#final pack

[kedreeva]

I'm working my way through The Final Pack after you played the game the other week, and while I understand why Stiles Ate The Thing, I still want to shake him and be like "and you didn't ask any more questions?!? Really dude?" (They're now traveling the Gouge and met the local monster.)

XD He will do worse things without much question, and they will land him in hotter water soon lol

[kedreeva]

I love so many of your Teen Wolf fics! Keep Talking is one of my favorites! And the Final Pack, I'm not sure how you found the time to write such an epic epic.

Then I got to tumblr and was graced with the peaowl pictures and knowledge. Amazing. 💖

KEEP TALKING!!! I always forget I wrote that one, until I hear the song I wrote it to, and then I'm like DAMN I LOVE THAT STORY and it's always exciting to hear someone else enjoyed it. That shit was so self indulgent and fun to write!!

Final Pack.... I'm actually hip deep in writing that one a second time, into an original. I don't know how I'm going to survive a second writing of it, but I am working through it and I am VERY excited about doing so. And sweet messages like this leave me motivated to go work on it so I think that is what I am going to do!

[kedreeva]

Welp. That’s it. The final chapter of The Final Pack is now posted. 427k total words (plus an afterword), and near 10 years of writing off and on, and it’s finished. It’s also my last Sterek story that I intend to finish, though we’ll see if that sticks when I get lonely for it.

Feels good though. Weird, but good. I’m going to miss it SO MUCH.

[kedreeva]

50 minutes left until nano starts and I just finished writing up the outlines for the last 2 chapters properly. I had bare bones but the scenes are planned out now. Just a matter of writing them. I am NERVOUS AS HECK. But so excited!!

[kedreeva]

Welp! I just finished writing the last few words of final pack. I still have a HUGE chapter to edit, but it’s out in draft at least. God it’s such a relief!!! I’m actually kind of excited to edit, and dreading posting this because that’s it.

[kedreeva]

Number 17 for the ask meme! ( ᐛ )

17) Do you have any wips that you can tell us about? What are you most excited for in you wip?

So, anyone that knows me knows that I have a policy of not having more than 3 WIPs going at any time, and I recently learned I have to have more than 1 going. This is very important to me because if I have more than 3 or only 1, my brain starts stressing out and instead of being hugely prolific like I'm capable of, I write nothing instead. Askbox prompts don't "count" to my brain and, actually, finishing one seems to trigger the "we finished a WIP" response in my brain during time of crisis (4 WIPs). That's not what you asked but I wanted to say it to explain why I have the number I have.

So currently I have 3! With the great desire to have more I'm refusing to admit exist.

The first is the obvious one! It's an original version of The Final Pack, and I'm in the middle of the last chapter of part 1. My gosh is to finish it by new year's. Part 1 is the early stages of the story, the way Osker ends up out in the apocalypse with a pack of werewolves instead of nestled safely in a human camp with other humans. The premise, if you're unfamiliar, is that the apocalypse came and went 6 years ago and in the aftermath, humans and supernatural creatures have been at war. It has not gone well in most places. The story kicks off with my main character finding out actually supernatural creatures are people not monsters and maybe humans have been wrong all along. This is the one I'm most excited about, because it'll be the first original novel I've actually finished in.... Well, years and years. And I intend to eventually publish it!

The second WIPi have is a story I'm cowriting with @fiore-della-valle. My half of the story is from Eddie's POV, where he wakes up trapped in the In Between with Max's consciousness. They are currently trying to figure out how to communicate with the outside world and how to get out together to wake up back in their bodies. There's like one person reading this one, and I love them for that and promise to finish it for them.

My third and final WIP is my sentinel AU!!! I JUST figured out what I want to overall do with it. Basically Steve gets activated as a sentinel (a human who can sense things way better than normal) and Eddie gets voluntold to be his guide, and then the spicy six move into a house together and shenanigans ensue until the plot finds them. I love shenanigans and The Plot.

Since I'm nearly finished with part 1 of final pack, I CAN say that I'm planning to do a sequel (two actually) of my King Eddie story, one covering Steve's side of things between Eddie's death and them finding out Eddie isn't dead, and then one from his time post return, being Max's new older brother and falling for Steve. Yay!

[kedreeva]

Fanfic Writer asks (if you haven't answered these ones already): 8, 16, 21

8) Do you take inspiration from real life? If so how do you incorporate it into your fics?

Most of my fics aren't based on anything in real life, like nothing happens to me and I think oh I gotta write a fic about this happening to someone. BUT what I do a LOT is lob in little details. When a character needs a hobby, it's one I like (even if it's not one I do). If a character needs a little childhood story, sometimes it's one of my own. If you've ever thought some quirk or detail of a side character in one of my stories made them feel more like a person.... it's probably one of these sorts of add-ins.

16) Do you have a method for getting characters to sound/feel in character?

Embarrassingly, yes. In my head I call it the Lasagna Effect. I cannot believe I'm going to admit to this but here we go.

When I make lasagna, I imagine my favorite version, the one I make myself for me only. I know what ingredients go into this lasagna. I know how long it takes to bake. I know what it will taste like. I know what side dish I like best with it. Every actual lasagna I make can be compared to the imaginary ideal of this lasagna in my head. In this way, it becomes easy to ask myself "does this lasagna have cheese?" and the answer is yes. "Does this lasagna have meat?" the answer is no.

I do the same thing for the characters. I know what goes into the character, I know what they are made of, how they were made etc. Any time I might question the character's actions or words or whatever, I compare them to the base in my head, and ask if that's a property of this lasagna or not.

Which is, you might think, just like asking yourself "would this character say/do that" but the distinction for me is that there are like a thousand ways to make lasagna, and they are ALL lasagna. And some versions of lasagna I absolutely HATE. Some are basically the same as mine; maybe they have all the same ingredients and layers and cook time even, but use a different brand of sauce or something. But they are ALL lasagna, they are all correct versions. Anyone can say "yeah that's lasagna" because it probably fits someone's take on it.

But the point isn't to match any take. The point is to ask if it matches MY take of it, consistently. The question isn't "is this lasagna" but "does this match MY lasagna?" For original characters this helps me keep the character consistent at least. For fanfiction.... well, I guess it depends on how close your version is to the original recipe, if that's even what you want to do.

21) (2) What is your favorite fic of yours?

I'm cheating, but I have two and for different reasons.

The first is a good omens fic, If We've Got Nothing (We've Got Us). Absolutely love the style i used with this one. It came out precisely how I wanted, eventually, and has a quiet, ethereal, peacefulness to it. It is nice to relax to.

The second is a teen wolf sterek fic, The Final Pack. This sucker took 9 years of my life, it's 425k of High Adventure in the apocalypse, it's thick with plot and Beasts. I'm currently scraping the serial numbers off, re-writing it to be an original story because I loved it so much that even after so many years, I still don't want to leave it. It is not nice to relax to- you get a little ways in and suddenly you look up and it's three days later and you've done nothing but Consume This Story. I know because it happens to me even though I know damn well what happens next.

[kedreeva]

oof. The finished story grief is hitting hard today. hitting me and hitting @redbirdblogs who messaged me about editing this morning, and how it doesn't want to finish editing because it ALSO does not want this thing to be over. We've worked on this together for 9 years off and on. It spans the entire length of our friendship.

I've spent most of my day just thinking about how, like... this apocalypse was soft. Some terrible things did happen, but overall, the story followed this group as they walked through it all, trailing hope in their wake. They found happiness and where they could not find it, they made it. They found family and love, god there was so much love.

and I told the parts that were important to the story, but even 425K was not enough to wallow in some of the soft moments, the moments where they had each other and their whole lives spread out before them. The moments that didn't necessarily add more to the plot, but the ones I watched between the lines. The ones where they all decided it was worth it, because of one another.

And the story is written, and I won't be able to write it again across the same time of my life. I can write more scenes if I want, I can re-write it if I want, but it'll never quite be the same. I am not the same.

It'll be posted soon, hopefully, and maybe others will share it with me then. I'm just sad today because i miss my happy little apocalypse.