All art is at once surface and symbol

God, the worst fucking dreams are where you know you're dreaming and you're doing everything in your fucking power to wake up, but nothing works. Your eyes are way too fucking heavy and you're still stuck in the dream even when the waking world is right in your grasp.

So now that I'm finally awake, let's distract ourselves from worldly horrors with writing memes. I've been much more active than I have in previous years, boy oh boy~ Not counting my Yuletide fic because that's gotta stay anon until reveals.

First, from javert:

Rules: go through your last 5 fics and share the first and last line. No context.

( Go figure, almost all of them are LISA fics. )

And this one's from rionaleonhart:

Number of fics written in 2023: Including chapter updates to longfic? Seven fics. Six if we exclude Yuletide. It's a whopping large number compared to recent years, since I've been in a massive writing slump. Recently it's like "Good god I have these ideas and I can't keep them to myself anymore," which is goddamn refreshing.

Fandoms: LISA: The Painful RPG, Deltarune, Undertale, and (REDACTED)

( Most of it is about gross grimy men living in a dystopia. )

sick_or_treat

Write hurt/comfort using a Pokemon move as a title! As much as I love Dick or Treat, sometimes I just want to write gen or something shippy without porn, and a lot of Pokemon moves lend themselves way better as non-smut prompts. Plus I'm always a sucker for hurt/comfort, one of my favorite fanfic tropes~ See you October-November!

While we're at it, Happy Pride Month~ ♥♥♥

GetYourWordsOut: Year Eight!
Pledges & Requirements | GYWO.net

There's no way I'm going to trust myself with my New Year's Resolution of "writing more", "fill the year with Undertale fanfics and other goodies" and "start and finish Rosetale", so hopefully, this'll actually help me. I've pledged Modest!

Pimping my friend Sara's novella!

Want some slice-of-life mother/daughter relationships inspired by the likes of Beverly Cleary, Ann M. Martin and Cynthia Voigt? Then this might be for you~ ;D

I want to thank everybody for your kind words regarding Uncle Ricke, including those who responded to my comment on Das Sporking. Your support means a lot to me and my family, and now Ricke is in a better place. He'll always be loved and remembered! ♥♥♥

I've been taking Freddie outside a lot so he could play with this adorable little Shih-Tzu named Abby. She belongs to this cute little girl who lives in the same neighborhood as I do. :o A few days ago, a Maltese named Fifi ran away from home, and Dad and I worked a really long time to snip her mats out. She's so cute and she wouldn't stop kissing us! She's so well-behaved too, she never tried to squirm or run away while we groomed her. Her owner was really happy I took care of the mats for her, and hopes she and Fifi could see me again soon.

After years of boycotting, I finally succumbed and got a Facebook. Bleeeeeeeeeeegh. The good news is I got to reunite with one of my oldest friends, at least! I'm primarily using FB as a way to contact family and animal shelters and posting pictures of pets, so don't expect a whole lot of fandom stuff there, if at all. FB already hates me and has "temporarily blocked" me from liking books/movies/music/etc. Excuse me for being cultured, FB. :P

My sleep schedule's messed up again and I'm tired. Actually interacting with the neighbors makes me want to curl up and hide because I feel so socially awkward. Help. D:

Remember that fake first chapter to my fake novel from last year's April Fools? Today, I'm bringing you the first chapter of the real novel I'm actually writing. :P

Bear in mind this is a first draft, so a lot of things will be changed in the final version. Like Hemingway said, first drafts are always shitty. That said, I'm open to critique, questions, suggestions and whatnot so I can improve the story before publication. :3 "The Great Phantasmo" is a place-holder name, so I may replace it with something better. But he's later revealed to be the same person as Marius, just hiding under another alias. :P The Robert Heinlein musical mentioned in this chapter is actually something my grandfather tried to start on Broadway, and it being rejected by Richard Rogers and why is a true story. Unlike in my novel however, the musical never got performed. :( The lyrics Ann sings are what my Dad remembers from one of the songs.

With those little notes out of the way, onto the fun!

( This stops being a children's book as soon as attempted murder and toy violence is involved. Whoops. )

Next chapter, we see what happened to Raggedy Ann and are introduced to our main villain, Dr. Medlock. From now on, the chapters switch between Andy's journey to find her (and dealing with Medlock's assistant Phantasmo/Marius) and Ann surviving the lab. Don't worry, everything's still third-person. :)

Stardust writer Neil Gaiman reveals how Gone With The Wind kept his refugee cousin alive during WWII.

In this video, best-selling writer Neil Gaiman reveals how his cousin, Helen, smuggled the book Gone With The Wind into the Warsaw Ghetto during World War Two. She would read the novel at night and tell girls in the ghetto what had happened the morning after. The story gave him a personal insight into how writers can offer an “escape” from suffering.

Gaiman has written an exclusive piece on his trip to Syrian camps for Yahoo. It is contained within this article here.

I want me and my books to be like this for people someday. ;;

I almost teared up reading about Ayman and everything he does for the Syrian refugees. What a wonderful, wonderful person. ♥

Here's a list of all my unfinished fanfiction and plot bunnies! Bear in mind that if a story has a title, it's definitely not its final one. I'm just naming them based off what their filenames are called.

( Without further ado, the list from hell. )

Yay, feeling like a sack of garbage is fun. I've been struggling with sleep problems again, and it figures that the day I finally have enough energy to start my final paper for history class, Mom had to be super bitchy and get in a fight with me and Dad, so it made me feel too miserable to concentrate on even starting it. Fuck. I just went to talk to a counselor and managed to contact Dad, he says he might be able to help me with my essay. Guh. I just want the day to end and my paper to go poof.

Anyhoo, made my areyougame claims:

December 2 - Pokémon Conquest, Oichi: Karaoke – Occasionally, she and Jigglypuff liven things up with a bit of song.
December 6 - Pokémon, Any: legendary pokemon – unexpectedly loves ear scritches
December 17 - - Pokemon, Serena/Shauna: first kiss - feels like watching fireworks.
December 18 - Serena/Emma: affection - Emma has a crush on Serena, and tries to figure out how to tell her.
December 24 - Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Alexander/Daniel: fairytale au - the big bad wolf comes to feast on your heart.

I'm so rusty on Conquest, but thankfully, fic only needs to be at 100 words, so a quick overview shouldn't hurt. It's the Amnesia one that'll probably have me digging my own grave. :/ I have such a creepy plotbunny for that particular prompt though, and I couldn't resist. :o Hint: involves wine and meat.

I wonder if there'll be interesting treat prompts for Yuletide this year.

Ugh, back to feeling like crap.