Author Archives: Sam

Blog Circle: Writing Organisation

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Another month, another blog topic. I’m so glad this is continuing this year. It’s interesting to see what the different topics are each month. This one seems pretty straightforward, not as soul searching as last months!

How do you keep your writing organized and backed up?
I have to be honest I’m not as good about this as I should be. Back in the day I used to keep all my files on a USB stick so they went with me everywhere I went. I wish I could say that I kept them regularly backed up somewhere but that would be a lie. These days I keep a lot of my files on gdocs and again *cough* I can’t really say I have backups. That at least is on the cloud and therefore isn’t prone to hardware failure but seriously self? Yeah I think I might need to go and do some backing up haha. Plus not everything is on gdocs, I have all my archived stuff just on my removable hard drive.

The one thing I don’t do is ever store any of my writing on the computers actual hard drive. To be honest I don’t store any data on there at all. I’ve had far too many occasions where the computer has malfunctioned and I’ve had to do a complete wipe and reinstall the operating system, so ever be comfortable keeping files on the PC.

So that is how it is stored. What about organisation? I’m not sure whether to answer this here or below as it sort of crosses over. Basically I keep things simple. Back in the day it was word documents, and now it’s gdocs but either way that’s where everything is. I do have Scrivener but I’ve only ever used it to compile ebooks, I just can’t be doing with all the fancy features. I’m sure if I got my head round it then it would be helpful but I’m a creature of habit and I stick with what I know.

For any large project (aka a novel) I always start with a brainstorming file where I just free type. I ask myself questions, I answer them, I call myself names (and type that too) and just general ramble until I work out everything I need to know about the story. I then pull the relevant information out and sort it in a numbers of files: plot info, character info, world details etc. so it’s easily referenced. Sometimes if I have less detail then it’s all just in one file, occasionally I don’t even pull it from the brainstorming file and just work from that (if I’m running really light).

However, for my normal extreme planning once I have all the details in their respective files I do a bullet point scene by scene outline, which is again in another file called outline. On a normal day when I’m writing I usually only open the outline and the plot info file, in addition to the novel itself and my working file. Now what do I mean by working file? I mean everyday I create a new file which is called #file number Day “day of the month” e.g. today if I work on Carbon Scars the file will be #16 Day Two. At the end of the day I copy everything I wrote into the combined novel file.

Why do I do it like this? To be honest I think it was something I started to do during my very first NaNo and it’s just stuck. I guess I like being able to easily tell how much I’ve written in a day. I’m a very linear writer so it’s not that I need it to write out of order but sometimes I do have to go back and rework a draft while it’s in progress (I know I shouldn’t but sometimes I can’t move forward until I do), and then it’s helpful for that as the working file is all choppy and disconnected, but everything is slotted into place in the main file.

Do you have any tips or tricks to share that have helped you?
Well I would recommend the working file method, as it’s very accurate then as to how much I’ve written in a day, especially if I have to chop and change a bit on any previous words. I can highlight any “reused words” in red in the working file, and then at the end of the day (after copying everything into the main novel file) just delete everything in red to get the accurate count.

I would also say make sure you have all your writing files available to you wherever you go. I can guarantee that whatever you forget to bring will be the one file you need. So stick it in the cloud, carry it on a USB stick, just keep it with you. Obviously this only applies to trips where there will be an opportunity to write. However, even if there isn’t a known opportunity, I’d still say keep some method of writing about your person. Whether that’s a phone with a notes app, or a notebook and pen for some handwriting, you never know when you’ll need to jot something down. The biggest lie we tell ourselves is “I’ll remember that” so write it down.

Just be consistent with your organisation too, so there’s never any confusion. If you do every project the same way then it’ll always be clear. Also never delete anything. You never know when you might need to look back and check something. An idea might seem beyond salvaging but you never know, there might be something about it: a detail, a character, a particular plot point etc. which can be repurposed in something else. Plus I think it helps sometimes to look back and see how far you’ve come. So keep everything, just in case.

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violetfaust:

galactic-pirates:

Bucky needs a new superhero name as he’s not the winter soldier anymore.

I don’t quite know what as he doesn’t have any other aliases (apart from when he took his turn as Cap) so it would be new canon (not drawn from the comics) but I still feel strongly that he should have another name.

I suppose so long as they don’t refer to him as the winter soldier in universe maybe it’s alright. I just feel like that was who he was brainwashed to be – that wasn’t a choice he made. Bucky chose to be a hero as a howling commando, he chose to follow Steve. I just feel like he should be known for his choices not for the “villain” he never actually was. He didn’t want to be that guy.

He’s the White Wolf (the name they gave him in Wakanda).

YES!

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier should have become

Captain America and the White Wolf.

Marvel you missed a trick.

Blog Circle: Success and Disappointment

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I didn’t think there was going to be a blog topic this month. I figured perhaps the blog circle just ran for the first couple of months of the year, as that’s what happened last year, but no it was just late! Which is no worries, it’s not like it matters, as it is still decidedly April. Anyway, this month is a bit of a tough one.

What has been your biggest writing success? How did you get there?
I would argue that I haven’t really had any big writing successes because nothing has ever lasted. However, that is quite a negative viewpoint as I suppose a success is still a success even if it didn’t transform into a lifelong accomplishment.

So there are a couple of contenders and both of them go back quite a way. In fact they both happened in the same year – 2016.

In 2016 I wrote 500k which was a big deal. I felt productive and being productive felt good. Now more than half of that was Rumbelle fanfic which wasn’t ideal but I justified it at the time as developing ideas as a lot of it was AU and could be turned original later. That is only partly true now because that was five years ago and people change over time. I’m not the person I was back then and the stories I wrote aren’t as close to my heart anymore. That’s not to say I’ll never do anything with them but they’ll probably be changed far more substantially than I first expected.

Also in 2016 I published two novels. I actually published my first novel December 2015 but I kinda don’t count that one so much as I failed to write the sequel and deemed the whole venture a total mistake. However, these books in 2016 were in the same series. I felt like I had a production schedule and it was all going well (and then it fell flat as November happened and life hasn’t been the same since hence how the success is relative).

Still the fact that I finished those novels, revised them, had them edited, formatted them and deemed them good enough to share with the world – that is a BIG DEAL. Sure subsequently I’ve noticed things about the books I’d like to change (and as I had to unpublish the series due to my failure I can change them if I want) but I did put them out there. I went through the entire process. I did that. No matter what happened next, and how badly it all turned out in the end, I did write and publish those books.

As for how I got there well that’s the million dollar question isn’t it? Because if I knew that I’d hopefully be better able to replicate the previous success and it wouldn’t have been five years of epic failure since then. I guess I managed to push through my fear of never being good enough somehow. To be honest I don’t really recall how I got that confidence, I would quite like it back.

What has been your biggest writing disappointment? How did you bounce back from it?
My biggest disappointment would be falling off the horse in November 2016 and then failing to get going again. I had a big real life disaster happen and I didn’t deal with it at all well, the fallout from that was long-lasting. Anyway I never finished writing Book 3 of my series and so I eventually unpublished the first two books out of shame.

The more time went by, the worse it got and I just stopped. I barely wrote at all 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. I would open the documents, I would try. I resolved to rework the series and relaunch and that never happened. The more I failed, the worse I felt, until I ended up in a very dark place and I’m trying to ‘try again’ but I am very afraid. I said above that I clearly had some confidence in the past or I wouldn’t have published those books. Well whatever confidence I had is gone and it’s a real struggle to even get write the first draft as I constantly wonder “what’s the point? who are you kidding, you suck, you’ll never be good enough” etc.

So in terms of ‘bouncing back from it’ I’d say that I haven’t really – or at least if I have, it’s an ongoing process. I am writing more this year. I have written several stories since last November when I sort of kickstarted things again by writing Sanctuary fanfic. I’ve even finished the first draft of an original story! I’m working on another original novel at the moment. So I’m heading in the right direction because I’m getting words down. The theory is “I can fix a bad page, I can’t fix a blank page” so writing is a good step one.

Whether I’ll ever have the confidence to be able to revise, and call it done, and publish again I don’t know. I hope so because it’s my dream but I just don’t know. Right now I don’t feel in my heart like it’s possible, I don’t feel like my writing is anywhere near good enough for that and I feel embarrassed that I ever thought it was.

I guess I’ll just keep trying to persist and hope that the future will take care of itself. Only time will tell.

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Me – eventually cut down the number of ‘favourite episode’ gifsets to three.

(somehow none of the three is Revelations which is probably my actual favourite episode ???)

Me – takes hours to do just one

Me – is three actually sensible? or should I just go with this one?

Me – but, but, but, but, what about the others? I like too many episodes :/

/headdesk

At least I have already realised that doing the 8 I had initially decided on was totally a no go.

I’m somewhat confused as to why I didn’t go with Revelations. I think I couldn’t decide how to handle it (as it’s a 2 parter) and I sort of covered some of it in my ‘favourite story arc’ set. I really don’t recall. Clearly I had a reason at the time, right?

I think what I’ll do is I’ll finish this episode set. Then I still have the location, quote and free choice sets to do to round out the week. After I have done those if I still have time I’ll circle back and do more episode sets.

When I cut down the number I already decided that I should do a “personal top 10″ in the future. There’s only one slight problem with that – I already have 11 on my ‘cut down’ list. Maybe I’ll have to do top 15 instead, might just be able to keep it to that, possibly.

This show man haha.

Drawing 3: Tomb Raiding

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Third month running! This is good, I’m sticking to my promise. This month I drew Helen and Nikola (from Sanctuary) having supernatural shenanigans as they excavated Tut’s tomb in the 1920’s.

I said in my last drawing that I really thought about light sources but had a reference for the room. With this I didn’t have much of a reference at all for the background, so a lot of it was guesswork. However, I tried super hard with the lighting. That was my primary focus really.

You can probably see the biggest issue immediately – styling. The abnormal doesn’t match the shading on Helen and Nikola. The abnormal scorpion came out more comic book like (which I was going for) but Helen and Nikola didn’t quite so much. Especially their faces I think are much too overworked – far too soft on the shading. Helen’s determined expression didn’t come out very well and I didn’t achieve a very good likeness either. I did better with Nikola because his vamp face is so distinctive, plus men are generally easier for some reason.

Another problem is I put a texture on the background as a cheat really, trying to make it more stone-like but then again it doesn’t match the rest of the picture. I am pleased with the fire. I followed a tutorial and that came out well. The posing isn’t bad either. Helen’s gun isn’t pointed in exactly the right spot but it was tricky to line up.

With the hair this time I tried for more of a “comic book style” rather than the technique I’ve been using for the past few drawings. I need to work on that some more but I think that has promise for making for a “unity of style” which is what I really need to focus on next.

I haven’t picked my April project yet, I’ll need to think about it. I have until the 1st to decide!

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OMG OMG OMG you guys.

I finished Fall of Camelot!!!

image

(you know you’ve been on tumblr too long when success looks like this gif ^^)

Seriously when I decided I would try and finish it so I could start something new for Camp that was back on *checks* the 8th of this month. I had the first scene and a bit already written. I was a little bit dubious but I’d estimated it would be about 20k when it was done so I figured it was doable.

It clocked in at 53k pretty much. More than 30k longer than I’d thought and I still managed to write The End. Now I almost wrote this much in a month last November with Our Darkest Hour but otherwise it’s probably been 5 years, and it definitely has been five years since I last finished an original story.

Now it sucks. I mean it’s the most awful first draft to ever be drafted. I should really burn it in fire but it’s a start. Later this year I can tear it to pieces in revision. It’s a step along the road – I finally made the first step (again). You know I never thought I would. It had been so long and I’d barely written for years. I thought I was done, that I’d never get back to here.

The last time I was writing a lot (original and fanfic) was when I was in my heady obsession days of rumbelle. At the moment I’m thoroughly entranced with Sanctuary (and OT3: Haunted). Apparently I require an obsession for my writing muscles to start to flex, even for completely unrelated work.

Anyway I get one day to go over my planning documents and then Thursday (the 1st) is the start of Camp NaNo and the beginnings of a brand new novel. Let’s see how much I can do next month 🙂

Labyrinth Test

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misscrazyfangirl321:

Okay, so let’s talk about the labyrinth test at the end of Season One of Sanctuary, shall we? 

I have two issues with it, one small-scale and one large-scale. 

1. So these tests were supposed to be incredibly difficult and intense, designed to push each of them to their limits, right? Well, then, why was Nigel Griffin’s so easy? 

Don’t get me wrong: that test nearly doomed them all, but that was because Nigel Griffin wasn’t there to take it. Clara had spent her whole life hating her abilities, and fighting against who and what she was, so having to place all her faith in those abilities knowing that lives hung in the balance? Incredibly difficult. 

But assuming Nigel Griffin was as comfortable with his abilities as the rest of the 5 seem to be with theirs, his test would have been the easiest by far. Walking into that room invisible would probably have been the default, frankly. 

And unless Helen’s father knew something he shouldn’t have, the test should have been designed for Nigel, not Clara. 

2. Then we have the major issue: for a labyrinth that was supposed to be so specialized that only the 5, using their powers, could have completed it…. Two of them alone could have done it. 

Specifically, John and Helen could have. At most they might have needed James for the Latin, but unless I’m mistaken, Helen’s fairly proficient in Latin herself, right?  And she’s familiar with her father’s thought processes. The two of them could have handled John’s, James’, and Helen’s tests with ease. 

As for Nikola’s, unless there was some sort of force field or something we didn’t know about, John could have just teleported in there, gotten the key, and teleported out. 

Then, he would have just had to teleport into Nigel’s room, get the key, and get out. Sure, it would have triggered the collapse, but Clara did that anyway, and frankly, the light would have hit John for less time. Thus, the collapse wouldn’t have gotten as far along.

Maybe they all had to turn the keys at the same time, so they could have needed three more people, but any three other people could have turned the keys. 

In conclusion, that test was really weird. Or else Tesla was wrong, and Helen’s father simply preferred Helen and John as a couple. 

I hope it’s ok to add to this? If it’s not I apologise.

I really liked everything you said! I agree completely. The labyrinth was no challenge at all for The Five – but I don’t think it was supposed to be. If it was supposed to keep them out, then it wouldn’t have been tailored to their abilities. I think it was more to keep out everyone else BUT The Five.

As Helen said (paraphrased) “I know how my father thought, if he anticipated one of us wouldn’t have made it, he would have allowed for another of us to complete the task” – she said something like that in reference to Nikola’s test but as you’ve pointed out it could have worked for all of them in a variety of ways.

Plus re: your point about Helen and John. When Gregory set up the tests they were engaged as it was before John was cursed. Making it so his daughter and son-in-law (family in other words) could complete all tasks just makes sense. He would trust them above the others.

However the biggest issue for me with the labyrinth is that it’s the 21st century. I love Nikola I do but he clearly had a failure of imagination re: getting the blood. If he’d done some x-raying imaging of the walls he’d have located the blood where that turning concrete pillar thing was and then a plasma torch could have cut a nice hole around it.

And yes I have thought way too much about this haha. This is probably my favourite episode 🙂

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You know how I initially came up with the idea of a Sanctuary Appreciation Week because I had a long list of gifs I wanted to make, and I thought having some focus so I got them done would help?

Well that really didn’t work out as planned.

On March 3rd when I had the idea I had 28 gifsets on the list. Two days later (after posting about the appreciation week) I had 45 on the list…

I have posted 3 since then. I have 6 in my drafts ready for the appreciation week (and another 8 to make) which *counts* equals 17.

So does that mean I’m back to 28? No! That’ll still leave me with 44 /facepalm. I believe that gives me a total (counting ones I’ve already made) of 64 which is 5 more than there are episodes AND I very much doubt that I’m done adding to the list. I just keep thinking of more.

I think I have a problem haha. Maybe I need to accept that there is no bottom to this list, that I’ll probably never be done. Such is the nature of obsession.

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They made me like fake Captain America how dare!

Seriously he looked so smarmy at his introduction last week and I was all set to hate him. Then his wife/girlfriend came into the locker and he had humility, he wants to do the best he can, he has a long history of service etc.

Sam is still my Captain America but that John Walker guy doesn’t seem all that bad which sucks a little bit as I did really want to hate him. I think Steve might have liked him too. I mean they were deliberately drawing parallels with the “you can’t punch your way out of this one” and how he threw the shield to protect his friend when he fell off the lorry.

He got a bit heavy handed with getting Bucky out of jail and saying that “they’d be working together” when Bucky had already said no. Then there was the warning to “stay out of my way” which wasn’t very friendly. On the other hand with the repeated refusals what else could he say? Would Steve “I’m not asking permission” have been any different?

I’m trying to be fair to Walker I guess. I 110% side with Sam and Bucky but I’m trying to see both sides. Even the bad guys came off a bit sympathetic in this episode. It was quite well done.

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Feeling more positive this evening about finishing my March drawing in time. I finished off the line art and started block colouring and it’s amazing the leap forward that makes. There’s still a long way to go but it looks more like it is coming together I guess.

I’m going to try doing the hair a bit differently than I have been. The way I have been doing it last few drawings is light years better than my embarrassing first attempts (seriously I’m mortified that I put those on the internet) but it’s still not part of a consistent style. I need to go for realism or comic – not in between.

I’ve also done some more research into lighting. I struggle with getting my shading because there’s the contours of the face right, and so I mark those out but the shadows/highlights obviously change dependant on the light source. Then there’s the battle of likeness as obviously I want the people in the drawing to look like they are supposed to. I think the key to that is mostly proportion. I have done some practicing with pencil lately but thats a different style again. It’s hard.

Still I guess by noticing and thinking about it maybe that means I’m learning? On my goals for the year I put “choose an art style” and this is working towards that. I have 9 more months so minimum of 9 more drawings this year to confirm that. I signed up for a video class on pencil art and I need to find the time to work on that. Techniques are obviously different depending on medium but core principles apply across method. Hopefully anyway!