Tag Archives: Sam talks Writing

Posted on by

I haven’t rambled about writing since mid-December apparently.

You know how I did a NaNo report every day in November? Well I’m thinking of making that an every day/all year thing. NaNo was so good for me this year I want to try and continue whatever magic that had. Don’t worry, I’ll probably post it on my private writing sideblog instead of spamming here. Depends on what I’m writing maybe, I can’t decide.

Anyway, it might be 2021 now but fanfic is still happening – for Sanctuary that is. I honestly can’t remember if I have said the current status of things or not so in summary:
– Our Darkest Hour is being posted every Tuesday and Friday at the moment.
– I posted the ridiculously fluffy oneshot Happy Ending
– I have written but not yet posted the oneshot James Watson and the Curious Case of the Jarnul. I want to do an illustration (that will be my January drawing) so it’ll be later this month.
– I am currently writing another long multi-chapter fic Choosing Fate where basically I play with the arranged marriage trope.

I’m aiming to finish writing Choosing Fate by the end of the month (it’s on my writing goals list) but I’m also writing an original novella this month so it’ll depend on how words go. Currently today = not well. Focus = non-existent, which is probably why I’m rambling.

Anyway, that’s where things stand.

Posted on by

I’ve reached the point in my Sanctuary obsession where I’m actively trying to give myself ideas.

I was working on my third fic today. It’s a oneshot, will be maybe 10k when it’s done, not sure. I’ll hopefully finish it in the next few days.

There’s an event on 4thewords and so I was thinking to myself “I need a project to make me write everyday so I can complete the quests” and so then I went looking through fanfic AU’s and tropes trying to spark something /facepalm.

You see the problem I have is that 1/3rd of my ship dies at the end of season one. So I can’t easily branch off after that in terms of canon-divergence.
– My first fic (the long one) I branched off from that episode (yay fix-it hehe).
– the second fic (little fluffy oneshot) branched a long time before the show started, during the backstory (in 1888).
– the one I’m writing now probably is set in the same verse as my long fic (a year after it ends).

Which leaves pure AU which I don’t like because the canon is so much part of it for me, with the source blood and the sanctuary, that I don’t feel any inspiration for writing a story without it.

BUT! My browsing today gave me an idea for a potential AU that would still work with canon. In canon they met at Oxford. They took classes together, bonded over science, became friends and then more. However, what if they met differently? I’m thinking something using the arranged marriage trope.

I will have to think on it.

Posted on by

Ok it’s been four days.

I’ve been working on my OT3 Christmas illustration. I have the pose down now. I’m currently toying with the lineart. I think this is where it starts to go wrong usually as I rush it (despite me always taking far too long on every drawing I do). I’ve been studying this art I really admire, looking for tips on how to do it better. We’ll see. I have a couple of weeks before I want to post.

I know I said last January that this year was the year of Killjoys (for my calendar) and that next year would be Warehouse 13 (aka mostly Bering and Wells) but I’m just too mad on Sanctuary right now. So I’ve been putting together quotes and pictures for it. It is taking longer than normal as I’m getting all the pics myself rather than accepting whatever google throws back.

So yeah 4 days and it’s still been a very Sanctuary week 🙂 aaaand now I have another fic idea. It came to me as a crossover (with CSI) but I don’t know whether I’ll write it like that. It’s mostly James and John centric in a fluffy future where the OT3 are happy together.

It’s New Moon Madness on the 14th (WriYe) I think so I could wait until then to start, or I could just start heh. I don’t want to resist. If I have the idea why not have fun with it? Let me indulge this Sanctuary passion while it feels good 🙂

Posted on by

Ok I split Our Darkest Hour into 14 chapters in the end.

The christmas flashback is in chapter four. So I’m currently pondering. If I post twice a week then that chapter would go up a week before christmas. Hmm.

Also I was doing a ramble plan for this wedding oneshot and I started on this long thing about John’s dad – guy was never mentioned on the show. How do I have headcanon’s about him???

Anyway, I think the detail I’m struggling most with at the moment is who Helen would have as attendants. Given she didn’t have much use for gendered nonsense I’ve always figured she didn’t really have any female friends. Her dad was an only child. Perhaps her mum had family? That could work.

I particularly like the detail about Victorian weddings which say that the best man has to go ahead to “look after the luggage” for the couple’s honeymoon and is the only one that knows where they are going. So helpful for James seeing as he’ll be going with them bwahaha 🙂

Posted on by

Ok I’ve spent the last couple of days revising Our Darkest Hour.

and I just spent the evening making a promo gifset for fun. I didn’t much like the cover I made in the end and I thought this was cooler.

Now I just need to decide whether I drop the whole 61k thing in one go like a boss, or post it one chapter at a time for a while. I mean nobody is probably going to read it anyway so it’s just what I feel like doing.

Maybe I should split it up into chapters first and see how many I have. When I’ve done long fics in the past I usually try and make chapters a similar kind of length, average them 3.5k-4.5k. Which *does math* on an average of 4k would be 15 chapters. I could post a couple of times a week for a couple of months I guess.

I was considering doing an illustration of the fluffy christmas flashback. Although I’m thinking of writing the fluffy wedding oneshot this weekend and an illustration of that would also be cool. Shhh nobody tell me I suck at drawing (I know I do) and my imagination definitely far outstrips my ability buuuut it could still be fun I don’t know.

Anyway I should decide if I’m going to commit to a boatload of drawing because if I am, then I should probably sync up when the drawing will be ready to post with the fic. Considering I haven’t done any drawing this year that could take a while.

Help this ship is taking me over haha.

The NaNo Report: THE END

Posted on by

THE END! THE END! THE END!

Seriously!

/dies

I had to write 5 scenes to get there. I wrote more today than I have any other single day this month, more than I have in any single day this year and probably for quite a while before that too. It was a mammoth effort but I wanted to do it so bad because I wanted to reach THE END this month.

AND I DID!

/dies

Haha.

What comes next? Oh merlin I don’t know. I have to do other things tomorrow really as I did nothing but write today. I don’t want to take too big a break from writing though because I want to try and keep any momentum I might have gained. So I want to revise this story and post it, and then maybe work on another one. Perhaps that fluffy wedding day oneshot I threatened.

Phew. I made it. I can hardly believe it but I did. And I owe it all to Sanctuary and my beloved Nikola Tesla, Helen Magnus, James Watson and John Druitt. My favourite character and my ship. I’m all about The Five 🙂

Words Written: 6,106 (why I’m dead)
Current Total: 66,804 (and THE END!!) 

#now that’s over maybe I’ll have time to make some of those gifsets I want to do#and also you know maybe watch the show some more#because clearly it’s inspirational and I should get ideas for more fic haha

The NaNo Report: Day Twenty-Nine

Posted on by

So Helen, John and James know the truth now. The question is what are they going to do about it? Truthfully I’m not sure because it’s been a hundred and twenty years and you don’t get over that quickly. Trust takes time. I need to decide what they would think they should do, so that it feels believable.

I’m hoping I’ll finish and type ‘The End’ tomorrow. I’ve got all the big emotional conversations and flashbacks to do so it’ll be a lot. But it’s Full Moon Madness at WriYe so hopefully that’ll be a good word count boost. Here’s hoping tomorrow I can gleefully announce the end! (one can hope) 🙂

Words Written: 2,398
Current Total: 60,698

The NaNo Report: Day Twenty-Eight

Posted on by

Ok so we’re into the endgame now. We’ve back in Praxis and oh wow a previous good guy has turned into a cold-blooded killer, how did that happen? Bwahaha. They are very close to finding out the truth ala Haunted, so close. Oh this ship is pain. It’s going to be a lot for them to process.

I thought I would hurtle more to the end in a kind of frantic downhill way (that’s what has happened in the past) but it’s still being more slow and steady. Perhaps when I get even closer it’ll happen. I’m still hoping I’ll finish by the end of the month, maybe type ‘The End’ on Monday. I’d like that 🙂

Words Written: 1,979
Current Total: 58,300 

Posted on by

My metric as I tweak dialogue in fanfic

“Can I hear the character saying it in my head?”

I always wonder whether a) other fanfic writers can hear it when they are writing and b) whether when people read my fic they can hear it/think I got it right, or whether I did in fact get it wrong.

I really hope I don’t get it wrong. I mean just because it’s not canon ‘canon’ doesn’t mean it’s necessarily OOC right?

*mumbles* I still think my OT3 could be actual canon, I mean I’ve not seen any proof that’s it not yet, just saying. Not that it matters because I will row this ship myself. I haven’t felt this much love for anything since my Rumbelle heydays. I came close with Bering and Wells. I probably would have gone there with Bering and Wells but alas the stars were not aligned. Who knows if I pick up Warehouse 13 again it may well happen.

Apparently 150+ year old Victorians make for excellent ships haha.

The NaNo Report: Day Twenty-Seven

Posted on by

So eagle-eyed readers might have noticed I missed 2 days. What can I say I didn’t feel well. I actually had naps and I never sleep during the day so I must have been pretty bad. I did manage to write a few sentences to keep my “update every day” badge on the NaNo site but that’s it. I couldn’t even do the 4thewords streak (that’s 444) but I cheated with that and just fixed it as *cough* I’ve done for most of the year but let’s skate over that.

Ok what I’ve written now is the last wrap-up plot scene. I started this next scene with “three days later” and we’re into the endgame. The return to Praxis is happening, things will be made clear (hopefully) and then it’s not a happy ending but it’s the road to one. I really hope I will be able to finish it in the next three days. I’d love to be able to write ‘The End’ before the end of the month.

I’ve been thinking about my tags for this when I post it (after I’ve cleaned it up obviously). Is slow burn reconciliation a thing? because it’s definitely that. I also need to work out how to tag for “written before I watched past 3×15″ in case that’s important. I also don’t know whether I should tag it as AU or just canon-divergent. To be honest I don’t think it is AU, anything I’ve made up could be canon as I just think it explains things canon didn’t, but then I haven’t seen the whole show so that might not be true.

I will think on it.

Words Written:
Day 25: 74
Day 26: 158
Day 27: 1,762
Current Total: 56,321