November Vacation! (from writing fics)

[zaniida]

According to AO3, I've posted just shy of 50 items in the past four months. Twenty in October alone. Bringing me up to 148 works, mostly within two main fandoms: Person of Interest and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Next highest is Welcome to Night Vale with three items, though I expect Slayers, ElfQuest, and Octodad to get up there as well, maybe within the next year.

Anyway, it's time for a break. So I'm planning to cut down on social media and to do a reverse NaNoWriMo, using November as my "do nothing with fanfics that requires effort or stress."

Doesn't mean I won't post anything, let alone that I won't write anything. I very much hope to get the next chapter of Unseen Things uploaded, if nothing else, and my brain is very excited about my Thorwhump Alchemical Journey piece, so I don't doubt I'll be adding to that as well during this month.

Plus, maybe doing some bookkeeping to try and get my notes in order so that when I do get back to my writing, I won't be floundering around trying to remember what I was trying to do and where all the pieces are. Series Bibles are a thing! I just never expected to find them useful for my own one-person-project fanfics.

But mostly, I'm trying to turn my brain in other directions. Video games, for one. My nephew and I will be participating in the Extra Life Charity Fundraiser on Saturday, raising money for Seattle Children's Hospital; we plan to spend the better part of 16 hours trying to make some sort of game, see what all we can do. The whole month is marked for game design, just seeing what all we can manage with Core Aesthetics and Minimum Viable Product. Whatever's in our short-term reach; we're hoping to explore a new game style each week.

On top of that, I might start modding Skyrim. Just got done figuring out how to mod Stardew Valley, which made a fun game even more enjoyable and less annoying. Plus, now I've got almost everything I need to reboot my A Fugitive in Stardew Valley series. A few amenities have made up for some aspects I'd thought to be lacking (sitting, swimming, and changing clothes, for example), and I've also got some story expansions for several characters, which is pretty cool.

The main thing, though, is to cut down on the stress and the deadlines (real or self-imposed) and the anxieties, and just take a breather.

See y'all on the other side!

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>According to AO3, I've posted just shy of 50 items in the past four months. <<

Wow, that's a lot!

>>So I'm planning to cut down on social media and to do a reverse NaNoWriMo, using November as my "do nothing with fanfics that requires effort or stress."<<

Why not pick a big list of coping skills and experiment to see which ones make you feel more relaxed or happy? You might discover a new hobby.

>>Plus, maybe doing some bookkeeping to try and get my notes in order so that when I do get back to my writing, I won't be floundering around trying to remember what I was trying to do and where all the pieces are. Series Bibles are a thing! I just never expected to find them useful for my own one-person-project fanfics.<<

Very good idea. As for not expecting them to be useful for personal projects, well, I have oopsed a book far more often than written one on purpose. It's easier if you just get into the habit of keeping notes. I'm bad at keeping up with it, but some is better than none.

>>The whole month is marked for game design, just seeing what all we can manage with Core Aesthetics and Minimum Viable Product. Whatever's in our short-term reach; we're hoping to explore a new game style each week.<<

That sounds awesome.

*chuckle* I have whole pages of notes for games, mostly things cribbed from Terramagne. The Dhoni Game is probably closest to playable -- that one is about shipping things around islands.

Re: Thoughts

[zaniida]

*chuckle* I have whole pages of notes for games, mostly things cribbed from Terramagne. The Dhoni Game is probably closest to playable -- that one is about shipping things around islands.

Y'know, I was just looking up Brenda Romero (nee Brathwaite) and her unique game designs. (I'm more than half certain that you'd have heard of her work. Have you heard of Tailsteak? He's a webcomic artist and one of the most intriguing writers I'm familiar with, but he also depicts board and card games of quasi-random, not-entirely-finished-but-interesting designs.)

Shipping items around sounds like the kind of game I'd enjoy. I enjoy arbitrage games; I even played the World of Warcraft auction house like a minigame of "buy low, sell high" apart from other aspects of gameplay. I like games that distill this down to the game itself -- for example, Merchants of Kaidan (which is apparently 90% off until the end of the month), though it's a frustrating game with too much RNG for me to really wrap my head around the algorithms from play alone. But you're running around buying things in one town and selling them in another, which for me is quite enjoyable. I always loved the merchant's chapter in Dragon Warrior IV, and Recettear makes that sort of gameplay front and center as you run an item shop and collect objects in the nearby dungeons purely to sell at your shop. (Ooh, hey, Recettear is 80% off -- sweet!)

Anyway.

Our personal "let's make games this month" thing didn't last that long, but then, we got derailed by some more important things, and I don't figure that's too big a deal during my vacation month. I did toy around with stuff for a bit, got a little combo piece together where you could switch between moving a paddle and moving a little man, got him to accidentally stick to walls... that was starting to shape into something interesting. Might return to that later. I had the idea for a game where you play the same level out with several different types of gameplay: brick-breaker, platformer, shooter, color-matcher, etc.

We did manage to raise about $140 for Seattle Children's Hospital, which is more than I was expecting this year.


Thanks for the list of self-care options! I didn't get back to you before, but I did skim the list, say "this is a good idea," and then... totally ignore them while I did other things. But I love the idea of some sort of random care-option piece based on whichever options work best for you (the article gives the idea of a nose-catcher fortune-teller version (Google doesn't think it's called a nose-catcher, but I grew up with that term), but I could see other versions as well, even digital ones, and now I'm wondering if I could program a little personal phone app to give me a random one based on a small criteria like whether I'm home and whether I'm sick/low-energy).

Things of note for me as my vacation month winds down to a close:

1. I ended up deciding to create a Fic Rec list for the Person of Interest Advent event. Which led to me hunting through my bookmarks and various AO3 searches to try to find fics that fit with my theme: the Sims 3 Writer path (the order in which you unlock book genres). Pretty fun!

2. I got quoted in an article by a fan/friend who wrote about the weirder side of fanfiction... in Polish. She actually translated my words into Polish to quote them in her article! It's my perspective on how certain fanfic worldbuilds (such as Omegaverse and Dom/sub verse) provide a way to explore real-world gender bias by putting male characters through the same social expectations/restrictions, just turned up to eleven and dealing with just the specific aspects that the author wishes to focus on.

3. Someone asked for permission to translate one of my fics into Chinese! Feels like a major milestone there, especially since they were asking after my MCU/POI crossover, which hits my two key fandoms. Hope it's the start of seeing a lot of my work make it across the language barrier!

P.S. If you'd like a look at one of my Series Bibles, lemme know! That project got pretty interesting.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Y'know, I was just looking up Brenda Romero (nee Brathwaite) and her unique game designs. (I'm more than half certain that you'd have heard of her work.<<

Maybe?

>> Have you heard of Tailsteak? He's a webcomic artist and one of the most intriguing writers I'm familiar with, but he also depicts board and card games of quasi-random, not-entirely-finished-but-interesting designs.)<<

Haven't heard of it, but Dice Farmer seems like an excellent math game.

>>Shipping items around sounds like the kind of game I'd enjoy.<<

Here is the initial description of the Dhoni Game.

This one is based on life balance.

>>Our personal "let's make games this month" thing didn't last that long<<

Well, there's always 1000 Blank White Cards. It has a wiki.

>>Thanks for the list of self-care options! <<

I'm happy I could help.

>>1. I ended up deciding to create a Fic Rec list for the Person of Interest Advent event.<<

Good idea.

>> 2. I got quoted in an article by a fan/friend who wrote about the weirder side of fanfiction... in Polish. She actually translated my words into Polish to quote them in her article!<<

How exciting!

>> It's my perspective on how certain fanfic worldbuilds (such as Omegaverse and Dom/sub verse) provide a way to explore real-world gender bias by putting male characters through the same social expectations/restrictions, just turned up to eleven and dealing with just the specific aspects that the author wishes to focus on.<<

Agreed. And don't forget the Hawkeye Initiative.

>>3. Someone asked for permission to translate one of my fics into Chinese!<<

Awesome.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Something else occurred to me. Would you like to host a bingo on Omegaverse or Dom/Sub verse? 5 Moments of Intimacy was a success.

Re: Thoughts

[zaniida]

Doing some sort of Genderplay Bingo would actually be pretty fun. Different ways to approach the worldbuilds, maybe see if anyone can come up with a new worldbuild that isn't like the ones so far established.

Have you looked at Humon's Animal Lives? It's animals illustrated as if they were people, to showcase all the many weird and wonderful ways that the animal kingdom deals with mating and gender. From animals who change sex as needed by the tribe (Reef Fish) to animals who have a sort of rock-scissors-paper thing going (Side-Blotched Lizards) to having the guys group up in homosexual sets to attract women mostly for the alpha's benefit with the other guys sneak-breeding (Ruffs)... there's tons of potential worldbuilds that could be fun and interesting like Omegaverse. I think it'd need to be paired with a fandom with good poly ships and a low level of "het is ew" (and/or a high level of genderbent versions of the characters).

Anyway, yeah, I'd be up for that, in a couple months. How's March/April/May for regular Bingo events? Is one of them normally pretty free?

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Doing some sort of Genderplay Bingo would actually be pretty fun. Different ways to approach the worldbuilds, maybe see if anyone can come up with a new worldbuild that isn't like the ones so far established.<<

Woohoo!

I have literally lost count of how many sex/gender configurations I've made. It must be well over a dozen. Gosh, there was one I never finished where the juveniles were all indeterminate and what gender they came out depended on how much of a rare berry they managed to find.

>>Have you looked at Humon's Animal Lives?<<

I love that so much! The ruffs are the inspiration for my Fifers in Feathered Nests.

>> there's tons of potential worldbuilds that could be fun and interesting like Omegaverse. I think it'd need to be paired with a fandom with good poly ships and a low level of "het is ew" (and/or a high level of genderbent versions of the characters).<<

I recommend that you make multiple sublists (e.g. gender identities, Omegaverse motifs, Dom/Sub motifs, compatible fandoms) so people can mix and match as desired. Fests with assorted lists tend to be popular, especially if you do a 5x5 mixed card and 3x3 theme cards for the public set. Look at my past Valentines for examples.

>>Anyway, yeah, I'd be up for that, in a couple months. How's March/April/May for regular Bingo events? Is one of them normally pretty free?<<

April is all yours! :D