I wish I could say that oneshot I just posted will be the end of this nonsense but I don’t think it will.
On my list for a couple of months has been a pencilled in ‘Egypt + Italy globe-trotting adventure’ in reference to the Sanctuary summer Bingo cards. My brain is now thinking it would be an excellent idea to make it a Warehouse 13/Sanctuary crossover with a little Assassin’s Creed flavour sprinkled in there (yes I have been playing AC: Origins again).
Honestly I knew I was doomed when I started to get headcanons. I went and worked out the timeline for when Artie and MacPherson would have worked together (the 80′s) and I’ve made it work with Carol and everything.
So yeah it might be a thing but, but I have WIPs!! So I really shouldn’t even think about this anymore. However, honesty compels me to admit the last time I said ‘might be a thing’ about a fic was re: the Librarians/Sanctuary/Stargate crossover – and that eventually became over 50k of a thing. It was also a lot of fun that I’m not sure anybody actually read (too niche) and I’m heading in that direction again with this nonsense.
I tried talking myself out of it because it’s so annoying when characters have the same name, and with this crossover I would have James MacPherson and James Watson – ugh! There’s also Helen and Helena though I can use HG for the dialogue tags at least which would help with that.
Seriously I am supposed to be finishing stuff, and clearing the deck, so I can start something new for NaNo. This is not helping.
I’m watching Warehouse 13. I’ve watched it a few times now.
At the end of season one this time through I got vibes between Artie and McPherson. “This was to be our house. I didn’t want you gone, I wanted you back” like that’s fairly obvious right?
Anyway I’m now on the episode ‘Where and When’ aka the time travel one and usually this is when I am grumpy with Artie for hating on HG. However, this time I saw it a bit different. Artie said something like you have to “be able to trust the agent next to you and I couldn’t trust McPherson” and Myka has swapped to ‘Helena’ and I suddenly wondered if Artie saw the sparks between Myka and HG. Can he see that Myka is falling for her and thinks of his own heartbreak with McPherson and that is what he is reacting to?
I mean I know HG was crazy thanks to the isolation of the bronzing making her marinate in her pain, and she was kinda plotting to destroy the world. So yeah I get Artie’s mistrust wasn’t actually misplaced but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t also have been more to it. Maybe he even doubted himself and wondered if he was seeing what wasn’t there, and then he felt even worse when he was proven ‘right’.
Had another excursion for ‘gambling’ aka Lego Marvel minifigures.
No repeats this time. I got 2 more of the figures I wanted (Bucky & Scarlet Witch), and 2 more that I wasn’t bothered about (Loki & Sylvie).
So I’m still missing Monica Rambeau and White Vision. Technically there’s still Zombie!Cap and whatever that version of Gamora is but I’m not worried about those. In fact I actively don’t want the zombie one *shudder*.
Ultimately though I am 8/9 on unique minifigs which isn’t bad as things go. It’s a little disconcerting as I was wrong in my guess on 2 of them (so I’m just lucky that they weren’t duplicates). Hopefully when I go next week I’ll be lucky again and finally get the last 2.
Lol I just saw a marvel giftset and I’m totally reminded that I was tempted once to write a ficlet re: Natasha being considered ‘worthy’ for Thor’s Hammer.
I miss my OT3 :/ August was an awful month mental-health wise and I got very little done, which just made me feel even worse, so I still haven’t completed my original novel from April —> this is me judging myself because seriously?
My plan was to have finished the novel last month, take September for some fanfic (yay OT3!) and then do mixed fanfic/planning in October ready for NaNo in November. I want to do another original novel for NaNo. Unfortunately as the novel of doom is still not done gah! fanfic!September is paying the price 🙁
In mostly unrelated news I took delivery of a PS5 today. I’m sure this is going to do wonders for my productivity /sarcasm but hey at least I won’t be distracted by sitting on the stock checker all the time right?
I have to say it is massive. I mean you’d think modern things would be smaller but this dwarfs my PS2, which is plugged into the same TV (I like it for the dance mat mostly, though I do still have Guitar Hero). Fortunately my ‘TV table’ is actually an old narrow flatpack desk, so there’s no trouble with the height it just goes on top with everything else. It is almost as big as my TV though but hey that’s not hard – my PC monitor is bigger than my TV.
For the PS5 I bought a bundle of console + extra controller + Ratchet and Clank. The extra controller was the only kinda unnecessary part but my paranoia likes having a backup so it’s all good. What I’m extra pleased about is the picture showed a duplicate white controller but they shipped a black one – which is my preferred colour! So I really lucked out there 🙂
I bought the PS2 off eBay about 12 years ago so this is my first current playstation. I was inspired to take the plunge mostly due to all the exclusive games. I got a bit sick of seeing games, thinking they looked awesome, and then them not being available on Steam. I’m determined to be good and not buy anymore games though at the moment.
My MO is to play a game obsessively for a week or two and then drop it, I have so many with just a few hours played. So I wrote up a list and I need to go through and complete some before I can get anymore. Dual benefit – that means I can put PS5 games on my christmas list and as most of them are PS4 they’ll be inexpensive. They might be ‘old’ now but they are still very new to me as I never had a chance to play them before.
Anyway, in conclusion I’m sick of this novel I’m avoiding, pissed off as I feel obligated to finish it before starting another fanfic (and I miss my OT3). I want to make gifsets (I have a list of over 50) and do art (but I’m scared as per usual). So it’s no wonder that I am procrastinating with gaming as I’ve intimidated myself away from doing anything else.
I need to look at my to do list and write up some kind of schedule for the week/month/remaining 4 months of the year maybe even? I’m terrible at estimating how long things take, but if I put aside time regularly to do the things I want I’ll at least make progress. Something to think about!
That’s a cliché and I think it’s an unfair one. Everyone needs different amounts of information before they begin and I don’t judge. Anyway, as you can probably tell this months WriYe blog topic is all about planning.
Explain your planning process. Do you write a detailed outline or are you more of a bare bones only writer? Ok I start off with an idea. This could be a scene, a character, a general concept, a world detail – something. I then do a lot of brainstorming, which is basically free typing where I write down everything that comes to mind as I think about the idea. I ask myself questions and try and reason out the answers. I do this until I have answered all the questions. This results in a very long and messy document.
So I then need to pull out all the relevant information and put it into various documents. I’ll have a world building details file. I’ll have a character detail file etc. Then I’ll have the explaining the plot file where I edit the rambles and put it all in order, but it’s still very much long paragraphs. So I’ll create another separate file and make up bullet points for each scene described, so there’s a brief list for reference and not just the long descriptive document.
Ultimately I guess that makes me a detailed outline person – at least when it comes to novels. I don’t tend to go that far with fanfic. I’ll reason the story out and sometimes write up scene lists but I don’t do a scene-by-scene outline, and I’ll add as I go with what feels right and sometimes straight up change things. I’m a bit less flexible with the novel because I plan it more in-depth.
Are you happy with the way you plan currently? I guess? Sometimes I think maybe I over-plan when it comes to novels and it sort of sucks all the life out of it. Essentially I’m just fleshing out the story, in many ways I’ve already written it. That doesn’t mean I’ve written it sensibly though. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of process I put my plan through, in an attempt to check that I’ve not been dumb – I’ve invariably been stupid somewhere and something doesn’t make sense.
End of 2019 I made a ton of notes on structure and applied them to the outline of the novel I should be writing at the moment (it’s not going so well). As I’ve not finished the draft yet, and thus haven’t attacked it in revision, I don’t know whether that has helped or not.
To be honest I’m kinda set in my ways. I’ve been planning by brainstorming and then pulling it into an outline for well over a decade now, possibly closer to two. It’s just how my brain works. Am I happy with it? I don’t know. I think so but at the same time I’m not happy with the novels I write from it, but then would those novels be any better if I planned another way? I don’t know.
Are there things you would like to try that are different or new to you? Yes. I don’t do details very well. I need to think more deeply about my world building, and then plan/record those details in an easily referenced document. With the novel I’m currently writing I was struggling to get started and so a friend tried asking me questions, to sort of get my head ‘into the scene’. I didn’t know most of the answers because I couldn’t remember if I’d decided about these details before, or what I’d put if I had. I struggle with description at the best of times and not thinking about the details until revision hurts me.
So the collectible Marvel Lego minifigures came out today.
I actually went outside – to a store! – and had a look at them. I know, the horror, I hope the devil got his ice skates in time haha. Still if anything is going to get me to leave the house it would be Lego 🙂
Anyway, I’m not a fan of gambling and I hoped in squeezing the packets I’d be able to guess at the contents. I like 7/12 of the minifigs and I selected 5 packets before I lost my nerve. I wasn’t sure of my guessing abilities.
Results – 4/5 perfectly correct + one that I wasn’t just wrong about, it was also a duplicate which kinda sucks (I really need some actual Lego friends as this would be a perfect trading situation).
So with those results I’m both tentatively encouraged and also slightly nervous. My guessing skills came out at 80% on this first sample, which is pretty good odds. However, I now have 4/7 of the minifigs that I like and so I’m now searching for 3/12 – probability isn’t in my favour.
I did at least learn some things. I learned that all the packets contain not just a square instruction book, but also a rectangular display stand. I think I was incorrectly identifying a lot of packets on the shelf as Cap-Falcon when I felt the stand, so knowing that’s in all the packets should hopefully help next time.
I walked away with Cap-Falcon, Spiderman, Captain Carter and T’Challa as Star Lord (twice). So next time I’ll be hunting for Scarlet Witch, Monica Rambeau and Bucky. I’m undecided about White Vision and I have zero interest in zombie!Cap, the unknown Gamora variant, Loki in the TVA uniform or Sylvie.
It’s not a bad selection. I’ve never done the collectible minifigs before. I know they’ve done tons of sets of just random Lego ones (which doesn’t interest me). I hope this experiment with licenced versions works out for them. As much as I despise gambling I like minifigs more so another Marvel series, or we could only hope maybe a Star Wars one? would be epic!
Haha OMG yes very much so! I am utterly nuts about Lego. Hang on let me take some photos to illustrate my point.
This is my coffee table right now. I built all the modular buildings that I have (4 of them) and over the coming weeks I’m going to do alternate builds of them (thanks to Rebrickable). You can see the Mario TV just behind. I have broken up the console from the set but it’s my intention to (one day) design my own lego pictures to put inside the TV so it’s still built for now.
Then this is my table where I have a finished alternate build of the blacksmiths set (again from Rebrickable) and a partly done Yoda.
and in the corner we have the Pirate ship and then the folding book, plus the diorama book. Again it’s my intention with the pop-up book and the diorama to design my own scenes for them, but I’m not good at getting round to it lol.
All told I think there’s about 10 sets ‘active’ in the room at the moment. I don’t usually leave sets built as I just don’t have the room for display, plus having the raw parts is simply too useful for Rebrickable. However, I thought it would be cool to at least see all the buildings together for a time. Also I’m on this ‘alternate build’ kick at the moment. I think I have 22 different builds to make from those alone?
Once I’ve done the alternate builds I have in mind an idea for a pirate themed restaurant MOC. My history with MOC’s isn’t great (lots of intention, very little follow through) so we’ll see. I do have my annual christmas installation to plan as well. Thus far I’ve mostly picked a selection of sets and then arranged them together to form a scene. These are mostly sets I haven’t bought so I BrickLink any pieces I don’t have. This year I have some slightly different plans as I’m thinking of modifying some sets to make them christmas themed. Again have to see if I actually get round to doing that.
Anyway basically you can’t look anywhere in my room without seeing Lego. It’s everywhere, taking up every flat surface. My room is going to feel quite empty I think when I finally take the Lego street down haha.
This is fantastic! We’re mostly a Star Wars Lego house, although we’ve made a lot of custom stuff from other shows – B5, Space Above and Beyond, BSG etc. We have our own store on BrickLink, sell custom instructions through Rebrickable etc. Our house is just CRAMMED full of Lego…
Haha don’t be fooled by my currently ‘active’ selection. I have 38 sets and 15 of them are Star Wars. It’s my favourite theme by far 🙂 I’m currently waiting until they get the next wave of production sets out before I dig deep and use all my VIP points to get the Gunship. I don’t want the mistake with the imperial logo on the instructions/box hence waiting.
I really wish that I had been into Lego a few years ago. My favourite era of Star Wars is Rebels/Clone Wars and I missed the years when they focused on that :/ I’ve built some cool stuff thanks to BrickLink but it’s not quite the same.
Ooooh do you have links? I’d love to check out your stuff on Rebrickable. I’m always interested in cool space builds. Oh I think I’ve seen you post some photos before now I think about it. You do good work!
I keep going back and forth over the Mature rating I gave The Tragic Tail. I also slapped that rating on James Watson and the Curious Case of the Jarnul and I’m undecided as to whether that was necessary as well.
I think probably with both I have erred quite heavily on the side of caution. The Tragic Tail made me nearly cry (I know my own fic!) so I wanted to be cautious and I did my best to add appropriate warning tags as well.
Still they both probably quite easily could have been rated T.
I just flipped The Tragic Tail to T and then back again because as with most things I’m going with my gut. Brain says T would be fine but my paranoia isn’t quite so sure. This is probably why it’s quite rare for me to rate anything G, as I like to be cautious just in case.
This month for writing I’m trying to finish the original novel I started in April.
I have multiplying plot bunnies for fanfic though and plans to write more once I’m finished with the novel draft. I’ll be posting halfway into September anyway with the banked fanfic.
But anyway thinking about this made me think.
I’m my own target audience for my fanfic. I confess I reread my Sanctuary fics sometimes and I enjoy them. Egotistical to say that? Probably. I mean the writing is most likely crap but I’m responding emotionally to my OT3. I just love them so much.
Sometimes though I confess it gets me a bit down how little response my fics get. I know it’s a tiny fandom and a rare OT3 so I’m fishing in the littlest pond around. Any kind of response is proportionally probably quite a lot but still. It feels like screaming into the void. Like hello I put in a lot of effort here, am I invisible? Can anyone see me?
It’s disheartening sometimes. But I do it anyway and don’t regret it because I enjoy it. I plan to do more despite my current sadface 🙁 at having zero hits (according to AO3) on the fic I posted yesterday morning.
I don’t know why I’m posting this really. Because I have a sadface I guess. Because I can hold two contradictory views at the same time. That I write the fanfic because I love it, and also I am sad at the crickets. I don’t write for the kudos/comments/hits, as I said I do it because I love it – I’m my own target audience – but occasionally I get sad about it anyway.
Yes I know I’m repeating myself. I’m on a mental health downswing and just feeling very defeated. Logic tells me the lack of response is due to tiny fandom and rare OT3. My brain right now is yelling it’s because I’m shit, my stories are shit, my writing is shit and therefore my original novel will never be anything but shit. I dream of publishing one day. I did before for a short time and had a lot of crickets there too. Which makes sense, a career takes time to build, but logic is not helping me with the blackness today 🙁
Oh dear. I started the last post, critiquing March’s drawing going “third month running! I’m sticking to my promise” aka “Yay!” and now it’s August. In my defence I did a drawing in April but it wasn’t digital, it was with colouring pencils. I attempted a landscape for my mum’s birthday. So theoretically that could have kinda counted for April’s drawing and I did start this one in May – it was for MerMay as the title says – but then I never finished it.
I was without my PC for three weeks end of May and into June. I should have then picked the drawing up but I’d started a ridiculous number of fanfic WIPs while I was without a computer. So I sort of lost the rest of June and July to clearing the decks a little bit. Unfortunate because I did sign up for a drawing course – which I haven’t touched. Still, the intentions are very much there so all is not lost in my art goals for the year just yet.
Anyway the drawing! It was done as a cover for the Sanctuary fanfic I wrote The Tragic Tail.
I have to be honest I tried something new with this one. I did the bulk of the drawing in Clip Studio Paint, as opposed to just the line work and then swapping to Photoshop. I used an oil brush and painted, rather than doing block colouring and then blending. I don’t think it would have worked so well if I hadn’t had references that I was basically just copying. It was interesting though using a new tool.
I’m quite pleased with how the icebergs at the back came out, and the lifeboat on the left is pretty good too. The lines of the Titanic itself are a bit wobbly in places but through basically copying the reference I managed to capture the general impression I think. The ice on top of the water was more difficult and I’m not sold on that. I think it needed more highlights. I also think I over blurred in the end the mermaids body that was under the water, and I didn’t manage to draw waves, the ocean looks far too flat really.
Still considering it’s a cover it actually looks quite nice thumbnail size, which is always a good test for a cover. I like how the title came out. I’m pretty pleased with the overall effect. It’s quite simple in a lot of respects. I know I said that I felt I over blended on the last drawing I did, and I don’t think I have quite the same issue on this one. Usually I spend forever on the face but I did the mermaid quite quickly, and I didn’t worry so much about it being too dark/too light with the shadows. Some of that I think is that I wasn’t trying to capture a likeness, and also it’s a mermaid not a person which I think tricked my brain a little bit.
I think I’ll have to try again doing more colouring in Clip Studio Paint. I swapped to Photoshop for fiddling with the lighting, adding some textures etc. and of course the text. Now technically I owe at least three drawings – June, July and May (or August if we’re counting this one for May as I started it then) – and possibly April as well if we don’t count the pencil landscape I did.
As I said I bought a drawing course for coloured pencils so I see a lot more of those in my future. I need to have a think about my drawing goals and what will best serve me in terms of art progression. I thought that the pencil drawing course might help me with fundamentals which I could then apply to digital but we’ll see if that’s true or not. Either way I hope it’ll make me a better artist.
