mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-05-03 07:21 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-05-03 07:21 pm
Entry tags:
Updated Writing Goals/Calendar: May 2022
With the first Camp NaNo of the year in the rearview, time to reevaluate (and alter) my writing goal calendar.
January - March
Completed two drafts of my WIP "Connections of the Heart", and began posting the new chapters. Done!
The first three months, while the goals started small and then ramped up, were a success!
April
Camp NaNo - declared goal of 15000 words on my WIP Island Territory - Done!
05 - post CotH Chapter 6 (coinciding with the end of ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crackthewip) - Done!
09 - finish first draft of IT Chapter 2 - Completed on April 7th! Done, two days ahead!
16 - finish first draft of IT Chapter 3 - Completed on April 17th! Done, one day behind.
23 - finish first draft of IT Chapter 4 - not done! - The last scene of the chapter still needs to be completed, as it's currently in a very sketchy bullet-point type format.
30 - finish second draft of IT Chapter 2 - not even started
So April was a bit mixed. Word-count wise, I hit over 17k out of my 15k goal, so I'm not unhappy about that. However, the fic itself got longer than I'd originally planned for, which contributed to my falling behind in terms of completing the fic itself, despite steady progress. I feel okay about that, but it does mean that my tentative plans for May and beyond have to shift as well.
The new goals!
May
10 - finish rough draft of IT Chapter 4
17 - finish 2nd draft of IT Chapter 2
24 - finish 2nd draft of IT Chapter 3
24 - post Chapter 2 of IT
31 - finish 2nd draft of IT Chapter 4
31 - post Chapter 3 of IT
June
07 - post Chapter 4 of IT
Between June 07 - June 21: reread and do any final edits to All Strange Wonders
*14 - make a moodboard/cover image for ASW
21 - post Chapter 1 of ASW
After June 21 (or earlier, if possible), reread Outbreak and begin a new draft of it.
As it did last time, beyond here gets pretty vague. I really just don't have a good idea of how much time the new draft of Outbreak will take. Previously, I'd said I hoped to do about 1000 words per day, which is usually fairly doable for me on a second+ draft. That would require about two months of work, with the current draft being just shy of 60k.
July
Camp NaNo - work on rewrite of Outbreak - 30k for the month goal?
05 - post Chapter 2 of ASW
19 - post Chapter 3 of ASW
August
Continue rewriting Outbreak, with the intent to be done by the end of the month (hopefully sooner).
02 - post Chapter 4 of ASW
16 - post Chapter 5 of ASW
30 - post Chapter 6 of ASW
The biggest changes from last month's plan are:
- I'm no longer planning on working on a holiday fic - that's getting bumped to "maybe next year".
- For the second "Camp NaNo" session in July, I'll just set a goal related to Outbreak, since that will likely be the most pressing thing, rather than something new.
- I've decided to post All Strange Wonders (and later, Outbreak) on a biweekly schedule instead of weekly. This gives me a longer stretch of time where I can feel less pressure to be getting something new and shareable, plus means that while posting those two fics overlaps, I'm still only posting once per week.
My tentative posting schedules (if all goes to plan):
All Strange Wonders (21 chapters total): June 21//July 5/19//August 02/16/30//September 13/27//October 11/25//November 08/22//December 6/20//January 03/17/31//February 14/28//March 14/28
Outbreak (17 chapters total): October 04/18//November 01/15/29//December 13/27//January 10/24//February 07/21//March 07/21//April 04/18//May 02/16
Which holy shit means that I'd be posting every other week (and sometimes every week) through more than a year from now. Having that long where I can be sure I won't have a long hiatus is a pretty cool feeling, even if there are only two more fics completed and shared at the end of it. But both are in "short novel" territory, so that feels pretty okay with me.
As for what I'll be working on while I have this lovely, not-quite-year-long posting cushion? Huh.
- Outbreak will eat up about two+ months.
- I really would like to work on the Worldhopping Fairytale Monstrosity, but the fact it will likely take YEARS of work yet to be complete and ready for sharing, I think I want to alternate a few chapters of it with other projects. (Looking at that fic... it's likely going to be over 200k by the time it's done, judging by the chapters I did complete in my last attempt at it. But if I tend to write about 100k to 150k PER YEAR, and want at least two drafts of the fic before sharing it? Then that's going to be 3+ years of writing NOTHING ELSE. Yike.)
For those other projects to alternate... I've got a few contenders:
- I'd really like to reread Stardust and see if I could make a Destiny Trio OT3 retelling/fusion with that, similar to how All Strange Wonders is a loose Howl's Moving Castle fusion. (Based on the same "what if Kairi was literally a falling star?" premise, even.)
-I still want to write a short Alice Isn't Dead/Sparrow Hill Road crossover, but it would probably require a relisten to AID, and a reread of SHR.
- That holiday fic I booted from my current schedule could still happen.
- I've got at least two more Silent Hill fics - currently called "Documentary" and "Ghost Town" that interest me.
- I've got two more KH AUs, a Cyberpunk one, and an Angels/Demons one, that could be fun to write, but I'm not 100% sure I want to commit to. (Then again, I like both of those ideas more than some of the fics I HAVE written, so.)
- When I rewatched half of Firefly a couple months ago, my brain spat out the idea of a Firefly/Leverage crossover. No real plot, just ~vibes~ mostly, but my brain keeps tumbling it around.
- Still eagerly waiting for SOMETHING ELSE to bite me with fic ideas. It's not that I don't love the... only ship I write for... but I have pretty hardcore fallen out of love with the canon, which is a weird place to be. I straight up DO NOT CARE or even WANT to care about the canon anymore, feel like it keeps doing my faves dirty, just... can't summon the energy to even attempt to parse the new (even not-so-new) obscure, infamously bonkers, retconny type lore that seems perpetual. Also Disney can go fuck themselves, so there's that. I love the ship, but it's pretty much just an excuse to dress up an OT3 dynamic and character types I enjoy in all manner of AUs. It's fun and sandboxy, and feels like making my barbies kiss or whatnot, so I do ENJOY these fics and ideas and writing about them. It's not "fix-it" in terms of the actual plots for the most part, but is a chance to explore things that feel like wasted potential for the characters. But... I'd also maybe like to write fic that doesn't require I throw away quite so *much* of canon.
- I really do like to work on original works sometimes. I don't do it all that often (in part because I don't have any desire to deal with actual publishing, whereas fanfic I know I can at least share and potentially have it read by someone.) But still! The ideas are there! I've got werewolves, I've got magic and fantasy, I've got surreal dystopias... Lol, maybe someday.
Spending so much time on sorting out this calendar today feels a bit like whistling past the graveyard, considering the pretty horrific political bomb that was dropped last night, but... I don't know that I have much to say about that that other people haven't said far better and more eloquently.
Completed two drafts of my WIP "Connections of the Heart", and began posting the new chapters.
The first three months, while the goals started small and then ramped up, were a success!
April
crackthewip)23 - finish first draft of IT Chapter 4 - not done! - The last scene of the chapter still needs to be completed, as it's currently in a very sketchy bullet-point type format.
30 - finish second draft of IT Chapter 2 - not even started
So April was a bit mixed. Word-count wise, I hit over 17k out of my 15k goal, so I'm not unhappy about that. However, the fic itself got longer than I'd originally planned for, which contributed to my falling behind in terms of completing the fic itself, despite steady progress. I feel okay about that, but it does mean that my tentative plans for May and beyond have to shift as well.
The new goals!
May
10 - finish rough draft of IT Chapter 4
17 - finish 2nd draft of IT Chapter 2
24 - finish 2nd draft of IT Chapter 3
24 - post Chapter 2 of IT
31 - finish 2nd draft of IT Chapter 4
31 - post Chapter 3 of IT
June
07 - post Chapter 4 of IT
Between June 07 - June 21: reread and do any final edits to All Strange Wonders
*14 - make a moodboard/cover image for ASW
21 - post Chapter 1 of ASW
After June 21 (or earlier, if possible), reread Outbreak and begin a new draft of it.
As it did last time, beyond here gets pretty vague. I really just don't have a good idea of how much time the new draft of Outbreak will take. Previously, I'd said I hoped to do about 1000 words per day, which is usually fairly doable for me on a second+ draft. That would require about two months of work, with the current draft being just shy of 60k.
July
Camp NaNo - work on rewrite of Outbreak - 30k for the month goal?
05 - post Chapter 2 of ASW
19 - post Chapter 3 of ASW
August
Continue rewriting Outbreak, with the intent to be done by the end of the month (hopefully sooner).
02 - post Chapter 4 of ASW
16 - post Chapter 5 of ASW
30 - post Chapter 6 of ASW
The biggest changes from last month's plan are:
- I'm no longer planning on working on a holiday fic - that's getting bumped to "maybe next year".
- For the second "Camp NaNo" session in July, I'll just set a goal related to Outbreak, since that will likely be the most pressing thing, rather than something new.
- I've decided to post All Strange Wonders (and later, Outbreak) on a biweekly schedule instead of weekly. This gives me a longer stretch of time where I can feel less pressure to be getting something new and shareable, plus means that while posting those two fics overlaps, I'm still only posting once per week.
My tentative posting schedules (if all goes to plan):
All Strange Wonders (21 chapters total): June 21//July 5/19//August 02/16/30//September 13/27//October 11/25//November 08/22//December 6/20//January 03/17/31//February 14/28//March 14/28
Outbreak (17 chapters total): October 04/18//November 01/15/29//December 13/27//January 10/24//February 07/21//March 07/21//April 04/18//May 02/16
Which holy shit means that I'd be posting every other week (and sometimes every week) through more than a year from now. Having that long where I can be sure I won't have a long hiatus is a pretty cool feeling, even if there are only two more fics completed and shared at the end of it. But both are in "short novel" territory, so that feels pretty okay with me.
As for what I'll be working on while I have this lovely, not-quite-year-long posting cushion? Huh.
- Outbreak will eat up about two+ months.
- I really would like to work on the Worldhopping Fairytale Monstrosity, but the fact it will likely take YEARS of work yet to be complete and ready for sharing, I think I want to alternate a few chapters of it with other projects. (Looking at that fic... it's likely going to be over 200k by the time it's done, judging by the chapters I did complete in my last attempt at it. But if I tend to write about 100k to 150k PER YEAR, and want at least two drafts of the fic before sharing it? Then that's going to be 3+ years of writing NOTHING ELSE. Yike.)
For those other projects to alternate... I've got a few contenders:
- I'd really like to reread Stardust and see if I could make a Destiny Trio OT3 retelling/fusion with that, similar to how All Strange Wonders is a loose Howl's Moving Castle fusion. (Based on the same "what if Kairi was literally a falling star?" premise, even.)
-I still want to write a short Alice Isn't Dead/Sparrow Hill Road crossover, but it would probably require a relisten to AID, and a reread of SHR.
- That holiday fic I booted from my current schedule could still happen.
- I've got at least two more Silent Hill fics - currently called "Documentary" and "Ghost Town" that interest me.
- I've got two more KH AUs, a Cyberpunk one, and an Angels/Demons one, that could be fun to write, but I'm not 100% sure I want to commit to. (Then again, I like both of those ideas more than some of the fics I HAVE written, so.)
- When I rewatched half of Firefly a couple months ago, my brain spat out the idea of a Firefly/Leverage crossover. No real plot, just ~vibes~ mostly, but my brain keeps tumbling it around.
- Still eagerly waiting for SOMETHING ELSE to bite me with fic ideas. It's not that I don't love the... only ship I write for... but I have pretty hardcore fallen out of love with the canon, which is a weird place to be. I straight up DO NOT CARE or even WANT to care about the canon anymore, feel like it keeps doing my faves dirty, just... can't summon the energy to even attempt to parse the new (even not-so-new) obscure, infamously bonkers, retconny type lore that seems perpetual. Also Disney can go fuck themselves, so there's that. I love the ship, but it's pretty much just an excuse to dress up an OT3 dynamic and character types I enjoy in all manner of AUs. It's fun and sandboxy, and feels like making my barbies kiss or whatnot, so I do ENJOY these fics and ideas and writing about them. It's not "fix-it" in terms of the actual plots for the most part, but is a chance to explore things that feel like wasted potential for the characters. But... I'd also maybe like to write fic that doesn't require I throw away quite so *much* of canon.
- I really do like to work on original works sometimes. I don't do it all that often (in part because I don't have any desire to deal with actual publishing, whereas fanfic I know I can at least share and potentially have it read by someone.) But still! The ideas are there! I've got werewolves, I've got magic and fantasy, I've got surreal dystopias... Lol, maybe someday.
Spending so much time on sorting out this calendar today feels a bit like whistling past the graveyard, considering the pretty horrific political bomb that was dropped last night, but... I don't know that I have much to say about that that other people haven't said far better and more eloquently.
no subject
That is going to be awesome! All your serious work paying off :)
Still eagerly waiting for SOMETHING ELSE to bite me with fic ideas. It's not that I don't love the... only ship I write for...
That can be rough. I hate being without a fandom I like. I was surprised when the new KH trailer dropped and you didn't even mention it. And yeah, Disney sucks. Marvel is failing to draw me back in for a bunch of reasons and that is part of it. I have a love/hate relationship with being in niche fandoms from smaller companies or even independent creators. But, that's a whole post I need to make someday.
You can also post origfic to Ao3. When I get mine done, which I will do despite all evidence to contrary, I might put it there if I can't publish it that way I want. Sometimes no publisher is better than any publisher.
whistling past the graveyard
Yeah, I decided to not post the exact post I've made repeatedly since 2016... because if I did post it would turn in that post again.
no subject
I... haven't even watched the KH4 trailer, heh. I read a couple posts of people speculating about it, and have seen stills from it. When it first dropped I wasn't at home so didn't want to play anything with volume on my phone, but then I just... didn't watch it even when I had a chance. I will! Eventually, haha.
I'd honestly love to love the canon again, but instead of having things come together or have character arcs pay off, every new spinoff (and 3) just seems to introduce needlessly complicated and contradictory lore. And I love lore!
When it makes sense or is at least sufficiently cool.But also, Disney can absolutely go fuck itself, instead of its creators for a change. Their shit with refusing to pay writers, plus the shit with Marvel and actors like... not knowing what movie they're showing up to film, not being allowed to know what's happening in the scenes they're doing... it's definitely soured me on Disney properties that I would otherwise probably enjoy. Sometimes I can separate art from artist from production company, but with Disney I've grown less and less able to.
I'd like to find even some pretty niche fandoms that at least give me the creative bug, but... small fandoms have definite drawbacks, too.
That is true, re: orig fic! I kind of forget that it's okay to share to AO3, too. I could also post here (maybe on a different journal), and both of the above are probably what I will do if I complete anything and decide to share it.
But for current events... Yeah. I've had plenty of "fuck you very much for claiming we were overreacting for thinking we would end up exactly here, and fuck you for claiming now we're overreacting for thinking worse is to come" feelings, but... preaching to the choir and/or broken record and all that. Might still say something more or less just like that, for personal posterity if nothing else.
no subject
I'd make a new Ao3 Psued and them just try to find stuff an audience. Can't put a tip jar on Ao3, but if stuff takes off it can always get picked up by a publisher... or not but at least it's audience can find it.
You may be preaching the choir, but there is a comfort in knowing people are on the same page.
no subject
I think that's probably what will happen - either a new pseud on my existing account, or a different account entirely. I don't expect anything would be the sort of thing that would really ever take off, but just finding a potential audience would be nice!
You are right about that. It's nice to at least know that I'm not alone in the frustrations and anger.
no subject
no subject
And if a plot actually presents itself for the Firefly/Leverage one, I think that would be a fun one to write.
Silent Hill is definitely an enduring love of mine, and I'd love to get some practice at writing horror.
Thank you for the encouragement!