rynling | Reading

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That feeling when you've been vaguely adjacent to a fandom for years and only know enough to be aware of what the overwhelmingly popular ship is, only to finally start the series and realise that the love interest dies in the first quarter of the series XD

At the same time, it's a slash enemies-to-lovers style of ship with the enemy pretty much dying in the main character's arms or close enough, with the lightest dash of protectiveness and plenty of competency to go around, so, yeah. I can see the fandom catnip haha. I was just mentally readying myself for more blink-and-you'll-miss-it fun interactions in the future, but I guess not! 😂

vriddy

This is mostly silly. A problem with one of the early chapters is that nearly everyone noted it "feels" long even though it's not that much longer than the others. There are a number of issues: the sentences are too long for what should be a quick and fast-paced scene (bandits attack the village!), the descriptions feel quite remote as if the main character was only observing instead of being part of the action. It's vague in too many places instead of zooming on specific, vivid events and characters.

I've been editing this story for a lifetime (untrue) (but apparently still 179h41 over 141 days in the last 18 months, so CLOSE ENOUGH! XD), and because this is an early chapter it's one of those I've reread the most. So to shake things up a bit and try to experience it and its outline differently, I decided to storyboard it. It turned out surprisingly effective! It helped me narrow down on the key moments, and also give more agency to the bandits. Also it was fun.

At first, I drew two sides: one for the bandits, and one for the village, to show the preparations/lack thereof.

Then once the two collide, I started narrowing down on the key battle moments. By the 4th moment, I realised this was already a lot and stopped there. I removed a couple of unnecessary minor plot threads, like worries about a spell failing, and more magic stuff that's interesting but not particularly relevant to the scene or story. And I buffed up the 4 selected moments to make them more vivid.

( You don't need to be good at drawing. Are the bandits bringing torches to burn down the houses, or flower bouquets to secretly woo the villagers? Who knows! 😂 )

I think it was good just to help me think about the scene differently. My usual outlines sure look nothing like this!! I was also hoping to reduce the chapter's word count to make the prose tighter, but it ended up bubbling up because making things more specific required fleshing out background characters and actions. I think I'm okay with it, but I'll have to see how it flows when I do a full reread later, after I'm done and have taken a break from the story.

Current Mood: amused

cardboardpapercuts

I 100% completed the visual novel, Steins;Gate. It was good! I really liked it.

The basic premise is that a guy and his friends accidentally turn a microwave into a time machine that can send messages into the past. The main character then proceeds to have a very bad time as a result.

The first half of the visual novel is fairly low-paced while the pieces of the story are slowly set up. Around the halfway point, the speed picks up and then maintains a brisk pace the remainder of the way.

I was able to figure out how to get every ending but one on my own, without the use of a guide. But to get the final ending, I definitely needed the guide. I used this one that was linked on the Steins;Gate subreddit FAQ, and it was very helpful.

I also installed the improvement patch recommended on the Steins;Gate subreddit. There's even instructions on how to install the patch on the Steam Deck (which is what I used to read Steins;Gate) and it works great!

rionaleonhart

Back in the Livejournal days, I loved the

1sentence challenge, and I'm thrilled to see the concept has now been brought to Dreamwidth with the launch of

1character! Claim a character; write fifty one-sentence fics about that character; share the result with the world.

To the shock and astonishment of all, I promptly claimed Light Yagami. There's a three-month timeframe in which you can write your sentences; I wrote them in, uh, two days.

My previous attempts at one-sentence fic collections have been fairly disconnected, but there's a little more structure to this one; I've set the sentences largely across the canonical course of Death Note and arranged them in chronological order.

Title: who you were always meant to be
Fandom: Death Note
Rating: 14
Pairing: slight Light/L implications
Wordcount: 2,000 in total
Summary: The rise of Kira and the fall of Light Yagami, in fifty one-sentence fics.
Warnings: It's brief and non-explicit, but this is yet another addition to my embarrassingly large 'Talking About Light Yagami Masturbating' entry collection, and I can only apologise. Relatedly: slight implications of voyeurism.

( who you were always meant to be )

vriddy

I knew editing at that pace wouldn't be sustainable, and was firmly in "make the most of it while it lasts" mode but man, I've been struggling with the post-high crash. I know, I know, that "being at your 100%" looks very different on different days, and it felt like I was running at like 140% for a while on top of that but damn. The difference is crushing, and I get frustrated enough to tear up. I'm not sure if it's because the first half of the year was so bumpy and it left me more brittle, or because it's so rare that I get a writing high from editing rather than drafting but gaaah. I just remember my first NaNo, the only one I won back in 2006, and how creativity seemed to just feed off itself... like I was writing so much, all of the time, that when a couple of strange little events happened I ended up writing a couple of short stories about them too, on top of my 1.6k words a day. Glorious times. And during the lockdowns I was writing during my lunch breaks, too. Even if not quite at that level of intensity, I'd love to catch that spirit again, and on days when I can have several intense, focused writing sessions, it feels like getting closer. I probably need better systems. Mornings are fine, I have a good routine in place and that time is mostly under my control, but later in the day I struggle and flail to even catch 15 minutes of focused writing time.

I'm not depressed or anything, and I'm still editing for 15-30 minutes a day, sometimes even one hour! Progress is progress! But it still feels like I slammed into a wall I now have to slowly climb with my bare hands and nails, when I was the Road Runner going Meep Meep! and grinning wildly for a while here. And the wall is wet and slimy and it smells weird too XD

Current Mood: frustrated

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Commented in finalfantasy, bbtp_challenge.

Signal boosts:

Just wanted to bring up pinchhits again as it's really great when current Pinch Hits are also shared there. I follow a bunch of exchange comms, but there are others I could also write for occasionally. Meanwhile, you can find recent PHs there for a couple of exchanges like raremaleslashex and justmarried!

lassarina

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deemoyza

I think in custodial and other behind-the-scenes jobs, one has to get used to being nobody. Not in the "woe is me" sense, but in the "cut off the A/C after-hours because 'nobody' is working" sense.

Let's just say, I have no need to visit a sauna. XP

Current Mood: hot

vriddy

Bidding on the

sunflower_auction benefitting Ukraine started. It will end on September 15th.

This year, I'm offering written works for Boku no Hero Academia, Wind Breaker and Original Work. You can have a look at my offer post for more information as well as details on how to bid.

deemoyza

That must make me extra special, right?

I caught a whiff of the Audra Winter Booktok controversy, and... well! She absolutely deserves all the criticism for overpromising and underdelivering, but a part of me is cringing so hard in secondhand embarrassment. You see, at 19, I was still being a pedantic little shit on Elfwood (I so wish I could properly apologize for that!), and at 22, I was deep in the throes of writing what I was convinced was a masterpiece novel but what was in reality just some bog-standard fantasy slop. My point being, if I had access to the tech and ease of self-publishing that exists today, I could've found myself in a very similar situation (though I don't think I'd be delusional enough to try to create a "multimedia studio" business around the book). So, while I can empathize with Winter, I can't quite feel sympathy for her; we all need our Lessons Learned™, and some people are taught more publicly than others.

I haven't read the book myself (it's no longer available for purchase and the sample has been removed from Amazon), but from the excerpts I read in reviews, it was certainly very rough. Something about the concept, though, has been gnawing at my brain and will not let go until I scream it into the void:

In a world where your personality is literally determined by your zodiac sign, how have people not gamed the system? Don't want a Scorpio child? Simple, just don't have sex in January and February, and you have a pretty good chance of not having one! How have entire star signs not been bred out due to "undesirable" traits? Are people forced to conceive during certain windows? Is there a class-based system at play? Is there some kind of delicate astrological balance that must be maintained or else the world will implode?

Like I said, I haven't read the book, but based on the reviews, I don't think the author went that deep with this concept. Which is a shame, because it does have a lot of dystopian potential. Ultimately, the author knows what story she wants to tell. I do wish she would respect her readers enough to make sure that it was edited and coherent before accepting money for it, though.

I also would hope that in that alternate universe where I am a young adult with access to current technology and way too much confidence in my creative pursuits, that I would at least have that.

After all, I am an Ophiuchus, the specialest of the special signs. 😝

Current Mood: nerdy

kalloway

This morning, it was cool. Cool enough I could open up all the windows and get a cross-breeze... There are a couple of warmer days later in the week, but they'll be survivable. And then, possibly, that'll be it for the too-hot of the year? I can hope.

I started playing Fire Emblem Heroes again because after eight-and-a-half-years they finally kinda put in a unit for one of the original cast. Turns out the game is taking care of a lizard-brain need to click things that had been unfulfilled lately, and sure, I'll go with this. I don't care about the story so I can just skip through, level folks, and whatever happens?

Finished up a non-Gundam kit over the weekend. I've just been calling him Red Dude, but technically he's a Sword Shadow. There's also a green one, who is also a Sword Shadow despite having guns instead? Since they're red and green,

taichara pointed out they can be Cain and Abel from the first Fire Emblem game and now I'll need to get the green one.

Working on the ExCreR that I got a month or so ago. It's a SD-styled kit even though there's art in the manual of a non-SD version... It's a bit of a brick, and the places in the manual where it says 'cut the pins if tight' - just cut the pins in advance, self. I broke almost every pin in the waist and had to glue it. ^^;; (Not a huge deal. Glue happens, especially on non-Bandai kits.)

Also finished the first two seasons of Natsume's Book of Friends. I had read a good chunk of the series through the library and should get back to that...

Thank you to folks who've sent postcards and whatnot lately! (Several have vanished into my work bag, which needs a good clean.)

vriddy

Meme enjoyers who are fic writers!

maevedarcy's got you covered with a "Questionnaire: 15 Questions for Fanfic Writers" in case you're looking for what to do write in a future post, for Fandom 50 or unrelated!

It's fun to read people's answers :)

rionaleonhart

I loved Kpop Demon Hunters; what a fun film! But I also thought it was a bit of a mess, so I'd like to note down my thoughts about it while they're still fresh in my mind.

( Thoughts on Kpop Demon Hunters. )

Even if I think this film was a bit of a disaster thematically, I had a great time watching it. Sony Pictures Animation has been doing some fantastic work; The Mitchells vs the Machines was also great, and I'm waiting impatiently for the next Spider-Verse film!

vriddy

This is an introspective angsty vignette that I've had in my drafts for about a year, pretty much finished. Trying to put myself in Hawks' shoes at the point in canon when he's on his own undercover and under 24/7 surveillance by people who hate him and would relish killing him if he were to be found a traitor. Zero seconds to himself, not even on the loo, because the cameras are on his wings. Madness. Just me making myself feel sad about Hawks, basically!

Not a soul in sight (not even his own) | Boku No Hero Academia | Hawks | 1.2k words | rated T

Summary: Even for Hawks, who's been under surveillance from the moment he stepped into a Commission-provided dorm at age seven, what the PLF is doing to him a lot. It's not just the absolute absence of privacy. It's the 24/7 observation by people who hate him, want him to fail, and will know how to make it hurt when they kill him.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

kalloway

M, Boycritter, & I went down for the local-enough Gunpla Builders World Cup event, which was about an hour away. Getting there was fairly straightforward, and we had time to look around the hobby store it was being held at. (And will be returning to, they had many things!)

Lots of fun conversations in the car (it has been awhile), and the actual Gundam models on display were all fantastic. (We actually got asked to help judge if we wanted to but there was no way - I thought they all had something truly great about them.) Aside from the modelers, the audience was the three of us + one other guy who knew the modelers, but we were delightfully enthusiastic and the store owners were great, too. A lot of fun. There were extra Participant pins, so we each were given one. (I'm also fairly sure I promised to bring an entry next year, so I guess I have four months to plan something and another eight to make it? Or something like that?)

We left and had to take a somewhat meandering route back, because road construction, and also having to cross Woodward on Dream Cruise weekend. But we did get to see a lot of cool cars at various points, including a Datsun, a yellow VW Beetle, a VW Bus, etc. Lots of yellow cars, which made for a lively game of Yellow Car. We also saw a Cybertruck and all burst out laughing because nothing could make that design salvageable.

Stopped at... a conveyor sushi restaurant! AMAZING! I had no idea there was one in reasonable distance (possibly that there were any in the US, tbh) and we had a blast. Ate ourselves stuffed because there were so many things we wanted to try. A++ would do it again when properly budgeted for.

All around fantastic day, though we didn't get back til ~3pm and I didn't get to sleep til after 4pm. Definitely going to have to do some mad science to get back on schedule.

I ended up snagging 00 Gundam + XN Raiser which I heartily debated on until 'weird 00 sidestory shit' won out. Also a 30MM Spinatio, HG Command Quanta, and MG Shenlong because that kit has been following me around for weeks now. And some accessories including a pack of little metal HO-Scale gravestones that will need some work and me learning how to trim up metal. ;_;

rionaleonhart

Just realised I've written two different fics within the past two months - Communication (Deltarune) and Common Ground (Star Trek DS9) - that conclude with an arrangement to play the piano between a person and the intangible, inescapable part of themselves they have a complicated relationship with. I know I have a tendency to revisit themes, but this is ridiculous.

Come to think of it, I've also got a couple of earlier fics that conclude with the protagonist deciding to play music, or reaching a point where they're able to play music again. I just like making characters play music when they're in a dark place! It feels like such a hopeful thing to me.

The piano's been on my mind lately; somehow I keep encountering it in fiction! Kris of Deltarune plays the piano. Verso of Clair Obscur plays the piano. I started watching Your Lie in April on a whim, knowing very little about it, and it turns out it's largely about the musical development of a young pianist. When I was writing my DS9 fic, I looked up Joran and went, Oh, he's a musician? Maybe I could use that in this fic. What does he play? Probably some sort of weird future instrument, right? ...no, he's a pianist, of course.

There are other canons I've experienced that involve the piano, of course! (Omori comes to mind. Omori always comes to mind. I cannot escape or forget Omori.) But I feel I've run into a real concentration within the last couple of months.

This is nice because it's got me playing the piano again, after neglecting it for a little while! I'm not a masterful player, largely because I rarely have the patience to learn a new piece - my repertoire mainly consists of songs I've been playing over and over again for a decade or two, with the occasional clumsy and simplified attempt to play by ear - but I do enjoy it. There's something so calming about sitting down and letting instinct and muscle memory carry you through a piece of music.

I wonder how Kris of Deltarune would react if, while controlling them, I played the piano in a way that made it clear to them that I actually know how to play. I wonder if that would change our relationship.

Is this piano rambling going anywhere? No. The rest of this post will be an account of my recent dreams.

( Assorted dreams over the summer. )

Last night, I dreamt I posted a fic to AO3 and tried to title it 'Little Talks' (you've used this title before, Riona!). I did not notice until the next day that I'd accidentally called it 'Coggled Sprogs', which I have at least not used before.

vriddy

Scrivener has been such a boon to my editing. Initially, I migrated stuff there mainly to be able to organise my worldbuilding notes and for the per-chapter/scene notes, but I'm finding so many little ways to make my life easier. Nearly every time I think "if only there was a way to...", I realise there is one. I could cry. What really helped me is watching a bunch of the webinars that Literature and Latte are running, especially Oliver Evensen just showing his actual workspace and how he's organising a whole series in one project. If you're just starting out, the sessions are totally overwhelming because it's often 20 or 25 small tips that make life easier, but half the time I'm like "omg I didn't know you could use labels and label colours this way! I didn't know metadata could be used like this! I didn't realise dynamic collections were a thing!" and everything is awesome, lego-style.

The software is kind of struggling to load if I accidentally load the entire manuscript in "Document" mode with the 5 billions beta-readers comments I imported (and that was a subset!) - still manages though. Because I noted which person said what, I feel like I'm hanging out everyday with the bunch of you who kindly took the time to share impressions, haha. Thanks again <3

I've had a couple of chuckles about paragraph length. In the novella, I was told a few times my paragraphs are too short or too broken down. Meanwhile, whenever I start working with a new beta-reader in fandom, they nearly always tell me my paragraphs are too long. It's related to screen size, I'm told. Looks overwhelming when it takes up the entire phone screen without any paragraph break.

I'm not reading a lot of fic at the moment, but I'm reading a toooooooooooooooooon of books and so my paragraphs are getting chonkier with this round of editing. Who knows what'll happen when I do the final-final (;D) proofreading afterward though...!!

raisedbymoogles

In which some non-Unicron stuff gets cleared up.

this month might be a wash, writing-wise. Not only has it been too damn hot for the thinking-meat to work, I've been going maskless for two weeks and I've already picked up The Crud. Never again. -_-

feast_of_regrets

There were a lot of things I was going to have to get over.

And our favorite Santuary Moon fan is working hard at getting over them! Possibly with violoence, but what can it do when other persons insist so? Honestly only hung in for the first half due to ART my beloved, but the second half snapped in and flew. I think we're going places, this series and me.

★★★★☆

(Originally reviewed on Goodreads; preserving here for my peace of mind for when 'zon pulls the plug.)