OMG OMG OMG you guys.

I finished Fall of Camelot!!!

(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 🙂

I’ve been working hard on Fall of Camelot and I’ve run into the same problem that I had with Choosing Fate. I don’t know if you recall but I reached a point with that where I realised I’d written the start a bit wrong. I’m quite linear, I’m not someone that can write out of order, and so I stalled writing as continuing when it’s wrong felt wrong.

So I went back and fixed it and I’m going to have to do the same with Fall of Camelot. That’s not ideal. I do try and tell myself – first draft, fix later – but ehhh whatever gets me to the finish line I guess.

There was a planning party on the WriYe discord this evening. I didn’t really need to plan but it was good to remind myself a bit of the novel I’m thinking I’ll try and write next month (if I finish Fall of Camelot). That doesn’t feel very likely at the moment but that’s probably my tiredness talking. I’m reminded of the tumblr post I read about not getting 8 hours sleep regularly, and I’ve been waking up way too early for weeks now. I am so tired 🙁

Anyway, I’m not sure if it’ll ever see the light of day but in my frustration I started a little Warehouse 13/Sanctuary crossover ficlet. Basically so far I have Pete geeking out over the fact that mythical creatures exist, and HG is having far too much fun pointing out all the things that people believe about vampires that aren’t true. I’m just building up to the revelation that it’s Nikola Tesla, who she recruited for Warehouse 12 hehe.

I’d like to cross the Librarians and Sanctuary somehow but it doesn’t really work because of vampires. They have them on the Librarians and they are the burn up in the sun, turn to ash with a stake through the heart etc. type aka not the badass “get down from there” Nikola Tesla kind. Which is a shame because Nikola is mentioned in the Librarians. Although not in a good way as he did this experiment which shifted an entire town into a different phase and they had to do body snatching to interact with the real world.

Maybe I need to do invasion of the multi-verse. The Librarians have a problem and only Nikola Tesla can solve it. The solution is a magical artifact which they think reaches across time, so they can talk to him in the past, but instead it reaches across dimensions and they get a suspicious vampire. That’s a fun story to tell myself when I can’t sleep later at least 🙂

Haha I just realised I forgot to say yesterday that I finished Choosing Fate. Whoop! *pumps fist* 🙂 🙂 🙂

Do you want to know why I forgot? Because I immediately started making a header for it for tumblr. I was undecided about what to do. I considered doing a drawing but I couldn’t think of a pose I liked. I considered doing a photo manip but again the pose stumped me. In the end I did a gif thing which doesn’t exactly look how I’d like but I’m going to roll with it.

(That’s the problem with making stuff with only a vague image in mind. It’s hard to bring something into reality that doesn’t really exist.)

Anyway the story is just over 51k at the moment. I need to do a mini-revision/editing pass to make sure I didn’t screw up too badly. It’s Monday and knowing me and my lack of impulse control… I may start posting on Friday. I don’t know how many chapters there are yet but given the length I’d say approximately a dozen. I’ll post on Tuesdays and Fridays again until the story is complete.

So today I started on Fall of Camelot again. I’m pressing ahead with my ‘plan’ to see if I can finish that this month and then start something fresh for Camp NaNo. I’m currently pondering doing this sci-fi detective thriller novel as the Camp project. As tempted as I am to do another Sanctuary fanfic I did promise myself I would complete at least one original novel this year.

Plus if this plan works then I could totally write my season 4 AU/colouring in the lines fic in May guilt free!

Well I’ve gone and done it now haha. Throwing stuff out there is always so scary. Also I’m paranoid I’ve spent appreciation wrong somewhere. That is a hard word.

Anyway worst case scenario it falls flat. No big deal. I’ll still make stuff.

Ok writing update! I’m approaching the end of Choosing Fate. Today I worked out how many scenes I have left (5) and I’m going to attempt to finish by the end of the week. That is a teeny bit ambitious (they are big scenes) but I always get a boost when I near the end. I feel like it’s all downhill and I just want to get there. Plus it’s 5k weekend on WriYe and challenges always help.

It’s going to need some work when it’s done. I’ve already made a few notes of stuff I’m not sure I adequately included earlier but having a complete draft means I’m one step closer. This fic has been tricky, I think it’s the lack of gunfire. I always seem to do best when there’s a bad guy to fight. This was all feelings and mutually pining idiots.

Still I can now check ‘arranged marriage’ off my bucket list 🙂

Words Written: 2,160
Current Total: 43,531

Wrote loads today. It was 4thewords fault. I just had to keep beating Tylu for claws. Managed to hand in a few quests. I love that feeling! 🙂

Also decided to move up the source blood experiment from “hinting at the end of the epilogue” to “part of the actual fic”. I’d introduced both Nigel and Nikola so it made sense. Plus I needed something to give the next bit some structure. They are being miscommunicating idiots at the moment and I don’t want to bang on about that too much, but timeline wise I needed the story to go on before the resolution. Pacing.

So Helen just told John and James about the existence of abnormals. They discussed research but that isn’t going to hold for long hence bringing in the source blood. I’m a bit concerned about length. I’m not trying to drag it out but it’s getting to be long (almost 40k) and I really hope it’s not boring.

I’m thinking about how long it’s going to take me to finish it. I’m thinking about Camp NaNo and what project to pick. Ideally it would be good to start a new one and try and do the NaNo experience with a fresh project and try and finish it. However I don’t know how that’s going to sync up. If I finish Choosing Fate middle of this month and then move to Fall of Camelot where is that going to leave me for the start of April?

My inclination last 2 days has been to try and write faster but it’s a crazy hope to think I could finish Fall of Camelot by the end of the month. I’m still tempted to try though. I guess maybe I’ll know better what is likely later this month. Still after hoping that I’d finish Choosing Fate by the end of January I am relieved at least to feel like I’m approaching the end.

Words Written: 2,846
Current Total: 39,675

I haven’t rambled again in a while oops but I have been writing. I haven’t missed a day since I last rambled.

Since then I finished that “AU of an AU” and I’ve been working on Choosing Fate. I really wish that I had a beta reader, I think I’ve said this before, because I could do with another set of eyes. I want to know if it’s boring to read. Basically I’m worrying that it’s not any good. I don’t know why because I only had one person (maybe two) read Our Darkest Hour so it’s not like I’ve got many people to disappoint.

Anyway, I’m starting to get a better feeling on the stories direction. A couple of days ago I hit a point and I wasn’t sure where to go next. I mean I have the ending but it’s the middle part, I wasn’t sure how to structure it. But since then the threads have started to come together.

You know I posted the bulk of my Rumbelle fanfic between May 2016 and May 2017. There were a few little stories after that but nothing to write home about. That was over 500k in a year. Heady days, a fandom obsession and like a lot of things that burn hot it didn’t last. A lot of that was to do with things that were going on IRL but I think the passion also faded.

Since then I’ve written odd things but nothing got my attention the same way. Nothing until … Sanctuary. I don’t know why it grabbed me so hard but it has. I started writing November 1st last year and I’ve gone over 100k already. Heady days, a new obsession. I also love that even though I get crickets, I’m still just as passionate about this OT3.

True I miss having fellow fans to bounce off. There’s an energy to that which I miss, and yeah sure comments are lovely and don’t get me wrong I’d love more. But I do find myself content enough with just the journey. I love writing for this OT3, for this show, I love immersing myself in that world. I’ve already started taking notes for the actual AU (my next big fic) and I haven’t finished this multi-chapter yet.

I don’t know when this obsession will fade, though I’m sure it’ll happen sometime. Until then however 🙂

Words Written: 2,724
Current Total: 33,210

4thewords has these events. Today is the last day of the “Love is in the Air” event so I wrote a lot to finish the quests. Technically so long as the monsters are in the battle queue I could have done the remainder at my leisure but I decided to make the effort and finish it. There’s lots of regular quests and monsters still to beat after all 🙂

Anyway, I wrote a bit of Choosing Fate. Finally after 25k Nikola got introduced (I had missed him) but then I started to struggle. In my planning notes I have that the three guys have a “battle of wits” and I’m not that smart, in any battle of wits I’m unarmed. So I decided to take a break and picked up the ‘AU of an AU’ again. I’ve almost finished that now, just got to finish off the last scene and boom, done.

Honestly I’m disappointed with myself. When I did my goals I said I wanted to finish Choosing Fate by the end of January, I doubly wanted to finish it when I decided I wanted to bench my original novella for a while (so I wasn’t trying to do both) but it still didn’t happen. I resolved that I definitely needed to finish it in February… and yeah that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen either 🙁

I miss NaNo. I really wish I could replicate that. I wrote Our Darkest Hour in a month and that’s what I wanted for Choosing Fate. Anyway, I guess progress is still progress. I’m persisting and that’s the main thing.

Words Written: 2,738
Current Total:
26,159 (Choosing Fate)
11,473 (AU of an AU)

Finally picked Choosing Fate back up again. Honestly note to self “do not abandon stories mid-scene!!” it was hell trying to remember what I was aiming for there as I couldn’t remember.

(which means I shouldn’t just stop on the AU of an AU as yup you guessed it I’m mid-scene)

Anyway, I’m hoping the mixture of emotions, and how the POV characters are interpreting it, is coming across ok. This kind of thing was much easier back in the day when I head-hopped but I’ve trained myself out of doing that now. It’s like I know what John is feeling and why, but Helen doesn’t have any of that background, so what would she think of his demeanour?

One thing I have noticed is I feel like my character voice is improving maybe? It’s certainly occurring to me to make different language choices based on the POV which feels like a good sign. Of course I could just be seeing what I expect to because I know what I intend (and reason #118 why I really wish I had a beta reader because I would kill for some honest feedback).

Hopefully as I’ve now moved past that sticky scene I’ll find it easier to keep going on this story. I committed to adding at least 10k on it this month, although ideally I really did want to finish it (that’s not likely to happen now thanks to my fortnight of zeros *sad face*). Still progress I guess :/

Words Written: 1,472
Current Total: 23,856

Ok so I didn’t write Choosing Fate today after all. I was kinda in the groove of this AU of an AU so I ran with it. I had quests to do on 4thewords and I needed lots of words for them. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it 🙂

There’s 2 scenes left I think of this oneshot. Although can you really call it a oneshot if it’s likely to top 10k? Erm if I just post it all in the one chapter then maybe? It’s as good a theory as any.

I should really title this thing. I think I’m waiting on it as I don’t know what I’m going to call the larger AU, and it would be good I think for them to have complimentary titles. I will think on it.

Words Written: 2,743
Current Total: 7,395 (for this AU of an AU)