Digital Eclipse

Because my internet went on a drunken binge last night and would say it was connected and then not let me on. I updated my word count on the Nano sit by phone and then gave up. Tonight it looks like it may work, so... (crosses fingers)

Work has been a bit off the hinges. IT broke something we'd fixed at the start of the year, as IT tends to do, but unfortunately this is one of those things that everyone mistakes as my job. Even IT. >:[ So I spent a lot of time being yelled at by people, and a lot of time yelling at people. Not fun.

The cat has entered the "fuck with Mommy" stage of Pregnancy. At this point, I'm positive that everything she does is designed to either keep me from precious sleep or trick me into thinking she's about to give birth. And I fall for it every time.

Now, before I go into anything about... well, anything, I want you all to know that I'm pretty sure this is all valtyr's fault. I'm not sure how, but it usually is.

At my last reporting, I had reached 30,050 words. Yesterday, that was bumped up by 6,015, bringing me up to 36,065. Three dailies, almost four. That was... Not easy. There was cursing and a lot of yelling and last-second edits on the fly. valtyr, bless her, talked me down off the ledge a couple of times when things started to get sticky. My original plan fell through due to technofail. Seriously, I needed some sort of high tech gadget that would give me a reason for a live fire test, and I ended up going with something completely different that was literally impossible to test with explosives. :| But it was worked through, thank goodness, and I moved on to the Dramatic Climax.

By dint of working my ass off, today I tackled the first part of my Dramatic Climax. It's not yet downhill, but it's getting there, and I might even be able to pull a decent ending out of it. If you'd asked me yesterday how I felt about my planned ending, you may have heard the phrase "salt and burn". So yeah.

Anyway, because I seem to have left my self preservation instincts in my other jacket, today I forced out a whopping 8,957 words, which has done me the honor of having reached 45,022 total, another six dailies. And if I ever think this is a good idea again, someone please remind me of how badly my arm aches right now.

I'm not even sure how to handle my quotes this time. There's nine of them. Yeesh. I guess I'll pick small ones?
( WTF I Don't Even )

Today I said woke up at 3:30 and drove Mom to the airport. :'( I miss her already.

Anyway, because I've needed sleep and because I got up so early, I ended up crashing around 9 and then dozing until 1, writing, cleaning, writing more and then doing some POV clean up for Polybang (which I need to send in). So all in all, it wasn't a bad day, other than Mom leaving.

Writing was kind of iffy today. I wandered off my plan, which usually isn't such a big deal, but it feels like things are dragging. It might be because the last fic for girl!Steve was basically "action, angst, action, action, angst" and this one is pretty mild on both fronts so far. I just have to keep repeating to myself that editing is for December.

I finally reached the halfway mark by having a total of 25,144 words, so I wrote 3,101 and passed two dailies. \o/ It's all downhill from here!
( Two Excerpts, to prove my Leet Writing Skillz )

Watch my word count plummet in the coming weekend! My mom leaves on Sunday morning, so tomorrow I'm spending all the time with her. There might be some writing, and I hope to at least hit a daily, but I'm not going to be squishing words out of my soul like butter out of peanuts.

Today was haaaaaaard. D: I succeeded only with the gracious help of deviouslint and valtyr, who let me babble pathetically at them for a while. It was a near thing, too. I rushed the last thousand words to get it done before leaving work, and just now went back and fleshed it out a bit. I've made a note to myself on changes to make in earlier chapters too, but I'll handle that in the edit. Moving, moving, moving, keep those fingers moving!

So, the totals! Today, I reached a grand total of 20,904, so I ended up writing 5,693 words. That's another three dailies! At this rate, the fic will be finished somewhere on the 12th at latest, with edits. Then I'll ship it off for beta while I kick into gear on the Monster Fairy Tale and cruise that until the end of November or the end of the fic, whichever comes first. Finally, I wrap the month up by editing last year's NaNo (holyshitfuck) for a break, squishing out my Fic Exchange, and then finishing up the Monster in time for New Year's. Going to be a busy December.

Rambling done, onward with the excerpts. :D
( Wherein I went off track from the plan a little. Also, spoilers )

Sweet merciful fuck I'm tired. It's been one thing after another today, and it's coming on midnight.

TL;DR version, today I wanted to write the hell out of the fic, and amazingly I did. I ended up on long calls with helpless people who really, really needed some basic computer courses before taking web based courses. So I got off to a good start, but then got a bit bogged. I need to get my hands on some Gregory Stark comics before this goes into beta. He's kind of OOC now, I think, and I need to weigh how that's going to work. The motivation is right, but the lines have a very thin line to walk between "omg it makes sense now" and "what the fuck".

Um lol. Anyway, through blood, sweat and a lot of coffee, I managed to reach a total word count of 10,184, which means I wrote 6,105 words. That might be a record for me in one day. It also brings me past day 6, so four excerpts!
( Spoilers, etc )

So, Gail has been sitting in the back of my brain being nosy. I blame the Cap movie, and my unabashed longing to have seen her in it. (sigh) This is the result.

Return to Sender
Part of the No Soldier Unwounded series)
Rated: General
Warning: implied character death
Pairing: Stevie/Gail

Summary: Gail's last four letters to Stevie were returned unopened.
( IMAGE HEAVY version )

Text Version available on AO3

RANT. RANT RANT. RANT. WHINE. RANT. SLEEP.

Okay, that's out of the way. I am tired and extremely cranky right now, but I want to focus on the positive. Like the bunch of Robin Hood (Men In Tights) gifs I just skimmed off the internet. And also, this example of a kickass Aunt May. It totally explains why 616 and 1610 are split into separate universes. If they'd put Gail and May into the same continuity, they would climb out of the pages and take over the world with awesome.

I have a freakish urge to put Stevie onto a motorcycle. There's a gorgeous visual in my head of her taking a tight turn with her knee nearly scraping pavement, and no helmet so half-grown hair is all over and dirt smudges from a fight and... guh. Muscles. Trick riding. Leather (flail) I am so shallow. I'd also like to have Tony ride behind her, but I'm pretty sure that would be a convenient method of Tony-murder. He would be drooling. I've never even owned a motorcycle, and the idea of moving that fast without any significant protection scares me. D: WTF self.

Hmm. I really need to make a mod icon. :\ (lazy)

To cheerlead and beta, or no? I typically don't open myself up for beta work. It's just taxing, and different authors have different standards, and I admit that grammar/spelling are not my strong points. I will completely miss common misspellings or typos, and with grammar I can usually say "this sounds wrong" but I can't say why. (hands) IDK. I shall think on it.

One of these days, I am going to give DW monies.

(bounces and stares at bank account) Come on! Give me monies! I need to buy my plane tickets before it goes up any more! (bounce bounce flail)

( Here be rambling on the State of Education in the USA, or Why I Love My Job and Yet Despair )