luftsparke on writing

Musings on the creative process. Character info and photos. Clips of actors inspiring OCs. Working on a fic starring Gabe from Locke & Key and eight more Griffin Gluck characters. Header is my OC Drew. Icon is his sister Alicia with autumn leaves falling on her head. 😏 Words I like to use in fiction - Yeah, Oh, Okay, Heh, Hmm, Huh, Frown and Shrug. Btw, not in the market for paid beta-reading or illustration services. Main blog - luftsparke. Griffin fanblog - 19chimneys.

[luftsparke-writes]

Chapter One reposted

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters 2-6 are getting there, then more are in the works as planned (not rewritten, that was just 1-6).

The original chapters 1-6 are archived - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NRITJNUkTL-9jS8xSSQDsXGul985aY_t

Spirited Instrumentals Fic v1 - Google Drive

[pillowspace]

There are many people who don’t share this sentiment, but I have an appreciation for when a fanfic is so separated from canon that it could’ve easily been its own original novel, and yet the author was only ever going to put that much energy into it if their favourite characters got to be there

[pillowspace]

I think there’s a difference between “the author stripped the media of everything it had to replace it with something easy” and “the author thought up a concept they really really like and are bestowing it upon the character like a medal”

[luftsparke-writes]

Mood.

[luftsparke-writes]

This blog is once again less about writing, and also about who or what reminds me of the characters. I love this cat foster mom. I’ve followed her for a few years. She currently has eight kittens and this photo reminds me of the nine kids in my fic. There have also been litters of six that remind me of the six older kids (they’re 16-18, but the same size).

[luftsparke-writes]

Milo the Chonk reminding me of Gabe. At least, ideas I’ve had for the fanfic that I haven’t got to yet. I don’t mean the sling specifically 😏 just the attitude.

View this post on Instagram

[mysuunandstars]

"a little something for the ginsey shippers ♥"

[19chimneys]

I’ve seen this photo before, but the caption gets me thinking about Gabe and Kinsey. They’re mostly wearing their costumes from the final episode of season 2, except for Griffin’s pants and shoes. He used to wear those trainers quite often.

He’s giving such Gabe vibes, though I’m not sure they’re posing in character. Griffin giving a moody smoulder makes it hard to tell. It makes me think about Kinsey and Gabe if things had worked out differently. I’ll get more fanfic ideas soon 😏

[luftsparke-writes]

Griffin sort-of as Gabe. And giving me Gabe thoughts either way. I love this moody character.

[alexanderwales]

It's absolutely crazy that intellectual labor can wipe you out. It seems like it shouldn't be a thing, like your stores of brain juice shouldn't be able to be depleted in that way.

I feel like a wizard that's out of spell slots, and to me that's a hackish mechanical limitation put in place to try to balance the classes.

[adhdedrn]

#it's fucked and it's bad design #i should be able to write and edit for 20 hours a day #i'm just sitting there how are we even using energy #feels made up (via @softest-punk, emphasis mine)

Your brain is an incredibly energy-intensive organ. It makes up approximately 2% of your total body mass, but at rest it's using 22% of your total energy intake. The only thing that uses the same percentage of energy is all of your skeletal muscle (which is about 40% of your total body mass), with the liver (about 2.6% of your total mass) close behind at 21% (Aragon et al, 2017).

And that's how much energy it's using at rest.

That's the baseline.

So if you're doing lots of intellectual labour, your brain - which already has disproportionately huge energy demand - is going to use even more energy to keep up with the work. That's why you feel so wiped/drained/like you're out of spell slots after high intellectual demand - because your brain is an organ, and you've just done a lot of high-energy work with a high-energy organ.

Feed your brain.

[luftsparke-writes]

This explains why I hit a wall after a lovely week of writing.

[luna-azzurra]

A writer's ideal day is six hours of staring, twenty minutes of actual writing, and one sentence so good it justifies all of it

[luftsparke-writes]

I spent about an hour and a half this morning on rewriting the beginning, and enough of that was looking away from the screen. It was my most productive of this tired day.

[luftsparke-writes]

Rewriting the early fic chapters, I’ve made two changes so far - expanding on the very beginning and reducing how much one of them says. I have ideas for one to be quiet and later upset, and for wholesome activities run by foster dad (telephone drawing game and colourful putty for squeezing).

I’m so hecking tired, though. It’s a frustrating, slow time. I have used my Thumper massager, Pulsetto vagus nerve device, pizzazz high energy audio on YouTube, and cacao drinks, and still foggy. They did all help some, I just also need a chiropractic session to loosen my head and I’m struggling to make the 90-minute journey (it’s a particular method).

[luftsparke]

Neil Newbon serving in DND Wizards reel

From https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYBAHrnAnny/

View this post on Instagram

[luftsparke-writes]

Serving dad vibes again, bringing my OC Frank to mind fast.

[luna-azzurra]

the author: he’s dangerous. he’s ancient. he is not safe. this is a warning.

the readers: 🥰

the author: no—

the readers: 🥰🥰🥰

the author: also 🥰

[luftsparke-writes]

Fic on posting hiatus

I’m still writing it but, just as I was getting chapter seven to the final polish, a change in direction - I’m planning to rewrite it so I’m sorry to anyone reading that it’ll pause and be changed. I’m not planning to abandon it - I’m very invested, though you never know what can happen.

I hope the good aspects will stay, assuming we agree on them. I originally planned to post once it’s complete and that might work better to make it more cohesive (it was taking so long, and still is, that it was nice to start posting).

I recently had some good, detailed feedback and had already been concerned the plot’s moving too slowly, for one thing. Also 9 characters/fandoms, but that was the premise. I’d like to improve it now as I wonder if parts of these chapters have bored people away. I’ll leave it up on AO3 for now.

[luftsparke-writes]

Words I overuse

I woke up at 3am and finally had an afternoon nap a while ago. Hoping to re-read chapter 7 and do some more editing (finally got the last scene written the other day and the chapter now clocks in at a cool 7,500 words). This morning I spent hours editing and made many changes to just a few scenes.

It’s still got a way to go and I looked up how many times I’ve used my most overused words. So here they are (will edit further!) Various characters give a frown, but you might be able to guess who the grumpy-pants is.

Okay - 34

Oh, including oh dear- 33

Yeah - 29

Frown - 14

Huh - 9

Heh - 5

Glare - 4

Scowl - 3

Hmm - 3

Shrug - 2 (there used to be more).

Honourable mention -

Glower - 0 (I’m surprised I removed the one I had).

[luftsparke-writes]

I made a valiant effort to reduce these and got “okay” down to 20. I don’t remember how many less I managed of the others (less than 20!) As I was nearing the last edits, I thought of something more to add and change, so it’s taking a little longer.

Also my days of focused flow paused when a few nights of less sleep caught up with me. The flow state and better energy had me sitting up far more than I had just a few weeks ago, and body still has some chronic illness despite some improvement.

[19chimneys]

Gabe or Goldcrest

Idk if that’s as snappy a title as Griffin or a Kitten (more broadly it could be “other-grump” which also doesn’t roll so well, but I’ve only had three hours’ sleep).

Anyway, I saw this and thought of our favourite thundercloud.

I’m sure Gabe would love being compared to “the cutest little grump”.

I’m deep in fanfic editing and part of it is striking a balance of how many grumpy faces Gabe makes 😏

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXpwd6tAflD/

[luftsparke-writes]

More of our main character being their delightful self. I love him.

[19chimneys]

Gabe brooding

And irritated by Eden.

Spoilers for Locke & Key season 2, episode 6 - The Maze. Screenshots from AnnieAllen’s gifs. Some of these are very similar, but I like seeing the subtle differences in his expressions.

I left them with the duller colouring from the show rather than brightening with iOS Photos’ auto-adjust since that makes the slight blurriness more obvious.

Plus Eden with the Egg McMuffin shoved into her face by her delightful companion (“friend” seems too strong a word).

Original gif post - https://www.tumblr.com/annieallen/680185433240616960

[luftsparke-writes]

Our fanfic main character being moody and a bully. I love the glance to check no one’s looking as he makes Eden choke. I’m having such love for this awful person, it’s quite funny.

[luftsparke-writes]

Out of context line that’s amusing me this morning - “we’ve got floors at home.”

Oh, Gabe. They’ll get you with their floors wherever you go.

[luftsparke-writes]

Clip of Tom de Ville and Neil Newbon. I cast Neil as the foster dad in the fanfic because he has that energy sometimes and is a lovely guy, but sometimes his energy is more kidlike 😄

View this post on Instagram

[annieallen]

[19chimneys]

I’ve been enjoying this scene recently. Gabe’s grumpy irritation and the smirk. Not realising who Carol might be or why an adult he doesn’t know would turn up at the dorm… it’s cute. Gabe being grumpy and Griffin being expressive are some of my favourite things.

I find this character fascinating, hence the leading role in my fanfic (well, Gabe demanded it) which is coming along well, though it’s taking a while, and I’m very glad my brain is on it. Now just trying to calm the repetitive use of some words (eg “okay” and “yeah”, with frowning and shrugging 🤷🏻‍♀️

Btw, a instagram post by Hallea Jones at the time mentioned Eden was eating an egg mcmuffin. I’d thought was a burger.