Happy Birthday, Pixie!

Welcome everyone, to the final day of Camp NaNo!

I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I SUCKED at writing this month. If I wasn't FINALLY going to watch "Avengers: End Game" tonight - so I obviously have to wear my Captain America shirt today - I would totally be sporting this baby all day.

Such major fail...

Thinking positively, though. I DID manage to surpass 5000 words, which means I have 5000 more words for "One and the Same" than I had last month. That's not nothing, right? I also have more of my plotline figured out, with those two key scenes finally sorted. So that's also a bit of a win. Right?

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by Birdman, Inc.

According to Camp NaNo, at the pace I'm going, I should have OatS FINALLY done by September! Whooo!

Also, you may have noticed that my total monthly count is actually 8660 words. Although 3500+ of those words are NOT for OatS.

See, this past weekend was a whirlwind of birthdays. My aunt's was Friday, my mom's was Saturday, and Taurus Pixie's was Sunday.

So let's give a brief pause to wish them all a happy belated!

Back when I wanted to write a Christmas story for Pixie as a return gift for "Twelve Days of Chatmas," I had asked her what kind of stories she really liked reading. One of the suggestions she made was watching Chat Noir nurse Marinette/Ladybug back to health. I was originally going to go that route. I even had a basic story plotted out for it, but the further I went with the story the more I realized it wasn't really "Christmas-y" so I made a hard left on my MariChat story, and ended up with "Woven Heartstrings" instead. I think I made the right decision.

I then decided that I was going to put Nurse Chat Noir on the back burner until Pixie's birthday. Well, guess what? That meant back burner until this past weekend! Whoot!

Eeeeeeeexcept.... Pixie had gone on writing hiatus a few months back in order to re-center herself. Feeling better, she got back into working on her blog and fanfiction about two weeks ago. She was all excited to get back into the swing of things, but didn't take into consideration how she had to work herself back up into the rhythm she once had.

And that includes being inspired.

The girl has four stories going at the same time right now! I can't even finish figuring out ONE and she has FOUR: Madness Within, Destiny's Dance, Chat Vert, and Immortal Bond.

I, sadly, haven't had time to get into the massive undertakings that is reading "Madness Within" or "Destiny's Dance" quite yet, although I did read the first chapter or two of DD, and I did enjoy the set up.

"Madness Within" seems to be her main focus, as this is the one that tends to get updated the most frequently, and she has a sequel mentally in the works for it as well. "Destiny's Dance" seems to be mostly going through some clean-up edits. She'll update a more polished chapter on FFN and then post that same chapter as a "new" one on AO3 now that she's slowly trickling her works over there as well. It's a MASSIVE epic of a story though, so if you haven't started reading it yet - like me - then the fact that she's polishing it more than updating it should give you time to catch up before a new chapter gets published.

"Immortal Bond" was the first one of her stories that I read, and I greatly enjoyed it. However, this story seems to be the bane of her existence right now. She discovered a few months back that she had written herself into a corner that she couldn't get back out of, so she scrapped the project in favor of starting over from scratch. Much like my ongoing battle with OatS, it seems "Immortal Bond" is being just as frustrating to build for her. She's powering through, though, and I have faith that the end result we get will be amazing for it.

How does all of this relate to her birthday? Well, that's where her most recent story "Chat Vert" comes in. The story starts off with Marinette believing there's no hope for her and Adrien to be together because of his "crush" on Kagami. Her sadness results in an akuma, but thankfully our resident musician Luka is nearby to cheer her up. Sadly, this means the akuma instead "evilized" a woman who just found out her husband was cheating on her.

While that's where the story was left off - for now - we can still assume, based on Luka being in the story and the title hinting at a jealous Chat Noir, that there will be Lukanette goodness. It is also probably safe to assume that said Luka and Marinette pairing will make Adrien/Chat Noir jealous somehow, and I am super excited to see that unfold.

Unfortunately, after months away from the story while on her hiatus, poor Pixie is a bit tapped dry in inspiration for "Chat Vert." There is a Luka-centric episode out called "Silencer" which will 100% re-inspire her for this story. However, it's only out with the French voice over, and she tries to wait for the English dub so she can watch it with her boyfriend for the first time.

Kind of like how I don't mind subtitles, but I try to wait for English dubs of the episodes so I can watch them with Wolfhearted for the first time.

Anyway, knowing that Lukanette episode is out there, but she can't watch it yet, and knowing that her well is a bit tapped dry, I decided that what Pixie truly needed for her birthday was some Lukanette goodness to help her out.

Yes, it is a bit self-serving because it helps get another chapter of a story I read, but isn't most creative like that? We build from each other in hopes to see our mutuals grow?

Also... don't judge, it's a good story and I need more of it!


Long and short? The Chat Noir Nursing Marinette story was thrown to the back burner a second time in favor of a Luka and Marinette story instead. Problem there, though, was that I made this decision ON her birthday, on my way to work. Which means it was already the afternoon of her birthday before I even got started writing. If I was able to have a full day to just write, and get it polished and ready to post by the time I got home, that would STILL be about 9:30 at night on her birthday!

It would be cutting it close, but it was worth the effort.

And then the story didn't want to properly form. I got side-tracked easily. I couldn't decide on where I wanted to go with the story. Did I want just HINTS at their crushes, as there were in the episodes Captain Hardrock and Frozer? The way I hinted at a potential future relationship between Chat Noir and Marinette by the end of "Woven Heartstrings"? Should they already be dating, as they were in my first ever Lukanette fanfic: "Kisses"? What about a "get together" story where they finally realize their feelings? Or should it be a sort of "half reveal" of their own in which Luka officially confesses his love for Marinette, but she doesn't necessarily respond/reciprocate, because... Adrien?

By the time I got home from work I just barely had the start of a story done. I was able to do a little bit more writing while waiting for Hubby to get off of work, but not enough to finish. Then... well... Game of Thrones happened.
   

I was tapped after that episode, and it was about 4am Pixie's time anyway, so I waved my white flag.

So my focus yesterday, since I had a rare Monday off again, was to finish my story. It STILL kept me until 4pm my time to do it though! There goes my day off being productive....

Still! I got the story done! And it was "only" 9pm her time... so I was technically still only a day late with my gift.

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by PRANEAT

Based on her review... I think she liked it. What do you guys think? Hehe.

Oh...my...god! I literally had to keep pausing as I was reading because I just couldn't handle all of the amazing cuteness and fluff! I was rolling around on my bed squealing like some crazy person. I have never been more in love with two characters than what I am now! Eeeek, they were just so damn adorable! I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!

You know how much I love my Lukanette, and the fact that you captured their characters so well in this story made it all the more better. I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! Of course I love my love square ships, but I do love Lukanette as well, but I can never find many decent stories that keep my attention, so I'm so glad that I have this one now! Not only that, but it's dedicated to ME! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

You are the most amazing writer and the most amazing friend! Thank you so much for helping me with inspiration with Chat Vert! This story has certainly helped reignite that spark and the rusty cogs inside my head began to turn again. Thank you so much for that! This is one of the most amazing one-shots that I have ever read and I really can't thank you enough.

YOU'RE THE BEST!

LOL, she's adorable, right?

Anyway, you can also read her belated birthday gift at my normal three sites.

"I Was Thinking Of You"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

It's a completed one-shot of "only" 3500-some words. So it should be a relatively quick read this go.

Also, apparently Pixie isn't the only one who believes it's hard to find decent Lukanette stories, which actually surprises me considering the love Luka has been getting lately.... Then again, it's been forever since I've attempted to find fanfiction to read soooooo....

Anyway, at least one other review I received also claimed the same.

FFN Reviews:

• I LOVE this! It was so sweet! And I'm not even really a Lukanette fan... but YES! This was awesome!
• This was beautiful and I loved it. It's really hard finding decent Lukanette stories, so I'm glad this one exists! It was a truly wonderful read.
• ...Now I just really wanna watch that fictional movie :P

AO3 Reviews:

• This is fantastic and sweet, and I enjoyed it very much.
  I'm so glad Luka made it clear that he doesn't just want to be friends with her (since that was a concern of hers in Frozer). And I love how her friends were so supportive (and had been eagerly awaiting this).
• Awww this was precious!

I think the most amusing thing was that last AO3 review - "Awww this was precious!" - because it was immediately followed by this review:

LOL wow I Just realized who wrote this fic! I guess it always seems like your fics appeal to me!

Also as a sidetone, I'm in the middle of reading Pepping Tomcat and its really great so far!!

How awesome is that!? This isn't the first time this person has done this either. They read a story, like it, and THEN realize I was the one who wrote it. Amuses me each time they realize that.

Another thing that amuses me is the stats I have over on DeviantArt for this story. Somehow, I only have one view of the story, but two different users favoriting it....

Um.... sure... I'll take it, I guess.

Actually, what ARE my stats thus far for this story? Keep in mind, it's not up for 24hrs yet.

FFN: 141 views, 8 faves, 4 followers, and 4 reviews
AO3: 227 views, 22 kudos, 0 bookmarks, and 3* comments
DA: 1 view (?), 2 faves, and no comments

Total Results: 369 views, 32 faves, 4 followers, and 7 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 6 notes: 3 likes, 1 reblog, and 2 comments - me and Pixie talking

I have to admit, I'm loving the reviews I'm getting. I'm so happy other people are also enjoying this gift for Pixie. Especially since I talk about Chat Vert as my reason for writing a Lukanette story in the first place. So perhaps that means she'll get more love for her story as well.

Also, fun bonus: it's a completed story in the month of April! Score! Mark another one off my check-list. I still missed writing/completing a story in February - what did I do in February??? - but at least I have "Woven Heartstrings" for January, and "Prescription for Love" for March, and now "I Was Thinking Of You" for April.

A big bit of inspiration for the story was actually a song I was re-introduced to via a throw-back radio station I listen to. I had enjoyed the song when it first came out in 2009, and I was reminded of that about a week ago.

"Two is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls; 

featuring Taylor Swift

I had that song on loop for most of my writing. It really got me in the proper mood for the story. It worked, for the most part, but then I got to the main scene with Luka, who is, of course, playing his guitar. I needed inspiration for the songs he was playing as well. After a quick search on YouTube, I discovered the composer Ryini Beats.

He was pretty perfect for finding guitar-only instrumental songs to help inspire me for Luka's own compositions. There are four songs he plays for Marinette.

The first one is a bit sad, and Marinette even calls him out on how sorrowful it sounds.

That soft electric echo of the guitar in that song was even more perfect since Luka always strums on an unplugged electric guitar.

After Marinette calls Luka out on the sadness of that first song, he switches it up a little to something a bit more upbeat, but still has some melancholy to it.

After some more conversation, Luka switches up the music a little bit more, and we transition into a song inspired by this one from Ryini Beats.

Finally, Luka switches gears one last time. I wanted something super plucky and cheerful for that last song. Sadly, the one I found that I thought was perfect is also one of the few songs Ryini Beats does not have marked as Free. So the audio equivalent of a watermark comes in every couple of seconds. Still, it should be enough to give you the basic idea.

Long and short? Now you have a sort of "soundtrack" for "I Was Thinking Of You", and if you enjoy the songs I picked from Ryini Beats, feel free to support the guy. Even if that means watches on his YouTube channel. The songs are all so good.

...

Okay, wow! Yeah... this post went STUPID long, resulting it being nearly 90min late to publish. So I'm going to call it here.

Just... ya know... read Pixie's stuff. Listen to Ryini's stuff. Support creators. And also, feel free to let me know what you think of my latest story.

Catch ya next week!

Making Progress (sorta)

Happy spring, everyone! I know, it's been spring, technically, for weeks now, but I think this is the first full week it's FELT like it. It's been warm and sunny and beckoning me to hang outside. It's also been very "April" and rainy quite a few days.

In fact, last Tuesday Hubby and I got caught in a massive downpour out of nowhere. It was nice out. It was sunny. Then there was a thunder clap. Then came the hail. Then, within five minutes, the hail storm became a flash flood of rain. And... well... we still needed to get to our car from the post office. We were able to wait out the worst of the rain, but even when it let up a little I still had to navigate a flash-flooded parking lot, wading through about a quarter-inch of water. Also, since it was so warm and gorgeous out just ten minutes prior, I had my car windows down. So.... the car was pretty wet. It only got worse when we popped by a drive-thru for lunch. Just within the time it kept for me to give my order at the speakerbox, I got DRENCHED.

Lunch was yummy though, and I was able to lower all the windows once I was in my garage, so the car could air-dry.

It was a warm rain, and I had nowhere else to really go, and it didn't seem to cause any lasting damage to my new car, so I actually had a lot of fun in the ridiculousness of the flash-flooding downpour.

In truth, I was just happy it wasn't snow finally!

This week was also beautiful for me because I'm pretty positive I FINALLY figured out which order I want for those two scenes that were driving me insane! So... YAY!

As much as I do appreciate and value the suggestions my readers made, and as much as I wanted to follow their suggestion since I'm writing this story for them, I'm also mostly writing this story for me. I had to do what *I* thought was best, and that ended up being Hubby's suggestion. In part, it was because of what I discussed last week about wanting to avoid Adrien thinking Marinette was "just a fan". However, the main reason I went this direction was because of how I wrote the "he sees the pictures and realizes she's in love" scene. I love my "he hears about the bracelet and realizes she's in love" scene, and it will DEFINITELY be bonus content at some point. However, the "Pictures Love Reveal" scene just had more.... punch to it, I think. Plus, it made more sense for a key bit of dialog to be included post-love reveal than it did for "we're just really good friends" or to delay it for a later chapter.

So, I think I have the timeline as follows:
Chat's been visiting for a few nights already, and they have a sort of rhythm to his visits. The latest Gabriel clothing line will launch the next day, which means Gabe will be available to meet with Marinette in the near future. She's nervous about the meet up, and wishes she still had her lucky charm bracelet since it always brought her comfort and confidence. Longing for her trinket, she starts drawing it in her sketchpad. Chat sees the sketch during his nightly visit, and that leads into her telling him about the significance of the bracelet and how she gave it to Adrien. He encourages her, and lets her know that a) she should ask for the trinket back if it means that much to her, but also b) she doesn't need it since she's so talented.

The following Monday - so, three days later - Marinette does have her meet-up with Gabriel, which also turns into a hang with Adrien to play a new video game. Things are still goofy between the duo, and she was still awkward with Gabriel, but all-in-all it was a good experience. As a thank you to Chat Noir for the encouragement, she makes him callisons: almond-shaped gummy candies. Chat Noir startles her, and when she throws the tray of treats in the air in surprise, they rain down on him, making his costume and hair tacky in the honey-like frosting. Marinette, frazzled, offers for Chat Noir to clean up at the sink in her room, not even thinking that it's not "visitor ready". Chat sees the pictures of Adrien, and the love confession comes from that. He then suggests she try confessing to Adrien, and offers to help her build up the confidence to do so. He even mentions that Adrien would be an idiot to not return her feelings. This last bit is crucial for the climax of the story.

Okay, so that spoiler box got a lot larger than I originally intended! Long and short, I think I have the... er... middle of my middle? figured out.

I also finally surpassed 5000 words written this month for Camp NaNo. So there's that...

Now to come up with a transition from the first act of the story into Act II. Then a lead-in to the scenes I've been battling over all month. And then a transition again from Act II to Act II, as well as a proper lead-in to that Act III climax.

I would conservatively estimate that I have... about 80% of Act I figured out, maybe 50% of Act II, and... we'll go with 50% of Act III? That's about 60% of the entire story done...

So... yay for feeling like I have just shy of two-thirds of the story sorted out? I have less than that actually written, but at least I kinda-sorta know where I'm going with it?

And it only kept me about 9 months to do it.

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by PRANEAT

I may get this story done by August....

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by Birdman, Inc.

It might help if I get back into my time audits after slacking on them for the better part of a month. I never remember to take the planner out of my work bag when I'm home post-work or have a day off. Then, when I did remember to pull the planner, last week, I forgot to put it back IN the bag to bring with me to work again... it became a downward spiral from there.

Sure, I've been writing daily. And, yes, my word counts haven't been that great, but that's only because I've been mostly editing existing scenes. Still... my word count and progress on this project mostly suck because I slack off once I'm home.

So, time audits! I just need to do these forever, I guess. They're tedious, especially when I'm too busy to stop even for a couple seconds to write how long it kept me to do a certain task. But, I'm just not habitually structured enough without them. Too frequently I look back at my day and go "what did I even do?"

I have the start of my new calendar set. I just need to take the time to print off the pages I need. It will be a LOT of pages and a LOT of ink, and I'm not entirely sure the library printers can print double sided, so I may have to go to the local printer. Which means needing money as well.

I thought I could save time, energy, paper, and money by just buying a new planner from Walmart or something. While it was a headache to try to even FIND my planner last summer, I guess April is still early enough in the year that the hourly planners are still around. However, they have the same issue my current one has.

Namely, that it only covers about 10 or 12 hours of the day, rarely covers the evenings, which is when I most need to track my time, and Saturday and Sunday are combined into one column, which means I can't fully track even half my day when it's not a weekday.

Which means I'm still aiming to just print my own.

This is a reminder of what is out on the market: the hourly planner I currently own, and what the potential replacements all more-or-less look like. It's decent. It's done what I needed it to do, for the most part. It starts at 7am and goes until 9pm. It's a decent amount of day, stretching 14hrs, which is the most I've seen in any planner. It also covers 7am until 5:45pm on Saturday, which is again the most I've seen dedicated to a Saturday in these types of planners.

All-in-all, this was a lovely planner, and if I had to purchase a replacement, I'd go with this brand again.

Not only is the planner itself made from recycled paper,
but each page gives you a conservation tip.

It truly is a great product, and I strongly suggest anyone looking for an hourly day planner for any normal reason to pick this brand up.

For me, though? As I mentioned, I needed to go a different route.

These are my prototype pages, but I'm fairly happy with them. I don't have the space to have the hours numbered down each column like the At-A-Glance pages, and I may take away from the "Notes" section on the far end in order to put the hours on that side as well; bookending the week. However, I haven't quite decided yet if that's what I want to do.

The big thing for me, though, is how I adjusted the times. I'm a bum who rarely does anything significant prior to 8am, so I had my days start then, but I also wanted to leave that opening block for when I do get my butt out of bed at a decent hour. It's also a nice spot for me to mark birthdays, anniversaries, or national holidays. I'm also pretty active at least until 11pm, so I wanted to extend the hours in the day I can record. I figured anything I do post 11pm I can note in that block. With any luck, those adjustments will work well for me.

The only new snaffu is the size. Clearly I'm now using a full 11in sheet of paper per page, which is significantly larger than my current planner.

I needed to finish up 2019 since my current planner ends in June, and it actually amused me that I lucked into orange colored taps for both October 2019 and October 2020. I do still need to create the monthly calendar pages to start each month off. That way I can still record my smilies of writing days. I may even create a coding system to record my writing days, exercising ones, and even my cleaning days, because as of right now I only clean on my days off, and it's overwhelming to stockpile things like dishes, folding laundry, vacuuming, etc.

The larger pages actually allowed me to keep the individual log spots fairly similar in size, even with the extra hours that I'm trying to record. The only major issue was that I needed to thin out each column in order to fit everything properly. Otherwise I would need to either divide Thursday across both sides of the binder - which isn't helpful or practical at all - or I would have to again combine Saturday and Sunday in order to fit all 7 days across the two pages.

I think I can handle the slightly thinner columns. I'll just have to be more concise or write smaller.

In truth, once you take out the portion of each column where the hour is listed,
the columns aren't THAT different in size.
Although, I may try to number each line like At-A-Glance does.

The only other issue I might have with my version of the planner is that with a 3-ring binder, I won't be able to fold it onto itself like I can with the At-A-Glance planner. Unless I pay for it to be professionally printed and bound in a spiral cover like the purchasable planner, I won't be able to condense the planner to it's "closed" size while still working on it.

Oh well, I can survive without that feature, I'm sure. Worse comes to worst, I can pop the page I'm working on out of the binder, fill it in throughout the day, and then pop it back into the binder once I'm done with my recordings. The other hindrance is the larger size of the binder, especially since it's thicker and hardcover. It's not as bendable as my current planner, and so it won't fit quite the same in my work bag. The existing planner fits nicely inside a little side-pocket within my bag. A side-pocket that barely holds anything else. It's easy enough, though to shift my Miraculous Ladybug notebook to that pocket, and that should leave enough space in the main pocket for the planner binder to tuck behind my netbook.

This should work. Part of me wants to start using this new calendar now. However, that would mean I ended up wasting even MORE of my existing planner, which wasn't utilized nearly as much as I would have liked, AND I would waste more paper and ink printing off at least two more months of weekly calendar sheets.

So, I will have to patiently wait until July to start using this new planner I doctored. In the meantime, I'll keep on tweaking until I'm 100% satisfied with the layout and formatting. Maybe I'll also print off a few pages at a time to build up the planner before I need it. That way I don't need all of that money all at once. I could trickle it.

But back to my actual writing!

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by Ghostbot

As I mentioned at the top of the post, I'm pretty confident I FINALLY managed to figure out my scene order... for those two scenes. The rest of the story, though????

At least, now that I have those two scenes locked in with regards to their order, I am also able to figure out the surrounding scenes. So I now think I have a lead-in to the one scene, and I know I have a follow-up chapter for the second scene. The only snag there, though, is that my outline for that follow-up chapter is fairly similar to the third chapter of the story. So I need to figure out how the chapters are different, and if there's enough character growth for them to feel like foils of each other. Or... should I completely change one of the two chapters?

WHOO! ANOTHER DUAL SCENE DILEMMA!

Just what I needed....


At least I'm learning about editing and story structure... right? Perhaps once I'm done with this problem child of a story I'll have enough skill growth to finally tackle "Please, Let Me Explain" again, and actually have it thinned out enough that Ronoxym won't feel overwhelmed anymore. Because I really do want to finish that story off properly. I also need to get back to editing the fight scene between Devon and Trish - as well as finally name that story - so I can post that one-shot I wrote a few summers ago.

My poor girls have been abandoned! Sorry, ladies!

Trish, Willow, and Lia
Designs doctored from ChaZie doll makers

Side note. I used to go to DollzMania.com to make these dolls of my characters, since I'm trash at drawing. However, the site has since closed down. I was able to find some of ChaZie's doll makers up on other sites, but barely even a third of the ones I know they made, and virtually none of the ones I had used to create those three above. If anyone knows where ChaZie is now, or where to find the full collection of doll makers, please let me know. Thanks.

As for the rest of today? Well, DFL from writing group invited me to go watch a short film entitled "10 Mistakes Writers Make", so perhaps I'll have some new advice for everyone next week. At the very least, maybe it will help me figure out this darn fanfic. Writing group is tonight as well, so I'm sure DFL and I will discuss what we learned with the group. I'll just have to figure out if I want to read more disconnected bits of "One and the Same" tonight, since that's what I'm actively working on, or if I want to continue reading "Prescription for Love" since that's the last continued work I read for them.

We'll see.

Until next week, enjoy the fine weather, my friends. Also... happy belated Earth Day, which was yesterday, and happy early Arbor Day, which is Friday.

It's a good week to be a tree.

Yes, I did indeed watch the 2012 "The Lorax" film yesterday...

A Tale of Two Scenes (times 2)

This week has been frustratingly productive.... or.... productively frustrating???

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone on their insight on my "which comes first" dilemma for "One and the Same." You all gave me a lot to think about. The consensus seems to be

Most of those who contacted me seem to believe it's more impactful to have Chat Noir see the pictures first, think Marinette is a dedicated fan - much like how it was in the show - and then find out about the bracelet to see the evolution of her feelings into that of genuine love.

I keep following the logic presented by those suggestions, and the "ah-ha moment" I wrote ended up being so adorable! Chat Noir was just soooooo excited, and I love it! Plus, Marinette's panic was immensely fun to write.

So, thank you, everyone, for your suggestions. It gave me a lot to think about, and I'm still going back to those comments even today to help me ponder further.

HOWEVER.... I have to admit that I'm still torn.


Sorry, spoiler-free folks, but I'm diving a bit into spoiler territory again. I'll see you guys again in a bit...
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I have to say that I agree with you guys when it comes to "find out about the bracelet second", and I actually wrote it originally that way. Marinette flopped onto her chaise in embarrassment as she admitted Adrien had this important trinket from her past. Chat Noir teased that it was more than what someone would do for "just a friend" and that maybe Adrien was "more than a friend?" He had also implied that he had instructed Marinette to confess to Adrien, and after hearing about the bracelet, he now SUPER DUPER pushed to her admitting her feelings to Adrien.

I had that. I was all set to have the bracelet come second. For it to be the moment Adrien realized Marinette was in love with him.

But then two things happened.

1) When I wrote the "he discovers the pictures" scene, I had him have the "she loves me!" moment, and it was gorgeous. It was wonderful. I loved it so much. But... he can't have that moment if he's supposed to have it when he finds out about the bracelet later.

2) I realized the wrong person was telling the story when Adrien realizes Marinette's love.

The story of the bracelet is definitely a Marinette chapter. The bracelet had some emotional significance to Adrien, but it didn't have the emotional weight I headcanon it having for Marinette. The reason Chat Noir is told the story in the first place is because he asks about a drawing of the bracelet Marinette has in her sketchbook. The reason she drew it in the first place is because she missed having it.

I haven't figured out the reasoning yet - if I keep the bracelet as the second scene, it could be because she feels it would give her the courage she needs to confess to Adrien - but Marinette was feeling down. She was in the same mindset as her 5-year-old self; in need for some placebo luck. Either she isn't confident, or she needs that physical reminder of her father's love. I'm still working on the situation that put Marinette in that mental state, but the important thing is that she's there.

She's the one with the emotional weight in this scene. She's the one who goes from upset, to a nostalgic warmth, to a centered calm, to embarrassment, to flattered shock. MARINETTE is the one who goes through an emotional rollercoaster. Meanwhile, while Adrien also goes through a lot as well, his emotional shifts goes from casual meet-up, to curiosity, to overwhelming comfort, to mild guilt, to flood of appreciation, to overwhelming love that forces him to leave before he does something rash.

Yes, I know, it looks like he has a lot going on himself. It does appear that he too has a lot of emotional weight in this scene. The thing though, is that Marinette GIVES him the emotional weight. The scene wouldn't have any sort of true significance to him if Marinette didn't attach that extra sentiment and significance to the bracelet. Plus, a lot of Adrien's emotions can be conveyed to the reader via body language and speech patterns. Marinette waxing nostalgic? Her mental state when Chat Noir first arrives? It's hard to really show that.

The readers know what's going on in Adrien's head. We know that he has the bracelet. We know that he is in love with Marinette. We know that he has a tumultuous relationship with his father, and so we can imagine his reaction when he finds out about this bonding moment Marinette had with her own father, as well as his reaction when she confesses why she's fine with Adrien keeping the bracelet. We don't need to be in his head for any of that, because we already are, to some extent.

However, since the origins of the bracelet aren't canon, and they haven't been brought up before in my stories, unless the reader has also read "Build Your Own Luck," they don't have the same level of knowledge of what could be going through Marinette's head. They won't understand the parallels between how she felt when her father made the bracelet and how she felt when she started drawing her sketch of the bracelet. They won't understand that she had been holding a secret from even Tikki, and the significance of her confessing it for the first time, and to Chat Noir, of all people. They won't know how Marinette's heart is starting to race around Chat Noir, and how much his words impacted her.

If the reader knew any of that, while Adrien is the one in charge of retelling the scene, it would mean HE noticed that stuff. Then he either would figure out she was growing feelings for his superhero side way too early for the story - I mean, to realize she was in love with Adrien, and now has a crush for Chat Noir in the same scene!? Story done! - or he wouldn't put two and two together with regards to his Chat Noir half, which would make him WAY too dense. Especially if he JUST figured out her feelings for Adrien, and yet couldn't see the same thing going on with his Chat Noir side?

It just... It doesn't feel right to have Adrien be in charge of this chapter. It feels like Marinette HAS to be the one telling the reader about this scene.

And yet... Adrien finally realizing Marinette is in love with him HAS to be his chapter. There's just too much shooting through his mind for him to NOT be the one in charge. It would be weird for Chat Noir to properly express everything going through his head after finding out Marinette was in love with - as far as she's concerned - another man. Especially when he's trying to stress how much he loves Ladybug.

Now, I did write that scene. I refined my original bracelet scene so that it was definitely after Adrien found out about the pictures. I made sure that it was the "Adrien realizes Marinette is in love" scene that most seem to want to see. He is adorkable as he is clearly elated to discover this, but also trying to be sly and disconnected because he's Chat Noir at the time, and CN doesn't have any real connection to Adrien... as far as Marinette knows.

I have to admit that I love the micro-scene. But... it just feels wrong to not be in Adrien's head during that "ah-ha moment."

Plus, on top of everything else, while I like the idea of Adrien seeing an "evolution" of Marinette from "a dedicated fan" to "she's in love with me". While I like the idea of him going from assuming she just likes him for his looks, to realizing that she's actually in love with his personality. While I adore the blocking I did for Adrien realizing it's not just a celebrity crush, but Marinette is truly in love. While all of that is GREAT, at the same time, do I really want Adrien to picture that evolution?

I made a point in “Peeping Tomcat” to have Marinette stress that she isn't friends with Adrien simply to have an "in" with his father and the fashion industry. She would be friends with Adrien even if he was a "nobody." She genuinely does enjoy his company, and doesn't care about his famous father or celebrity status.

So, it feels like a step backwards, and a means of undermining Marinette's declaration, if Adrien again assumes she's a crazed fangirl. It may even affect how he interacts with her in school, either pulling away and re-thinking his strategy for having her fall in love with him out of fear that she just sees the handsome face, or he'd fully lean into the model persona... and... just... no.

If he found out about the bracelet first? It would solidify what she said in PT. She does see him as a legit friend; a valid and highly valued friend. She understands Gabriel is far from perfect, and Adrien needs comfort and compassion. He can see the evolution of "friend to lover" instead of "crazed fan to love interest." There is more solid ground this way. Instead of finding out about the bracelet and thinking back to the pictures and going "Oh, so it wasn't about fashion or her obsession with my looks," Adrien can think back to the bracelet and go "Oh, so she didn't just give me the bracelet out of friendship, she's in love with me! She let me have it because I mean so much to her." Plus, if he knew about the pictures first, it might taint the bracelet: "She gave it to me because she's obsessed with me"

On top of all that, having the bracelet first gives the right characters the correct scenes. Marinette can still tell the story of her bracelet. Adrien can still tell the story of his realization that Marinette loves him.

I'm going to hate losing that adorable moment of Adrien having the epiphany after learning about the bracelet. If I follow my husband's suggestion of "bracelet first" I'm definitely releasing the alternate scenes as bonus content after OatS is done and posted. The scene is just too good to not let my readers see it.

Similarly, if I follow everyone else's suggestion and have "pictures first," I'm going to post THOSE alternate scenes as well. Having Chat Noir encourage Marinette without knowing the true significance of that act was equally sweet.

In other words, I'm in love with both versions of the Bracelet Scene I wrote, and my readers will eventually get to read both. I hope it doesn't sour the "official" versions though...

My point being, I have to see if I can rework my "pictures second" scene so Adrien's epiphany is just as adorable from his perspective as he was in my "bracelet second" scene....

This story is going to be my death. I'm telling you guys right now...
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OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!

For those who skipped, just know that I'm still torn on the order of my scenes, but I think I'm leaning more towards my husband's suggestion????? Maybe?????

Either way, the alternate versions of those scenes will be released after their "official" versions have been published. That way readers can get the goodness of both versions, since I love them equally. I just hope reading "what could have been" doesn't sour the versions I decide to go with....

I may change my mind on releasing the alternate versions once the story is ACTUALLY DONE, but, for now I want the world to see all four of my babies.


So, while I was battling that whole predicament, I DID manage to work on OatS nearly every day this week. Saturday was a bit hectic, so I wasn't able to touch my story then, but I DID go through every other day this past week.

Including Monday! Which is usually a trash-day for me and writing.

Granted, it was only a hundred words here, a couple hundred there, maybe 800 words at one point. The whole week, since I posted my last blog update, I've only added 1956 words to my overall project, bringing the total words written this month to 3642.

Most of this week has been me reworking those two scenes I wrote during NaNo. The one, should it be the first scene, needed a major overhaul. Most of my big numbers - my 780 word and 850 word days - were my reworking that scene. I then went back to the original version, grabbed what I liked about that reworked scene, found a way to fuse them together, and tweaked some more so it was definitely the second scene.  I started doing the same with my other main scene. I'm not as far along with that one, but it is again a lot of tweaking.

In other words, I did edits. Lots and lots of edits this past week. Those 100-word days were "a word here, a new sentence there" edits that just added up by the end of the day. Why does this story have to take so long to come together!?

At least I have a really encouraging group of "cabinmates" over on Camp NaNo.

I have also mentally worked out a bit more for an earlier scene in the story. Perhaps I should switch gears and work on that scene? Should I finish up with writing the two alternates of this second scene and get that over with? Either way, I'm sure I'll keep myself busy this week.

However, Hubby's aunt passed away, and we have her service tomorrow night. Then Easter is this Sunday, so I may not have the free time to write as I would like. We'll see how everything goes this week.

In other news, I want to let everyone know that my heart goes out to the people of Paris, and France as a whole.

The Notre Dame cathedral was a significant landmark in and of itself. The fact that I grew up with the Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" made it even more significant to me. Lately though, having my current main fandom take place in Paris, with the Notre Dame appearing in nearly every shot of Marinette's balcony, it gave the cathedral a substantial amount of emotional weight.

Above shots from the episode Glaciator.

Above shots from episode Weredad.

So, as you can see, it's a prominent portion of the landscape around Marinette's balcony, which made the landmark cathedral all that more impactful in my own world view.

It saddened me greatly to find out yesterday that the roof caught fire. That iconic spire is now gone, as is at least one of those rose stain glass windows. Thankfully, the cathedral was in the middle of lengthy renovations anyway, so a lot of priceless pieces weren't there while it burned. Also, thankfully, the main structure is stone/brick, and so that is still mostly standing.

Still, it's a shocking loss, and I hope reconstruction can return it to its glory one day. It will be rough for citizens and tourists alike to see the cathedral in the meantime, though. It will be quite the trial for the parishioners of the cathedral as well.

My heart goes out to you, Paris. But you have rebuilt before, and you'll do it again.

"Miraculous Ladybug" episode Glaciator.

*Sigh* Order is Important, Guys

Camp hasn't been going too well so far. As of last night, I'm up to 1,686 words out of my 50,000 word goal. Granted, if I go through everything I wrote during November's NaNo and since, I'm actually up to 34,385 words. Not all THAT bad, but still, this story is coming together SOOOOOOOO slowly compared to “Peeping Tomcat”.

Most of my progress this past week was re-reading chapter scenes I wrote months ago, in order to get re-acquainted with my story. I've been doing tweaks and edits, but mostly, I've been trying to structure everything as a whole. Trying to thread these scenes together, and wondering what other scenes need to go in between.

The next few paragraphs contain oh-so-minor spoilers for "One and the Same," but if you want to go into the story completely cold, you might want to scroll for a bit.
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The two main scenes I wrote for the middle of my story, the parts that are all MariChat goodness as Marinette and Chat Noir build up their own friendship, involves the bracelet Marinette gave Adrien in the episode "Gamer", and the fact that Marinette's room is coated in pictures of Adrien.

For those who don't know the show, Marinette's bedroom evolved thusly. In the beginning of the series, she had her screensaver and/or her computer desktop decorated with a collage she made of some of Adrien's fashion ads. A few episodes in, we see that she also has a copy of his schedule for the year, and a framed picture of him - again, from an ad - resting on her desk. By the episode "Gamer" we discover that she's basically wallpapering her bedroom with pictures of Adrien. These pictures are mostly from his ads, but there's also some candid shots from just hanging out with a friend. Still, they're taped up all over her walls. Late in season 1, in the episode "The Puppeteer", the pictures are still up on her walls, but Chat Noir has to enter Marinette's bedroom to stop an akumatized villain. Marinette, as Ladybug, gets very nervous about the possibility of Chat Noir seeing the pictures. Keep in mind that Chat Noir doesn't know who Ladybug is, and Marinette doesn't know that Chat Noir is Adrien. Still, she clearly doesn't want anyone aside from her family and her female friends knowing about her crush. Even if, as far as Ladybug knows, Chat Noir only knows Marinette in passing, she still doesn't want him to know of Marinette's crush. This is important for my story.

In the season 2 episode "Glaciator", we see that the pictures aren't covering her room as much, and she now has a corkboard by her bed, and THAT is where she has a whole collection of Adrien pictures. She even has a magazine cover he was on posted next to the board. About mid-season 2, in the episode "Troublemaker", we are shown a comedic explosion of Adrien pictures in Marinette's room as Ladybug and Chat Noir battle a supervillain in it. Nearly everywhere Chat Noir looks, he has pictures of his civilian form literally thrown in his face.

Now, in the season 3 episode "Silencer" that just aired, I noticed that Marinette didn't have her pictures of Adrien up as she normally did. I thought it was because her male friend Ivan, and her other crush Luka, were in her room, so she hid the pictures of Adrien. However, when I noted this on Tumblr, someone pointed out that the pictures went away after the embarrassment of "Troublemaker." I didn't notice that, and I haven't gone back to double check, but I know I'm probably going to take some time to do so this week.

Anyway, even if the person is right, and the photos are gone after "Troublemaker", my stories "Peeping Tomcat" and "One and the Same" are sort of an alternate telling of season 2. All the canon facts presented in season 1, and in the season 2 premiere "The Collector" - because it finishes off the plot of the season 1 finale "Volpina" - are the only things I follow to the letter. After "The Collector", I ignore seasons 2 or 3 exist. However, I do still use generic knowledge we gather from those episodes.

Information, such as Adrien always carrying around the bracelet Marinette gave him in his pocket, or Marinette having pictures of Adrien EVERYWHERE - at least, for a time, or that Marinette's paternal grandmother is Italian and a perpetual traveler, or that Juleka has an older brother named Luka, or that Chloe's mother is a fashion critic who lives in NYC so she can run a fashion magazine, etc. These elements would still be true, regardless of events that happen in the show, so I consider them fair game. Elements, like Marinette potentially taking down her photos out of embarrassment, or because she's getting close enough to Adrien that she doesn't need to obsess or idolize him anymore, or because she also has a crush on Luka and might not want to focus her room solely on Adrien anymore, won't show up in my story. They are reactions to events that happen within the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the show, and if those events don't happen in my universe, then the affects won't happen.

Make sense?

Anyway, back to my story, and this part gets a bit more spoiler-y, so I'm going to throw up another spoiler warning here.
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So, you're now caught up on the important elements of the show: Marinette basically wallpapers her bedroom with Adrien pictures, and she gets embarrassed when anyone outside a select few people sees this obsession. She even gets embarrassed when Chat Noir sees them, even though she doesn't know Chat Noir is Adrien. We also know, thanks to season 2, that Adrien carries around the bracelet Marinette gave him.

In the episode "Gamer", Adrien and Marinette were paired up to represent their school in a video gaming tournament. He went to her house in order to practice their team-up skills in the game, however, she was almost single-handedly beating each game boss. Adrien gets upset that he wasn't much help, which, honestly, I think had an extra level of sting because he saw a parallel with his partnership with Ladybug. Marinette cheered him up by offering a charm bracelet she just happened to have in her pocket. She claimed it gave her luck, which helped her win her matches, and told Adrien to see if it would work for him.

He never got the chance to give the bracelet back to her, and now carries it around with him wherever he goes. In the second season episode "Befana" he pretty much claims that the bracelet is his now, because he makes a replacement for Marinette as a birthday gift. This replacement bracelet won't show up in my story, because I don't want to officially put my version of the story after Marinette's birthday.

Anyway, months ago, in writing group, I read "Build Your Own Luck" which tells my headcanon of where the bracelet came from in the first place: Marinette's father made it to cheer her up when she was 5. Then, around November, I read snippets of OatS, which included Adrien and Plagg talking about the bracelet. Adrien wondered if Marinette could ever like him back, and Plagg asked about the bracelet, almost noting it as proof that she might like him already. That was when the other members of the writing group wondered if Adrien knew that Marinette's dad made the bracelet. Since that isn't canon, I told them that Adrien didn't.

But... why couldn't he?

So, one of my scenes is Adrien, as Chat Noir, finding out where the bracelet came from, and the significance of Marinette gifting it to Adrien.

In another scene, Marinette's klutziness causes her to cover Chat Noir in a sticky icing, so she hurriedly offers that he gets washed up in the sink she has in her bedroom vanity. She's not even thinking about the Adrien pictures throughout her room. At least, not until after he sees them.

Herein lies the problem that I've been trying to tackle throughout the week.

I want both scenes in the story. I think they both are great, and each have their own impact on Marinette's and Chat Noir's friendship, as well as introduce something different into the whole Adrien/Marinette dynamic. However, both scenes are also perfect times for Marinette to either confess to Chat Noir that she loves Adrien, or for Chat Noir/Adrien to figure it out himself.

I can't have that "ah-ha moment" in BOTH scenes, however. So I have to decide which one is the "gateway scene", as it were, to hint that there's more than just friendship there, and which one actually confirms the crush.

Now, in the show, Adrien does indeed see all the pictures in the episode "Troublemaker." Before the supervillain attacks, Marinette's bedroom - pictures of Adrien and all - accidentally gets aired on a live reality show, so Marinette knows ADRIEN specifically saw them. Adrien also saw them as Chat Noir, so I have that as a good base on what his reaction would be upon seeing them.

By the end of the episode, though, Marinette claims she just has the photos so she could study fashion. Adrien teases her a little about being an obsessive fan, but quickly counters with how glad he is that she's a fan, and offers for her to come to a photo shoot in order to help her study fashion more.

So... it's possible that the photos are the "gateway" scene.

Alternatively, Marinette could talk about the bracelet with Chat Noir while they are on her balcony, before he's granted access to her bedroom. As she tells the story of the bracelet, it could just be showcased how selfless Marinette was, but implied that maybe she wouldn't have been so kind as to give the bracelet away if it were anyone but Adrien.

So.... is THIS the "gateway" scene?

Which way would be more impactful? Adrien, as Chat Noir, seeing how selfless Marinette is by hearing about her bracelet, and then seeing the pictures, and putting two-and-two together so that he knows she loves Adrien? Or would it be better if he finds out about the pictures, and just thinks she's an obsessive fan, only to hear the true significance of the bracelet and have THAT be the point where he realizes she's not just a fan but in love with him?

I keep writing both scenes in both orders, and let me tell you.... it's hard to adjust them for the alternate orders. I have to re-write most of the scene depending on which order they're in. But in the end, I can only keep one set. And the other 10,000 words or so are trash....

Hubby votes for knowing about the bracelet first since it seems more "friendly" and easier to justify without romance attached to it. Also, if Adrien thinks of Marinette as an obsessive fan first, it might affect how he acts around her. But the more I write, the more I think the evolution of Adrien's realization that Marinette isn't a fan but in love might be the way to go?

Alternatively, what if Marinette's crush is revealed with the pictures, and the bracelet is still the second scene, but this time it shows Adrien that it's more than just a crush; she's actually in love with him... should I do that?

I DON'T KNOW! I CAN'T DECIDE!!!!!
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OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!

The long and short, for any who scrolled past what turned out to be the top half of my post, I have two scenes that I definitely want in the story. They are pretty much ALL I have for the middle of the story. The struggle, however, is that I can't decide which one I want to go first in the story, because the order impacts the significance of each scene, and I can't decide which impact I like better.

Trying to figure out which order I prefer, so I know how to write the scenes so they can coincide within the same story, I figured I'd attack the plot outline again.

I was able to tweak it a LIIIIIITTLE, but I still don't have the middle at all. This evolution of the MariChat relationship, and having Marinette fall for Chat Noir is not coming to me. Which is weird, considering how I seem to stumble into that kind of emotional character development.

"Woven Heartstrings" had a growing MariChat dynamic that I didn't intend to have at the level it ended up becoming by the end of the story. If I can "accidentally stumble" into a dynamic MariChat friendship/relationship in a story I was writing on the fly, why can't I do it for a story that has been brewing for nearly two years now?

I need to figure out another way to try to attack this story, because writing out an outline isn't working. Writing out of order isn't working. Just sitting and writing the thing, and letting it develop on its own isn't working.

Under normal circumstances, I'd say the story just isn't working and abandon it, but I WANT to tell this story. I know where I want to start. I know where I want to end. I have, what I believe to be, a compelling ending.

BUT HOW DO YOU MIDDLE!?!?!

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I'm going to just cheer myself up by looking at pictures of Marinette's other love interest Luka. This boy makes me happy, and their dynamic isn't nearly as frustrating as Marinette and Adrien.

I'm so glad they finally added black outlines to the kid's eyes. He actually looks human now that he has eyelashes. Please compare the above image from the latest episode "Silencer" to the first appearance of Luka in the season 2 episode "Captain Hardrock."

Or, more accurately, how about the middle shot of Luka from "Captain Hardrock" verses the long shot of him in "Silencer"?

In that long shot his eyes are so well-defined compared to his first appearance on the show. Either the animators improved on their craft, or "Silencer" was given to the superior of the two studios the show uses for their episodes. I'm kinda thinking the latter happened since Luka's hair also changed from black with teal tips to dark blue with electric blue tips.

This kid makes me happy, and I'll probably fangirl about him for another week or so. While there were a few dud episodes this season - the season opener "Chameleon" and the episode "Chris Master" were kind of irritatingly meh for me - the majority of this season has been amazing! "Weredad" where Marinette tries to hide that she's Ladybug by distracting Chat Noir with a love confession? "Animaestro" where the show creator Thomas Astruc has a whole self-indulgent, self-insert episode where his original PV becomes canonically an in-universe movie about the superheroes? "Oblivio" where we get to see Marinette and Adrien's dynamic if they didn't get hung up on their own awkwardness around the other? "Silencer" where we have a wonderful Luka-centric episode? "Backwarder" where we find out more about Master Fu, and get a delightful Comedy of Errors and the most convoluted Lucky Charm solution to an akuma? Plus, "Backwarder" inspired me to write "Prescription for Love," so there's that.

Then there's the episode "Stormy Weather 2" which was equal parts "meh; clip show" and "this episode is amazing!" because it gave us more of the Nathalie/Gabriel dynamic, showed us more of Nooroo, had Marinette try to be less obsessive of Adrien, and had Adrien potentially show that he has feelings for Marinette as well.

Even the "meh" ones like "Chameleon" and "Chris Master" had good moments. "Chameleon" showed how much of an ally Adrien was to Marinette, and had the first true hints that he sees her as more than just a friend after she kissed his cheek in "Mayura." Then "Chris Master" FINALLY introduced us to ANYONE within Nino's family. He's one of the main support characters, and yet we knew nothing about his family: where he lives, how large his family is, who his parents are, does he live with both parents, etc. Meanwhile, we've been in Alya's home multiple times, and have met all six members of her family, Alya included. Juleka is a more minor character, but we've met her mother and brother - Luka - and have visited her home a few times. Mylene is another more minor character, but we have at least met her father. Same with Sabrina. Alix was one of the first side-characters, aside from Chloe, where we meet her father and older brother.

True, there are still tons of characters where we know nothing about their family and/or home-life: Max, Kim, Rose, Ivan, and especially the almost always forgotten Nathaniel. However, Nino is Marinette's friend, and Adrien's BEST friend, and it kept us until the 3rd season to find out he has a younger brother?

A lot of the fandom also loved "Chris Master" because it was just a silly episode where life-sized toys invade Paris in search for Santa Claus. Yeah, it was funny, but it was still "meh" over-all for me, except for meeting Nino's brother.

Anyway, I lost the point in there somewhere, which was that I'm LOVING this season of "Miraculous Ladybug." If only it could inspire me to get OatS written!

I need to shake off the rust, the cobwebs, and the self-doubt. I need to just sit down and write this week. Perhaps the rest of today can be spent really locking in that outline so I know where I'm going with this story. I have about 4 different outlines scattered throughout different methods: just straight up writing what I want to happen, writing out the plot points in a 3 Act outline, using the Snowflake Outline method created by Randy Ingermanson, and my notecards of plot points to organize. I feel like I actually have more outlines out in the ether somewhere, but those are the four I remember having....

Thankfully, I seem to have been matched up with some really cool people in my Camp NaNo cabin. I also have writing group tonight, so perhaps that can inspire me as well. With any luck and discipline, I should be back on track by next week. Here's hoping.

Vash the Stampede from Trigun
Manga created by Yasuhiro Nightow