Friday, December 31, 2010

Final update of 2010!

Definitely the final fic update anyway. I say that because on the surface I'm like "but maybe I'll update this blog before the year is over!"

Deep down inside though I know I won't. ;)

Anyway, I had made myself a promise that I was going to finish "Sea of Green" before the end of the year. I planned it out and was pretty sure I could finish the whole thing in 8 chapters and so I paced it and vowed to have the 8th chapter finished by this evening, if not before.

And guys, I finished the 8th chapter. :)

Unfortunately I realized with my last update that this is a 9-chapter fic. Ah, well. :P This gives me time also to polish up the first chapter of the third installment, "Forever Young". I have about maybe 2/3 or so of it written; the problem is that I don't know how long the chapter should be. I'm not sure of the pacing of the first act of that fic - or of any of it, really. I know how I want the first act to end. I'm NOT sure how much needs to get crammed into the first chapter though. Oh well, gettin' there.

I also plan on working on the next NEW, non-rewritey fic. Sadly I believe that my readership for the non-rewritey fics is down right now because everyone who was following them is in a major time crunch, especially as regards El Interneto. So I guess that's code for "I should focus on the rewrites instead." My goal for 2011 is to get at least two fics done, which I suppose means "Forever Young" (rewrite) and "Those Daring McQuacks in Their Flying Machines" (non-rewrite), but it might actually end up meaning FY and its sequel. Just focus on getting the rewrites done. I dunno.

I hope to write more in here next year. At least I've been sorta consistent this second half of the year... it's not frequent but it's steady, and that's something! But I want to get more content up. Good luck, huh? :D

I think that is all... Best wishes, happy New Year, and lalala all of that. :)

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Hope Mama gets the shopping done

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Which is OK. This one was nice enough. :)

I had a kind of a Darkwing-y Christmas, with finally receiving both the second set of the Darkwing DVDs (it has been a while) and also getting the first 4-issue arc of the comic series in the paperback collection. FINALLY. You guys, this is awesome squared. ^_^ The nicest part is that I can read and enjoy it without feeling a need to view it as "canon". I was really worried that, since there is a continuity in this series, I was going to take it as canon and watch my AU be utterly obliterated (I'm a bit of a canon fiend... I find it very hard to go against canon unless there is something I REALLY dislike), but this is more just a new series I can really enjoy. I told my husband it's like really good illustrated fanfic that has an "officially approved by Tad Stones" stamp on it. Awesome without being definitive, you know? :)

Since I have a few minutes here - though probably fewer than I will need - I thought I'd do a characterization post. It's been a while since I've done one, I've been saying for eons now that I'm going to do one for Bushroot, and here it is. ^_^ I'm finishing up "Sea of Green", which is the Bushroot "episode" of TWC. I will say that i don't quite have his voice with this one. I'm not saying I feel like I'm writing him blatantly OOC, but I don't feel like his dialogue is precisely him.

I actually feel like I have a pretty good handle on Bushroot's dialogue, when I hear it. He's whiny (especially his earlier eps, Tino Insana really pushes the whine in his voice) and kind of wishy-washy, and actually very cute in those regards. The problem is I'm just not translating that properly in my head. :P Maybe that's proof that what I'm trying to write doesn't *really* fit for Bushroot... I don't know.

Anyway, in some ways I'm glad I've waited a while to do a characterization post, because the way I've been writing for Reggie has developed a bit since I started writing this fic. I've gone back and rewatched some earlier eps (as I said), read some other fanfics, and just generally refined how I thought Beth and Reggie would interact. Initially I had him a lot more sort of semi-harmless, and motivated almost entirely by loneliness. At this point in my rewrite I think his underlying motive is still loneliness but also a pervading sense of injustice and unfairness, that the world (and Darkwing) keep dumping everything on him. Some of this has to do with Cheezey (among other authors) putting into words a view I realized I'd held for quite some time, which is that Bushroot refuses to take responsibilities for the things he brings on himself. He hates that Darkwing comes and ruins everything and throws him in jail - well geez, never occurs to you to maybe STOP COMMITTING CRIMES, Reggie? Admittedly, Darkwing would likely never *believe* that he'd stopped, but so far, he's been right. ;)

Reginald Bushroot, pre-accident, strikes me as a guy who is used to being stepped on and pushed around. he's never had any way to hit back. He has this accident (sort of; that's the term I'm using but it really was more of "unintented side effects of a successful experiment", but that's long, so we'll say "accident") and he gets powers, and suddenly he can push OTHER people around. He's not the first thwarted little man to quickly go out of control once he can actually hurt back. There's so much hurt and resentment boiling inside that guy that he completely doesn't even see. Reginald Bushroot is a nurturing, pacifist, gentle, caring man who hates other people and this dichotomy gives him such a sense of cognitive dissonance that he fails to recognize the second half of it. In his own mind, he's a guy who continues to take the lumps that fate keeps giving him and who sure, has made some mistakes, but no one ever lets him make up for them without judging him first.

And he's lonely. As far as he's concerned he doesn't have a friend, he has friendly underlings (he clearly adores his plants, and as much as he sends them out to do his dirty work, he's horrified and grief-stricken when they get destroyed) and pets, like Spike. Darkwing points out that Spike would be happy to be Bushroot's equal and friend, but really, Spike is NOT that. None of the plants have the "foot-in-the-human-world" that Bushroot has, and this must be maddening to him. This is clearly why he's tried more than once to create other "mutants" to join him - Rhoda Dendron, Gosalyn, and even Posie the potato. It's not enough to try to woo Rhoda as a duck, because he is NOT a duck, so he has to make her like himself. It's not enough to have plants for friends, because he is NOT a plant, so he has to make his own bride out of a plant and other things. Etc, etc. (Oh sure, I know he didn't *set out* to make Gosalyn a mutant plant-duck but the fact that the formula worked that way indicates it was intended to do much the same thing anyway - give heightened intelligence to whatever plant life he used it on, such as Hedgey, even though it failed.)

SO. I might not be able to write in his voice, but I've been trying to incorporate all this stuff into "Sea of Green". His motivation for his actions isn't about monetary gain - and aside from when he's with the Fearsome Five I don't see him acting for money, it all seems to be stealing for other purposes (gifts for Posie, fake money so he can buy plant supplies, screwing with people at Christmas, etc) - but because once again, he's been rejected. THIS IS NOT FAIR, and in the vein of someone who is tired of being expected to be a certain way he decides to really show them just exactly HOW much "that way" he can be. Then upon meeting someone who seems sympathetic - it could be anyone really - he has a new best friend. But I wanted to keep an element of danger in there - don't reject this guy, because if you are not with him you are against him, and he will not like you if you are against him. And years and years ago a friend of mine pointed out to me that as much as everyone seems to view Reggie as the most "harmless" member of the Fearsome Five, he is to date the only one of them who has actually killed ANYONE. Even including Negaduck, I think. I mean, Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson seem pretty totally dead.

Which is amazing when you think about it. DWD as a series had some really gruesome deaths that were totally glossed over by the people around them. Like the SHUSH agents made into candy. GAH! XD

My final feeling: I love Bushroot. And I do think he could reform. But not without a lot of therapy, anger management, and general support group work. One thing he has to do is accept all of his actions - everything he's ever done no matter what the consequences. That'll be hard because since his accident he's made a lot of really bad decisions. And ya know, if it were me at the end of this story, I'd send him to jail. We'll see what happens though. ^_~

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

SECOND POST OMG YOU GUYS I DON'T EVEN

Tonight I like the capslock!

So ... I really need to use this space to make interesting posts. Since there is a small number of people reading this blog now, even infrequently, perhaps you could suggest a topic for me to write an entry about? Anything you'd like to have ruminations on?

Potential topics I've been wanting to write about, but have been uninspired on, include characterizations posts (I need to do one for Bushroot, among others), a potential profile post on Beth, and I have been considering doing a post on OCs/Mary Sues in general based on a discussion on deviantART...

Just a thought, and if I don't get any replies I'll... well probably not write anything, still *^_^* But I'll ruminate and try to come up with something! Man, it's hard to find the time to do all the stuff I wanna do. REAL LIFE. WHAT.

FINALLY!

Finally got the next chapter for "Sea of Green" up. (This announcement post is backwards, because only three people read this blog and so it would more sense for me to advertise the blog in the fanfic. Eh well.)

It took me FOREVER to get around to writing it. I had two weeks and I waited until the last two days, then had to go another two days over that deadline. Sheesh. Plus I realized that there will be a total of 9 chapters, not 8, so there's just no way I'm going to finish before January 1. But, that's okay, because even if I finish it IN January that's still only about 4 months or so to write this one; that's not that bad, all things considered. :) Seeing as how it took me about 8 years to rewrite the first fic, and all. ^_~

OH, and yes, sometimes I actually remember to link to things! http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2460894/7/TWC_2_Sea_Of_Green

Friday, December 17, 2010

Wikipedia, you've done it again!

Need a very small amount of information, just enough to fudge your way through something without actually researching it? That's why God invented Wikipedia!

Thank you, Wikipedia, for giving me the names of plant hormones that can induce growth. You even tossed in a known antagonist to one of them, which neatly answers a question I was going to have to address in the *next* chapter. Bless you!

...Now, if I actually needed to research something and know what I was talking about, Wikipedia would be more like a source to suggest real research sources. But for half-assed fudging my way through it, you betcha this is the way to go! :D

Spoiler-free

So, lately I've been picking up some new readership with my rewrites. Which I don't think I ever really expected would happen.

So just to be inclusive I'm going to make a new tag for this blog, either "spoiler-free" or "spoilers", and use it as appropriate to indicate what is and is not safe for new readers. Because I give stuff away all over this blog. XD

I'm just not sure yet what would be better, as in, "quicker".

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Thanks to Fanarts!

Hi guys, this'll finish out the shout-outs to the gift fan stuff I've gotten over the past few years. ^_^ Since there's not a lot of just art stuff, I'll just do it all in one post.

1- I can finally rave about this pic b/c it's finally online! LadyNiniane drew me this piece of fanart for "All About Elizabeth" a few years ago. I have no place to house fanart and I hadn't been able to find it online anymore so I was kind of stuck and unable to share it. When I found it in her gallery at Negaverse.net I was delighted! Yay!

I love this piece; it's moody and thematic and I love the thing with the shadows. This fic was so hard on both Beth and Launchpad, was hard on ME to write (just b/c of the time it took; it wasn't an emotional toll, lol), and so this was a great reward to have LadyNiniane enjoy it so much that she was inspired to draw from it. ^_^

2- This piece by The Illustrious Crackpot is suitably hilarious, since Crackpot is a hilarious and high-energy artist. I've been trying to go in chronological order through her entire gallery for the past month or so. I'm like, maaaaaybe 2/3 of the way through by now. :D It's well worth it and so much fun and she has a great series called "Madness In A Box" that is very worth reading and getting into.

The pic of Beth was a sort of "welcome to dA" piece she did for me. I love it because I look at it and think it's probably approximately ten seconds before Beth's head explodes from sheer embarrassment. XD

3- DeathByMarshmallows did a random drive-by sketch of Beth along with her fan character and a couple of others by other artists/writers. There is nothing so awesome as random and unexpected gift art, under any circumstances, and this one is just so darn cute. Marty is DBM's character and I love that she's braiding Beth's hair. ^_^ This whole "slumber party and they're all BFFs" vibe just gives me giggles, even though Pixi (in the front left, with the tattoos) is giving Beth a look like she's going to duct tape her mouth closed in a few more seconds. XD DBM is also doing a commission for me that I will absolutely post about when it's finished!

So - thanks to all three of you lovely ladies and keep on with the art; I'm a huge fan of everything all three of you do and I would be even if you didn't draw Beth. (But I probably wouldn't mention you here since this is a Beth-centric blog. Just sayin', is all.)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

It's December. Again.

Well, it's no longer Thanksgiving, but I'm going to finish this danged "thankful" thing I started anyway. It would help if I remembered I'd said I'd do it at some point when I'm actually sitting at a computer, which I did tonight, so... Here I am! :D

Okay, if you read DWD fanfiction then you should read the stuff by IcequeenKitty, who has written a series - nearly finished - sorta called "Darker DWD". And it is what its name implies, a group of epic fics that are set in an AU where things are just not quite the same. Little things, you know, like there's not comedy relief and stuff and also people are horribly murdered in grisly ways, and so on. Y'know, that.

The thing is that these fics are *amazing*. I don't usually like "dark" Darkwing fics. I like, in general, the style of the show - I don't mean I avoid serious/drama stuff, I just mean, scaryviolentdark stuff... isn't my thing. the small handful of times I've tried out darkfics I've found them overwritten, and if you've written a "dark" DW fic I very likely did NOT read yours (I've read like, two, and I don't remember by whom, but this was like ten years ago) so don't take it personally. ;) However though, I tried out Kitty's fics because I noticed a lot of the people I knew and enjoyed on Fanfiction.net had her as a favourite, and so I gave the first fic, "Roots of Revenge", a try. I was almost *startled* by how much I liked it. It, and the resulting series, is so well-crafted and the characterizations are so strong, whether they're similar to the series or not. And there's this great heart to it that resides largely with Gosalyn, who draws the characters together beautifully; Morgana deepens that when she comes into it as well.

OKAY! So that's a big build-up to say that when I issued my "Please write fic for me if you love me!" plea, Kitty actually took me up on it, and what's more, she put it in her amazing "Dark" AU. It's a work of beauty. She did not put it up on Fanfiction.net but that's okay, it's up on deviantART instead: Light at the End. I have no idea if this is canon in the series and I don't expect Beth to show up at the end of the final story (which is still in-progress), but it wouldn't kill the pleasure of this baby even if it were not canon, so it's all good. :)

Meanwhile Kitty also draws and she did a really seriously adorable pic of Beth for me a little while ago, here, which of course is obviously set in my 'verse and not hers. ;D

So there's another down; I have two more to do but I've covered all the gift-fic, and that should keep y'all busy for a while. ^_^