This is when compilations can help.
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i was going to add a transition chapter to fill in some questions/suggestions but now that i’m looking at it, it might kill the pacing. might gut the previous chapter and redo it instead.
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Close to finishing this chapter, and its looking like the next one is the finale 
Hopefully I can wrap up all the important things once the final fight concludes (must especially remember not to forget certain supporting characters–)
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i ended up scrapping the chapter rewrite and starting over once more. i FINALLY got something i was happy with that i didn’t need to force. 
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Finished chapter 33, hoo boy!
Feels exciting that I’ll get to write the final chapter next 
goodness, three years and I’m finally at this point
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A sentence in a chapter…
But after lunch when the Beagles—pardon, the Jasons—took their afternoon nap, Mallord went against his word.
In another chapter…
Since the day already slipped into night with Mallord, the story must go back in time a bit for Richard.
The omniscient narrator is also a character, which, by the end of the duology, would become clear who it is. Thoughts on a gimmick like this?
I try not to have the narrator interject too much like this. I do it in the beginning of most chapters and near the end of most.
I also do it sometimes when characters are up to no good.
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It’s fine. It gives people a chance to try to guess who it is the whole way–minor mystery.
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Been a hot freaking minute, right?
Anyway, finally getting back into my groove.
After leaving Creators/Paid (long butt story not going there) I kind of had serious imposter syndrome. THEN I decided I needed to start a whole rewrite of a story (I had a publisher say they’d offer me a deal if I basically rewrote the characters, which I knew needed doing anyway) - but that’s really brought me down so I’m sidelining it (that publisher doesn’t fit me anyway) because I hate it.
Been ill off and on, so haven’t really been doing much anyway
But now I’m back writing 2 stories at once, NOT editing above book because ew right now. And I have a publishing deal for another book so YAY! Still ill, but dealing with it.
I’m also slowly taking stuff OFF Wattpad and finding myself hating it. I’m now strictly using it for first drafts and gaining feedback. Wattpad is a cesspool after what I’ve been through, and honestly, apart from a few friends and communities I just hate it. HATE IT.
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I wrote over 2000 words yesterday. Today I have written . . . 100. Wow. Why can’t I be in the zone? 
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In other news, my brain is doing that annoying thing where it jumps ahead one book So now I’ve managed to fully develop the power of my new MC before she takes on the power she was meant to inherit so her character and abilities actually make a lot more sense now. I have mixed feelings because 1) yay problem solved 2) why can’t I focus on the current scene dammit
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Its prably a good bit of why Ive not fought harder to gain attention on there.
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That’s normal. Some days you just belt it out and other days you don’t. I find that trying to force it out is stupid as well 
Writing is like a poop. The more you try to force it out, the more uncomfortable it becomes. I am slowly learning that and that’s why I can’t stick to one project for a long time.
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Honestly, Wattpad sucks. They’re trying to teach writers that writing is formulaic when it’s really not. If that’s how someone wants to go, cool, but it’s really not going to work for everyone. Plus they don’t promo anyone except a very very select few.
I’ve never, ever written for Wattpad in a wattpad way, so it was never going to work for me, and I’m okay with that. My career is now going outside of that.
I’ll continue writing and posting first drafts up there for editing feedback/get a feel how they work but other than that? Screw wattpad.
Places like Radish are good for romance writers because they actually pay people (unfortunately no promo for a long time, but they used to?) and inkitt with the new subscription feature. It’s just that wattpad has the biggest user base, which is both good and bad for readers and writers.
They suck, pretty much. But if you use it for communities/feedback kind of thing, it definitely works.
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I’m starting to see articles about places like Sweek…so I know its getting interesting out there, in terms of alternatives.
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I haven’t heard of that one. I’m on a beta for a new app calling Kerning which is paying authors from ad revenue. New ones keep cropping up, it’s just whether they can make it 
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I just wanted to expand on one of your points here:
Exactly. It seems like Nick and Wattpad have a certain formula that he’s trying to push onto us, that is the only way to get big on Wattpad and if you color outside those lines, it’s not gonna work. And that’s unfair if it’s proven that the writer doesn’t need to follow those to be popular.
Writing is not formulaic at all. Mostly. No one formula gives you success. Something that works for someone else, usually will not work for another person. Writing is different for everyone. Everyone needs different tactics. And their way to tell the stories effectively.
Rules and formulas have to be broken somewhat at times, in order to tell stories. Nothing is ever consistently the same, even if the industry (or parts of it) try to trick you into thinking that it is.
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It’s so so true.
Ever since they started Creators and serialisation it’s this IEC crap “immediate, engaging and commercial”
They want to see a hook IMMEDIATELY and NOW and everything always has to be NOW, there’s no room for description or analogies or anything that makes the story a little richer and longer. They want 150k words and stories to never end, but the moment you start describing things, they drop you.
I pitched a few stories I already had started to them, but their feedback was that I “described too much” and despite them promoting age gap stories, they didn’t like a 19 and 23 year old together (it was a fantasy story where the guy time travelled and no romance would happen when she was 19) and apparently I describe too much and go into too much detail.
PFFFT. this is despite me hitting the hook AND inciting incident in chapter 1 like they wanted. They still didn’t like my writing.
I won’t even go into the other crap they pulled on me which made me leave.
But there’s no room for scope. If they like you, they will keep ramming you down the home page, but then the moment you do something they don’t think works, they’ll drop you without warning.
And this is all despite Wattpad not working in the traditional publishing world. They’re not the same thing AT ALL. But they don’t like you reminding them of that either. Oh, no.
The problem is, wattpad HQ/inside (like creators, paid wattys etc) is its own little bubble. And if thats how one writer wants to go, thats fine, but it doesn’t equal success, and Wattpad =/= publishing world.
Sure they publish books, makes movies etc, but the big publishing world has so much difference and so much variety, the crap they keep trying to train writers to be will not cut it if they want outside success.
I am SO GLAD to be out. It’s awful, and toxic. and I’m happy with the way I write, I don’t need 20-something year olds without much commercial experience telling me I’m wrong - I’m not, I’m just not a “wattpad writer” and thats okay!
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Muneca is doll in Spanish. Or maybe a Goth name? Goth names can work. 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/563018695929448/
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I saw a video on Youtube by a writer who is both autistic and has ADHD and there was one piece of advice that seemed to really help. She said the “3 part act” is a lie. That doesn’t work for her. Stories are “not 3 equal parts” so if you’re running out of story in the middle or have too much, following this formula could be the problem.
She said to try thinking of it as 4 parts. The middle is twice as long as the beginning/end. The middle is broken into 2 parts. The reactive middle and the proactive middle. If you want more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kvuZwKi12s
I’ve decided to try approaching my current original story that I’m ignoring for fanfiction with that mindset and see what happens. Still haven’t wrote much there. Hopelessly possessed by this fanfiction. Speaking of, ADHD rant incoming.
ADHD rant about hating my brain and capitalism
You ever get burned out by all the things you want to be able to do/learn and you’re not progressing fast enough so you get really down in the dumps? I’m not getting any younger, not middle age yet but def not 21 haha and I just feel like, so much of my life was wasted because my brain just isn’t made for capitalism. I used to write/draw all the time when I lived with my parents/went to college and once I graduated and started working full time, got my own place, a relationship, housewifely stuff to do, I realize I have never been happy since. Who lied to me when I was a kid and told me that being an adult was going to make me happy? 
Now I’m trying to “catch up” for the years I stopped writing/drawing because capitalism sucked the soul out of me and I find myself angry that I’m not moving fast enough. There is so much I want to do. Finish one f’n story and edit the f’n story for starters. Geez. And to be able to at least draw my own OCs. And it’s just frustrating I guess. A lot of times I feel motivated to do stuff during the exact time I can’t – which is during work hours. By the time I do have “free” time, it’s much harder to push myself to do the things that are supposed to be fun. “Passive” hobbies are easier as in watching anime or playing a game but something that requires my brain/body like writing/drawing, it’s like I have to use fumes to hopefully produce something.
I realize I’m having a great time with this fanfiction because the “reward system” works for that. I write stuff, have fun with it, people read it, give me feedback, I feel great, get that brain chemical I need, and it encourages me to write some more. Rinse and repeat until the task is actually complete. I don’t have that system with original writing/drawing. Being in this vacuum with no support whatsoever makes it tough for an ADHD person to stick to something long term in the hopes that it’ll pay off in like years or whenever the fuck it happens. I know to some, it sounds like excuses, but anyone else with a nuero-divergent brain will understand. Putting time/resources/energy into something that doesn’t seem to have any pay off is the bane of every ADHD/autistic person’s existence. Just makes me hate my brain. Like if I didn’t have this disability, by now, I could’ve had a self published book or a comic based on my stories etc.
Bleh. Anyway, just wanted to rant. Rant over.
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it’s cute! but if i’m going to use a word from a different language then that language has to be michif or plains cree… or reluctantly maybe french.
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