Things finally calmed down this week which I was extremely thankful for. I've had a little bit more of a spring in my step, especially today. I put that down to the weather and the feeling of the changing season that's been in the air these past few days. It's been a lot sunnier, warmer, and all of the flowers are starting to bloom as well as the days are now getting longer again. I don't really suffer from S.A.D, but the darkness of winter does start to get old after a while, and even I, a winter lover, will admit to that. So that's helped me feel a little bit less on the depressed side this week.
However, I still have been having a few problems with my anxiety this week. I've gone back into hypochondriac mode again, a stage of anxiety that I go through every few months or so. It's annoying as it has me constantly paranoid about every little thing my body does. At the moment I'm convinced I have a jaw deformity. I've bruised my face from constantly poking it. Oy vey. Anxiety is so weird. I know I'm being stupid and that I'm likely fine, but honestly, anxiety is like having an extra person sharing your brain that's constantly telling you scary stories to freak you out. Hopefully this phase will pass soon. It's embarrassing and irritating beyond belief.
Due to my anxiety this week, Madness Within unfortunately got delayed a few days. I originally said that I was hoping to update on Saturday, but I ended up needing the weekend to recover from how depressing the previous week was, but then by Monday, I was so anxious over attending my support group that I just couldn't concentrate. Then Tuesday was the day of the meeting, and I knew there was no way I'd be able to work on anything that day, and I was right. By the time the meeting was over, I was completely exhausted. But it felt weirdly good to be in a room full of people who were just like me. I didn't have to put on a facade like I always do when talking to people, even those closest to me. I could be weird and let my anxious habits show themselves, and to them, it was completely normal and not weird at all. It was strangely liberating.
So I do recommend that if anyone suffers from the same issues I do to attend a support group. It's not for everyone, but it certainly helped me, and I certainly will be going back again. When you're mentally ill, it's very easy to forget that you're not alone and that there's people out there that are just like you. It feels good talking to people who completely understand. You can be as weird as you want and they don't freak out because they're suppressing the exact same things.
Anyway, back onto Madness Within. Luckily by Wednesday I was feeling much better and finally got the chapter finished. If you haven't already, you can now read chapter twenty-seven of Madness Within by clicking here. I feel bad that we're only half-way through the story as it should be much further along than this, but I honestly never thought it would become such a long, popular story. I fell behind quite a bit because I always prioritise updating depending on how popular the story is: the more popular the story, the faster I update. And for a while, Madness Within wasn't receiving much attention at all, only receiving maybe 2-4 reviews per chapter, so I was only updating it around once a month. But now, it's all of a sudden exploded. Most chapters are now getting around 20 reviews, which is awesome! You know how much I love feedback!
Because of this, I'm now trying to speed up my updates as much as possible, and Madness Within is now the story that's on the top of my list of priorities. Do you see how much of an effect reviews have? It placed Madness Within from the bottom of my writing priorities all the way to the top. To some extent, you guys have control over how often I update. Obviously real life and stuff can get in the way, but it does mean that I work hard to get the next update out as fast as possible.
And of course, it lead to me becoming more confident about creating a sequel for the story. I was originally going to cut my losses with some huge ideas I had to remove from the story, but now that the story has gotten so popular, it got me thinking about continuing it and placing those long tossed aside ideas into the sequel. Creating the sequel would certainly tie up a lot of loose ends and round things off a bit more nicely than my original ending idea. Plus, it allows me to include ideas that I devastatingly had to remove from Madness Within as it would have waaaay over-packed the story.
It's looking like the idea for a sequel certainly is popular. It's looking highly likely that 'yes' will win unless I get a sudden influx of people begging me not to make one. Just to make sure I'm prepared if 'yes' wins, I have already started writing down and organising all of my ideas. I've even already come up with a name for the potential sequel: Madness Unleashed. So yeah, I've been busy scribbling away and getting all of the thoughts and ideas I have on that story so far down onto paper so that I can begin properly planning a bit more.
Speaking of Madness Within, towards the end of the story, I'm thinking about maybe creating a timeline of events that I can post on my blog, just in case anyone is still confused over the order of events and stuff. I know the story can be pretty confusing and episodic in places, and I know that not everyone is going to be able to work it out easily. So I thought it might be helpful to create something like that, just to maybe help clear things up for anybody who's still confused and doesn't feel like reading deeper into things to try and work them out.
I also have further good news regarding my stories. It looks like I've finally fixed the final plot hole that I could find in Immortal Bond. It was one of the main, complicated ones that had been bugging me for such a long time. I've managed to make it much simpler now. Granted it meant eliminating one element of the story, but hey, if it makes the plot work a little bit better then I'll take what I can get. One important thing about being a writer is learning when to realise a plot element isn't going to work, no matter how much you love the idea. Sometimes sacrifices must be made. If it can't work, then it can't work. But it always leads to a better story which makes more sense. Hopefully anyway.
I'd like to think that my new idea for Immortal Bond is better than my old one. I certainly think there is a huge improvement, and the story feels a lot cleaner now and has better world building, but you guys are ultimately going to be the judge of that. I have had good luck in the past when it comes to re-writing stories. Back when I was writing Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction, there was this one story idea I had that just wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to re-write it, and the result was Project Darkness, one of my most successful stories of all time. So maybe that helps give you guys hope?
Hopefully, now that I'm feeling comfortable with my ideas and barring I don't find anymore obvious plot holes that could lead me to a dead end again, I should now be ready to start writing Immortal Bond again. As I've said previously, I'm going to try and write a good few of the chapters in advance just to make sure that everything is okay and that I can make it work. Because planning and writing can often be two entirely different things. You might suddenly realise that something won't work, or you might even come up with a better idea that shifts the direction slightly. So I'm going to tread carefully with this story this time. I want to make sure I avoid another dead end. I don't think you guys will appreciate me failing and abandoning the story for a second time.
The next chapter of Chat Vert will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow, or at least within the next few days. I had wanted to get it done today, but there was a few other stuff that I needed to get done that got in the way. Plus, I only got around 3 hours of sleep last night, and since the next chapter is an action-packed one, I don't think finishing it off today is a good idea. My quality tends to suffer when I'm really tired. If it was a more casual chapter I probably could have gotten away with it, but alas, no. I don't want to risk it. Especially since I always find action scenes really hard to write. But I am hoping to speed things up with Chat Vert now since I have my new story ideas that I also want to get out there. I came up with another short story idea this week. I know, I couldn't believe it either. I'm still tuning out the details on this one, but I'm feeling optimistic. I really have been an idea machine lately, it's been amazing!
Also, a big shout out to LycoRogue who gave the story Chat Vert a very lovely shout-out on her blog, The Rogue's Scribe. I was blushing so hard at some of things she was saying about the story. It always warms my heart to see people enjoying my work so much, and it's always nice to feel appreciated and that, even though I'm just writing these stories for fun and writing practice, people are getting a lot of entertainment and joy out of them.
Speaking of LycoRogue, there is someone that she would like to thank. Unfortunately, a new reviewer of her works, Wildfire's Flame, has their PMs disabled, and LycoRogue would really like to thank them for the amazing reviews that they left on her work. Since, Wildfire's Flame said they read my blog and that's how they found LycoRogue's story, I said that I would be sure to mention her immense gratitude in this week's Pixie's Chronicle in the hopes that they would be reading. LycoRogue included a thank you section in her weekly blog update from this week, but just in case Wildfire's Flame didn't read it, here's the special thank you from LycoRogue to you:
However, I still have been having a few problems with my anxiety this week. I've gone back into hypochondriac mode again, a stage of anxiety that I go through every few months or so. It's annoying as it has me constantly paranoid about every little thing my body does. At the moment I'm convinced I have a jaw deformity. I've bruised my face from constantly poking it. Oy vey. Anxiety is so weird. I know I'm being stupid and that I'm likely fine, but honestly, anxiety is like having an extra person sharing your brain that's constantly telling you scary stories to freak you out. Hopefully this phase will pass soon. It's embarrassing and irritating beyond belief.
Due to my anxiety this week, Madness Within unfortunately got delayed a few days. I originally said that I was hoping to update on Saturday, but I ended up needing the weekend to recover from how depressing the previous week was, but then by Monday, I was so anxious over attending my support group that I just couldn't concentrate. Then Tuesday was the day of the meeting, and I knew there was no way I'd be able to work on anything that day, and I was right. By the time the meeting was over, I was completely exhausted. But it felt weirdly good to be in a room full of people who were just like me. I didn't have to put on a facade like I always do when talking to people, even those closest to me. I could be weird and let my anxious habits show themselves, and to them, it was completely normal and not weird at all. It was strangely liberating.
So I do recommend that if anyone suffers from the same issues I do to attend a support group. It's not for everyone, but it certainly helped me, and I certainly will be going back again. When you're mentally ill, it's very easy to forget that you're not alone and that there's people out there that are just like you. It feels good talking to people who completely understand. You can be as weird as you want and they don't freak out because they're suppressing the exact same things.
Anyway, back onto Madness Within. Luckily by Wednesday I was feeling much better and finally got the chapter finished. If you haven't already, you can now read chapter twenty-seven of Madness Within by clicking here. I feel bad that we're only half-way through the story as it should be much further along than this, but I honestly never thought it would become such a long, popular story. I fell behind quite a bit because I always prioritise updating depending on how popular the story is: the more popular the story, the faster I update. And for a while, Madness Within wasn't receiving much attention at all, only receiving maybe 2-4 reviews per chapter, so I was only updating it around once a month. But now, it's all of a sudden exploded. Most chapters are now getting around 20 reviews, which is awesome! You know how much I love feedback!
Because of this, I'm now trying to speed up my updates as much as possible, and Madness Within is now the story that's on the top of my list of priorities. Do you see how much of an effect reviews have? It placed Madness Within from the bottom of my writing priorities all the way to the top. To some extent, you guys have control over how often I update. Obviously real life and stuff can get in the way, but it does mean that I work hard to get the next update out as fast as possible.
And of course, it lead to me becoming more confident about creating a sequel for the story. I was originally going to cut my losses with some huge ideas I had to remove from the story, but now that the story has gotten so popular, it got me thinking about continuing it and placing those long tossed aside ideas into the sequel. Creating the sequel would certainly tie up a lot of loose ends and round things off a bit more nicely than my original ending idea. Plus, it allows me to include ideas that I devastatingly had to remove from Madness Within as it would have waaaay over-packed the story.
It's looking like the idea for a sequel certainly is popular. It's looking highly likely that 'yes' will win unless I get a sudden influx of people begging me not to make one. Just to make sure I'm prepared if 'yes' wins, I have already started writing down and organising all of my ideas. I've even already come up with a name for the potential sequel: Madness Unleashed. So yeah, I've been busy scribbling away and getting all of the thoughts and ideas I have on that story so far down onto paper so that I can begin properly planning a bit more.
 |
| The start of my Madness Unleashed spider diagram of rough notes |
Speaking of Madness Within, towards the end of the story, I'm thinking about maybe creating a timeline of events that I can post on my blog, just in case anyone is still confused over the order of events and stuff. I know the story can be pretty confusing and episodic in places, and I know that not everyone is going to be able to work it out easily. So I thought it might be helpful to create something like that, just to maybe help clear things up for anybody who's still confused and doesn't feel like reading deeper into things to try and work them out.
I also have further good news regarding my stories. It looks like I've finally fixed the final plot hole that I could find in Immortal Bond. It was one of the main, complicated ones that had been bugging me for such a long time. I've managed to make it much simpler now. Granted it meant eliminating one element of the story, but hey, if it makes the plot work a little bit better then I'll take what I can get. One important thing about being a writer is learning when to realise a plot element isn't going to work, no matter how much you love the idea. Sometimes sacrifices must be made. If it can't work, then it can't work. But it always leads to a better story which makes more sense. Hopefully anyway.
I'd like to think that my new idea for Immortal Bond is better than my old one. I certainly think there is a huge improvement, and the story feels a lot cleaner now and has better world building, but you guys are ultimately going to be the judge of that. I have had good luck in the past when it comes to re-writing stories. Back when I was writing Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction, there was this one story idea I had that just wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to re-write it, and the result was Project Darkness, one of my most successful stories of all time. So maybe that helps give you guys hope?
Hopefully, now that I'm feeling comfortable with my ideas and barring I don't find anymore obvious plot holes that could lead me to a dead end again, I should now be ready to start writing Immortal Bond again. As I've said previously, I'm going to try and write a good few of the chapters in advance just to make sure that everything is okay and that I can make it work. Because planning and writing can often be two entirely different things. You might suddenly realise that something won't work, or you might even come up with a better idea that shifts the direction slightly. So I'm going to tread carefully with this story this time. I want to make sure I avoid another dead end. I don't think you guys will appreciate me failing and abandoning the story for a second time.
The next chapter of Chat Vert will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow, or at least within the next few days. I had wanted to get it done today, but there was a few other stuff that I needed to get done that got in the way. Plus, I only got around 3 hours of sleep last night, and since the next chapter is an action-packed one, I don't think finishing it off today is a good idea. My quality tends to suffer when I'm really tired. If it was a more casual chapter I probably could have gotten away with it, but alas, no. I don't want to risk it. Especially since I always find action scenes really hard to write. But I am hoping to speed things up with Chat Vert now since I have my new story ideas that I also want to get out there. I came up with another short story idea this week. I know, I couldn't believe it either. I'm still tuning out the details on this one, but I'm feeling optimistic. I really have been an idea machine lately, it's been amazing!
Also, a big shout out to LycoRogue who gave the story Chat Vert a very lovely shout-out on her blog, The Rogue's Scribe. I was blushing so hard at some of things she was saying about the story. It always warms my heart to see people enjoying my work so much, and it's always nice to feel appreciated and that, even though I'm just writing these stories for fun and writing practice, people are getting a lot of entertainment and joy out of them.
Speaking of LycoRogue, there is someone that she would like to thank. Unfortunately, a new reviewer of her works, Wildfire's Flame, has their PMs disabled, and LycoRogue would really like to thank them for the amazing reviews that they left on her work. Since, Wildfire's Flame said they read my blog and that's how they found LycoRogue's story, I said that I would be sure to mention her immense gratitude in this week's Pixie's Chronicle in the hopes that they would be reading. LycoRogue included a thank you section in her weekly blog update from this week, but just in case Wildfire's Flame didn't read it, here's the special thank you from LycoRogue to you:
"Wildfire's Flame, if you are reading this, know that your reviews are so appreciated. You are not shouting into the void. And thank you for letting me know I'm not doing the same. You, dear reader, are awesome sauce, and you are very welcome for the stories I put out for your consumption."
And of course, you can read LycoRogue's full blog entry from this week by clicking here, so that you can read the whole section in its entirety. I'm so happy that I was able to help my dear friend and fellow writer out by sending some new readers her way. I always love to help out friends and other writers as much as I can. I would like to thank Wildfire's Flame as well for all of the awesome reviews that they have left on my stories too. I'm glad that I have also helped you find some other amazing content to read, and thank you for being a reader of my blog.
On the topic of blogs, I can't believe how many more readers and followers this blog has now gotten, thank you so much! It's been great engaging with some of you on Twitter as well, and I always love talking to my readers. I mean, you guys have a huge impact on my life. You're helping me improve and shape my work, and sometimes I worry that I don't show enough gratitude, especially since I don't always have time to respond to every single review that I get. And of course, if you do want to talk to me or ask me a question, or anything really, then Twitter will be the fastest way to get hold of me and find out news regarding my stories. So feel free to follow or visit my page by clicking here. And don't worry, my account is a spoiler free one, so there will be no spoilers from the show on there.
Speaking of the show, I can't believe how many new episodes are being released in such a short space of time. We really are being spoiled lately. It's going to be hard when they inevitably go back on a really long hiatus. Though of course I wasn't surprised when it was announced that some of the episodes would be delayed. Typical. So yeah, I'm definitely being kept busy writing reviews. The review for Chris Master will be released on Monday, so keep your eyes open for that. You can also read my review for the episode Weredad by clicking here.
Like every week, I've also been busy cleaning up some of the chapters from my stories. Chapter nine of Destiny's Dance has now been cleaned up and replaced on FanFiction. You can now also read it on AO3 by clicking here. Chapter thirteen has now also been cleaned up and re-uploaded onto FanFiction, and you can now access it on AO3 by clicking here.
And that's really all that I have to talk about this week. I certainly have a busy weekend ahead of me, finishing that Chat Vert chapter, finishing my review of Chris Master, as well as maybe trying to get the next chapter of Madness Within out by Monday, but I guess we'll see how things go. I'm hoping that next week I can also start writing Immortal Bond, and no doubt I'll be working on my plans for those new story ideas. Since I've got this sudden burst of motivation and inspiration, I might as well take full advantage of it. I hope that you guys are all doing okay and I'll see you again soon.
Pixie out.
I'm sorry you had to deal with so much, but I'm glad you found some kindred spirits in your support group. I hope it helps you find solace. The weather has been beating down on me as well, but the warmth and sunshine today certainly woke me up! So I'm right there with you.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited for your burst of inspiration. I really need to start carving out time to catch up on your other works, as well as prepping for the new ideas that have sprung up. (Meanwhile, I'm over here chugging away with just ONE story. ;) )
Also, just like you, I will always gladly promote writers I enjoy, especially if they're my friends. ^_^ So you are very welcome. I hope I can send some folks your way as well, but I fear most of my blog readers are not ML fanfic readers... :P Anyway, thank you for sharing my gratitude for Wildfire's Flame here. I hope they see it.
And, honestly, I'm waiting for your review on "Stormy Weather 2"... I'm sure it will be.... interesting...
It's okay, I'm glad that I've found people just like me too. It certainly makes a huge difference to see proof that you're not alone. I'm glad you've gotten a bit of sunshine too! It certainly is a rarity this time of year in the UK.
DeleteMe too! Only problem is I'm itching them start them all and I can't, lol. I hope you have fun catching up on my stuff, I look forward to hearing your opinions on them if you want to share them with me. Good luck with your stuff too!
Awww, thank you! Ah well, but here's hoping that I can send some ML readers your way. You're welcome! I hope that they see it too.
Mmmhmm, interesting would be one way of describing it. As soon as I finished watching the episode, I just had to write down the intro to my review. I look forward to seeing your reaction to my opinions.