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December writing log: week one

1- fic- serokami, childhood friends to lovers, genderqueer questioning kami

-had this idea on a whim but thought serokami fit it well. i wanna focus on kami’s internal journey and family/friend relationships for most of it. princess bride references snuck their way in

2- original & fic- a short, nonsensical poem and rough planning for a new fic (bc planning is part of writing even if it’s not what im focused on this month 👍)

-poetry def helps get my creative juices flowing and honestly i forgot how much i enjoy it. had a nice convo w a prof today abt poetry that inspired me to pick it back up

3- fic- working on my first December prompt response! Deku + chronic pain + deku/bakugou/todoroki relationship

-poly seems really tricky to write but it’s a fun challenge and def outside my typical wheelhouse. i’m really happy so far with the decision to include Uraraka in the scene (and to have her dialogue do a lot of the work implying the background info and framing things). love my girl ochako :)

4- original- a six page script (aka the final for my ecocinema class)

-today was pretty busy so i only had a little bit of time to mess with my draft but i made a change to the intro that I think will help make the setting clearer and also sets up for the main theme a little better

5- fic- prompt response again!

-im def over 500 words rn lol but it’s really fun to work on. decided to take the route of romantic situation but deku’s lowkey oblivious to the intent until it’s spelled out crystal clear. so far it’s very sweet. uraraka = #1 wingman

6- fic & original- prompt response & six-pg script

-polished the prompt response and double checked the wc before uploading (very exciting!) and submitted the final version of my script. i'm not 100% satisfied with it at a creative level but i think i'll get a good grade and my prof liked the concept, which is nice

7- fic- serokami again

-only wrote abt two lines today but that's still progress. imposter syndrome go brrr

I want to write at least a little bit every day in December so I’ve decided to keep a log and post it here to keep myself accountable! I’ll list whether it’s a fic or original, what it’s about, and a few of my thoughts about each project. posted weekly, I think :)

I really super wanna write but wait now my grandmas sharpening a knife while making eye contact with me. I have to go cut the cheese into slices 😔

momma's boy

currently experiencing Yatora Yaguchi levels of artistic distress and turmoil ✌️

but don’t they all look so lovely <3 <3

bnha with walkie talkies (2v2 exercise)

Bakugou: dunce face, he's gonna find you. start over.

Kaminari: start what? over.

Bakugou: no. start over.

Kaminari: start what? over.

Midoriya: *appears over Kami like the specter of death* gotcha! :)

Kaminari: ..im cooked. over.

If you receive this, you make somebody happy! Go on anon and send this to ten of your followers who make you happy or somebody you think needs cheering up. If you get one back, even better.

cuute <3

Sigh why is plot so hard 😔

A year-end update on my original novel concept

Hey friends, it's been awhile since I've been able to put in any work on this! But I've been doing some world building and altering a few things, and thought it might be nice to send you an updated summary of my original novel. It is tentatively titled "The Pilgrimage", but who knows, that might change as well.

Alays Webster is a weaver in a small town on the edge of the Barrens in a country called Codor. Life in her hometown is pretty sedate, and more or less ruled by the country's religious hierarchy and its tenets, observing festivals and attending service and what have you. It is expected that everyone will go on pilgrimage to the capital at least once in their lifetimes, to witness miracles and see the Sleeping King himself, where he lies in state while battling in the spirit realm against false gods and keeping them out of Codor. Alays, though, was always a sickly child, and still has occasional bad days now that she's grown. So she’s put off making the pilgrimage until her childhood best friend, Vezian, now a priest, comes and cajoles her into making the journey with him.

The Barrens are a dead wasteland that surround Codor on all sides; as far as anyone knows, no one can live there, and the area is considered to be forsaken by everyone, even the Sleeping King. On her pilgrimage, Alays learns that her proximity to the Barrens causes others to look down on her, and she encounters concepts that she had never considered before, everything from how criminals are treated to “witches” and “demons”, from whose magic the Sleeping King's priests promise protection.

Alays's ill health improves the closer she gets to the capital, and this is touted as a miracle from the Sleeping King himself. It turns out, however, that Alays is sensitive to magical energies, and her health is improving because she is traveling through healthier land that has more magic available for her to draw from. Magic is secretly but strictly regulated by the priesthood, and anyone who tries to use it outside of their purview is labeled a witch, and sentenced to a terrible fate: either death, or “alteration” into Misbegotten monsters. Alays is now in terrible danger through no fault of her own.

Vezian’s mentor, Father Marcellus, explains this to Alays, and arranges for her to escape to the Barrens via airship, piloted by a man named Lucas. In my original version of this story, Lucas is a shady fellow who almost certainly can not be trusted, and Vezian is exiled along with Alays. In the updated 2023 version of this story, I want Alays to go to the Barrens alone, taken there by Lucas, while Vezian is left behind without even the first clue what could have happened to his childhood best friend. In that case, Vezian has to hunt for Alays himself, and learn a great deal about the secrets the upper echelons of the priesthood have been hiding from him. Though Vezian doesn’t know it yet, Lucas will be instrumental in helping him find Alays once more.

This is, incidentally, a plot that I write over and over again, no matter how hard I might try to to get away from it: “Character A is separated from Character B and they must reunite,” except that once they do reunite, Vezian discovers that Alays is dying, and with Lucas's help must go on a dangerous journey across the Barrens and into the unknown in order to save her life.

What follows is a tale of adventure, exile, betrayal, and trust, that tests not only their faith, but everything Lucas, Vezian, and Alays thought they ever knew. There will be magic, and gods, new lands not seen in centuries, and old tales not heard in just as long.

(My worldbuilding for this is extensive, and highly distracting. Now if only I could get the story itself to be half as interesting.)