Tag Archives: Sam talks Writing

Camp NaNo: Day Fourteen

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In which you can tell I’m firmly into the endgame as my “words per day” are getting pretty damn high. When I start to get to the end of a story, suddenly it’s all downhill in this sort of mad blitz to the finish line.

I have 3-4 scenes left of and the Sins of Atlantis to write, we’re firmly in wrap-up territory. We’re back in the real world. Everyone was returned to their proper place in time, the records match what they remember, the apocalypse remains cancelled (Apep and the ultimate battle is firmly in the rear view despite the danger of meddling in the time of prophecy). So no worries.

Except poor Jenkins. He’s rather subdued right now and currently contemplating leaving the annex 🙁

I may finish tomorrow, although Friday is more likely. Either way I’m surpassing my estimation of Sunday. Yay for downhill blitz haha.

Once it’s done I will need to do a complete readthrough and maybe a light bit of revision. I’ve gone back a few times and adjusted some stuff when I thought of it, and I need to make sure everything tracks. I’ll also need to split it into chapters. Last month I joked saying that I was covering 11 of the prompts, and my brain really didn’t need to take that as a challenge for needing 11 chapters BUT based on the figures there may well be more than 11 chapters /facepalm

Anyway I’m going to easily make the “on or before July 31st deadline” 🙂

Words Written (this month): 30,317
Current Total (for and the Sins of Atlantis): 51,929

Camp NaNo: Day Twelve

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So work continues on and the Sins of Atlantis. I realised today that I dropped the ball on a plot point, so I need to go back and weave it into a number of scenes. This is why I like what I do now, with writing it completely before I post, it means I can go back and revise when I realise oops something would be better changed.

Anyway, we’re battling the Lake and about to conduct the ritual to retake the library. Battle scenes are hard, I hope I’m managing it ok. We haven’t really seen magic used offensively in the show. We did have Jenkins talk about it a bit and say that it wasn’t like in books, it took hours/a day? to be able to conjure a fireball. So I’m mostly leaning on artifacts.

I’m not thrilled that somehow it’s already the 12th and I’m still not done. I have 2 other WIPs that I had on my list to finish this month. Although admittedly when I ran the numbers, that was incredibly unlikely, but still I dream.

Words Written (this month): 21,803
Current Total (for and the Sins of Atlantis): 43,426

Camp NaNo: Day Ten

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(and yes I did totally forget to do any rambling until now)

So yes Day Ten. This month I’m not working on just one thing, I’m trying to finish a bunch of things. The first priority is the crossover fanfic (Sanctuary / The Librarians / Stargate) for The Librarian’s prompt month. However, I did take today out to write a “Zombie’s in July” oneshot for Sanctuary.

It’s called Life Without Purpose, and it topped out at 2k, and it’s basically John being emo after Helen is killed in Pavor Nocturnus. I’ll do some graphics for it and post it soon.

Anyway! Back to and the Sins of Atlantis. It’s going well. I think I’m sliding into the endgame now. I have 13 characters in one room though which is being a bit of a headache, as I don’t want the reader to forget any of them are there. So I’m trying to dole out lines, and slip in bits of description, as reminders.

This is the big meeting before they assault the library to try and retake it from the Lake. So yeah that’s what I mean by endgame. It’s final battle time. Once that’s done, they’ll be some aftermath/wrapping up scenes and then boom – finished. I’m expecting it to be around 50k when it’s done, so I have another 10k or so to go. That feels about right.

Words Written (this month): 16,823
Current Total (for and the Sins of Atlantis): 38,445

Fandom WIP Status Update

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I’m feeling crappy so I’m going to write a list rather than accomplish anything. I know that’s not helpful but ehhh.

Fics Ready to Post:
– The Tragic Tail (Sanctuary MerMay, waiting on illustration drawing)
– and the Guardian’s Dilemma (Librarians prompt month, posting July 5th)
– and the Brighter Side of Life (Librarians prompt month, posting July 10th)
– and the Outsiders (Librarians prompt month, posting July 23rd)

WIP Fics:

and the Sins of Atlantis
Crossover between The Librarians and Sanctuary (with a side of Stargate lore). Including 11 of the prompts for Librarians prompt month. Current status: 23, 638 words written. It’s probably about half done. Tentative due date July 2nd, although chapter one doesn’t include that prompt so I’m not certain about whether I should post then or not.

Gentlemen of Blood
Sanctuary fic. An AU look at the Adam Worth affair in 1909 because “he has people everywhere” had such energy I needed to run with it. Current status: 6,365 words written. Nowhere near done. It has just begun really. I would like to finish this by the end of the month, as technically it’s for the June WriYe challenge, but we’ll see. So long as I get 15k done on it, then I win the challenge.

Untitled DOSA oneshot
For Librarians prompt month (due July 26th). This has been planned and I’ve started it. If I can stop making this list, and actually do something, I might even finish this today. I’m not intending it to be that long (famous last words I know).

Untitled Finding/not finding Flynn oneshot
Also for Librarians prompt month (due July 14th). This is going to be one of those either/or fics with two chapters. First one is what happened in canon, and the consequences of them not looking for him, and the second chapter is the AU but what if they did? This has been planned but not started.

Time Will Tell
Sanctuary soulmate AU. This has been planned and I’ve written the opening scenes but I don’t have anything more than that. I’m hoping I’ll get to work on this next month but it depends on and the Sins of Atlantis/Gentlemen of Blood as I will finish those first.

Shadow Play
I bet you thought I forgot this one. This was on the list long before any of the others. It’s my technically canon-compliant colour between the lines fanfic for Sanctuary season four. I have a lot of notes but no real plan, and one written scene at the moment. I think this is one that will happen when I eventually stop adding other things to the list. It’s just too easier to keep pushing this one on. One day TM.

WIP Art

Flynn + LiT bonding Pencil drawing
For Librarians prompt month. Due July 9th. Started when I didn’t have a computer and I’ve got so discouraged I haven’t poked at it in weeks. I need to just focus and finish this. Aiming to do that next week.

The Tragic Tail illustration
Digital drawing. I’ve done the basic line art, I now just need to colour and blend. Ideally I’d like to do this next week too but we’ll see. The Librarians art has actual deadlines, this has been drifting for a while now, so it could go a bit longer if necessary. I don’t like that, so hopefully that’ll push me to dig deep and get it done.

Cassandra and Lamia drawing
For Librarians prompt month (to accompany the fic and the Outsiders due on July 23rd) I started this on the iPad in Procreate and it did not go well. I think I’ll start from scratch on the PC. I’m intending to do the other two drawings first (or at least the Flynn + LiT bonding one) so this won’t be tackled until the start of next month.

WIP Gifsets
– Sanctuary OT3 gifset I started pre-losing PC
– Librarians OT3 gifset (Librarians prompt month, due July 25th)
– graphics to accompany and the Guardian’s Dilemma (due July 5th)
– graphics to accompany and the Brighter Side of Life (due July 10th)
– graphics for and the Sins of Atlantis (due sometime July)
– graphics for Gentlemen of Blood
– graphics for Untitled DOSA oneshot (due July 26th)
– graphics for Untitled Finding/not finding Flynn (due July 14th)

So TLDR I haven’t posted stuff in forever but stuff is in progress and I will be dropping a fair bit next month.

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I just looked back to see when I last rambled about my fic.

It was 5 days ago, which isn’t very long, but over 18k which kinda is 😛

and the Sins of Atlantis is going to be a 50k job or nearabouts. I suspected as much but there’s always the hope that it might not. It’s currently getting on for 24k and there’s a fair bit of story left. There are in the alternate reality now, they were split up when they got there, been reunited and had a pow-wow and are splitting up again. Next up is a scavenger hunt for the key to the protections for the library.

I wrote more Gentlemen of Blood today as I suddenly realised with the crossover fic exploding, I was running the risk of not finishing this one within the month (and it’s for the June WriYe challenge). I have a rather horrible feeling that this could potentially be a 50k job too but again hope springs eternal. The scene I wrote today was basically dealing with the aftermath of the opening scene (where the PM was shot). The next scene is The Five bickering, James sniping at John about some recent deaths (which is going to become very relevant in the scene after).

It’s definitely going to be a race to finish both this month. If I can continue at this pace then maybe it’s doable but this pace is sort of part-influenced by not having a PC 😂 less options means less distractions in a way.

I have some hope it’s doable. I pulled it off in March when I managed to finish Fall of Camelot. Have to see. 🤞

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Started another WIP today (Gentlemen of Blood) as it was New Moon Madness on WriYe.

Wrote the first scene in which the Prime Minister got shot. I realised after a bit I should probably look up and get the name of the PM rather than just calling him “PM” all the time. I’ll fix that in editing.

So that takes me to 4 fanfic WIPs (+ 2 planned oneshots), and I’m sitting on 3 finished oneshots (for prompt month) plus the 4 or 5 chapters of finished MerMay story that is waiting for the illustration before I can post. Clearly I’m all in on this fanfic thing at the moment 😛

Tomorrow I’ll go back to the crossover fic and the Sins of Atlantis as I’m not far off finishing chapter two. I’ll hopefully continue and get into the next part as well. I’m expecting chapter 2 to end on a bang with the world dissolving around them into an alternate reality.

Re: the other two WIPs. I have the opening scenes written for Time Will Tell (aka the soulmate AU) and it’s planned obviously. As for Shadow Play I have one random scene and a lot of notes, no concrete plan yet just an idea of what I want to achieve.

My hope is that I will finish all The Librarian’s prompt month stuff this month (including and the Sins of Atlantis) and also Gentlemen of Blood. That will wipe the WIP slate clean and essentially get me back to where I was before prompt month and the 2 WriYe challenges added 8 more fics to my list. Then next month for NaNo I was thinking I’ll write Time Will Tell. I had planned to start the first draft of a new novel but truthfully I haven’t finished the last one yet (I know, I know I feel bad about it too).

The less said about the 2 Librarians art projects the better :/ I will poke at them again soon but I was feeling so discouraged last time, I was waiting until I had the mental oomph to grit my teeth and persist. I really wish I was better at drawing 😔

In other news I miss my computer 🙁 it’s been two weeks without it and still no ETA on when the new one will arrive. I confess to checking my email a bit compulsively hoping for an update but alas nothing.

It’s frustrating. I mean I have all kinds of things I can do without it (and I am trying to do them) but I keep thinking of everything I could do with it. I want to make gifs and to be able to open more than one gdoc at a time. I haven’t played Assassins Creed in months but now I can’t I really want to (and stupid stuff like that). I really want to finish my MerMay drawing.

But anyway nothing to do but wait. At least I can still write! I started this month with my iPad keyboard also busted. Imagine if I had no keyboard at all? That would be way worse.

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Wheee and that’s another oneshot finished!

and the Brighter Side of Life

Joins the pile ready for prompt month. That is three fics covering 4 prompts now.

Tomorrow I’m going to start on the major crossover which will cover about 11 of the prompts 😂 which now has a title… and the Sins of Atlantis.

I just wish the art side of this month was going half as well as the writing side. Frustrating is the word right now :/

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Lol so all that research earlier for what amounted to a 2k fic just because I wanted to be sure that the timeline worked for it /facepalm.

But yes! I succeeded in writing a regular sized oneshot. It ended at 2k (I am bizarrely proud of myself).

So now I have two fics for the prompt month written:

– and the Guardian’s Dilemma

– and the Outsiders

and yes I am choosing to title my fics like they titled the episodes. It seems like a fun thing to do for The Librarians.

Which leaves three oneshots on the list, the crossover… and yes Gentlemen of Blood for Sanctuary. Planning it last night was a mistake because once planned I have to write it 🤷‍♂️ I don’t make the rules.

I’m thinking I’ll see if I can knock out another oneshot tomorrow and then start on either the crossover, or Gentlemen of Blood on Monday. I went AU in the end as it seemed more fun. I am drawing inspiration from the Sherlock Holmes movies and from Bond’s Quantum of Solace. In fact I had a holy shit moment re: the Sherlock Holmes movies. I put in my planning document “Why did Worth steal cyanide instead of using his custom toxin?” and then I remembered Blackwood and the cyanide gas, having provided his followers with the antidote beforehand and boom – mind blown.

I kinda want to do another drawing for The Librarians now. I want to illustrate the fic I just wrote and draw Lamia and Cassandra. I don’t know if I will. I might see if I can have a poke at it on my tablet. I have procreate after all. Could be a disaster but if it is I don’t have to show anyone.

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Still no ETA on the new PC :/

(That’s why I’m not reblogging much at the moment. Tagging and queueing on mobile is too much of a pain.)

Anyway I want to talk about my fic plans for the month. I had pencilled in June to write either Shadow Play or Time Will Tell (long Sanctuary fics) but then I decided to do The Librarians prompt month and those tentative plans went out of the window.

I have plans for five oneshots, one longer fic and a drawing. I have finished one of the oneshots already – and the Guardian’s Dilemma – and I have sort of started the drawing. I always do fandom art digitally but without a computer I decided to try to do it with pencils.

It’s not going well. I’m having scaling problems. I miss the ability to resize my canvas, resize my lines and just generally move around parts of the drawing. I’m trying though and I guess it’s good experience.

I haven’t completely abandoned Sanctuary for The Librarians this month as the longer fic I’m planning is a crossover. I haven’t really written one of those in probably 12 years. I’ve done fusions but I don’t think I’ve done an out and out crossover since I mixed Without a Trace, Alias, Numb3rs and CSI:NY when I was 19. This time I’m going for a Librarians/Sanctuary crossover with a side of Stargate (no Stargate characters appear but there will be heavy use of the Ancients and Atlantis lore).

Also WriYe has a challenge this month called “What’s in a name?” where they provide a long list of titles and you pick whatever speaks to you and write a story for it. One of the titles is Gentlemen of Blood which just screamed Sanctuary to me. I would quite like to write it and I have a tentative concept regarding the Worth affair in 1909 but it’s not planned yet. Whether that happens this month or not is still uncertain. I do have a lot on otherwise with the prompt month and I know me, this could easily be another 50k fic, they do have a tendency to go there 🙄 Plus I can’t quite decide whether to make it AU or technically canon-compliant. If I go AU I can do a happy ending for my OT3 and if I go canon then obviously I can’t.

Perhaps I’ll see about planning Gentlemen of Blood this evening and then I’ll hopefully have a better idea as to whether writing it would be possible or not. Plus that means I can stop poking this drawing which would be a relief. Eve looks so wrong right now 😭

It’s Camp NaNo next month. My pencilled in plans for June (before I went all in on the prompt month) included finishing off the novel I’m currently writing, and planning my next one to start for Camp in July. I’m currently going bwahaha at that idea. I mean I would love to but that is not at all realistic. I am supposed to prioritise the novels over the fanfic but I have never been very good at balance.

I read somewhere (can’t remember where now) the idea of “write what you want to have written, not what you want to write” and I can totally see the sense in that. As it is satisfying when a task is done, to know I did the right thing. But at the same time I have to actually do it and robbing myself of all fun in the present isn’t going to work. So as much as I’m not pleased with myself for writing fanfic instead of my OG novel, I know myself. If I tried to be strict I would end up writing nothing and be miserable. Something is better than nothing even if it’s objectively the wrong something. Also the bad voice at the back of my head tells me lies, like “you can do everything if you just work harder” :/

I’m hoping to knock out more of the Librarians oneshots in the next few days so I then I have less on my list (and it’s less overwhelming). I’m sure I’ll ramble again about how I’m doing.

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So that soulmark fic I talked about the other day?

Yeeeaaaah I started it /facepalm, and planned it. It is definitely going to be a thing. Dammit I didn’t want lots of WIPs and now I have 3. I was trying to start and finish fics before starting another one. Well whoops my hand slipped and accidentally a scene.

I’m still sticking to the finishing before I post rule. I’m not getting sucked into that madness again.