Hello, everyone!
I just thought I'd send out a fancy note to say hi!
That's it, we're done here, you can all go home!
Bye now!
*gets dragged back into the room*
Oh right, that's not all I have to say, is it? Silly me!
As I write this, it's approaching the New Year, though as you read this it WILL be the New Year, so Happy New Year!
I hope that, regardless of what you celebrate, that you had a fantastic holiday this last year.
So let's get down to business....... to defeat *swish, slash* the huns!
I ran a few polls, as you'll probably remember, and here's where they stand now; all story chapters from here on will be released on Fridays at 6pm central time.
As a reminder, my schedule that's coming out will be as follows:
> First Fridays of the month are Faction of the Lost Ones.
> Second Fridays of the month are Where the Willow Walks.
> Third Fridays of the month are Reapers Legacy.
> Fourth Fridays of the month are Song of the Nightingale.
> Fifth Fridays, as by your votes when they happen, will be an host of different things. Here's the poll results:
So given all of this, I'll tell you I didn't get as far as I hoped I might by the end of my hiatus here, but then again I can also tell you I probably hoped for too much when I did set the goals for myself. I was hoping to be out to April by now, but I've only cleared to February.
However, this wasn't done in isolation, so in the spirit of me sharing my stories with you, and sharing the upcoming routines, I'll give you a bit of a taste of what I have done these past three months, as I'm really excited to share!
NaNoWriMo
So for the month after October, which I had previously crunched out a fair amount of chapters for SimNaNoWriMo before that, I signed up for the November NaNo which I actually intended to do something Atalan related - and I did! I'm really proud of it!
The story is one of Chrysanthemum Pucchini, which some of you may recognize from either Factions or Willow. It digs into her life, her decisions, and the God of Love's Circles.
I completed NaNo with this story in mid-November, but the story itself was unfinished, and still is, as I need to finish writing it.
As of right now, the story has 40 chapters and is about... just over half way finished, if I had to put it on a timeline. The chapters themselves are much shorter than my usual fanfare, as I'd end them whenever it felt appropriate. The average chapters is between 800-2000 words, or in that ballpark somewhere. I currently have 58k words written for it, which is quite an accomplishment, but I quickly put it to the side after the end of November so I could resume working like hell on my other stories.
My gameplan for this story is to release something for it around February - meaning the main blog for it. As for chapters, my ideal plan would be to finish writing the story, get all of the pictures needed for it, and then start releasing it alongside my other 4 on one of the Fridays. However, I won't start releasing it until I have all the chapters finished.
My main reason for this is my four main stories are my main priority, and any other story/stories that I've started are second fiddle to them. I enjoy writing them and I'd LOVE to share them, but they're not high priority to me. So in the meantime, I wanted to let you know it exists and I'm very proud of it!
That's one thing off my list to tell you about!
Lettie Green is a go-getter who dips her fingers into every pie she can get her hands on. She's bright and knows how to have a good time which naturally draws a crowd to her. She's young and inching her ways up into the spotlight, fame, and celebrity status.
Anthologies
Right so, the next thing on my list to talk about was that my Anthologies website is now live and up! The website we're currently on (my sweet Pancakes and Madmen) is a little too general for my taste. I have goofy challenges, tutorials, random author's notes and CC stuff kept here... While I've been using it heavily as my "home base" it's just not working for me anymore - especially not as I approach the subject that will be following this one.
You probably won't go there very often, yet, but I wanted a website that would host all of my stories, including the shorter ones that I didn't want to go out of my way to make a blog for - shorts like Chronicles, short stories, you name it. Those who've been around for my first attempt at the Reapers Legacy on my blog will likely recognize the one short I'm moving over to it slowly as I rewrite and retweak it. Feel free to poke around and see some of my future plans.
For now I'll keep this to my main hub, and let that one be ignored until I actually start hosting the smaller stories on there, then as it gets more attention I can move my author's notes over and life can resume. The main reason I made it is because I really just want to keep my world I've created separate from my goofy other things I do. I like immersion and it also lets people know what stories are connected and which ones aren't, which might be airing on the side of confusion right now with my Baby Boom completed, my Short Dynasty, and my TS4 legacy I'm working on.
Under the Shooting Stars/Shorts
Yup so, I mentioned this above, briefly. I've got Shorts that I'm working on whenever I catch some downtime of stories I just really want to tell. I love getting to show off the different sides of Atalan and how it grows, so this was partially in the works for me as something super low-priority.
I won't say much about it, because it's still so new, but Under the Shooting Stars will be treated like Red Roses in that I won't release it until it's done - whenever that is - and it's low priority beneath my main 4 stories. The story itself will follow two celebrities who are based off of two characters from my TS4 narration legacy challenge that up and got personalities on me. Despite them originating in TS4, I have them flipped to TS3 so they can be fully incorporated.
Lettie Green is a go-getter who dips her fingers into every pie she can get her hands on. She's bright and knows how to have a good time which naturally draws a crowd to her. She's young and inching her ways up into the spotlight, fame, and celebrity status.
Caleb Vatore (probably a name familiar to anyone who's played TS4 before) is a reclusive movie composer who wouldn't be caught dead outside of his house. A hermit by nature, he shies away from the spotlight. The story revolves around what happens when these two stars collide.
Me: It'll be a shorter story-
Brain: *snorts* sure thing, buddy.
The Glossary
Yeah that's right, it ain't dead, nor is it a lost project. I actually did a fair amount of work on it, including mass brainstorming, full purges of old, expired ideas, and the addition of an interactive map.
Ooh lala, shiny, sparkly, wonder! Some of the countries are still empty on it - I'm not a miracle worker, lol - but I am trying to add a little something to all the ideas I have there, and I can expand on them later.
This will come in hand for a future Willow chapter *coughs* which is why I actually tried to clean it up *coughs.*
You know the drill if you see something wrong - call me beep me if you wanna reach me.
If you wanna page me it's ok.
My Concerns
Because I don't want to end on a low note, I'll toss this in here. Given how far I've gotten - which is to the end of February as I write this - I have light concerns about my ability to maintain this speed, as I hoped to be at April by now, but due to the Holidays, NaNo, and a few other problems bubbling up, here I am.
On the one hand, having 2 months and keeping up at the pace I have been with releasing would mean that I'll definitely be able to maintain this pace, however my upcoming school schedule is... very cramped. I can assure you it's just for this semester that I plan to have it so cramped, and after spring I should be able to resume should anything have happened.
I'm taking SIX classes next semester, and one class requires a minimum of 100 clinical hours at an elementary school to be completed. I'll be honest in saying I'm extremely worried, as the last semester I was in absolutely destroyed me, and that was only 5 classes and no clinical hours. I know this is going to vary based on professors and work-load, so until I actually get into my classes and the swing of things will I be able to find out.
I really really REALLY want to keep this up and keep pushing, but I'll keep you posted if an unintended hiatus will need to be pulled when my chapters run out. I'll be using this last week and my first few weeks into my new classes to really work hard on getting more chapters out, as my classes should end in May, so if I can get myself scheduled out that far, I would feel so much better.
But, you know, can't rush perfection; and I am and will forever be a perfectionist.
The Gushing
I want to end this on a high note, so let me show you some of the cool things I've been doing in my stories that you'll be seeing in the upcoming chapters!
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So that's all I've got for you.
I hope you enjoy, and thank you so so much for reading.
Lots of love,
Livvielove
YES Welcome backkkk!!
ReplyDeleteGod do we have some GORGEOUS STUFF to look forwards too