I Will Destroy Everything of Beauty

Woooooow. And then I proceed to not update for nearly six months. SORRY GUYS, not that anyone really follows this. More like sorry to myself, because posting here always gives me some kind of motivation to write and I've really been missing that.

So. In terms of updated things. I hit the 50,000 word mark for my NaNoWriMo, CIRCLING THE EDGE, but the story is kind of... resisting being finished. Possibly this is because the characterization overall is not as strong as I would like and it's more plot-driven, and I suck at plot. Oh well. I'll look back at it another time, perhaps. It's got a little bit of promise left in it, I think.


THE TEAM is stalled as well, for opposite reasons. I think it's going to end up being similar to THE AFTER ADVENTURES, with the whole apocalypse thing--more focusing on the apocalypse itself than the aftereffects, and obviously it's not going to be a children's story like THE AFTER ADVENTURES, but... clearly I need to go back to the plotting stages of that one. Both of them, actually. Oh JOY.

BURN THE DEVIL OUT is actually... okay. So I haven't touched it since like JUNE, but I read a portion of it for the coffeehouse thrown by the school's literary magazine (which I am one of the head editors for... yeah, I'm a nerd) and people really liked it so I've started kind of poking at it again. I forgot how much I really enjoyed that story, and how fun the characters were, and I can't wait to finish the first part so we can move into the second, which is one step closer to me being able to WRITE THE DEVIL. And I love the Devil in that story. So much.

HER I MUST FOLLOW might be permanently scrapped. I mean... I love the title, and I love Mat (the main character) but I have no idea what his story is. I just know that he's connected to the title. So it's kind of back to the drawing board on that one. Yeah. I have so much plotting to do over break.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY I HAVE SUCH A BLOCK WHEN IT COMES TO THE ADVENTURES OF SIR SHAGSALOT. Seriously. I just... cannot seem to sit down and actually WRITE that thing. It's very very frustrating. Granted, I'm working through some backstory stuff for him, which is nice in understanding why he's such an asshole. Okay, not really. Whatever.

And finally, the work that is currently EATING MY BRAIN OH MY GOD is SMALL CRIMES, which is actually more like a collection of short stories about the same characters than anything else. But it's fulla sketch and I love it so much because it's so twisted.

All links for these stories (save OUT which... also needs to be reworked OH GOD SO MUCH REWORKING TO DOOOOO) can be found in my (very not shiny) profile. I will try to keep updating more often with things like revelations about characters, plot things, etc.

I used notecards to plot for the first time yesterday! It was really exciting. It helps me see the plot a lot clearer. I mean, I have no idea how it would work for a project that's not split up. Because, uh, yeah, new development! KILLING THE DEVIL? Is now called BURN THE DEVIL OUT, and it comes in three parts! Which is very very exciting. They're very shiny and color-coordinated and yes! I'm very excited about that. Now, to actually start writing... that's always the hardest part, isn't it?

Also! There's been some plotting for HER I MUST FOLLOW. And a couple of revelations that I have to write down so I don't forget them. All in all, exciting stuff! I've been kind of failing at writing four hours a day, but tomorrow that begins anew. Or, you know, today. I'm getting up at 8:30 (whoo hoo five hours!) in the hopes that that will inspire me to, you know, actually sit down and WRITE. So... I should sleep now.

Yesterday, instead of working, I went and picked out PBs for the characters in a story that as of yet has no title, but I'm calling 'KILLING THE DEVIL' in the file. Because that's... what it's about. I had a rough time finding the right faces for the right characters (THE DEVIL WAS SO HARD, OH GOD,) and they're not all perfect, but at least that's done now. Except the woman was WAAAAY too young to be married to her ghost husband. SERIOUSLY. Oh well.

I'm also making progress on The TEAM, working my way through chapter six. It's so easy to build up a word count for that thing. Really. Mostly because Finn's syntax is almost disgustingly close to my own, and there's always a lot of rambling involved.