Entries tagged with writing

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2024 writing year in review

Is it time to do the year in review posts yet? AO3 says I've posted 59,892 words this year over seven stories, hooray! Since there are only seven, I figured I do this in yearbook superlatives style!

*SHORTEST FIC: Travel like a slingshot
“We’ve definitely been in worse situations than this.”

*LONGEST FIC: Waiting for a sign,
“You always hope it’s a quasar,” Mariner reminded him. “And it never is. We’ve run into more Romulans than we have quasars.”

*MOST KUDOS'D FIC: All the time I thought of you
“Ooh, soulmate goose, who’s the lucky recipient?”

*FIRST FIC I'VE WRITTEN IN THE FANDOM: Whoever finds it first
"Isn’t there something in our contract about not having to do a nebula tour for my nemesis?”

*MAXIMUM FIX, MINIMUM EXPLANATION: Mixtape of humanity
“Is it true you’re from Indiana?”

*MY FAVORITE TITLE: A kind of spirit music
“Mariner, the last time you said that, alien raccoons ate our shuttle.”

*THE ONE WITH A BABY: All their hopes depending
“Did you steal this baby? Is this your baby? Am I an aunt now? I would be a totally kickass aunt.”

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fic posting caturday: 100th fic!

I now have 100 fics posted to AO3, dating back to the mind-bogglingly distant date of 2007! Got my November novel posted today, with only two 'oops you missed the end-italics tag' bloopers (now fixed), and one 'why won't this line spacing match the others' that I eventually gave up on.

Title: Waiting for a sign
Author: marcicat

Fandom: Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Characters: Beckett Mariner, Bradward Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, Samanthan Rutherford, T’Lyn, D’Erika Tendi, T’Pring, Spock, Christine Chapel, James Kirk, Christopher Pike

Tags: AU, Time Travel, Alternate Dimensions, Space Monsters, Team as Family, Found Family, Family

Summary: In an alternate universe where Orion was a core member of Starfleet from the beginning, the Lower Decks crew encounters space monsters, time travelers, and a weird rock. So, basically a normal Thursday.

Author’s note: Title is from the song ‘Sounds of Earth’ by Jim Moray. There’s also a quote about soulmates that was adapted ever-so-slightly from a poem by Victoria Erickson.

on Dreamwidth
on AO3

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re-reading my November fic

I'm working my way through a re-read of my November fic, and I've made it about 20,000 words in. Hoping to get it posted by (or during) the weekend.

Best errors found so far:
*misspelled the word 'all' as 'alll'
*swapped the letters of the spaceship name
*one sentence that just genuinely made no sense at all -- I have no idea what I was trying to say, so after some contemplation, I took it out

General thoughts so far:
Wow, it's almost like I wrote this story and included all the things I like! I have only a vague idea of what happens for the next 30,000 words, but I'm sure it will come back to me as I read. So far it's been fun.

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oh, well, in that case

*Just remembered that I've written Christmas-themed fics, went to go look at them on AO3 (very invested in procrastinating this morning)

*Noticed I have exactly 99 fics posted

*Thought 'ooh, I wonder if I could write something real quick to end the year at 100?'

*Realized I never posted my November novel (have not even re-read it yet... not really sure what happened in that story...)

*NEW GOAL: post November novel before the end of the year to reach 100 FICS

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caturday,
writing

DAY 30: GET READY TO WIN

*today's the day! time to pick a title for this story, at long last!

*it's the last day of November, which means that at the end of today, we have all WON THE MONTH, regardless of word count or story completion status

*HECK YEAH WINNING

*current word count: 49,191

*a sentence I wrote today: “You think the baby space monster did it?”

*(what even is happening in this story???)

*LET'S GET THIS DONE!!!

*(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

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holidays,
writing

DAY 29

*oooooohhhhh noooooooo I keep getting distracted by shopping!

*but it is a day for writing!

*(and also shopping)

*definitely writing!

*and also some holiday decorating

*maybe just a lil' bit more shopping

*gotta get back to that writing...

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holidays,
writing

DAY 28: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

*three days, 5000 words!!! WE CAN DO THIS! (also Thanksgiving, we can definitely do Thanksgiving too)

(*HOW IS IT DECEMBER 1ST ON SUNDAY, NO THANK YOU, I DID NOT AGREE TO THIS)

*I was feeling burned out (and bummed out) about writing yesterday, because I pretty much ran out of story, BUT then I had a fantastic conversation with

starandrea and now I am excited again!

*here's the (NEW! IMPROVED!) plan: dragons

*no, really, hear me out: dragons are great

*dragons can definitely fill 5000 words

*have dragons been mentioned in the story AT ALL prior to the 45,000 word mark?

*no

*but I did mention a rock earlier, because it was funny, and WHO'S TO SAY the rock isn't a dragon egg? NOT ME

*except YES ME, because I'm apparently going to spend the next 5000 words pretending that makes sense

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holidays,
writing

DAY 27: THANKSGIVING EVE

*FOUR DAYS TO GO

*6200 WORDS TO GO

*yesterday I reached the bowling part of the story, only to remember that I don't love bowling? so that turned out to be only about 350 words, lol

*MOVING ON FROM BOWLING

*there's not much left on my list of plans, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm thinking maybe some family cameos

*not that those haven't already happened in the story, but they could happen more

*also the classic circling back to whatever I wrote about in the first few sections

*time to mention that stuff again, as if there was some kind of plan to this story!

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writing

DAY 26

*goal word count today: 43,333

*current word count: 42,000ish

*very excited that I am now fully in the FINAL FILE! (one file per ten thousand words, which is a number gdocs can handle without slowing down too much, and easy-ish math for me)

*they are ALMOST out of the nebula, AGAIN! HOORAY!

*now I'm planning to spend at least a thousand words on 'writing reports,' aka 'recapping everything I've already written'

*every word of report writing is one I don't need to make up about bowling!

Entry tags:

mondays,
writing

DAY 25

*this is not a drill! this is the last 10,000 words!

*SEND HELP PLS

*goals for today:

-try to resolve some of the "plot" (lol, such as it is)
-time to leave the nebula again!
-move on to writing reports & bowling

*can I stretch report writing & a bowling tournament for 10,000 words? I'M SURE GONNA TRY

*STILL NO TITLE

Entry tags:

writing

DAY 24: IT'S 40,000 DAY!!!

*Which means we have exactly ONE WEEK left to go!

Current story status:

*still no title

*in the 5-POINT PLAN, still firmly in the "they go back to the nebula" stage

*in the 18-POINT PLAN, "time agency grifters" is definitely happening; "something about the anomaly" sort of already happened (I guess???)

*the "ghosts, a misunderstanding?" thing maybe also sort of happened, if you split 'ghosts' and 'a misunderstanding' into to separate things

*some words I wrote today: “I wanted them to impact my emotional state!”

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DAY 23

*Good news! The cat has recovered enough to return to her regularly-scheduled activities of jumping up on furniture and sleeping on fluffy beds!

*Good news! I decided that since the only other things I've written this year were for the Battleship Exchange, and all of those fics were titled with lyrics from 'Sounds of Earth', I should just stick with the theme. I haven't actually picked a title yet, but it seems easier now.

*Good news! ::insert additional good news of your choice here::

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DAY 22

*Let's goooooo!!!!!!

*Uh, not sure I have anything more specifically motivating than that.

*Next Saturday, November will be over, no matter how many words are written, so we might as well have fun while we're in it.

*lol having said that, time to do some early Black Friday shopping!

*The cat is still kinda loopy from the pain meds she got at the vet, but she's doing much better. Breakfast consumed and litter box used, both very good signs!

*Some words I wrote today: “Okay, this definitely wasn’t on my bingo card for today.”

*That's 10 words! Only 1657 left to go!

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DAY 21

I am completely discombobulated today. Took the cat over to the vet for an early drop-off so she can have her teeth cleaned and checked, and now I keep looking for her everywhere. My brain seems stuck in the loop of 'it is work time now, but pre-work things were not done, WHAT DO???'

Also it's 35,000 day???

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DAY 20

LIFE UPDATES

*I was so wrong on DAY 4; clearly DAY 20 is the screaming day

*AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STORY UPDATES

*still no title (though, I mean, 'AWESOME 2024 STORY' does have a certain charm)

*officially in 'they go back to the nebula' territory now

*the 18-point plan describes this bit as "something about the anomaly"

*very helpful! I will certainly attempt to write something about the anomaly today

*I have no idea what's happening in this story

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DAY 19

*all right, we have 20,000 words left to write, and 11 days to do it!

*I'm still trying to finish up two sections in the 'stuff starts happening on the ship' portion of the story

*but I've also moved on to start the 'go back to the nebula' portion

*conversations are now happening completely out of order

*since there's a time travel element to the story, it's possible I can pretend that's on purpose?

*PS: I should really do some work stuff today

Entry tags:

mondays,
writing

DAY 18: 30,000 DAY

*what I think: time to use some subtle foreshadowing to predict Very Simple Plot Point #4 (they go back to the nebula)!

*what I write: "We need to go back to the nebula."

*I am not subtle

*that's okay

*I have no idea what's going to happen with the whole 'go back to the nebula' thing, because I already wrote the nebula once, and honestly I was grateful when it was over

*narratively, it makes sense for them to go back

*but I'm sensing this is going to be one of those situations where the entire plot resolution happens off-screen while the POV characters chat about random stuff

*most of my stories go that way

*I am not here for plot, I'm here to make sure everyone gets to eat snacks and make some funny quips

Entry tags:

writing

DAY 17

*Things are probably continuing to happen on the ship! Something! Somewhere!

*(okay, I have a vague idea of what things are happening)

*(I mean, presumably it's things that will make them need to go back to the nebula, right?)

*today's goal: break this large group of people into smaller groups to make the conversations easier

*also today's goal: 28,333 (WHAT THAT IS SO MANY WORDS)

*THAT MEANS TOMORROW'S GOAL IS 30,000

*SEND HELP

*Bonus content: 6+ words I wrote today: “But no one knows where they are?”

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DAY 16

*Based on the Very Simple Five-Point Plot Outline, I'm currently in the "stuff starts happening on their ship" section. Vague! I like it!

*Based on the Simple 18-Point Plot Plan, I'm somewhere around point #10 "oh shit, time travelers" and point #11 "should you be telling us this?"

*Surprising absolutely no one, what I'm actually writing is more talking

*I've written one (1) action scene, sort of, and it was hard, so now all the action takes place off-screen

*Stuff sure is happening on the ship, though! Somewhere!

*It's going to keep happening for about another 5,000 words!

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DAY 15: MIDPOINT AHOY

No matter how many words have been written (or not), we've made it halfway through the month, and that is worthy of celebration!

otter reaching for an ice cream sandwich with the text 'I NEED DIS'

otter reaching for an ice cream sandwich with the text 'I NEED DIS'