nekokoban

SUCCESS!

Word Count: 2777 words
Subjects: AU Big Bang, also THE DEPTHS OF MY SHAME (thx Floor)

Excerpt: "Destroy them," Yuui repeats. His voice is faint, wavering. He moves a little, and the faintest reflection of him appears in the window: there is a dark visible shadow against his pale skin and pale hair. As he speaks, his voice firms, and it becomes as cold as the north wind. "I want the entire place razed to the ground. I want there to be nothing left. Not a building, not a person, not a single stupid cherry tree--" He pauses to take a deep breath. "And arrest the girl. She's a sympathizer for certain. If she resists, or tries to escape--"

Fei Wang bows low, so far that the floor is only a hand's breadth from his nose. "As my prince commands," he says.

Thoughts: Gosh, so, I realized that the deadline for au_bigbang, draftwise, is April 6th. HAHAHAHA and I'm planning on doing Script Frenzy, along with the fact that Sakuracon is the weekend before the story itself is due. :|a Clearly I will have to bring a notebook or something to work on when I'm in lines or when people are hanging out and stuff. Also, take lots of advantage of this next week; I really need to actually try writing during the week, which is something I have been saying FOR weeks, and to no avail. /)_(\

I also really miss writing for fandoms. I seriously do. It's weird, I guess, because I am writing for fandoms, it's just that also this story is not going to be posted for anotherrrr ... month and half or so? And it's already sort of niche (a fusion AU), so who knows if that'll actually be interesting for people. :B I think what I miss is not so much the comments, because I still feel good about those--I like getting them, I really do, but I still haven't hit the OH GOD NO ONE LOVES ME BECAUSE THEY DON'T COMMENT ;A; feeling even now--but I miss being able to engage with people about fandom. Only I'm too terrified of fandom at large to really poke around, so I need to lure people to come to me by writing and posting fic.

Hmm. :|a

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT.

SUCCESS!

Word Count: 1412 words
Subjects: EPIC ROBOTS, AU big bang

Excerpt: "Hello," she said. Her voice did not echo in the cave, though it set off a certain chain effect of ripples down his spine. She had a smile that was brighter than anything he'd ever seen. "Who are you?"

"Shouldn't you know?" he asked. "I'm dreaming. People know each other in dreams."

She frowned at him. Her pale brows drew together and she touched her mouth with small white fingers, like she was testing the feeling of her words before she said them. "Well, if it is a dream, then it isn't a very good one," she said. "Because I don't know who you are. I'm Rin," and she held out her hand.

Len looked at it. He looked at her face. He reached out and grasped her hand in his, and it felt a little like finding a missing part of himself. She blinked a few times, and he thought: ah, you feel the same way.

"I'm Len," he said.

Thoughts: My entire wordcount came from Saturday night to Sunday morning. :( I think what I'd like is to get in the habit of writing a little daily, even if it's only a couple of hundred words, but I've been so dead on my feet, coming home from work for the past week or so, and so all I really want to do is flop around and not actually work on stuff. BUT I HAVE TO, especially if I want to make it for imaginarybeasts (WHICH I DO! ;A;), so I think I'm going to have to try. :[ Maybe I should try that "pick a fandom and write as long as a song plays after randomly selecting some" meme and see if that helps me get jumpstarted on going. Alternately, I could try going to bed earlier, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen, despite all my good intentions. :x

ON THE OTHER HAND, I have a lot of new books to read, since I went to both Twice Sold Tales and Half-Price Books this weekend and bought ... a lot of books. I want to read those, and that means that I am less likely to write when I get home, and this is a dilemma! Sob, maybe getting more sleep/writing on my lunchbreaks is the way to go. :|a

Today was a tirumvate of hilarious disasters!

1) I was in a car that got hit by a bus! /o/
2) While coming back from the grocery store, I got caught in one of the heaviest downpours of rain I've seen in Seattle in a good long while, thus came home a sopping mess and my cat ran away from me
3) I kindofsortofnotreeeeally set a baking pan on fire, because I turned on the wrong burner on my stove, and that's where my baking pan was resting. LUCKILY, I managed to salvage most of my biscuits; only two had significant portions that had to be cut away due to charred black. Also due to sheer luck, I did not set off my smoke alarm, though the hallway still sort of smells charred and I could in fact see smoke before I turned on all the fans and opened the balcony door.

On the plus side I got tulips from enough_space, Vocaloid fandom gave me this MMD video, and I had a really nice weekend of seeing people and harukami being fabulous and wonderful and coming to keep me company. Next time, bring Zazzle! And I am feeling betterish with each day; I am still tired and snappish at times, and I am still sometimes :\ but that's getting to be less and less, which relieves me very much.

Anyway, writing stuff.

SUCCESS!

Word Count: 2029 words
Subjects: for au_bigbang, for the Tsubasa/Daughter of Evil fusion. :|a I wonder if I should be ashamed, but it's been a lot of fun. :x Actually, I am genuinely shocked I got this many words out this week, especially since it was like, a little chipping here, a little prodding there, and suddenly--words! Huh.

Excerpt: "It's a very easy spell," Sakura assures him. "It was one of the first that Mama taught me." Her expression goes sweetly wistful for a moment, seeing through the busy bustling room and into something long past. "And when I was new, all I wanted was for someone to help me out. So now that I can, I'm going to." For a moment she hesitates, then peeks up at him through her lashes. "Is that selfish?"

"No! No, not at all," he says, waving his free hand nervously. "It's very generous of you, Miss Sakura. I'm grateful." He takes the clip, and under her wide-eyed gaze, he clips it to his lapel, nearly hidden by fold of cloth, and gives her a tentative smile.

She laughs, clapping her hands. "Very pretty," she says. "It suits your eyes, Fay-san! Please don't be afraid to call on me any time."

"Oi!" someone shouts from the other side of the room. There is a cluster of white-robed people from the kitchen gathered around a particularly elaborate ice statue--the twins Day and Night, their hands outstretched and not quite touching; even from a distance, the mournful expressions can be clearly seen. "Magician! Some support here!"

"Ah, yes! Right away!" Sakura smiles at Fay, squeezing his hand one last time, and then she goes: light-footed and quick as a little bird: even the hem of her cloak flies out behind her, like the impression of spread wings. He watches her go, his fingers tingling and face warm, and in spite of himself, his fingers drift up to touch the butterfly pinned near his throat.

Thoughts: Ugh ugh ugh. /o\ My creativity feels like it's been really low, and I am not 100% happy with the words I got this week, even though I am pleasantly surprised at how much I did get written. But I've got deadlines that are looming up and promises that are a lot closer than the AU Big Bang, so I really need to get on those. I am well and determined to get these done, sob. H-hopefully my energy will not fail me, because these are things I want to write, too; I think I am just sort of all over the map right now, sigh. :V

FAILURE
Grace weeks left: two

Thoughts: So last week was just bad (emotionally) and busy (everything else), so I was in no real place to sit down and write. I've discovered that I really am bad at writing when there's someone else around, even if they're not paying attention to me--if they're talking to me (or talking at me, as the case is right now), I get distracted and can't get more than maybe a few words at a time.

THE THING IS, I AM ON VACATION NOW! Surely this will be conductive to my writing!

BUT NO: first, I get sickish! My allergies go insane and now I basically have that horrible sore throat that comes about from when your sinuses explode and drain down your throat. Beyond that, I have been home for a day and a night and my dad is making up for a year of not really being talkative on the phone to lecture me hardcore. If lecturing was an Olympic sport, my dad would GO FOR THE GOLD. It started with him and my mom talking about the stock market, and somehow it became my dad grilling me on what my friends do for a living?? AND SOMEHOW THIS BECAME A LECTURE ON MY LIFE CHOICES AND WILL I BE OKAY IN THREE YEARS? IN FIVE YEARS?? TERRA, THINK ABOUT YOUR CAREER CHOICES AND WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING WITH YOURSELF!!! --this is, of course, because I made the mistake of telling him that I have friends who're working part-time or looking for at least part-time jobs right now. SILLY ME, NOT REALIZING HOW THIS SOMEHOW REFLECTED ON MY OWN CAREER.

"Terra, I am going to give you a BRAIN TEASER PROBLEM that they give to Microsoft employees!" he says. "YOUR CHALLENGE IS TO FIGURE IT OUT, OKAY? :B"

Father, I thought I was on vacation, why are you doing this to me! Also why are the lives of my friends, most of whom you have never met, going to directly impact my own career thoughts and choices? I am extraordinarily lucky in that I have full-time employment in a place I enjoy working--I've worked there for four years! I AM DOING OKAY. But he lectured me like when I was a student and unemployed and TERRA, LOOK TO THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE! I couldn't honestly tell if he was praising me or putting me down, in that fabulous way that Asian fathers have. Oh now he's lecturing me on the solution, it's apparently ALL ABOUT FLEXIBLE THINKING. In the course of me writing this post it has somehow become a parable of life using the Merchant of Venice. Father, what is this.

This is after my mom went :( at me a lot because--okay, so, about a month ago, she asked if I wanted to see Avatar when I visited! I said ehh, not really interested, I don't really want to. A week later, she tells me she got tickets for it! 3D IMAX, TERRA! IT'S THREE! DEE! I! MAX! Apparently this is supposed to immediately sway me and I will SEE THE LIGHT and be ready and willing to see it. Only--no. I'm not. I wasn't interested when I saw the previews, and I grew even less interested when I heard reviews from various friends. Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't make a judgment until I see it, but ... I don't really want to see it! I don't particularly care if people want to see it or not, but I had no interest, so I didn't want to drop $10 on it! AND I TOLD MOM THAT. BUT APPARENTLY SHE FORGOT, because when I was still kind of meh about the movie, and she started pouting at me and being all "well, if you don't WANT to, you can stay home" and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I can definitely see where a lot of my bad habits come from, visiting my parents.

IN CONCLUSION: I LOVE MY PARENTS BUT I AM NEVER EVER MOVING BACK TO AUSTIN AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

N-next week will hopefully be better.

ETA: AN HOUR LATER, HE WENT TO BED. After telling me he'd pay me money to lose weight and father, I don't think bribing is really the way to go--!

SUCCESS!

Word Count: 6002
Subjects: imaginarybeasts (apocalypse/distopia); Sherlock Holmes (movieverse); yaoi_challenge; EPIC ROBOTS (c'mon guys, play with us!)

Excerpt: On a summer Monday, I was out with my brother and we were looking for food. Some plants had to be boiled and boiled and boiled to be edible, and others were okay as they were, but they didn't do us any good if they were still growing in the ground and we were going hungry. Mom had told us about "grocery stores" before, places where there was all the food you could ever want, ready and waiting for people to come and take it--I'd even seen one once, the one time we ventured as far as the city looking for things to eat or to bring back to the house. It had been a huge skeleton of a building, with the ground pockmarked and the shelves still mostly full--dogs and maybe other things had torn apart certain sections, but left overs completely alone. Everything in it was too old to take back with us, though, and to me it felt like such a waste.

I wonder what sort of world it was, that had been full of easy food and noisy people.

Thoughts: Oh man, sob. I had a very specific thing I wanted to accomplish with the imaginarybeasts fic, but it was a very ... well, okay, it was pretty hilariously pretentious, but the idea was in my head and would not go away. I want the story's ending, when read, to feel sort of unsatisfying and abrupt--like when you have a sneeze that doesn't happen, that kind of stuffed-up, stuck-in-your-head thing. I HAVE NO IDEA IF I SUCCEEDED, and I don't know that it's particularly something one should aim for, sob. XD But that is what I wanted to produce with the story; time will tell whether or not I really succeeded.

In unrelated news, I will very likely be doing a fic meme this week (or possibly in two weeks--or maybe I will do two), re: my new fandoms. I need to make some ground on my Big Bang fics, though the yaoi_challenge stuff has been going on at a nice clip--but crap, springkink just opened up too, and--! AHHHHHHH. I really hope I can maintain this excitement and eagerness to write when I actually have my vacation in two weeks. :|a

SUCCESS!

Word Count: 2273
Subjects: Epic singing robots, Yuletide Madness, Secret Santa

Excerpt: In the castle are three secrets that will never become rumors, because they are protected from the eyes of the servants more jealously than any other.

First: there is a small shack at the very, very back of the thorn-gardens. It is very well-hidden by the careful planting of bushes and briars; unless you knew what you were looking for, you couldn't find it unless you stumbled upon it directly. Most people don't go this far back: the thorn-gardens are what stand sentinel to the Dragon's Mouth, and it's said that the ghosts of all the previous utahime haunt this place, sad and pale and singing soundlessly for the rest of eternity. It's said that their presence is what keeps the dragon placated and bound when there is not a living girl there to sing.

So: no one goes back there, and no one sees the tiny shack that is hidden by the tall foreboding gates of the Dragon's Mouth. Only the the high priestess ever goes, and then only twice a day: precisely at noon, and precisely at midnight. There are stories about that, too: rumors say she prays to the dragon itself, or that she goes to make sure the shackles that bind the dragon's oracle and its utahime are still securely in place (and they must be bound, the both of them--why would anyone willingly stay in the dark and the cold, in the shadow of the giant dragon, your entire life bartered away?).

Thoughts: I REMEMBERED TO POST THIS BEFORE THE END OF SUNDAY!

In theory I was going to do writing this weekend. Instead, I played a lot of silly hidden-object games, because I discovered my favorite had others in the franchise. (And now suddenly they have other puzzles and plots?! What is this madness! EITHER WAY, IT WAS FUN.)

This upcoming week will be Imaginary Beasts and YC. :|a

SUCCESS!

Word Count: 1590
Subjects: 07-Ghost and ... Vocaloid original fantasy thingy knockoff stuff

Excerpt: After the meal, the girl is bathed again, this time in water that is scented with lavender and lilac. Luka's mother again bathes the girl herself, and now she is telling the girl to be brave, to be strong, to be proud of the honor that has been bestowed upon her and her family, to be chosen to sing for the great dragon. Her family will be paid handsomely. They will be as nobility in the eyes of the kingdom. Every wish they have will be granted. All she has to do is to be brave and sing.

In the mirror, the girl's face changes finally from its blank face. For just a moment, Luka sees life in those huge staring eyes, and it is full of anger, hot enough to match the breath of the dragon itself. She blinks and it's gone. She wonders if she imagined it.

Thoughts: actualize is one of my favorites. Kyaa kyaa kyaa, dragons and epic fantasy are exciting. :D This playlist is exactly two songs long and I'm still excited, that is probably a good sign!

OTHER THINGS:

* Saw The Princess and the Frog with people on Friday! I WAS THOROUGHLY SATISFIED. (Kudos to you, Disney, for having a) a character who was a spoiled brat but still a good person and b) two girls who were friends and interested in the same guy, but neither was bitchy or snipey or tried to steal him from the other.)

* Baked cheetos are delicious, sob. I CAN'T STOP EATING THEM, I need to brush my teeth so I will.

* Trader Joe's dark chocolate oranges are divineeeeeeeeee. This possibly should have gone with the previous point.

* THIS STUPID GAME IS SO MUCH FUN. 8( I played for hours today and hours yesterday and now I think I'm on the final boss?! Maybe? But fffff I WANT MY TEN SEED SLOTS, HOW CAN I WIN THAT MUCH MONEY WITHOUT MORE MINI-GAMES AND PUZZLES. D<

* I have this desire to reread the Earl Cain series, only I can't find my copies. :( I owned all of Godchild and all but ... one? two? of the original series, so this is very sad. I started Eve fic, but I wanted to immerse myself to get into the right mindset. CURSE YOU, DISORGANIZATION!

* ... I was going to clean this weekend, but then Plants vs Zombies happened. Oops.

I AM TOO LAZY TO DO DO CODING FOR THE "NANO WINNER" THING. THEREFORE:

50311 / 50000 words. 101% done!

I could have done better, I know; there were some times where I was just being lazy--and there were times where I was just completely uninspired, or tired, or any number of things. But I made it, and that also counts for a SUCCESS for week twenty-one of my "write at least 1000 words a week for a year" self-challenge. NOT TOO BAD.

Stats-wise, I entirely finished fourteen different pieces this month. The most impressive part about this is that a big chunk of them were actually either completely original ficiton, or close enough to completely original to skirt that line. Some of them I will be posting under the NaNo filter I made--I'm sorry I didn't post a whole lot during this past month, BUT I FIGURE PEOPLE WOULD UNDERSTAND. :'D

AND HERE IS THE FIRST ONE! This is my piece for imaginarybeasts, whose theme for Book #18 was winter.

I wrote The Disappearence of Granny Winter and managed to submit my story early enough to get a gorgeous illustration by adadochka, kyaa kyaa. *_* I hope you'll read and enjoy it! \o/

Ahhhh, I feel pretty good. |D I'm proud of me for making it, and for finishing stuff, and for writing as much original fiction as I did. :3 CONGRATS TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO MADE IT, and congrats to everyone who tried and had fun. YAY NANO 09 \m/

SUCCESS!

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Thoughts: Sooooooob this week! THIS WEEK! I did not get nearly as much done this week as I wanted; most nights, I just pretty much eked past the minimum wordcount for NaNo in the last hour or so before bedtime. ON TOP OF THAT MAYBE I AM GETTING SICK?! Which is kind of sucktastic, but it would explain why I have been kind of dead on trying to get anything done. The thing that really sucks, though, is that I still want to write, I just have been unable to focus properly to pull anything off.

On the other hand, I think I am definitely in the consumptive cycle of my creative output again; I have been reading a ton of manga (m-mostly silly BL but still! mostly reading manga) this past week, and I think it's sort of put me on a I WANT TO WRITE ORIGINAL FIC! BUT ALSO FANFIC! I am finally catching up on xxxHolic, and also I am on this embarrassingly big FukuJun kick like YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE. BUT I HAVE NO DIRECTION! vicious cycle. This is slightly troubling. :|a

But I am on track, writing-wise, so hopefully I will have more to post in the upcoming week. \o/