and an additional 14,772 words written before November started. That's right, folks, I wrote more for OatS BEFORE NaNo. Anyway, using all three stats, I could hit a grand total of 48,634words! STILL not a winning NaNo, but so much closer with all of my cheating.
Going back to how much I did write for OatS, regardless of when I wrote it, I was still curious as to the word distribution. I'm hoping to be a bit more consistent for this story than I was for PT. There's spoilers involved in my scene-by-scene breakdown of where the word-count is in OatS, but if you want to see that breakdown...
After writing an angsty story focusing on one POV, moving to a new genre - basically a romcom - and bouncing between two POVs has proven quite difficult. There seems to be mostly fluff. My chapters basically read as incomplete one-shots: no lead-in to explain why they're in the situation going on. The chapters are cute little self-contained stories, but figuring out how they all thread together has proven difficult. There is also little drama pushing the story forward. It's like this story is my excuse to write an anthology of warm and fuzzy MariChat scenes.
What if I combine forces? Let's see... 20,997 words written outside my WIP, 12,865 words written for OatS within November, and an additional 14,772 words written before November started. That's right, folks, I wrote more for OatS BEFORE NaNo. Anyway, using all three stats, I could hit a grand total of 48,634words! STILL not a winning NaNo, but so much closer with all of my cheating.
Going back to how much I did write for OatS, regardless of when I wrote it, I was still curious as to the word distribution. I'm hoping to be a bit more consistent for this story than I was for PT. There's spoilers involved in my scene-by-scene breakdown of where the word-count is in OatS, but if you want to see that breakdown...
After writing an angsty story focusing on one POV, moving to a new genre - basically a romcom - and bouncing between two POVs has proven quite difficult. There seems to be mostly fluff. My chapters basically read as incomplete one-shots: no lead-in to explain why they're in the situation going on. The chapters are cute little self-contained stories, but figuring out how they all thread together has proven difficult. There is also little drama pushing the story forward. It's like this story is my excuse to write an anthology of warm and fuzzy MariChat scenes.
So that's my latest roadblock: figuring out how to add drama to keep people "flipping the pages," as it were.
Granted, it's fanfiction. And it's one of the more popular corners of the love square. I'm sure people would read the next chapter for no other reason than to read more MariChat goodness, regardless of if there's any over-arcing plot or development.
That's not me though. I know this is fanfiction and I should be happy with just getting something on paper. Others would love to read what I get on paper. Still, this is supposed to be "practice" for me. This is my way of flexing my muscles and showcasing what I can do. Therefore, I try to write as professionally as I can. If I don't think a publisher would pick it up, then I'm hesitant to post it.
But then the devil on my shoulder whispers "It IS fanfiction.... just post the fluffiness; who cares if it's 'professional' quality? Fanfiction isn't supposed to be professional." And I'm tempted to listen.
Honestly, I probably would have listened already if OatS wasn't a follow-up story. If it was its own little thing, I'd say "Meh... it's fanfiction, let's have some fun!" Having it be in the same universe as “Peeping Tomcat” though? Having it be a direct sequel to it? I feel like there needs to be some sort of consistency between the two books. I already switched things up by adding Marinette's first-person view. I can't have another dramatic style change by dropping the aim for professional quality to "just having fun."
Do I sound snooty? I feel like I sound so elitist right there.
I hope I'm not making anyone feel bad. If you are a fanfic writer and you do write fluffy "for fun" stuff, that is totally fine! I'll probably be one of your first readers. I eat that stuff up. Me not wanting to write OatS that way - even though the story itself seems to have a different opinion - doesn't mean YOU writing that way is bad. Fanfiction IS for fun. Writing self-indulgent fluff for everyone's enjoyment is one of the main draws of fanfiction. I just tend to take this a bit more seriously than I probably should....
Anyway, to try to help me around my latest writing roadblock, I've been studying other people's MariChat scenes. Reading fanfic - mostly one-shots - and fancomics, and flipping through fanart and theories. Doing so sort of helped me out with what I'm currently calling "chapter 9." Some more "research" has also started the ball rolling with how I can handle a couple other scenes. I'm still rattling the possibilities around in my head, but I do have a starting point at least.
Speaking of researching via reading other people's work, I re-discovered a lovely one-shot. I had completely forgotten how much I enjoyed the story. It feels a touch out of character for me, but Adrien's inner workings are beautifully confused and I LOVE it. Apparently I am complete trash for Adrien Angst, especially if it's over his slow processing of his feelings for Marinette.
Anyway, the story is "Supercut" although I'm not entirely sure how the title relates?????
**UPDATE: LNC messaged me. Supercut refers to the Lorde song that set the tone for the story... neat**
It is a post-reveal, but pre-relationship transitional story as the two superheroes re-evaluate their civilian relationship. It's told through Adrien's POV, and it's glorious as he tries to figure out how he now feels about Marinette. Let alone trying to decipher how Marinette feels towards him. Because why would Marinette confess she's in love with Adrien now that she knows that he's been in love with Ladybug: aka her?
You can find Supercut by LNC over on AO3. If you prefer to use FFN, you can find the story under LNC2 here.
While you're off reading that adorable one-shot, I'll be over here trying to get some more work done on OatS, and possibly get a monthly one-shot done as well. We'll see.
Before I leave you, though, here's a quick shout out about my husband's birthday being this past Sunday.
Love you, Babe!
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