Stories for a winter's night

It's a tad early yet ... though not really, now that I look at the calendar and see that it's the 20th already! Anyway, I am finding myself going through this year's posts and it occurs to me that I didn't post nearly enough. Nor did I write enough. It's like the old joke: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Practice. Practice." I need to write more if I want to get better at it, and I need to focus more on short-fic. There's no point in continuing to write novel length fics if I never finish them!

So, I already said over on Tumblr, I am aiming to have the next chapter of "Polyhex Candidate" posted by the end of the 25th (since Christmas will be very, very quiet for me this year), and I'm aiming to finish the next chapter of "Someone I Used to Know" as well. I have more scene ideas for the TF/MCU crossover, and I think that I may try to write several shortfics on that, rather than a long one. I have lots of ideas for the story, but no real direction and I think that several short pieces may help there. I might even try my hand at spinning off from the IDW/Avengers in concept and then go for the humanized angle later once there's an established relationship.

However, that story is starting to tie into my "Medical Psychology" series and that one needs a lot of world building in order to proceed. I may just start posting some of my headcanon in regards to the war, Cybertronian culture, Cybertronian reproduction and gender distinctions, and all the other machinations I have running around in my mind. The thing is that there is a lot out of IDW that I really like in concept and dislike in execution, and I'd like to play with those ideas and make them work with my own fanon and the extended fanons that I've adopted. And that ties in to the MCU crossover in that I need to decide what to keep and what to throw away - because there are aspects of the MCU that I really, really, really dislike.

So that's the tentative plan for my next few weeks as we close out the new year. And hopefully it will help me get on track for next year.

It's funny how my muses seem to be interchangeable with no notice whatsoever. So, here was the plan for September - I was going to start World-Building for my NaNo novel so that I could start plotting out the novel and not be caught flat-footed. Again. And I did manage to get some World-Building and some character creation done. So all good for October's plotting, right? Nope! Now that all that's done my Novel Muse has been replaced with my TF/MCU Muse who is demanding a massive amount of attention, and she's being prodded on by the "You Remind Me Of Someone I Used to Know" muse. Apparently they take place in the same universe or something.

So the plan for October seems to be to plot out the TF/MCU fic because I can't get Humanized-Combaticons taking on Hydra and AIM out of my head. Hopefully it'll work out, and maybe one day it'll see the light of day!

Well, we're into June and I have one plan and one plan only. I will finish Dinner, Music, and Dancing: An Unusual Graduation Gift. It's technically done now, but I need to flesh out some of it, so that I don't leave the readers with a FTB. The current plan is to get the next chapter posted this Thursday and the final chapter posted on the 9th, so I have until then to finish up the last chapter. If I get stuck on it, then I'll just post with the FTB rather than stress over it. I find that I'm not handling the stress well lately, so I won't put myself into a position where I'm experiencing it. Not over fanfic.

After that, we'll see. I feel a bit of a depression coming on (the joy of hormone therapy), and my writing ability usually goes down the crapper at those times. If I'm up to it I'm going to try to get back to The Polyhex Candidate since I probably only have 5 chapters left on that. Then I might work on my Transformers/MCU crossover.

I also have an old NaNo fic that needs to be re-edited and reposted, but I might do that in July for the next Camp NaNo session. It's a TF fic consisting solely of OCs. I might look at rewriting it as a totally original story though, since no one reads OC fics, and there's no point in posting if no one will read and enjoy it.

So, yeah, long and rambling way to say, I have one plan for June. Aim low and you'll never get disappointed, right?

Well, I got very little done in February. I think that I posted the next section of my of Smokey/Ratchet first meetings fic up onto Tumblr this month, but that's really it.

If I'm going to be completely completely honest with myself, I think that the dry spell is stemming from some pretty deep depression. Someone posted on Tumblr recently about signs that "act empathetic but are really dead inside". It's sad how well that fit. So, I won't start whining about things that I know aren't true (like lack of readers and comments and how no one will read your stuff if it isn't BDSM Dratchet - that last one's just sour grapes on my part). Logically, I know that none of my fears are true and that the little depression voice in the back of my mind is just trying to get me to do something stupid to prove itself right. I just need to keep writing and decide later if I want to post what's written or not. After all, I have to take my own advice, otherwise I'm a hypocrite -- I posted a while back that we write for ourselves and post for others. I need to start writing for myself. Period. Full stop.

So, enough with the depression talk. I'm aiming to get back into things this month and that means the following:

1. I need to complete The Polyhex Candidate. Have about 1500 words written for the next chapter, but have been putting off posting it, because it's not actually a chapter's worth of material. I can probably finish the story in about 5 to 10 chapters at the most. I need to finish the damned thing or take it down and be done with these incomplete WiPs that I have going.

2. I have a fun little ficlet in the works involving Soundwave getting fixed up by Hook after Ravage mauled his arm when he tried to give her a pill.

3. I have the ongoing Smokey/Ratchet fic that I need to finish. I got through the contract, the dinner, and the concert. Now there's just the walk home and the rest of the night. And I need to decide just how explicit I'm comfortable making the fic. I have to be honest, the only reason I put sort-of-sticky into Mutual Support Systems was because it's what the readers want to see. It was a mistake, if I'm being honest with myself. I was uncomfortable writing it and the reasoning was flawed. I need to think long and hard about writing more in that style.

4. I have a Smokey/Ratchet Festival of the Five fic that would take place well after the first meetings fic wherein Jazz tries to play matchmaker between the two and get them back together. It would also explain what happened after the meetings fic to cover why they never ended up as an item.

5. And lastly, I need to think long and hard about my TFs as human fic. I need to decide what I'm going to do, what the plot will be, and how long I want it to go on. Last thing I want is for it to trail off and disappear into the ether because I get bored with the story and don't know where I'm going with it. ... And, of course, I can't write anything on this until Polyhex is done.

So, that's the plan. We'll see what gets done and what doesn't and I promise myself I won't be so hard on myself if I don't accomplish my goals this month.