Stories for a winter's night

So I crossed the finish line in NaNoWriMo, but I won't say that I won. I wrote 50,000 words, but I in no way wrote something. It's just various scenes written and rewritten and rewritten as I changed my mind about location, characters, themes. So, standard stuff.

In December I'm planning on poking at "Bleeding Daylight" to get that finished, and I'm going to keep fighting with "Being Human". Both have become chores, honestly, but I really do need to get them done. Or at least drafted out. I will admit that I am tempted to start posting "Bleeding Daylight" to get some feedback, but the fact is that posting early will in no way guarantee that I'll ever finish the thing.

... Maybe I need to find a beta ...

So October came and went very, very quickly. I've spent the month working on Bleeding Daylight (and have posted two snippet parts here and here), but as mentioned in a previous post, without a firm deadline I really found myself kind of failing. I've been cleaning up the parts that I finished and touched a little on the last few chapters but I haven't really added a lot. I think that the problem is that I'm fighting over the ending. There's the one that ends happy and the other that ends ... well, not so happy. I kind of want to go with the not so happy one since this is a one-shot and will never be revisited again, and since only a small handful of people are likely to read it anyways (super rare pairing in a little used canon) I really shouldn't care that people may not like the ending. But on the other side, this is supposed to be a love story and those are supposed to end well, right? Sunshine and roses and babies ever after? I'm thinking that after NaNo I'll get back to things. Maybe then I'll have some clarity on it.

Which brings me to the other thing that I've been working on - a rough outline for NaNo. I'm going to be continuing on with Being Human. I have the first three chapters posted here, here, and here, and am working on the fourth chapter that will lead into the fic proper. Yes, four chapters of set up so I can do something ...?

The problem is that this has kind of turned into a cast of thousands with many, many locations and factions and groups involved. Assuming that everything goes to plan, I'll have one group with Hydra, one group with the Avengers, and one group with ... Maybe Dr. Strange. I'm not positive on that one just yet. But either way, I need to decide if I'm going to chapter jump and pull a "Meanwhile in Avengers Tower!" or write them as a series of fics with the four chapter opening starting it off, and then having the other three groups as their own fics, and then coming back together as a single fic for the end. I know that Ladydragon76 managed to write a cast of thousands with Crackalackalicious in a single fic, but she had everyone pretty much in one place. And yes, I'm name-dropping that fic because it's what inspired me to write mine. Well, that and Kidu's Adapt but that one's not on the net any more. I have a .pdf if anyone wants it though.

So, yeah, that's what's planned. I'm going to be working on Being Human during NaNo and see how far I get with it. I'm sure I'll manage the 50K I'm just hoping I have something halfway postable. I'd like to get something more posted on AO3 before the end of the year. I did post two new things here in September but one might end up as part of "You Remind Me" and the other doesn't quite feel done yet.

As mentioned last month, I signed up for Robot Big Bang and I've been working diligently on that. It was coming along pretty well - about 25K and halfway done. I need to flesh out what I've written and stick with an ending for this, but it's generally going on well all things considered.

( Life stuff under the cut )

So, yeah, writing has kind of stalled out. But I'm off work next week and I'm hoping to get some personal time to write and decompress.

I'm going to try to get into the habit of posting these things monthly to help keep myself on track. Maybe if it's up here for me to see it'll help keep me focused.

So I'm currently working on a stash-buster filet crochet afghan (the pattern is here). Or it was supposed to be a stash buster. It turned out that I needed another ball of white yarn to finish it, and then when I went to Michael's to pick that up they were having a sale (buy 2 get one free) and oh look! Now I have the yarn to finish this blanket, do another one in red and pink, and a filet scarf in two shades of grey. Funny how that happens. It was like the yard just jumped into my cart all on its own.

The final product of the one I'm currently working on is mostly white with striped in pink, yellow, blue, green, and purple. It's pretty much going to be the colours of a baby blanket. I'll post a picture when I'm done.

As for writing, I'm going to be trying to focus on the second chapters of "You Remind Me of Someone I Used to Know" and of "Being Human". I'm having a little trouble with both at the moment. I know where I need to go (in fact I have scenes drafted for later in both stories) but I'm having trouble getting there. A couple of the 31_days prompts for this month looked interesting so I might try my hand at those too as well as any Rare Pairings and Speedwriting prompts that jump out at me.

I need to get out of my own head and expand my reach when it comes to subjects and pairings. There are characters that I have never written because I don't have a handle on their voices, but that won't change if I don't write them. And I'm thinking of trying my hand at a heat fic. There are several good ones out there that have changed my mind about the topic.

So that's really it. Mainly finishing one blanket, working on two fics, and then a few little writing exercises if I have the time and mental resources for it.

(X-posted to Pillowfort)