Positive Turning Point (hopefully)

Hello, all, and happy Groundhog's Day!

Will Mr. Resetti see his shadow this morning?

Between all of the snow and the fact that the
light is in front of him, it's pretty unlikely!

With the big Nor'easter that just blew through the United States yesterday/last night, good luck even finding poor Punxsutawney Phil!

Oh! Oh wait... nope. Nope, Phil DID see his shadow. I DON'T WANT SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!!!! 

Welp. Guess it means I'm still stuck inside, which is probably for the best because I've been SUUUUUUUUPER slacking on both writing AND reading!

I mean, actually, I haven't been slacking too much on the WRITING bit, but I haven't stuck to my schedule as tightly as I would have liked, and yet ANOTHER self-mandated deadline came and went.

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I had hunkered down and REALLY got to work on those last five chapters of Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect. Yeah, I got distracted playing more Going Under or Animal Crossing or Ori and the Blind Forest, or staying up-to-date with my Tumblr dash for the first time since last March, but I did put in some effort to get the story done before midnight on January 31st.

I got up to chapter 11 of 12, if that helps.

Worst part is, I had chapter 8 done, like, a week ago. However, the publishing format for each of the sites I use are almost completely different, so to tweak the word document for each one to make sure things like italics (of which I have a lot in this story in particular) are properly included takes a LOT of time. Posting each chapter and giving it one last quick review to make sure it's how I want it takes anywhere from 40 to 70 minutes total. I had figured I could use that time to try to crank out the next chapter, and when I was done with chapter 9 I thought I should keep going. I figured, at this rate, I could just do a mass-dump of the final five chapters before midnight on the 31st and call it good.

"Hey, folks, sorry I keep pushing back when I'd be posting/finishing this story. So here's the second half as one huge upload to make up for it. Have fun!"

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It also occurred to me that I wanted to include something in the chapter 6 author's notes that I forgot about at the time, so I'm debating going back and adding it in now so any future readers get the notation....

Anyway!

As of last night, I have chapters 8 through 11 written, edited, and ready to be published. At this point, though, I might as well wait for that final chapter to be done. It feels a bit pathetic to STILL be working on a Christmas story now that it's February (especially since the last time I was still working on a Christmas story post-December I was able to get it finished within January). However, as ChibiSunnie keeps reminding me: "Candlemas is February 2nd, so you're still technically in the Medieval Christmas time and still not late." So, I still have until midnight tonight! (Also, I had been getting notifications all of last year that people were reading Woven Heartstrings, so I guess not too many people restrict their reading of seasonal stories to that season...)

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Guess what I'll be doing after this blog post is published!

Especially since we're kinda-sorta snowed in. The roads are clear enough that we can leave if we needed to, but I think we're gonna stay safe and just postpone grocery shopping and laundry for another night....

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Looks like a pajama day to me....

Sooooo, yeah, I know how I'm spending MY day.

One more chapter! I got this! I can do this!

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Weeeeell... maybe TWO more chapters. Technically, Taurus Pixie's story has 12 chapters - one for each Day of Christmas - buuuut, I do have an Adrienette subplot I stumbled into, so I miiiiiight do an epilogue???? I mean, I have the subplot wrapped up the way I have it, but I also kinda-sorta want to put a bow on it still. Ya know? We'll see how I get along today.

Because, frankly, part of my "problem" with this story is that, while Pixie only gave herself less than 24 hours to write, edit, and publish each chapter - posting a new one every day - I'm giving myself ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD to get these chapters where I want them. Which, of course, means I get to spend some time with the environment Pixie set up, and dive a bit further into Ladybug's thoughts on everything. It also means that silly Adrienette subplot was able to creep into my story.

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Cropped by me

So, while Pixie's chapters would average about 2000 words... mine are all closer to 4500 words long.

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I mean, come on. Were you folks expecting anything else with me, though? Now, let's see, averaging about 4500 words per chapter.... at least 5 chapters must be up before midnight tonight... so... uh... yeah, expect a good old 22,000+ word-dump - er, I mean UPLOAD - when you wake up tomorrow (if not before going to bed tonight; I hope it's this one, honestly).

Huh. I mean, it's not the excellent start to 2021 I had hoped for: getting this story done within the actual 12 days of Christmas, as intended. Or even getting the story done before the end of January, as I had aimed. But still, when the story is already over 14,000 words long and I'm going to add probably another 22,000 words on top of that? Especially when the source material was 23,500 words long to begin with?

Not too shabby for someone who spent most of last year going "what are even words?" Right?

Heck, if I'm feeling super ambitious, maybe I'll even try to think of cover art (this story and my Love Square Fluff Week story are the only multi-chapter ML fics I have that don't have cover art). BUT FIRST, I want to FINISH WRITING THE DANG STORY. We'll build from there.

Also also, while Love Square Fluff Week was over darn-near a YEAR ago now, I still have two more chapters/prompts to write to finish that story off. So, guess what my next big task will be. Maybe I can get that done by Valentine's day????

PLUS, I was supposed to help my mom out with something important last year, but then... well... 2020 happened. I've already delayed her enough as it is, so I really need to focus and get started on that project.

It's a new month. Our work schedule is FINALLY  back to a regular rhythm for the first time since March! *knocks on wood* Pending anyone taking vacation time, I'm back to two days off a week, with my longest working streak being my normal once-a-month Wednesday through Monday stretch. And that's because I'll have a Sunday off, then my normal Tuesday as my second day. Which means I'd have to then wait for my normal Tuesday again the following week for my next day off, and my second day off that week will usually be Friday. 

Added bonus, though, due to how the manager is now scheduling my coworker's work weeks (upon request), I tend to get Saturdays off the weeks that it's my coworker's turn to get Sunday off. We've also somehow fallen into a rotation where I get my Sundays off the week after my coworker has her turn, so now I randomly get weekends off once a month???? Neat.

I'm hoping all of this is a positive turning point, and I can truly start making my climb back to normalcy in my life. Get back to having enough mental stamina to Adult properly. Get back into writing regularly. Get back to reading regularly. Get on top of this project for my mom. Really get back into a proper schedule to keep myself even keel. 

We've got this, peeps! We can make it over this mountain. And we'll be stronger for it.

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I guess I'll catch you folks on the other side. In the meantime, stay safe and stay well. Sending you guys supportive hugs.

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Oh, speaking of! Sending some extra love out to Wolfhearted to wish him a happy belated birthday.

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And, with regards to my "need to get back to reading," Cyhyr posted the latest chapter of her story Displaced by Time the other day. If you're into FFXV, or want an emotional, action-packed, time-shenanigans story (trust me, you don't actually need to know anything about FFXV to enjoy this story), then go check it out.

Finally, happy Black History Month. May we put in the effort to learn about Black excellence all year round, not just in February!

Love you guys! Catch you next week!

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