writing and life updates
Well, I made it through Friday closing/Saturday early shift/Sunday morning one last time and henceforth I can unload the Friday closing shift on new supervisor R. I cannot even express how happy that makes me. I absolutely hate that Friday closing shift, particularly because I've effectively been short staffed since D.'s last day -- I've been unable to schedule a middle-of-the-day catch-all/support person to back me up. Now things can return to normal, meaning I'll be the mid day catch-all person, and someone else can handle the direct supervising and closing-up at the end of the night.
Unfortunately I am sick. Snuffly, scratchy throat, more irritable than usual, skin feeling sensitive and itchy, food sounding terrible, no sense of smell kind of sick. No running for me this week, then. I wish I could call in sick today, but orders have to get placed, at least. Anyway, I'm sure it's just a cold that will go away soon.
The big good news is the writing! My NaNo story is at 8000 words! My original goal was just to write my smallfandombang, and I ought to have the 10,000 words for that by... tonight, if all goes as planned. The story's not halfway told, though, so obviously I'll keep going until it is. If it gets done before 50,000 words, I'll start on another story within the same series -- which may be cheating, yes, but you know, I'm okay with that.
I'm drawing on an idea I started in summer of 2010. When there's talk about, "How would you do movie adaptations?" in Pierce fandom, I always say that Circle of Magic should be a TV show instead. So what I'd like to is write a series of long-ish fics that take place in Summersea, post Will of the Empress, and follow our four protagonists as they solve magic-based crimes and mysteries, have romances, sort out their career plans, and generally go about their lives. I made a lot of progress on the first installment, but somehow never finished it, so I hope to go back to that story. The one I'm writing at the moment is a later installment -- let's call it the second, unless I have a particular reason to move it. I also have a couple of key OCs I've introduced in drabbles and ficlets elsewhere, and they need to somehow be introduced within the main story.
So that's what I'm doing. Here's how: I haven't outlined anything. I have a short page of notes and details to include later in the story, but that's it. I don't know who my villain is; I just yesterday figured out what's causing the big problem Our Heroes are trying to solve. I'm probably going to re-order everything. I'm probably going to scrap half of what I've written so far. I'm not even clear on who my POV character is (but that might be all right, for Circle of Magic fic). And I'm good with all of this! I'm having fun. Last night I knocked out 2000 words in less than two hours. The words just come. I have no doubt that I'm capable of getting to 50,000 words by the end of the month. And the story will come together in its own way. Editing the thing will be a whole other adventure, but there's no need to stress about that now. It'll happen. Or maybe it won't, but that's okay too.
Contrast last year, when I had spreadsheets and outlines and was hell-bent on winning. I did win, and I'm pretty happy with my story, and it was a really, really good learning experience. One of the things I learned is that outlines and shit are not for me. So I'm taking a completely different approach this time, and I fucking love the experience so far.
Unfortunately I am sick. Snuffly, scratchy throat, more irritable than usual, skin feeling sensitive and itchy, food sounding terrible, no sense of smell kind of sick. No running for me this week, then. I wish I could call in sick today, but orders have to get placed, at least. Anyway, I'm sure it's just a cold that will go away soon.
The big good news is the writing! My NaNo story is at 8000 words! My original goal was just to write my smallfandombang, and I ought to have the 10,000 words for that by... tonight, if all goes as planned. The story's not halfway told, though, so obviously I'll keep going until it is. If it gets done before 50,000 words, I'll start on another story within the same series -- which may be cheating, yes, but you know, I'm okay with that.
I'm drawing on an idea I started in summer of 2010. When there's talk about, "How would you do movie adaptations?" in Pierce fandom, I always say that Circle of Magic should be a TV show instead. So what I'd like to is write a series of long-ish fics that take place in Summersea, post Will of the Empress, and follow our four protagonists as they solve magic-based crimes and mysteries, have romances, sort out their career plans, and generally go about their lives. I made a lot of progress on the first installment, but somehow never finished it, so I hope to go back to that story. The one I'm writing at the moment is a later installment -- let's call it the second, unless I have a particular reason to move it. I also have a couple of key OCs I've introduced in drabbles and ficlets elsewhere, and they need to somehow be introduced within the main story.
So that's what I'm doing. Here's how: I haven't outlined anything. I have a short page of notes and details to include later in the story, but that's it. I don't know who my villain is; I just yesterday figured out what's causing the big problem Our Heroes are trying to solve. I'm probably going to re-order everything. I'm probably going to scrap half of what I've written so far. I'm not even clear on who my POV character is (but that might be all right, for Circle of Magic fic). And I'm good with all of this! I'm having fun. Last night I knocked out 2000 words in less than two hours. The words just come. I have no doubt that I'm capable of getting to 50,000 words by the end of the month. And the story will come together in its own way. Editing the thing will be a whole other adventure, but there's no need to stress about that now. It'll happen. Or maybe it won't, but that's okay too.
Contrast last year, when I had spreadsheets and outlines and was hell-bent on winning. I did win, and I'm pretty happy with my story, and it was a really, really good learning experience. One of the things I learned is that outlines and shit are not for me. So I'm taking a completely different approach this time, and I fucking love the experience so far.