So, Sleeping on the Job hit a milestone last week, which is amazing, and I love u guys, but it’s also very surreal. Because… excuse me?
One hundred of you fuckers saw "Home Alone: A Brawl Stars Story" and thought, yeah, this is peak. Or maybe @illumanarti's fire fuckin cover art reeled you in (which is still so good, thatd prob be the thing to hook *me* if i was a random reader stumbling across sotj)
When I first started this as a baby writer, I was on a trip to the Philippines for a month, bored out of my damn mind having nothing to do but sit around and play brawl stars, grinding trophies with my cousins for like hours. That's when i randomly had the crack idea of writing a fic about Berry (fav brawler at the time, still my main) doing karaoke with Mandy and Chester.
And then I thought, "that was fun, let's do another," so I outlined another fic that, sadly, never made the light of day. It would've been about Emz and Poco going on a date, with a bunch of different brawlers having their own things going on, that eventually ends with the date (comedically) going to shit and the Swamp of Love burning down. Here's the notes app outline:
And here you can see the start of my addiction of writing Larry and Lawrie into everything!
(And that last sentiment was saved for SOTJ)
Maybe I'll pick it up again, but probably not. My characterization and style has changed a bit since then (and i hate how dirty I did Edgar in this initially lol)
Anyways, XoXo never happened, and I started being motivated to write this other random idea I had, about Sandy! I do have another notes app outline from way back then for it, but it's way longer and has spoilers for the whole plot so I won't post it. Just know it was there, and it was next.
Checking my notes app again, apparently I was initially considering the name "Snoozing for a Bruising" which… no. Why?
(Also, fun fact, interestingly Gene was supposed to stick around. He was always gonna fuck off eventually and not really do much working w/Sandy, but I don't think he was initially gonna leave in the fourth paragraph.)
Another fun fact I like sharing, SOTJ was initially gonna be a oneshot, like the berry fic. Yeah. It was gonna be a quick, funny story, where Sandy does stuff and fucks up, and at the end Tara walks into the bazaar like this:
But then, I had the urge to vent a little. Be a lil *angsty*, a lil *emo* if you will.
I wrote 5:24 A.M. — Knock Yourself Out. I think if I hadn't, I wouldn't have kept writing. But I did, and figured at the time it was a little cringe and out of the blue, but in hindsight it might be the most important scene in the fic. Going from the wacky blabber-talk to the gut-punch of Sandy's mental state is the hook that sets the fic’s funny-yet-bitter tone until the end. I think it's why you all kept reading, too. Because it wasn’t just Sandy's problems anymore.
>But he can’t help it. He’s tried medication, energy drinks, fucking hypnotism— but nothing works. It’s always back to his usual routine, sleeping longer than most people should. Byron said it might not even be a health condition, instead some sort of state of mind he can break out of by playing a few games of Brawlball with friends to get the blood pumping. But he knows that doesn’t work either.
>It’s almost certain to him that one day, he’ll let everyone down so hard that they'll all ditch him at the grassfield.
[editor's note: oh my god. pasting this i just realized there's been a typo in this second section this whole time. I wrote "they won't just ditch him at the grassfield" instead of... what the fuck!!]
When I finished and posted the first chapters, I figured a safe goal would be like 20 kudos by the end. Because, really, who the fuck reads Brawl Stars fanfic. And if I hit that, 40 by the end would be nice. Hell, maybe even 80?
But I also had like a super, super stretch goal of 100 kudos. Like, if stars aligned I *could* hit it I guess. Also appearing on one of the first pages when you sorted by kudos, I figured that'd be cool. But that felt way too wishful.
And then I did it?
SOTJ hit 100, and appears on the fourth page for the entire BS fandom. For Sandy specifically, it's one of the first! Though I think for Sandy-centric, it's the top. Actually, I don't think I've even seen another sandy-centric gen fic (Where are they, cmon…)
I’m not sure it'll hit 200 tbh, or ever appear on that first kudos page, as a non-romance fic of a brawler that’s not super popular. I suppose I could reel more people in labelling it as Sandy/Leon, which wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but also just feels like… cheating? Because it’s not really a Sandy/Leon story, I didn’t write it that way. It’s just a Sandy story that Leon is important in (with undertones that mayhaps some crushes could be involved).
But hey, if this post has proven anything it's that I'm nothing like Tara; I can't predict shit. I would love to be proven wrong again.
