So my fic archive is pretty much complete, if not completely up-to-date -- I need to post the stories I wrote in June and July still -- with one huge exception.^*

A Guardian's Legacy.

Converting and reposting 46 chapters is not a small task, but once I get started it should go quickly enough -- it only took me a couple of days to post all 35 chapters of Death Shall Have No Dominion, even with the formatting errors I had to fight, and by now I have the conversion process down cold. But that was just a straight re-post, except for fixing a typo here and there. I have this idea that I ought to do a no-holds-barred edit of AGL from beginning to end: tighten a few things up, tweak some of the characterization, and so forth. I like to think I've grown as a writer quite a bit in the last three years; there is a lot to improve this story. But that would be a huge project, and kind of daunting. So I keep putting it off.

So the question is, should I bother? I know I could make the story better, but that's true of everything I've ever written, and I didn't do serious edits on any of the others. Would it be better to just repost it, perhaps fixing egregious errors but otherwise leaving it as a historic document, a testament to where I started and a touchstone for how far I've come? On the other hand, much as I've enjoyed so many of the stories I've written, AGL is still my baby. It was the first, the longest, the most all-consuming. Shouldn't it be the best it can be? And the idea of diving back into it after all this time is really appealing.

I also still feel like my writing is still very sluggish. I'm producing more than I was, but that's not saying much. Almost every story I've posted in the last while is a old WIP I've dusted off and polished up. And I'm not sure whether spending lots time on editing an old piece is a good way to jumpstart the urge to sit down and write on a regular basis, or whether it's just a way of avoiding the issue.

Thoughts, oh ye many writers and editors on my flist?

*This is not strictly true because I also haven't brought over "Aftermath" yet, mostly to avoid the question of having an active WIP on my archive site, since I'm not exactly sure how I want to handle that. And kind of avoiding it entirely. Damn you story, why won't you write yourself like all the other big stories did?

Title: House and Home
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1234
Pairings: Baralai/Paine
Spoilers: No
Notes: "Deleted scene" from AGL, requested by parron. The prompt was "housewife". Fits within Chapter 3.

( Baralai began the ritual as he always did, by washing his hands in a basin of soapy warm water. )

Title: Landing
Fandom: FFX
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1017
Characters: Rikku, Wakka
Pairings: Wakka/Lulu, sorta; past Wakka/Rikku implied
Spoilers: Minor
Notes: "Deleted scene" for yuna_flowering, who requested a conversation between Wakka and Rikku, set during A Guardian's Legacy. For anyone familiar with that story, this fits between the cracks of Chapter 17.

( Rikku bounded up the stairs from Luca to the Mi'ihen Highroad, hurrying to her destination. )

I have posted the final chapter and the epilogue of "A Guardian's Legacy". They can be found here and here, respectively. Or, if you have some time to spare and are so inclined, you can read the whole thing from the beginning.

46 chapters. 146,489 words (!). Once upon a time, I had a childhood ambition -- someday, I would write a novel. Well, here it is. It's not exactly how I thought it was going to happen, back then, but how often can we really predict the future?

I still can't quite believe it. Even though I typed the words "The End" and changed the status to "Complete" and put that same word in the summary. I've been traveling with Auron for a long time now, and it's so weird to think that the journey is finished. Well, this particular journey anyway. I feel like I should have something momentous to say, something that will wrap it all up, but nothing is coming to mind. Maybe that's just as well.

The End.

New chapter is up. The editing on the others is going very well. The end is most definitely in sight.

I think I may have just finished writing AGL.

Not that it's "done", not by any means. There's still plenty of polishing to be done, and there's one whole section which may be unbearably cheezey and therefore require a total rework -- I still haven't decided about that. But it's all there, totally drafted. Two chapters and an epilogue, just as I thought it would be.

If the editing goes well, I may have this finished, as in complete, as in totally done, by the New Year. Shortly thereafter at the very least.

Um.

Wow.

A new AGl chapter is up.

Two more, I think. Plus an epilogue. (Which is actually part of the story, not a separate piece as my Confessional epilogues were.)

I really cannot believe I am almost to the end of this.

So cute! :) Props to SE.

It turns out that the surest way for me to cure writer's block is to whine at people about how I haven't been able to write. My head unfogged with some inspiration around dinnertime, and I got a good chunk of the next chapter drafted. The problem? I think I was in denial about being able to skip ahead in canon. But no, the story really does demand this bit. And so tonight I wrote it, and it even came out pretty well. I think it should be easier to move forward now. Whew.

The next AGL chapter is finished and posted.

This is the very definition of a transitional chapter I think. It came out well enough, I suppose, but it's not terribly exciting. Now once again I have to make a decision about what events to cover. I am feeling like I want to detail less rather than more, but will the story feel incomplete if I leave too much out? Decisions, decisions.

Chapter 41 is posted.

( I have some things to say about this one, but read the chapter first. )

The story isn't quite finished. I have the shape of at least two more chapters in mind and an epilogue completely drafted. Those chapters may spread out over more. But the end is coming -- I can finally see it, after all these months. My feelings about this are understandably mixed. I'm excited to think that the story is finally going to be complete. But I'm really going to miss it.

Two chapters in one week! AGL 40 is posted. And 41 is almost done -- just one scene to write, then an overall polish. I'm really hoping to get it finished and posted before I leave for the East Coast next week. Maybe I'll have time to do that this weekend.

We're getting close to the end, I think. Whoa.

AGL 39 is up, here.

Most of this chapter, about the first three-quarters, has been drafted for a long time. Months and months. In fact, I believe I wrote it before I even started on my part of The Confessional. So this has been awhile in the making. Compared to most things I write far ahead, this piece has stayed essentially intact -- I added some things and cut one partial scene, but for the most part it is unchanged from the original draft, just tightened and broadened and polished.

The next chapter is also almost finished, and large portions of the chapter following are drafted as well. We may get a few in quick succession here. Then again, we may not, with holidays and travel getting in the way. I'll have to see how my time shakes out.

I have been trying to make this photo into a userpic of Tori all morning with no success. Because I took it without a flash, it's just too orangey and dark. But everything I do to make it brighter washes out the color too much. I am not a natural with image manipulation software. I'll keep working at it though. It's just such a cute picture of her. Then I need to make another userpic or two of Lexi, because he's falling behind on image count. Don't want to favor one kitty over the other. It's not his fault that Tori is more photogenic.

The next two chapters of AGL are entirely and mostly written, respectively. My goal is to get at least one of them done before Thanksgiving. I think that's more than doable, assuming I get some time to work on them tonight.

Last night I made brownies for the office Thanksgiving party. I haven't made brownies in ages. I use the recipe in The Joy of Cooking, which is excellent. I think I may have used a pan that's a bit too large, though -- they're a little flat. I'm planning to frost them. Maybe with mint frosting, maybe peanut butter (Cook's Illustrated has a peanut butter buttercream recipe that I want to try, it sounds yummy). Unfortunately, I won't get to eat them until Wednesday. Fortunately, that's what the bowl is for.

Also last night, I made a new music game. That'll go up in a couple of hours, around 9:30 PST or maybe a little before. See you then.

Lexi can be such the love-monster. He lets me know he wants affection by leaning against my legs and purring. It's completely adorable, but it's also problematic when I want to do something like walk. I almost tripped over him half a dozen times last night, and again this morning. I hope he learns the secret of the lap soon.

I got home fairly late last night, but I also had to write down a conversation that has been buzzing in my head all day. It's one that the story has been leading up to, and as a draft I'm very pleased with it. It's not ready, by any means, and much of the chapter around it still needs to be constructed. But it's in good shape. I think this bit will come out well.

And now (or soon, anyway), to work. Where I will spend literally all day in meetings. A four hour inservice in the morning, followed by an Education Management Team meeting and the weekly manager's meeting. In some ways it's nice to get it all out of the way, but I fear it will be somewhat mind-numbing.

Despite everything else going on, I found myself drawn back into writing yesterday and today. T was working late yesterday night, and I ended up spending a lot of time with the game, making notes and just watching. Then this morning I started turning the notes into text, and I got a good chunk of the next chapter drafted (along with a scene that probably isn't going to make the cut; too bad, because I liked it. But it doesn't really serve the story, so out it goes. I did save it in a separate file. Maybe it will morph into a one-shot someday -- it's too long for a drabble). These replays have been really useful, reminding me what these characters look and sound like, how they react to events and one another. Although I wish I had known a couple of years ago that I was going to be doing this. I could have saved a lot of slogging through pointless battles if I'd held on to a few more saves. Now I'm paranoid about overwriting any, since I never know what I'm going to want to watch again!

I'm still in the bridge material, leading up to what I consider the next major event in the arc. I'm writing far more of Yuna's pilgrimage than I had originally intended, but I think it's all been necessary -- leave too much out, and the story becomes choppy. Not that anyone reading the story doesn't already know what happens in the game; they can certainly fill in the gaps. But I want the thing to have a cohesive narrative on its own. Silly, I know.

No guess yet when this will be done. There's still a scene largely undrafted, some other bits are still rather rough, and the cats are a perpetual (if thoroughly welcome) distraction. Maybe in the next couple of days.

FFN hasn't sent me a notification yet, so I don't know if something is wrong there, but I did post another AGL chapter this morning. It's here.

The shape of these last few chapters is finally clear in my mind, I think.

Another chapter posted. Not quite certain what I'm going to do next on the story -- there is so much I could cover, but I don't know how much of it is worth doing. Maybe I'll let the ideas percolate for a little while before jumping back in.

(More lines. One song is still unguessed.)

What with one thing and another, it's been several days since I've gotten any good writing time in. But T is off playing poker tonight, and I managed to escape work a bit early after all, so I sat down and just wrote for the last few hours. This bit is rather odd in some ways, because it's largely exposition of things that the reader knows but the main character doesn't, so I had to find some way to make it interesting. I think I succeeded; time will tell. It ended up being almost all dialogue, which is sort of funny given some of today's LJ conversations. It's all quite rough, but it's more than I've been able to produce in awhile. Now, to the editing, the polishing, the "do I really need this paragraph" and "maybe another word would be better here" process.

Second lines are here. Congratulations to peachespig and helianthemum, who came up with the theme: songs parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic!

Also, a new chapter is posted here.

So on top of all my other projects, I seem to have a complete draft of AGL 35. I got a windfall yesterday evening: the house to myself. T was working late, so I took advantage of the solitude to get some work done. First I played through a section of the game a couple of times -- once with pen and paper in hand to make notes, once just soaking it all in -- and then I ran up to the computer to translate the experience into words. I've spent much of this evening editing, and I think it's almost ready. Just needs to marinate overnightm, another editing pass, and it's done. It might even go up tomorrow.

I'm getting into an odd area here, since I'm mostly re-writing canon from a secondary character's point of view. Everywhere else I've been able to work in original scenes here and there, but this particular chapter doesn't really have space for that. I hope it doesn't end up being dull, just going over these bits that everyone already knows.

So I had this idea that AGL was shaping up be forty chapters. I can tell you right now, it's going to be more than that. How much more I don't know. But more, for sure. Well, it will take what it takes. I've long since given up worrying about that.