sleeplesspotato

The last weekend was exhausting, and I've been lagging behind a bit in Camp NaNo. OTL I suppose it was a good idea to set a low word count so it's not that hard to catch up.

Castlevania OT3. I'm mostly(?) done with chapter 2, which seems to be somewhat wonkier than chapter 1; I have this habit of setting up all sorts of things in the beginning then figuring out what to do with them as I go along, which can lead to inconsistencies. Even when I have an outline or scene notes, I keep pulling things out of thin air and tossing them into the chapter almost subconsciously. (In particular, the castle is getting a bit overpowered; I might have to dial back the things it can do.) I'm glad that the 21 Days to a Novel exercises have helped me to stay on track, though I think I've already veered off-course somewhat.

Chapter 3's opening scene has already played out in my head; I might wind up finishing it before I finish the final scene of chapter 2, which is probably okay since I still have to bridge them. I probably need to do some streamlining in chapter 2 since I keep forgetting that the reader doesn't know what I already know about the characters' motivations. ^^;; If this keeps up, the word count for chapter 2 might be padded a bit, and I might get to around halfway of chapter 3 by the end of the month.

More delays: my computer's file system got messed up last week and I had to both get that fixed and offset my work hours. It seems unlikely for me to finish 21 Days to a Novel this week, but I'll keep trying just the same.

Castlevania OT3. I've been going back-and-forth on my version of Speaker culture since there's very little to go on in the anime; I'm still figuring out how a caravan of nomadic scholars can make a living (the answer seems to be that only a handful of them are scholars while the rest are engaged in herding livestock and other pastoralist activities). There's also the problem of Sypha's magic -- it's in her bloodline in the games, yet her grandfather is implied not to have any magic in the brief scenes in which he appears in the anime. I've assumed that it skips generations and that Sypha isn't the only mage in her clan, though it seems that magic is relatively rare among her people (only Sypha is shown to have magic among the group of Speakers in season 1). I've had more to think about and it's reshaping how I see Sypha and her role in the story.

One thing I've noticed is how Sypha's background (as I'm coming to know it) makes her the protagonist of a different story -- a coming-of-age one wherein she goes out into the world and finds herself, so to speak. It seems like a tangent compared to Trevor and Alucard's intertwined fates; in weaving her story into theirs I keep thinking about how she's primarily a support character in the games, the mage who turns out to be a woman when you get to know her (IIRC this was in her first appearance) and settles down with the hero after the game ends. If I'm not careful I could wind up relegating her to a similar role -- a way to prop up Trevor and Alucard's stories and give them descendants for possible sequels*.

I'm hoping I can make her character arc compelling yet still cohesive with Trevor and Alucard's arcs.

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* Sypha's magic combining with the Belmont bloodline eventually leads to Richter's OP-ness several generations later; his Hydro Storm attacks are ridiculous, especially in Symphony of the Night once he's been unlocked.

Castlevania OT3. Already past the halfway point of 21 Days to a Novel -- I'm currently at the worldbuilding part, which is largely character-based (ie, defined by the interactions between the world and the characters). I also wrote a lot of notes about an epilogue to the epilogue featuring my OT3's descendants, and I likely got way ahead of myself there. ^^;; All the same, it was interesting to consider what it would be like for roughly half the family to be descended from Dracula and the other half to be descended from Dracula's mortal enemies. I imagine that the OT3 would raise their children carefully to avoid conflicts getting out of hand, though that could possibly break down after a generation or so. There's also the fact that Alucard will likely outlive his human family, which saddens me even if it gives me a lot of angst to work with. (I have such a weak spot for lonely cinnamon rolls like Alucard; I just want them to be happy.)

Anyway, I might actually finish all of the 21 Days to a Novel exercises for once, and I'm looking forward to that. ^-^

I started the trial period for a new job this week; I'm lucky to be able to work remotely, though it still feels weird to be monitored remotely by an app that takes screenshots of my screen every 10 minutes. Doing my work inside a virtual machine mitigates that somewhat by isolating my work environment (as long as I avoid doing anything non-work related inside the VM while the monitoring app is running). Fwiw the timer definitely motivates me to stay focused on what I'm doing. ^^;;

Maybe it's a good thing that I'm mostly in the planning stage for my current WIPs; I'm not sure yet how to schedule writing time, since work stuff tends to take over my brain. (I suppose this is the downside of being fond of puzzles -- work problems appear like puzzles to my brain, which continuously tries to solve them even when I'm not consciously thinking about them.) This might be a good time to zero in on the aspects of the characters and their settings that I like best; that might help me stay motivated, especially when work gets stressful. In the past I would write silly wish-fulfillment fluff as an escape from dreary jobs; my WIPs are a bit more serious now, though I can probably inject some fluff into them.

Random OT3 thought: I'd been thinking about how Alucard has these strong forever-alone vibes, then I realized that Somebody to Love by Queen fits him quite well. In hindsight, the Mills & Boon/Harlequin synopsis I'd chosen for my Castlevania OT3 is basically that song -- except that Alucard hasn't realized yet that he's looking for that special someone. Or someones, in this case. Guess I know what I'll be playing on loop when I get back to planning and writing.

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.

I've written over 2000 words for the Buddha Cafe fanfic, which isn't much -- around half a chapter or so -- but it seems like a lot considering how I have to squeeze the words out a few hundred at a time. Sometimes I wish I were a prolific writer who oozes words out of their pores; unfortunately I'm not. I'm hoping that gradually exercising my writing muscle will lead to higher word counts and more efficient writing periods, though maybe I ought to keep my expectations low.

Btw I'm bad at writing romantic rivals; I guess I just don't care much for them, even when I wind up including one as a plot device. I tend to prefer OT3s instead if the people involved are able to make it work.

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