I figured I'd give an update as to some of the WIP's that I've been currently working on.
Push & Pull: My re-write of the OG series of ATLA with a butterfly effect is coming along nicely. Book 1 updates should still be happening every two to three weeks, and I've made some headway on Book 2. I've got a long way to go, but I've got a pretty good outline of where I want to take the story and two chapters are in a rough draft stage at this point.
Painted Lady of the Academy: Currently has a rough outline with some major plot points. But the more I think about this one, I might just integrate it as a section in the latter half of Push & Pull.
Echoes: Chapter 3 drafting has begun! A decent amount of the dialogue has been written and I'm working on layering the scenes now.
I also started on a new WIP...
I thought that I had put vampires behind me...but @demaparbat-hp created an amazing piece of fanart featuring a vampire Zuko and a blood bending Katara, and I found myself inspired to write a fic. In fact, if your looking at this post now, there is a good chance that the prologue will be up on my A03 account to read now! The link will up here in just a few minuets from this post.
Set in an AU, this fic is a dark fantasy loosely based off the folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, I'm calling this one: Somewhere between the Sun and the Moon.
If you follow me for my other fics, this one is going to be a little darker in nature, but it currently still has the Teen and Up rating. If that changes, I will update the tags on A03 and give an update here as well.
So…a certain fic I’ve been working on has had a stranglehold on my attention. And as such, I’d like to make a quick update post for Somewhere Between the Sun and the Moon.
With the first three chapters being somewhat self-contained and posted, I’ve been finding myself jumping from chapter to chapter with the next few installments. You know, making sure I’m covering any plot holes, getting all my foreshadowing down, letting the characters completely run off with the plot…all the fun stuff that comes with writing.
And with that, I’d like to share what I’m attempting to do with the next six chapters of the fic…
Sometime this summer, I’ll be posting a brand new chapter once a week. And because I’m really excited to share what’s happening next, below the cut is the first scene of chapter four! I’m pretty happy with it, I may end up nitpicking a bit at certain words before it actually posts, but if anyone wants a preview please continue reading!
Come and see
Come and see
The ship known as the Howling Eel, cut through the water's much like its namesake. Larger than the tribe's fishing crafts that followed after, this particular one, was built for battle. And at the point where its three sails met at the mast, stood a loan figure. The bone dagger she gripped, dug into the wood while she bent her knees with the Eel's motions; the beads woven into her hair jiggled in the breeze, disrupting the loops that framed her russet face full of youth and vigor.
She reached up to grab at something shining that peaked out under the folds of her neckline, and she closed her eyes that matched the hue of the sky above her. Breathing deep the salt air, she strained to hear the song trapped in the water over the warrior's shouts from below. Though their armor was mostly padded, the men of the tribe had adorned themselves with what precious metal their people had, and its clanking, proved to be a distraction the Tribe's Woman had yet to overcome.
Come and see
Come and see
The wind was cold upon her face and limbs; her cobalt hanbok and its fur trimmed edges bellowed about her, much like the ship's three sails.
Come and see
Come and see
She swayed with the dipping of their ship, all the while searching painstakingly inward for the thing that kept her from connecting to the song fully.
On that day she had made a promise to herself before she boarded the Eel.
'Today, I will break it. Today I feel like I can reach out and touch the song…'
With each breath it was as though she was diving into the ocean's depths. And in her mind's eye, she could see a heavy and unyielding door that sat before her, unwilling to let her pass to reach the melody on the other side.
'If I can make it past…'
"Katara!"
The woman's eyes snapped open and she looked down to catch her brother shouting up, the other men of the tribe rushing about as they set riggings for a tight maneuver through the ice fields.
"Do you see anything?" Hand to his mouth, Sokka called up to her with a look that all but said, 'Stop messing around!'
My plans for a new chapter a week for the next six chapter event for Somewhere Between the Sun and the Moon is well underway! And while I still have a bit more work to do before I’m ready to post, I am fairly confident that I’ll have the next set of chapters ready for sometime starting in July!
And to give everyone some idea of what I’ve left to do, I have a brief description of where the next few chapters currently stand below:
Chapter 4 In Review: Plot hole filling currently in effect.
Chapter 5 In Review: Some more foreshadowing needed…
Chapter 6 In Review: Some research needed to proceed.
Chapter 7 In Drafting: Foreshadowing, research, and general clean up in order to get this one into review.
Chapter 8 In Drafting: Research! Research! Research!
Chapter 9 In Drafting: Research needed. And I am very happy to say that the note that I had for a while that simply read, “Katara does something cool here!” has evolved into a three page action sequence.
That’s it for now! The next time you hear from me about this should be to let you know that the next chapter is up on AO3!
Giving you an update on Somewhere Between the Sun and the Moon…
Have I been working on it? Yes.
Have I been working on the next chronological chapter…sort of.
The next chapter is in its drafting phase, but then the plot bunnies demanded that I work on another chapter that’s going to happen further into the fic.
The scene sort had itself on repeat in my head for some time, and while I had taken the basic structure of it down, the need to flesh it out further only grew stronger when I found the perfect hype song for the it.
While I myself am usually adverse to spoilers, there maybe some of you out there, who are following this fic that may want to see what I have planned, that and, I really wanted to share, so I’ve included a small section of what I’ve been working on under the cut. (Please don't judge too harshly, it's still got some edits to go through before it officially posts to AO3!)
Regardless, finishing off this scene and appeasing the plot bunny overlords have made me really excited to get back to work on the next chapter.
In a total unrelated note, does anyone else think that City Walls by twenty one pilots gives off Zuko vibes?
Thump
Something was tickling her nose.
‘What…’
Still dazed, Katara slowly opened her eyes, to find that an odd creature had landed on her.
Blurry eyed, she looked to the small insect, recognizing that it was in fact a butterfly; its delicate gold and scarlet wings flapped open and closed against the night sky as it rested upon her.
She stilled her breath, lest she disturb it. Her mother would often tell her that those creatures born of a singular nature were not only rare but often blessed by the spirits.
‘Things that should be protected…’
She lay in amazement on the ground, watching the spots of the butterfly’s wings open and close with each flap of its wings. It was truly a beautiful creature.
‘Maybe I could lie here, for a bit longer…Then I can sort out what had happened…’
It was a nice enough spot to rest. There were flowers nearby…
‘What was that scent?’ She wondered at the foreign smell the permeated the place, floral and sweet, it melded with the balmy night air.
‘Things to be protected…’ The thought struck her once more. She had been protecting… something, but she had passed out.
‘Why…did…Where am I?’
Thump
‘The dragon!’
She was no longer in the place where she had found the dragon. That much she knew for certain. She had been in the denser part of the forest, but she had awakened to find herself in a clearing of sorts. Where had she been taken to?
The butterfly continued to flap its wings.
Thump
What was that sound. There was water running too, she could hear its song though dull and muted…
Her head, still pounding and her limbs achy, and heavy from breaking the seal during the day. Her blood still felt cold in her veins as she reached for the water’s source.
Thump
The butterfly flapped its wings.
‘It really does have beautiful wings.’ The Waterbender admitted as she found herself focusing on intricate designs that fluttered before her face. It was almost as though the butterfly had golden eyes embedded in its wings.
‘So pretty, the red and the gold…’
Thump
And she froze, and took in a sharp breath.
Her thoughts that had wandered, had been reeled back. She realized that some of the gold she was seeing was not from the butterfly at all, but from something else that lay behind it.
‘Gold in the wings and gold floating beyond?’
Gold of different sizes, with slits that were narrowing; staring unblinking, hovering right over where she lay...
I am still working in the drafting of chapter 3, but I feel as though I have finally beat writer’s block. And I’m hoping to get that posted within a month.
I also took the time to go back and clean up chapters 1 and 2. I had been wanting to do that for a while actually. My writing style back then was…different, and I wanted it to be more on par with my current wips.
Both chapters did not change much in a narrative sense, but I think they flow a bit better now. I was also very scared of getting too much into the characters’s heads when I first wrote chapter 1 so it now includes a bit more internal dialogue from Zuko.
One final note: I have been humbled, I clearly did not know how to spell certain words. Lots of clean up in that department for the two posted chapters.
It maybe a little late, but some things that I’m working on and writing goals for the new year:
Somewhere Between the Sun and the Moon:
Final edits for the next chapter are under way and I’m hoping to post that before the end of the month.
I also want to try to get out 1-2 more chapters before the end of the year, and finish the re-write of my original outline since I thought of some new plot developments for the later chapters and don’t want to miss out on foreshadowing in the beginning ones.
Echoes:
I would like to begin work on, and post chapters 4 and 5, and perhaps work on an actual outline, which has for up until now, been living in my head and not actually written down.
Push and Pull: Book 1
My retelling of the OG series with a butterfly effect will finish posting this year! With only four chapters left, I’m going to try to keep to a once a month posting. And as happy as I am about finishing this fic, if I am to be honest, I’m feeling a bit bittersweet about it coming to a close…
However, this is a series rewrite. So, that means…
Push and Pull: Book 2
I have about 100 pages of a rough draft for this one. Which is currently part 1 (about 10 ish chapters of various stages of done-ness) My goals for the year is finishing the outlining and drafting. It’s a big goal, but hey, I’ve already started, and I’m not as much of a novice as when I started book 1. So while I still got a long ways to go, I’m hoping the head start I gave myself means I’ll get to posting quicker. And I really can’t wait to share some of the (hopefully) really interesting surprises I have in store!
The Red String of Fate:
It was meant to be a oneshot for Zutara month, but I’ve got the beginnings of an idea for part two. No guarantee’s that it will see posting this year, but I’m definitely marinating on a few plot points.
Tales of the Lóng and Fèng Huáng :
I want to be able to get at least one more chapter out as I have a few more ficlet ideas for this anthology series. Once I get to about 20 pages of content, I’ll create a new chapter on my AO3 account.
This is probably a bit too ambitious but, let’s see what the new year brings!
As always, Thank you for any comments and kudos, as they really are a great source of motivation for uploading new chapters, and if anyone does have questions on updates or where things stand in a certain fic, I’m more than happy to give you an update!
Not quite an update, but a preview for the next chapter of Somewhere Between the Sun and the Moon…
Sorry guys, I’m struggling with writing this fic linearly (Chapters 8 and 9 are coming along great though!) I did however, manage to get some inspiration for the first scene of Chapter 3, which you can find below the cut.
So it’s only a spoiler if you haven’t read the first two chapters on AO3.
Sometimes, I would still hear it.
The singer in the ice…
In the times just before waking…when I would still be sleeping.
Somewhere between the Sun and the Moon…
That’s what my people would call it.
And I ignored it…until the day that I heard it again, though not in my dreams.
Katara held the reins tighter, while her other hand gripped a spear of solid bone. Perfectly balanced it pointed straight ahead into the vast expanse of tundra before her.
Leaning over the sleigh, she shushed the two leopard-rams that pawed at the ground in anticipation. They were still young; her mother had helped her raise her team for the past three years, and they had grown to have a hasty disposition much like their master. And as Katara looked about the frozen tundra, glistening in the midnight sun, the Tribe’s Girl found herself needing to calm her own anxiousness. Girl and beasts; it was a trial for them all that day.
Looking up to the next snow ridge, she could see Fala and Namid waiting with their own teams. Fala, the taller of the two, gave a quick motion of her hand, before pointing down with the tip of her spear to the snow fields below.
Straining her eyes, Katara watched for movement in the drifts, and before long she spotted the glossy coat of a wolf-deer. A near pure white that blended into the snow, save for the mossy tips of black antlers that gave it away.
‘But…it’s by itself.’ Katara wondered, searching the drifts once more, ‘Where is its pack?’
She craned her neck behind her; the hybrid animals had been known to catch hunters off guard. A decoy would be dispatched while the rest would surround the sleigh of the hunter separated from the rest, at which point…
The hunters became the hunted.
But the Tribe’s Girl found nothing behind her aside from wind whipped snow fields.
Until…
Come and see…
Katara stilled. Eyes wide, she stared into the white void before her.
Had she truly heard what she thought she did? She was truly awake…wasn’t she? In that moment the Tribe’s Girl wasn’t sure. Her hands loosened on her hold of her reins, the end of her spear dipping into the snow.
Perhaps she was still dreaming, and she had yet to leave to earn her mark. She gave a tilt of her head, and closed her eyes, focusing on finding the song that should not have been...
