It's April and with April comes camp nano yayyy 👑 I don't expect to be able to keep up this pace but jsyk. Here we go again

Lover Boy But It's The Camp Nano Intro?

Sometimes Beau thinks his heart must be made out of the most fragile, feebly tissue paper – the dainty pink stuff pushed into the bottom of a Valentines giftbag, the biodegradable kind that immediately crumbles when it’s met with water or trash compost or an uncaring hand. But it’s not his fault he’s a hopeless romantic.

genre: adult litfic

setting: san francisco, 1980s

deals with: grief and loss, queer history + the AIDS crisis, sex and the body, terminal illness and caretaking, being a hopeless romantic but like for all kinds of love, platonic love, friendship when one of them is ill and knows they will likely die, disability and how caretaking can reshape dynamics

summary: It's about love, babey! Beau tries to navigate all the different types of love in his life -- romantic, sexual, platonic, familial, communal, self -- as he leans into relationships, even the unhealthy ones, to try to cope with the death of his best friend Bobby, who Beau took care of whilst he was sick for two years. Told with a dual timeline showing those two years as Beau processes it. It's about being messy and confused and trying to understand how to move forward when the biggest part of your life is now gone. It's about being in love with your best friend but like platonically and also your best friend is dead. It's about queer sex and grief and caretaking and the AIDS crisis. Beau is also obsessed with horror movies and is definitely autistic but doesn't know it. Bobby loved volcanoes and mountains, acrylic painting, David Cronenberg movies and also The Muppets (his fave was Gonzo btw). If you want to know more I have a more detailed WIP intro and also the tag where I post way too long excerpts!

status: 16,391 words into the first draft, but that's been writing whenever/whatever I want rather than a consistent routine

my goal?: get a consistent drafting routine LOL. Word count wise I'd like 15k to basically double it, but we will see! Would love to write everyday at least though.

I haven't done taglists in a while buuuut if people are doing camp nano taglists? That could be fun? This story is so sad but sometimes it is so silly and fun. If you like stories where the grief and joy hold hands then this might be for you !!

What Beau remembers: The quiet when, for a long moment, Bobby didn’t speak. Then, a whisper. “Today wasn’t the day.” And Beau understood what he meant, a painful but deep knowing -- how they still weren't ready, whenever they talked about it, to say the word die. “No, today wasn’t the day.” Bobby, quieter. “And tomorrow. Tomorrow won’t be the day either.” “I don’t think it will.” Beau thinks, at this moment, that he kissed the top of Bobby’s head, or he whispered one into his hair, pressed his cheek into it. At least, that’s how he remembers, or how he wants to. “I don’t think it will be the day for a while.” What Beau remembers: Bobby, still quiet, his breathing slowed. But still awake. How he moved closer, and Beau held him tighter. Sometimes Beau believed that if he just held onto Bobby tighter it would somehow lengthen the time between now and the day, that the universe would sense their closeness and not dare to sever it. All if Beau just held him closer, heartbeat to heartbeat. It was so dark in the room, the moonlight a thin sheet behind the curtains; just them and their bodies, their breaths. And he thinks he remembers Bobby smiling, that he felt it or even sensed it, the presence of something happy, something that, for a moment, let itself be hopeful. “Your heartbeat is so relaxing,” he said. “I love that you sleep like Dracula.”

“Candy we haven’t heard from you much, Icy there’s asks in your inbox, Hey writeblr things are still happening—”

Can’t hear you over the sound of nearly 34k in less than two weeks, sorry

In lieu of doing Camp NaNo "properly," I have instead opted to set up a series of milestones with deadlines on Deathdancer so I can dive into the fresh re-write. Some of these may have to move weeks because I'm not positive how long/short they'll take, but that's fine. However it plays out, the ultimate goal is to start properly writing this draft :-)

April 1-7:

Finish fresh read-through and my comments

April 8-14:

Consolidate other comments (writers group, etc.)

Organize notes/comments (characters, areas, plot-points, foreshadowing, themes, etc.) so I know where stuff is and what is needed

Boil it down into key things moving forward

April 15-21:

Update plotline (including where I’m adding/cutting/combining/splitting/etc. scenes and whatnot)

Set up new draft document (with comments linked to everything and whatnot)

April 22-30:

Write! :-)

i should be translating a poem and doing other university things but i'm feeling silly and like i want to maybe write chap1 of hideout

Busy July

The other day, I realized that the Tour de France starts this weekend. (I usually don't see anything about it until it's underway, so I figure this is a bonus! lol)

Why is this important? It means it's time for Tour de Fleece again. Unfortunately this year, I won't be able to use my standard spinning wheel (that I've finally figured out) because of an ongoing hip issue (which, hopefully, will start getting resolved later this summer. Dr. Appointment in three weeks!) So this year, I'll be relying on the e-spinner to get the job done.

(the lighting in my office is yellow-ish, but trust me when I say the blue is a very deep ("Starfire Skies"), vibrant one and the orange is like creamsicles ("Pumpkin Spice Latte"!)

This is the fleece I'll be spinning. Somehow, last time I ordered some, I doubled up on what I already had. oops. Well, that means that I should have enough yarn in the end to make some substantial projects!

Now, all that said, last night I was reminded that Camp Nano starts this weekend too, and I was hoping to stir up the writing muses that have been pretty dormant. We'll see how that goes - going to keep my goal low so I don't get frustrated along the way - but here's hoping!

Also, my last writing project will finally post on July 4th. Maybe that will help the muses too.

And all of this is on top of the new insanity that constitutes my job the first week of the month and kiddo's birthday. Gonna be a busy July!

Camp Nano Progress Update #1

The first week of Camp Nano is complete, and I'm actually really happy with my progress! I expected this month to be a little rough for me, since I'm usually pretty active in the (currently shut down for good reason) Nano forums and tend to use the energy of other writers to bolster me through the event. And yeah, I'm writing a lot less than I would be under those conditions. But I'm still writing, and I'm still enjoying what I'm writing, and that's what really matters to me.

Excerpt:

You spend the rest of the day loitering around a city that would be far more beautiful if it wasn’t smack dab in the middle of tourist season. Instead, the streets and beaches are teeming with well-off people getting away from their well-off lives and generally spoiling the atmosphere with their existence. You can’t help but feel bad for the people who live here, even if you’re sure they make a pretty penny off of these people. And so will you, it seems, when Soren nudges you with a smirk and proceeds to nick the coin purse right off of a wealthy man’s belt. It takes everything in you not to gape at him, but you do cast around your gaze discreetly. The menace is subtle and slick, good with his fingers and anything that requires him to be quiet and look innocent, but this is something entirely different than what you’re used to from him. Sure, he’ll pilfer anything left unattended for too long, but pickpocketing is a whole other game. You have no objections – these people could do with lighter pockets – but it’s not going to be good for either of you if he gets himself caught. “Watch yourself,” you sign as he shoves the pouch into his bag. He sticks his tongue out like a child, fingers flying. “Watch me yourself.”

Statistics and reflection under the cut.

Just the Numbers

I've added 6,302 words to Let the Light In in the past week, bringing the total count for the project up to 23,611 words. Most of these new words have been in Chapter 3, although a few were used to round out Chapter 2 at a healthy 7,942 words. I've written on 5 out of 8 days, with my highest wordcount day occurring on April 8th, with 2,132 words written.

Notable Scenes

Group cuddles. I cannot stress this enough. Group cuddles!!!

A thieving contest started by the savior of the universe. Hell yeah.

Lounging in the ropes on a boat. Showing off like a cat.

First kiss (angst edition). Not quite to first kiss (soft edition) yet.

Making Big Decisions

I've already stated that I'm quite happy with what I've written, and while that's true, I have had some decisions to make. There was one scene I got myself especially tripped up over. I wanted to use it to develop the dynamic between my POV character and a member of the party, but I recognized that the pretense under which I had them sit down for a conversation didn't ring true for either of them. I wrote a good chunk of it, and it's still in my draft, but I know for a fact that it's going to be scrapped. I'll replace it with something more naturalistic later.

Based on where I'm at in Chapter 3 and how much I have left to cover, this one's going to be a lengthy one. That being said, I'm standing by my decision to segment the first three chapters (which span over the first act of Dragon Quest XI) the way that I do. Narrative cohesiveness is more important to me than content balance, especially when I know that Chapter 4 is going to be an absolute baby chapter, since it only encapsulates a short story that happens in the game's interlude.

A decision I still need to make is where I'm going to start the narrative for Act II in Chapter 5. This is more about the logistics of the source material and the fact that the player character is not my POV character for this fic. Basically, at the beginning of Act II in DQXI, you have to regather your party members. If you follow the story, you regain my POV character fourth, but you can get him third if you decide to wander. I haven't decided how I'm handling this in the fic yet, because there are benefits and drawbacks to both, but I think I'm going to write it as though he's acquired third and remove/edit scenes later if I decide to go in the other direction. Final decision will likely come down to how good those scenes end up being and how well they integrate with the rest of the chapter.

Moving Forward

The rest of Chapter 3 is going to be mostly relationship development for the main pairing and the party as a whole, which I am so excited for! I have a lot of funny, goofy little ideas planned to really cement all these Fools™️ together, though the thieving contest scene and its aftermath will likely remain my favorite. It's nice to have this downtime with them before the plot and angst pick back up again. I don't anticipate finishing Chapter 3 this week, as there's some lengthier scenes I have planned, but I'm perfectly content to linger in these moments, especially since that's why I'm writing this.

I hope everyone else's writing journeys are going just as great! My inbox is open if you want to infodump or chat! 💖

i think for april and probably july i’m not gonna use the official nanowrimo resources (website, remaining forums, etc) but i will be doing the challenge still! im just gonna keep track of it myself on a google sheet rather than a website. we’ll see if this is even close to as motivating as the website is lol but fingers crossed and hopes high! i’ll reevaluate in november, or see if anyone’s come up with a good alternative :)

Since we’re very quickly coming up to the start of Camp NaNoWriMo on July 1st, I just wanted to give a shout-out to anybody out there who’s intending to participate! 🤗 I’m planning on working on my two Halo WIPs, “15 Minutes” and “Recreation” annnnnnd I have an original novel idea that suddenly started bugging me. It’s an odd feeling, I haven’t done an non-fanfic story for NaNo in many years, despite that being all I did for many years. 🤷‍♀️

Before we get there, though, I’m going to take the next few days off of writing, just kinda let the muse rest since we just finished Snowells Week (and I did do a fic for every day, woo-hoo!).

Also, yeah, I’m going to play a LOT of Mass Effect: Andromeda before Camp starts and we’ll see how far I can get with my Vetra romance, lol!

Vetra’s standing up, ready to get this romance started, lol! 😇💖

Good luck and happy days ahead to you, my friends, whether you’re playing in the Camp NaNo sandbox or not! 😎👍

jacob black x mate/imprint!reader first rut hcs are up now on patreon and dropping here 6/29/23!!!!!!! oh fucking boy is this one a doozy!!!!

reading my old life cycle of massive stars writing and then reading my old revelations, revelations. whichever one i work on in march will be a battle of the hyperfixations

Camp Nano Day 5

Biggest day so far! No clue what's gotten me writing so much lately. I think that mall date got all of my brain cells.

Here is an excerpt about the end of said date! That's totally not a date! They're just FRIENDS, guys!

Leaving the mall wasn’t going to be such a simple endeavor, however. They made their ways back down the escalators to the ground floor, and as they stepped into the quiet lobby, they finally got a look at what it looked like outside. It had been dry and grey while they were eating lunch, but now, the rain was pouring. What’s more, it didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon. Ayumu sighed as she took off her backpack, and, after putting on her hoodie, she started rummaging through it. “Well, I kinda figured that that was coming.” She finally found was she was looking for, a sleek black folding umbrella. “Did you bring an umbrella?” She did. It was in her bag. There was her pink folding umbrella. She had one. She had an umbrella. She really did have an umbr- “No, I didn’t…” She lied. Was it an obvious lie? Ayumu’s smile didn’t seem to give any indication of whether she believed it or not, instead she just seemed a little amused. “Well, that’s no good.” She then reached out her hand to Hina. “But it can’t be helped. C’mon, let’s go.” Hina, feeling her heartrate picking up, accepted Ayumu’s hand as they walked up to the doors. When they got outside, before stepping out from beneath the covering in front of the entrance, Ayumu flipped the umbrella open with the press of a button on the handle. She gave a surprised yelp, to which Ayumu just snickered. Cute. She held the umbrella between the two of them, and they began walking. Hina offered to hold both of their bags so that Ayumu could focus on just holding the umbrella. They were so close. Hina knew that what she was doing wasn’t right. She shouldn’t have lied. And for what purpose? It had been to create this scene. To be able to walk with Ayumu, shoulders pressed together. She was too shy to do anything else. Ayumu, seeing this, switched the hand in which she was holding the umbrella; her other arm then wrapped around Hina’s shoulder, pulling her a little closer. “Your shoulder’s going to get wet… if you don’t get closer.” Ohhh crap. Oh no. Hina’s heart pounded wildly as her head practically leaned against Ayumu’s chest as they walked together. They were so close. She wondered; did they look… couple-like to the people passing by? Was that what she had truly wanted? “O-okay.” She stammered, hoping that the brim of her hat hid the bright blush on her cheeks.

Anyways as always check out the OC's that this story is about right here:

well fuck I almost had a rental car update for you tonight, a fun continuation of that excerpt from nat's opening chapter that I posted last time, but then tumblr glitched out before I could save all my typing and I can't be bothered doing it again tonight because I'm exhausted and that sucks because I want attention <3 lol <3

i couldn’t write today bc i had to work and now i’m tired but y’all can have a snippet from the first chapter of saybliye

diversity win! the cop brutally murdering you is a neopronoun user!

CAMP NANO IS KNOCKING AT MY DOOR