the wings that you burn turn to ashes, my dear

WIP Wednesday!

Assignments for hlh_shortcuts went out this week and I think I finally figured out what I want to write. When the canon is as big as Highlander is, with lots of side characters with lots of great potential, I wanted to think of an idea that would carry through as a story, and not a snapshot of a scene and nowhere to take it from there. I've had a few ideas that I may write as one shots at another time, but I'm going to see where this takes me for now. Ideally I'd love to have a draft of it finished before NaNo starts, but we all know me, and that probably won't happen, lol.

A Hero Lies in You is also officially off to beta! I'm still not used to not carrying a chunk of the draft with me, but it's left me with time on my lunches and in my car before work to either write or read. I'm rereading the Blessings of Magic: The Norn's Goddess series on AO3. Book 3 is currently in progress and it's been ages since I read Book 1 and 2, and all the details I now see coming to play as the story progresses. It's Loki/OC, but the way Lauren's family are developed, as well as all the other original characters, makes it for a thrilling read.

I've also been working on the AU to the Power Rangers AU that I can't post a snippet from because it's chock full of story spoilers. I don't care that I'm not going to post it anywhere, probably ever. I'm enjoying the fuck out of it and if you don't like what you're writing, then what's the point?

For now, writing is a good distraction from other shit going on that I don't want to think about 24/7. Mostly work things. Writing is better.

WIP Wednesday!

Not much new from last week - except that I only have one scene left to edit on A Hero Lies in You. The skies have cleared, angels are singing in the distance, and the end is almost here. And then it's off to beta for reals this time, and I wait on pins and needles to see what Runic has to say about it :3 They've seen enough by now thanks to this journal that I think they'll like it well enough.

And once editing is off my plate for a while, it'll be time to work on NaNo! And maybe read a real book and not just fic for once?

I should announce and start planning how I want to tackle Ninjetti for NaNo next month. My goal for October is finish any scenes I started ahead - there's like three or four I can polish off - and then establish where I want to start for NaNo's writing. I think that if I start halfway through, at prom, and write a satisfying ending, I can then go back and decide if I'm keeping the beginning in edits or cleaving it into shorter one-shots and one big story at the end.

Also officially signed up for hlh_shortcuts. I think the only HL fans on my list have already seen this, but hey, if you want to write and receive a Highlander story this holiday season, check it out!

WIP Wednesday... on Thursday. Because I'm not doing much writing right now.

Part of this is because I took stock on my craft fair inventory, and, uh... I should have been crocheting all summer. I bought some more cotton yarn and I'm building up stock of soap scrubbies, trivets, and crochet kitties right now. I should try to knock out a few more hats and scarves, but I worry those will take me two long. Craft fair is two months out, which is a lot of time, but said fair is also in the middle of NaNoWriMo, so I won't have as much time to crochet then. So that means busting out items now.

On the writing front, Press Start assignments went live on Sunday and I got a proper Setzer in Kingdom Hearts!! It was the one prompt I didn't think anyone would write and I'm so, so glad someone did. I also got a Karin story from Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and Edgar and Setzer being bros. And my gift was well received! I want to answer comments, but I'll do that once authors are revealed.

And today I finished editing the last big fight scene in A Hero Lies in You. It feels like it's clear sailing from here even though I have another 50 pages to go. But I'm hoping my pace picks up a bit and I won't keep staring at the pages, getting nowhere, lol.

Not much to share this week. I'm okay with that. I just want to finish up this edit (fucking. finally.) and then I can tackle another big project in November.

.........EDIT: Okay, so I lied. I do have writing news. I just ordered a Chromebook for my writing!

So, long story short: I never got any of my ten year anniversary awards from Starbucks. When I was given my plaque, I opened up the box to find the plaque of someone else's 20 year anniversary. My then-district manager apologized profusely, promised to get it to me as soon as she could, and never mentioned it again.

This was two and a half years ago.

One of Bryan's final acts as our manager was to get my plaque replaced, and my new manager gave it to me today. It's neat and all, but like... a plaque. So whatever. But it came with a card with a website for our perks program. I was bored, and figured "what the fuck," and checked it out. Apparently this also came with $100 in credit.

So I bought a Chromebook. My old MacBook from 2012 is still kicking, but needs an RAM upgrade in order to make it not shitty to use. It's now Jon's streaming computer and it works just fine for that, but it lagged something awful when I would take it to writing sessions. Considering that I plan on keeping Scrivener on the iMac and emailing whatever I need/using gdocs for the rest, I think this is a solid plan.

I also can pick it up at Best Buy tomorrow and I don't have to deal with the bullshit that is trying to have things shipped to my fucking house, but that's another story lololol

So yes. Jon had to talk me into buying it and not putting the money aside for "future use." I should do something nice for myself every once in a while. Happy late birthday to me!

WIP Wednesday is late because the whole house, save for Gabby, has been sick. Q went to school for two days and came home with the crud. Today is the first day I can breathe without feeling like something has been sitting on my chest, but the cough won't go away. ._. At least it's progressing and I feel less like death today than I have all week. I actually got Matt to come in and cover the end of my shift yesterday so I can sleep, and I never do that.

I have to post my Press Start assignment today. I'm a little worried because Meghan couldn't get me edits in time, and I have to go to Connecticut this weekend, but I can tweak things before reveals if I need to. Going to do a good final readthrough today before posting. I know it's pretty solid, but still, I worry. Especially since it's not necessarily the sort of thing I usually write, either.

I skipped editing yesterday because of death-ness, but I'm almost finished with one of my favorite scenes in the entire novel. It's also one of the most important scenes, which is why I didn't edit yesterday because I didn't want to screw it up and have to do it all over again. It also has one of my favorite lines, which I will post here out of context:

"I was the first of the Rangers to die."

It's an important scene of backstory and revelations and Things That Come Together and just... *sighs happily.* It also means I'm at the point of steamrolling towards the end. Only 75 pages left to go!

I'm also starting to consider joining the Darcyland Autumn Revival 2019 for October. It's posting a Darcy Lewis fic in October set between 2011 and 2014. Matt and I have been discussing details of what might be fun to write - and he wants to help me turn it into a podfic, which I've never done before. Could be an interesting challenge!

There's not much WIP on this Wednesday, I'm afraid. Stress is eating me alive, I had to open yesterday, then go back to the store for a meeting after close, and open this morning, so my head hurts and I'm fucking exhausted. If Q wakes me up early tomorrow on my day off, it's not going to be great for either of us.

I did manage to finish my Press Start assignment this week, and it tapped out at over 9k. Letting it sit a few days before I do a first round of edits, and try to figure out if I need to add anything major to it. I've also started looking over my treat list, but nothing solid is coming out yet. I still have some time, but I also don't want to rush it, either. I could do something short, and then I wouldn't feel bad about not writing a second story for the challenge.

I also had an idea of trying to write some platonic Raijin/Fujin/Seifer for the Successor Challenge, but that is currently so nebulous that there's no way in hell that will be finished before August is out, much less edited to post. I'll let that ruminate for a while and see if anything comes of it.

Editing continues. I thought I was in the last hundred pages but, uh... my count was off. There's also no way I have this to Runic before August is out. I'm just fucking up deadlines all over the place. At this rate, I'm now going to shoot for "please get this draft to Runic before NaNo starts." There's a "slow and steady wins the race" comment to be made here but mostly I'm just frustrated with myself. I'll get over it.

This week's editing also included having to spend a ton of time changing literally every sentence of one scene. I'm going to try to type in those edits this evening if I feel up it, and I'm curious to see if anything of the first draft actually remains. The scene in question is AJ looking over some of Jason's old football articles and feeling inadequate and well, that's a feeling I know well.

On a personal note: Does reworking my resume count as writing? Asking for a friend.

Going to focus on getting my cranky ass some sleep and some comfort activities. Maybe it will help.

WIP Wednesday!

I'm on vacation this week so my writing schedule is all over the place. I tend to get more accomplished on the days that I work, because I have a set schedule and specific times set aside for writing. This week I get to sleep in, destress a bit, and spend time with my family, which has been great. I haven't been able to edit as much, though I'm still chipping away at that little AU I started. I'll get back to it once work starts on Monday.

I did, however, get to spend more than two hours writing at Panera today! I love when I just get to put my headphones on and write, since I only get that sort of break once every few months, at most. I was going to write for an hour and edit for an hour, but I got on a roll with my press_start_comm assignment and I figured it would be better to try and hammer out what I could.

3600+ words in two hours. That's a record for me, I think, especially without the word sprints my NaNo group likes to do during write ins. I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished, and I think the fic is turning out well! Especially since it's a character I've written before, and being able to write them again makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

No snippet this week though - the AU things I've been working on contain a major spoiler for my PR/MCU crossover and I don't want to spoil anything for my Press Start fic ;) I hope writing is going well for all of you too! ♥

Welcome to WIP Wednesday, I'm the author, Amie, who is trying to figure out how not to toss out my entire story and start all over again!

Okay, it's not that drastic, but I have been struggling to get Ninjetti down on paper all month. I'm getting words, sure, but I'm not getting anywhere. I was originally just going to break off the beginning and turn them into one shots, but I think I'm going to do that with the entire existing outline. That way I can write what I absolutely have to (considering I am a long, long ways away from posting any of it) and try to set myself up for starting Infinity War in November. Hopefully. As long as editing is still progressing, I'm hoping that November will be revisions and/or moving forward. I'll reevaluate depending on what the second round of edits will look like.

I did hit my goal for Camp today, though, so I can shift my focus back to editing more. I was able to get a chunk done on Monday while waiting for my car, and I'll start going back to an hour a day when I work. Hoping that means I'd get through edit #1 before the end of summer.

I also have a really great idea I'm working on for press_start_comm! Couldn't resist starting that already. It has a mini outline and the first section done, though I think it'll need a good revision before posting. I may also have some treat ideas, but this is looking like a longer fic than required - I sneeze and more than 1000 words happens in a fic - so I'd rather have one solid fic than stretching myself to write more if they're just going to be mediocre. That's something I'll worry about come August.

But since I've been struggling for words... I let myself start one of the one shots for my PR/MCU universe. It's nothing but filth. I'm not even sorry. AJ and Jason have been wanting to fool around since I started writing them in April, lol, so it was a long time coming. I'll likely finish this one shot, and then shift back to Ninjetti proper and pick up at a more "exciting" part. Here's a snippet!

( yeah, it's nsfw. sorry not sorry. )

The last couple weeks have been shitty, real life wise. My muses are the one thing I can look forward to cheering myself up when I'm feeling down, which is a lot right now. I don't care if this shit is self-indulgent. If it keeps me in a better headspace, I'm all for it.

So I didn't forget about WIP Wednesday yesterday, just didn't get to it before I ran out of time. We picked up another copy of LEGO: Jurassic World to play with Q this week, but for the PS4 this time, so I promised him we'd start playing that after dinner and whoops, there went the writing time.

I am finally out of the beginning I don't like for Ninjetti! Got to write the start of the OT3 I'm working towards, which I'm excited about, and I'm always stoked to write from Tommy's POV. Especially since most of his scenes in A Hero Lies in You are when he's possessed, and thus, it's not really Tommy's voice, but that of the Green Ranger. He's still my homeboy after all these years, so I hope I'm doing him justice.

And speaking of villains, I finally got to the scene where I introduce Lord Zedd and, uh... I tripped and fell into a sideplot. >.> Zedd/Rita had always been part of Power Rangers canon (in that she convinces him to marry her and like... they stay married? Like for the rest of their continuity??) and it's heavily implied that Zordon/Rita may have been a thing in the reboot, so... surprise, both are part of the canon now. I'm actually enjoying writing Zedd, which I hadn't expected. Here's a snippet!

( all Power Rangers villains talk they're trying to fight James Bond and it's fun to write them chewing on the damn scenery )

I'm still a ways out from writing the first actual battle scene, which is good because I always dread those. At this pace, though, there's no way I'm getting anywhere close to the end before July is out. Oops.

WHOOPS IT'S THURSDAY guess I screwed up this week, my bad.

Anyways. Writing update. Currently starting to piece together a tentative scene outline for Ninjetti, as my Camp NaNo project will be called until it gets an official title. I have a lot of it in my head already, which is helpful, and I've figured out most of the main bits. As always, I'll play around with scene order and add things as necessary, because I never know what I need to write until I'm actually there. I'm carrying over some of the big themes from A Hero Lies In You (namely: found family. soooooooo much fucking found family. You will pry this trope from my cold dead fingers) and laying the seeds of the war to come.

It has occurred to me that, while part 1 had a strong "evil" arc, since I wrote parts from Tommy's point of view while he was evil, I don't necessarily have that yet for Ninjetti. Zedd is obviously a thing, but I haven't put as much work into him yet as he needs. I'll put the bug in Matt's ear and we'll plot in the next few days, since he is my lore guy.

Also finally watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. Holy shit, that didn't hold up. At all. One can argue that it was never good to begin with, but I was also a kid when it came out, and you're allowed to like shitty things when you haven't watched anything better. Q enjoyed it because he's six and things still blow up but man. The only thing I'm keeping from that is Dulcea and it might just be her name and the fact that she's a badass.

....to be fair, Power Rangers in general can inspire some really great things, but as actual shows, they're shit. The 2017 movie did pretty good with reinventing these characters and avoiding stereotypes, and I hope to do the same with my writing.

Also got my nominations in for Press Start. Awwwww yeah. Gonna write some video game goodness this summer!

Beyond that, editing continues. I've been trying to type in my edits as I go so I have less to do at the end. I'm a little worried about how I'm going handle drafting something new while editing, while working on PSL things, but it'll all work out. It always does.

So I'm stealing this idea from runicmagitek and trying my hand at WIP Wednesday! Or like... a weekly update thing. Which probably won't be once a week because I forget things, but that's neither here nor there.

Editing continues on A Hero Lies In You. To be honest, I'd really hoped to be further along with it than I am and trying to kill the voice in my head that's all, "Well, if you were a better writer you wouldn't have to edit so much shit, why are you even bothering, etc etc." My hope is that if the edits for the first round are this extensive, then maybe I'm saving myself work on the next draft. The two people who've read it already have not suggested adding any extra scenes to this novel - but plenty of extra for the future ones thanks Matt you asshole - and I feel like I've grown a lot in terms of plotting it all out and coming to a satisfying conclusion.

And I hit Chapter 8. The chapter that I basically screamed "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK" at the top of my lungs while writing it, it was so bad. And yes, it's where the writing is the weakest because it's a major fight scene and I wrote what I needed to in order to get to the rest of the novel. But reading it again, I've basically rewritten almost all of it. Like, things happen in the same order, but I actually gave a fuck this time? And tried to keep things concise and cut out all the thinking bullshit between the action? It's all still on the handwritten draft so it's not in Scrivener yet, but it will be eventually.

I also started writing some backstory that I can't post with the fic because it's a major spoiler for like, novel 3.5 of this series. It's the twins' mother's story, and who their father is, and I want that to well and truly be a bomb when it drops. I'm having fun with it, but it's also breaking my damn heart because there isn't a happy ending. Like, at all. Not even in future parts. Everything is awful and it's been great to write.

Also working on the first of my 300 prompts! It's Auron/Lulu. It's gonna be filled with smut. I regret nothing.

I just need to remind myself that it's okay if my overall word counts are lower because of all the editing work. And that it will be okay. Almost to my yearly goal of 250k! I'll likely hit it in July.