looking for things I lost along the way

Who finished their 18K origfic fantasy novella draft? I did! Hell yes.

(Who is never ever again saying to a teacher: 'You know, I was thinking maybe I should write a novella for my final project?' Also me.)

In all seriousness though: I am super proud of myself right now. I have mixed feelings about the story itself but it's a complete, basically coherent and at least vaguely polished draft that's got, like, a proper plot arc and fleshed-out characters and identifiable themes and whatnot, where I can look at every piece of it and go: 'okay, this could definitely still be done better, but I know what I was trying to do here and why it's important and where it fits in with the rest.'

( Further thoughts and reflections )

All this would be why I wasn't around much for January and why I haven't yet read and/or commented on various things I promised to read and/or comment on. Will be getting to those this week!

Posted a short thing in fan_flashworks.

Title: Turn it Upside Down
Fandom: The World Ends With You
Characters: Sho Minamimoto, Megumi Kitaniji
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1646
Prompts: Reflect, Up
Content notes: None
Summary: Nothing at the top stays there forever, and Sho Minamimoto's going to make sure the city knows it.

A reflection in the mathematical sense

In which I attempt to write Sho for the first time. Hmm.

Hope everyone's been having as peaceful and happy an end-of-December as their lives allow, whatever this time of year looks like for you. It's been a quiet time here. Eating homemade pizza, playing cards with my parents, taking dog for walks in the snow, and trying to finish up a horrible novella draft has been about the extent of it.

I did get the courage up to join in the first fandom gift exchange I've ever done, which was a lot of fun--this TWEWY exchange on AO3. Very small, cozy, and low commitment/low stress, and I really liked having a holiday thing to do that was about making something special for someone rather than buying things. The fics that came out of it were really lovely, too; I have to reread a couple of the longer ones more closely, but I enjoyed all of them. Going to refrain from commenting in any more detail for now because--well, there are only six fics in total, and the authors are anonymous for the next week, so I'd have to either (a) make it obvious which one was mine or (b) wax poetic about mine alongside all the others, and I don't want to do either of those things. But if you're into TWEWY, definitely check them out.

I enjoyed it enough that I suspect I'm going to jump into the Chocolate Box (chocolateboxcomm), which is NOT small but has a very low required wordcount. That one's a bit more daunting in that I'll have to offer to write for at least four fandoms, and it's been a long while since I've written anything but TWEWY. With a 300 word minimum, though, I figure it's a good way to dip my toes in. Poking through things that people have nominated, I'd definitely be comfortable writing GLaDOS/Chell Portal ficlets or--if I brushed the dust off a bit--some of the pairings in Utena, so I just need to pick at least one more. I think I could probably write at least a halfway passable MCU Loki, so maybe I should make this my way of nudging myself to try it.

How's the end of the year treating everyone else?

(From this headcanon ask meme on tumblr)

protect-namine:

5 and 20 for Joshua or Neku? (I enjoyed your 750-word essay btw)

lostboywriting:

Thank you! Someone else just after you asked me 20 for Joshua, so I'll go with Neku for these. (And haha, thank you about the essay ^^;)

5. Guilty pleasures

( beat? beat’s kinda cute? neku hasn’t noticed. )

(From this headcanon ask meme on tumblr)

meredithsock:

15 and joshua PLEASE

lostboywriting:

HI THERE I hope you wanted a rambly 750-word essay in response to this, because you’re getting one.

15. What it would take to make them cry

I mean, first off, bold of you to assume Joshua is capable of tears.

(…Is what Joshua would say, and of course he’s completely honest and objective about himself at all times. 💜)

( ahaha. you really. you really started me off with an easy one there. sob )