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[nicksgal]

I have no idea.  Even having a links page seems obsolete at this point because there aren't many sites outside of the archive site that update anymore.  But there are still plenty of preserved websites with good, albeit old stories on them.  It would be hard to look for a specific story on one of the archives if you didn't know the title or author.  But then, I guess that would be hard to look for anyway.

Have you ever thought about making a website for the Pbox series and your other stories?  There's a fanfic project idea for you LOL.  It's not necessary, but it might be fun to have a place of your own to post not only the stories, but all the behind the scenes kind of stuff you talk about in your update posts here.

Does your links page have descriptions of the stories too or just titles and authors? If there are descriptions, I'm sure it would be a good resource if anyone was looking for a specific story from way back when. At least on AO3, you might be able to find it if you knew what the author might tag it as. Although, we all seem less specific on those, so there's probably some genre combing involved.

You know, I haven't. It would be fun to have all the behind the scenes stuff with it, but it's probably not something I want to tackle just yet until I decide for sure if I want to try and market it as OF or not. If I commit to trying to publish it, the less places it needs to be removed from, the better, probably. At this point, I think it's only here and AO3. I assume any lingering hint of it on BSBBLVD is long gone if they still archive old threads (or if the site even exists, haven't looked into it much) and I think it was maybe two other places which could be gone with the geocities purge. I haven't looked into it much at this point, but probably need to eventually.

Yeah, I do think we're hard to keep up with, and people that aren't writing or reading anymore probably don't care about most of what we discuss LOL.  Tracy does work a lot of night shifts, but she's more active on Twitter anyway.  We are way too long-winded to have discussions on Twitter! LOL

Hey, lately I've given people a couple of days here and there to catch up, lol! I can't imagine having these conversations on Twitter, it would take days to finish them... more days than it already does. And twitter just isn't built for walls of text, lol.

If you like survival kind of horror, definitely check out The Ruins.  It's a pretty quick read because it's such a page-turner.  It's about a group of college kids who go off the beaten track to visit some ancient Mayan ruins while they're on vacation in Mexico, and things go horribly wrong.  I reread it last summer for inspiration while I was writing Bethlehem because I got one of my ideas from that book, but it's much darker than Bethlehem.  There's also a movie version that I actually saw before I knew it was a book, and that is good too.  The author of the book actually wrote the screenplay, so the basic plot is the same, but he purposely switched things up to keep you guessing.

I haven't read any of SK's super recent books, but if you haven't read 11/22/63, that is one of my favorites!  I recommend it to everyone because it's not even a horror story, so I think even people who don't like King's usual books would like it.  Do you have a favorite of his older books?

I remember you mentioning that about the Ruins when we were talking about adaptations a while ago, actually. I think I'll check it out at some point.

I haven't read that one! I'll add it to the list. Carrie was definitely one of my favorites. And The Shining. I always meant to read The Dark Tower and never did.

I have noticed that too.  I wonder if that's a generational difference.  There's so much more talk about mental health and trauma and "triggers" these days than there was when we were growing up, so teens today are probably more conscious of that stuff.  I get it to some extent, but at the same time, it's just fiction.  And it does take away from the experience if everything gets an advance warning.  I live for those shocking moments, both as a reader experiencing them for the first time and a writer creating them.  But it seems like the majority of readers these days prefer dark stuff, whether it's kink or angst or full-on horror.  Like I've said, I have posted stuff that made me squirm, and my readers seemed to enjoy it.  If it was ever too much for any of them, they never mentioned it.

It may be. I wonder if it's also more frowned upon depending on how anything potentially triggering is handled. Like if it's in there just for shock value, I could see how it would be more upsetting than things that are handled from a place of realism and care. That and it's not like traditionally published works include any warnings or ratings for that matter.

Speaking of kinks, I'm almost to the point of posting my sex scene and I am very concerned about what kind of fetishes people will assume I have personally, lol.

LOL I am much more artistic on the computer than I'm capable of being on paper, so it's a trade off.  If you have something specific in mind, definitely go Google image hunt!  Otherwise, a description of the aesthetic you want will work.  If you have a preference of what kind of color scheme, font style, etc. you want, let me know.

Valid point! I'll go painting googling again. Otherwise some sort of broody Nick circa 2003-2006 that would look good blue-scaled; I can look for that too, but if you have any ideas off hand, I trust your judgement. I always liked the one I went with for PBox (I feel like a few different people gave me options originally), but couldn't tell you what the font is. Here's the PBox one: https://absolutechaos.net/stories/396/images/pbox.JPG I will need to ponder on a snappy tagline that fits in a 200 x 200 square, lol. My hope is to put them in a little line on the series descriptor, so it's probably good if they're the same size.

I hope there will be more cruise years!  I haven't been able to go on one since 2014, and I miss them.

It seems like new albums tend to re-inspire people and bring them back, so maybe the Christmas album will help.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Or at least it will inspire a slew of holiday stories!

LOL What are the chances?  Yeah, the whole thing was so convoluted!  It only took like four days without meds for him to die, which I'm not sure is the most realistic.  This was before I did any serious research; I just took whatever tidbits I did know and ran with them LOL.

I'm impressed you didn't use NSYNC for the battle of the bands!  I included them in quite a few of my old stories too, always as villains or being made fun of.

Well, I'd make my usual joke here, but I feel like the odds are much lower than the song, lol. I wonder how long it takes to reject an organ... Does it depend on the organ? I wonder if taking the medicine beforehand would make it longer? Do you ever get to a point where you don't need the medicine? I know nothing about health and medicine, basically, lol! I roped my bestie into being my "is this medically realistic consultant" as I OF PBox and the first thing I asked was, "can hand sanitizer be used to disinfect a cut in a pinch?" And she said, "not really, also it would hurt like hell, but a naive teenager might think it would, so you could probably still write that." And I thought it was needlessly complicated if it wouldn't actually work, so I scrapped that thought path.

You know, I wouldn't call the female lead of that story a self-insert, but it was dangerously close and I feel like I wanted nothing to do with being related to an NSYNC member, so I made up a band, lmao.

[nicksgal]

Yeah, it was the 2008 April challenge here: http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php/topic,1036.0.html  We had to write something totally different from what we would normally write under a pen name and then try to guess who wrote what.  It was really fun!  That is hands down the worst story I have posted on AO3 though.  It is definitely the slash that gets people to click, not the sci-fi.

I'm not saying lie; I'm just saying maybe there's room for them to become more than friends in the end? I'm just kidding LOL.

I thought it sounded familiar! I did think it was an older thing you wrote for sure. I mean, you did write it as a joke/challenge in a short amount of time, so I can see why you think it's the worst. But the fun and joy is all that matters! If only the sci-fi was what got people to click, lol.

I just don't think there's time to break a romance and build another one while arguing with PBox Nick about why it's a good idea to uproot his life, lol. One of those three things sounds really time consuming.

I think it was finished, but taken down.  It's been reposted by other people, which is how I found it on ff.net.  There's a Wikipedia page about it if you want to read the whole history.  I skimmed it earlier.  It's interesting because no one knows for sure who actually wrote it and what their intent was.  Some author who's writing a memoir took credit for it and said it was satire, but it's not confirmed that she was telling the truth - people have questioned some inconsistencie s.

I don't know that I would want to take credit for that in a memoir whether it was satire or not, lol! It's this big part of fanfic lore, but why play up all the stigmatized parts of fanfic? I don't know if today is the day to deep dive back into that story, but I will probably do so at some point.

I love baby name sites too!  I sometimes tried to go for meaningful names, and sometimes I just used them to find names I liked or that fit the character.

Very true about the 90s names!

It's been a while since I did. I started doing it again with my name changes for the Boys and it is helping me pinpoint at least the ballpark of what I want their names to sound like for each one, but it has been a slow process.

I think what I did with them near the end of my initial fanfic career was looking at nationalities, regions, and popularity lists more than specific meanings.

LOL Yes!  That is one thing I don't think I ever got far enough to include in Not Another Teenybopper Story - a slash storyline!

I think Taylor just seemed like an overused teeny name to me at the time.  I guess that's when masculine names for girls were becoming really trendy.

There's still time! lol

It's definitely one of the more popular masculine names from our era. I think in fanfic at the time, it was shorthand for "this is the tomboyish character" rather than "seemed like a good name for the character."

[nicksgal]

How's writing going the past couple days for everyone?

I woke up yesterday and all I wanted to do was write, but it was the literal end of the story and I promised myself that I wouldn't keep editing the end until I got there in the arcs, especially with five chapters left. I caved and wrote about 80 words of it and I'm glad I did because by the time I got home, I was too exhausted to write. What a waste of an inspiration day! I wonder if I would have chunked out this whole arc if I'd just stayed home and wrote, lol.

I've gotten a little over 1300 words so far today though, but kept focus failing an hour ago, so I decided to take a break and remind you all that I'm not dead, lol. I'm about 1,000 words from what could be the end of this chapter and it feels like I have the next chapter in me today too! (Or at least the start of it. I'm not quite as excited about the whole thing I was about it yesterday.) If I could get both chapters done (or even started), I would feel super productive! I'm happy that this ending is feeling more like "get it done" than "avoid and stare into the void."

[nicksgal]

What a waste of an inspiration day! I wonder if I would have chunked out this whole arc if I'd just stayed home and wrote, lol.

Apparently, it did carry over to today. I've written just over 3000 words and almost finished two chapters! I stopped on one with a little under a third left because it was starting to feel repetitive and I wanted to look at it with fresher eyes after I figured out what the hook was at the end of the chapter between two choices. I have about a third left on that second chapter as well after deciding on the previous chapter's hook, but I'm worried I've hit a wall. My two coffees aren't helping!

Edited to Add: Apparently my fanfic adjacent activity right now is fixing my outline. I want to write, I just feel tired. Think a third coffee will help? Someone stop me from drinking that much caffeine! lol

[nicksgal]

Edited to Add: Apparently my fanfic adjacent activity right now is fixing my outline. I want to write, I just feel tired. Think a third coffee will help? Someone stop me from drinking that much caffeine! lol

Did not have a third coffee. Managed about 700 more words, but very tired. Can't focus even though I know exactly what's supposed to happen for the rest of the chapter. Sigh. Hopefully sleep repairs my inspiration/focus and I can finish these two chapters tomorrow! About 900 words and 500 words to chapter length goals. Although the second chapter feels like it may need more than 500 words to finish, we'll see! It was a very productive day! If I can finish both of these tomorrow, I would be very excited! Then only three chapters left! I guess it's technically three full chapters, 1/3 of one chapter, and 1/6 of another chapter to go! Can't believe it's almost the end!

[RokofAges75]

Does your links page have descriptions of the stories too or just titles and authors? If there are descriptions, I'm sure it would be a good resource if anyone was looking for a specific story from way back when. At least on AO3, you might be able to find it if you knew what the author might tag it as. Although, we all seem less specific on those, so there's probably some genre combing involved.

The fanfic sites have short descriptions, but not specifics as far as what stories are on each site.  I do have a page of links to my favorite fanfics that includes summaries of each story.

You know, I haven't. It would be fun to have all the behind the scenes stuff with it, but it's probably not something I want to tackle just yet until I decide for sure if I want to try and market it as OF or not. If I commit to trying to publish it, the less places it needs to be removed from, the better, probably. At this point, I think it's only here and AO3. I assume any lingering hint of it on BSBBLVD is long gone if they still archive old threads (or if the site even exists, haven't looked into it much) and I think it was maybe two other places which could be gone with the geocities purge. I haven't looked into it much at this point, but probably need to eventually.

That's a good point.  It would be so hard to have to take a story down, but at least it would be for a good reason!

I remember you mentioning that about the Ruins when we were talking about adaptations a while ago, actually. I think I'll check it out at some point.

I haven't read that one! I'll add it to the list. Carrie was definitely one of my favorites. And The Shining. I always meant to read The Dark Tower and never did.

I probably do talk about The Ruins a lot because it really is one of my favorite horror movies and books, and I don't know anyone else personally who has read it.  Stephen King has read it and praised it though, so there you go.

I've never read The Dark Tower books either, but everyone who has says they're really good, so I should get on that.  I also want to reread The Shining because I read it in high school and didn't love it.  I think I was comparing it too much to the movie, which I grew up watching and love, and the book is very different.  I finally read Carrie a few years ago and enjoyed that one.  My favorites of his older horror books are 'Salem's Lot, The Stand, and Misery, although I have a soft spot for Cujo too.  That was the first King book I read when I was like 14, and it always stuck with me.  I loved the way he wrote the dog and made Cujo a sympathetic character who I cried for, even though of course I was rooting for the human characters to escape too.  Poor Cujo never meant to hurt anyone; he was just sick.

It may be. I wonder if it's also more frowned upon depending on how anything potentially triggering is handled. Like if it's in there just for shock value, I could see how it would be more upsetting than things that are handled from a place of realism and care. That and it's not like traditionally published works include any warnings or ratings for that matter.

Speaking of kinks, I'm almost to the point of posting my sex scene and I am very concerned about what kind of fetishes people will assume I have personally, lol.

Oh yeah, that make sense too.  There's a difference between writing things purely for shock value and writing shocking things that have a purpose for the plot and/or character development.

I have been there with writing fetishy stuff and then worrying about readers will assume about me.  That's when the author's notes come out. LOL  I always feel the need to explain that just because a character or scene comes out of my brain does not mean it's actually based on me or something I would enjoy in real life.  I think people get that, though.  No one thinks Stephen King is a serial killer just because he writes horror.

Valid point! I'll go painting googling again. Otherwise some sort of broody Nick circa 2003-2006 that would look good blue-scaled; I can look for that too, but if you have any ideas off hand, I trust your judgement. I always liked the one I went with for PBox (I feel like a few different people gave me options originally), but couldn't tell you what the font is. Here's the PBox one: https://absolutechaos.net/stories/396/images/pbox.JPG I will need to ponder on a snappy tagline that fits in a 200 x 200 square, lol. My hope is to put them in a little line on the series descriptor, so it's probably good if they're the same size.

That's super helpful, thanks!  Yeah, if you find specific pictures you want me to use, send them my way.  Otherwise, I can find a broody Nick from that era.  And I can give it a similar look to the PBox banner.  I think I even have a font that's similar, if not the same.

Well, I'd make my usual joke here, but I feel like the odds are much lower than the song, lol. I wonder how long it takes to reject an organ... Does it depend on the organ? I wonder if taking the medicine beforehand would make it longer? Do you ever get to a point where you don't need the medicine? I know nothing about health and medicine, basically, lol! I roped my bestie into being my "is this medically realistic consultant" as I OF PBox and the first thing I asked was, "can hand sanitizer be used to disinfect a cut in a pinch?" And she said, "not really, also it would hurt like hell, but a naive teenager might think it would, so you could probably still write that." And I thought it was needlessly complicated if it wouldn't actually work, so I scrapped that thought path.

You know, I wouldn't call the female lead of that story a self-insert, but it was dangerously close and I feel like I wanted nothing to do with being related to an NSYNC member, so I made up a band, lmao.

I know acute liver failure can happen quickly, like after an overdose.  One of my more recent stories also includes a liver transplant subplot (see, there I go recycling storylines again LOL), so I did do proper research for that.  I read articles about people needing liver transplants after overdosing on Tylenol, which is incredibly toxic to the liver in high doses.  If the liver completely shuts down, it would kill you within a week or so.  But I'm not sure how long it would take for a transplanted liver to reject and completely shut down without those anti-rejection meds.  Four days seems a little fast.  I think typically those meds have to be taken for the rest of the person's life.

I'm sure hand sanitizer or any kind of alcohol is better than nothing for disinfecting a cut in a pinch, but yeah, that does seem like it would hurt!  I know sanitizing my hands at school after getting a paper cut definitely stings.

LOL I don't blame you for not wanting your almost self-insert character to be related to an NSYNC member!

[RokofAges75]

I think what I did with them near the end of my initial fanfic career was looking at nationalities, regions, and popularity lists more than specific meanings.

That's what I tend to do too.  I love Social Security's baby names site because you can look up lists of popular names from different years.  I tend to start by scrolling through those lists to narrow it down to names I like, and then if I care about the meanings I'll look them up.  Nationalities are helpful too, especially when writing characters you don't want to give a typical, American-sounding name.

There's still time! lol

It's definitely one of the more popular masculine names from our era. I think in fanfic at the time, it was shorthand for "this is the tomboyish character" rather than "seemed like a good name for the character."

LOL True!  I technically never finished that story; I still have a bunch of ideas for it saved.  One of them may even have been a slash storyline.  So if I ever feel like resurrecting it, I have that option.

Also very true about the tomboyish character.  Do you tend to give characters names that fit their personality or intentionally go the opposite route?  I've probably done the former more than the latter, but sometimes I like giving female characters names that can be shortened to a nickname that fits them better than their full name.

How's writing going the past couple days for everyone?

I woke up yesterday and all I wanted to do was write, but it was the literal end of the story and I promised myself that I wouldn't keep editing the end until I got there in the arcs, especially with five chapters left. I caved and wrote about 80 words of it and I'm glad I did because by the time I got home, I was too exhausted to write. What a waste of an inspiration day! I wonder if I would have chunked out this whole arc if I'd just stayed home and wrote, lol.

I've gotten a little over 1300 words so far today though, but kept focus failing an hour ago, so I decided to take a break and remind you all that I'm not dead, lol. I'm about 1,000 words from what could be the end of this chapter and it feels like I have the next chapter in me today too! (Or at least the start of it. I'm not quite as excited about the whole thing I was about it yesterday.) If I could get both chapters done (or even started), I would feel super productive! I'm happy that this ending is feeling more like "get it done" than "avoid and stare into the void."

Aww, I hate those days when all you want to do is write, but you can't!  I'm glad you were able to get some writing in today.  I hope that inspired, excited feeling comes back tomorrow!

I've written about 500 words a day for the past two days.  Today I had plans in the afternoon, so I didn't get to write as long as I might have otherwise, but yesterday I didn't do anything and still couldn't get back into writing mode after I stopped my morning/early afternoon session.  I haven't had a good late night writing session in a while.  But I actually went to bed at a decent time because I was tired and am back up, wide awake, at 2 a.m., so maybe tonight's the night LOL.  I am also contemplating whether I should drink some writing fuel or if that's a really dumb thing to do in the middle of the night.  I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow, but I also don't want to intentionally mess up my sleep schedule any more than it already is or will be a few weeks from now.

Did not have a third coffee. Managed about 700 more words, but very tired. Can't focus even though I know exactly what's supposed to happen for the rest of the chapter. Sigh. Hopefully sleep repairs my inspiration/focus and I can finish these two chapters tomorrow! About 900 words and 500 words to chapter length goals. Although the second chapter feels like it may need more than 500 words to finish, we'll see! It was a very productive day! If I can finish both of these tomorrow, I would be very excited! Then only three chapters left! I guess it's technically three full chapters, 1/3 of one chapter, and 1/6 of another chapter to go! Can't believe it's almost the end!

It was probably a wise decision not to have a third cup of coffee, but I'm sorry you weren't able to focus.  I hate that feeling.  That's what has been happening to me too.  I hope you wake up refreshed and focused tomorrow!  Three more chapters... you've got this!!

[nicksgal]

The fanfic sites have short descriptions, but not specifics as far as what stories are on each site.  I do have a page of links to my favorite fanfics that includes summaries of each story.

That's a good point.  It would be so hard to have to take a story down, but at least it would be for a good reason!

That would be a long links page to list every fanfic on every website, lol! At least your favorites page has summaries.

Yeah, that's why I haven't just bit the bullet yet... And am still publishing the sequel into the void like a crazy person, lol.

I probably do talk about The Ruins a lot because it really is one of my favorite horror movies and books, and I don't know anyone else personally who has read it.  Stephen King has read it and praised it though, so there you go.

I've never read The Dark Tower books either, but everyone who has says they're really good, so I should get on that.  I also want to reread The Shining because I read it in high school and didn't love it.  I think I was comparing it too much to the movie, which I grew up watching and love, and the book is very different.  I finally read Carrie a few years ago and enjoyed that one.  My favorites of his older horror books are 'Salem's Lot, The Stand, and Misery, although I have a soft spot for Cujo too.  That was the first King book I read when I was like 14, and it always stuck with me.  I loved the way he wrote the dog and made Cujo a sympathetic character who I cried for, even though of course I was rooting for the human characters to escape too.  Poor Cujo never meant to hurt anyone; he was just sick.

I'll read it someday, then we can discuss it together.

The book is very different, but I think they're both great in their own ways! Poor Cujo indeed! It was a very nuanced way of writing a "villain," I guess Cujo is the closest thing to a villain there. It's pretty hard to fully demonize a dog though, especially when so many people are Team Pets Over People. It's been a long time since I've read Cujo. Or any King, really. My mom loves him, so it was an easy read to pick up instead of having to trudge to the library.

Oh yeah, that make sense too.  There's a difference between writing things purely for shock value and writing shocking things that have a purpose for the plot and/or character development.

I have been there with writing fetishy stuff and then worrying about readers will assume about me.  That's when the author's notes come out. LOL  I always feel the need to explain that just because a character or scene comes out of my brain does not mean it's actually based on me or something I would enjoy in real life.  I think people get that, though.  No one thinks Stephen King is a serial killer just because he writes horror.

I think it goes back to the "know or are willing to research" aspect. If it's truly important to the plot or character development, then I imagine most authors would put in the due diligence to portray things as accurately (and hopefully sympatheticall y) as possible.

My author's note for that chapter: "You may assume at this point that I have a weird demon fetish. I don't! Although, I've now written two novels about demons and begun a third... in addition to never having met a demon... So who can say for sure? Probably not though." lol I get wanting to separate your person from your fiction.

You never know! Isn't it something like there's anywhere between 25 and 50 active serial killers at any time? Yup! Found it: https://people.com/crime/miranda-barbour-and-serial-killers-misconceptions/

That's super helpful, thanks!  Yeah, if you find specific pictures you want me to use, send them my way.  Otherwise, I can find a broody Nick from that era.  And I can give it a similar look to the PBox banner.  I think I even have a font that's similar, if not the same.

This will be my fanfic adjacent project this week, lol. I'm excited to see it.

I know acute liver failure can happen quickly, like after an overdose.  One of my more recent stories also includes a liver transplant subplot (see, there I go recycling storylines again LOL), so I did do proper research for that.  I read articles about people needing liver transplants after overdosing on Tylenol, which is incredibly toxic to the liver in high doses.  If the liver completely shuts down, it would kill you within a week or so.  But I'm not sure how long it would take for a transplanted liver to reject and completely shut down without those anti-rejection meds.  Four days seems a little fast.  I think typically those meds have to be taken for the rest of the person's life.

That makes sense that it would happen quickly after an overdose. Isn't the liver an organ that regenerates? I wonder how much you have to damage your own liver in order to need a transplant rather than just waiting for it to get better? Am I making this up? Isn't Tylenol pretty toxic in general? I feel like doctors are always recommending ibuprofin over tylenol for pain medication. If a liver shuts down and would kill you after a week, I'm sure that's probably a reasonable timeline for being off anti-rejection meds. Maybe throw in another day for the previous day's dose to fully wear of or something. Although, I feel like if I was Nick and on a "take this or die" medication, I wouldn't forget it? We've gotta be better about keeping Nick healthy!

You'll be proud of me, he hasn't gotten stabbed once yet in PNcklace! But now that I've realized that... maybe he's due for a stabbing? lol Poor Nick.

I'm sure hand sanitizer or any kind of alcohol is better than nothing for disinfecting a cut in a pinch, but yeah, that does seem like it would hurt!  I know sanitizing my hands at school after getting a paper cut definitely stings.

LOL I don't blame you for not wanting your almost self-insert character to be related to an NSYNC member!

My hands were really dry one random day after I asked that, and I definitely muttered a swear under my breath after trying to use hand sanitizer. I promptly texted her and admitted defeat. I'm glad I decided not to use it. Stabbing Nick is okay, but torturing him with hand sanitizer is just mean, lol.

Especially back in 1999! The shame! lol

[nicksgal]

That's what I tend to do too.  I love Social Security's baby names site because you can look up lists of popular names from different years.  I tend to start by scrolling through those lists to narrow it down to names I like, and then if I care about the meanings I'll look them up.  Nationalities are helpful too, especially when writing characters you don't want to give a typical, American-sounding name.

I haven't used the Social Security site, but it's exciting to know they have it! And it's probably where any baby name site gets their popularity list data anyway.

I think in general, I care less about meaningful names than I used to. I think I'm leaning more into the meaningful names for the OF PBox Boys simply to say, "yeah that seems like it could be Brian's name if he was named something else," lol.

LOL True!  I technically never finished that story; I still have a bunch of ideas for it saved.  One of them may even have been a slash storyline.  So if I ever feel like resurrecting it, I have that option.

Also very true about the tomboyish character.  Do you tend to give characters names that fit their personality or intentionally go the opposite route?  I've probably done the former more than the latter, but sometimes I like giving female characters names that can be shortened to a nickname that fits them better than their full name.

What made you decide to stop writing it?

Back in meaningful name days, I definitely did, but now I'm more of the opinion that parents would just name a kid something because they liked it, not because they were intending them to be whatever. Like hubs is definitely "Nick" because he was born around St. Nicholas Day, not because my FIL/MIL intended him to be a "victory for the people" or anything. He's probably not; jury might be out on whether our BSB Nick is a victory for the people, lol. Nickname names are a good way to give a character a more meaningful name without picking something weird based solely on its meaning, I think. I did pick based on meaning when you suggested possible old man character names for me and enjoyed the old man soundingness of Virgil and that it meant "staff bearer," so I was sold, lol. Perfectly fitting for the character I had written.

Aww, I hate those days when all you want to do is write, but you can't!  I'm glad you were able to get some writing in today.  I hope that inspired, excited feeling comes back tomorrow!

I've written about 500 words a day for the past two days.  Today I had plans in the afternoon, so I didn't get to write as long as I might have otherwise, but yesterday I didn't do anything and still couldn't get back into writing mode after I stopped my morning/early afternoon session.  I haven't had a good late night writing session in a while.  But I actually went to bed at a decent time because I was tired and am back up, wide awake, at 2 a.m., so maybe tonight's the night LOL.  I am also contemplating whether I should drink some writing fuel or if that's a really dumb thing to do in the middle of the night.  I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow, but I also don't want to intentionally mess up my sleep schedule any more than it already is or will be a few weeks from now.

I wrote about 4,000 words yesterday, so I wonder where I would have been if I could have done that on Friday, lol. I ended up sleeping in really late today, so if anything, my two cups of coffee made me really tired by the end of the day.

I've gotten about 1,200 so far today and am still not done with this chapter (the one that only required 500 more words). There's like two more things that need to happen, but I got super hungry and needed to eat. Then I followed you all on Twitter and checked in here, lol. Hopefully I can get back into it after this. Nano says I can write to the end of the month if I write about 360 words every day, which seems super doable, but I also think I've got more than that in me. We'll see!

Are you still on your Kevin chapter or are you back to Nick? It's interesting that you're having weekend slumps now rather than mid-week slumps. Do you think it's because more people want to do things on the weekend? How did waking up at 2am end up going? Did you write a lot or drink any caffeine?

It was probably a wise decision not to have a third cup of coffee, but I'm sorry you weren't able to focus.  I hate that feeling.  That's what has been happening to me too.  I hope you wake up refreshed and focused tomorrow!  Three more chapters... you've got this!!

I would have been a mess! It was for the best, although once I got into bed I was no longer tired and wide awake, but no writing inspiration came. Hopefully today is super productive for you too! Let's see if I can get back into this arc and finish it off today! Gotta go back and finish the other chapter where I just left myself a note that said [stuff happens]... Why am I like this? lol

Hope your writing has been well! And anyone else who's writing too!

[nicksgal]

One of those two partially finished chapters complete plus the last scene from that arc in the final chapter! Now just 900 words to go back and get through to finish this arc! OMG, feels so exciting! I think I'm going to finish a novel this month, everyone!

[RokofAges75]

I think it goes back to the "know or are willing to research" aspect. If it's truly important to the plot or character development, then I imagine most authors would put in the due diligence to portray things as accurately (and hopefully sympatheticall y) as possible.

My author's note for that chapter: "You may assume at this point that I have a weird demon fetish. I don't! Although, I've now written two novels about demons and begun a third... in addition to never having met a demon... So who can say for sure? Probably not though." lol I get wanting to separate your person from your fiction.

You never know! Isn't it something like there's anywhere between 25 and 50 active serial killers at any time? Yup! Found it: https://people.com/crime/miranda-barbour-and-serial-killers-misconceptions/

Yep, absolutely.  If it's something traumatic you've been through yourself, you have every right to write your truth, no matter how triggering it is for someone else reading.  And if you haven't been through it, you better do the research to write it as accurately and sympatheticall y as you can.

LOL I don't think a demon fetish is so weird, even if you did have one.  Look at how people are with vampires.  Even before Twilight, there used to be a lot of vampire fics in our fandom.  If vampires can be sexy, so can demons.  Especially when they look like Nick. LOL

True, maybe Stephen King is a serial killer.  Or maybe I am... burying the bodies in my backyard at all.

That makes sense that it would happen quickly after an overdose. Isn't the liver an organ that regenerates? I wonder how much you have to damage your own liver in order to need a transplant rather than just waiting for it to get better? Am I making this up? Isn't Tylenol pretty toxic in general? I feel like doctors are always recommending ibuprofin over tylenol for pain medication. If a liver shuts down and would kill you after a week, I'm sure that's probably a reasonable timeline for being off anti-rejection meds. Maybe throw in another day for the previous day's dose to fully wear of or something. Although, I feel like if I was Nick and on a "take this or die" medication, I wouldn't forget it? We've gotta be better about keeping Nick healthy!

You'll be proud of me, he hasn't gotten stabbed once yet in PNcklace! But now that I've realized that... maybe he's due for a stabbing? lol Poor Nick.

Yeah, livers can regenerate, but it takes time, so if the damage was severe enough to completely shut it down in a matter of days, you're screwed.  Tylenol in particular is toxic to the liver, but I think ibuprofen is harder on your stomach.  So pick your poison!  I'm an ibuprofen person myself though.

LOL This was dumb early twenties Nick, so of course he did not have his "take this or die" meds with him.  It's amazing he survives as many fanfics as he does, with all the ailments and injuries we throw his way.  I'm always in favor of another stabbing! LOL

I think in general, I care less about meaningful names than I used to. I think I'm leaning more into the meaningful names for the OF PBox Boys simply to say, "yeah that seems like it could be Brian's name if he was named something else," lol.

Back in meaningful name days, I definitely did, but now I'm more of the opinion that parents would just name a kid something because they liked it, not because they were intending them to be whatever. Like hubs is definitely "Nick" because he was born around St. Nicholas Day, not because my FIL/MIL intended him to be a "victory for the people" or anything. He's probably not; jury might be out on whether our BSB Nick is a victory for the people, lol. Nickname names are a good way to give a character a more meaningful name without picking something weird based solely on its meaning, I think. I did pick based on meaning when you suggested possible old man character names for me and enjoyed the old man soundingness of Virgil and that it meant "staff bearer," so I was sold, lol. Perfectly fitting for the character I had written.

I'm the same way with names.  I've always just picked names I like or that sound good for that character and only look at their actual meanings if I'm torn between names and need help deciding.  Based on what some parents name their kids, I assuming most of them don't bother to look up the meaning or don't care what it means.  For example, I have a friend whose son is named Cooper, which means "barrel maker" after the profession.  I doubt she thought, "Yes, I want my son to be a barrel maker!"  She just thought it was a cute name.  (Although she does like to drink, so maybe the meaning does fit LOL.)  I do like names that do have a more personal meaning or story behind them, like your husband being born close to St. Nicholas Day.  That is meaningful in a different way.

What made you decide to stop writing it?

Broken. LOL  I started it a few months before Broken, and it was always just a dumb side project that kind of fizzled out over the years.  It wasn't really a conscious decision to stop writing it; I just haven't updated it since 2007.

I wrote about 4,000 words yesterday, so I wonder where I would have been if I could have done that on Friday, lol. I ended up sleeping in really late today, so if anything, my two cups of coffee made me really tired by the end of the day.

I've gotten about 1,200 so far today and am still not done with this chapter (the one that only required 500 more words). There's like two more things that need to happen, but I got super hungry and needed to eat. Then I followed you all on Twitter and checked in here, lol. Hopefully I can get back into it after this. Nano says I can write to the end of the month if I write about 360 words every day, which seems super doable, but I also think I've got more than that in me. We'll see!

One of those two partially finished chapters complete plus the last scene from that arc in the final chapter! Now just 900 words to go back and get through to finish this arc! OMG, feels so exciting! I think I'm going to finish a novel this month, everyone!

Wow, congrats!!  You've had such a productive weekend!  You're so close to finishing!!

Are you still on your Kevin chapter or are you back to Nick? It's interesting that you're having weekend slumps now rather than mid-week slumps. Do you think it's because more people want to do things on the weekend? How did waking up at 2am end up going? Did you write a lot or drink any caffeine?

I had a really good writing day today and finished my Kevin chapter!  It's 7,000 words long.    I kept checking my word count early on, worrying it was going to be long because I had a lot planned for it, and it was always lower than what I thought.  2,500 words... 3,000 words...  So I eventually stopped checking it and just kept writing.  Well, apparently it more than doubled in length since I stopped checking LOL.  Oh well.  It will just be long then!  I'm not sure what I would do differently to shorten it because I feel like everything I included is important and needed to be in there at some point... and if I split it into two chapters, I would need to come up with something else for the Nick chapter in between, which is a struggle I do not want to bring upon myself, based on how the last couple Nick chapters went.

I did not write anything else or drink caffeine at 2 a.m., and I ended up sleeping until almost noon today, but then I got up and wrote for like 5 hours straight.  I got over 2,000 words written!  What I did differently today was shower first, then go back to bed with my coffee and write.  That way I wouldn't get derailed by the urge to take a shower, which is what has been ending my writing sessions other days.

Yeah, I dunno, I think as long as I can be left alone for a few days without having to go anywhere or do anything I don't want to do, I will write.  Damn social obligations and adult responsibiliti es getting in my way LOL.  I don't know how people with kids get anything done.

[nicksgal]

Yep, absolutely.  If it's something traumatic you've been through yourself, you have every right to write your truth, no matter how triggering it is for someone else reading.  And if you haven't been through it, you better do the research to write it as accurately and sympatheticall y as you can.

LOL I don't think a demon fetish is so weird, even if you did have one.  Look at how people are with vampires.  Even before Twilight, there used to be a lot of vampire fics in our fandom.  If vampires can be sexy, so can demons.  Especially when they look like Nick. LOL

True, maybe Stephen King is a serial killer.  Or maybe I am... burying the bodies in my backyard at all.

I feel like you can tell when someone is writing something from personal experience versus having dutifully researched it versus slapping it together. I can't quite explain the difference well, but it's like feelings jump from the words that aren't necessarily there even when something is very carefully researched and crafted.

Vampires are overplayed after Twilight and all the Anne Rice novels (plus both of them are anti-fanfic). Team demons! It's really just Nick with a couple extra body parts that get in the way sometimes, lol. I mean this in general, not just in a sex scene; being able to fly is neat, but life is hard when you have wings to maneuver through doorways, for instance. Although, I'll be honest, since they're not sentient body parts or anything, I don't always mention them. But I figure that's the same thing as not specifically mentioning a finger if that fingers's not doing anything and I always assume Nick still has ten fingers unless told otherwise, lmao!

I think demons were a harder sell just because they're not as prevalent as vampires and I made the conscious choice to not have them able to simultaneously be the demons and the Backstreet Boys, at least technically, you know I love my loopholes. It's easier to be a vampire and still be a Backstreet Boy, you just stop doing daytime appearances. I'm sure it would have been an easier sell if they were... I don't know... demons that drew power from applause and adulation rather than suffering so they could simultaneously be the Boys and demons, but that didn't fit the story I wanted to tell since they're something else in the PBox universe (but I won't say what yet because spoilers, obviously). Although, now that I'm saying it, demons that get powerful through praise sounds really interesting... However! If I finish all of PBox and then wrote yet another completely different story about demons, then people would assume I had some sort of demon fetish, lol.

Or maybe I am... burying the bodies in my backyard with my lawnmower.

Fixed it for you. lmao

Yeah, livers can regenerate, but it takes time, so if the damage was severe enough to completely shut it down in a matter of days, you're screwed.  Tylenol in particular is toxic to the liver, but I think ibuprofen is harder on your stomach.  So pick your poison!  I'm an ibuprofen person myself though.

LOL This was dumb early twenties Nick, so of course he did not have his "take this or die" meds with him.  It's amazing he survives as many fanfics as he does, with all the ailments and injuries we throw his way.  I'm always in favor of another stabbing! LOL

Makes sense! Organ failure is a real beast! So you're saying with my wonky stomach, I should actually be taking tylenol... interesting. Ibuprofen has always been less unsavory to me, not in a pill popping way, just tylenol tastes super chalky when it goes down.

I suppose you're right. Early twenties Nick was not a good packer for climate change between regions, so I assume he didn't think too hard about what he had on his person, lol. He survives through the sheer power of author love, of course! He's that 1 in a million odds for anything; fanfic Nick should apply for the lottery, he's very lucky. I'm a horrible person, now that I've said it... I kinda want to stab him... but in a nice way... for character development, lol.

I'm the same way with names.  I've always just picked names I like or that sound good for that character and only look at their actual meanings if I'm torn between names and need help deciding.  Based on what some parents name their kids, I assuming most of them don't bother to look up the meaning or don't care what it means.  For example, I have a friend whose son is named Cooper, which means "barrel maker" after the profession.  I doubt she thought, "Yes, I want my son to be a barrel maker!"  She just thought it was a cute name.  (Although she does like to drink, so maybe the meaning does fit LOL.)  I do like names that do have a more personal meaning or story behind them, like your husband being born close to St. Nicholas Day.  That is meaningful in a different way.

Yeah, same, if there's two equally good names, then it can be a good deciding factor. I think Cooper is a cute name for a kid (though not on any list I've ever had personally), but yes, I also knew it meant "barrel maker," lol. I don't worry about parents' drinking habits until I've had all their children in my class and they're all named after liquor brands. This has happened to me once, lol. I think it's better when it's a personal meaning too rather than a name meaning thing.

Broken. LOL  I started it a few months before Broken, and it was always just a dumb side project that kind of fizzled out over the years.  It wasn't really a conscious decision to stop writing it; I just haven't updated it since 2007.

All you needed to say. Completely understand, lol.

Wow, congrats!!  You've had such a productive weekend!  You're so close to finishing!!

I know! Hopefully I can chunk out this 900ish words and then there's only about 8,000 more to go! Crazy! And if these next two chapters are anything like the two chapters I did this weekend, then they'll fly by!

Although, my outline for this arc was very tight. I pretty much followed the major beats of the arc down to each bullet point without major changes (just some minor changes here and there, and writing more than a sentence to convey it, obviously), but it only ended up being five chapters worth as opposed to the six or seven I'd originally planned on. That was fine though, because it didn't need those extra chapters or it would have felt needlessly drawn out. But good thing I was loosey goosey with the other arc and added a whole chapter I hadn't bullet pointed plus one ended up having a clear division of content for two chapters worth of stuff, lol. Really, I think I'm most impressed that I finished two partially started chapters and wrote six others in one month! That's a pretty quick pace! I think I've been excited to finish, despite all the other things going on.

I had a really good writing day today and finished my Kevin chapter!  It's 7,000 words long.    I kept checking my word count early on, worrying it was going to be long because I had a lot planned for it, and it was always lower than what I thought.  2,500 words... 3,000 words...  So I eventually stopped checking it and just kept writing.  Well, apparently it more than doubled in length since I stopped checking LOL.  Oh well.  It will just be long then!  I'm not sure what I would do differently to shorten it because I feel like everything I included is important and needed to be in there at some point... and if I split it into two chapters, I would need to come up with something else for the Nick chapter in between, which is a struggle I do not want to bring upon myself, based on how the last couple Nick chapters went.

I did not write anything else or drink caffeine at 2 a.m., and I ended up sleeping until almost noon today, but then I got up and wrote for like 5 hours straight.  I got over 2,000 words written!  What I did differently today was shower first, then go back to bed with my coffee and write.  That way I wouldn't get derailed by the urge to take a shower, which is what has been ending my writing sessions other days.

Yeah, I dunno, I think as long as I can be left alone for a few days without having to go anywhere or do anything I don't want to do, I will write.  Damn social obligations and adult responsibiliti es getting in my way LOL.  I don't know how people with kids get anything done.

That's really exciting after your couple of slow days! Wow 7000 words! Congrats!! I hate when I do that too. I always keep checking thinking that I might need to add a little something in and then it always surpasses it. I usually stop checking once it's in the 2500 range as long as I know I have something that will at least be 500 more words. After that, I just write until it's done. I feel like my writing goes smoother once I stop worrying about it too. I'd say unless you have a solid plan for a Nick chapter that can go inbetween, don't bother. Let it be long. It sounds like your Kevin chapters are more meaty, so let Kevin have the meat of this story. He's earned it! And it's great that you're having fun with it! But if Nick's giving you trouble, maybe you still don't want to write Hot Mess Nick after all, lol.

That's awesome! 2000 words in one writing session! I always find I do better too if I shower first thing when I get up instead of writing, then showering like I did today. I think it's the same thing as getting ready for work, showering just makes me feel like I'm ready for my day, but if I don't shower then maybe I'm ready for the day and maybe I'm not? It's like this weird middle ground.

Ugh, adult responsibiliti es are the worst! lol Anything on your docket the next couple of days? I wish I could stay home and write. I think if I had two more solid days, I could be done. Guess I'll stretch it out over the week, lol.

And once again, we're back to one really long to respond to post, lol!

[RokofAges75]

I feel like you can tell when someone is writing something from personal experience versus having dutifully researched it versus slapping it together. I can't quite explain the difference well, but it's like feelings jump from the words that aren't necessarily there even when something is very carefully researched and crafted.

Yes, I agree.  Research can get you so far, but knowing the facts is different from knowing firsthand what something actually feels like.

Vampires are overplayed after Twilight and all the Anne Rice novels (plus both of them are anti-fanfic). Team demons! It's really just Nick with a couple extra body parts that get in the way sometimes, lol. I mean this in general, not just in a sex scene; being able to fly is neat, but life is hard when you have wings to maneuver through doorways, for instance. Although, I'll be honest, since they're not sentient body parts or anything, I don't always mention them. But I figure that's the same thing as not specifically mentioning a finger if that fingers's not doing anything and I always assume Nick still has ten fingers unless told otherwise, lmao!

I think demons were a harder sell just because they're not as prevalent as vampires and I made the conscious choice to not have them able to simultaneously be the demons and the Backstreet Boys, at least technically, you know I love my loopholes. It's easier to be a vampire and still be a Backstreet Boy, you just stop doing daytime appearances. I'm sure it would have been an easier sell if they were... I don't know... demons that drew power from applause and adulation rather than suffering so they could simultaneously be the Boys and demons, but that didn't fit the story I wanted to tell since they're something else in the PBox universe (but I won't say what yet because spoilers, obviously). Although, now that I'm saying it, demons that get powerful through praise sounds really interesting... However! If I finish all of PBox and then wrote yet another completely different story about demons, then people would assume I had some sort of demon fetish, lol.

I think once you've made it clear that he has wings and described them a few times, you probably don't need to keep mentioning them in every scene, unless it's important. 

Demons are definitely less prevalent, but that's probably a good thing because it makes them more unique, especially in BSB fanfic.  I don't know that there's another BSB demon story out there, whereas there used to be a ton of vampire fics.  I also like the idea of demons who get power from praise!  But yeah, it might be good to branch out and try something totally different.

Fixed it for you. lmao

Haha, of course!  I knew the lawnmower would come up again.

He survives through the sheer power of author love, of course! He's that 1 in a million odds for anything; fanfic Nick should apply for the lottery, he's very lucky. I'm a horrible person, now that I've said it... I kinda want to stab him... but in a nice way... for character development, lol.

Yes, except for in 1000 Ways to Kill Nick Carter, where he's the unluckiest character ever.  Although he never stays dead, so maybe that does make him lucky.

Stab stab stab!!!

I don't worry about parents' drinking habits until I've had all their children in my class and they're all named after liquor brands. This has happened to me once, lol.

LOL!!  Classy!

I know! Hopefully I can chunk out this 900ish words and then there's only about 8,000 more to go! Crazy! And if these next two chapters are anything like the two chapters I did this weekend, then they'll fly by!

Although, my outline for this arc was very tight. I pretty much followed the major beats of the arc down to each bullet point without major changes (just some minor changes here and there, and writing more than a sentence to convey it, obviously), but it only ended up being five chapters worth as opposed to the six or seven I'd originally planned on. That was fine though, because it didn't need those extra chapters or it would have felt needlessly drawn out. But good thing I was loosey goosey with the other arc and added a whole chapter I hadn't bullet pointed plus one ended up having a clear division of content for two chapters worth of stuff, lol. Really, I think I'm most impressed that I finished two partially started chapters and wrote six others in one month! That's a pretty quick pace! I think I've been excited to finish, despite all the other things going on.

That's awesome that you were able to tighten it up a little!  Writing 6-8 chapters in a month when you're still working and have other personal stuff going on is impressive!!

That's really exciting after your couple of slow days! Wow 7000 words! Congrats!! I hate when I do that too. I always keep checking thinking that I might need to add a little something in and then it always surpasses it. I usually stop checking once it's in the 2500 range as long as I know I have something that will at least be 500 more words. After that, I just write until it's done. I feel like my writing goes smoother once I stop worrying about it too. I'd say unless you have a solid plan for a Nick chapter that can go inbetween, don't bother. Let it be long. It sounds like your Kevin chapters are more meaty, so let Kevin have the meat of this story. He's earned it! And it's great that you're having fun with it! But if Nick's giving you trouble, maybe you still don't want to write Hot Mess Nick after all, lol.

That's awesome! 2000 words in one writing session! I always find I do better too if I shower first thing when I get up instead of writing, then showering like I did today. I think it's the same thing as getting ready for work, showering just makes me feel like I'm ready for my day, but if I don't shower then maybe I'm ready for the day and maybe I'm not? It's like this weird middle ground.

Ugh, adult responsibiliti es are the worst! lol Anything on your docket the next couple of days? I wish I could stay home and write. I think if I had two more solid days, I could be done. Guess I'll stretch it out over the week, lol.

And once again, we're back to one really long to respond to post, lol!

Thanks!  Yeah, that's my thought too - if it was under 1,500 words, I would feel the need to add more, but I don't have a set limit on chapter length.  Most of mine end up under 5,000 words, but it's okay if they go longer.  Kevin's chapters are definitely more meaty.  He has more going on, or at least more that I wanted to write about LOL.  It really is a Kevin story; even Nick's chapters have been mostly reactionary to what Kevin is going through.  I have more subplots planned for Nick later, but I clearly did not give him enough to do beside tour during this part of the story.  Maybe I should have stabbed him? LOL

Yeah, maybe I will try showering first again tomorrow.  It is nice to have that out of the way, in case anything comes up later in the day - that way, it's much quicker to get ready.  All I have tomorrow is my nephew's baseball game, but that's not until evening, so it shouldn't affect my writing.  Tuesday I have to take my car back in to get that leak fixed, so I won't be able to write as long as I did today.

I hear you on just wanting two more days.  Wouldn't it be nice if every weekend was a three-day weekend?  I would get so much more done during the school year that way.  I hope you can carry your inspiration through the week!

[nicksgal]

I think once you've made it clear that he has wings and described them a few times, you probably don't need to keep mentioning them in every scene, unless it's important. 

Demons are definitely less prevalent, but that's probably a good thing because it makes them more unique, especially in BSB fanfic.  I don't know that there's another BSB demon story out there, whereas there used to be a ton of vampire fics.  I also like the idea of demons who get power from praise!  But yeah, it might be good to branch out and try something totally different.

I usually only find important ways to bring them up again once I start to forget about them while writing. I'll be honest though, it's usually the tails I forget about. At least you can fly with wings, tails are just kind of there, lol.

I think they're less prevalent in general, depending on the content of a story. If it's a Heaven and Hell type thing, they're usually there, but they're less present than other standard fantasy races, even less so than angels, unless there's conjuring stuff going on. But you're right, I can't think of any other BSB demon stories. Once again, I'm the AJ.

The more I think about it, the more it sounds awesome, lol. Maybe it's a short story. I have no plot ideas for it, so right now it's going to live in the territory of "neat concept."

Haha, of course!  I knew the lawnmower would come up again.

  The perfect time!

Yes, except for in 1000 Ways to Kill Nick Carter, where he's the unluckiest character ever.  Although he never stays dead, so maybe that does make him lucky.

Stab stab stab!!!

If he doesn't stay dead, I'd say that's very lucky, lol.

lol! On it!

That's awesome that you were able to tighten it up a little!  Writing 6-8 chapters in a month when you're still working and have other personal stuff going on is impressive!!

For once I was not verbose. I'd say maybe it's the outline, but that's clearly not true in the other arc, so I don't know what the difference is here. Think I can keep up this 6-8 chapter/month pace? I'd be very prolific if I did!

Now I'm down to about 200 words to go in this chapter! Clearly I am less motivated to finish it (because I'm here), but I'm trying my best!

Thanks!  Yeah, that's my thought too - if it was under 1,500 words, I would feel the need to add more, but I don't have a set limit on chapter length.  Most of mine end up under 5,000 words, but it's okay if they go longer.  Kevin's chapters are definitely more meaty.  He has more going on, or at least more that I wanted to write about LOL.  It really is a Kevin story; even Nick's chapters have been mostly reactionary to what Kevin is going through.  I have more subplots planned for Nick later, but I clearly did not give him enough to do beside tour during this part of the story.  Maybe I should have stabbed him? LOL

Yeah, maybe I will try showering first again tomorrow.  It is nice to have that out of the way, in case anything comes up later in the day - that way, it's much quicker to get ready.  All I have tomorrow is my nephew's baseball game, but that's not until evening, so it shouldn't affect my writing.  Tuesday I have to take my car back in to get that leak fixed, so I won't be able to write as long as I did today.

I hear you on just wanting two more days.  Wouldn't it be nice if every weekend was a three-day weekend?  I would get so much more done during the school year that way.  I hope you can carry your inspiration through the week!

I think 5,000 is my upper limit. Once they start nearing 6,000, I usually try to find some way to split it and add wherever I need to add to reach 3,000 words each. I think it would be harder to do that in a story with strict POV structure than in one without that, since coming up with something for the other character for them to sandwich could be harder than just keeping the chapter long, like you said.

I think it's okay if Nick doesn't have as many subplots. He would be very busy with touring and being a Hot Mess anyway. I feel like there's only so much you can say about Hot Mess Nick if his stuff isn't really the focus of the story, then it just feels like filler.

lmfao! Yes, you should just stab him. Have him get mugged in the next chapter or something.

Aw fun, baseball game! But boo, leak fixing interrupting writing time! At least it will be fixed. If only you could write while you wait for your car to get fixed. Our dryer came, finally, but we apparently need another part no one told us we needed (some sort of stacking kit), so now I still can't wash my clothing. Things are about to get difficult; I am running out of underwear, lol.

I would love it if every week was a three day weekend. Then it would matter less if I was unproductive in general one day. I think I'd be less tired all the time too. Thanks! I hope so too! Hopefully this next Nick chapter goes smoothly for you!

[nicksgal]

Done! One arc done! Only three chapters left! Can't believe it! I don't want to jinx it, but I'm about to finish a novel y'all! In only about 7 months! If it wasn't 10:30, I might just keep writing! I hate that I always feel most motivated to write when I finish a chapter, but should go to bed, lol.

On a side note, I worried I would struggle on those 900 words I needed (especially since I initially left myself a note that said [stuff happens]), but as usual, I had nothing to worry about because this chapter apparently needed about 1400 more words to be finished, lol. I had a couple missteps, but I hacked and slashed them until it was better. Now it's exciting and better paced.