sleeplesspotato

Omegaverse Levi x f!Eren. Still fleshing out the characters using the 21 Days to a Novel exercises. I'd chosen Hange Zoë as my third viewpoint character, then found out a number of details about them that I hadn't known previously (for instance, that Hange's gender is left to the reader's interpretation); this made me go over the things I'd written so far and revise them a bit. In general, though, I had to rethink Hange's character since this is a modern AU without titans, and Hange is nothing if not obsessed with titans (at least, as far as I've watched, which is up to about the first episode or two of season 4). I'd also noticed that I kept defining Hange's character in relation to Levi's, since the two of them have a strong bond and I considered Levi my main character; it seemed unfair to Hange when they're supposed to be on equal footing with Levi and f!Eren (currently named Elena). Anyway, this all led to some changes that required a bit of retconning, and I'm not done with that yet.

The fake science behind the Omegaverse. I fell into an AO3 rabbit hole containing essays (multi-chapter essays with diagrams and charts, even) about how to make the Omegaverse tropes even vaguely plausible; I'll probably write a separate post with all the links I found. Since I'm going to do some worldbuilding for Omegaverse Levi x f!Eren, it seemed fitting to check out the variations that other people had come up with. I also started wondering if I could truly say my story is an Omegaverse one because I'm not going to include mpreg or give my female alpha (ie, Elena) a dick; I'm planning to use some of the familiar tropes (scenting, permanent bonds, betas are the majority, and of course heats), but that's probably it. I suppose this might be for the better -- Elena's going to be a medical researcher and Hange is already a medical researcher, and that means I need to be more rigorous with my fake science. That also means that it's going to take me a while to finish all of this prep work...too late to regret it, I guess.

Unconventional Courtship and my Castlevania OT3. I apparently thought that I didn't have enough WIPs, since I signed up for Unconventional Courtship 2021 after checking some of the suggested plot summaries. I quickly realized that my Castlevania OT3 (Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha) would be a good fit for one of the summaries, which features a castle and a brooding male lead; I asked if OT3s are okay and the mod said yes, so I went for it. I now have until 30 Jun to finish the first 1000 words; not that hard for the beginning, since I have a clear idea of how this will start, but I'm still hazy on how it will go from Alucard being a brooding idiot and Trevor and Sypha being their chaotic selves to the happily ever after (kinda) that I want for them. Fwiw the Castlevania anime is anything but happy, so I'm highly motivated to write the love story that I didn't get. I also want to stay true to Castlevania's vibes, though, so this will probably need some action scenes, gore, and witty banter alongside the romance tropes. I can manage the action scenes, and maybe some gore, but idk if I can do the witty banter. ^^;; Oh well. I'll see how it turns out.

Barely got any writing done this week, though it's not for lack of ideas -- quite the opposite. I have too many. OTL I've gotten stuck at almost the 3.5k word mark for the Buddha Cafe fic; I've been reading about trans rights in Japan, and it's been somewhat depressing. :( I think I can finish the 2nd draft regardless, but it's been a bit difficult motivating myself to get back to it.

As for the other ideas, I remembered that I used to follow the exercises in 21 Days to a Novel (here's a PDF with notes describing them) when I was fleshing out bigger/longer stories; it seems like I need to do this for Omegaverse KakaIru, which has some plot complications and multiple characters. I've also been thinking about another stalled Omegaverse story that I'd already written a few unfinished drafts for in the past; I have some new ideas for it, and I can use the 21 Days exercises to flesh those out. It's fun to dig deep into fleshing out the characters and setting, though sometimes it feels like I spend all my time on the prep work instead of actually writing.

All the same, it might be the right time to take a break from writing and just focus on the prep work, whether it's doing research or laying down story foundations. I can try it out for a week and see where it goes.

Mandatory first post. I'm planning to use this journal to track my writing progress, though I'm also likely to use it as a dumping ground for random things I find on the internet.

Fanfic WIP:

- Buddha Cafe fanfic: draft 1 finished and annotated, ready for draft 2

Fanfic planned (ie, ambitious stuff that may never get started):

- Omegaverse KakaIru: Kakashi's the heir to a conglomerate and an alpha; Iruka's a schoolteacher and an omega; they get together and angst happens, partly caused by my OC Hatake Kazumi (Kakashi's grandaunt who's basically a female version of him from an older generation)

- Omegaverse Kibashino: Kiba's an alpha slacking his way through college; he wants his overly serious beta childhood friend Shino, but thinks that Shino doesn't want him (and of course he's wrong); Shino suddenly goes into heat, and angst ensues