Check in: Day 19

[the_rck]

It's the weekend again. That means either it's a great time for writing or you've got a ton of other obligations to get in the way. Whichever is true for you, I wish you good luck!

As for today:

Did you write?
Edit?
Research?
Plan?
Send to beta?
Take a break?
Deal with other life things?

How do you feel about your writing today?

I think I'm going to have to abandon the piece of story I've been working on and start in on another segment. This bit isn't done, but I don't know what comes next, and the other bits have been clamoring for attention. I'm hoping I can crank out some words if I switch my focus.

Today is snippet day. It's time for sharing, if you want to, a bit of what you've been working on. What have you written that you're particular proud of or pleased with? Today's also the day to ask around for beta readers.

This is the last day of my week. I've been pleased to do these check in posts. I hope they've been useful for you!

Comments

[lilly_c]

I'm feeling better about my writing today. Added around 2300 words on two chapters of Twice Unjust. I did some research on GA and found that there's no meetings in Glasgow or Scotland so I had to change one of the sanctions the bosses make Robbie do to deal with his addictions.

My snippet is a 500 word extract from chapter 1 (1300+ words) of Twice Unjust. I do need a beta for it now as I've got around 7000 words of the first draft written and I still have 6 chapters (around 7000 words) to write. It is Taggart, current team + Robbie/Jackie ship and rated NC-17, fandom familiarity isn't a problem as I have a separate file with extensive notes.

Karen sighed. “Look Robbie, the investigation in to you isn’t yet closed. DCI Atkins still hasn’t sent me his final report; he’s assured me that I’ll have it by the end of the day.”

“The end of the day?” Robbie said raising his voice. “It’s the end of the day now!”

Rather than getting into a potentially never-ending argument with the already aggravated Detective Inspector, Karen walked away, leaving him to cool down and headed back to her office.

Robbie waited a moment before leaving his desk and the pile of Crime Review Unit cases he’d been given and followed the Chief Superintendent part of the way to her office before he got stopped at the bottom of the main staircase by Jackie, who’d managed to catch up with him, standing on the step above him she placed a hand on his chest. “Don’t do it,” she pleaded. “It isn’t worth it.”

“Why not Jackie, I’ll feel better once I’ve had my say.”

“Look I know you’re not happy and even though you’ll feel better for it, you’ll also be out of a job. Robbie, my one last chance offer is off the table if you go up there and tell her what you think.” Jackie brushed her thumb across his knuckles to calm him down unaware that they were been observed. “Come back to the office with me and have a word with the boss, he might give you some time off if you ask him.”

Robbie sighed. “It’s not time off I need Jackie.”

“God your hard work sometimes! What do you need then?”

“A break, I just need to get of Glasgow and clear my head.”

As they made their way back to the office Jackie’s phone beeped, she quickly checked the message. “Oh looks like Duncan’s got something for us. I’ll see you in a bit.”

*

“Evening Duncan,” Jackie said greeting the younger man.

“Jackie, DCI Burke, is Robbie not with you.”

Matt looked at Jackie, then Duncan. “How is it you address me by title but her by her first name.”

“Easy, she’s nicer to me than you are, so is Robbie for that matter. Would you like to know what my preliminary findings are?”

The detectives nodded to the scientist.

“First of all I have a positive ID for you; the victim is a Malcolm Forbes. I was able to ID him quickly because he has a DNA match in the system.”

“Oh no,” Jackie said.

The two men shot curious glances at the newly promoted DI. “Well spit it out hen, I haven’t got all year,” Matt ordered.

“Robbie’s dad is called Malcolm but he hasn’t seen him since he was four.”

Duncan frowned at Jackie’s comment. “Robbie, that’s who the DNA match is. So are we, well you, still going to be investigating the murder?”

“Yes we are, unless the top floor tell us otherwise, oh and son, don’t tell the top floor until we’ve had chance to tell Robbie.”

[barbayat]

Not bad, just doubled my word count from 750 something by rewriting a bit more. So yeah!

What I could really do with is a beta though - for all my stories. Please, if you are devoted to good grammar and spelling and like slapping people on their fingers for committing crimes against the English language, I am more than willing to repent.

[iosonochesono]

I edited a ton today and made my chapter something I was pleased with, but when I hit AO3's preview button all changes were lost.

So I'm totally out of steam for trying to write today and hard-core disappointed.

[snowynight]

I wrote and posted a fic on AO3 for Trope bingo.

[crowdog66]

Coming late to the party, but... a snippet from my Tony Stark/KITT story, "Body Work". Tony (in full armour) and KITT have just finished running a desert test of KITT's battle android systems, and are sitting on a spire of rock conversing while JARVIS runs a diagnostic on the android. KITT has just expressed discomfort at a particular aspect of the test, then proceeded to brush off his own exclamation by claiming that as far as he knows he's never experienced pain...

*****************************

Which was a lie: even as a car, KITT had possessed negative feedback cognitive modules which, when activated by the right type of input, could send screaming signals into his central process flow — but if he didn't want to talk about it (and there had certainly been episodes in his history that nobody in their right mind would want to remember), Tony could respect that. "I was saying that my parents died less than two weeks after you lost your original driver, in the very same year." 

KITT tilted his head inquiringly — and skeptically. "You're disturbed by a simple coincidence?" 

It was Tony's turn to glance out over the desert. "Y'know, I used to shrug off coincidences. Now, not so much. Our worlds collapsed at almost the same instant, in the grand scheme of things. And now…"

"And now you've given me life and purpose again." Out of the corner of his eyes he caught the liquid black flow of KITT's nod. "I only hope that some day, somehow, I'll be able to give you a gift of equal value in return." 

"That's one thing you don't have to worry about." He drew another slow deep breath, gathering up the threads of memory that his ever-active mind had been relentlessly weaving into a tapestry of intent, parsing it into words. "My father was a modern day ironmonger: he made his fortune selling death, and so did I — until Afghanistan opened my eyes to what was really going on. I had a choice: I could keep on getting people killed, or I could do everything in my power to start making up for what I'd done. Yinsen told me not to waste the life he'd given me, and I've lived very day since like it was my last, working like a demon to put the merchants of war out of business permanently. 

"But it hasn't been enough. People look at me and say, He's living proof that might makes right. There are still organizations out there dedicated to making a better suit to kill more people faster than ever before — hell, that's what Obie bought into, in the end. I became what I had to be to get the job done, including killing the enemies of world peace, but it's not the whole message I want to send. It never was. That's where you come in." 

He turned his head again to look KITT in the 'eyes', thinking of how hot the android's gleaming ebony surface looked in the sun's glare, like the touch of it could melt steel, but the molecular bonded shell was self-thermoregulating and he knew even in the heart of summer it would, if he leaned over and pressed his lips to it, be no more than blood-warm.  "That's why I made you this body, and gave it so many defensive rather than offensive capabilities. You're going to show people that there are a lot more options for shutting things down than blowing them completely apart or killing your enemies — that preserving human life is not only attainable, but desirable. You already had the programming in place. All I've done is given you more options for carrying it out." He smiled, letting the tender gratified warmth of it fully reach his eyes. "You're going to make me proud, KITT. I don't have a shadow of a doubt about that." 

KITT gazed back at him for a long moment; then, with a sound between a crackle of soft static and a sigh, he leaned in and laid his head on the armour's shoulder. "That's all I've ever wanted, Tony, from the day the imprinting protocols chose you: that you'd use me for my intended purpose, and…" 

He had to swallow the surge of mostly unidentifiable emotion that threatened to choke the words in his throat. "And?" 

An even quieter inflection. "And, that you'd see me — for who I really am." 

"Oh, baby…" He let go of KITT's hand to put that arm fully around those slender black shoulders and hold him even closer, resting the metal jawline of his armour against the subtle inward curve of an artificial temple. "You know I can't take my eyes off you, right?" 

One minute and thirty-seven seconds later JARVIS announced that the diagnostic was complete and that the Obsidian unit was functioning perfectly, but it was another two full minutes of contented silence before they disengaged and took to the skies again, heading for home — where a thoroughly unpleasant surprise was waiting.