Last Monday of the Week 2022-01-10

 ough today was a slog for sure. but i enjoy doing my weekly writeups so here ye go.

Posting Update
Two chapters this week :) + an informational post

Serpent's Mouth, Serpent's Teeth - Chapter Two - Letter from Belgium (B-Side)

This chapter was written from Yang POV on almost a whim. I was intending for it to be a Kircheis POV originally, but then I decided I would rather show Yang getting the letter and what he thinks about it, since it passes through his hands. Also everybody else wants to see Yang, and there are a few Bronner fans out there lol. Next chapter will be a Kircheis chapter, since we do have to see the fallout with him.

 

New Creatures With New Hearts - Chapter Twelve - Caverns Measureless to Man

 

I wrote this chapter to celebrate ItSoH's fourth! (4th!) birthday. Figured I should put at least something into that project to commemorate the occasion lol. The title of the equivalent chapter in the original version (Scrubbing the Walls of Chauvet Cave) is imo somewhat more evocative, but also less relevant to what is actually happening in the story, since I'm changing that particular aspect of canon lol. So many things about ItSoH v1 are like, very cool and interesting just as long as you don't squint too hard at them to see if they make any sense at all. V2 has unfortunately had to remove some of the elements that past noodle was like "yeah fuck it just put that in it's Theme or whatever". so in some ways the original itsoh is a more interesting story. but this is probably for the best. we can come back to "secret genocidal war plot" on the day that I start writing animorphs fanfic.

anyway, about the actual chapter. usually when i write these new chapters i don't read the old ones, but I did this time, and I was surprised by how clunky my characterization of aymon and kino felt in the original. i think i've smoothed that out a little while retaining the essential pieces. also i think the foreshadowing [or at least, the hint dropping.] in this convo is WAY better lol. I think maybe the description in this chapter is a little thin, and it could be longer, and the war subplot could still be fleshed out better but... i just wanted to get it posted. These are all third draft problems :p

So, You Want to Write Original Fiction and Post It Online? Here's What to Expect.

Galvin  ellisbarrow  showed me a post that truly annoyed me. here it is.

( excerpt of a post that annoyed me. transcribed exactly (warts and all) )

this is a patently stupid post lol. but idk i'm an ardent defender of both posting original fiction online and fanfic, and so this was a double whammy of "ough I really have a bone to pick with you". but i want to channel that feeling into being CONSTRUCTIVE instead of MEAN ON THE INTERNET, so i wrote a post that would hopefully clarify for people like, what is reasonable to actually expect to get out of posting shit on the internet (my favorite passtime. god I love to post.)

I have got to stop posting chapters at ass o'clock in the morning. nobody sees them lol.

General Writing Update

 

when I was feeling stuck I briefly wrote like idk 200 words of a "what if in WIAW reuenthal had arrived too late to save yang in speaking in tongues, what would that horrid school funeral look like?" AU of my AU. can you tell i just watched the dreams of the morning, songs of the night gaiden? lol. anyway, aside from that, which will probably never get finished, everything has been posted. time to start some fresh new chapters :)

i got an idea for a short story, also, so I am excited about that (I rarely get actual ideas for short stories, and it's one of my goals to write more of them)

since last monday, I wrote 13,584 words. whoo!

Media Update
As I said, I watched the dreams of the morning, songs of the night gaiden for the first time. It's very stupid for several reasons (why is colorblindness a problem when oberstein is a captain pre-series and literally does not have eyeballs? the mystery plot makes no sense and the solution comes out of fucking nowhere). i'm glad i didn't watch it until now or i would have been compelled to include all its stupidity in WIAW. I feel like I managed to already cover everything that gaiden was trying to say thematically in that story already by total coincidence lol so I suppose it's a wash in the end. 

I've also sunk, uh, 14 hours into the video game Inscryption over the past week. it really grabbed me by the throat. I think I'm like 2/3s of the way through it? unfortunately, I feel like the beginning third is stronger (and more fun) than the latter 2/3s but such is life. it's probably for the best that they put that chunk first so that it does grab you. it's a horror flavored deck-building game, and in it you can cut off parts of your body as sacrifices to stay alive, a concept that, i regret to say, I am Into. also the card mechanics are fun and some combinations you can get are like delightfully game breaking.

Life Update
uhhh what did i do this past week? not sleep enough lol. going on vacation fucked my sleep schedule up so bad. my body loves to be awake at 2am. anyway i've mostly writing and playing video games. 

I cleaned my house pretty thoroughly b/c i thought a friend might need to stay over (this did not end up happening) but now my house is clean. I'm trying to keep it that way.

I went to my ice skating lesson that I thought was a good idea. it's just revealing how pathetically out of shape i am and how bad i am at most things that aren't the small sliver of things that i spend all my time doing lol. but even if i am like extremely cringe and bad at it and it makes me sad, i am going to keep going. i pride myself on my perseverance so we'll put that to the test for something that is more challenging to my psyche than easy things that i'm already good at and just have to put time into. it's good to exit the comfort zone. (this is what i am telling myself.) anyway i guess two solid years of Literally Never Leaving My House has been pretty bad for my body :| who'd have guessed. it makes me kinda miserable to think about b/c it feels like such an intractable problem. anyway whatever. i'll go ice skate again on sunday and embarrass myself in front of 50 5-9 year olds who are having their own lessons on the other side of the rink, as well as their parents, and also the lesson teacher and the other students in my group. lol.

to end on a less miserable note: i cooked some turkey meatballs last week that were surprisingly good. i'll have to do that again.

What's On the Docket?

• this week I want to get done SMST ch3 (a kircheis chapter) and EHI ch11 (an aymon chapter). if i have time i'd like to write a short story (see above) but this may not happen b/c my GOAL with writing short stories is to [gasp] not just post them on the internet immediately, and instead see if i can get them published. this is for reason of: ego. but it also means that i have way less impetus to actually write them since i love to post things on the internet lmao. so if it gets done, great, if not, whatever.
• need to ask nottanewtype if she wants to hang out this month before the month is over and she has to go back to work lol
• i still need to deal with my fucking YMCA membership -_-
• i have tofu in my fridge that i need to cook. what's a good tofu dish for me to make. ideally one that does not require me going to the grocery store. 
• [imagine me cringing but plastering a smile on my face regardless] ice skating on sunday :)
• finish playing inscryption, start playing... banner saga again. i really want to finish that too.