lila's 2023 writing wrap up!

we continue my yearly tradition of taking stock of what i wrote this year!! this year was a little different, in two big ways: the first was that i spent months editing and proofreading and publishing two books.

the red king's mystical suitors, which is out now

and the lover with five names, which drops january 23rd!

as well as managing all the work of being a self published author. (tldr it's no joke! not for the feint of heart! i feel a bit like the meme of the boy drowning!)

the second reason was that i spent a huge amount of time writing fanfiction this year, which was huge for my mental health but not forgiving when it came to original books. these two things combined means that i didn't spend as much time drafting new books as i typically do. not something i'm unhappy about, or am ashamed of, just a change! without further ado:

projects i finished this year:

skyriders (73k)

jack of fools (65k)

queen of crowns (74k)

the night auction (73k)

and 230k of fanfiction across 3 different fandoms! (hannibal bullet train and loki if you're wondering. if you want my ao3 then message me lmao)

unfinished things i wrote this year:

king of aces (51k)

weavers (17k)

untitled wip i called art gays: 12k

daybreakers: 11k

miscellaneous other 10k, let's say

projects planned for next year (a fun addition because i almost never end up going through with what i have planned, fun to look back on from the previous year)

the night auction sequel

secret wip #1 (mlm romcom)

secret wip #2 (sapphic romance)

secret wip #3 (no hints on this one)

i tried out secret writing for the first time this year, too! won nanowrimo for the first time since 2019, and it worked an absolute dream! 10/10 would and will do again.

(edit: realized i actually did win nanowrimo in 2021 and 2022. i'm an idiot)

until next year, everyone!

GENERAL TAGLIST: @worldbuildng @muddshadow @nikkywrites @47crayons @directionoftime @chayscribbles @magic-is-something-we-create @rodentwrites

wip junk

tag games, am i right!? i always lose track of these lol, oops haha. i was tagged by @sothischickshe to gesture vaguely about my wips. i have a lot more wishful wips than this, but these are the ones that i am either currently toying with and/or have Actual Substance thusfar:

A VERY ACTIVE IMAGINATION

i was originally dabbling with this as a longer-form fic, but when i had stepped back for a bit and returned to it, i realized what i had was best as separate vignettes, so i started posting these little fantasies recently under a series. also selfishly because i was overthinking too much and started to doubt what i was writing, so i really just wanted to post things and put them out there to be read. ANYWAY! the next installation i'm working on is 'the dealership', where beth fantasizes about all the dirty, dirty things she and rio could get up to within those glass walls... (what's that about throwing stones?) after that i have thoughts on creating vignettes focusing on The Loft and The Gun, and others, but those are the two subjects that are prominent in planning right now.

THE THORN

@sothischickshe sent in an intimacy prompt a million years ago for "kissing scars" and it's become a monster of a rio character study. the problem is, i'm not sure if i can pull it off? to me, rio is suuuuper emotional. and i know we like to talk about how repressed beth is but like damn look at rio lmao, king doesn't know how to communicate for shit either. as i've worked on this draft, a handful of ~flashbacks have happened too, which are daunting. i explore rio's self-confidence and try to break that down from his perspective; i also attempt to explain the very conservative wardrobe we've seen post-s2 finale. ultimately, it's a complicated wip that i've been toying with a lot. but i recently took a little break from looking at it and then came back last night to read what i had and liked it so! i guess that's promising. hopefully i can finish a first draft and move forward lol.

OUROBOROS (working title lol)

i wanted this to be a simple pwp featuring some in vino veritas... and i GUESS it still is, technically, because they still just go to town on each other but there's also a lot of other working parts that i'm trying to get right. i'm not sure when in the timeline this happens? probably somewhere in an ideal season 3 where the death divorce actually happens or something, idk. anyway, beth is at rio's bar and then she starts talking a lot and spills a lot of her guts and then they have very intense sex all night long lol. the 'ouroboros' working title is a reference to 69ing, it's not that deep i swear. they just want to devour each other.

MELT + A FIVOLOUS PURCHASE

i'm grouping these two together because i'm realizing they are inspired by the same thing: it's so fucking hot where i live right now and i want to take it out on brio. melt is pure pwp ice-play fic, i plucked it out of the ouroboros wip because it didn't exactly fit and well that's it. a fivolous purchase disregards the living room hot tub and turns it into beth buying an above-ground pool and then rio comes over to bother her take a dip. i'm trying to keep it light-hearted/funny while also still sexy. a particularly fun thing i'm playing with in these especially: TEMPERATURE. we've got ice vs intense summer sunshine heat. it's been fun to write the different sensory descriptions here.

BETH X PHOEBE 4X06 CANON DIVERGENCE

this one might actually end up a 2 or 3-part something. i've been working on it since the ep aired. i know beth x phoebe isn't a popular ship by any means so this is pure self-indulgence. i am hesitant to post though because i'd probably consider it a "DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EAT" fic and idk how to handle that??? idk. i don't care but i don't want people to judge me lmfao, so i may never post it. still, i degrade a cop in it so that's fun.

DREAM WIPS (things i have thought about a lot but haven't written much/anything for)

listed here are my working titles for these ideas. i will expand upon any of these if anyone is interested, just shoot me an ask! FOODIE AU / PIT STOP / THE SILENT TREATMENT / SOCCER MAMI / LINGERIE SHOPPING AVEC RUBY / TO CATCH A THIEF / BATHOME4 IS ONLINE / MANGOES ON THE BEACH PWP / FOUR TIMES BETH WAS PREGNANT AND ONE TIME SHE WASN'T

jfc i wish i could write as prolifically in my actual docs as i do when i just ramble about what i want to write...but anyway so these are my ideas. i'm tinkering a lot. i get in my head a lot and start feeling like my writing isn't good/no one wants this and talk myself out of it way too often, so i used this as an opportunity to try and take an objective look at what i'm writing and you know.... yeah! i like these ideas! a lot! i want to finish them and share them!

tagging for the rambles (but absolutely no pressure): @sothischickshe (tag back biotch), @inyoursheets, @daydreamstew, @foxmagpie, @pynkhues, @dragonturtle, and anyone else who thinks this is fun/will help them write!!! it's a fun exercise i promise! <3

Hey! I hope this is OK to ask but do you have any tips on completing multi chap works? I’m in a pickle, I tend to create large complex plots with tons of chapters, but falter to actually write anything past the first five chapters. I do oneshots now & then to finish s o m e t h i n g, but i would really like to finish a bigger fish so to speak (oh but no pressure on answering if this makes you uncomfortable! Have a nice day! :] )

On one hand, I'm quite flattered and honored that you asked me this question, on the other hand, I wish I could give you better concrete answers because I have: 1) a huge, chronic WIP pile problem (I have over 600+ wips I've accumulated since 2016); 2) I am one of those people who finishes oneshots and posts them or I have extremely huge wips just...sitting there, unfinished (I can definitely list you word counts on those, they range from 12K to like...over 70K. I know, it's a problem lmao!); 3) Before 2016, I had a problem finishing multi-chaptered stories, and I promised myself to not write any more and now, I have one I haven't...finished either though I know how the entire story goes (mostly because it's going to go into some extremely dark/heavy topics and the climate right now I don't have the mental energy to deal with it).

For the times I've been consistently on a writing roll (one time I wrote over 100K+ of words within a month-ish, but not all on the same project, some were snippets, some were oneshots), what helped me a bit on that was actually have cheer readers? I had friends where I would literally post the works and they would read all excited. Granted, it was shared on discord, but the principle applies. They were people who supported me but also whose writing opinions I respected, I think that's key.

Honestly though, the differing kinds of advice I could give, I've only heard from friends I know. Some of them love outlining or doing detailed notes. Some of them just like talking about it and having someone to soundboard off. And the thing with long stories though is to have some kind of patience -- unless you end up zipping off and finishing something from start to finish something lengthy in one long burst and also potentially losing sleep -- these things take time to develop and grow, and actual physical energy to create: the act of typing, the brain energy it takes to actually think about the worlds, the characterizations, the plots, etc.

Some people I know like to take time to dedicate at least a "little" bit to putting the words into the story, either through timed sprints, or a word count limit (ex. "write 500 words for this draft this week") or whatever. I have a friend whose been working on this fic for over 15 years and it's not finished, but real life has gone in the way. You gotta work with your mental and physical health reserves and try to work with your life's schedule. It's fun to create but don't do it at the expense of your wellbeing or treat it like a job or something that'll make you hurt because then it'll make it harder to finish.

Also, I do remember reading a post about working up to being able to churn out a lot of words very quickly. The thing is, that's as much a skill, as anything else. And most people do not start out being able to write fast. Back in 2016, after I came off a 10 year writing hiatus, I didn't know future me would be able to concoct a 20k-ish draft of something in a day if I was inspired. I wrote oneshots that some ended up becoming longer than others and worked my way up. Some of that had to do with having a writing partner for a short while but another was just... to try to finish a draft of a longfic that was completed, even if I never posted it.

I still consider that an accomplishment, even if the way I went about it was NOT healthy (and I do not advise anyone to do what I did but I also recently at the time was out of college and unemployed at the time so I could do this), but I had spent over 36? ish hours typing this 12K story just taking stops for food and bathroom breaks. It wasn't the most prettiest of drafts and it's hella hella rough, but for the first time I was able to look at something I did and go: "Hey, it's a longfic. It's completed. It's done. Wow." (And then I ended up passing out for 18 hours.)

Perhaps doing something like that might help, along with people who might be able to read your work while you're working on it to be like 'AHHHH THIS IS GREAT I CAN'T WAIT' or whatever. Slowly work your way up to the kind of really complex story you want to write. Or you could reward yourself with something when you got to certain milestones in the fic you wanna write. And there's no shame in working on more than one fic at a time, if you can handle that. (I have some friends who are one story at a time people and that's totally ok.) There's nothing wrong either with taking a step back to breathe and have a fresh set of eyes on your story either.

I dunno if you've posted the first five chapters or not on some of your stories, some friends of mine suggested I do that to motivate me. If you haven't done this, maybe that might work for you! (Sadly, it does not work for me. My track record sadly speaks for itself lmao)

I do know for certain though, I end up writing more and putting more into the stories when I actually feel ok. As in I feel I have enough physical and mental energy, that my physical and mental health and things going in my life are doing moderately "ok". I haven't written much in months and my actual desire/urge to do so without it feeling painful has been going on for awhile. But I know right now I need to focus on that, and it's been kinda good, coming back in bits and pieces in the last week or so, but it's not there yet. I know it will be though.

So, honestly, anon, I am in the same boat as you and I wish I could give you some tried and true tips. All I can give you is examples of other friends' who have worked on things and their process and methods -- and these are people who have finished multi-chaptered works. Sometimes having small goals helps. Sometimes organizing things helps (outlines or detailed notes or some infographic timeline or etc). Having cheer readers around is nice (and does kinda work for me). Sometimes doing timed sprints (whether they're 5 or 10 minute or longer) by yourself or with others helps.

If anyone has any better suggestions, feel free to let anon know!

NaNoWriMo: Wrap Up!

I can’t believe another November has come and gone. I can’t believe something that I started doing in 8th grade just for fun has become such a big part of my life that, nine years and 10 nanos later, I’m still already excited about next November. It was through NaNoWriMo that I finished my first ever first draft of a novel (it was when I was 13, and it was absolute trash, and I love it). I’ve met countless friends, collected countless WIPs, and really driven home how important writing as a medium is for me. 

Now that the sappy stuff is over, here’s some more fun stats and things:

End Word Count: 50,563!!

I did it! I hit the 50,000 mark yesterday, and then finished up the chapter I was on this evening. I knew going in that this month was going to be particularly hard on me - moving all my stuff home, exams, big research paper, all on top of trying to write part of a novel. And I was really nervous about how I was going to manage to keep up.

Somehow, I actually was more consistent this year than I’ve ever achieved before? 2020 was the first time that I ever managed to write every single day of November (even if one of those days was only 5 words and doesn’t even show up on the site’s little daily chart). And honestly I might be more proud of that than I am of actually hitting the big 50K. 

It helped that my project was really fun this year. I haven’t always loved every moment that I’ve been working on Beneath Alder Creek - the usual bouts of loathing anything I put down on the page showed up as normal - but even when the quality itself was in question, the actual story never stopped being something I wanted to write. 

I can’t possibly go through the whole thing and pick out all my favorite pieces right now (sometimes, prioritizing nano means falling behind on hw lmao), but here are a couple more recent snippets.

Excerpt 1:

The throne room was far smaller than Winnie had expected, especially coming from the front hall. It was strikingly similar in size and setup to a chapel, with rows of pews all facing a central pulpit. Only, rather than a lectern for a preacher, a platform was raised to draw focus to a large, golden throne. The throne itself was intricately beautiful, but Winnie hardly noticed it, too concentrated on the figure sitting upon it. Queen Ceridwen, Enid had called her. She was at once both divine and grotesque, white skin with dark veins that stitched themselves into a tangle of smaller lines, like the splitting of branches as they extended from the trunk. Her eyes and lips were black, or near enough to create a stark contrast, and matching, sleek horns stretched out from where her hairline ought have been. A golden crown jutted down to the tops of her cheekbones and tucked back behind her ear, extending up in spikes that shot out like a sunrise, each one longer than Winnie’s hand. Perhaps even more chilling than her appearance were her eyes. There was a fathomlessness to the darkness, the depth of shadows that brought with them the fear of the unknown. Though the Queen’s expression remained passive and detached, as Winnie stared at her, she had the feeling that the matriarch was not actually with them but making her observations from somewhere within those cavernous eyes. “Speak.”

Excerpt 2:

The music was still playing, but its calm, ambling tempo had quickened with Winnie’s heart rate, and its soothing, entrancing melody broke into a high, panicked frenzy, piercing through the forest. Birds that had been resting on branches took flight. The fish dashed through the water, twisting and thrashing. A line of ants at Winnie’s feet broke formation as they hurried away from the lake. But for all their terror, Winnie was drawn in all the more. One step. Her foot was beneath the water, but she no longer felt the cold. Two steps. The hem of her dress was wet, quickly taking on more weight. Winnie felt none of it. Three steps. Winnie was halfway up her calf in the lake, and the ground beneath her feet was steadily sloping down. Four steps. A sudden plunge up over her knee. The splash could not be heard over the urgent pipe. Five steps. Suddenly up to her waist. Winnie struggled to keep her balance, raising her arms to hold them above the surface. Six steps. It was more of a slide than a step, as Winnie hit the end of the decline. Only by lifting her chin could she keep her face out of the water. She had made progress, nearly halfway to the island. Seven steps, and a sudden tug at the back of her dress. Winnie was dragged backwards out of the lake, choking against her collar.

Excerpt 3:

Winnie paced silently between two large trees, hands clasped tightly behind her back. She had been doing so for several minutes, ever since discovering Taliesin’s abduction, and though Enid had begun by patiently watching, her claw-like nails drummed against her sleeve as she waited for the human girl to say something. Just as Enid took in a deep breath, preparing to interrupt Winnie’s clouded thoughts, the young woman stopped, turned to her companion, and asked, “Did you see which way they went?” “What are you planning to do, track them?” Enid asked teasingly, but her smile faltered at the solemnity in Winnie’s eyes. “You can’t be serious. You’d have no chance against a scout, they’re meant to move without a trace.” Winnie’s earnest gaze deflated into disappointment. As she stared down at the ground, past Enid, her eye caught Taliesin’s pack, still lying where he’d left it. A rush of hope filled her with renewed optimism. “Perhaps Taliesin left some kind of trail for us to follow! Something small, like breadcrumbs. That’s always how they mark their path in fairytales.” Enid leaned against a tree, examining her nails with disinterest. “Of course he doesn’t expect us to follow him. What reason do you have for helping him out, anyway?” The callousness in her voice was unexpectedly brutal. Winnie knew that Enid and Taliesin did not seem to get along, and likely that what little tolerance for each other they displayed was purely out of respect for the deal that had been made. But to show no care for his capture was a level of apathy that Winnie hadn’t expected. “I still have a deal that needs to be fulfilled.” It was true, and better, something that Winnie knew Enid might understand. The woman’s expression remained cold. “As I see it, you can cut him out of the deal. Our aims both lead us to the Dusk Court. You find your brother, I get help dethroning an advisor, and we go our separate ways.”

Excerpt 4:

Back into the bog. Winnie no longer worried herself with her skirts, allowing them to drag through the stagnant water. It was a mistake, she soon discovered, as the drenched fabric weighed her down and made the progress even slower. With an exasperated groan, she stomped at the ground, kicking up a spray and lodging her boot into the mud. Taliesin appeared at her side, having turned back while she was distracted. “Having trouble?” “Just tell me how much farther we have to go before we reach these all-knowing Three,” Winnie said darkly, glaring at him from beneath strands of hair that had come loose from the lopsided bun she’d attempted. “I think I have a better idea,” Taliesin offered. He reached out his hand, and Winnie let hers drop into it, clutching at her skirt with the other. Taliesin’s eyes closed, and Winnie felt the boot free itself from the mud. She breathed a sigh of gratitude, but quickly realized that her foot had not stopped there. She was no longer eye-level with Taliesin, but looking down at him slightly. The droplets from her skirt and shoes hitting the water below revealed that it was not the golden man who had sunk, but she was levitating a few centimeters over the ground!

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