Scribbler's Scribbles

lightbulb moment

Scribbler — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:10:31 +0000

I’ve been struggling on a Jericho AU for the past weeks, that, although over 30K in word count already, refused to feel comfortable. What was the point of the story? Why did the characters act the way they did? For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what the answers to those questions should be, and thus muddled on unhappily.

Only today, while trying to hammer out a bit of missing canon with did the coin finally drop: those 12-14 hours missing in the canon timeline are, while mostly irrelevant to canon, crucial to my AU story, setting the stage for the entire “fork” and the relationship between the two main characters.

I suspect (hope!) that the story will now sit better with me when I’m working on it, even if this means I probably need to rewrite some of those 30K words.

What’s more, I suspect filling that blank is also going to help a lot with figuring out the rest of the plot for Reorientation!verse….

End of Year Fic Roundup

Scribbler — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:55:58 +0000

Stories that were posted (if not necessarily written) during the second half of 2009 (all links go to AO3)*:

Jericho (82,602 words)

SNAFU (Just Like Always) (1,706 words, crossover with The Kill Point)
Be All My Sins Remembered (1,604 words)
New Horizons (3,068 words)
Jake ♥ Emily (2,898 words)
No Quarter (2,773 words)
Mimi Clarke’s Seven Tips For A Better Sex Life (1,721 words)
Not So Different (1,413 words)
Always “Be Prepared” (1,498 words)
The Harder You Try (1,077 words)
Lucky Man (1,623 words)
A Twist In The Tail (2,714 words)
Tipping Point (2,431 words)
A Waste Of Time (4,191 words)
The Heat Of Winter (1,955 words)
This Ever Changin’ World (822 words)
Spiderman (1,589 words)
On A Woman’s Mind (1,002 words)
Though The Heavens Should Fall (3,164 words)
Three Is Company (1,897 words)
Reorientation (3,244 words)
Devil’s Due (40,212 words)

The Kill Point (3,707 words)

SNAFU (Just Like Always) (1,706 words, crossover with Jericho)
With The Lights Out (635 words)
Pearls Of Wisdom (1,366 words)

Stargate Atlantis (805 words)

Lemons For Lemonade (805 words)

Supernatural (24,781 words)

Journey’s End (18,810 words)
Lost And Found (1,677 words)
The Writing On The Wall (587 words)

Total word count for July-December 2009: 106,482**

Word count of works posted in the first half of 2009: ~ 80,059

Total for 2009: 186,541…!!** No wonder the muses got burned out a little toward the end. And a big, BIG Thank You to Tanaqui, who beta’ed most (and probably all) for me.

For comparison’s sake, word count of fic posted in the last few years:

2008: 73,811
2007: 60,512
2006: 128,653
2005: 10,370*

* Since I can only be certain of when fic got posted, and stuff gets written all the time, then put on ice, sometimes for months or even a year, the numbers do not accurately reflect actual writing. 2006, for example, includes The Long Road Home, most of which was written over the course of 2005, while 2009 includes two long stories (Journey’s End and The Price Of Betrayal) that were both mostly written in previous years.

** AO3 counts words differently from Open Office, and generally seems to end up with a lower number, so the actual amount of words for this year is probably higher. Or lower, depending on which system you want to put your faith in .

Fic count

Scribbler — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:55:32 +0000

I finally finished uploading all my fic to AO3. As usual, when going over old stuff, it was at times cringe-worthy (I am so grateful for AO3’s backdating option, ’cause now I can point at the date and say, “See that? I was young and stupid and didn’t know any better…”), and a pleasant surprise (”I wrote that?”). The amount of cliche-driven fic is also staggering: Sex pollen! Mpreg! Snowbound! Dialog-only! A dozen Fork in the Road-AU’s! First person POV! Second person POV! Dub-con! Non-con! Slash! Het! Gen! Threesomes! Moresomes! Etc.

Anyway, with all my fic in one place (’cause ff.net doesn’t accept all ratings), and no double postings of crossover (’cause my personal archives are separate, fandom-specific ones, so crossovers get posted once in each), I can finally crunch some numbers…

Published since April 1999: 205 fanfic stories
Fandoms: 18
Total word count: 833,000 words
Shortest: 100 words
Longest: 95,000 words.

50! Stories! And writing woes….

Scribbler — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:36:44 +0000

A couple days ago, I posted my fiftieth (yes, five-oh!) story for SPN. Now, for some people, that might not be much of an achievement, but it does make Supernatural my most prolific fandom by far! Even more surprising, seeing how the muses still are extremely reluctant to come out and play–except for the occasional foray into wing!fic or weird second person POV episode retellings (neither published as of yet)….

So, I’m trying to adhere to the credo that you can fix anything but a blank page, and try to write something ~~every~~ most days. Eight hours of crazy!work!stress isn’t exactly conducive to much fic writing, however, so it’s mostly in the weekends and sometimes on Wednesdays, when I work half days.

Anyway, if someone sees my wayward muses wandering about somewhere? Please point them over thisaway, cause I miss them…. Fortunately, tanaquific is a busybee writer at the moment, and is keeping me well amused with stories that are most id-pleasing.

Fic times

Scribbler — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:37:15 +0000

Writer’s block hasn’t entirely resolved itself (or the Muses are still absent due to me having been on holiday, which always makes it hard to get back into the game), but even so, I have fic!

Fandom: Jericho
Title: Lucky Man
Rating: General
Characters: Jake/Heather
Word count: 1,600
Summary: Jake Green is a lucky man: he has a wife that knows him better than he knows himself. And she has a surprise for him.

***

Written quite a while ago, when I still had muses, but collecting dust for some time while I worked out a couple of other things. Inspired by thoughts about the Roadrunner.

***

Fandom: Jericho
Title: The Harder You Try
Rating: Teen
Characters: Beck
Word count: 1,000
Summary: In spite of Major Beck’s best efforts, things are going from bad to worse, and the murder of John Goetz will bring everything to a head. Even so, Beck feels obliged to give Jericho a last chance.

***

Written at the height of the writer’s block phase, if you can believe that. Inspired by the cliche_bingo prompt Second Person Narrative, apparently 2nd POV wasn’t enough for the muse, she also added present tense, both styles I hardly ever use.

I can remember writing 2nd POV only once, years ago, but that was for a Choose Your Own Adventure-type story, which by nature addresses the reader as a participant in the story. This, on the other hand, has no “reader = you”, so it was a strange, if interesting, experience.

***

Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Lost And Found
Rating: General
Characters: Dean
Word count: 1,700
Summary: Dean has never noticed anything special about his amulet. But when he loses it during a hunt, he feels compelled to go back for it.

***

My submission for spn_summergen, this was finished quite a while ago, in mid-July, to be exact. Long before the writer’s block strike But now that the master list has gone up, I can finally claim it as mine!

And speaking of spn_summergen, make sure you also check out the wonderful story that kinsinger wrote for me, Music: Sam was making his way through the endless fields of Iowa when the cassette player in the Impala finally gave out with a loud crackle of static. She did a great job with my prompt “Something to do with Sam’s iPod that Dean finds in the Impala”. Go, read!

Writer’s block…

Scribbler — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:39:08 +0000

So, what do you do when the stories live in your head, but refuse to translate to the page and the words come out all wrong?

Tips welcome.

Transformative ‘Permission’

Scribbler — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:26:15 +0000

Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but never could figure out how is to make sure that, should anyone desire so, my fan fiction is open for further transformation. But this post by general_jinjur finally put me on the right track.

Not that anyone needs my permission to create a transformative work based on my fiction, of course! But just in case there is any doubt, I’m in the process of adding the following statement to my fic journals and archives.

Transformative Works
All my stories are fair game for further transformative work, including, but not limited to: podfic, remixes, sequels, meta, reviews, and commentaries. You do not have to ask in advance, but please credit me for the part of the work that I did, and, if possible, please let me know if you get a chance.

And to celebrate, I signed up for dvd_commentary, if anyone is interested.

Mid-year fic roundup

Scribbler — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:29:12 +0000

Really should’ve done this a few weeks ago, but… it’s time for the mid-year fic roundup! All stories posted (if not necessarily written) between January 1st en June 30th, 2009.

Dark Angel

The Price Of Betrayal (38,470 words)

Jericho

Any Means Necessary (200 words)
Put On Your Smiley Face (1,428 words)
Old Habits (100 words)
Not To Question Why (1,627 words)
Girl Geek (447 words)
Forever Never (281 words)
Missed Opportunities (2,707 words)
Thunder Road (981 words)
Green, Green Grass Of Home (7,317 words)
Home Brew (6,496 words)
Bird Without A Song (994 words)
Back To School (1,045 words)
By Any Other Name (100 words)

Lord of the Rings

Women’s Work (691 words, crossover with Stargate Atlantis)
Strategy Meeting (986 words, crossover with The Kill Point)
Seeking God (947 words, crossover with Supernatural)

Stargate Atlantis

Women’s Work (691 words, crossover with Lord of the Rings)
Wraith 101 (602 words, crossover with Supernatural)

Supernatural

Unsung Heroes (1,133 words)
One More Time (750 words)
Hitting The Spot (2,367 words)
The Thing About Thoughts (618 words)
Wraith 101 (602 words, crossover with Stargate Atlantis)
Seeking God (947 words, crossover with Lord of the Rings)
Nobody’s Fault But Mine (1,280 words)
Blind Man’s Bluff (1,958 words)
Watcher In The Shadows (200 words)
Desperate Remedy (575 words)

The Kill Point

Crossroads (1,870 words)
Just Two Men Talking (1,440 words)
Strategy Meeting (986 words, crossover with Lord of the Rings)
Long Distance Call (1,630 words, co-written with Tanaqui)

*blinks at list* Um… wow? Even with the double counts for the crossovers, that’s one heck of a lot of fic!

Breeding WiPs

Scribbler — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:10:15 +0000

Y’all know how those plot bunnies multiply, right? Or typos? Breedin’ in the dark, when you’re not looking.

Well, I learned that WiPs apparently do the same thing. Despite posting several stories in the last two weeks, and being away from the computer for a couple days earlier this week, I count no less than ten (10!) Works-in-Progress in my spread sheet (don’t laugh…) that are one final round of edits away from actually bein’ ready for betaing.

Including one I had totally forgotten about….

And that’s not counting the numerous WiPs in earlier (or post-beta) stages, or the plot bunnies that are clamoring for attention….

What madness looks like…

Scribbler — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:40:33 +0000

…like this, I think. Look at all the stories we’ve still got planned! Many of those are WiP’s, actually.

And if that’s not enough, I also signed up for cliche_bingo (signups still open until June 26, if you’re interested). The only good thing is that I can use some of the WiPs to fill some of my bingo squares.

(Oh, and there’s spn_summergen….)

Why oh why does my boss actually expect to me work for my pay? I don’t have time for such nonsense…!