We help the helpless (fanfic writer)

I keep forgetting to check in lately. >_< Well, yesterday I didn't have any time -- I closed signups for the Natsume Yuujinchou exchange I'm running & did the matching. The automated system on AO3 did all right for some of it but still needed a lot of manual tweaking... rather more than I had hoped, probably in part due to an error on my part. ^^;;; Though I think it worked out all right -- at least I hope so!

In the past few days I fulfilled my

yuri_challenge assignment & am working on treats. :D Today I started drafting something for my Natsume Yuujinchou exchange, heeeeeeee. Super excited about the prompt I'm writing (& no, I didn't use mod's privilege to cherry-pick one, either -- even if I'd wanted to, I was so frantic about getting the matching right I didn't have the energy/brain).

I don't know if I have a favorite window! A view I used to like was at my last job, which had a fantastic view of some major London landmarks -- I'm not going to name them b/c it would be enough to narrow down what part of town I worked in & possibly even the building, so. -_-;;;

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Well, I love my prompts, and am very excited by several of the letters that have been linked up thus far. I'm also excited to see the other fills, because several of my top ten requests that I had to leave out have been requested by other people, in some cases almost verbatim! \o/ I may get to see some of those stories/art pieces anyway!

My only worry now is finishing on time, because of course I had to go and plot something lengthy when I'm A) not that great at lengthy and B) just recently coming out of a very long writing hiatus. D: I will definitely need lots of prodding to make sure I stay the course and keep writing. ^^;

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several of my top ten requests that I had to leave out have been requested by other people

I know I know I know!! Me too! LIKE MISUZU~~~~.

Also, I am going to chortle the entire time people are working on their assignments & making comments about them b/c I WILL KNOW WHAT PROMPTS THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. :D I am one of those people that always shook & smushed Christmas presents as a kid, trying to figure out what they were, & I'm absolutely like that w/exchanges: who's writing for me? What are they doing? Did Person X in my circle mean me when they talked about loving their assignment? etc. etc. & NOW I KNOW IT ALL. :D :D :D

(& also, since I can obvs see all the prompts, even the ones that people haven't written letters about, I can say that there are some freakin' AWESOME ones that are begging for treats if they don't get fulfilled. *flails*)

Ahahahaha, I hear you on not being much on the longer fics. ^^;;; Though! Plot! That is awesome. I will keep shaking pompoms!!!

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The Nishimura and Kitamoto love is also incredible! I'm not sure if I can get extra treats done before the due date given this plot monster I've unleashed, but there were several that caught my eye (and as you say, many more that are not viewable just yet). I may very well be swooping in later with more fills!

Hee, but what's fun for you is that even though you know who's got which prompts, which direction they take with what prompt will still be a surprise (or at least will set you into detective mode trying to pieces together clues, haha).

Right now I'm trying to get more word dump going. I edit well, but getting it down the first time is where I tend to stall. I keep repeating "it doesn't matter if it's crap right now, just get it written so you can edit it later!"

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The way it's going to work is that the assignments will be due, & then there'll be about a week before the collection opens -- this will be to let needed pinch hits be completed. So there will be a week before reveals when treats (of any length) can be posted to the collection. :D I need to edit in a section in the FAQ about that -- I didn't do it when I started b/c I wasn't sure how adding treats to a collection worked (the exchanges I've seen have used separate collections, mostly, for treats, but I didn't know if you *had* to do that). & I figured I just wanted to get signups open w/o too much more faffing around. But also I am sure people will appreciate fills for their prompts no matter when they come in. :D

I am a master of the Shitty First Draft. I'm really good at word-dumping & good at first edits, the low-hanging fruit sort of stuff. Sometimes *coughcoughahem* after that gets a bit trickier, though. But I wouldn't get that far w/o tons & tons of words to work w/. Anyway, so yes! Go for the word dump! Make the inner censor shut up for a while!!!

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lab

Okay, wrote 221 words and I think I'm getting a feel for the character that the first draft is lacking.

Uh … the forest and on a clear day the city below us and the Alps at the horizon?

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Today's progress...

Yuujinchou Exchange (due Mar 17 - 1K word min): 822 new words. I've got an outline mostly plotted (not included in the word count). I need to figure out a better ending than the one I came up with today, though I'm not too worried at the moment. I figure I can just keep writing and see if something sparks a better conclusion. Meanwhile OMG I HOPE I CAN FINISH THIS THING. D: Current word count: 1,958

Help_Japan (due 18 years ago - 750 word min): No new words. Current word count: 3,666

My favorite window was at our old apartment. There was a really lovely dogwood tree right outside our living room, which meant pretty tree easily viewed from the couch as well as lots of birds for the cats to watch. Of course I couldn't find a photo from when the tree was blooming, but here is a shot for you:

Now I'll go be all weepy because the white cat passed from complications of a heart defect, and I still miss him. ;_;

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crowdog66

So sorry to hear about the fellow you lost. He looks like he was a beautiful boy.

Is the little tabby still with you?

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He was such a great cat; we miss him so much even though it's been a little over two years now. I've lost several pets before (I've adopted a lot of older pets, in case that sounds like I have them dropping like flies in my care! XD), but I've never lost one so young, which I think is part of why it still hurts.

We still have the tabby. She's helping my type right now. :D ♥ her.

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roane

I'm so sorry. I tend to adopt older pets too, so I totally get it. Last year was TERRIBLE. I lost a 7 year old beagle suddenly and unexpectedly to cancer and my 12 year old mutt to what was also probably cancer. So I did the logical thing and adopted an 8 year old golden retriever.

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Oh, that's awful to lose two so close together. *hugs* It's one thing when you're expecting it/prepared for it, but I've learned how impossibly harder it hurts when you're not; we didn't find out about his heart until the necropsy, even though he'd been under anesthesia twice before (neuter and a dental). He was only 4!

You're so lovely to adopt another older dog. ♥ I've actually not been able to bring myself to adopt another cat; his sudden passing messed with me so much.

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roane

She didn't give me a choice. She walked up to me and laid her head in my lap and gave me The Face. (You can see The Face here.) :) I work for a shelter, so I have a hard time adopting younger animals. They normally get snatched up very quickly while the older ones hang around for weeks and months sometimes.

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Aw, she has such a sweet expression. It makes me so angry when I hear how some of these babies are found/brought in to shelters. I'm glad she's in a good home now, where hopefully she'll have many more years. ^^

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Oh, poor kitty!! ;___;

Though you've reminded me that I did have a favorite window -- when we lived in NYC, our apartment for 7 years had a fabulous ginkgo tree outside it, & when it turned in autumn was the BEST. I have a ginkgo tattoo as my memento, in fact.

Also, wowwwwwww that you already have 2k for Book of Friends! That is fantastic. :D

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*misses him*

Oh wow, that had to have been a very pretty tree! Our neighborhood now is much more "suburban," though the houses are packed so close there are no trees anywhere. XD I can see my neighbor's rotting chimney?

If I write this as I have it planned right now (which I am trying to think of ways to pare it down), it'll probably be 8-9K. I am excited to rite it, but also freaking out because OMG why so many words, Enemy?!?

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Eeeeee, 8-9k! That's v. exciting!!! \o/

(& re: comment above -- yay for adopting older animals! We have three cats we adopted separately as older ones. One of them is THE SNUGGLIEST but lingered in a foster home for 2 years or something stupid like that -- I think b/c he was 5 or 6, & also a black cat. People are either superstitious &/or they think black cats are boring, so they are always the last adopted [I used to volunteer w/a cat rescue group, & this seemed fairly true] ;____; )

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And also terrifying? haha

The last two cats I adopted (in the above photo) were actually quite young when I got them, which was a first for me! My partner had never had pets before, so when we got the cats and talk of getting kittens came around, I agreed (nothing wrong with kittens! But as you know, it's the older ones that are so much harder to home!).

The tabby that we still have is basically velcroed to me at all times. XD I ♥ her.

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I'm throwing in the towel and declaring no writing at all, today. My brain's too full with thesis and a job-application and 'ooh, shiny' new yarn for a sweater I'm going to knit.

And thinky thoughts as to how, exactly, I write myself out of the corner I wrote myself into last night... XD

I loved the window in the living-room of my previous apartment. I had a tiny little garden, and beyond that a narrow strip of grass. Beyond that was a small stream with a row of trees on the other side. Great blue herons came to fish in the stream and woodpeckers and squirrels passed through the trees occasionally. Anyway. On the other side of the trees was a field where, in the summer, a small flock of cows wandered around and had fun. Beyond that, was a playground, and you could hear the kids play up there. And beyond that, and their own gardens, was the next row of houses. Best damn place I ever lived, and I miss it in the fishbowl I live in right now. Good thing living here's only temporary! :-D

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And apparently going to bed with that attitude got the juices flowing. Am now happily de-cornered. XD

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roane

I dunno how much writing there'll be today. The past week or so has been pretty flat out on The Mystery of the Runaway Bride, and I'm behind on some real-life stuff. That said, the responses to it have been INCREDIBLY gratifying so far, and I'm tossing around ideas on how to follow up on it.

I'm starting a non-fic writing challenge/contest on Friday, so fic might be scarce for the next couple weeks.

My favorite window is actually a pair of huge sliding glass doors that make up one wall of my apartment living room. They look out over a decent-sized lake surrounded mostly by trees. I'm an early riser, so on summer mornings I go out on my balcony with my coffee and just sit and listen to the lake. I love this place. :)

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Congrats on finishing! I peeked at the comments and hits and WOW, what a response! Great work getting it all written (and so well).

Can you pass those writing vibes to me while you work on other stuffs?? kplzthx.

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Oh, that sounds lovely. :-)

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taelle

I am thinking about doing research. That's it. No, seriously, I can't figure out how/where to gather what I need.

As for the window, I see snow and black branches and the reflection of the flame of the candle on my windowsill in the window glass.

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What is it you need to learn more about? Maybe we can steer you to the right path. :D

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taelle

The army!) Basically, I suddenly realized that I need to imagine a regiment in a quasi-Renaissance fantasy setting - to know how it could be structured, what would be everyone's duties, how they'd be armed... (yes, I know that everybody and their aunt wrote fantasy in such setting, my brain is not original; and I'd twist things to my measurements, but I need to know the basic elements to work them further as I need them. And all military history I know is about wars, not soldiers)

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sharpiefan posted yesterday that she does historical re-enactments, so she might have some better clues on where to find this info!

As a general rule when I need to learn something for fic, I tend to consult Prof. Wiki and get some key words, names, book titles, etc. to further hone my search. Here is a wiki article I pulled just now. Hope this helps get the ball rolling. :D

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taelle

Thanks!

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Osprey havesome pretty neat military books about... Pretty much everything. I'm guessing they cover renaissance as well?

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taelle

Oh! Thanks for reminding me of Osprey.

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You're welcome. I'm a librarian. It's an occupational hazard. :-)

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taelle

... you so reminded me of David Drake's RCN series just now.

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lacerta

About 500 words for one of the other guro squares. Not entirely sure about it, but I'll keep writing and hopefully it'll turn into guro eventually.

Unfortunately, since I've moved, I only have another house in front of my windows. My last place had a tree in the street, which was nice, and I lived one floor further up, meaning I was above street light level and could do some stargazing at night. I actually taught myself most of the constellations from a window in the middle of a big city, so that's totally possible.

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snowynight

Another 1K's done. I believe that with adjustment, it can be back on track.

I don't have a favourite window, but I do have one or two that I look out and see a green hill and blue sky.

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eve_doodle

Hit a very, very difficult patch in Chapter Nine that I don't know how to get through. Only wrote a few hundred words today and quit because I felt too exhausted to continue. Worked on a personal essay about writing in general that cheered me up a little, so the word count today wasn't a total loss.

I don't exactly have a favorite window but... There was this one summer night a few years ago and I couldn't sleep at all. I wandered through the apartment aimlessly before settling on the couch and peered out the window onto the street. It looked directly over a little island of cement in the middle of a crossroads, the sole inhabitants a little tree and a few traffic lights.

The tree had plain greenish leaves and some white blossoms- not anything much to look at and I usually never gave it a second glance. But that night, lit by the streetlights against the dark sky, it looked like it was glowing. It was beautiful, a living crown of petal-thin diamonds. But when I tried looking through the window again the next night, it looked perfectly ordinary, drab even. I've never seen the tree like that since.

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