#btwupdate

[bybyebitheway]

[ the magician -pt iii: Submerged Nocturne ]

In which our heroes continue to receive a bumpy start to their family vacation.

Wall of Links:

where to read: [ neocities] | [ ao3] | [ sideblog ]

[the-aesthetician-writes]

[ 22.102023 ] || [ sunday ] || [ clear ]

mini update #1: I am very behind on goals.

mini update #2: I decided to take on an accountability buddy, so far, it's help.

mini update #3: I've already written up 1.5k of words for the next chapter of BTW and god, I feel tired but elated! I do have a bit of reservation with how I ended it, but I like what I've made so far. There is a bit of rambling in the beginning but I just need to start it somehow. There might also be funky pronouns around a certain sample stealer, but hopefully I've managed to catch them before publishing on AO3. n.n

mini update #4: Poco-A-Poco has been getting to me, but I'm attempting to figure out it's voice while still being able to work on it.

mini update #5: I will be trying to crank out 1.5k every day this week to catch up on BTW chapters. Like, I know I'm going to hate it, but a this point it needs to be done. I don't want to sit here and mourn characters and worlds when I know I'm capable of sticking it out and writing it. Especially now that I finished one chapter today.

mini update #6: I want to try and be move active on Tumblr. I'm thinking maybe I can put out a poll to see what you all would like to see from me?

[the-aesthetician-writes]

September Writing Review

(Also a short update.)

Hey all! I've been gone for a while, I know. I've been trying to keep active in the midst of finding work and life being well... life. So the short and quick version of this is, I'm back-ish!

I have decided to really buckle down and have a try at building up my writing habits. With a couple of months filled with some horrendous experiences I won't detail here, I have realized what I want to do more than anything is writing. I have been attempting the process for the passed couple of weeks and the results have been more than I had expected.

Last month's goal is more or less having a decent amount of work done on all WIPs. And while that can seem overwhelming. I think the way I had set this up this time could hold results. So prior to my recent experiment, I've been writing with the goal of finishing one thing with no deadline (probably not the best method now that I'm thinking about it.) So what I decided to do now is to have a deadline along with tentative goals by the end of the year(NaNoWriMo) and some taking place during the first half of the new year (AroWriMo).

Some of these goals range from solid word counts to more abstract concepts in writing but for transparency (and accountability, really) I'll share them below.

Poco-A-Poco (Webcomic)

Poco-A-Poco is a web comic I set out to make at the beginning of the pandemic. Hoping to create something while in lockdown. It has been abandoned for a couple of years but I have decided to work on it to help build my discipline.

The goal for the last two weeks was to create a total of around 30 "pages" for the web comic. Thinking pages for web comics are often subjective and since I have a passion for graphic design. I felt it would at least work as a warm up when working on it.

The goal after September would be to work on a "page" daily for Poco-A-Poco. Just to build a rhythm and if I manage the time, some day update the comic with what I have worked on.

By the end of 2023, the total should amount to around 122 "pages".

By April 2024, the total should amount to around 243 "pages".

@bybyebitheway

Bi The Way is my ocean punk baby. Also started in 2020 and has had the unfortunate ratio of one chapter released per year it's been alive. With my new motivation with these goals, I decided BTW needed a concrete goal to hit. This was not only to build discipline, but also to build stamina in my writing sprints. I will be trying the Pomodo Method when writing BTW chapters along with the modified Kitchen Timer Method.

The goal of these past few weeks was to write around 4 chapters. I really attempted to give my all these passed few weeks, but haven't managed to work on Bi The Way. However, knowing I had planned beyond these two weeks made me feel better about the initial failure.

This October, I plan on playing catch up on BTW and other WIPs I fell behind on. By the end of this month, I plan on having written 5 chapters along with the four chapters that carry over last month. I feel like the carry over factor will help in building that stamina in terms of writing. After all, the only reason I had set 30 pages in two weeks for Poco-A-Poco was to build in routine. I'll talk more about that later on, but for now my goal with BTW is to have written 4/5 chapters each month. Each chapter having a minimum word count of 1,500 words. BTW will have a hiatus in November for NaNoWriMo.

By the end of the year, I would like to have around 14 chapters.

By the end of April 2024, I would like to have around 30 chapters.

@tobeaspected

To Be Aspectec is another product of the pandemic and also my first dive into AroWriMo. Having failed to achieve what I originally wanted for AroWriMo multiple years in a row, I plan to finish at least one character interaction just in time for next year's AroWriMo.

The goal for the last two weeks was to have two "scenes" written for TBA. With the goal being more subjective and similar to my goal with Poco-A-Poco pages, I opted to have a definition set for what counted as a scene (for my overthinking sanity's sake). A scene would mean any amount of writing needed before the player makes a choice. (Oh I forgot to mention TBA is an interactive fiction piece, didn't I?) Besides the quantity, anything else was up to me.

By the end of the year, I would like to have 6 "scenes" written for TBA.

By the end of February 2024, I would like to finish one "volume" of TBA. A volume would be a total of two characters and all their interactions, including endings.

By the end of April 2024, I would like to have 10 "scenes" written.

@thehuntersacethetic

The Hunter's Ace-Thetic is another interactive fiction project that started during the pandemic. It has been through many different mediums as a way to experiment and learn about different media, but I will focus on ChoiceScript for now.

My goal during the past two weeks was to write out one "episode". Again, with the goal being to build stamina, I added THAT work load into the two weeks as well. More so, the focus these past two weeks was to organize the "episode" structure, with the real priority being on an outline for it.

By the end of the year, I would like to have 4 episodes of THAT.

By the end of April 2024, I would like to have 8 Episodes of THAT.

NaNoWriMo 2023 Project (OMS)

For the month of November, I plan to take on NaNoWriMo and work on one of my abandoned attempts. I hope to write to full 60,000 words by the end of Novemember. If anything, I hope I learn how to be a better writer. The name of the book will be: "Oh My, Starsigns!"

"Oh My Starsigns!" is planned to be a sci-fi/ crime drama(?) taking place in the future where the space police have technology that can take over a suspect's body. Along with the police themselves, suspects also posses different abilities. The story will begin when a prison ship crash lands on a distant planet. Really trying hard to not give anything away just yet.

By the end of 2023, I would like to have Oh My, Starsigns! finished.

By the end of April 2024, I have no further plans for OMS other than maybe self publishing on Amazon or somewhere else if I'm able to find a better alternative.

What I've Written So Far (End of September, 2023):

Poco-A-Poco: 20/30 Pages

Bi The Way: 0/4 Chapters, 0/6k Words

To Be Aspected: 0/2 Scenes

The Hunter's Ace-thetic: 0/1 Episodes

What I Plan to Write (October 2023):

Poco-A-Poco: 40/30 Pages

Bi The Way: 8/4 Chapters, 12k/6k Words

To Be Aspected: 4/2 Scenes

The Hunter's Ace-thetic: 2/1 Episodes

Reflection:

I think these past two months have been a great experiment in knowing what to do different for the next couple of weeks. Hope to update you a month from now with good results.

[bybyebitheway]

BI THE WAY CHARACTER || MR. NEWT BISON

gender: male

pronouns: he/him/his

sexuality: bisexual

occupation: meteorologist

role: weatherman

appearance: Father of the Bison Daughters (Prue, Peri, and Beth) and married partner to engineering field pioneer Dr. Joan Bison. His black combed hair and perfect smile are what people usually see from him, but at home his hair has been prone to the occasional accident. From being clipped together with bows for a fancy princess tea party to being partially singed from the more serious marine biologist tea party, no lock from Newt's scalp was safe. Newt Bison's brown eyes have gotten to see many wonders from the natural world, his wife being no exception. He remembers their meeting like it was yesterday, his brown skin drenched from an overlooked weather forecast (probably his own) and his hands reaching to Dr. Joan Bison's hands as they shared an umbrella.

[bybyebitheway]

CHARACTER INTRO || DR. JOAN BISON

gender: female

pronouns: she/her/hers

sexuality: bisexual

occupation: engineer

role: captain

appearance: Mother to the Bison Daughters (Prue, Peri, and Beth) and married partner to meteorologist and weatherman, Newt Bison. All four of them have seen how her brown curly hair can get scratched, teased, and tied whenever she is confronted with an impossible problem. Her daughters understand its where they have gotten it from and Dr. Joan Bison has come to understand it comes from her mother and the generations before her. Her brown eyes have watched her daughters grow into extraordinary women and in turn, have also help them see more than one solution to their day to day problems.

[bybyebitheway]

CHARACTER INTRO || PERI BISON

gender: female

pronouns: she/her/hers

sexuality: pansexual

occupation: engineer

role: wifi-wiz

appearance: The youngest of the Bisons' & Daughters crew, Peri Bison is the Latina engineering legacy. She keeps her black straight hair short, partly due to safety protocols and also due to the accidents at her facility that produce said protocols. Whether all those accidents are all done by her, Peri can't say without her lawyer present.

[bybyebitheway]

CHARACTER INTRO || PRUE BISON

gender: female

pronouns: she/her

sexuality: ace

occupation: surgeon

role: medical expert

appearance: Eldest daughter to Dr. Joan & Mr. Newt Bison, Dr. Prue Bison towers over her two younger sisters, both physically and perhaps academically (everything's always up to a debate in this family). Prue's black wavy hair is always put up into a bun, leaving room for her analytic dark brown eyes to take in every morsel of detail she needs to make life and death decisions. Her eyes now scan the ocean floors of the Southern Atlantic Ocean as she rides in the Bisons' & Daughters sub-shuttle with her family.

[the-aesthetician-writes]

Hello from 2022 - An Update

(almost 2023, yikes! my bad!)

So I have quite the expected update to provide. I am very disappointed in myself to share that I have significantly dropped the ball on all my WIPs. It's so crazy how 2020 lasted for like three years and hasn't shown signs of slowing down.

In any case, I have found myself wanting to write again (after almost a two year pause). I've been sick recently so, not exactly the best scenario to wake up when wanting to write again. I have a few updates on WIPs past and future. But before I do that I do have a some new observations about the writing process that I wanted to share.

Recently, I have heard of this new process of writing called the Kitchen Timer Method. It's not the Pomato Method, nor is it anything too revolutionary in terms of writing methods. Put simply, the Kitchen Timer Method consists of an isolated bracket of time devoted solely to writing. This can range from an hour to ten minutes, whatever time it is, you're supposed to be writing. What has gotten me to try to latest trend is that the Kitchen Timer Method is the use of a writing journal that is to be treated separate from the current writing project. The writing journal comes in whenever one feels stumped or distracted by real life to focus on the intended project. This allows you to train yourself to slowly ween yourself off of your writer's block and get you to write something!

Among (us) other things, writer's block has definitely played a role in my recent absence from Tumblr (as well as my writing) and I feel like this recent method is especially more forgiving when compared to others. With the Kitchen Timer Method, its more focused on getting you to write and get some version of routine into your muscle memory. So if target word counts or percentages is something that perhaps keeps you away from your writing, I highly suggest the Kitchen Timer Method. I will attempt to revisit this topic again later, perhaps tomorrow, depending on my progress. The main point I wanted to make with this originally was that I will be using my sideblog @thebybyebiline for journal portions of my writing sprints using the Kitchen Timer Method.

Now, an update on a few current WIPs and IFs:

I have worked slightly on @thehuntersacethetic . I made a barely working demo using GameMaker. Game design was always something I have been wanting to explore, should be no surprise given the amount of IFs I have started. However, development on the GameMaker version of THAT is of course on hiatus because coding is hard as fuck. Any future installments regarding THAT will most likely be in an Interactive Fiction medium(Twine, ChoiceScript, etc). The very early demo link will be below, hope y'all enjoy the color yellow!

misterman9000 studio

Creator of: The Hunter's Ace-Thetic (ver0.000000001)

The project I am most eager to work on again is @bybyebitheway , I would like to write more than the first chapter to something just once and I feel like with what BTW was supposed to be originally, the Kitchen Timer Method will help this project along just smoothly. Having the chapter art sitting in my desktop for a couple months has also helped.

In regards to my aro baby, @tobeaspected , I will try to work on this at least twice a month, but there might not be consistent updates if I want to finish work on BTW. Another update regarding TBA, I might decide on creating TBA entirely on HTML. Twine is great and all, but severely buggy. Given the amount of time in between pauses for my projects, I would like them found the way I've left them. My experiences on creating IFs with Twine have made me paranoid at its unpredictability, but I won't deny it is a good tool to use. Maybe I will simply add a side website similar to BTW and have the same content on there. (sidenote: the MC will have to be unisex in the HTML versions since my skills are faulty and my patience for Javascript is wafer thin).

Thank you for taking the time to read this, hope y'all had a great weekend!

-TA