As some of you exposed to my whinging might be aware, I'm starting to miss Eldoon at GSRP-- but I also have an app half finished for Angel. It's a hard decision between the two, so I decided to write a pros/cons list of sorts, with the "pros" being ideas I have for that character, and "cons" being ideas I have for the other character. I'd love to know what everyone thinks, particularly if my off-the-cuff scene ideas would require your characters' co-operation. For example, my Eldoon/Polly idea would be off the table if our new Apollo player didn't want to meet Eldoon before his canonical time. (Though I'm sure our new Polly player doesn't read my journal. Just an example.)

( List below...! )

As you can see, I could have plenty to get on with with either character. To put it mildly. It's a really tough decision.

Personal journal: still a fail.

Holmes fic: vexingly slow progress.

RP: coming out of a dry spell in a big way.

Oh, GSRP, no matter how my fandoms change, I will never leave you. I'm already getting back on the horse after today's character-drop. I've already started adding things to the Angel app I began in February, but before I start deleting things that are outdated in game canon-- I want to preserve them here.

Some of you have seen some of this before, as it relates to your characters. Now, you get the big picture, before I take turpentine to it.

( The Cough Up Queen )

A meme from sally18

Comment here and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

This is a writing journal, but this meme is related to writing because... I need to read more to write more. Yeah...

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE, and strikeout the books you read but didn't like.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ

( the list )

I meant to have a proper beta for this one, when in truth it's "Perspectives" I should have held out for a beta on. I wrote this almost a month ago, and I'm still happy with most every detail of it. ("Perspectives," on the other hand, I'm already ruing, and may rewrite and repost.)

But the real reason I'm posting it now, is because redd_white's execution only whetted my appetite.

Thank you to returner for discussing transitions with me, for transitions are my weak point.

(And apologies to people who aren't used to seeing me post more than once a month. This will not become a trend.)

( Bridges Burned )

This is not my true first foray into the Phoenix Wright fandom, but it is the first one that will see the light of day. chewy_kinzoku was kind enough to make an animated sprite edit of one of my characters for gyakusai_rp, and I offered to repay the favour in the only medium I can draw in: words. She asked for Matt Engarde x Richard Wellington, and so I was challenged to write my first slashfic.

Let the sheer awkwardness of this stand as a warning to all: don't offer gift-fic in a fandom or genre you're not fully immersed in.

Hope you enjoy, Em. Have a safe trip!

( Perspective )

Tagged by arxilius, I am forced again to admit this journal is gathering dust.

I've been toying with some PW drabble ideas. I should write them, because a writing journal deserves more than memage.

Roleplayer's Meme:
1. Copy and paste this survey into your journal
2. Answer the questions
3. Place your answers behind a cut
4. Tag three people (optional)


( MEME" )

The Countdown to Apollo Justice is obviously over, and like everybody else, I have the game in my hands now. I was going to finish the Phoenix arc before I opened the new game, but I only just finished "Farewell My Turnabout" and I can't stand the suspense any longer. I can always go back to T&T later; I don't expect there are more than a few planet-sized dots to connect to it from JFA, after seeing the character development with Franziska they dropped between games.

( Case 2-4: Farewell My Turnabout )

I have a lot of things working against me for this marathon. One is my kitty's girth, which can block both of my Dual Screens when she wants to cuddle. Another is my Livejournal addiction. Still another is my current plot bunny, which has kept me hopping since I finished "Turnabout Big Top" this afternoon. (Sorry, Feenie, but it's a Harry Potter bunny.)

But I wrote two paragraphs of this before realising how obviously screwed I am, so I stubbornly pressed on. If it doesn't take me five more days to finish "Farewell My Turnabout," that one will probably get the bullet points treatment.

( Case 2-3: Turnabout Big Top )

Never have I been so grateful for Firefox's spell-check, even if it doesn't know the word "dialogue." Half the keys under my left ring finger are sticking. I need some canned air before "Turnabout Big Top."

( Case 2-2: Reunion, and Turnabout )

Afterthought: You know, Mimi's relationship with her sister really looks rocky under the surface. Sure, after the fact she said losing her sister in that car accident was a huge trauma, and I'm sure she felt guilty-- but to take her sister's face, her sister's identity, to escape culpability is really rather skeevy, and doesn't speak of a wealth of sisterly love. She isn't fair to her sister in her interpretation of her, either; like, what a total... like, what's the word I'm searching for? Like, she's totally, like, an airhead! Did she really see her sister in such a poor light, even tempered by her guilt over the accident?

I'll try to make this one short. My brain is still fried from pushing myself to finish the "Turnabout Goodbyes" writeup at 2 AM, and I still have to face "Reunion and Turnabout."

( Case 2-1: The Lost Turnabout )

Apparently skipping "Rise from the Ashes" only gave me time to have a migraine and a soul-draining day at work. That was so helpful.

( Case 1-4: Turnabout Goodbyes )

At this rate I'll be keeping time with the official playing schedule, after all.

( Case 1-3: Turnabout Samurai )

I'm just destined to be behind. I think I may catch up by skipping 1-5, which has always driven me mad with its fuzzy logic and contradictions.

( Case 1-2: Turnabout Sisters )

Edit: I just checked out Court Records to find three more unofficial schedules posted after the one I'm following. This is the point where I start posting the countdown for the date I'm writing on, and unapologetically following my own schedule.

To commemorate the upcoming addition to the Gyakuten Saiben/Ace Attorney series, the fans at court-records.net have organised to review the original Phoenix Wright trilogy that started it all. Needless to say, I've joined the ranks of such video game geeks, if for no other reason than to dust off my poor journal. No, really.

There are fourteen cases in all, in the Phoenix arc. On Court Records' official schedule, the kick-off is on 2 February, but I have no hope of playing through a case a day on my schedule, so I'm following an unofficial early agenda. Yesterday was dedicated to "The First Turnabout," a twenty-minute tutorial level. As to why I'm already behind schedule: I was awake enough to play through twice, but not awake enough to write about it.

( cut to spare my non-gamer friends )

Now I need to start "Turnabout Sisters" only to write about that one a day late. Fortunately the unofficial schedule gives two days to "Turnabout Samurai," so I think I can get back on track Saturday.

Gather all your RP journals, list the characters and any AU versions you RP. Open the post to the public so even lurkers can ask the muses questions. Respond with that RP account.

Technically these are all inactive head voices because I've had next to no time for writing in months, but strangely, I'm very relaxed this week in spite of my insane work schedule. Let's play!

Debra Riley Mitchell (Desichado)
Raeann Linden Foster (Desichado)
Hannah Dell (Desichado)
Maria Johnson Dulac (Harry Potter, original-verse)
Peter Pettigrew (Harry Potter)
Caradoc Dearborn (Harry Potter)
Barty Crouch Jr (Harry Potter)
Aizen Sousuke (Bleach, canon or AU)
Larissa Antipova (Dr Zhivago)
William Buckland (Horatio Hornblower)

All right, the proximity to October has scared me into finally putting my thoughts down. They still need a lot of work, and my outline certainly isn't as coherent as Stefanie's, for those who've seen it, but that's nothing new.

In high school, I wrote a co-operative story with Rabbit, in the Desichado canon. It was about two people in the Falcon Program partnered because they were both at the end of their rope after a lot of hard knocks. Obviously this was a bad idea, because there was not a stable partner in this venture, and they more or less destroyed each other's lives; the Handler was driven to suicidal madness by her subordinate, and the Falcon was executed because this Handler was her third and final chance.

My plan this year is to revisit the story alone, through the eyes of Debra, the suicidal Handler. As she was a writer, and even kept a (private) Livejournal through me, I imagined her own writing as a medium for the story: her journal, her letters, maybe even an allegorical story about what's happening to her, a la Christopher Pike. It's really an ideal medium for showing how she breaks down, because you'd read it in her own voice-- not just the affected first-person POV of a character deliberately telling a story, but the rawness of really seeing it a day at a time, with no foresight or hindsight or anything.

It's been seven years since we wrote the original story. Things have been lost, things have morphed. I have a lot work ahead of me to create a viable framework to base the journal on.

( This is getting long, but I'd appreciate any suggestions, from co-authors or otherwise. )

I have five weeks to sort this out. Ultimately my "framework" is going to be broken down into notecards again-- a card for every day that needs to be written about. I'll let Natalie Goldberg do the rest.

Wow, it really has been six months since I posted anything not filtered down to specific people I was begging feedback from. Add to that all the people I can't keep up with on Messenger anymore and it's obvious I've turned into a hermit.

For those following my personal record-breaking Nano last year, I never finished. I added a few thousand words, but without a "real" deadline I flagged and couldn't bring myself to pound out anymore first-grade-vocabulary storybook crap. Now a couple of borrowed characters have been yanked back by their owner, I'm hoping to restart with a little more freedom in interpreting the characters I'll replace them with. It is a good story, and a good story universe, and it deserves finality.

I also have two new projects-- or rather, old projects with a new coat of paint slapped on. Raeann, unable to find a way to create a story for herself, has convinced me to write about following her brother on tour, through the eyes of one of her kids. I'm sure I can appropriately mystify that maternity ward scene through a five year old's eyes, to start me off.

The other is, of course, another Johnson atrocity. I really have high hopes of making this one stick together.

All this original material to work with, and of course I'm still a fandom whore. I desperately missed RPing, so I took on a Bleach game. The Bleach game wasn't enough to fill the void of the Harry Potter RPing I miss, so now I'm preparing an application for fiery_inception. Once I settle in there, I'm going to stop being the mouse who wanted a cookie, milk, napkin, straw, etc etc. I'll have two games to get my fix from, and if that isn't good enough, why, I'll turn one of the Desichado projects into another RPG!

I don't like being a hermit!

I pretty much give up on Nano. After a quickly shot-off paragraph about sharing a room with a gentleman Navy SEAL who happens to be gay, I'm just at 20,100. It would take a miracle to get me across the finish line by the 30th, especially since there's only one write-in out of the three left I'm not working over. (The Monday morning one at the Union, if you're curious-- see you there!)

I'm not quitting entirely. Near everyone's given up on Desi, so I just have to finish this one manuscript. It sucks royally, and it's going to continue to suck while I jet through the first draft, but I'm going to make my new deadline February 1st. It gives me a fair chance when, at least while I'm in retail, I can only write on my two days off a week. It's going to be finished. And in time to set it aside for a month before NaNoEdMo.

Really sucks that I'm working over the wine and cheese write-in, and the TGIO party, though.

I'm off to a great start. 1056 words! I keep editing against all common sense, but all the edits I'm going back to do are adding words, so it's worth the time.

I actually didn't get much of a start last night, because I worked til 10:30 PM, ate a single Steakburger to pump up for the writing, and crashed after the 600 word mark. I'm fairly certain I'll clear 2000 before the write-in tonight, if I can get my mind off breakfast foods I wish I'd gone out to get instead of settling for a ham and cheese sandwich. (I dearly wanted a sausage and cheese biscuit, but between the Steakburger last night, and the expensive menu at Cafe Paradiso tonight, I have no business treating myself any more this first day.)

I hope you're all doing as well as me!

Especially those of you who are local. Exactly why are we competing against Bloomington, Indiana, again?

Addendum: I'll start posting the novel once a scene besides the "Once upon a time" segue is finished.