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| For any who didn't know before, this is where the 'lyco' in LycoRogue comes from... |
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| Very appropriate for me. For Autism awareness? Definitely not. |
Want to help? Want to participate? Want to start up a conversation to help those with Autism find their greatest potential?
10 Reasons You Should Light It Up Blue on World Autism Awareness Day.
You can also find out more information about World Autism Awareness Day and the Light It Up Blue movement here: World Autism Month
I know, the Autism Speaks organization is kind of a hot-button group for a lot of people. My husband and myself are not fans of part of their mission statement and goals, and we'll find alternative ways to donate towards Autism support. However, Autism Speaks is still one of the leading forces when it comes to Autism awareness, and the easiest way to find information on stuff like the Light It Up Blue movement.
If you know of any alternative organizations or sites, ones that specifically understand that Autism is just the brain being wired differently than what we consider normal, please let me know. I'd love to support other organizations for this cause.
Anyway, that's my PSA for the day. I hope this blue promotional font didn't strain too many people's eyes, and that any readers I have that might be color blind to blue were able to still read this intro somehow. Sorry for any distress. Moving on to my writing though!
And back to normal brown font color.
It's April, which means, once upon a time, that it was Script Frenzy month!
Anyway!
Poor Script Frenzy was scrapped, but OL&L did give us script writers a bit of a consolation prize.
Now, I haven't written a script - aside from attempting a comic book script for "Glitches" - since Script Frenzy ended, but I still think of April as Writing Month. Oddly enough, though, I have never officially participated in the April Camp NaNo before. So here we go, down the rabbit hole, as I try to use Camp as motivation to FINALLY at least get the first draft of "One and the Same" done.
Last August, when I participated in Camp NaNo, I bought myself a camp shirt. This awesome looking piece of wardrobe:
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| Image from NaNoWriMo's e-shop. You can still buy this shirt for only $18. |
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| Image from NaNoWriMo's e-shop. You, too, can buy this shirt. It's currently selling for $20. |
I'm not entirely sure OatS fits there, but I guess a fanfic about a superhero show kinda counts as fantasy??? But, hey, I found me some fantasy and Steampunk authors! I'll have to see if any of them publish their work online, and if so where. I'll then have to track said writing down and add it to my never-decreasing list of "to read" stories.
Speaking of, I read another short fanfic over the week, but forgot to log down how many words it was.
I really need to take the time to do that if I'm using over-all word-count for my reading challenge this year....
Anyway, everything is set for me to crack my knuckles and get started on my project.
I just need to remember to participate....
As I've mentioned in the past, Mondays are pretty much trash days for my writing. I don't know what it is about Mondays, but I never seem to find time to write during them. I was all set to work on my writing at work - as I do - except a semi-major project came down the pipeline for me. So most of my day was dealing with inventory and discontinued/clearanced out products, and prepping the store with the replacement line, as well as pricing everything up for it.... I'll be working on this, while assisting customers, tomorrow as well. Depending on the number of customers, this may be a week-long project.
So, since I'll actually be WORKING at my job - gasp, I know! - I guess I should focus on setting up writing sessions at home. Squirrel myself away in my bedroom. Or... if the weather finally decides that it is indeed spring, maybe I could start hanging out on the front porch again to avoid the dreaded siren's call of the TV.
The other snag with my writing - aside from being easily distracted - is the fact that I STILL don't have a solid plotline that I'm happy with.
So far, this is my story... skip ahead a bit if you don't want spoilers.
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Anyway, here's my very vague plot thus far:
- Akuma attack to establish the world
- Chat Noir/Adrien, post-attack and while alone in his room, laments his predicament with regards to his relationship with Ladybug/Marinette.
- Marinette becomes quite confused when Adrien starts acting like Chat Noir in school.
- Adrien becomes depressed when he doesn't think Marinette will ever fall for Chat Noir. Meanwhile, Marinette becomes stressed out about her potential meeting with Gabriel Agreste about her fashion designs.
- Chat Noir helps Marinette destress and become more confident in her clothing design, starting a friendship between the two. Yes, they were already friends, but Marinette doesn't realize she's already friends with him as Adrien, and also doesn't realize that Chat Noir knows he's friends with Marinette already.
- Start of Act II: where there are a bunch of cute scenes as they build up their friendship and Adrien finds out that Marinette is in love with him. I don't really have a cohesive time-line though to thread the scenes together, nor do I have much drama; just a bunch of fluff....
- Act II midpoint (Main Culmination?): Marinette realizes that she has fallen in love with Chat Noir as well, and is torn between the "two men"
- Act III: Marinette struggles with the realization that her heart is now torn in two - much like how Adrien was in "Peeping Tomcat."
- Adrien suspects that he succeeded in making Mari fall for both sides of him, and tries to convince her that it's fine for Ladybug and Chat Noir to reveal themselves to each other; as a means to bond and a way for them to finally be together.
- Third Act Twist: Frustrated that Ladybug STILL won't let them reveal who they are, Chat Noir accidentally lets it slip that he already knows she's Marinette. This leads to him finally confessing to his spying on her for a week, and spotting Tikki.
- Ladybug is furious and sprints off to get ready for her date with Adrien, not realizing she just stormed off on him.
- While waiting for Adrien, Marinette continues to fume about Chat Noir's betrayal. In doing so, she realizes that part of CN's "deception" was pushing her to confess her feelings to Adrien. If Chat Noir knew she was Ladybug the whole time, why would he not only want her to confess her feelings to another boy, but also actually cheer her on and root for her to be with her crush?
- Marinette realizes EXACTLY why Chat Noir would do such a thing, and has a bit of a break down as her brain resets.
- Marinette storms up on Adrien, but he manages to temporarily calm her by reminding her they don't want a scene. But once he can get them somewhere private, she goes OFF on him.
- Calmed down, they talk more about their respective feelings, and why they love the other. They both realize it's not some superficial thing, and they actually do have something real.
- Marinette confesses that Adrien has to work to build up trust between them again, but they're at least back to the level of trust they had when they first became partners.
- They start dating. YAY!
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OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!
For those who did read, I know it actually seems like a lot. However, for those who did read, and for those who skipped over, there is one main take-away you should focus on. Yes, I have the first act more-or-less figured out. I also have the final act sorted out aside from possible tweaks the closer to it I get. The MIDDLE, however? How do I middle!?I have scenes. I have snippets. I know what KIND of character growth I want to have, but I don't know really HOW to get there. This story is going to be so much fluff, and barely any drama. And then BAM! Drama smacks you upside the head during the final act.
Like... what!?
I have to remember to not focus on that. I have to remember to write fearlessly this month. Write that self-indulgent fluff. Enjoy it. Remember that it's fanfiction, and it's kind of SUPPOSED to be self-indulgent. If I don't believe it's the same caliber as “Peeping Tomcat” then that's fine. I can do better next time.
I can then remember that this is still the first draft. Perhaps I'll figure out the drama as I revise. Perhaps this story will become darker than I realized. That always seems to happen to me. Not that the story becomes "dark", per se, but it becomes more emotional than I thought.
I'm empathic by nature. This is probably why so many of my reviews comment on how well I write the characters - even ones like Kagami who doesn't have much screen time - and why so many readers praise my ability to write a story that feels like an episode. I'm just... generally good at getting into someone's head.
By no means am I perfect at it. I still screw up. I still get confused as to why certain people react a certain way. I'm empathic, but I'm not a mind reader. Nor am I that person. If I haven't experienced what they have there is NO WAY I can truly know what's going on with them. And, honestly, everyone experiences everything differently, so even if I have gone through the same thing, I STILL can't fully understand their experience.
Anyway, my point is, when I write, I tend to delve a bit into the heads of the characters, and scramble things up a little while in there. When I come out, I end up bringing drama with me. This is why "Prescription for Love" went from a 1000-word one-shot to a nearly 20,000-word multi-chapter story. Same deal with "Build Your Own Luck", which was also supposed to be a simple little drabble. And "Woven Heartstrings" was a Christmas gift that ended up taking the entirety of January to tell.
Heck, when I took PT from a writing practice one-shot to a novel-length fanfic, I never expected it to become so angsty or surpass 80,000 words.
It just... happens.
So I need to stop being so fearful and trust that it will happen again in OatS. I just need to WRITE it for that to happen.
I did mentally work on the next chapter - linearly speaking - as I struggled to fall asleep last night.
I also figured out
So... there's that. I just need to get those thoughts down on paper.
I also need to figure out the oh-so-dreaded akumas for this story. As well as the lucky charms and how they can be used to stop the villains. Mainly how to stop my opening akuma attack.
I hate akumas so much. How is the show's writing team so good at them!?
Also, the fanfic writer Nkemmer777 is pretty good at them as well. Check out this passage from her story "Joke's On You."
Yes, there still needs to be a little bit of polishing with her story, but she's working on that. The story as a whole is really interesting, and what she has up right now hooked me. My point, though, was the creativity she had with Ladybug's Lucky Charm. She got scissors, which seemed simple enough: cut the net. However, the opening of the battle made it obvious that the superheroes couldn't get close enough to the net for them to cut it with the scissors. They couldn't even get close enough for Chat Noir to use his Cataclysm on the net itself.Marinette
I called upon my Lucky Charm. A pair of polka dotted scissors fell into my hands.
“Can we please cut this battle short, I kinda have a test to finish.” [Chat Noir said]
I rolled my eyes, searching for clues. Not surprisingly, the scissors had nothing to do with the net.
“I need your belt, and Fisherman in the park.” Without a word, Chat handed me his belt while I broke the scissors in half.
“That plan seems kinda fishy if you ask me.” I groaned, knowing our time was running out. “If you have any better puns let minnow.” In response, I wrapped my yo-yo around his foot, launching him at Fisherman.
“Chat, use your Cataclysm!”
Adrien
Of course, she just has to throw me, I thought sarcastically to myself while shouting out my power. My hand met the lamppost next to the Akuma. It fell, blocking his path. I ran to the other side of him, making sure that he followed me to the park near our school.
“Up here!” Ladybug called out from the top of a nearby building. I pushed the button on my baton, sending myself up next to her.
As Fisherman entered the park, he stepped on the screw from the scissors, hopping on one foot until he tripped over my belt that had been wrapped around both handles of the scissors, which were stabbed into the ground.
Instead, Ladybug dismantles the scissors in order to create a trip-wire. This tackled the villain, and managed to drop his guard enough for Ladybug to get to the net and break it. Releasing the akuma, purifying both the magical butterfly and the person it corrupted, and then returning Paris to normal.
This is a VERY Ladybug way of thinking outside the box. I think I'm too... logical? I wouldn't have thought "dismantle the scissors in order to use the screw to throw the villain off balance, and then trip him the rest of the way with Chat Noir's belt tail wrapped around the scissor handles shoved into the ground by their points."
Like.... HOW!? HOW DO PEOPLE THINK LIKE THAT!? IT'S AMAZING!
This is why, as much as I love watching them, I will never build my own Rube Goldberg machine. Oddly enough, I'm not that creative... Go figure, right?
Weeeeell.... I DID figure out the "Matchbox to stop Mimicker," and "Chopsticks to stop Terravenger" Lucky Charm solutions for PT. I guess I just need to have faith in my brain.
Now off to write fearlessly!
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