Original Content

I did it! Ah ha! I did it! I managed to come up with original content! I finished my original story for Ronoxym!!! So super happy belated birthday, Ron! Hope you enjoy your gift!

Speaking of birthdays, I want to quickly pause in order to wish a very happy birthday to Omnibladestrike who celebrated his this past weekend.

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I'm glad we could hang out, and the b'day cake you bought was super yummy! Thanks for that.

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Anyway, back to my writing!


It kept me exactly a month to do so, but I managed to finish the story I wanted to gift Ronoxym for his 30th. The whole process was a bit exhausting, and I feel like I exposition-dumped a touch in order to explain the world enough in this short story. So it's by no means the same caliber as the professional Urban Fantasy stories Ron likes to read. Regardless, I'm kind of excited for the world I built and the characters I created - although I fear Colton and Zetelica's voices aren't different enough??? - so I'll have to slot this world build away for a potential continuation.

Right along side the Gyateara stories and "Glitches"....

OH! Quick side note with regards to Gyateara. I mentioned last week that Hubby used the site donjon to help him quickly create a dungeon and NPCs for the "one-off" D&D session he ran for us. Well, as Hubby was poking around, he found a Random World Generator on that site. You can either input or randomize the following features, and let the generator do the rest:

• World Name
• Map Style: Atlas vs Antique
• Map Font: choose from 8 options
• Percentage of water on the planet surface
• Percentage of polar ice caps
• Geography: Yes or No
• This adds labels for things like 'mountains' or 'forests' or 'desert' etc.
• Rivers: Yes, No, or Many
• Cities and Castles: Yes, No, or Many
• Hex Grid: Yes or No
• Label Map: Yes or No

It takes about three minutes or so - depending on the internet connection - for the site to take your data and generate a world map. This isn't going to be the final one, but here's an example I quickly generated for Gyateara.

The main issue I have with this generator is that it doesn't seem to really break up
the main land mass into separate continents. So it would be more of a guide than the
official map, I think.

If you chose to have the generator create castles and cities for you, there's also a listing of what they're called and where to find them on your map.

So it's a really neat tool, and I'll have to spend some time playing around with it a little bit. At the very least, it's a nice way to randomly generate coastlines I can shift around to make continents, and come up with location names.

Likewise, I've watched 3 different YouTube videos this week who had World Anvil as their sponsor. I poked around a little bit after creating a free account. It seems like a great place to ORGANIZE everything, and it is so detailed with how much you can break down everything.

You can break each section down even
further into subsections.

However, there doesn't seem to be any image makers or generators, so donjon might be the best free option so far. I'll have to take everything into consideration when I get back to Gyateara, and even to help me organize Glitches, I think.

But back to my point!

My glorious point is that, along with Gyateara and Glitches, I now have this new urban fantasy supernatural story. The best bit is that the world-build is mostly done now - so it has a leg-up on any and all Gyateara stories - AND it is a story with only one or two main characters and potentially a completable story arc. Which is something I really struggle with for Glitches, which, due to its origins, has more of a serial series storyline and about a 14-character central cast.

Thanks to Ron and my desire to come up with something for his big 3-0, I may have found at least a foothold for my first ever marketable original story! I'm so friggen excited about this thing!

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Granted, I have had no comments on the story even though I published it on Friday. I also only have 52ish hits - I don't know how many people SEE my Tumblr post; just those who react to it - and but one fave. But it's an original story, so it's to be expected. My fanfiction followers on FFN and AO3 wouldn't get a notification that I have original content up. I'm also not nearly established enough in the Miraculous Ladybug or Fruits Basket fandoms for people to probably care about original content I publish to Tumblr. On top of that, because I do have the main character Colton get super stressed and drop the f-bomb a couple of times, I had to mark the story Mature on DA and FictionPress. I just don't know where the "course language" cut-off is between Teen and Mature, and I wanted to be safe.

So, it stings, but I get it. I don't have a platform set up for original content yet, and considering how infrequently I come up with something original, I don't know how long it will take to build it up.

However, a lot of you lovely people seem to be my fanfiction readers, so here's your heads up, in case you were interested and didn't previously know.

"Blame Fate for This"

On FictionPress       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

Colton has noticed the same woman following him every day for the past two months. However, when he tries to get away from his stalker things get way more complicated than he could imagine. He has powers no living creature is supposed to possess, and only Fate can figure out what that means for both Colton and the world.

Eh, maybe my summary for this short story isn't eye-catching enough.... Or the title? I'm just so bad at these things, and I was kind of rushing those elements on Friday in order to make sure I hit my self-imposed deadline. Anyway, the story is about 6700 words long, just an FYI.

As I mentioned above, I haven't really had much notice/love for this story yet. On Tumblr the only note I've received thus far was a bot-account liking it. I really need to delete that note, but I'm still waiting for Tumblr to fix my access to my account activity log in order to do so.

Over on FictionPress I've had 4 hits, but nothing else. No comments, no faves, and no follows.

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On the other hand, DeviantArt has had 48 hits and one fave. And this time the fave looks like it's actually a person! Whoot!

It's a slow grind, but I'm content with the story, even if it's little more than a jumping point for a larger story. Plus, at least one other person seems to like it. No mention from Ron, but it IS 6700 words, and he is a busy guy with ADHD, so I don't know if he's had the time/focus/energy to sit down with it yet.

Regardless, the thing to focus on is that I WROTE AN ORIGINAL STORY IN A MONTH! COMPLETELY FROM SCRATCH! The actual writing of the thing actually summed up to only about a dozen days or so. I don't know about you, but I'm impressed.

Small life victories, guys. Also, added bonus: the story is thematically appropriate for Halloween, so it's a great October story, if I do say so myself.


In the end, no matter what else becomes of this short story - and yes, it's less than 7500 words, so it IS still considered a short story by most writing sites/publishers - I at least have gears in motion for an original novel idea. And I reminded myself that I CAN come up with original content; I'm not just some parrot who skillfully mimics the work of others. So, it was totally worth the effort.

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Speaking of my fanfiction, however, the stats for my Kyoru stuff have steadily increased this past week.

Reminder of my stats from last week:

FFN: 466 views, 5 faves, 5 followers, and 8 reviews
AO3: 418 hits, 31 kudos, 2 bookmarks, and 17 comments
DA: 138 views, 4 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 1022 views, 40 faves, 7 followers, and 25 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 201 notes; 151 likes, 37 reblogs, and 3 comments

And now the stats as of this writing:

FFN: 648 views, 6 faves, 6 followers, and 10 reviews
AO3: 510 hits, 40 kudos, 4 bookmarks, and 17 comments
DA: 181 views, 5 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 1339 views, 51 faves, 10 followers, and 27 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 248 notes; 170 likes, 46 reblogs, and 3 comments

Now, granted, if you add up the Tumblr Notes the total is actually 219; 212 if you don't count the seven times the KyoruWeek2019 event blog reblogged my stories. I personally don't count them because those reblogs had nothing to do with whether or not the moderator actually liked my stuff; the stories were tagged for the event, and so the blog shared it. Getting back to the notes discrepancy though, three of those over-all notes were my responses to the 3 comments, and for some reason I have 26 "missing" notes. My Day 6 story says it has 25 notes, but only 24 are listed. Same with my Day 5 story: it says it has 41 notes, but only 40 are shown. The big head scratcher is my Day 2 story. That one claims to have 73 notes, but when you go through the breakdown of the notes it only has 49 listed, including my one response to the comment. I have no clue why 24 notes are missing. Maybe those are people who saved the story to their drafts, so it's not officially reblogged yet? Is that how Tumblr works? In which case, I'm screwing up the notes count on a LOT of Tumblr posts.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain those 26 notes were "missing" last week as well, which means I received 47 new notes over this past week. Not too shabby considering the event is over, so there aren't really any new promotions for my stuff. Plus the KyoruWeek blog has since shared a bunch of generic Kyo and Tohru stuff from the season 2 trailer and/or the manga.

OH! Speaking of shipping week events, I want to make sure I don't forget this again! Last week I went on about my own writing for so long - which, I guess is reasonable; since this is my writing blog and all - that I totally forgot to promote Cyhyr's latest. Just as I finished with Kyoru week, she started up Sylvix Week. It's a ship for the Fire Emblem: Three Houses characters Sylvain and Felix. You can check out her week of stories here: Sylvix Week 2019 I don't personally see the ship, but Cyhyr does such a great job with these stories that I don't even care about canonical evidence. They're adorable together the way she writes them.

Also, Taurus Pixie, via her blog, had suggested the Miraculous Ladybug story The Lonely Waltz by her friend ChibiRinni. Holy smokes, that story got me worked up. It was MariChat, pining for Ladrien, singing and waltzing, and talk about really SEEING the person one is in love with. Marinette mentally beats herself up over breaking Chat Noir's heart, and Chat Noir wants to punch the guy Marinette is pining over for not seeing how amazing she is. I was just this giant ball of energy after I finished reading. So, go! Read it! It's about 8000 words long, but I've conditioned you by now to be able to breeze through that no problem.


I've also found two awesome Fruits Basket fics that were promoted during Kyoru Week. First up was the one-shot Written on your skin by palamig. There's spoilers for the second half of the manga, but it is delightful angst and fluff. The long and short is that a student asks Kyo if he'd mind if the student asked Tohru out on a date. That night, while studying with Tohru, Kyo unintentionally shows off his jealousy with a pen. It's lovely, and Kyo and Tohru are written so well. AAAh! If you don't care about spoilers or you know the ending of the manga, you should go read it.

The other fanfic I found is a touch naughty. It's post-manga, and Tohru and Kyo are living alone far from any "adult supervision." They attempt to get a bit more intimate, but the mood is always interrupted somehow. It's got that same great "will they; won't they" tension, which is an awesome twist of the trope for an already established couple. It's called In Every Light That Shines and it's by crossingandromeda.

My final reading suggestion actually should have been promoted weeks ago. That webcomic about Hades and Persephone that I've been talking about off and on for the past year? Well the first chapter was officially published to Webtoon at the beginning of the month. So, please give Punderworld by Linda Sejic a try. The artwork is so pretty, and the story seems excellent, based on that first chapter and the teasers we've received all year.

Check out the full-quality and unmarked image here.

Again, I know I shouldn't be reposting work without the creator's permission, but I want to showcase her artwork, and I hope by putting on those intrusive watermarks it helps mitigate my faux pas. At least this way if someone finds her work via a Google search and stumbles upon this repost they know where to find the clean version....

Please don't yell at me, but I WILL remove all reposted artwork if the artists request it.

Tanuki Facebook sticker
by Yanare Ku

Anyway....

Aside from finishing up that original story for Ron, I've also broken back into One and the Same finally! I took a two-day breather after basically writing daily for the past two weeks or so, and then yesterday I cracked open my OatS folder. I've mostly gone back through everything I've written already, in order to put myself in that mindset again. I've also decided that a 3000-word "chapter" I've written has no true drama to it. It doesn't push the story forward, so I'm going to instead recap that scene in another chapter and "scrap" what I have.

It hurts to "kill my darlings," as it were, but it hurts less knowing that I'm planning a sort of "deleted scenes" collection after OatS is fully published. That way people can see the alternate scenes I've written before changing POV or scene order, the scenes that aren't told in either Adrien's or Marinette's perspective so they don't fit the overall narrative, and the scenes I like but don't fit in the story without bogging it down. Such as the one I just completed yesterday before realizing it has to be scrapped.

Planning that post-OatS project really eases the pain of all that "wasted time/energy" or the hurt of "this is really awesome, and I love how I wrote it; but it just doesn't work for this story." It also gives me freedom to play with point-of-view, narration, and describing the "mundane" scenes to better help me solidify the story I'm telling. None of it will be wasted effort. First and foremost, it wouldn't be wasted anyway, because it would all help me improve and better build the main story. However, it now has that secondary benefit of also still seeing the light of day when all is said and done.

I still need to figure out my akumas for November, and I still have that tricky middle where I want to build up the MariChat relationship, but I have to make sure the story still pushes forward while doing so. In other words: I have a lot to figure out still.

In the meantime, I may take another time out to attempt to draw my new Dragonborn D&D character Kriv. However, my main focus between now and November 1st is to finish going back through what I have of OatS so far, and prep for NaNo.

I also need to get some "Halloween Movies" in for the month! How have I not watched Sweeney Todd or Little Shop of Horrors or Rocky Horror Picture Show or Hocus Pocus or any of the Underworld movies or even Ernest Scared Stupid yet this year?

I'm such a slacker...

At least I have my costume situated. I'm glad I was able to find one that actually fit me. The straps are a little loose but are otherwise fine.

It looks amazing alongside Hubby's Steampunk costume. Plus, the Steampunk goggles Hubby got me for Christmas have a blue tint to them, so they also work really well with this costume. The only real concern I have is the choker Hubby also got me for Christmas. It looks amazing, but the lacing is so wide and my neck is small with all the extra chunk I've put on over the years, it looks a touch awkward on me. I'll have to see if I'm actually going to be able to wear it or if I'll have to pull and audible and hope Hubby won't feel like he wasted money on his gift.

Either way, I was able to find a costume that fit after all, and presumably it will also fit when I start to loose wait; at least, for a little while. So yay to that as well!

Who's ready for Halloween to get here already?

Found years ago via Google Image.
Most search results are not in English so it's hard
to track down the original artist. Sorry.
Please let me know if you know who designed this.

Fanfic Made of Original Content; Sorta

Okay, so what's up, Mother Nature? Just because Labor Day is over doesn't mean it HAS to be fall now! We're supposed to have a couple more weeks of summer still! Now, granted, autumn IS my favorite season, but I'm not a fan of waking up with cold feet this morning. It's 9:45am as I write this, and I'm STILL hiding under a blanket in my living room instead of enjoying my front porch because it's still a touch cold out there without me unpacking my fall/winter clothes already....

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(okay, so I might be exaggerating a touch...)

Well, now that my whining for more heat is out of the way....

It kept me a touch longer than I would have wanted, but I did manage to get that Gabriel and Emilie Agreste story up this past week. With all of my errands I needed to do last Tuesday, I was still writing/editing the story by the time I sprinted off to my writing group. I warned everyone that it was kind of an abrupt opening, and I still needed to go back and add a proper one. After my reading, I had the usual of mostly no one responding, possibly because they don't really know what to say when critiquing a fanfic.

I did get my usual praise from Jack, and my fellow fanfic writer Skarabrae-stone both praised me and brought up a few questions/critiques. So, yay for that.

Ska's main question was "why does Emilie even like this guy enough to sort of chase him!?" Valid question. I paint Emilie in a light that everyone who reads/hears the story seems to find her fantastic, but I purposely painted Gabriel as reserved and a touch boring. He's a recluse so anti-social he barely even spends time with his SON. He's laser focused on Emilie. There should be a reason for that, and those personality traits should always be there.

However, I do understand the question. While I have Gabriel as a sort of diluted version of himself in my story, there's still nothing really for the average person to grab a hold of and say "Okay, I get it; I get the attraction." In truth, I don't even wholly know. I just know that they DO get together, they seemed to have a good relationship before Emilie "vanished", and that most of Adrien's positive traits seem to have been inherited/learned from his mother. She had to be the outgoing one.

Maybe I was inspired by one of the newer Sarah's Scribbles by Sarah Andersen

See the comic on her site

Regardless of how I came up with the dynamic that they have, I DO have Emilie as the one who is seeking out Gabriel and kind of dragging him out of his hide-a-hole. So Ska was right to question me as to WHY she does it. What is it about Gabriel that draws her to him?

At the time, my only response was "I'll let you know once she lets me know."

It kept me most of Wednesday to ponder it out. In the meantime, I tried to extend their interactions, as Ska suggested, in order to showcase more of Gabriel's personality. Show the reader why Emilie is attracted to this guy. Nothing I did felt organic. It read like I was trying to figure out their dynamic, instead of letting it naturally unfold.

So back to my original write I went - which is why you don't delete anything - and tried again. I simply reread "Stranger in a White Dress", looking at the narrative through Emilie's eyes. What brought her to the club in the first place? Why did she pull Gabriel out onto the balcony instead of just waving him off and fading back into the crowd? What did he say that made her impulsively kiss him? What was she feeling at the time? Why did she wander off with his phone number instead of spending more of the night with him? Why didn't she call him?

I then reread what I had so far of my current story, again looking at it from her perspective. What was Emilie doing at the party? Who did she know there? Did she know Gabriel was there? Was she actively looking for him? What was her thought when she spotted him? Why did she use the opening line she did? Was it a rehearsed line while walking up to him, or was it spontaneous? Did she mentally kick herself for it, or think it was a solid opener?

I think I have most of those questions answered, and while those answers never really showed up in the story, it helped me better understand Emilie a touch more.

It's rough writing a canon character as if she's an original since we literally know nothing about her outside of "married to Gabriel, loving mother to Adrien, was a leading actress for an indie movie, wears an off-white pants suit with a black blouse and star-shaped brooch, has blonde hair and green eyes, went to Tibet with Gabriel just before she 'went missing', and most likely used the Peacock Miraculous before falling ill." She's basically a MacGuffin that is paraded out now and again whenever the writers feel Gabriel needs more sympathy points and/or more motivation to keep being the villain. Even Adrien doesn't really mention or grieve her all that much, unless his grief is needed for his own character progression or a reason for him and Marinette to get closer.

So, I'm trying to do Emilie some justice by building her into an actual character. Hopefully show my thoughts on what she was like, and why Gabriel would go to such extremes to bring her back. As well as how much Adrien is now isolated and abandoned now that she's no longer around.

It will be a slow go, since I've decided to truly use this story as a sort of palate cleanser for whenever I hit a roadblock in my main writing - such as with OatS.

I mean, writing a fluffy romance to help refocus the brain seemed to work wonders for the comic book writer and artist Linda Sejic. Her main comic is a series called Blood Stain. It's a comedic slice-of-life playing with the "mad scientist" trope. You can read it for free on WebToon - which I linked to.

Anyway, while stuck figuring out what to do for her next volume, Linda Sejic read some Greek mythology and was inspired by the relationship between Hades and Persephone. Despite him "stealing her" from her mother, and "forcing her" to stay with him six months of the year because of eating pomegranate while in the underworld, the Hades and Persephone relationship was so revered that the ancient Greeks would pray to THEM for a happy marriage. Hades never strayed from Persephone in any of the myths that she could find. She began wondering "what if Hades didn't kidnap her, what if she willingly went to him and it was Demeter who claimed it was kidnapping because she wasn't on board with her daughter being with anyone; let alone the ruler of the underworld?"

The romance that Linda has teased via random Hades and Persephone posts she's shared over the past year or two is just so sweet. She even named the series of Hades and Persephone artwork Punderworld... because her Hades enjoys puns, it's a pun in and of itself, plus it's nice shorthand for Persephone's Underworld. After seeing the love for her Punderworld work, and how much she enjoyed creating the story, she decided to go ahead and make it an official comic book series alongside Blood Stain. Punderworld is set to come out next month!

I know I've gushed about this comic before, but here's the official pilot for it on WebToon.

Okay, back to my point. Linda said she felt re-inspired for Blood Stain, and that writing the next few bits of that comic has gone smoother since she had this "side project" to redirect towards whenever Blood Stain became troublesome for her. Perhaps my Gabriel and Emilie story "I Don't Care" will be the same way for me; my Punderworld with "One and the Same" being my Blood Stain.

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After taking Ska's critiques into consideration, and "soul searching" what it is about Gabriel that Emilie could be attracted to, I added the opening I felt the chapter need. Mostly it was setting up why Gabriel was there in the first place. I also gave his flatmate a name, as requested by Ska.

Hubby's been playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as I mentioned two weeks ago. One of the characters is a bit... over-the-top, flirtatious, and a typical "skirt chaser" who claims he just "falls in love too easily".

Character Portrait from Fire Emblem: Three Houses

For whatever reason, this character Sylvain ended up matching up fairly well with how I pictured Gabriel's flatmate. I'm not entirely sure how Gabriel ended up living with such a character, but I like the foil he creates. So, Sylvain officially is Gabriel's roommate... to some extent. I named the flatmate after Sylvain, and I sort of picture him looking the same; and being just as flirtatious. However, I think MY Sylvain will be even more exaggerated; an exhausting, constantly-needs-stimulation, extrovert.

Maybe that's how Gabriel manages to survive living with him. Sylvain is almost never in the apartment as he's out and about in Paris most of the day, and crashed asleep in his room the few times he's home....

It's fun when characters evolve for me as I complain in this blog about not really knowing the answers to key questions.

Hacker Boy Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

So.... yeah. I had the chapter done on Thursday, but with Omnibladestrike's weekly visits, I didn't have the downtime to polish and post. We ended up meeting up with Hubby while my man was on his lunch break... about an hour before his shift ended...


So, for the half-hour left of Hubby's shift post-lunch-break, Omni and I chatted a touch about tropes and plot twists - now that I could FINALLY watch the Overly Sarcastic Productions' Trope Talk about plot twists - and how he could work plot twists into his story via the standard fantasy tropes.

Friday I was able to FINALLY get my story up, and then Omni "invaded" for a couple hours again. We chatted a bit more about his writing and his world build before he headed off to his gaming event.

I then spent the weekend cleaning my apartment and prepping for a mini viewing party for the Steven Universe movie on Cartoon Network yesterday. It was fun having a couple friends over so the four of us - Hubby included - could enjoy it together.

Huge shout out to all of my friends who kept bugging me to watch this show, and a special shout out to Rozsavaria, who provided me with a means to watch the series. It's so good, and the concepts are awesome! YAY!

Well, now that the hype of Steven Universe: The Movie is over, and I've gotten the Emilie and Gabriel fluff out of my system for the time being, I guess next thing on my To Do list is get back to OatS.

If it helps, I DID go back to my outlines yet again to try to tighten things up. I also started researching the 4-Act story structure vs the standard 3-Act. I had randomly grabbed some articles on the topic to help Cyhyr out with her own story last month, but I didn't really absorb the articles myself prior to this past week. Perhaps switching up the story structure formula can help me figure out this story... We'll see as I tackle it some more this week.

While I'm doing that, feel free to check out my new story: "I Don't Care".

As I've mentioned, I don't have much from the show's canon to work with, so it's going to be mostly original content. There may be nods to the show itself - such as Emilie telling Gabriel he'd look good in royal purple; the color of his Hawk Moth costume, or that Emilie wears Lavender perfume, and butterflies are attracted to lavender - but they're more added easter eggs than elements you need to "fully get" in order to understand the story.

I'm going mostly on my own imagination with this. It's probably on par with my X-Future stuff in terms of "mostly original content, although I'm using someone else's world, and possibly borrowing their characters."

Point is, most of IDC will be original content, so if you wanted to check out my fanfiction, but were afraid in the past that you'd get lost since you don't know the show, perhaps this is the story for you.

Also... it's "only" 5000 words long. Yes, ChibiSunnie has already playfully teased that 5000-words, even spread across 2 chapters, is still fairly large compared to a lot of other fanfiction. Still... it's small for MY writing.... Point is, it should be fairly manageable to read.

As per usual, you can check out my story in my normal spots.

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On Tumblr
Chapter 1 On DeviantArt       Chapter 2 on DeviantArt

Okay, I spent too much time reading through Blood Stain and that pilot of Punderworld when I looked up the links to them, so now it's after noon, so I'll have to wrap this up.

No stats for IDC for this week, but I'll try to remember to share them for next week. I will say though, that I shared IDC on Tumblr both via the AO3 link and then again as I normally do; physically inserting a link into a normal Tumblr post. I still don't have any notes on the AO3 share, but I am now up to 3 notes - 2 likes and 1 reblog - on that second promotion; the one I have linked here. So I think I'm going to continue the way I always have with my story promotions.

Although I JUST remembered that I didn't promote on Twitter again.... I keep forgetting that exists.

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

Either way, it's getting love, and people seem to like seeing Gabriel "as a human" so there's that.

Okay... it's now quarter after. Until next week!

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No Time For Writing

This has been my worst week yet. I'm not just talking about NaNo either. I'm pretty sure this is my worst writing week all year.

I didn't write for FIVE DAYS.

Yes, I did that just two weeks ago, but this week I only managed 1299 words, which is the fewest this month at the very least. I'm pretty sure it's the least I've written weekly all year.

But you know what? I'm actually surprisingly okay with this....

First of all, Thursday was Thanksgiving, Friday was Black Friday - which I had to work - leading into a long drive to my mom's, Saturday was my extended family's Thanksgiving celebration, Sunday was last-minute socializing with the family before another long drive home, and then yesterday I was just lazy....

So, really, my only lazy day was yesterday, although I guess there were some hours I probably could have snuck SOME writing in the rest of the week.... Meh. And I was only really lazy for the last 3hrs of the day last night, since I had work and then Zumba. And I was actually pretty busy at work, so I couldn't write anything during downtime there.

I dunno. I think I came to terms with taking a step back this month after all. Give the story some more time to brew. It sucks that I haven't been as motivated as I was to write “Peeping Tomcat” last year. "One and the Same" just isn't calling to me with the same energy.

This story is all "potential scenes" but no real drama that I've found. Nothing as gripping as PT. This has made me kind of lackadaisical while the story figures itself off in the back of my brain. More and more pieces seemed to fall into place while I was doing my long drives, but they're not fully-formed yet. Perhaps when I do my last word-sprints session at writing group tonight I'll manage to get them on paper.

Right now, I think I'm just happy with the knowledge that I FINALLY hit 10,000 words on Wednesday. Less than 2500 words away from a quarter-NaNo at least. It's kind of a pathetic showing, but it IS still better than some of my other past attempts. Plus, I am still determined to finish writing this story, whereas other NaNo projects lived and died within those 30 days. There's something soothing in that resolution.

My other resolutions - the ones I was able to keep up with up until last month - are falling to the wayside, but I'll hold onto this one. I'll just have to try yet again next year to post something new EVERY month, and write at least 4 days out of EVERY week.

I'm training for both of those writing goals by first trying to get my butt out of bed in the morning!

Sad to say, but since I don't have to be at work until 9:30, and Hubby tends to not need to be at work until 8am or so, I usually set the alarm for 7am, but not get out of bed until closer to 7:45. That's a lot of morning to sleep through - and cuddle through - which always leaves me with virtually no time outside of work to accomplish anything.

Let's take a trip down my normal daily break-down, based on the time-audits I've been doing since July.

I take Hubby into work at 8am, roughly, every morning. I then spend the next 90min or so getting myself ready for work. Sad thing is, I generally need about 95min to get ready, so I'm either bringing breakfast with me, grabbing something simple like ramen for lunch, and/or show up to work about 3min late. No time there to do much of anything.

After work I have Zumba two days a week, which has been bumped back to start at 6:30. Which means, between getting changed into workout gear and walking to the dance studio, I have about ten or fifteen minutes of awkward time. I have a hard time writing anything out on my phone - I'm not the greatest texter - and my netbook still takes a stupid-long amount of time to start up, let alone pack up. It doesn't seem worth it to try to start up a document to get some quick writing in during that short lull between activities.

Zumba ends at 7:30ish, usually a little later, and so by the time I get home it's nearing 7:45. My hair is insanely thick, and I keep it medium-long, so washing my hair alone takes me about 10min; not to mention scrubbing the rest of my body. So I'm usually hopping out of the shower a little past 8:10ish. It then takes me roughly 20min to at least DRY my hair, let alone style it... This tends to take me straight into the Monday night football games and dinner. If Hubby and I decide we're not really feeling football on Monday - or if it's Zumba on Wednesdays - the two of us tend to use this time to bond by watching one of our other shows while also catching up on the day.

It's now about 10pm, and I can either be a responsible adult and go to bed, or - the more likely answer - this is now when I scroll through Facebook, my email, DeviantArt, and Tumblr in order to catch up on all of my notifications. Congratulations, it's now somewhere between 11pm and 1am, and my eyes are so strained that I can barely keep them open. Time for bed.

Tuesdays consist of me starting my day writing this blog, and that's been averaging around 4hrs worth of work between writing, editing, and tracking down any graphics I want to include. Add in another half-hour or so for promoting on all of my social media sites. With my usual "up around 8am" schedule, this usually leaves me with nearly no time to get dressed for the day, and I usually shove a bagel or something quick down my throat while I'm editing. Then I go to pick Hubby up from work, and we do our weekly grocery shopping.

It's a WEEKLY trip. It's just the two of us. We really shouldn't need all that much, and yet we always seem to take at LEAST an hour to do our shopping. I'm not sure how.... Add in another half-hour or so to put the groceries away once home.

Next up is laundry. Between prepping the laundry, driving to the laundromat, starting the load, separating the hang-dry clothes from the rest of the wash, starting the dryer, packing up the now-clean clothes, driving home, and hanging up the remaining wet laundry.... that's another 2hrs or so gone, and I haven't even folded the rest of the laundry yet.

With lunch thrown in somewhere in there, it's probably about 4pm now. If I'm lucky, I can get an hour or so writing in before writing group starts at 6pm. Otherwise, we are now off to do other errands: cleaning the house, running to Walmart or something to pick up things we've been needing for at least a week, getting hair cut or working around doctor appointments, etc.

After writing group ends at 8pm, Hubby and I have TV shows we watch until 11pm. Then, once again, I can decide between being a responsible adult, or staying up later to go through all of my "online maintenance": Facebook and DeviantArt notifications, emails, and scrolling through any new content on my Tumblr dashboard.

Tuesdays are easier on the writing group "off" weeks because that's an extra 2hrs of free time, but since Hubby and I don't really have evenings available, Tuesday tends to be "socializing" night most weeks.... so there goes those available hours again. My only other hope is to write during laundry while I'm waiting for the washer and dryer to finish. If we're tight for time though, Hubby and I will do our grocery shopping and have a lunch break while the laundry is doing its thing.

Thursday is another football night, but it's also one of my only catch-up day options since I have roughly an "extra" 2hrs after work since I'm not exercising. The productivity of the evening is largely dependent on if I'm interested in the football game.

Fridays are weird. Used to be that most Fridays Hubby was out of the house playing Magic: The Gathering at the local gaming store at the end of the street. On those nights I would generally do one of two things: play catch-up, or socialize. At one point, Fridays were the weekly get-together for me and Rozsavaria, but that didn't last long before one of us would be busy or "not feeling it" that week. Fridays then transitioned into Shadow's weekly visit, but that's been kind of sporadic as well lately. When Hubby wasn't interested in playing Magic, Fridays also turned into Gaslands Night - Gaslands being a tabletop game similar to Warhammer, but using Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars.

If Hubby was at Friday Night Magic, and no one was around to socialize - or I wasn't feeling up to peopling - I'd "catch up." Which could be a variety of things: cleaning, shows only I want to watch, reading fanfiction, emptying out my Tumblr drafts, and, of course, writing.

Lately, Friday has been used to drive down to my mom's house, and going to the movies for "date night"....

Saturday is probably one of my better bets when it comes to writing time. There's no football or primetime shows I like to watch. At most, while I'm having dinner after work, Hubby and I will catch up on two of our Disney shows: Andi Mack, and DuckTales. That's an hour; about hour-an-a-half if Hubby and I chat about our day right out of work.

Sunday tends to be Cleaning Day. I get out of work at 4pm, and watch football all day while folding laundry, dusting, vacuuming, picking up the living room, etc. Generally there's little to no writing done on Sundays.

So, yeah.... most of my writing has to be done at work, which has fewer and fewer downtime hours lately, or I have to learn how to give myself more free time outside of work.

Preferably free time where Hubby isn't active in the house. We tend to socialize then, which is fantastic for a marriage, but trash for writing. Getting up an hour or so before him seems to be my safest bet. It's just so hard to get out of bed when he's snuggling next to me; keeping me warm and cozy. Especially with winter kicking in so early this year!

Speaking of, one of the comic book creators I follow has a potential explanation as to why winters seem longer and longer lately.

Long and short? To help her become motivated in her main comic book series "Blood Stain," Linda Sejic has started this goofy side-project called "Punderworld." It's a re-imagining of Greek myths; mostly focusing on the ROMANTIC relationship between Hades and Persephone. In other words, in this version he didn't kidnap her and force her to become his wife, she legitimately loves him.

Anyway, my point being, Hubby's warm and snuggly and smells good, and the bed is so soft. I don't want to have to climb out from under the covers; especially in the winter.

But climb out I must. Most adults - excluding those who work second-shift and/or overnights - tend to be up by about 6am so they have time to do things before work. Mostly these morning hours are used for cleaning, ironing the day's clothes, prepping lunches, and/or exercising. Me? I can sit quietly in the dim sunlight of the living room and write for an hour or so before Hubby needs to go to work and/or I need to get ready for work myself.

I can do this. Once upon a time I was a morning person. I was actually that annoyingly awake and energized morning person.... getting old sucks.

I had to be up, and take Hubby into work by 7am today, which did give me a head start on my crazy-busy Tuesdays, as well as a taste of this new regimen. It will take me probably until the end of the year for it to become habit, but that gives me time to adjust.

If 2018 can be an amazing writing year for at least half of it, and a decent writing year for another quarter, then perhaps I can keep "training" myself in this less-than-stellar final quarter. That way 2019 can be amazing year-long!

And part of that "training" is to attempt to get some more words written this morning since my blog is done super early today.

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