And the Story Goes "Fluff, Fluff, Fluff"

Well, I started my fluffy Valentine's Day story. I'm not going to tell you what I ended up going with, but I will say that I'm holding off on the Phil and Gertie story and the Wedding story until I have the time to do another chaptered story.

I've had some fun working on this fluff piece. I'm still finishing it up - I had to do some researching while writing yesterday, but I wasn't going to post it prior to Valentine's Day weekend anyway. I really enjoy going all goofy and sweet! It' s such a lovely change of pace from the downer story I'm currently working on.

My only fear is that I'm making it too fluffy. It might be so sweet people will get toothaches from it. Also, it's not very realistic for things to go so wonderfully. My story is so fluffy it's like the love-child of Marshmallow and Cotton Candy made love to the spawn of Cotton Balls and a big fluffy bunny. My story is the resulting grandchild of such massive fluff.

I have already taken care of this problem; fear not. During my hours alone at work AGAIN today I devised my solution. My original one-shot will become a two-chaptered story. Definitely posted by V'day will be my Super Fluff chapter. The more-realistic version of the story will then shortly after be posted as the second and final chapter of the tale. Whether or not I post the realistic version by V'day will depend on my writing availability in the next week. Perhaps, depending on how exciting the Super Bowl turns out to be tomorrow, I'll write in between the commercials. ^_^

The Fluff that Dreams are Made of

Yesterday I had to work about four hours alone again - the joys of opening! YAY! And so I was able to ponder more fanfiction writing.

I wanted to take my day off tomorrow to write - so as to not keep my readers waiting forever this time. However, I don't really want to post my next chapter yet. Valentine's Day is coming up, and three things occurred to me. One, I'd be lucky if I could write the next chapter in time to post by Valentine's Day. Two, even if I could finish the chapter by V'day I'm not too sure I'd want to post it. It's kind of an anti-valentine's day chapter, and I wanted to post something fluffy. If I had completed the last chapter the way I originally wanted to - instead of breaking off the ending and making this new "break up" chapter - then the next chapter WOULD be Valentines-y. I don't think I could get two chapters done in time, especially when I'm visiting my fiance for V'day. Anyway, this led me to my final thought. Perhaps I'll put my story on hold for right now and write some Valentine's Day fluff one-shot!

Now the question becomes, what do I write? I had a few ideas bouncing around in my head yesterday. First was to do fluff on a couple I don't see too often -in fact, the character's aren't even listed on the FanFiction.Net Hey, Arnold! character drop down menu. I wanted to write a story about Grandpa "Steely" Phil and Grandma "Pookie" Gertie a la "The Notebook". Although I do want to write this eventually, this wouldn't be a one-shot, so I slotted it away.

Next I was thinking of something else I don't see too often - Helga and Arnold's wedding day. This idea seems promising, and yet it also feels like it would be a cute fluffy chaptered fic. Perhaps I'll just write the ceremony as a one-shot fluff piece for V'day and add chapters around it later. A possibility.

I then back tracked a little to think of maybe a fluffy story about how Arnold proposed - or maybe the dominating Helga was the one to propose! This is another possibility, and this one would actually be a one-shot!

Back tracking even MORE I thought of writing about Helga and Arnold's first date. It would be awkward and adorable and filled with all those "firsts". Perhaps they could even have an uninterrupted kiss! But then again, they would only be ten and so how much heart-fluttering could I give my readers?

What if I did an AR fic in which I rewrote either the infamous April Fools Day Tango or the Valentine's Day Dueling Dates scenes as if they happened when Arnold and Helga were teenagers instead of nine. How would everything go differently? Would everything go differently? The great thing about the show is the fact that these kids did things that teenagers would normally do, but it still seemed natural that nine-year-olds were doing them.


So anyway, these are my Valentine's Day fluffy story ideas. Perhaps you have an opinion on which one you'd like to read? If so, tell me in the comments! Take care!

Going in a Different Direction

OK, so I don't usually have enough time after I'm done with work to write daily. This is one of the reasons I take so long to post new chapters - each chapter is completed in one day. I usually put off so much to just sit and write that I take a mini-break after posting the new chapters. For about a week I just focus on things I neglected in order to write - laundry, wedding planning, answering emails, packing up holiday decorations, etc.

During this mini-hiatus I also tend to either think up the plot of upcoming chapters or I even think of plot lines or scenarios for future story ideas. Today was one of those occasions in which I thought of a concept for a new story. I'm not sure if I'll do anything with this, and even if I do it will be after I'm done with my chaptered story - unless I have writer's block and need to work on something else to get the juices flowing again.

Anyway, I'm a manager at work, and this is very strange to me. I'm still in my twenties - granted I'm in my MID-twenties, but still - and so I'm still used to listening to authority figures; not BEING the authority figure. Therefore I have a hard time reprimanding my staff. Unfortunately, today was one of those days where I needed to confront an employee and write her up. So, during the four hours I was at work by myself and waiting for her to show up I was trying to psych myself up for the confrontation. I kept imagining myself snarling and growling. I kept reminding myself about how much she screwed up and crossed a MAJOR line with me. I got myself so worked up that I nearly started throwing things. This chick wanted a bitch? I was going to SHOW her a bitch! She had the kitten before, and now she was getting the rabid pitbull! Yeah! Pitbull! Snarling pitbull! She was going to think again before messing with me! And then she showed up.

In my head I kept reminding myself of what she did. I kept telling myself that I'm done trying to be the girl's friend. I'm done being nice and having people walk all over me because of it. Remember, she lies so frequently I wasn't sure if she knew how to tell the truth anymore! I was mentally set. And then I heard myself tell her promotional information she needed for today's shift.

Sure, I was cold, matter-of-fact, and stern about it. I wasn't friendly - it was a start - but I wasn't this badass pitbull I was trying to be. Worst yet was that the confrontation about her behavior didn't occur until the end of the shift. *sigh* I'm a pussycat and I can't avoid it.

Alright, now ready to find out what the hell this has to do with fanfiction???? Well, focusing on my main fandom at the moment - Hey, Arnold! - I had to chuckle at the fact that I was acting fairly similar to Helga G. Pataki, just reversed. She could spend HOURS psyching herself up to be nice to Arnold, to finally show him a new side of her, to finally state exactly what was on her mind. And yet when the crucial time comes - even if she reminds herself of her goals just a second before - she reverts back to what she knows and becomes the bully everyone is used to. Same concept, except I reverted back to the friendly people-pleaser everyone knows. I then thought how much fun it would be to write a story focusing on the conflict between wanting to act one way and then - at the last second - reverting back to the usual default setting. This coupled with the fact that although both Helga and I are Tsunderes, I'm more dere-dere to Helga's tsun-tsun, and also thought it would be fun to show the conflict from a dere-dere's point of view.

Train of Thought chugged along to make me think of inverting Helga to write this story, and then I thought of the canonical anti-Helga - Gloria. How many people actually write fanfiction staring Gloria? It would be such a new take! I just needed an anti-Arnold for her to go all tsun-tsun over! I was thinking maybe Arnold's polar-opposite cousin Arnie. Would it seem too AU or AR to write a Gloria and Arnie fanfic? Basically, I would completely invert the dynamic of the traditional HelgaxArnold romance story. Should I just make it AU/AR and keep Helga and Arnold? Just stuff to think about.

I also thought about an OC I was creating for the sequel I'm planning for "What is Truly Meant to Be: A Hey Arnold Musical" (like I said, I had four hours alone - I had a lot of time to think about fanfiction...). I thought of maybe making her be my Dere-Dere Tsundere character who needs to psych herself up to lash out at Helga, but I'm not too sure if I like that. I'm also nervous that the OC will end up as a Mary Sue, and so I think I'm going to need a Beta reader by the time I'm ready to create her.

FINALLY I actually did think of a few things for my current story. A few lines and images for my sixth chapter (I'm currently working on Chapter 4). I also thought about a LOT of things to thread together the basic plotline of my seventh chapter. Now if only I could back-track and figure out what to do for the NEXT chapter (instead of two or three chapters down the road X-P).

Anyway, this is my current progress. What does everyone think?

At the home stretch

**A/N: Alright, so originally I was posting on my bio on FanFiction.net, however it's starting to get lengthy and I was only posting monthly. I'd like to truly keep my readers up to date on my progress of my stories - especially since lately I've been taking friggen THREE MONTHS to post my next chapter/story. I'm just transferring my previous updates here and then I'll post simultaneously.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure anyone really CARES enough to read my progress, but if you are one of my faithful readers who would like an update every once in a while, please sign my guestbook so I know who I'm writing for. I'd like to say "hi" ^_^

Whoo! Last of my posts off of my profile. I'm all caught up now! YAY!**

********
OLD FF.NET PROFILE POST:
Dear lord! Another month bites the dust! I never thought a chapter I was excited to write would take this long to do so! Between getting sick, visiting my fiance, the holidays, the Wedding Show Season starting, having THREE people all decide they were going to quit about an hour before each of their shifts (leaving a staff of 3 to run a Subway Restaurant), losing about a week "researching" on TVTropes.org, and Frontierville on Facebook devouring my life... Well, writing fell to the wayside. However, the writing bug DID bite me again, and my next (lengthy) chapter is about 70% complete... so maybe before MARCH I'll actually post the third chapter! So sorry if any of you have been waiting!

Hmmm, well THAT didn't work...

**A/N: Alright, so originally I was posting on my bio on FanFiction.net, however it's starting to get lengthy and I was only posting monthly. I'd like to truly keep my readers up to date on my progress of my stories - especially since lately I've been taking friggen THREE MONTHS to post my next chapter/story. I'm just transferring my previous updates here and then I'll post simultaneously.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure anyone really CARES enough to read my progress, but if you are one of my faithful readers who would like an update every once in a while, please sign my guestbook so I know who I'm writing for. I'd like to say "hi" ^_^

And yet ANOTHER short update. Keep in mind I was purposely doing this because originally these were all on my profile...**

********
OLD FF.NET PROFILE POST:
Wow, I had NO idea that this next chapter would take so long! Anyway, the whole "writing while on vacation" thing didn't pan out. Ended up going hard-core on the whole "wedding planning" thing instead. :-P And then work and Christmas sort of snuck up on me. However, I DID manage to write the first two pages of the chapter! Yay progress! So, if anyone out there is actually reading this and waiting for my next chapter I thank you for caring and I apologize for the wait. I hope it proves worth it! ^_^

Well that didn't work did it?

**A/N: Alright, so originally I was posting on my bio on FanFiction.net, however it's starting to get lengthy and I was only posting monthly. I'd like to truly keep my readers up to date on my progress of my stories - especially since lately I've been taking friggen THREE MONTHS to post my next chapter/story. I'm just transferring my previous updates here and then I'll post simultaneously.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure anyone really CARES enough to read my progress, but if you are one of my faithful readers who would like an update every once in a while, please sign my guestbook so I know who I'm writing for. I'd like to say "hi" ^_^


Sorry again for the short update... **


********
OLD FF.NET PROFILE POST:
Happy belated Thanksgiving, Americans. Well, I HAD intended to post the next chapter by now - especially considering how much I was looking forward to writing it. However, I spent about a week trying to write the song (see below update) - and I still don't have it finished :-P And then I got sick and spent almost a week in bed (downside to having a desktop). And finally, this week was taken up with 10-hr work days, Thanksgiving, cleaning the house FOR Thanksgiving, working on wedding invitations, packing to visit my fiance, and finally, working on my resume... And so, not a lot of time this month to write. Perhaps I'll find time while on vacation next week.

I just shouldn't try to write songs....

**A/N: Alright, so originally I was posting on my bio on FanFiction.net, however it's starting to get lengthy and I was only posting monthly. I'd like to truly keep my readers up to date on my progress of my stories - especially since lately I've been taking friggen THREE MONTHS to post my next chapter/story. I'm just transferring my previous updates here and then I'll post simultaneously.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure anyone really CARES enough to read my progress, but if you are one of my faithful readers who would like an update every once in a while, please sign my guestbook so I know who I'm writing for. I'd like to say "hi" ^_^ **
********
OLD FF.NET PROFILE POST:
I want to start off by again thanking everyone who read my last chapter. 113 hits the day it was posted! Before that the largest turnout I EVER had was about 40-some hits! So yet again, THANK YOU! ^_^ Ok, now that I've got that out of my system. Let's talk about the NEXT chapter. As mentioned in the previous update, I am TOTALLY looking forward to writing it. However, I have to first complete a project FOR the chapter before I can start writing it. A song that will play a sort of key role in the rest of the story "premieres" (as it were) in this chapter, and so I have to make sure I have the perfect song. Originally I was searching all over the internet for just the right song, and just when I thought I found it, a wrench was thrown in to my plans. Namely, that all other celebrities and music used in the Hey Arnold universe are either originals or parodies of actual celebs/songs. For instance: Dino Spumoni instead of Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin (and by extension I guess Nancy Spumoni instead of Nancy Sinatra), Mickey Kaline instead of Mickey Mantle/Al Kaline, Ronnie Matthews instead of Ricky Martin, Revis and Jackie Lee instead of Regis and Kathie Lee, and even Wally the Alligator instead of Barney the Dinosaur. If I were to use an actual singer/song in the Hey Arnold universe it just wouldn't feel right. And so, I am now taking the style of the songs I was most fond of, and I'm writing my own song. I'm not a song writer, so this will prove interesting X-P