#nubianamy is writing again

[nubianamy]

This afternoon I turned to my 15-yo and said, “Okay, so I’m writing this soulmates story, and I want you to listen to my thoughts and see if you have any ideas.”

He listened very thoughtfully and clapped in delight at my “polyamorous multiple soulmates” concept. His first question was, “Is this Glee??” My kid knows me so well. 🥰

#donutverse #glee fanfiction #h50 fanfiction #nubianamy is writing again #personal stuff is personal

[beshrew-my-very-heart]

I don't write a lot of personal posts here, but I did want to write a quick update about my progress this year. I was doing "Get Your Words Out" for a second year in a row. It's a writing challenge to write a certain amount in a year, kinda like a longer Nanowrimo. I set my goal at the '1,000,000' word mark.

My result for the year was 1,408,909 words.

I'm incredibly proud of myself. I worked really hard to get to that amount, through losing my job, getting a new job, swapping jobs again. Getting COVID and falling into a deep depression. Through it all, I still managed to achieve my goal.

A big part of that was @nubianamy, who has been my biggest supporter, my rock, and my best friend. The truth is that they make me so much better just by being around, and I can't wait to see how 2023 rolls out, so long as we're in it together.

I know a few of the people who read Soul Soul Revolution might be here, and I would like to thank them so much for the support they've shown me. I can't wait to share more of this story going forward after a little break, and it really is your comments and kind words that help me work up the courage to keep going.

And I'd like to thank my friends in the SLORP crew who have been there for me through so much. Your support means the world to me.

I know that this all feels a little dramatic and overblown, but the end of the year is a good time to look back and be thankful for the things that went right. 1.4 million words might seem like too much, but I'm proud of my commitment and my writing. Next year the total will be much smaller, I'm taking a couple of months off to do some fic admin, but... I hope all the people who I'm so thankful for will continue to walk down the road with me, and look forward to whatever comes next.

[nubianamy]

Writing update (2021 overview)

This year's writing has been largely shaped by two factors. First, I've been collaborating regularly with my brain twin @beshrew-my-very-heart. We have published a few of the stories we've written together, but there are several others we've written and not yet edited. Someday, we will dust those off, and you'll get to read the hundreds of thousands of words we've been writing. For now, there are two completed stories, both Finn/Sam, asking what would happen if Finn and Sam met at football camp in the summer before eighth/ninth grade. There's something uniquely meaningful about a writing partner who is also a good friend, and I've felt both inspired and supported by our daily process.

Second, I signed up for the Get Your Words Out (GYWO) writing challenge for the first time this year. It's a year-long writing challenge. I did a lot of writing while working at home during the pandemic, but I knew I would need a little more incentive to write every day after going back to in-person teaching. GYWO was exactly what I needed. I've never done a daily wordcount before, but the spreadsheet provided made it easy to track progress in all my projects.

I highly recommend GYWO to anyone who is looking for a supportive scaffold for writing either original or fan-based works. Let me know if you decide to participate!

It's also made it clear that AO3's wordcount system is wonky, because I definitely didn't write nearly 700k this year. I believe it has to do with the way it counts additional chapters in older stories. Manual wordcounting is the way to go, although I'm much more interested in sustaining a regular writing practice over worrying about how many words I write.

While most of my year focused on advancing the Donutverse and continuing collaborative writing projects, I wrote a few new stories:

Last fall, after finishing our Glee rewatch last year and moving on to The West Wing, I got plot ideas for a Jed/Leo/Abbey triad. I started writing a series of vignettes, one for each episode. We haven't been watching much TWW lately, but I'll continue working on it as the mood strikes me. Writing TWW is very intimidating, but it's a good challenge and I'm pleased with how the series is coming out.

I've continued to write Dave-centric Glee stories, including Lucky Connection (Dave/Finn, PG, 25k), Callback (Dave/Kurt, PG, 5k), and the soul slakes its thirst in fearless draught (Dave/Kurt/Finn, Explicit, 28k, really from 2020, but it was right at the end of the year). Even the Donutverse this year ended up focusing on Dave and Finn.

I wrote two Finn/Kurt stories: Easy as ABC and Love Seat.

I wrote one Sam/Kurt story: You Sure Are Looking Good.

For the Glee Summer Bang, I wrote a couple of short stories set in some of my previous universes, including a follow-up to the Puck-is-an-actor Puckurt series and a Donutverse kidfic.

I started work on the H50 Big Bang, but it never quite picked up steam. Maybe I'll attempt to finish it again this year.

I'm looking forward to another year of finishing old works and creating new ones.

#nubianamy is writing again #donutverse #writing update

[nubianamy]

NaDoWriMo completed again!

I've written so much Donutverse for NaNoWriMos since I officially started doing NaNo in 2011, it just feels like the thing to revisit in November now.

#donutverse #nanowrimo #nubianamy is writing again

[nubianamy]

Interim writing update. It’s early February, and I’m just now getting back to writing the Donutverse. This is what my Scrivener file for Any Minute Now looks like, with main story in the center and notes on the right. It has 101 subfiles and over 520k words, and I still have lots to write. Not to mention the stories I’m already working on that come after this one. Sometimes I wonder why I am bothering--and then I go back and reread a little, and it feels like an old friend. 

If you’re needing a little catchup, especially if you’re missing the three boys together while Kurt is at Dalton, I recommend reading the New Year’s Eve chapter. 

The reason why I haven’t been writing the Donutverse is that I’ve been collaborating on two other stories, both of which will eventually be posted, as well as writing a variety of shorter pieces. 

GYWO is going fine, though my attention is on so many things at the moment, and it’s hard to stay focused enough on one thing to post very much. Rest assured, words are being written. 

#writing update #nubianamy is writing again #donutverse

[nubianamy]

Writing update (summer 2020)

I am 97k into the third story in the There All the Honour Lies Puckurt series in which Puck is an actor, entitled A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. 19 chapters are done. I think there are six more, but I might be wrong about that. My goal is to have it done by July. I’m really pleased with the way it’s coming out. 

I am 25k into the Hawaii 5-0 story I’m writing for the H50 Big Bang. This is a new fandom for me, but a) I have had notes about a McDanno story for literally ten years, and b) I’m making it a Donutverse crossover, so I can develop the kleptocratic oligarchy we developed last spring. I must say it feels kind of awful to be writing cop fanfiction at this point in US history, although it’s mostly a McDanno love story and an opportunity to write yet another awesome trans original character, so here I am, finishing it anyway. That will be posted this fall, but I anticipate finishing it by August.

Then I have to decide if I’m going to finish Until It Hits You In the Teeth, the Teen Wolf Stanny pack heat story I wrote as a sequel to Only Held By Gravity. It’s close to being done, and I think I have enough notes to be able to write it quickly, so it is possible I might try to knock that out before September. 

The timing is bad to continue work on the Donutverse at that point, but I might attempt to do it anyway. I figure if I’ve been thinking about anything nearly every day for 9 years, and I’ve already written two million words of it, I should probably attempt to finish it. Also, it will be nearly the only WIP left by then. Hard to believe!

I’m still doing my Glee rewatch (we are now up to the end of season 2) but I stopped writing the summary posts. I’ll have to get back to that at some point. 

#a trivial comedy for serious people #those magic changes #puckurt #there all the honour lies #nubianamy is writing again #h50 fanfiction #star among the moons #stanny #donutverse

[nubianamy]

Writing update (winter 2020)

I’m still plodding through the third story in There All the Honour Lies series, the sequel to Those Magic Changes and So Tyrannous and Rough in Proof. I’m so happy with some a-ha moments. Writing sex scenes about teenagers is much squickier than it used to be -- I think I must be getting old for real now -- so I’m mostly avoiding it except where the plot demands it. 

I keep getting distracted by awesome other ideas, but I’ve been good at plotting and putting them aside. The Poe/Finn/ace!Rey story is going to happen at some point because it’s so obviously canon. I also got a great idea for a Hamilton alternate history fanfic when I went to see it for the fourth time last weekend. Because I am an idiot, I started a second chapter on my least-read story, the Cosmo/Marty Sneakers fanfic. 

And, of course, there’s the Donutverse, which is always looming. Any Minute Now is too long and still not done. I am considering ruthlessly editing it down to a readable length. At least the Dalton sub-story is shaping up to be of reasonable length. Millions of thanks to my intrepid co-plotter who’s helped me write 37K of plot (!!) for the Secret Agent Finn story, which now has a title! (A Wide Open Country in Our Hearts) It’s irrelevant how many people will ever read it; I have to finish it for me. 

I’m still proud of myself for actually finishing several stories last spring (especially the polyam futurefic Dancing Through the Same Noise) but perhaps more proud of myself for continuing to write this fall and winter, even when I am so busy with work and other things. 

#a trivial comedy for serious people #those magic changes #puckurt #there all the honour lies #nubianamy is writing again #donutverse

[nubianamy]

First third is done!

That is such a relief. Not quite 12k, feeling somewhat behind in NaNo progress, but I’m really happy with the way it’s come out. For a mostly-talk story, it has some highlights already. 

#nanowrimo #nano19 #a trivial comedy for serious people #those magic changes #there all the honour lies #nubianamy is writing again

[nubianamy]

I’ll live and die a pirate king

I’m writing the flash mob rehearsal in Any Minute Now, in which (spoiler) Davis has roped all his friends into doing a Pirate King flash mob from “The Pirates of Penzance,” in honor of Carl’s 48th birthday. If you have no idea why Davis would choose this, you might go back and (re)read Carl and Shelby and Davis’ backstory WIP, By Grace My Heart Grows Stronger. 

I have done several Gilbert and Sullivan productions in my illustrious theater career, but I have done Penzance exactly once, and it was in middle school (in which I played the Major General, because I was the only one who could sing it). So I had to go to Youtube to watch others’ choreography to come up with something both plausible and funny. And yes, yes, Kevin Kline is fabulous in the movie, but choreography on screen was not what I was looking for.

Oh my god, you guys. TIM CURRY played the Pirate King (1982, Royal Variety). 

Anthony Warlow (2010, Australia) definitely played up the Pirates of the Caribbean angle.

But the funniest interpretation was Australian rock legend Jon English (1984, Essgee) for breaking the fourth wall and arguing with both the conductor and the orchestra.

#donutverse #Any Minute Now #nubianamy is writing again #pirates of penzance

[nubianamy]

There All the Honour Lies series (the theater Puckurt)

I love it when I reread something I wrote and I have absolutely no memory of having written it. At some point I completed the first thirteen thousand words of the last story in the There All the Honour Lies series. 

For those of you who can’t remember which one that is, it’s the series in which Puck is a total theater wonk because his dad works for the Dayton Opera House and he grew up doing small parts there. It starts with Those Magic Changes My Heart Arranges, with lots of Grease parallels, and continues in How Tyrannous and Rough in Proof, with lots of Romeo & Juliet parallels. 

Today I reread my notes from the last story, which is called A Trivial Comedy for Serious People and has lots of Importance of Being Earnest parallels. Damn, where did all that story come from? When did I even write it? And--worst of all--where was I going with it?? My notes for the rest of the story are fairly comprehensive, but this one plot point, I have no idea. I’ll have to make it up all over again. That is freaking annoying. 

I am doing the Camp NaNoWriMo thingie this July, and my goal is Donutverse up to 50k, but once I reach my daily word count, I’m allowed to go write other things. One of them, hopefully, someday, will be this story. I can’t walk away from a plotted story. 

#there all the honour lies #those magic changes my heart arranges #how tyrannous and rough in proof #puckurt #Puck/Kurt #glee fanfiction #nubianamy is writing again

[nubianamy]

Wow.

WORDS ARE COMING OUT. AND THEY ARE GOOD.

It’s like a superpower. I swear. My brain does not make sense of my subconscious until I write it into existence. 

I am so grateful. 

#donutverse #nubianamy is writing again

[nubianamy]

The Donutverse has just exceeded two million words. 

#two million words #donutverse #nubianamy writes like a madwoman #nubianamy is writing again #holy fucking shit

[nubianamy]

Kurt at Dalton

I am having a complete blast writing Kurt at Dalton in season 2. Now I’m wondering if I should make that an entirely separate side story, as we did with the Finn/Blaine story and the Adam/Kurt/Puck in California, or just embed it into AMN. There’s not a lot of material to work with in regard to Dalton, unless I lean on others’ fanon creations. I could keep the most plotty bits in AMN and put the additional side stories about each of the five boys Kurt handles in the Kinky Ways series, but that might fragment the story too much. Arrgh. I really didn’t need to write MORE words. 

Poor Blaine. He’s not having a good time of it. It will get better, though.

Sneak peak of the five boys here: https://www.pinterest.com/nubianamy/preppy-boys/

#nubianamy is writing again #donutverse #donutverseOC #klaine in the donutverse

[nubianamy]

The stupidity of ages in Glee

Finn and Puck and Kurt are all far, far too old to be in high school when the show says they are in high school, even giving generous leeway for Kurt’s mother being in the hospital (nobody drives a car in sophomore year). I spent the last three days wrestling with math and canon and my own storyline, trying to make it all work, and it’s stretching the bounds of believability. (Of course, I am only trying to justify it to myself. None of you are asking for more realistic BDSM-polyam family drama.) And then I am neck-deep in army special forces requirements and training timelines, and I’m willing to ignore half of Adam’s tour schedule, so.

It is really fun to be writing again.

#donutverse #nubianamy is writing again

[nubianamy]

If you’ve been wondering about the Donutverse, and you haven’t been willing to dive into millions of words including several WIPs, you are not alone! Luckily, there is now a spoiler-filled summary of the whole damn thing, in chronological order. (The freaking SUMMARY of the series is over 10k -- and it’s not even complete yet -- but it’s much more complete than it was.) 

There are also updated links to most every little Donutverssy thing out there, including maps, photos, videos, works inspired, translations, and various other tidbits. 

#nubianamy is writing again #donutverse

[nubianamy]

Longform text posts

Crossposted to Dreamwidth, if anybody’s over there. 

I write about fannish stuff here, on Tumblr. Before that, I used to write in a Livejournal. Before that, I had a series of hand-coded blogs (before they were called that) connected to other online journal writers via webrings. Before that, I wrote long posts in online forums like AOL and Compuserve and Q-Link. Before that, I wrote messages on local dialup bulletin boards. My Dreamwidth account is one I have never used. It took the place of my Livejournal when I closed the account, but I don’t have an audience over there.  (I don't really have an audience here either, but that's okay.) I kind of miss having a place to type longform text posts about personal or genre-specific topics. This coming year, I'm participating in Get Your Words Out, a year-long writing challenge. I'll still be posting about my writing here on Tumblr, but I think I'm going to start doing that over there more and see what happens.

If you still use Livejournal, or if you’re also on Dreamwidth, feel free to find me there.  

#dreamwidth #get your words out 2021 #gywo #nubianamy is writing again #writing updates