2020 2.0 -- Personal update
So, the US Congress got stormed, COVID is spreading more now than ever, and we're in lockdown 3.0. Welcome to 2020 2.0: the sequel nobody asked for. Anyway, it's been a while since my last update, so I thought I'd run you through what's been going on in my life. So, to get this out of the way, I've been accepted into a mentorship programme with Penguin Random House, so I'm super excited for that! I don't know what to expect yet, even though it's starting tomorrow, but since it's based around publishing and PR, I hope it will give me more experience working in that field.
As a result, I don't know how much spare time I'll have to work on personal projects. Of course, I'll be working remotely, and it's not a paid position as far as I know, so the programme might be more relaxed than I imagine it being, but still.
On that note, I've still been writing and drawing. I haven't uploaded my fics to this site since I don't see much of the point anymore, but I've been alternating between fanfiction and original writing. One of those projects involves an urban fantasy romance novel, which I'm a third of the way through drafting. I've accepted a second art commission, so I hope I'll be able to make more progress on it if I can.
So, of course, there's all this good news, but it's still been a struggle for me since I'm an informal carer for Mum. She's mostly stable for now, but her health can still be unpredictable, which is especially nerve-wracking considering one hospital visit could be all it takes for her to catch COVID. And since I'm in lockdown with my family, that feeling of dread is inescapable sometimes.
Still, I'm keeping my chin up as I've got stuff to look forward to in the future. I hope you're all doing well and I hope this year goes well for all of you, even if the world around us is burning.
Hello, thought I'd give an update on my longfic The Curious and the Shiny, since I've been radio silent on that for a few months now. While I only posted up to chapter 30 on here, I finished Part 1 (up to chapter 38) and am currently on hiatus before I dive into Part 2. Not only that, I revised the first 18 chapters with tweaked description and updated story content, which I also posted on those sites. It's also enjoyed a little more success on Serebii since it won in a few categories for the 2019 Fanfic Forum Awards, including:
Best Pokémon-Centric (2019)
Most Heartwarming Fic (2019)
Most Original Overall (2019)
Most Heartbreaking Scene and Most Heartwarming Scene - Chapter 22 (2019)
The rest of the chapters are available to read on FFN and Archive of Our Own for your perusal if you haven't caught up to it:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13135313/1/The-Curious-and-the-Shiny-New-Game-Plus
https://archiveofourown.org/works/16800376/chapters/39433126
The reason I made this journal was to announce my deletion of versions 1 and 2 (New Game Plus) from DeviantArt.
Since this story is currently being split between four other platforms (FFN, AO3, Serebii and Thousand Roads), DA is very cumbersome to use for writing, clutters up my gallery since it doesn't function well as a multi-chapter literature archive, and the current literature editor on DA post-eclipse leaves a lot to be desired. Making edits is no longer instantaneous since the sta.sh writer is no longer a main feature. Just like FFN, you have to go through a multi-page/step process to update works. Since I've revised chapters 1-18, it would be very tedious to apply revisions to each separate deviation, especially since I usually have to change the formatting for DA's site.
As I see it, the readership on DA doesn't justify going back to make those changes. That's not anyone's fault, and if I wanted, I could try harder to promote on DA. But for me, it's long outlived its usefulness since I find more engagement on close-knit environments like fandom-specific forums and Discord servers. It just makes more sense to merge my readership on DA with FFN since it's more accessible to use for reading and saving literature. Plus it cuts down on the amount of channels I have to watch the story on.
Thanks to everyone who has caught up on DA thus far, and I hope you'll stay with me in the future for more content. The art pieces will still be up since, well, it's DeviantArt, a site mainly geared towards sharing artwork. On that note, it's a crime I didn't upload this sooner, but the third cover is down below, which I made last year for the fic's third version:
I've finished Part 1 of my Pokefic: The Curious and the Shiny, at 38 chapters on Fanfiction.net, and am working on a few one shots on the fanfic side of things. Since reaching that milestone, I've decided to take a hiatus from that fic and am working on a brand new project for Camp NaNo this month. Not just any new project, an original project as well. It's sort of a spiritual successor to the Pokefic stuff in that it features non-human characters in an urban fantasy setting, but is a lot more scaled back in terms of its worldbuilding and the scope of the story. After writing a 220k word fanfic (and counting), I decided to go for something a bit less ambitious, but hopefully a lot more focused, applying the lessons I've learned writing so far. I've needed something to occupy my time anyway since the Coronavirus pandemic has left me a bit stir crazy.
Since then, I've also been getting involved more with my local writing groups, including contributions to a newsletter that features stories, and a short story anthology that will be released this summer. I'm excited to see what results they'll bring. I also have some great news to share as I've been published for the first time in a magazine. It's a 700 word feature for a local lifestyle magazine, owned by Archant Media in the UK that has over 200 publications under its belt. After 5 months of delays from its initial release, I can finally say my writing has seen the light of day.
What have you all been up to since then? I hope you're all taking care of yourselves during this turbulent time, whether you're an essential worker with not much time but a lot to do, or are cooped up at home with too much time and not much else to do. Please feel free to comment.
Hi there! I know I haven’t been around here much lately and I know I probably should, but I just felt like I had to get this off my chest anyway. It’s been on my mind lately, as someone who both reads and writes quite a bit of fanfiction. In particular, I write OC-centric Pokemon fanfiction with an emphasis on worldbuilding, character dynamics and themes of sapience, self-actualisation and societal change.
I love fan fiction writing. Since then, it’s given my life a bit more purpose, with a project to constantly work on. I’ve poured a lot of time into it, constantly revising its still ongoing chapters (at 140k words and growing) and making art for it in order to improve my craft. It’s also introduced me to a very supportive community, some of which have become good friends of mine.
Yet lately, I feel a bit unfulfilled with the act of fanfic writing. Well, creatively, I find it fulfilling, but professionally and socially, I feel kind of inhibited by it, especially when the audience is still small at the moment (though dedicated). I mean, I love my fics to bits and I want to see it through to the end, but that also means it has consumed my creative outlets, through both writing and fan art. And I'm afraid that I'm not being taken seriously in what I do because of the fandom attachment thing. Admittedly, it’s partly to do with the feeling of being overshadowed in my fandom, but I’d rather not beat a dead horse over something mostly under my control.
Well, I'm pretty average at art, but writing is my professional field, since I intend to go further in it and have started looking at magazine publishing (my first article will be published soon-ish). I know I can't mix the fandom stuff with my portfolio, since it alienates a lot of potential clients in the publishing industry, which I'm fine with, but even when I talk about fics in a casual original writing circle, it tends to get looked down on. Not for the writing quality, ideas, or how the themes would resonate with others in real life, which is something I want to nail (and have been constantly revising to make it the best it can be), but because it's based off another work.
In that fanfic writer to purely original writer context, the discussion is almost always about ‘why don’t you write your own stories?’ and almost never about ‘what ideas do you have?’, or ‘how do you make changes to the world you’re writing about?’, or ‘what point are you trying to make with this?’ Even when I build the stories and characters or even some worldbuilding concepts from the ground up, I can never avoid the association. Doing this much work, only to have to hide it because of the general fanfic stigma, kind of stinks.
I’m still very much into fanfic writing and I want to see my projects to the end. Having said that, even though I hate the feeling that I have to hide what I truly believe in writing from others that don’t see the same way, there’s also a part of me that feels like I’m squandering my potential by putting so much focus on this. Who knows? I’ll most likely take a brief hiatus once I’ve reached a certain point with my stuff, just to give myself a break. Maybe I’ll focus on some original stuff for once. I dunno. Maybe I’m getting hung up over a non-issue.
Anyways, rant over. I hope people with similar dilemmas look at this and get something out of it, or at least, adds something to the fan writing discourse.
Sorry for being a downer; have a video of Kermit singing LCD Soundsystem.
Cover art by Wolframclaws/author
READ FIC HERE:
www.fanfiction.net/s/13247236/…
And now for something completely different. For this recurring series of fanfic recs, I'd like to mix things up a bit and alternate between works in the PMD and mainline game worlds. Despite my preference for Pokemon-centric works, there are a lot of fics based off the games that are worth looking at as well. Through this, I hope to show how versatile the Pokemon fanfic community can be as well as showcase the variety of writing talent within the fandom. Our second entry is 'Hunter, Haunted' by canisaries, a horror fic based on Twitch Plays Pokemon.
While I'd like to give a special shout out to canisaries/Wolframclaws for being an all-around talented writer and artist, and would like to feature more of their works in the future, I decided to focus on this fic in particular for now because of how it stands out. It's not every day you get to read a Pokemon fic with a villain protagonist, since generally, morality tends to be rather black and white in that world.
Twitch Plays Pokemon is definitely an interesting case in the Pokemon meta-gaming scene, with actual lore behind its randomised events, so there are lots of possibilities to play about with that in fanfiction. While this fic has some references to that, it's not required to enjoy the story, which is essentially a supernatural cat and mouse chase. At least in its first arc anyway. The further Hunter, Haunted goes, the more twisted it gets, as you follow Red Akai's descent into (even further) madness. The story is really bloody interesting and keeps you invested throughout, because you never quite know what's going to happen next. Most of that is due to the lead character and the events he triggers, but speaking of which...
Red Akai, I feel, is a villain protagonist done right. He is an unrepentantly despicable character who commits pretty much every reprehensible act under the sun in order to appease his Lord Helix, but the fic revels in it, as the stream of consciousness prose gives you an unfiltered look into his psyche. You not only get to dig deep into the psychology of the character and come to a better understanding of why he behaves the way he does, you also kind of believe him in places, as his thoughts start to have some truth in their own twisted way. He's the star of the fic, and makes Hunter, Haunted's narrative very compelling, especially when the lines between fantasy and reality become blurred in his world.
Be warned that the content won't be for everyone. This is rated M with a capital M, with lots of visceral scenes of violence, psychological horror, and a generally grim tone throughout, though it also has enough black comedy and quirky worldbuilding (the Pokemon in this verse in particular have a mix between feral and civilised groups) to offset that darkness. It's a unique fic that's well worth your time, if you have the stomach for gore as well as total batshit insanity.
