holy CRAP

Project: poD
Page: 42


Po-freaking-D. Page forty-freaking-two. From page twenty-freaking-seven.

So (conveniently, after I yelled at the muses on note_to_muse about eating the rivals), I get this PM on the NaNo site. Kid really loved the poD excerpt I'd posted and wants to read the whole thing, even after I told him A, wasn't finished, and B, was well over 200,000 words long. He went on to give me helpful hints as to how to finish (I disagree that jumping to the end and throwing filler in to that point is good writing, but I guess that's just a philosophical difference) and asked me questions about his own sticky plot. I'll get back to him on that, but his PM (he called himself an adoring fan and thanked me for responding!) really inspired me to get back to work on poD. Because... it kind of doesn't suck. I play it down as "just" Pokemon fanfiction, but... it doesn't suck. I'm actually quite proud of it. This is actually the hardest characterization I've ever done, if only because some of it is so subtle.

So... I opened the file and looked at it. I'd been stuck there forever, stuck with no action and bogged down in minutiae, and I said screw it and just started typing.

HELL-FUCKING-O.

MAJOR plot point.
MAJOR character development.
MAJOR EVERYTHING!

It's astonishing. I mean, the Jaaren-characterization I totally didn't see coming and I think it's amazing. I love twists like that, especially so far into the work. I mean, there's been hints of it, but this was just so much fun. I drew a lot from the battle with Ifrit in the Fire Cavern in FF8, and any time I draw directly from video games it's going to be full of win. I was completely matter of fact about how some of the extremes in the Poke-world are in fact quite lethal and went nuts in the logical consequences. Heat exhaustion. Ridiculously matted fur. Home field advantage. Dehydration. My little things about radiation and instability.

So I wrote all night, basically. It's weird, because I was really thinking about these things, and so it took me longer than usual. Like, I'm honestly surprised that I wrote uninterrupted (okay, so I got up and fed the cats once) until literally almost 6am and only got in 7,803. Which might be a new personal best; I'll have to check my NaNo word counts again.

One thing I did notice, that amused me, was that slightly quiet and toned down songs with moderate to fast tempos really fit and helped me write. Even if they're incredibly lewd. Heh.


Fun fact: I might be working in two hours. Oh boy.