Requests and Challenges - Announcements
22 May 2015
My wireless keyboard died. Just completely bit it. I have no idea why, other than just because there apparently wasn't enough agitation in my life already. *sigh* Time to haul out the giant annoying laptop. Which basically means I'm now restricted to writing/updating from home. *headdesk*
Hopefully I'll be able to replace it by June 10. Even though idk how much they cost because honestly I managed to get this one for free after being on the phone with Apple for 4 hours one night three years ago trying to order my iPad.
Well, little buddy, you produced upwards of 300,000 words of fanfiction and saw me through four semesters of a writing-intensive degree. You will be remembered fondly. <3
In other news, today is my first day off this week. Let's get writing, shall we?
17 May 2015
Okay, so you guys know the writing schedule? The one that I've been failing at miserably this month but worked weirdly well last month? It's done. I'm tossing it. HAVING SAID THAT. I'm still planning on writing the same fills. I've pared down the story info on the master post to requested fills because I'm making those my first priority (although I still need to add sanshal's and phoenix1966's), but I'll still be writing others when I can. Now, for those who want it, here's the longer explanation.
Writing "What's Left of Us" has reminded me how much I enjoy writing what's driving me at a given moment, even if that means delays on other things. I had sacrificed that for volume and trying to contribute as heavily to the kink meme as I could, to make as many prompters happy as possible. I don't mean that I sacrificed it as in making myself unhappy, because I do truly enjoy writing for others and I feel this weird sense of honor when I'm able to give someone a fill and sort of make their day. So it wasn't like I was feeling overwhelmed or put-upon.
But the hollowed 'verse has sort of grabbed hold of me, and I'm having a lot of fun with it, and it's hard to switch tracks with it and write other things based on a schedule. While juggling it, I have to be able to write what I'm able to when I'm able to. For example, I've been trying to write "The Wrong Side of Ellen" for the last three days, and I just can't get myself to focus on it at this moment, but when looking through the schedule I came across another planned fill and I was like, "now, I could do that one right now" but because I was already behind in my schedule, I just kept trying for the overdue one. This means that ultimately, nothing got done, and I'm going to hazard a guess that we'd all rather have some productivity than none, right?
I like doing the schedule because it pushes me, but at this point in time it's just frustrating me and, I'm sure, you guys who are waiting on fills. So although I know it's annoying to have no idea when it's coming, the schedule is doing more harm than good and I'm scrapping it.
I hope you all understand and will be patient with me while I find my footing again, and I hope that when your prompts begin to surface within the next few days you will enjoy them and find all of this mess worth it.
Thank you guys for reading and for sticking with me. You have no idea how much you each mean to me as I navigate my way through this fandom and style of writing. <3
13 May 2015
A quick-ish note today:
We're a bit behind schedule. I actually have no regrets about this, as it's not severe and the delay is due to my work on "Hollowed" and planning out its sequel, "What's Left of Us", which I'm very, very excited about. :D The master post for the sequel is up, and the first chapter is half-written. I'm super, super happy to have been given a chance to work in this 'verse, and big thanks to liverpool46 for submitting the prompt and trusting me to write it, as well as giving me her blessing to expand it into a longer 'verse.
So, to let you guys in on the officially-official catch-up plan, the following is the revised writing schedule for the next few days:
Today: "The View From the Top", the weekly updates for "We Are Pilots" and "White Balloons", and one chapter of "Potato Candy".
Tomorrow (May 14): "The Wrong Side of Ellen", the second chapter of "Potato Candy" and the weekly update for "Blood, Sweat, and Tears".
Friday (May 15): The first few chapters of "Ready or Not" and the weekly update for "Reappearing".
Saturday (May 16): "Cruel to be Kind", the rest of "Ready or Not", and the weekly update for "Potato Candy"
"The Taming of the Omega" is being re-slotted. The writing schedule will be updated as soon as possible.
10 May 2015
Remember how I said I'd get my shit together and stop causing you guys headaches? Haha I lied. Apparently.
(Seriously why do you guys put up with me?)
Okay. So here's the dealy-deal. As we all know, my car was stolen. As an update, all official-like, I've got it back now and that issue is taken care of and my roommate goes to the crisis center in the morning. So that put me a bit behind. Anyway, some of you may have seen, during about a three-hour window, Part One of "You're Safe With Me". Bros. Bros. That was bad. That was so bad. That was so bad that I actually told Liz that I can't do it and for some reason everything I try to do to fix it is making it worse and skjlajdadhfs. Anyway, long story short, Liz, being the eternal saint she is and having way more faith in me than I really deserve was super-understanding about it and told me to give it some time. Having said that, wrestling with this issue on my end has eaten up a day, so it's schedule shuffle time. It's no huge thing. The double update for "Potato Candy" is now going to be posted tomorrow (Monday) along with "Hollowed", which I'm so so excited about I can't even tell you. "You're Safe With Me" is on hold until I get my shit together, and "The Beast in Your Bed" is being reslotted. Other than that, all other dates will remain unchanged. Thank you all, and goodnight!
7 May 2015
Hey guys, remember that time I copypasta'd the new chapter of "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" and the last 600 or so words was missing? Well, it's happened again. So if you read chapter six of "White Balloons" before this note, please be aware that it was incomplete. It's just a bit at the end butttt still. I'll try to be more careful about this in the future. Or at least try to catch it quicker than twelve hours after the fact. *le sigh*
In other news, it's the last day of planning week and the new fill set starts tomorrow. You guys excited? I know I am! :D
Additional note for date: I tried something new this month and uploaded the first entries for each fill so that the master post was ready to roll and the links accurate in an attempt to dedicate more of my time to writing and less to journal upkeep. It would appear that although these entries are locked, some notifications were sent out and readers who receive alerts for my entries have experienced a bit of an email landslide, particularly from the last couple of scheduled stories. I have not written the fills yet; the entries are currently just the HTML coding for section breaks, continuation and return links, banners, and section breaks. If you have received any alerts for the May fills at this point, please do not be alarmed by the Access Denied message you received. I'm very sorry for any confusion and blow-ups to alerts. I'll be using a different method for June now that I'm aware of the issue.
(I promise I'll eventually get the hang of this LJ thing and not cause you guys headaches every other day. -_-;;)
5 May 2015
Anna Messes Up: The Continuing Saga: So earlier I realized that there was a problem with my preview for "Hollowed", and a few minutes ago one of the mods from spnkink-meme, the original source of the story's prompt contacted me about it. So to ease any concerns I'm going to address this real quick.
(Please note that this is in no way intended as any sort of snark or back-handed sort of comment on the community; I bring up the mod involvement to show why I think more people may be concerned than have brought it up. The mod who contacted me--electriclita--was very nice and courteous about the whole thing, which I greatly appreciate.)
I misunderstood the community rule about real persons under the age of 18 being used in fills. I was under the impression that they could not be paired or used in any sort of sexual content. Because of this, and because I'm generally unoriginal and unfamiliar with the way things like this are handled in RPFs, I used the name Thomas for Jared's son. This morning I was going through the new round of prompts and I glimpsed the rule as written (versus my interpretation from memory) and realized that it says that no persons under the age of 18 can be used, even in passing. This was my mistake and my misunderstanding, and I'm very sorry if it made anyone uncomfortable. The name has been changed in the preview as well as my draft for the actual fill, and the tag for Thomas has been removed.
4 May 2015
So because I'm a winner at life, I forgot to mention that I'm starting training for my new job (finally...after being unemployed for three weeks--that sucked) tomorrow. Well, technically this morning, I guess. Anyway. I don't anticipate this causing any issues with the intermittent fills other than to mention that they may go up quite late in the day or very early the next morning. There should be no worries about them not showing up at all.
3 May 2015
Well guys, here we go. We're in Planning Week. This is the first month that I've followed a schedule (my second month on here, I guess?) and I think that it went pretty well once I started doing it in April. Some bumps in the road, some shuffling; mostly shit that's unavoidable when you regrettably do have an actual life with responsibilities and such. But with the schedule, I definitely got more writing done in April than I ever would have otherwise--twenty-five fills since my first one, "The Smell of Fear", totally nearly 130,000 words--and I think that's pretty snazzy for thirty days. So my hope is that with incorporating a week for planning, May will go even smoother. In the meantime, keep on prompting and commenting--I truly love hearing from you guys. Intermittent fills will begin again today (Sunday), with double-updates all around to make up for last week, and I may manage to throw up a chapter or two more of "Under the Gun", but other than that we're going into a bit of a lag. I'll see you guys on May 8! Thanks for making April so amazing and I look forward to writing some fun stuff for you all this month!
30 April 2015
I've got a few things for you guys today.
First, regarding the slot system for prompts: Last month, an available "slot" meant that there was an opening for one part of a prompt fill. I've realized that this is faulty, as once I start on a prompt I don't like to stop, whether it takes one part or five to complete, but also because you guys have no clue when prompting whether yours is going to end up as a one-shot or a multi-part fill or even a full length story (intermittent fill). So from now on, a "slot" available means that I can accept a prompt for that day. 1 slot = 1 prompt fill. Got it? Awesome. Hopefully this will work out better.
Second, regarding this week's intermittent fills: I made a bad call in story-dumping my cross-posts this week. I was all caught up one night (actually I was at the end of my prompt queue for the month) and so I decided to do it then rather than waiting until Planning Week, which is when I had originally intended to do it. This triggered a landslide in traffic through my email, some last-minute requests, and a need to update the master posts and links as well as slot three last-minute fills for the month and open the May prompt post early. None of this is upsetting or aggravating to me, and I by no means want people to stop posting/commenting/prompting. I simply wasn't prepared for it and I lost my rhythm. Because of this, intermittent fills are suspended for this week. They will resume on Sunday, May 3, and they will each be double-updated. Because this is during planning week, they will be the only scheduled writing and I can guarantee it happening, and I'm hoping that this will balance the fairness-scales for their prompters. I am, as always, very sorry for the turbulence in the schedule.
Third, I am revamping "Playing for Keeps". I immediately fell in love with the prompt when ohwillothewisp first submitted it, but because I wanted to fill it as a regular prompt if I could, because the intermittent fill rotation is full, I tried to cram everything into five parts, and I feel that I did it a great disservice in doing so. Additionally, this has been one of my most popular fills so far and I have received many requests for a follow-up, sequel, or expansion on every single site that I have posted it on. So I'll be going through and revamping what exists (including more detail and background, more convo with Dean and Cas, and more time in Cas's headspace--yay!) and then expanding it beyond to make it a full-length story. The original fill will be left as-is. The revamp/continuation is titled "Under the Gun", and it will be added to whenever I have time. Because this prompt has technically been filled entirely, I do not feel right assigning it slots in the schedule intended for new prompts. Anyway, I hope some people are excited for this--I know I am. :)
Finally, I am going to be doing the Dean/Cas Big Bang this year. There's not a lot of follow-up on this one since we're supposed to be super-quiet about our work until scheduled posting, but I hope you all will still cheer me on. For more info on the DCBB, check out the community: deancasbigbang.
Sorry for the wall-of-announcements and thank you very much for reading!
26 April 2015
Some of you may have noticed that the update for "Reappearing" was missing this week. The story has not been abandoned, and Chapter Three is now available. The delay was entirely on me. It'll probably sound like a cop-out, but some stuff went down in the last two weeks and I couldn't handle the subject matter for a minute. I'm not going to go into detail because well, you already understand it as readers of that story or you don't--but suffice it to say that the story isn't only potentially triggering for readers, and I have to keep my health in mind sometimes, as much as I love it and hated missing an update. I'm back on task now, and I apologize for the delay, and I hope you guys understand.
22 April 2015
I'm now caught up and the writing schedule is once more on track. Thank you all so much for your patience yesterday--I'm about to start work on today's fills (the rest of "Resin" and the weekly update of "White Balloons") and I anticipate no further issues with updates in the near future.
21 April 2015
Okay, so I promise announcements like these will be very few and far between with me, but today's scheduled fills--"Not By a Long Shot" (Part 2/2) and "Resin" (Part 1/2)--are going to be delayed until tomorrow. Today has been something of a comedy of errors that has left me angry and frustrated and I am absolutely certain that if I tried to fill them tonight they would not be up to scratch, which isn't fair to the prompters. They will be finished and posted in the order they were supposed to be tomorrow, along with the scheduled fills for tomorrow. I anticipate no further delay than that; tomorrow will just have to be a very post-heavy day. I'm very sorry for any disappointment or aggravation that this has caused, and I hope you guys understand--especially those of you whose fills have been delayed.
18 April 2015
Some of you may have noticed that as I was getting the ball rolling on intermittent fills and trying to organize the others and whatnot (hi, my name is Anna and I tend to bite off more than I can chew and yet still somehow manage to chew it), the master posts slid out of date and didn't have the correct links and updated information and such. They should be correct now, so those of you using them to navigate and browse can go back to doing so without wanting to beat your heads against the wall. :) Those of you who weren't, well... This announcement was a giant waste of your time and energy but thanks for hanging in there!
17 April 2015
Ahem. Just wanted to drop a note and give you guys the head's up that, through some fluke in copypasta or other such stupidity, the original update for "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" was missing about 600 words at the end. If you accessed the chapter before about 1:30am Friday morning EST, please go back and check to make sure that you've read the whole thing, as the next update may be a little confusing if not. Sorry for any confusion or inconvenience!
11 April 2015
Howdy all! I'm currently at my symposium and running on limited free time (and iPad charge) so I'll make this quicky-quick for once. Regarding the writing schedule for yesterday and the lack of live chapters to go with it: they are written. Have no fear. Due to changing circumstances at my job, I wound up having to hand-write them, and will have to type them up tonight. This will take a bit of time, but at the very least they should all be live by early Monday morning, along with the scheduled fills for tonight and tomorrow. So no worries, I'm right on schedule. Party on bros and I'll see you when the chapters go live. Sorry for the delay and confusion. :)
(Also I am really, really pleased with how these fills turned out and I think you all will be as well! I look forward to hearing your reactions; those of you who are willing to share.)
9 April 2015
Wow, you guys, this thing has taken off quicker than I imagined! When I first created my request page, I was honestly not expecting much activity on it, and sort of built it on a whim, pretty much "just in case". I'm so, so happy that you guys enjoy my fills enough to make personal requests, and I'm glad to get to write them for you--particularly those who have been passed over in prompt rounds before. I'm getting such a variety of prompts, and I'm honestly pleased as punch. :)
Now, on to business: The number of prompts that I'm recieving, coupled with my own stubbornness to hand-select a few each month from the current spnkink_meme round, has created quite a wide variety of prompt content and anticipated length of the finished fill. This means that if I worked with a classic queue system, it could be months before some of you with prompts that I don't think I could do justice to in 1-5 parts see hide or hair of your fill! Yikes. And those of you with prompts with an anticipated fill length of 1-2 parts may be lost under a lengthier story. I don't want that, and you guys surely don't want that.
With this in mind, I am creating a writing schedule for each month that will consist of three categories of fills that will be handled in different ways. Selected Fills are prompts that I select when I comb through the current round each month. Request Fills are prompts that were specifically requested of me, either here via the request page or on one of the sites I use for cross-posting. If a day is labeled as an Open Fill, that means that there is room there for a Request Fill. So Request Fill = Open Fill. Basically. So as long as there are Open Fill slots listed, you can request a fill for the same month. Intermittent Fills are the big ones, prompts that I anticipate will take more than 5 parts to complete. There will be seven Intermittent Fill slots, and each intermittent fill will be assigned a day each week that it is updated (1-2 chapters) until it is complete. Once an Intermittent Fill is completed, it will be removed from the rotation and if there are prompts waiting in the queue the next one will take its place. The waiting list for intermittent prompts is first come, first serve. If I anticipate that your prompt will be slotted as an Intermittent Fill and there are no open slots I will reply to the prompt and let you decide if you want to alter your prompt or remain in the queue. I know this all sounds a little confusing, but I think it will work very smoothly and it's the best way to let me work on both short and long fills without creating an obscenely long waiting period.
Intermittent Fills, because of the fact that they will span at least five weeks, will not be listed under a particular month's master post. Instead, they will have a master post of their own, where the waiting list will also be tracked.
Right now there are 6 Intermittent Fills in the queue. That means that there is still a spot open (Saturday) for one more before the waiting list starts.
There are currently 22 open fill slots available for the month of April.
Okay, now that I've explained all of that, let's link you guys to the writing schedule!
[ETA: As of right now, all master posts are current and all links are functioning, including the newly-established Intermittent Fill Master Post.]
7 April 2015
Hey guys! I'm pleased to announce that my April prompt queue has been posted. You can check it out here to get an idea of what I'll be writing this month. I'm going to take a few days to catch up on my queue from other months, and then start on it! So expect that within the next week or so.
Prompts are still welcome, of course, but as of now, the ones listed are the only ones I'm picking up from spnkink_meme. Of course, that just means that those are my only hand-picked ones. The request page is still open, and will remain open unless something unexpected comes up.
See you guys in the fills!
My wireless keyboard died. Just completely bit it. I have no idea why, other than just because there apparently wasn't enough agitation in my life already. *sigh* Time to haul out the giant annoying laptop. Which basically means I'm now restricted to writing/updating from home. *headdesk*
Hopefully I'll be able to replace it by June 10. Even though idk how much they cost because honestly I managed to get this one for free after being on the phone with Apple for 4 hours one night three years ago trying to order my iPad.
Well, little buddy, you produced upwards of 300,000 words of fanfiction and saw me through four semesters of a writing-intensive degree. You will be remembered fondly. <3
In other news, today is my first day off this week. Let's get writing, shall we?
17 May 2015
Okay, so you guys know the writing schedule? The one that I've been failing at miserably this month but worked weirdly well last month? It's done. I'm tossing it. HAVING SAID THAT. I'm still planning on writing the same fills. I've pared down the story info on the master post to requested fills because I'm making those my first priority (although I still need to add sanshal's and phoenix1966's), but I'll still be writing others when I can. Now, for those who want it, here's the longer explanation.
Writing "What's Left of Us" has reminded me how much I enjoy writing what's driving me at a given moment, even if that means delays on other things. I had sacrificed that for volume and trying to contribute as heavily to the kink meme as I could, to make as many prompters happy as possible. I don't mean that I sacrificed it as in making myself unhappy, because I do truly enjoy writing for others and I feel this weird sense of honor when I'm able to give someone a fill and sort of make their day. So it wasn't like I was feeling overwhelmed or put-upon.
But the hollowed 'verse has sort of grabbed hold of me, and I'm having a lot of fun with it, and it's hard to switch tracks with it and write other things based on a schedule. While juggling it, I have to be able to write what I'm able to when I'm able to. For example, I've been trying to write "The Wrong Side of Ellen" for the last three days, and I just can't get myself to focus on it at this moment, but when looking through the schedule I came across another planned fill and I was like, "now, I could do that one right now" but because I was already behind in my schedule, I just kept trying for the overdue one. This means that ultimately, nothing got done, and I'm going to hazard a guess that we'd all rather have some productivity than none, right?
I like doing the schedule because it pushes me, but at this point in time it's just frustrating me and, I'm sure, you guys who are waiting on fills. So although I know it's annoying to have no idea when it's coming, the schedule is doing more harm than good and I'm scrapping it.
I hope you all understand and will be patient with me while I find my footing again, and I hope that when your prompts begin to surface within the next few days you will enjoy them and find all of this mess worth it.
Thank you guys for reading and for sticking with me. You have no idea how much you each mean to me as I navigate my way through this fandom and style of writing. <3
13 May 2015
A quick-ish note today:
We're a bit behind schedule. I actually have no regrets about this, as it's not severe and the delay is due to my work on "Hollowed" and planning out its sequel, "What's Left of Us", which I'm very, very excited about. :D The master post for the sequel is up, and the first chapter is half-written. I'm super, super happy to have been given a chance to work in this 'verse, and big thanks to liverpool46 for submitting the prompt and trusting me to write it, as well as giving me her blessing to expand it into a longer 'verse.
So, to let you guys in on the officially-official catch-up plan, the following is the revised writing schedule for the next few days:
Today: "The View From the Top", the weekly updates for "We Are Pilots" and "White Balloons", and one chapter of "Potato Candy".
Tomorrow (May 14): "The Wrong Side of Ellen", the second chapter of "Potato Candy" and the weekly update for "Blood, Sweat, and Tears".
Friday (May 15): The first few chapters of "Ready or Not" and the weekly update for "Reappearing".
Saturday (May 16): "Cruel to be Kind", the rest of "Ready or Not", and the weekly update for "Potato Candy"
"The Taming of the Omega" is being re-slotted. The writing schedule will be updated as soon as possible.
10 May 2015
Remember how I said I'd get my shit together and stop causing you guys headaches? Haha I lied. Apparently.
(Seriously why do you guys put up with me?)
Okay. So here's the dealy-deal. As we all know, my car was stolen. As an update, all official-like, I've got it back now and that issue is taken care of and my roommate goes to the crisis center in the morning. So that put me a bit behind. Anyway, some of you may have seen, during about a three-hour window, Part One of "You're Safe With Me". Bros. Bros. That was bad. That was so bad. That was so bad that I actually told Liz that I can't do it and for some reason everything I try to do to fix it is making it worse and skjlajdadhfs. Anyway, long story short, Liz, being the eternal saint she is and having way more faith in me than I really deserve was super-understanding about it and told me to give it some time. Having said that, wrestling with this issue on my end has eaten up a day, so it's schedule shuffle time. It's no huge thing. The double update for "Potato Candy" is now going to be posted tomorrow (Monday) along with "Hollowed", which I'm so so excited about I can't even tell you. "You're Safe With Me" is on hold until I get my shit together, and "The Beast in Your Bed" is being reslotted. Other than that, all other dates will remain unchanged. Thank you all, and goodnight!
7 May 2015
Hey guys, remember that time I copypasta'd the new chapter of "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" and the last 600 or so words was missing? Well, it's happened again. So if you read chapter six of "White Balloons" before this note, please be aware that it was incomplete. It's just a bit at the end butttt still. I'll try to be more careful about this in the future. Or at least try to catch it quicker than twelve hours after the fact. *le sigh*
In other news, it's the last day of planning week and the new fill set starts tomorrow. You guys excited? I know I am! :D
Additional note for date: I tried something new this month and uploaded the first entries for each fill so that the master post was ready to roll and the links accurate in an attempt to dedicate more of my time to writing and less to journal upkeep. It would appear that although these entries are locked, some notifications were sent out and readers who receive alerts for my entries have experienced a bit of an email landslide, particularly from the last couple of scheduled stories. I have not written the fills yet; the entries are currently just the HTML coding for section breaks, continuation and return links, banners, and section breaks. If you have received any alerts for the May fills at this point, please do not be alarmed by the Access Denied message you received. I'm very sorry for any confusion and blow-ups to alerts. I'll be using a different method for June now that I'm aware of the issue.
(I promise I'll eventually get the hang of this LJ thing and not cause you guys headaches every other day. -_-;;)
5 May 2015
Anna Messes Up: The Continuing Saga: So earlier I realized that there was a problem with my preview for "Hollowed", and a few minutes ago one of the mods from spnkink-meme, the original source of the story's prompt contacted me about it. So to ease any concerns I'm going to address this real quick.
(Please note that this is in no way intended as any sort of snark or back-handed sort of comment on the community; I bring up the mod involvement to show why I think more people may be concerned than have brought it up. The mod who contacted me--electriclita--was very nice and courteous about the whole thing, which I greatly appreciate.)
I misunderstood the community rule about real persons under the age of 18 being used in fills. I was under the impression that they could not be paired or used in any sort of sexual content. Because of this, and because I'm generally unoriginal and unfamiliar with the way things like this are handled in RPFs, I used the name Thomas for Jared's son. This morning I was going through the new round of prompts and I glimpsed the rule as written (versus my interpretation from memory) and realized that it says that no persons under the age of 18 can be used, even in passing. This was my mistake and my misunderstanding, and I'm very sorry if it made anyone uncomfortable. The name has been changed in the preview as well as my draft for the actual fill, and the tag for Thomas has been removed.
4 May 2015
So because I'm a winner at life, I forgot to mention that I'm starting training for my new job (finally...after being unemployed for three weeks--that sucked) tomorrow. Well, technically this morning, I guess. Anyway. I don't anticipate this causing any issues with the intermittent fills other than to mention that they may go up quite late in the day or very early the next morning. There should be no worries about them not showing up at all.
3 May 2015
Well guys, here we go. We're in Planning Week. This is the first month that I've followed a schedule (my second month on here, I guess?) and I think that it went pretty well once I started doing it in April. Some bumps in the road, some shuffling; mostly shit that's unavoidable when you regrettably do have an actual life with responsibilities and such. But with the schedule, I definitely got more writing done in April than I ever would have otherwise--twenty-five fills since my first one, "The Smell of Fear", totally nearly 130,000 words--and I think that's pretty snazzy for thirty days. So my hope is that with incorporating a week for planning, May will go even smoother. In the meantime, keep on prompting and commenting--I truly love hearing from you guys. Intermittent fills will begin again today (Sunday), with double-updates all around to make up for last week, and I may manage to throw up a chapter or two more of "Under the Gun", but other than that we're going into a bit of a lag. I'll see you guys on May 8! Thanks for making April so amazing and I look forward to writing some fun stuff for you all this month!
30 April 2015
I've got a few things for you guys today.
First, regarding the slot system for prompts: Last month, an available "slot" meant that there was an opening for one part of a prompt fill. I've realized that this is faulty, as once I start on a prompt I don't like to stop, whether it takes one part or five to complete, but also because you guys have no clue when prompting whether yours is going to end up as a one-shot or a multi-part fill or even a full length story (intermittent fill). So from now on, a "slot" available means that I can accept a prompt for that day. 1 slot = 1 prompt fill. Got it? Awesome. Hopefully this will work out better.
Second, regarding this week's intermittent fills: I made a bad call in story-dumping my cross-posts this week. I was all caught up one night (actually I was at the end of my prompt queue for the month) and so I decided to do it then rather than waiting until Planning Week, which is when I had originally intended to do it. This triggered a landslide in traffic through my email, some last-minute requests, and a need to update the master posts and links as well as slot three last-minute fills for the month and open the May prompt post early. None of this is upsetting or aggravating to me, and I by no means want people to stop posting/commenting/prompting. I simply wasn't prepared for it and I lost my rhythm. Because of this, intermittent fills are suspended for this week. They will resume on Sunday, May 3, and they will each be double-updated. Because this is during planning week, they will be the only scheduled writing and I can guarantee it happening, and I'm hoping that this will balance the fairness-scales for their prompters. I am, as always, very sorry for the turbulence in the schedule.
Third, I am revamping "Playing for Keeps". I immediately fell in love with the prompt when ohwillothewisp first submitted it, but because I wanted to fill it as a regular prompt if I could, because the intermittent fill rotation is full, I tried to cram everything into five parts, and I feel that I did it a great disservice in doing so. Additionally, this has been one of my most popular fills so far and I have received many requests for a follow-up, sequel, or expansion on every single site that I have posted it on. So I'll be going through and revamping what exists (including more detail and background, more convo with Dean and Cas, and more time in Cas's headspace--yay!) and then expanding it beyond to make it a full-length story. The original fill will be left as-is. The revamp/continuation is titled "Under the Gun", and it will be added to whenever I have time. Because this prompt has technically been filled entirely, I do not feel right assigning it slots in the schedule intended for new prompts. Anyway, I hope some people are excited for this--I know I am. :)
Finally, I am going to be doing the Dean/Cas Big Bang this year. There's not a lot of follow-up on this one since we're supposed to be super-quiet about our work until scheduled posting, but I hope you all will still cheer me on. For more info on the DCBB, check out the community: deancasbigbang.
Sorry for the wall-of-announcements and thank you very much for reading!
26 April 2015
Some of you may have noticed that the update for "Reappearing" was missing this week. The story has not been abandoned, and Chapter Three is now available. The delay was entirely on me. It'll probably sound like a cop-out, but some stuff went down in the last two weeks and I couldn't handle the subject matter for a minute. I'm not going to go into detail because well, you already understand it as readers of that story or you don't--but suffice it to say that the story isn't only potentially triggering for readers, and I have to keep my health in mind sometimes, as much as I love it and hated missing an update. I'm back on task now, and I apologize for the delay, and I hope you guys understand.
22 April 2015
I'm now caught up and the writing schedule is once more on track. Thank you all so much for your patience yesterday--I'm about to start work on today's fills (the rest of "Resin" and the weekly update of "White Balloons") and I anticipate no further issues with updates in the near future.
21 April 2015
Okay, so I promise announcements like these will be very few and far between with me, but today's scheduled fills--"Not By a Long Shot" (Part 2/2) and "Resin" (Part 1/2)--are going to be delayed until tomorrow. Today has been something of a comedy of errors that has left me angry and frustrated and I am absolutely certain that if I tried to fill them tonight they would not be up to scratch, which isn't fair to the prompters. They will be finished and posted in the order they were supposed to be tomorrow, along with the scheduled fills for tomorrow. I anticipate no further delay than that; tomorrow will just have to be a very post-heavy day. I'm very sorry for any disappointment or aggravation that this has caused, and I hope you guys understand--especially those of you whose fills have been delayed.
18 April 2015
Some of you may have noticed that as I was getting the ball rolling on intermittent fills and trying to organize the others and whatnot (hi, my name is Anna and I tend to bite off more than I can chew and yet still somehow manage to chew it), the master posts slid out of date and didn't have the correct links and updated information and such. They should be correct now, so those of you using them to navigate and browse can go back to doing so without wanting to beat your heads against the wall. :) Those of you who weren't, well... This announcement was a giant waste of your time and energy but thanks for hanging in there!
17 April 2015
Ahem. Just wanted to drop a note and give you guys the head's up that, through some fluke in copypasta or other such stupidity, the original update for "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" was missing about 600 words at the end. If you accessed the chapter before about 1:30am Friday morning EST, please go back and check to make sure that you've read the whole thing, as the next update may be a little confusing if not. Sorry for any confusion or inconvenience!
11 April 2015
Howdy all! I'm currently at my symposium and running on limited free time (and iPad charge) so I'll make this quicky-quick for once. Regarding the writing schedule for yesterday and the lack of live chapters to go with it: they are written. Have no fear. Due to changing circumstances at my job, I wound up having to hand-write them, and will have to type them up tonight. This will take a bit of time, but at the very least they should all be live by early Monday morning, along with the scheduled fills for tonight and tomorrow. So no worries, I'm right on schedule. Party on bros and I'll see you when the chapters go live. Sorry for the delay and confusion. :)
(Also I am really, really pleased with how these fills turned out and I think you all will be as well! I look forward to hearing your reactions; those of you who are willing to share.)
9 April 2015
Wow, you guys, this thing has taken off quicker than I imagined! When I first created my request page, I was honestly not expecting much activity on it, and sort of built it on a whim, pretty much "just in case". I'm so, so happy that you guys enjoy my fills enough to make personal requests, and I'm glad to get to write them for you--particularly those who have been passed over in prompt rounds before. I'm getting such a variety of prompts, and I'm honestly pleased as punch. :)
Now, on to business: The number of prompts that I'm recieving, coupled with my own stubbornness to hand-select a few each month from the current spnkink_meme round, has created quite a wide variety of prompt content and anticipated length of the finished fill. This means that if I worked with a classic queue system, it could be months before some of you with prompts that I don't think I could do justice to in 1-5 parts see hide or hair of your fill! Yikes. And those of you with prompts with an anticipated fill length of 1-2 parts may be lost under a lengthier story. I don't want that, and you guys surely don't want that.
With this in mind, I am creating a writing schedule for each month that will consist of three categories of fills that will be handled in different ways. Selected Fills are prompts that I select when I comb through the current round each month. Request Fills are prompts that were specifically requested of me, either here via the request page or on one of the sites I use for cross-posting. If a day is labeled as an Open Fill, that means that there is room there for a Request Fill. So Request Fill = Open Fill. Basically. So as long as there are Open Fill slots listed, you can request a fill for the same month. Intermittent Fills are the big ones, prompts that I anticipate will take more than 5 parts to complete. There will be seven Intermittent Fill slots, and each intermittent fill will be assigned a day each week that it is updated (1-2 chapters) until it is complete. Once an Intermittent Fill is completed, it will be removed from the rotation and if there are prompts waiting in the queue the next one will take its place. The waiting list for intermittent prompts is first come, first serve. If I anticipate that your prompt will be slotted as an Intermittent Fill and there are no open slots I will reply to the prompt and let you decide if you want to alter your prompt or remain in the queue. I know this all sounds a little confusing, but I think it will work very smoothly and it's the best way to let me work on both short and long fills without creating an obscenely long waiting period.
Intermittent Fills, because of the fact that they will span at least five weeks, will not be listed under a particular month's master post. Instead, they will have a master post of their own, where the waiting list will also be tracked.
Right now there are 6 Intermittent Fills in the queue. That means that there is still a spot open (Saturday) for one more before the waiting list starts.
There are currently 22 open fill slots available for the month of April.
Okay, now that I've explained all of that, let's link you guys to the writing schedule!
[ETA: As of right now, all master posts are current and all links are functioning, including the newly-established Intermittent Fill Master Post.]
7 April 2015
Hey guys! I'm pleased to announce that my April prompt queue has been posted. You can check it out here to get an idea of what I'll be writing this month. I'm going to take a few days to catch up on my queue from other months, and then start on it! So expect that within the next week or so.
Prompts are still welcome, of course, but as of now, the ones listed are the only ones I'm picking up from spnkink_meme. Of course, that just means that those are my only hand-picked ones. The request page is still open, and will remain open unless something unexpected comes up.
See you guys in the fills!