#forever timeless

[beatleswings]

HAPPY GLOBAL BEATLES DAY (June 25)!

[chocolatequeennk]

NaNo update, 11/24-11/27

Usually the Thanksgiving weekend is a great writing weekend for me. Not so this year! I had a lot of things going on, and I ended up getting behind almost three whole days.

Today, however, today I caught up.

So, over the last 4 days, I have:

Written the whole scene of them actually capturing Gallifrey in the stasis cube

Figured out a few issues in Forever Timeless--I'm eager to do some editing tomorrow, now that my word count is caught up

Plotted out several of my Ficmas fics and written a couple of them

Ficmas took most of my energy today. I needed stories where I could just sit down and write a huge amount of text all in one go, without having to hop around in the story for a paragraph here and there.

Oh! I almost forgot the word count update.

Today's words: 3949 Total wc: 45002

I think for a sneak peek today, we're going to go to a scene I wrote last week. This is in the 50th rewrite, between Ten and the younger Rose.

~

Rose looked at the TARDIS her Doctor had just entered, along with her older self. She wasn’t exactly jealous, but it was weird to watch him with another woman—even if it was herself.

“Ah!” Pinstripes pointed at her in jubilation. “You always tease me when I’m jealous of myself, but now you get it!” 

Rose blinked. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

He blushed and tugged on his ear. “Welllll…” The word dragged out in a way she’d already become familiar with, but this time she had a feeling he was stalling for time. 

She crossed her arms over her chest and he looked over at his younger self. “A little help here?” he muttered. 

The younger Doctor shook his head and laughed. “Oh no, Doctor. You got us into this; you can get us out of it.” 

The Doctor sighed and turned back to face her. “Ah… you remember I’m not human, right?”

“It’s hard to forget when you keep insulting humans every time you cut yourself shaving. ‘Stupid apes!’” she said, in what she felt was a pretty good imitation of him.

If possible, the pinstriped Doctor turned even redder. “Yes, and… you know Time Lords are telepathic. I told you that on Platform One,” he added.

“Yeah, I remember. After you told me—or let slip—that the TARDIS was in my head.” He flinched, and she smiled. “S’ok, Doctor. I forgave you for that a long time ago.” 

“So… would you maybe forgive me if I told you that some day in the future you and I form a telepathic bond and it means that even right now I can kind of follow your train of thought? I’m not trying to read your mind, I swear, it’s just that I forgot that you didn’t know that I could do this and—”

Rose stepped forward and put her hand over his mouth. His brown eyes widened even further as he looked down at her. 

“Can my Doctor… Does he…” 

A furrow appeared in the Doctor’s forehead. “Ish it okay…” He pointed at her hand.

[in-her-wildest-dreams]

begin again is still possibly my favourite song ever ever ever

[chocolatequeennk]

Writing update, 9/5

Remember when I used to do these? Back when I actually wrote almost every day and was working hard on long term projects? Have those days come again? I hope so!

Today I finally finished (save beta reading and polishing) chapter 10 of Forever Timeless. This is the chapter I stalled on almost two years ago. It feels so good to be past this point.

And I wrote over 1000 words today to get there!!

Now, if you're thinking this means an update is in the near future, remember that my plan is to actually finish the whole story first. I need to revise the next three chapters, and then the rest of the story has random gaps with notes like, "And then this happens and the Doctor does this and etc etc." I want to fill in all those gaps before I start posting, so I don't get stuck on yet another chapter.

Do you remember how these update posts usually end? With a sneak peek from the day's writing! Enjoy!

Once they’d dropped everyone off, Rose moved around the console, setting the coordinates she wanted. She felt the Doctor’s eyes on her and knew he was trying to place her mood—she was too, to be fair.

The time rotor moved up and down as the TARDIS moved them through time and space. Once it was still again, Rose gestured at the door and followed the Doctor up the ramp.

He opened first one door, then both of them. Rose wrapped her arm around his waist as they looked out at the Earth, slowly spinning in her orbit around the sun. 

“Thank you,” she said finally.

The arm around her shoulders squeezed gently. “For what?”

“For… for giving me the kind of family that could have a holiday like this,” she said, fumbling a little for the words. “I’ve never… I don’t have loads of siblings or cousins. Mum and I spent most holidays with Cousin Mo, or my Nan and Granddad. I just…”

“Family isn’t always what you’re born into,” the Doctor said quietly. “Sometimes, family is the friend who suddenly appeared in your time ship, and the medical student you met on the moon.”

“And a daughter created from a tissue sample and a man you rescued from a wall,” Rose agreed. “So thank you for finding a family with me.”

The Doctor hummed softly, then tugged Rose so they were facing each other. “And sometimes, family is a brilliant, brave woman you find in a basement, being stalked by Autons. I never would have found this family without you, Rose—so thank you.”

[chocolatequeennk]

Writing Update, 9/23

I got a chapter done! Well, the next round of edits on that chapter. That's the first part of Planet of the Dead, which ended up taking three chapters. I plan to finish this edit on the other two chapters before the weekend is over.

And once I'm done with this chapters, I'm into that section of the story with big chunks of "And then this happened and Nancy will figure it out later." Later is almost here.

Now for the snippet!

~~~~~~~

The Doctor sniffed a few times as he closed the TARDIS doors. “Do you feel that, Rose?” He stuck out his tongue, tasting the air. “There’s something very not—London—y here.” 

Rose rubbed her arms. “Yeah, I feel it. It feels kind of like being in the Vortex, only… different. Less friendly,” she offered. 

The Doctor had bent over to run his fingers over the grass, trying to trace that off-putting feeling. He sat back on his heels and looked up at Rose. 

“Friendly?”

“Yeah, when I was in the Vortex alone, it felt almost nice. Like I belonged there.”

“When you…” He shook his head. “Less friendly works,” he said, deliberately choosing not to think about the nonchalant way Rose talked about travelling through the Vortex. “There’s a… disturbance.” 

“In the Force?” Rose quipped, making him grin. 

[chocolatequeennk]

NaNo update, 11/21-11/23

Things are shaping up nicely over here! First, I've written 8520 in the last three days. That's more than I'd written in the previous week combined. I'm almost caught up to the par word count, so I think I'll be okay.

Second, I think the 50th rewrite is largely done. There are a few scenes I need to write while watching the ep so I get things right, but other than that... yep, done.

Third, I figured out two things about the next section of Forever Timeless that have blocked me for 2 years. It's meant rewriting an entire chapter today, but I could actually do it! And it's much more in character and the story is flowing. I know how to fix the character issue in the next two chapters as well (without rewriting) so I should be able to whiz through those, filling in the blanks.

All in all, it's been a good three days of writing.

And now, an excerpt! This is from the 50th rewrite (tentatively titled Time and Again). It's almost at the very end, but it's not spoilery if you read the excerpts from the first few posts.

~

Alone at last, the Doctor wrapped an arm around Rose as they stood once more in front of the painting that had been the start of the whole adventure. “Time to go home?” he suggested quietly.

Rose nodded, but to his surprise, she stepped forward and took the painting off the stand. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Well, I painted it. I might have loaned it to the Crown for 500 years, but I figure they’re done with it now and I can take it back. I painted it for you, Doctor, not so it could be hidden away in a gallery where the only people who would look at it would never understand the meaning.” 

“But we have one on the TARDIS…” He paused. “That we have to drop off with Queen Elizabeth. So, she gets the new version and we get the one that’s now 500 years old?”

Rose nodded. “Help me with this?” she requested. “It’s heavier than it looks.”

[chocolatequeennk]

NaNo update, 11/15-11/20

I spent the last six days working on edits for Forever Timeless. On one hand, this meant the word count is pretty low and I'm now behind by a few days.

On the other hand, I have the next four chapters ready for my betas! I'm so excited to be able to say that. They aren't perfect, but that's what betas are for.

I'm now alternating between my NaNo story and filling in the unwritten gaps in the rest of Forever Timeless. And I'm probably going to do some work on Ficmas projects while I'm at it.

I've been working hard to actually do something every day this month. Sometimes it's been literally two sentences, but just getting in the habit of opening up my laptop every day and writing has been good. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get back to really writing after this.

No excerpt this time, since it was a whole bunch of edits. But hey, its good news!

[chocolatequeennk]

Accountability time

Okay, folks. I have been... uh, not as productive with the editing this break as I wanted to be. I have 36 hours left, give or take, and I'd like to get some things done.

Read ch 12-13 of Forever Timeless

Finish 2nd round edits of ch 14-16

Prep ch 12 for posting on Tuesday

Or to make it more granular:

Read ch 12

Read ch 13

Edit 14

Edit 15

Edit 16

Polish 12

I'll be updating with progress reports. Wish me luck!

ETA 1/2:

I got all the reading done last night. I'm also almost done with prepping chapter 12.

I'm at my parents' watching the Rose Bowl and having yummy food and playing with my nephew, so I don't know how much else I'll get done today. Hopefully I can get the next round of edits on ch 14 done at least!

ETA 1/7:

Well... progress has been made? Sort of? In addition to what you see here, I've also typed up the edits on chapter 14.

So, for the weekend:

Edit 16

Type 15

Type 16

Polish 13

Read 14

I'll start a new post next week.