My Daughter Wants to be Scrooge McDuck

That's not just a clever title. It's the honest truth. And to be fair this bothers me not at all. XD

Anyway I thought, just as a change of pace from the 30-day-meme I've been doing about my writing, I'd start the TWC2 Chapter Notes. I haven't done any chapter notes in a LONG time. First I guess I should check and make sure I haven't already started these...

Okay, checks out. Let's go!

References:
-Title: it's a line from the Beatles song "Yellow Submarine": "Sky of blue/and sea of green/in our yellow/submarine". I was on a HUGE Beatles kick during most of high school and this was written in the height of it.
-Obligatory callback to "Night of the Living Spud" with the Lyceum Nycanthropus.

I began this first scene about a year before I actually started writing the full fic. I think I started the fanfic in the second half of 2010, but I had the opening sequence done, I think, in late 2009. If not then, then in like early 2010 or so. I was trying to get back into writing after a really long hiatus during my second pregnancy and my son's first few months.

Laelia is in fact an orchid; I went looking for plant names for things like orchids that could be rare but work as actual names.

The conversation between Beth and LP initially got away from me and they started talking about how he knew Gizmoduck personally and all this stuff and it was like "STOP FLIRTING AND STAY ON SUBJECT!" They *always* do that. I had to send it to Amanda and have her tell me exactly where to snip it. ;)

I'm not really sure of the pacing of this scene or - well, the circumstances; and I'm not sure how much sense it makes for Beth to be so into Drake. I just kind of have to go with it. I have to be honest; I don't remember what it's like to have a crush on someone. ^^;

The inventory - when I wrote this the first time, I had the same thing in here, despite not ever having had a retail job. It was just vague and mainly involved me having Beth stay late to "do the inventory" which meant counting hte stock, since that's the textbook definition. However it's now slightly augmented by real-life experiences with retail - the late night and the counting turned out to be true, I ignored the fact that no retail store would have only *one* person do the retail, but I added stuff with paperwork. The paperwork is killer.

That's about it for chapter 1...

30 Days Meme day 12

Day 12 – Have you ever attempted an “adaptation” story of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

...noo... not REALLY but that doesn't mean I won't ever. And a few times I thought about doing it, I just never actually started. I cowrote half of an unfinished "Ranma 1/2" adaptation of "The Princess Bride" that broke the 4th wall a lot, and after I was in "Jesus Christ, Superstar" one summer I really wanted to do a DWD fanfic that vaguely followed the same storyline only it would be DW being sort of "discovered" and becoming verrrry popular, eventually lauded as the "Savior" of St. Canard, until the people turned on him. No, he wouldn't be crucified. XD

I actually had a badass "death/rebirth" scene in my head set to the title song, though. OMG. It's so badass. ...In my head. :P

One fic I thought for a long, long time I was going to do was a Reboot/DWD adaptation where they all get sucked into a computer wtih Megavolt as the villain. Various corresponding roles would be filled the various ways (DW as Bob, Megavolt as Megabyte, Gosalyn as Enzo, etc. I think I had Beth as Phong, lol) and they would encounter an internal virus, Hexaducksimal, hahahaha. It's too dated now though even though Reboot IS AWESOME STILL.

Two others I still might do: a story inspired by the Urusei Yatsura second movie, "Beautiful Dreamer", which I won't give any details on 'cause it would spoil the story, and a full-on series called "Quacktron Leap" which is a parody of "Quantum Leap" but instead of going through time, DW goes through dimensions with Sara Bellum as his guide and each dimension is an alternate of his own based on a fanfic. XD I still think that idea is awesome.

30 Days Meme day 11

Day 11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you’re writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

Ummm, nearly everything I write has to have some element of humour in it. I don't think I write humour as a genre the best (I think I do best as a "blend" and I just call my stuff "gen" most of the time), but I can't really write without a certain amount of humour. That's probably because I prefer comedies for the most part, so not having any humour would be entirely out of line.

I also tend to put some element of romance into a lot of my fics, but it's nearly always unresolved romance, unrequited or just general unresolved tension. I *definitely* would not call myself a romance writer.

And finally I guess... well, I *like* to have actiony plots. I'm not especially good at them as they take a lot of planning and effort to pace on my part, but I really prefer to have them when I can. I used to just write plots in order to have an excuse to write a fic about other things, but the actual plot/stories became important to me as I got older, and I generally feel like I'm cheating if I have a plotless story now. Which is too bad, because I *definitely* have an easier time writing purely dialogue or introspection fics. (I can write drabbles without a plot and be guilt-free, but that's because they're only like a couple hundred words.)

None of these are really precisely a genre though. I think of genre as being purely, or at least *almost* purely, one thing. My fics really are mostly a bunch of stuff stuck together. ^^;

30 Days Meme day 10

Day 10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn’t write, or a pairing you didn’t like, and found you could?

So, woohoo! I actually did this ten days in a row!

I've written outside my comfort zone in "Xena" before; I've actually written some minor slash in that fandom, which is out of my comfort zone mostly b/c I don't actually see most of the characters as slashable within XWP canon. (I should explain, I usually won't slash characters who aren't gay, unless there's some REALLY good chemistry between them) So, in a challenge to write slash, I picked Joxer's brother Jett and Ares. It was actually, in my opinion, a pretty good story. :) But since I don't see either character as gay it was a little hard to do easily. (However I could more easily see Jett as being gay than I could see Joxer, and I can actually believe that the gods in Xena would have sex with either gender if they felt like it, so it wasn't TOO far off the beaten path for me.)

Otherwise, well... I dun think so, honestly. I actually hate the way I write romance and so unless I have a very particular pairing I want to see (like Joxer/Gabrielle), I won't usually write any shipping fic at all.

...So I'm just gonna throw this out here, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable and pretentious for my last couple of posts, particularly the one about OCs. I think I'm just going to expand on what I said there a little and clarify one thing: the only OC of mine that I don't feel is really a Mary Sue is Beth. The others, yeah, I just have to admit they are. That's a big part though of why I don't actually write them. The "Ranma 1/2" spinoff is inside my head for my own enjoyment and won't be written out. I know I've been a little weird about that, talking about the fandom as if I do write for it or do plan on writing my wishfulfillment spinoff... I totally don't, just to clarify. ;)

(So don't hate me!! ^^;)

30 Days Meme day 9

Day 9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

Now I need to go back and open day 2 :D
Okay, for a lot of them I don't have any, b/c I don't write ship fic for them. (Since most of them were drabbles, that's largely why)

FMA, Inuyasha, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer I had no fave pairings to write. I wrote a couple of vaguely Buffy/Spike fics but that was just playing with the theme as canon, not actually writing the pairing.

Of the other drabbles, I kinda had pairings, but didn't explore them and there wasn't more than one:
Princess Tutu: Fakir/Ahiru (even though she was a duck - it wasn't like that XD)
Revolutionary Girl Utena: Utena/Anthy (that's what my drabble was about, in fact)
Fruits Basket: I did not write this, actually, but I hearted me some Kyo/Kagura. It's pretty much the only type of fic I read, even though I never wrote it at all.

Nothing really in TTA.

Real Ghostbusters, I didn't write any pairings, but if I had it woudl've been Egon/Janine. There were hints of that in the fic I did anyway.

Now the three main fandoms:

Ranma 1/2: Actually Ranma and Akane was the big one. If I had done my spinoff, even though it was really a sort of parody, they were intended to end up together (in a kind of subtle almost-offscreen way. And in the final episode they break up but they get back togehter in the last few minutes; it's background, but important). I LOVE Ranma/Akane. It's the only pairing in the show that I really, really feel. Other pairings would've played with Shampoo/Mousse, and I guess if I was writing in general I'd have done Ryouga/Akari since I totally ship them. But Akari didn't exist in my spinoff 'cause I cheat. ;D ...I hate Ryouga/Ukyou. Not because I'm jealous but because it's a made-up pairing. :P The anime kind of sort of pushed it, because it never got to the parts of the manga that started bringing in alternate relationship options for the rival characters. So Akari never existed and they put in hints of Ryouga/Ukyou instead and BLEAH. I don't really like Ukyou that much to be honest.

XWP: Joxer/Gabrielle and that's about it. That's really the whole purpose I had in writing the fanfics, was to write decent Joxer/Gab fic. I did write a few fics that addressed Xena/Gabrielle subtext but it always broke them up and usually paired Gab with Joxer instead. It's really because I just felt that the Xena/Gabrielle pairing was portrayed so unhealthily, it never seemed romantic to me - just obsessive. I could've handled a polyamourous relationship with Joxer included, but Xena/Gab alone was too heavy.

Darkwing Duck: Darkwing/Morgana, Beth/Launchpad (I'm sorry, I always feel bad confessing that my OC/canon ship is so close to my heart, but it's not as if I pretend otherwise), and that's about it. I don't honestly write many pairings. *shrug*

30 Days Meme day 8

Day 8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they’re not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Finally a question that really really relates to me instead of me going "Not really", lol!

Ahem. Yes, yes I do. ;)

Well, I don't honestly know how successful I am in making my OCs not Mary Sues. I've had enough feedback about Beth over the years from many people who have said she's not one, so although that doesn't mean that there aren't people who DO think she is one and they're just not telling me, it at least means that there are enough people who think she's NOT and tell me so. :)

Other than Beth, my OCs are primarily either secondary characters (like Henny, Beth's family, etc) or else they're borderline Mary Sues. I never had any OCs at all for "Xena", but I mentioned that my X-Men character was a pretty blatant Sue for years and years. And even now, I've tweaked the heck out of her, but she's really still pretty borderline. (I don't actually write fic with her though so she doesn't precisely count.) The other borderline Sue is my "Ranma 1/2" persona, and she's really as I said, a persona. That's what makes her borderline - her name is Rebecca and she has a lot of my characteristics, exaggerated for comedy.

So. My methods of not making Sues is to give the characters as many reasonable flaws as I can. Then I cross my fingers and hope that I've made them into believable characters, with enough bad points to cross out the good points but not so many that they are hard to like... For instance:

-"Rebecca" the Ranma 1/2 persona is based on me, has my name, bears a physical resemblance to me, and is paired with Ryouga Hibiki. However, to counter all this I set the tone of the series (it's a "spin-off", remember) as very farcical, in the same vein as "Ranma" or even more so, as Rumiko Takahashi's earlier series "Urusei Yatsura". Rebecca is cheerful and exuberant and a lot of people like her, but that's partly because they only see the cheerful and exuberant part of her; in fact she's also very pushy, has a bad temper, and is really selfish. In a comical way, that's the thing that's hard to explain. She's very childlike; she loves other people and being with her friends, but she expects things to be a certain way, and when they are not, she can get indignant or even angry. The only person to see this most of the time is Ryouga, who consequently spends most of the series trying to get away from her. But she's in love with him, and decided after meeting him that they're going to be married, so dammit, THEY ARE GOING TO BE MARRIED. XD And becausee everyone likes Rebecca so much, he feels like he'll get the blame if he actually dumps her, so he puts up with her being around in the hopes that eventually she'll get sick of him and leave. XD

-Aquaflame, of the X-Men: she's got a lot of superpowers and initially (when I created her at age 10) she was one of those Mary Sues who I understand is somewhat rarer than the others, who gets injured a lot to get attention. (I had NO CONTACT with any other fans at the time so it amused me to find out that this is actually A Thing. XD) She's developed a lot in the past 20+ years. In efforts to make her a deeper character I gave her anger issues. XD She's very emotionally shut off and expresses a lot of her negative emotions through anger. I actually dont' think I've been successful in making her not a Sue, but I have tried. But yeah I don't use her anyway, so. ;)

With Beth - that's where I've put the most effort. In addition to making her neurotic (lovably so, I hope) and totally normal other than her intellect, I've made HUGE efforts to keep the tone of the series and the characterization of the canons as close as I could to the show. I think that's hard, because to me it involves getting inside their heads, and to do THAT you have to fill in a lot of blanks to make them more rounded as characters. But when I do that, I try to do it in a way that follows what we've seen in the show, rather than revealing secrets or making things darker or just making up stuff that seems like it would be cool. I also try to do it in a way that matches the depth I give to Beth - all the characters should feel like real people, but also like cartoon characters at the same time. I want them all to feel equally believable and equally at home in the same series, and I especially want Beth to fit the tone of "Darkwing Duck" and be someone that you could technically see being in an episode (albeit, a bit simplified).

I think that last goal is a bit lofty and I don't think I quite make it, but it's hard for ANY fanfic to accomplish that with an OC that becomes an addition to the main cast. Honestly I feel successful just if I have characters that people like to read about, whether it feels like an ep or not. :)

30 Days Meme day 7

Day 7 – Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?

I'm going to assume this means while writing and not while reading.

Ummm, not really, no. I guess, actually, there have been a couple of times that I've written a particular character and enjoyed it so much that I've become really fond of the character, but to be honest, I can't think of any particular examples. I sort of want to say Honker but I've liked him for ages, so I don't think that's right.

The only time I can recall that really happening in the recent past is with one of my own characters (Candy, Beth's older sister) and I'm not sure that counts. What happened was just that her character developed through the writing, and she developed into something different from what I thought she was. That's all. :)

30 Days Meme day 6

To be completely honest I'm shocked that I've stayed with this for so many days in a row now o_O

Day 6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

I don't really truly have a preference. I'll admit that I'm more confident with female characters in general, because I am one. A female character. Yes. :P No, but seriously, I do try to be in the head of the characters I write but if I'm in unexplored territory I feel a little more confident writing women if only because I can fall back on my own expectations in a situation like that.

I'll be a tiny bit less vague: sometimes when writing romance (and I don't mean just DWD stuff, this goes back to "Xena" and before), I'm not entirely sure that I'm writing a *male* perspective and not a female-as-male perspective. I try to differentiate because men and women approach romance differently, and even though of course it's going to depend on the specific character, there *are* gender differences. So I want to be sure that I'm approaching a character's feelings in a way that *makes sense* and not just a way that seems appealing to me, as a woman. It's hard; I try, I can't swear that it works but I do try.

Other than that though, no, I really have no preference between men and women. When it comes to writing I mean. *G*

30 Days Meme day 5

Day 5 – If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your “muse” or not, what did you do about it?

Welp, this will be a shorty. For real this time. :D

Basically, if it makes sense to have the character there and if I can think of a way for it to enhance the story, then I write it. If not then I do an alternate scenario in my head and don't write it out. XD

It's infrequent enough that I don't have to deal with it much anyway.

I will say that I've got something like five or six unofficial fic plots in my head - what I call "fanfic of my own fanfic" - with various badfic contrivances to get LP and Beth together. My standards for my fanfic fanfic are way lower than my actual fic canon. ;D That's basically my way of shutting Launchpad up. "OKAY LOOK I won't write this but I will make up an entire new plot so that you can get the girl. OKAY? Now LEAVE ME ALONE."

30 Days Meme day 4

Day 4 – Do you have a “muse” character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the story isn’t about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Well, here we go. This one should be easy: No, not really. :)

I will elaborate slightly, but not by much. If you define a "muse" character as being a favourite character to write (and thus the one I get ideas for), then Joxer might've been it. But I never felt like I was channeling him or like he was taking over. So I don't think it counts.

In terms of characters who push their way in or take over a scene, a little bit yes with DWD. Actually with Launchpad. Though, infrequently. :) It actually happens mainly with Launchpad and Beth; every time I try to write a couple of lines of dialogue between them it turns into a full conversation and a lot of the time they change topic and wander off course into something completely different. I often end up having just say the heck with it, write out a scene then once I've steered it to end where I want it to, I have to read through the whole thing and cut portions of it. (I did that a lot in the second chapter of TWC4, as mentioned in a previous post.) In the Christmas fic I did, also, there was going to be a brief scene in one chapter where Beth went shopping by herself, and as I wrote it Launchpad invited himself along and the "quick scene" took up the entire chapter. He also took over a pivotal scene in "High, Dry and Flooded" and said one single thing that changed the completely course of the remainder of the fic. And I couldn't stop him from doing it. (I mean, obviously I could have, but as I was writing I realized that it made the most sense to go that way. However I'd been planning the scene for YEARS already and never, ever planned on taking the scene - or the fic, or the series - in that direction.)

And finally in terms of character I like to talk to, I don't have one now but for quite some time it was Ryouga Hibiki. I used to use hiim to do MST3K stuff with. It was a lot of fun b/c it was all verbal sparring, and he was OOC (tremendously so - very surly and sarcastic, which I don't believe Ryouga is smart enouh to be) but OOOOH so fun. XD

30 Days Meme day 3

Day 3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

Wow, three days in a row, how bout dat.

Well, let's see if I can knock this one out quickly:

Ranma 1/2: Ryouga. Even though I don't write him IC in my spinoff (which is the only "writing" I've done).
Xena: Warrior Princess: Joxer, and Aphrodite. Yeah I was and am a Joxer fan. The show was actually very, very frustrating because every time they'd start to give some development to Joxer they'd take it back later and sometimes make him even more 1-dimensional. :P Aphrodite though, she was just fun. :)

Most of the fandoms I did drabbles for that I mentioned yesterday, well, I've written so little (and mainly on-demand) that I don't have a favourite. No fave for Fruits Basket or FMA, or Buffy or Princess Tutu. I liked writing Utena in the "Revolutionary Girl Utena" fic I did and I loved writing Sesshomaru in the second (unarchived) Inuyasha drabble. But that was really just a joke fic. :D I also don't have a favourite in Tiny Toons.

I do have a favourite in the Real Ghostbusters, and that's Peter Venkman, even though I wrote him terribly. He was SO MUCH FUN. I wanted to write the fic b/c I wanted to write for Janine, and she was fun to write for, but Peter was the runaway star once I started. Not of the fic, just of every scene he was in, the egotistical scene-grabber. :D

You'll notice perhaps that I left DWD for last; that's cause it's the longest answer. :D I think at this point I've finally become comfortable with writing Launchpad, so in terms of good guys, he's probably my favourite to write. I actually get really nervous writing Drake since I'm not often very good at keeping him IC; I *love* writing Darkwing when he's being melodramatic during an action scene, but I don't have a lot of action scenes, so other than that, I find him challenging. LP has gotten somewhat easier for me since I decided to go ahead and develop his inner monologue somewhat. I think he's still more or less in character but I love writing him being just... kind of easily confused, kind of dim but really well-meaning and trying to keep up. :D

In terms of villains, thus far I'd have to say Megavolt. He's so random, it's easier for me to write his craziness than it was with Quackerjack. I really enjoyed it. I hear Megs's voice in my head more easily than I do with Quacky, too. :)

So there's your answer, fishbulb!

30 Days Meme day 2

Well, two days in a row! That's promising. Or well, actually meaningless. XD

Day 2 – Name the fandoms you’ve written in, and how much you’ve written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.


Well, let's see. If we don't count the X-Men, which never officially had anything written for it, then:

Darkwing Duck
Ranma 1/2 **
Xena: Warrior Princess

And other than these, a few drabbles in "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Inuyasha", "Fruits Basket", "Revolutionary Girl Utena" and "Princess Tutu". Oh hell, I keep forgetting, I've done three drabbles for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" too.

I think that's it... oh, no, untrue. I've also written, very early on, for "The Real Ghostbusters" (one terrible, terrible fic that I think is lost to Geocities) and "Tiny Toon Adventures". Geez, I have a much longer list than I thought.

The two biggest ones are absolutely "Darkwing Duck" which obviously I still write for, and "Xena: Warrior Princess" which I guess I don't. I haven't written for it in a long time, anyway. I haven't officially quit it or anything, in fact I've always kind of wanted to go back to it, but the more time passes the less likely that is to happen. My interest in that series is in the toilet, and even though I like the sort of kind of AU I ended up writing in, I've been out of it so long that I dont' have a handle on how I wrote the characters anymore, and I wouldn't have a readership. no biggie, I'm not missing anything for writing them.

The others were mainly one-shots, I think they fall as follows:

FMA: 2 drabbles, only one posted on FF.net. (The one that wasn't posted was better but I can't find it now.)
Inuyasha: 2 drabbles, only one posted, the unposted was better.
Fruits Basket: 2 drabbles, both surprisingly popular, including the one I don't like and only wrote because a friend challenged me to do it :D
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 3 drabbles, only one on FF.net, another one is exactly 100 words and can be found via Google if I look hard enough. The third was only read by one person and was crappy.
Utena: One-shot drabble about Anthy giving Utena chocolate on Valentine's Day. Still totally popular which makes me happy :D
Tutu: One-shot drabble about Ahiru and Fakir living as man and duck, I guess. Also still popular, also makes me happy; I thought it was a pretty good fic.

RGB: Pretty awful semi-Mary Sue fic, though I swear at the time I thought I was only making up OCs in order to be able to center a fic around Janine, which was my real intent. Looking back that might've been the excuse, but it didn't hinge that way. sigh.
TTA: I wrote one stand-alone fic by myself about, of all things, Elmyra and Montana Max, and then I co-wrote two group fics. My contributions were tiny but I'm still credited on both. :D

I am not active in ANY of those fandoms now, but then again, I was never technically "active" in any of them. I just wrote the drabbles because I was challenged to while bored. :) I'd like to go back to RGB actually, if I had any ideas, which I do not.



** Ranma 1/2 was the next fandom I was interested in after DWD, and I read a ton of fanfic for it, but I never officially wrote for it. I did, however, create a sort of spinoff/parody universe based around Ryouga and me; initially based off of RPs that had Ryouga tossed in because I love him, and then the persona developed. It's never actually been fully written out and never will because it's shamelessly self-insert/wish fulfillment, but I have written out one and a half "episode" scripts and have a full "series" plotted in my head, and I stay with it because I honestly feel it's intelligent and funny, and a bit ironic. But it's absolutely 100% Mary Sue at the same time. :D Anyway, I've not only written out those scripts, I've also written two drabble-esque fanfics for it and half of a longer fanfic, and a friend of mine has also written fic for it. So it exists and people have seen it, thus I include it here. Sort of.

30 Days Meme, day 1

So here's the first question. I haven't thought this out in advance (I don't even remember what the question is) so get ready for some ramblin'...

Day 1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

Mmkay... Well, I started doing fanfic in my head, I think, when I was about 10 years old. I didn't write any of it down, I just had a Mary Sue character for old "X-Men" issues from the late 1970s up to about 1980. :D I think some of it stemmed from being kind of lonely and unpopular; you know, as many of us are. ;) Of course I had no idea of even the concept of fanfiction, back then, I just liked telling myself stories. I eventually let a friend of mine in on it, and she thought it was cool, and between the two of us we wrote I think two and a half actual "fics" which were really just scenes. And I wrote one looooong "novel" that took up an entire spiral notebook that was pretty godawful. But that's as far as that ever went.

In terms of actual first fandom I really *wrote* for, it was Darkwing Duck, straight up. In 1991 I was 13 and in 8th grade. I wrote one fanfic (again, not having any idea it was called that, or that other people wrote it), which was in narrative form, and it was after trying and failing to write a script for an episode that would've been centered around Bushroot trying to save the rainforest and DW not believing he was on the "good" side - I guess it would've been kind of ecoterrorism if I wrote it now but at the time it was just a half-assed idea that went nowhere. :) Plus shortly after I gave up on the idea, the episode "A Star is Scorned" aired, and that included a scene with Bushroot saving the rainforest, lol. So I was like "NEVER MIND THEN D:" So since I wasn't able to do that, I wrote a single fic instead, and it sat on my hard drive for three years before I discovered the Internet.

In between that time I invented Beth (somewhere around 1992), who again existed purely in my head until summer or so of 1994. This was when I got onto AOL and discovered such a thing as Fandom, and I posted my DWD fic and wrote a really, really, really awful "DuckTales" fic that I hope does not currently still exist on the net. (It will never be rereleased. The DWD fic was actually not that bad considering, and is on my site somewhere.) Having put the DuckTales fic up and gotten some positive response I decided to forge onwards and write down the Beth stories I'd thought out, and thus began The Webfoot Chronicles. Yep - in 1994. :)

As for what it was about that fandom that drew me in: well, a combination of my love for DWD, my feeling that I could actually "get" the tone of hte series (arguable when I first started writing), and the people I met on AOL. Kim McFarland/Negaduck9 was among them and she was TREMENDOUSLY supportive. She had a lot to do with it, as did a few other people I met during that time period (Kevin, Mike, RRQuest, and others). And the Internet was a brave new world and it was exciting to be posting and getting feedback. The DWD fandom wasn't really tremendously active at the time but it was at least moderately, so I got a lot of readers and a lot of friends back then. :)

There we go, that was kinda painless!

30 Days of Rain

No not really. Was thinking of "28 Days of rain, flash floods in February" - that's the opening line from a Tears for Fears song. I needed something that goes with 30 days, which is how many days this meme goes on for. What meme you ask?

The fic one that I was inspired to do by Cheezey. The one that has these questions:

Day 1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

Day 2 – Name the fandoms you’ve written in, and how much you’ve written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

Day 3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

Day 4 – Do you have a “muse” character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the story isn’t about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Day 5 – If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your “muse” or not, what did you do about it?

Day 6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

Day 7 – Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?

Day 8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they’re not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Day 9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

Day 10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn’t write, or a pairing you didn’t like, and found you could?

Day 11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you’re writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

Day 12 – Have you ever attempted an “adaptation” story of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

Day 13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

Day 14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you’re comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you’re writing is G-rated instead?

Day 15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what’s the strangest thing you’ve warned for in a story?

Day 16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

Day 17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the story? Also, if you do chaptered story, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

Day 18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your stories (aka “bunnies”) from?

Day 19 – When you have bunnies ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

Day 20 – Do you ever get bunnied inspired from other people’s stories or art in the same fandom?

Day 21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a story you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?

Day 22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you’ve thought about doing? And if not, why not?

Day 23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

Day 24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren’t any major flaws in your story? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

Day 25 – Music – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain “mood” to write your story? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

Day 26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you’ve had to research for a story?

Day 27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

Day 28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your story?

Day 29 – What is your current project or projects?

Day 30 – Do you have a favorite story you’ve written? What makes it your favorite?

We'll see how long I can go... :D

TWC4: Update and Deleted Scenes

So, earlier I wrote a post sayingg that I was nearly finished with chapter 2 of TWC4 and I would have deleted scenes to post later on, but for some reason this computer will not let me publish posts to this blog. So that post never got added to the blog. Instead I'm just gonna go ahead and make THIS message, and then hopefully be able to post it from upstairs on my OLD computer. And if I can't I have no idea what happens :P

Anyway! First of all: I finished and uploaded chapter 2 of TWC4, "Shake, Rattle, and Mole". The link is to the first chapter. It's also here on AO3.

So, as I wrote this chapter it just got longer and longer. And I'd edit it down, then write more. Finally I said screw it and wrote what I wanted, with ideas of what I could trim out later; the final edit turned out to be about 5,500 words. I got it down to just under 4,300 on FF.net by cutting rather ruthlessly and summarizing some of the dialogue I'd taken out. The stuff I cut was all just conversation, and does not keep the plot moving or anything like that - it's all really just chitchat. The thing is, though, I do feel like it's important b/c it gives a bit more of a reason as to why LP and Beth get along and why he'd start feeling the way he does for her. I feel like the version I posted at FF.net, while it is more concise, glosses over both his growing attraction to her and also the fundamentals of their friendship. So, although that's the "official" version up there and the extra stuff is probably really *better* for cutting, I still want to make it available since... well, it just might make the relationship make more *sense*, I guess. I dunno, I'm too in the characters' heads, and this probably isn't necessary - it probably overstates things way too much. But I felt I needed more transition from LP's resistance to his attraction to Beth, into his total acceptance of it at the end of the chapter.

I actually trimmed even more than I am putting up here... maybe I'll keep those parts or maybe they are genuinely expendable. But here are two snippets I thought were worth keeping, even unofficially.

****

"Traffic... OH." She put her hand to her mouth and looked thunderstruck. Then she put her hand over her eyes. "OH, of *course*. THAT'S why he's mad. Oh, I am so stupid."

"What? He's not mad. Why do you think he's mad?" Launchpad felt a need to protect her, but it came out as a sort of frantic cover-up.

"Nothing - I just... oh, sheesh, I didn't think. No, it's nothing."

"You're not stupid," he said earnestly. He looked around the room. "Is it the pictures that fell down? 'Cause that's not your fault."

"No, I know." She looked at him and smiled.

He smiled back, and realized she probably couldn't see his expression at all. He looked at the table. "So, what happened to your glasses?"

"Oh. They fell off, I stepped on them. Standard klutz stuff." She leaned forward and felt around for them, then put them on. The left lense was full of cracks, and the bridge was so broken that the glasses wouldn't sit straight on her bill, so the right lense twisted upwards. She tried twice to right them, then gave up and put them back onto the table. "Ugh."

"Can you see at all without 'em?" He looked at her carefully, without her glasses on - the first time he'd seen her without them; it made her face look younger and different, uncovered. *Naked*. He blushed a little and looked at his hands instead.

"Kind of. I mean, I can see you - just no details." She reached out and poked him in the chest, and he chuckled and rubbed the spot she'd poked. "But I have degenerative myopia, so I'm super nearsighted."

"Whoa, really? That sounds bad."

She shrugged. "It's not that bad. It's slow-acting, I mean. It mostly happened kind of quickly when I was about twelve, and all of a sudden I needed glasses, then stronger ones. But now it's slowed down and I just need to adjust my prescription every so often."

He looked at her face again, almost shyly. All this time he'd assumed that her eyes only looked big because of the thickness of her glasses, but it turned out they were just that *big*. She looked at most nineteen, and adorable. He realized he was staring and looked away, then realized she couldn't tell, so he looked at her again. "So, does it hurt your head to have everythin' blurry like this?"

"No, not if I don't try to see anything. If I have to squint it hurts eventually. But even if I squint I can only make things out if they're close enough, so I just don't bother most of the time."

"How close do you have to be?"

She leaned towards him, and beckoned him closer too. As he got nearer, she narrowed her eyes, and then stopped him. "THERE we go. Hi!"

He waved. "Hi!" She laughed, all squinty-eyed, and blushed a little. "If I get closer do you NOT have to squint?"

"Um, yeah, there's usually a point where I can see things, just before they get TOO close and I can't see them anymore." She beckoned him closer again, and he leaned in. "Okay... keep coming... keeeeep coming..."

Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Beth jumped back like she'd been stung. "OH my gosh!"

Launchpad sat back, away from her, down at the other end of the couch, and he hadn't been about to kiss her at all. "Oh. Hey!" he said as Drake came down the stairs, glowering at them both. "Heh. Gos okay?"

"She's *fine*," Drake said stiffly, and glared a direct accusation in Launchpad's direction. Launchpad suspected he was blushing.

Etc...

***

[[After this, there is one thing i took out - after reluctantly thanking Beth for staying to be sure Gos was okay, Drake gives her an extra $20 as "overtime" which she tries to give back but he won't take it. Eh, it was a nice touch but really not needed. Then the walk to Beth's, I had conversation written out that I ended up removing and summarizing:]]

"Sounds good," she said cheerfully. He had her repeat the first step, and he did his best to listen even though he was fighting a maddening urge to stroke the back of her hand with his thumb the entire time.

They walked in silence for more than a minute. Launchpad felt every second of it. It seemed as if he *needed* to say something, or else he'd just keep *thinking*, and thinking wasn't helping him in the slightest; but he had no idea what to say. Beth, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically silent; he'd never known her not to keep *some* line of conversation going. Taking a guess at what she might be thinking, he asked, "Still worried about Drake bein' mad?"

She nodded. "I feel like I'm on thin ice with him. Like there's a sword hanging over my head, and every time I do the wrong thing, the rope keeping it up gets weaker and weaker, and there's no way to strengthen it again."

"Don't worry about it," he said reassuringly, and tightened his grip on her hand without thinking of what he was doing. "He just gets, I dunno... funny about stuff. But you were right to stay with Gos, and he knows it."

Beth shook her head. "I should've thought, though... With me still being there when he came home..."

"Huh? What do you mean?" That was weird - it almost sounded like she knew about Darkwing.

"Oh - no, nothing. Sorry." She smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"Oh, uh, okay." Launchpad scratched his cheek in puzzlement, and reached for a topic - something kind of boring and safe - and came up with, "So, uh, how's the job hunt going?"

Beth sighed dramatically, her shoulders slumping. "Still unemployed," she answered. "I don't know, Launchpad, I've applied to, like, twenty different companies this week alone and I haven't heard ANYthing. And they're all kinds of jobs, I mean, I even applied to a Hamburger Hippo and NOBODY has called me back! I was saying to Gosalyn earlier, I don't even know what I was thinking, just quitting. What a dumb thing to do. That was the ONLY real job I've ever had, and do you know how long it took me to get THAT? And then Henny just hired me on the spot when I came in to inquire... And now, I can't even use that job as a reference because of everything I said when I quit. Henny would *never* say anything good about me now so I have four years' worth of employment at ONE job, and NO references..." She shook her head and sighed again. "But you know, that's the thing about Henny, I don't think I could have gotten a good reference out of her even if I *hadn't* said anything."

Wow. Launchpad was almost sorry he'd asked, if only because she was obviously really upset. "Uh, I'm sorry. I guess it's kinda my fault you quit..."

"What? No! Oh, no it's not, really." She turned to reassure him hastily, waving her free hand all around as she did. "You just said I should look for another job, I'M the one who quit! Nobody is to blame for this but me." She looked at him, or towards him anyway, with an anguished expression. "Launchpad... What do I do? What if I never get another job?"

With that look on her face, he found that the only thing that seemed important was to help her, to find a way to make all of her problems disappear. What could he possibly say to make her feel good about herself? "Of course you'll get another job! You're a great worker an' - an' you, uh, you have attention to details!"

Beth smiled, evidently in spite of herself, at that. "Do I?"

He shrugged. "I'm not real good at this. But you're smart, you'll do fine. REALLY, trust me."

"I don't know. I said to Gos earlier - people, they just don't notice me. There's nothing on my resume that looks interesting, and it's the same thing when they meet me - just being smart isn't going to do it, it's like I'm invisibe. Nobody will ever call me because nobody will ever NOTICE me."

Etc.

***

[[And, last thing, which I won't paste here; after he asks her to have "movie night", she says that she was afraid he was avoiding her which he denies a bit too much. Again, cute but expendable. And there you go, now you know the rest of the story!

This still may not fully convey the transition I tried to write - well, to be honest, I'm afraid I failed with that even in the full version - but I mean, I just cut bits and piece throughout to take out as much as I could. I'm kinda impressed I got 1300 out of it. I wish I could've taken it down to under 4,000 since this chapter is such fluff that I feel bad having it be so long... but oh well. :P]]

MUPPETS

I've totally been searching for this track for, oh, like probably a good 2-3 years now. Pretty sure since before my office space was moved which was a year and a half ago...

Ridiculously pretty instrumental version of an incredibly silly moment in "The Muppet Movie". I love the fact that this song, when sung by Miss Piggy, gives me uncontrollable giggles - but the tune itself floors me with how lovely it is.

This is not a post

Fic update! I posted the first chapter of TWC4 at FF.net and AO3. Since it's a replacement of the chapter that is already there on FF.net, they won't register it as an update until I actually add a new chapter, so this is the "unofficial prerelease". :P I am, however, hoping to have chapter 2 done before the end of the month. :)

I'm so relieved to get this done. I had actually planned on working on this during October, but stress at the beginning of the month basically gave me artistic block on all fronts. I've only JUST started writing again. Hoping this is the start of something good! :)

If I can get to chapter 2 quickly enough (I don't know if that will work or not though) I'm going to work on "Those Daring McQuacks". I have the structure outlined and I tried starting act 2 a couple of months ago but i stalled on the scene. I was able to write it, it just wasn't paced particularly well and I was having trouble with what I wanted to say. I hope I can pick it up again and fix it.

Anyway, I don't think anyone checks this blog if I dont' put up links or reminders, but just in case people do, fic update message and general ramblings. ^_^ Hi!

Sex and the Single Girl

I've said it before and I'll just restate it up front: I keep the Webfoot Chronicles firmly PG. I'm not above a few minor hints and innuendos here and there but my rule isnt' even that all hanky-panky happens offscreen; my rule is, there is no hanky-panky. This was a conscious choice I made for myself many years ago, in part because it makes *me* more comfortable in general; *I* have an issue with thinking of the characters in the show in sexual situations.

However, I also decided some years ago that in order to really get to understand Beth - which was important to me - I needed to think out almost every aspect of her life, even the things that would not ever come up. To that end I've pondered a lot of her reactions to various situations - not everything by any means, that's not what I'm saying, only that sometimes I take the time to work out a hypothetical that occurs to me even though I know it won't be an issue in my fics, like religion (she's an atheist/agnostic), politics (conservative moderate but holds few strong opinions), and sex.

I've gone back and forth on posting about this subject, and if you read here regularly you may remember back in the summer when I went through a bit of playing with themes in a non-canon fic... The thing that keeps me from bringing it up, though, is my intention to keep TWC on approximately the same maturity level as the cartoon and not alienate people who feel the same way. It's weird to read stuff that, in terms of writing style is admittedly aimed at older readers (above middle school I'd say) but in terms of content is meant to be "family friendly", then go to a blog talking about the characters in adult-oriented situations. So I've avoided it.

However, I ended up doing that AU I posted about a few days ago, and as I mentioned in there, I crossed over into adult territory. There haven't been a lot of comments on it yet (and likely won't be) but I keep starting to explain the background, the differences, etc, why THIS Beth would make this choice and the other wouldn't, and it gets very long, too long for DeviantART. So I guess I'm finally going to make this post.

But, i'm going to be kind of weird and do the real content in the comments. Since there's no option, from what I can see, to do a text cut like you have in LiveJournal, this is sort of my best option both to save on the length of this post (too late) and to allow any readers who really don't want to know this stuff to just avoid it. For those of you guys, you can just rest assured, this subject matter really, truly will NEVER come up in TWC. I promise. :) ...That doesn't mean I will never again write another AU though. 9_9

My Uncle thought he was St. Jerome...

Guess who saw "Ghostbusters" in the theatre this evening? Yeah it's me :D At first when it started I had a thought, like, "Is this going to be worth it? Am I just putting import onto something that isn't really that important?" But OH MAN was it good on the big screen. It was just fantastic. I haven't ever seen GB in the theatre -I am just SLIGHTLY too young. (I did see Back to the Future in theatres when it came out, though. AND THAT WAS AMAZING.)

Anyway, that is all. I may not get to see Shaun of the Dead, but I got to see Ghostbusters. :D

On a completely unrelated topic, I've been sketching - both artistically and bio-type - on an AU Beth recently. I'm putting up the first batch of sketches on DA and I thought I'd take the opportunity to expand on it here, since... I can. :)

So, waaaay back when I was writing "All About Elizabeth", I included a gratuitous scene that took place when Beth was 18, attending Duckburg University, and working as a librarian on campus. She has a very brief encounter with Scrooge McDuck and tells herself she'll tag along with him on adventures and change her life, but of course, she does not. Well, mentally I then proceeded to create an entire AU where she DOES, and her life is - not all that changed. :D Frothinglizard on DA used this idea somewhat, with my blessing, in a really wonderful set of pics and comics. My idea was entirely different and I'm finally kind of going to elaborate on it. With the note that nothing is ever going to come of this: I'm not going to write it out. I have NO ideas. It's basically making Beth a DuckTales OC instead of a DWD OC, and the fact is, I can't write for DuckTales. I don't do adventure plots - I'm okay with action/superhero/comedy plots, and even those I struggle with and take a long time to do. But adventure, like in old school DT... nope. Just doesn't come to me. The only part of the idea I'm actually able to develop is the stuff that relates to - yeah, you saw this coming, right? - Beth and Launchpad and how they relate to one another.

Basically, Beth at 18 is even more awkward than at 25. I established in AAE that she makes a lot of her own clothes - she actually is quite good but you wouldn't guess it to see her in what she wears at that age. She was going through a thing where she preferred very large clothing, particulary shirts - she was uncomfortable in anything that didn't hide her figure - so it looks as if she's a very shoddy seamstress when actually, she knows what she's doing. She just doesn't really get how awful the badly-fitting clothes really look on her, b/c the alternative makes her uncomfortable. The rest of her apperarance is largely the same, just... perhaps a bit more disheveled. Well, in the AU, she manages to talk her way onto Scrooge's plane as he departs for some adventure in the jungle, and immediately wishes she hadn't, since she has no idea what to do.

She meant to introduce herself as Eliza, and reinvent herself with that new identity, but she screws up and gives her name as Beth on instinct. A bit later she meets Launchpad as he is piloting the plane, and she's instantly gone on him. He's friendly and handsome and charming, and completely overlooks her. They get through the adventure, find the treasure - after nearly losing it due to Beth misreading something - but then she figures it out and all is well. Scrooge isn't too happy with her screw-up, but LP sticks up for her and says she's the one who figured everything out, so he reluctantly hires her (for next to nothing) as his researcher. For a couple of years she does this and also puts herself through school at the same time (which irritates Scrooge because every so often she either opts out of a trip due to exams, or else has to bring her books along with her to study).

Over the next few years she and LP get to be - well, not quite close, but on very good terms. She's completely devoted to him, but she also gets enough of a backbone to speak her mind sometimes. She's just about 21 when Gizmoduck shows up. She and Fenton actually get along quite well and play geeky math games. She realizes early on that Fenton is Gizmoduck, though it doesn't change much. A little while after this LP leaves for St. Canard (I haven't thought of any details as to why); she's hurt by this but doesn't tell him so.

So, part two. After finishing school, Beth starts in teh real world with a real job, which despite all her science education ends up being working for Scrooge in a higher capacity. By this point, having gotten used to dealing with him, she has a much thicker skin than she used to and her confidence in herself is a bit higher. I don't know much about what she does but it involves a lot of travel, plus I think she handles some of the stock investments. Years go by, and she figures out a lot of things for herself and grows up a lot, so that by the time she's 25 in *this* universe, she's quite a different person. Fundamentally still a chatterbox and prone to getting nervous under personal circumstances, she's better equipped to deal with people (and she looks great).

Four years after LP left for St. Canard, she travels there on a business trip - for the first time, oddly! She goes to Europe more often than to St Canard - and gets LP's address from Fenton so that she can look him up. They reunite very briefly and amicably in Drake's house but since she has to run to the first of her meetings (being held over several days), she invites LP to dinner in a few nights.

The funny thing is, when I came up with this AU (which was really just a way to occupy my time and explore a different characterization for Beth), I kept it in my usual rule of Duckverse stuff - which is to say, very close to the tone of the show, nothing "adult" or mature, and my big rule for my DWDverse is that nobody has sex. Sex doesn't even exist. (This isnt' to say I haven't put any thought into it - 'cause I have, from time to time - but it's more like as an exploration of sexual behaviour and how it stems psychologically, mainly from Beth, and next to no explorataion of sexual *themes* from any characters in this show.) Somewhere, though, over the past few days this one... got away from me. *blush* Which is probably why I've been drawing stuff for it and expanding it somewhat. I'm not sure what point I'm going to go up to, but... well, there's more to this storyline, and I'll probably share it at some point soon. But, fair warning. :P

It's October now?

So I only updated once in September. Then I came on here and I was like "Oh it's stil September, that's good! Oh wait." Because I remember very little sometimes. Bah!

I thought I was going to work on "Those Daring McQuacks" before I started on TWC4, and I even thought out some scenes and had them planned, and it just will not come out. I mean, I have written a few things, but they really really need rewriting and editing. And I'm just stuck on finishing them and connecting the dialogue and stuff. Bah. Also, things in real life land the past couple of weeks have just about killed my creativity drive :P

However, this afernoon I had a few good ideas for at least completing the first scene of TWC4's first chapter (I put up about 800 words as a placeholder on FF.net; the completed scene will only be the first half of chapter one, but it's a start) and surprisingly I was able to get some of it done :) So to maybe keep my inspiration going, I'm gonna post what little I just did since I won't have the chapter finished until the end of the month at the earliest; if I can keep my momentum though I might be able to get THIS scene finished over the weekend. I'm also not posting the part that's already up at FF.net so, if you have no context, the chapter begins with a moderate earthquake. This is immediately after it's over with.

*****

Beth held the glasses up directly in front of her face and squinted at them; she still could barely make them out. She felt them gingerly and when it didn't seem as if anything was going to gouge her, she put them on. One of the lenses had a spider-webbing of cracks over it, and the bridge was bent. She sighed wearily. "Occupational hazard."

Turning to Gosalyn, she took a breath and tried to make the best of it. "So! Better clean up that glass, huh? Do you have a dustpan anywhere nearby?"

"You bet!" Gosalyn cried, and took off for the kitchen. By the time she returned, Beth was kneeling by the wall, carefully picking up shards of glass and looking out of only one eye. "Uh, does that make it easier?"

"Huh? Oh, no - just, the crack in this is really getting in my way. I thought if I just looked through one eye - but it's making my head hurt." She placed a handful of glass into the dustpan and sighed, while Gosalyn loaded her arms full of larger shards and dropped them into the pile Beth had already started. Beth jumped at the sound. "Um, could you be a bit more gentle than that?"

"Why? It's not like it's gonna matter if it breaks *more*."

Beth shook her head. "You know, I think I should handle this. I don't want you getting hurt on broken glass."

"Oh come on! I know what I'm doing!" Gosalyn protested vehemently. Beth frowned and picked up another few pieces. As she turned to slowly place them carefully in the dustpan, Gosalyn continued, "Honestly, I'm insulted! You really think just because I'm a kid, I'm going to - YAAAAAH! AAAIEEEEE!"

"OH MY GOD!" Beth yelled, her eyes widening as she turned back to Gosalyn who was holding her hand to her side and grimacing in pain.

"OHHHH NOOOO! MY JUGULAR!!!" Gosalyn screamed, and Beth stared in horror, uncertain if she should try to make a tourniquet or run to call 911 first; then she realized that Gosalyn was laughing.

"Ahahaha... Just kidding," said the girl, pulling her hand out from her shirt and wiggling it. She caught sight of Beth's expression, which was still utterly horror-stricken. "Heh heh... sorry, that was probably not nearly as funny to you as it was to me."

Beth finally found her voice, which sounded flat even to her ears as she said beseechingly, "Please let me do this?"

Gosalyn relented, and went to sit on the couch and see if the earthquake had affected her video game console.

IS 100th POST, IS GOOD

SO THIS IS MY 100th POST IN THIS BLOG :D :D :D

PARTY!

Uh. I have really got almost nothing interesting to say, and almost no time to write it in.

So instead have a playlist! :D

The past few days I've been getting sucked into music that "fits" certain environments in the fics, and mainly LP/Beth ones. I sort of started getting into this a while back with this pic. The idea for THAT came from the end of "All About Elizabeth", when I casually mentioned that LP spent like, two days making a mix tape for the car ride home with Beth, and all the songs have, er, "subtle suggestions" to them - the first being "Take a Chance On Me" by ABBA, though it's not named.

The idea of an actual mix tape that he's like "Oh, here, made ya this" and gives to Beth kind of tickled me so I returned to the thought a few more times and then, after doing that picture, came up with a few others. Only five though. :P So here they are, plus a few extras that I am just sticking in for the fun of it!

These are HEAVILY 80s-oriented, for the record. I wouldn't put anything post-1991 on there anyway, due to chronology of the fics, but I kinda think that both Launchpad *and* Beth are musically stuck a few years behind everyone else. :D

Take a Chance On Me, ABBA

Do You Believe In Love, Huey Lewis and the News (He'd better HOPE she doesn't figure it out while listening to this. It's just aggressive enough to scare her off. XD) (Side note: AIN'T NOBODY BETTER DIS HUEY LEWIS, OKAY?? I LOVE HIIIIIM)

Kiss on my List, Hall and Oates (eeeheehee, I think this song is adorable and SO 80s)

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Leo Sayer Well... this version is by the Wiggles. :D I like this version more! It's an awesome arrangement! yes including Wags the Dog popping up and barking :P COME IN IT'S IN GREEK how can you not love it? :D ...Yeah. It is *so* obvious I have kids.

Somethin' Stupid, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra (Pictures of Grace Kelly FTW.)

Anyway I figure that one is the last one on the tape - there are others in between, I just don't know what they are yet. :) And that's, yeah, that's the one where she finally goes "....Oh."

I think I've probably either mentioned or even linked to these before, but this song is my theme for TWC4:
Strange Magic, ELO There's a reason, it kinda goes with a scene, you can't just plug it in unfortunately. (and since the scene's pacing is in my head, I can't plug it in even after the fic is written. Sadness.)
And I know I've mentioned before, I listen to the Bee Gees for some of my inspiration... You don't have to like this stuff, I just have a liking for 70s makeout music. :D
How Deep is Your Love
More Than a Woman

How can I actually like these songs when I hate that falsetto so much? It's like nails on a chalkboard :P

Anyway... any thoughts? Did I win anyone over to 80s music who didn't like it before? Did I make any new Huey Lewis fans? If not I can throw more REALLY AWESOME songs at you. And he has great hair! VERY fluffy! :D

But ducks don't tweet...

So, I don't do Twitter, and I haven't really felt a need to. HOWEVER, today I realized I could set up a nice small account for this fic series and just use it for update announcements and things. I mean, I love having this blog and I think I make pretty decent use of it (Well, I mean to use it MORE than I do, but at least I use it); but it's hard to remember to check blogs if you don't have a "friends list" feed page, which not everyone is able to have, so a Twitter account could send out announcements when I've updated a fic or the blog or something else along those lines.

Then again, though, I'm not sure if it would just be overkill. After all I only have 7 people following this blog and I'm not sure how many people actually read the fics due to how time-consuming they are. So would it be worthwhile? I guess it couldn't *hurt* anyway...

I'd love comments/thoughts if anyone has them?

Three happy chappies in snappy sarapes

Every so often I get "The Three Caballeros" stuck in my head and I really mean STUCK. :P Actually I think I'm going to go watch it if I can find it on YouTube. Just 'cause. I have such a mad crush on Jose Carioca and was sort of shocked to find out that so does half of deviantART, but I digress...

So! Anyway, moving on, and getting back to the point of my single-minded blog; if you've been following TWC3 you know I've recently posted the 8th chapter out of 9. I'm working on the 9th chapter and I already have a deleted scene :P It's a scene I like, but it makes the chapter too long and it's not necessary for the fic as a whole to make sense. So I'm removing it and putting it up here, but I will note that I consider it canon (it was in ALL my earlier outlines, sigh, I hated taking it out but eh. It's genuinely expendable, just something I wanted but isn't needed).

I'm not spoiling anything when I give the context, because - assuming you've read the second-to-last chapter of the fic, you already know how the action plot wraps up. Therefore, this doesn't really give anything away. However, it's really just fluff for the sake of fluff... a bit of schmoopy LP/Beth stuff, yet again. So I guess this is the right place for it. ^_~

***

He picked up the phone, dialed, and then hung up before it rang. What was the best way to do this? Should he be straightforward and get right to it, or make small talk for a while to play it down? Small talk, he decided. That way she'd feel like it wasn't the *only* reason he was calling her. Which it wasn't, he amended to himself hastily. He'd have called her anyway - or, well, he *should* get into the habit of calling her. He'd call her tomorrow to let her know that she should come in, and then keep talking to her after telling her. Perfect.

He dialed again and let it ring.

"Bindler's Hardware, how can I help you." She picked up midway through the second ring, and he thought she sounded tired or maybe just unhappy. He remembered the five-minute rule just before he spoke.

"Uh, hey Beth, it's Launchpad." Maybe he *should* get right to the point, though he really didn't want to.

"Oh, hi!" she said, infinitely more enthusiastic, but he thought he could still detect an edge of flatness to her voice. "Everything okay?"

"Oh, sure, yeah, fine," he said; so much for getting right to the point. "How're things goin' there?"

There was a brief hesitation, and then she said, "Yeah, just fine too... Fine... Henny just got in, actually, so just a few more hours and my shift's done for the day."

"I thought you closed on Thursdays?"

"Yeah, I - I usually do," she said, then with amusement in her voice added, "and I can't believe you remember that."

"Oh yeah, well... just stuck with me, I guess," he said. He felt a little embarrassed now that she'd made a thing out of it, but it wasn't anything, really... It was just easier to know when Beth was in the store and when she wasn't, so that he didn't get stuck dealing only with Henny if he needed to drop by for something.

"Okay - well no problem, just... anyway she's had me close a few times already this week so I asked her to let me have this evening off. That way I can get over there a little earlier, have some time to unwind before I take on Gos, things like that." She laughed.

"Uh, yeah," he said, forcing a laugh as well. "So she letcha switch? Well that's good! After what you were sayin' yesterday it seemed like she might not do stuff like that... So I guess things aren't all that bad!" He wasn't stalling, he was focusing on the positive.

Unfortunately Beth gave a sigh. "Actually now that you mention it..." She lowered her voice. "You'd think I'd asked for an extra week of paid vacation or something. I mean - she has me switch shifts with her *all the time*, something like four times just this month, but heaven forbid *I* ask for something. And I'd *better* not refuse when she needs an evening or a morning free, because if I do, of *course* it's not because I have plans or it's the last minute, it's obviously because I just want to be a jerk. You know-" She cut herself off and sighed again. "I'm sorry, Launchpad, you don't want to hear this. I shouldn't even be saying these things. I just - I'm kind of stressed out right now, and -"

"Hey, you can *always* tell me stuff. I'm here to listen! Even if you just need to vent for, like, a half an hour straight."

There was a sound in the background of her end of the line then, something kind of like a foghorn. Launchpad listened closely but couldn't figure out what it was. "Uh - did somethin' just happen...?"

In a strained voice, Beth said, "That was Henny. I have two minutes left."

"Ah. Yeah, right. Sorry, well... uh... I guess I'll get to the point, then..." He went over a few options of how to lead into the statement quickly in his head, and began, "Well, see, here's the thing-"

"You don't want me to come babysit tonight, do you," she said flatly.

He felt incredibly guilty. "Uh, how'd ya guess?" he asked, hoping if he stayed cheerful he could make it seem unimportant.

She didn't buy it. "Your voice - you obviously had bad news, and you know, that's just the kind of week it's been." She caught herself. "It's not a big deal actually, I'm just being dramatic... You know how it is, one little thing just to validate feeling bad about the big things. Really, I can use another evening off to get some rest."

"Yeah! Get to bed early or - y'know, go out to a movie or somethin'!" Should he offer to take her out to a movie? Nah, she probably wouldn't know how to take that. He had another idea, and this one made more sense. "Y'know, you should come over sometime, but *not* to babysit. Just come on by an' hang out-"

"Hang on." She turned her head away from the phone or something, just enough so that she wasn't shouting directly into the receiver when she said, "Just a *minute*, okay?! I'm ALMOST DONE!"

"Uh, sorry -"

"Don't worry, it's not you... I'm sorry, I probably made you go deaf. She's been like this all *week*." Beth sounded slightly desperate at the end of the last sentence. "What were you saying?"

"Oh, you should just come over and we can hang out-"

Henny yelled in the background again, and this time Launchpad could hear her clearly. Beth yelled back almost immediately, and he was so surprised by the whole thing that he just kept on talking, which resulted in the three of them going all together at once:

"*Store rules are in place for a reason, Beth, an' five minutes means five minutes!*"

"I am NEARLY DONE, Henny, and I still have thirty-five seconds left!"

"-it's been a while, and I miss you!"

He fell silent. Beth and Henny did not, and he got to hear Henny sniping about the exact time by her watch since the phone had started ringing, and Beth started saying into the phone "So anyway *Dad*, thanks for letting me know about Mom, I hope she's out of the hospital soon! Yes, I'll call as soon as I can get home, unfortunately my *manager* feels I spend too much time on the phone!"

Wow. This was crazy.

Henny's voice faded away and Beth took a moment to recover before saying, in a shaky voice, "I am *so sorry.*"

"No, don't be. That sounds *awful*."

"You have no idea," she said; her voice sounded small.

He was at a loss; words weren't his strong suit in moments like these, but she wasn't there in the room with him, so words were all he had to offer. "Your mom's not really in the hospital, is she?"

Beth laughed sharply. "No, of course not. God, wouldn't that just be the topper? No, I just - was being stupid. I wanted her to leave me alone."

"Don't get real upset, okay? You're gettin' out soon, maybe spend the afternoon lookin' at the want ads and see if you can find another place that's hiring."

"Yeah, right." She took a long breath and let it out. "Okay, I should go now or she'll nail me for being over by 47 seconds. Thanks for calling me."

"No problemo. I'll call tomorrow too, okay?"

She paused, just for the briefest second. "Do - do you want to cancel tomorrow night too?"

"Huh? NO! No, I'll just call to check in! We'll DEFINITELy see you tomorrow night!"

"Oh good... okay. Thanks." She sounded deeply relieved. "Um, geez, I should've asked this before now, but is Drake OK?"

"Oh yeah - fine, no, he just... doctor said, to be on the safe side, y'know. Stomach bugs can spread real quick."

"Stomach..." She mused slightly, but didn't finish. Instead she said, "I - I'm not going to ask if you've had a chance to... talk to him yet, about what I was saying... I mean... if you have, well, tell me tomorrow, okay?"

"Oh yeah. You bet. Actually with him bein' sick and all-"

"Right. Well, tomorrow. Thanks again for calling."

When they'd both hung up, he wondered where exactly "I miss you" had come from.

Guess what I did all freakin' afternoon/night?

I wrote that story. I wrote that GOLDARNED story.

I wrote an 11K word story guys. Why can't I do that on TWC? (I'll tell you why, becuase this had no plot, this is just romance. I can crank that out no problem, TWC fics have action plots and those screw me up.)

I initially said I was writing it just for me, but I wrote so much that I feel like I should od something with it. I'm not sure what yet. If you are interested in reading this fic, please lemme know. I think it stands on its own, and I can fill in the blanks on it in an introduction/notes at the start, and I don't think it actually spoils the Christmas fic. And now I don't actually have to write the middle story. I mean, I might anyway, but I don't have to...

I think my main reason to write it would be because Candy is in it, and though she's in the one I just did too she has a much larger role in the middle fic. And when I wrote her scene in this one I realized that I love her.

But I also love Beth/LP romance and this is freaking FULL of that s***.

WAY too much thought

So I just got back from a mid-afternoon walk break and every so often when I go out on these I end up having a very productive fic idea ... thing. (I don't know, clearly all my writing ability is now gone, lol) Yesterday I tried to do some roughing out on acts 2 and 3 of "Those Daring McQuacks" and ended up playing out a few scenes (and realizing that some of the ones I've been wanting to write are going to have clunky motivation/dialogue and I'll have to do them really carefully... dangit). Today I went to move onto the fic that takes place after it, which is a Christmas fic, and which a few years ago (after I first had the idea) I created a fake "sequel" to. As in yes, I had a fanfic idea for my fanfic; non-canonical follow-up.

So in the end I started not thinking about the Christmas fic - which, btw, I have decided is going to be told in little vignettes, each titled after a Christmas song and each with a lyric from that song hidden inside it, it'll be a nice "Find the song!" game all through! :P But anyway - but instead about the sorta climactic scene in the fanfic-fanfic.

And that's when I got carried away.

First I put a bit too much thought into the ending (instead of how I was going to GET to the ending); then I thought "well, kinda too bad it's NC even in my universe, since if this DID happen, obviously THIS would..." And then I started plotting out the SECOND sequel.

And heck if it's not really goooood >_< So here I am - wanting to write that third fic in a trio that has not been started, without any context at all, on an AU of my own AU; AND, if I do it, even though it is unofficial it will still regardless pretty much take all the wind out of hte sails of what I *actually* have planned for the remainder of the series. D: But I really want to write it out ;_; If I had time and could get away with it I'd write it for ME, but I really like to show things to people so I'd prefer to use my limited free time to actually write things I intend to show to others.

Baawwwwww. Let's all cry a river for Rebecca. ^_^;; All this is really a nice sign that I've been writing this series without real resolution for TOO DARN LONG. (You know how long? 16 years, that's how long. YEAH. TOO LONG, BABY.)

If you want details and by details I mean MASSIVE SPOILERS, you can leave a comment requesting them, and I'll either reply in the comments or just send you an email, whichever you'd prefer.

On-Schedule

So! I actually managed to update TWC3 a second time this month! If I can get the last two chapters done on-schedule then we'll be done around the end of August/beginning of September :)

It's not up yet on AO3, but here's the FF.net link.

Since this is winding down, and I haven't done any chapter notes or much talking about the fic itself, I thought I'd make a post about... well, about the fic itself. :) I've whined a lot about how no one really seems to like this one - which is inaccurate, as I have had multiple people contact me via DA and so forth to say that they've started reading with this one, and they find it quite enjoyable. So what I'm really whining about is the lack of reviews on FF.net, when I think about it. Aaaand, whatever. I'll keep whining about that ON FF.net, because I can see how many hits the story gets so I know people are looking at it and I'm just choosing to be all guilt-pushy there, but I'll skip the whining elsewhere. I know you guys. We cool. :D

Oh, wow, that was a digression!

So to get back to what I was talking about, I haven't really posted much about this particular fic and what's gone into the rewrite. With TWC2 I did at least some partial listings of the things I'd changed from the original version, and now that TWC3 is winding down some, I thought it'd be fun to do the same with this one. I can be almost complete, too, since it's nearly over!

In a lot of ways this one is actually very similar to its progenitor: more than either of the others, I really used the original as an outline and just filled the details in more strongly. With TWC2, for instance, I had to change a number of the plot details to make them less hokey, or the order of the events to make them more understandable, etc. With this one, it's largely the same: the outline for both is:
I: Beth gets yelled at/humiliated by Drake and LP comes to her defense, and then she finds out about Drake being Darkwing;
II: Darkwing encounters Quackerjack, who uses his ray gun to minimize him (haha, I like that term), at which point DW gets away but LP and Gosalyn are struck by the change being more than just cosmetic;
III: Darkwing and Gos ditch Launchpad to fight Quackerjack, which they do and they win, and then at the end Beth... Well I can't say yet 'cause it's a spoiler. DUN-DUN-DUN!!! Okay, okay, you got me, I'll spill. She runs away with Negaduck and has his nega-babies. YEAH YOU HEARD ME!

Okay, so, aside from that minor point at the end which may possibly not be true, that's pretty straightforward. I ended up just doing each as 3-chapter acts instead of one chapter each. And I STILL could barely fit all the Beth stuff into the first act, man, even with three chapters :P I do go on and on! So now for the differences:

1. There NEEDED to be a lot more detail in the Beth section at the beginning, because initially Drake just was fed up with her babbling and snapped at her. I mean, it's simple and not fully OOC, but it did make him look like a gigantic jerk. And while Drake can be a gigantic jerk, there's a right way and a wrong way; and he needed to have a reason within his head that made him certain he was NOT being a gigantic jerk. At least not for no reason at all. :D I actually came up with the idea for the whole "nobody can be that BORING" etc while walking to work one day, about a year ago - it just clicked. I'd been sweating over rewriting the scene for MONTHS, not sure if I could make it actually work IC, and then it just fell together. This was also when I decided to really go and just *run* with the idea that DW would think Beth was a superhero, and this was his (flimsy, I admit) reason for letting her stick around and babysit when it wasn't really strictly necessary. So, all this actually took a lot of thought and in the original was way quicker and weaker.

2. In the same vein, I had to *really* punch up the confrontation between Drake and LP. I won't go into the details on it since that's not needed, but I did struggle to make it something that made sense for LP at this point, and it was a challenge. I'm still worried as to whether I pulled it off, though no one to date has told me I didn't. And, again, the discussion between Beth and LP afterwards was very much extended past the original. The idea of LP trying to "talk Beth up" to Drake started as my idea of a way to get him thinking of her more often and - since he ultimately falls for her himself - this might be the impetus to get him to look at her that way or that might just be the excuse he gives himself when he realizes he's doing that.

3. Beth's discovery of DW's secret identity was largely the same but I had to change some details, including why Gosalyn wasn't present (and it's an excuse to bring Honker into the series earlier! I wish I'd had a part for him in the rest of the fic) and just precisely how Beth stumbles onto it. I absolutely wanted her to stumble onto it, too, because as smart as she is, she doesn't think of unexpected things very often so although she probably would put two and two together EVENTUALLY, it wouldn't happen for quite some time. :)

4. I needed more for Launchpad to do in this fic (this is a theme in nearly all my rewrites; he needs more REAL screen time) and thus came the "Harv" sequence. In the original, Quackerjack dealt largely with just DW, though Launchpad did ultimately still rescue Darkwing after getting zapped by the ray. One thing missing in the rewrites: I have to admit that I loved all the Quackerjack and Mr. Banana Brain interactions that were in the original. I can't shoehorn them in unless they feel right, so there arent' nearly as many, and I kinda miss them. :)

5. Almost everything after Darkwing gets child-ized is pretty close to the original, just fleshed out; the phone conversation with Beth ended up a little longer than I intended it, but I think it was needed, because I wanted to show the ease that Beth and Launchpad have between themselves even if she's kind of resistant to it/doesn't realize it's there. I needed some kind of positive interaction between them that didn't involve angsting over Drake. ;) I also had to stick in some mounting tension with Henny, and LP really ought to encourage her to get a backbone, don't you think? In the nice, non-accusatory Launchpad style.

6. Played up the loneliness Launchpad feels when Gos and Darkwing only want to hang out with each other. I hadn't intended it to dovetail like that when I started out having him thinking about how he was kind of lonely in general (back in Act I), but it fit like a glove and was actually already in the original fic. Like I said, I just played it up.

7. The Darkwing and Gos caper is at once directly following the original fic (I'm even referencing it as I go, for the general structure and for content ideas to flesh out) and also incredibly different. Action is NOT MY THING. I'm not good at it. If this reads well, I'm lucky, because I really struggle with it. Things I want to address in the next chapter or two include why DW is acting like such a complete brat (there's a reason, it's not JUST that he actually is one :D), and of course how Gos is going to get free/how the good guys will win.

Finally, upcoming in the last chapter: How will Darkwing return to his normal age? Will Beth find out that Drake thinks she's a supervillain? Will she BECOME one??? What will Launchpad think when Darkwing gives his latest opinion on Beth? Will all of this actually be addressed? NO. :D Some of it will. There's a plot climax coming in Act III chapter 2, and then in the "aftermath" of chapter 3, we'll see the Beth and the Launchpad stuff come to a point. (Not the Beth/Launchpad stuff. Beth stuff and Launchpad stuff, and in some ways the two will meet.)

So in a sense I've always felt like it's not fair to have so much Beth in a story that doesn't really involve her, but in another sense, this is one of the most important stories in the first five so a lot HAS to happen. I hope you'll read on, good friends. :)

News and Updates

1: I am sticky and gross. Our air conditioning is broken and appears to have been for most of the day but we did not notice until bedtime when we realized it was hotter than usual and tried turning the thermostat down to no avail. The fan is blowing outside but no cold air inside. STICKY AND GROSS!

2: Updated TWC3 yesterday; trying to make a schedule of finishing a chapter every two weeks here on out so I can be done at the start of September. (I'd hoped to be done in July but whatever) So I have three more chapters. So I thought I'd start tonight and didn't.

3: Good news though: I DID get the rough outline of the act done so at least I know what'll have to happen in each chapter. As usual I'm cramming way too much in at the end. Necessary for the pacing of the chapter breaks, maddening for the readers. :P Especially because, spoiler alert, the climax of the actual PLOT happens in the penultimate chapter. BOOOOOO! BAD STORYTELLING! *hides*

And that is all! Good night everyone!

Allow me a strange interlude

Okay, I need to take just one second to whine.

NOBODY likes TWC3. Man alive. Nobody's commenting, nobody's *reading*, I guess my best bet is to get this one over and done with and move on, and hope I can do a better job on TWC4. I wish someone would at least mention what I'm doing *wrong*, but... well, I guess if they're not reading it, there's not much they can say. ^_^;

I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me a bit, but you know, I'd also be untruthful if I said it was making me consider not writing anymore or anything. I just do wish I knew what was stinking up the room about it. Maybe the fact that it's a Quackerjack story with barely any Quackerjack? I dunno. :P

In a broken stone age dawn

Just to prove that I was slightly productive this evening:

***

By the time Launchpad had made it home and put the kids to bed, it was after nine pm. He slumped onto the couch, feeling more exhausted than he normally did after a much longer night out on patrol with DW. Why would this be so much more tiring than crimefighting?!

...Then again, crimefighting didn't involve trying to keep up with the mood swings of two high-energy kids with sugar buzzes. Although Megavolt sometimes - nah, even *he* wasn't as taxing as *two* of 'em.

He sighed and leaned his head onto the back cushions of the couch, then rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. The day had been more stressful than he'd thought; he'd been really good at keeping up with the kids back in Duckburg, so what had changed? Was he just getting old? Although the fact that Gosalyn alone had more energy and stubbornness than all three of Mr. McDee's nephews might have been a factor too...

But mostly, it was just the dynamic. The whole feel of them all together was just ... weird. Gos, he could handle; once you got to know her, you could tell when to push and when to just give in and go along with her 'cause you just weren't going to win no matter what you tried. But DW, that was a different matter. It wasn't just that Launchpad didn't know what kind of kid he was, it was that he didn't know how to treat Darkwing Duck like a kid. Darkwing was his friend, his boss, and his idol; you just didn't take on a parenting role with your idol.

And then there was the part that he didn't really want to own up to having noticed, because if it was true, it meant he really was an outsider in the Mallard family no matter what he did. But it sure seemed like... well, like Gos and DW had been avoiding him. Like they'd rather hang out with each other than him.

Maybe it was just because he wasn't really comfortable shifting entirely into the "adult" role, and it was hard for him to accept that both the kids saw hiim as the grown up and were responding to him that way. But, well, why should they think of him that way? They *knew* him! They were all friends, he wasn't ANYone's dad, so...

He sighed again; the whole thing was kind of knotting up in his head, and he wasn't sure anymore if he'd imagined it, or if DW and Gos really had been trying on purpose to keep him out of their business. He was *probably* imagining it, since it had been such a long day and he was really stressed out... he still didn't even know how he was going to get them in to beat Quackerjack and get DW back to being a grown up... He didn't even know how he was going to get Gos to school the next morning. Heck, he hadn't even *realized* she was supposed to be at school that day until about 2 pm when she'd mentioned that it would've been even better if Honker was there too.

Just the thought made him even more tired. And lurking at the back of his mind, another thought popped in: And lonely, too. Gos and DW were best friends now, and neither one seemed much interested in talking to him; and all at once he realized he really wanted nothing more at that moment than another adult to talk to. Even for five minutes, that would do. He thought about Beth; she'd be perfect.

He lifted his head and looked at the easy chairs, picturing her sitting there, and smiled sleepily. Normally she probably would be here, babysitting Gos; it would be neat if he could take a night off one time and help her, and once Gos went to sleep, they could just stay up and talk. Not have to worry about how much time she spent on the phone, or whether a customer came in, or DW accusing her of being a supervillain... just take a couple of hours to hang out. That'd be nice.

Of course, he realized as he rubbed his eyes, if he *was* there then she'd have no reason to come in to babysit. She'd probably think it was pretty weird. Oh well... maybe he could come up with a reason anyway... He stretched out on the couch to give it more thought, and fell asleep within thirty seconds of going prone.

***

It's OK. Really.

I need someone to tell me that it's OK for me to not reply to everything in my inbox, and just concentrate on my fanfic for a night. Seriously.

I also need someone to openly point out the irony that I *only* start to think about replying to emails or DA comments when I have decided that I need to spend a night working on my fanfic.

And as a third point, I will now take bets as to whether or not I will actually get any fic writing done before I call it a night, or if I'll just procrastinate it out. Bah!

Ever notice I'm much more likely to update here when I am procrastinating, too? Double-bah!

Fluorescent lights, they hum like angels

The thing about sunburn is, once it stops hurting, it starts ITCHING. Take it from me on this one.

So! It's been HOW long now since my last entry? Funny part is on some level I thought it had been even longer. :P But still, I was surprised to see that I didn't update at all up until now for the month of June! Yeesh.

So here's my first thing to mention:

I updated TWC3 with another new chapter! Yay for me! I did mention this on DeviantArt and I am pretty sure most everyone who occasionally pops in here does follow me over there, so they probably already knew it. But ya know, I like to mention it here. :) Is it worth my putting a link up here? If you need one let me know and I'll link it.

Second thing to mention:

Apparently TWC3 is just about my least popular fic so far. Seriously, I don't remember the last time I've had this few reviews on an ongoing fic (not counting the old ones I put up all at once). For the record, I'm not saying specific people or friends of mine - I usually get more random pop-in reviews, that's all. I had a few people following the TWC1 rewrite that I didn't even know; I guess they lost interest. Then I met some new people with TWC2, and that was cool, but only one of them has reviewed a chapter of TWC3 this time and it was to say she wasn't sure about Quackerjack's motivations. (Fair enough, btw; I'm not confident writing him. I think it's totally fair criticism, I just am worried that it was enough to put her off reading the fic. :( I don't want to drive readers away!) I'm kind of hoping I'll pick up some end-of-fic reviews once I finish it, but I'm worried I won't, and that'll be a little bit depressing; I have to admit, I'm not that inspired on this one so it's not my best, but some - in fact nearly all - of hte background plot developments in this one are *pivotal* to the series. They all happen in this one. So I sorta hope that's enough that, by the end, I'll have a few more people who feel it's worth saying something. :)

I guess it couldnt' hurt if I interacted more on FF.net, which I find really difficult, because I can't sort through fanfics to find good ones. I just don't have the time. It's very easy for me to go through a ton of art on DA and leave comments, but I can't invest the time in fanfic unless I know in advance that it's worth reading. I'm sure if I read more fics and interacted with people more they'd reciprocally read mine more, or at least comment to make it look like they were reading. ;)

Oh well, the good news (depending on your perspective) is that I intend to finish this fic regardless. :D And I think TWC4 will be a fun one. I hope anyway. :)

Other weird things: All day on Formspring the number of followers has been distracting me. I don't like having it so clearly marked. It has been fluxing between 53 and 55 followers ALL DAY. It's gone up and down at least 6 times by now. Is this normal? Does anyone else have this happen and is it a bug, or do I just have a couple of people who can't make up their minds about me?

I love it when a plan comes together

Okay so, every time I'm planning a fic down the road, I look at it and have no idea how the mess of ideas I have is going to actually WORK because it's just vague concepts and possibilities. Then I get panicky. Then I go on walks and I think it over and try to work it out. And usually it takes me at least ten or more walks before I get anything productive out of it, but always, always, finally, I have one of the ones that actually GETS somewhere.

And I had one today, for the rewrite of TWC4. I'm not saying it's perfectly plotted in my head now, but this one was giving me fits in terms of the plot and how Beth had to work in it and what she was going to do, and this time, it just clicked. Sigh. I LOVE that click. That click is the most amazing damned thing! All of a sudden I just had entire portions of scenes with dialogue and stuff going and I was like "Yes! It actually worked!"

The only problem is that I went on to see it through to the ending and now I want to write that scene. Not because something great happens but just because it's fresh in my head and I want to write something for the fic... well, we'll see what I have in terms of time, though it's not much. :P

Double Post

Wow, I did it. I kinda didn't think I'd make it. But it's nearly midnight so #$&)$. Was it worth it, I don't know. I only got one review on the last chapter so I don't expect to get much on this one either (though what's keeping me going on this is that I want to make it at least to TWC4 since that's where things get "juicy" as it were; anyway point being reviews are gravy but I have an internal push, for now anyway, might burn out we'll see. Damn i'm tired)

Anyway, here is link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2460903/1/TWC_3_Forever_Young

I'll update AO3 tomorrow, right now too lazy/tired/screwyouguys,I'mgoinghome type stuff. BED and I mean it. (As if I won't probably waste another ten-fifteen minutes rechecking my email JUST IN CASE someone reviewed).

I'll just add that I'm at that stage of being tired/annoyed by the fact that I'm not in bed yet where everything angers me. Make a typo, and I'm like "I HATE YOU FINGERS! RAAHR! WHAT IF I THREW YOU IN THE TRASHCAN THEN WOULD YOU BE SORRY?!" ;)