To the Sixes

I've decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, although in a half-assed fashion. I won't be writing a new story. Instead I'll spend November cranking out 50,000 words for Full Metal Bitch. I've been neglecting that fic due to other obligations so I'd like to finish it and put it to bed. There will be nine chapters total, not the original five envisioned. 

I've decided to shelve Praise Be to Nero's Neptune (my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel, AKA the 'Fire Nation civil war fic') because it would be too much of a time investment to finish. It'd need about forty chapters total and that's at least 18 months of solid work, if not more. Frankly, I'd rather write several smaller fics than one mega-sized one. The first two and a half chapters were completed.

FFO is creaking along to completion, thank Christ.

I'm hashing out an outline for a full-length fanfic based on this ATLA drabble, the one where Ursa kills Ozai instead of Azulon. Still trying to figure out the character arcs for Aang and Azula. It may not go into full production unless I can solve a few outstanding issues... and deal with the fact I'll have to write several scenes starring Yue, because she is my kryptonite.

I've got two shorter fics on tap that I'm pecking away at, a sequel to Siege of the South for Omoni and a comedic Zuko fic for ferrrox.

Currently 17,000ish words into the second draft of "Praise Be", which is more than I managed in all of NaNoWriMo. I finally figured out this morning how the story will end. Usually I start my projects with an ending in mind, but this one was a long time in coming.

I've spent the last day and a half heavily reworking Chapter 4 of "Facing Fearful Odds." I hit a growth spurt as a writer while Chapter 5 was in production and it's very clear that Chapter 4 is a gawky teenager. It's easily the worst chapter in all of Book 1.

Around the time I started writing Chapter 3, one of my two core betas recommended that I split up my earlier chapters into smaller sections for ease of reading. Chapter 1 is a little over 10k and he felt that was too long for casual readers. I didn't think so at first, but when I publish Siege of the South a few reviewers surprised me by mentioning that it was too long for a one-shot. I chalk it up to different fandoms, different standards. But returning to my point, I split up Chapters 1 and 2 after I had written them. Chapter 4 was the first chapter I wrote with the intention of splitting it up. I did a terrible job of this. There's no proper pacing. Unlike later sub-chapters, there's no self-contained mini-story in Chapters 4-A and 4-B.

Random observation on revising the whole of Book 1? I seem to frequently identify my characters by their hair and eye color in Chapters 1-4 of FFO, then stop doing that entirely starting in Chapter 5 onwards. It's a very lazy writing technique. I'm refraining from removing too many of these weakass hair/eye references, though, because I don't want to get stuck revising this story forever. My goal for March is to finish the first draft of FFO and by God I intend to do just that.

So there's been a long, interesting spitballing session at the Avatar Spirit forum about this AtLA AU project. The basic premise is a little involved but the end result is that, by the time Aang wakes up a hundred years after Sozin's Comet, the world has balkanized into multiple factions for a true world war. You can start reading about it here.

( More Below the Cut )

 Okay, so I'm totally failing at NaNoWriMo. That much is obvious if you look at my progress bar at the top of this livejournal. I suddenly understand the wisdom of starting a new project for NaNoWriMo. It because you just plunge to something without worrying about matching the quality of the old material to the new, NaNo-speed stuff. It's also because if you're writer's blocked on something, you should not be trying to write fifty goddamned thousands words more of that something. 

So I'm restarting NaNoWriMo. I'm taking a mental health break from Facing Fearful Odds until I can figure out WTF I'm supposed to write for Chapter 6-C. So I'm going to start a totally stand-alone project instead and just write write write. Then I can circle back to that dreaded Chapter 6-C with fresh eyes and a clear head. 

My new, never-before-conceptualized (well, kinda) NaNoWriMo project is called... dun dun dun-dun-dun! 


Synopsis: Five years ago, destiny was thwarted. Now, as two Fire Lords prepare to use Sozin's Comet to destroy one other, the Avatar must walk the murderous razor's edge between peace and global Armageddon. Good thing airbenders are a bunch of twinkletoes, eh?

    * 50,000 words long.
    * Written in the present tense.
    * The title is a reference to a Bob Dylan song.



Oh, and The Siege of the South will be popping in a day or two. I just need to hear from one more beta.