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Drop it like it's hot! Or... Updates from Dee. :o)

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nicksgal:
No pictures this week, but we do have PBox and PNecklace updates!

Please find updates as follows (links included):

Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos (with shiny updated chapters 21-30, including a brand new chunk in ch. 23 "Connected", the rest are scene expansions more than new chunks)

Looking back, I probably should have mentioned chapters in the past updates that got major overhauls compared to others (ch. 10, ch. 11, and ch. 12 stick out. ch. 13 had a new Nick/Brian bit at the beginning, ch. 16 got a Brian focused bit at the end) The rest are more scene expansions, but nothing major that I can think of.

Chapter Three ("Unbroken") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos

Pandora's Box on AO3 (now has the first 30 chapters available if you only want to read fully updated chapters)

Enjoy! Always here to chat if you wanna talk PBox, PNecklace, or anything about this little fantastical world I've created.

nicksgal:
I have a novel about my novel entitled "Demon Powers and Plantsing" below. Enjoy!

This past week, AJ was reintroduced -- yay AJ! I always felt bad that he popped into the story so late, especially since I actually decided his powers and character arc first, but it's where it made sense plot-wise. It's been fun having him from the start in PNecklace and I've been slowly working out the Boys' character arcs for this installment while writing. We're still plantsting that a little bit, but the overall theme is there for each of them. Nick's was definitely the easiest, because he's spent many years bothering me about it, even back when I was still writing PBox. Most of my stories start out as vague ideas and just writing and seeing what happens (pantsing is what NaNo calls it), but once I've hit on a character plan or a world building element, like the magic system of demonic powers, then I go hard-core planner (we're talking maps, doodles, character charts, outlines, references, etcetera, as you've probably noticed). Plantsing is the middle of those two things and probably where I find myself writing most often, as I've mentioned. Pantsing is more fun, but I've found the more epic you're envisioning a story, especially if it has complicated non-real world elements (like magic), the more you have to plan and world build. Like any weird and minute detail in the world, you'd better have an answer. Go ahead, in the replies, ask me anything and if it's not likely to be a spoiler, I'll answer it. I consider this space half an update thread and half an intimate fireside chat with your gal anyway, so interact with me as much as you want.

I think I've mentioned before that PBox began as a weird dream, but I'm not sure who remembers that after this long. There was a demon carrying a girl through the dark and they picked up a box from an altar, but that weird and random demon had Nick's face. And I wonder now if this was more a case of "your brain can't make up faces and you fall asleep staring at the same five faces every day" than "you remembered this weird dream, this is a sign to write this story," but here we are. So I just started thinking and writing. How would this girl end up with these demons? Why was there a box? If Nick is a demon, then the other Boys should be demons, but why are the Boys demons? What are demons like? I planned out the first few and then puzzled through the last question as I wrote. I hadn't figured out what I was doing exactly by the time Nick was introduced (two chapters in, oh noes), but I had decided that if he was found in hiding, then maybe he didn't know his powers.

Then I carried on my merry way and decided to introduce Howie next and decided that with the society of racism elements I popped into the story, the people probably wouldn't accept a demon for a King, so Howie had to be very powerful, powerful enough to hide all the demonic things about him and seem like a person. Cool, I bought myself a little time, but then what? So around chapter 10/11, I decided I wanted to introduce Brian next (because as I mentioned last week, I love me some old school Frick & Frack goodness and I am forever trapped in nostalgia land), but actually figured out AJ's powers first. At that time, I knew I need to figure it out once and for all, sat down, and said, "Alright, if two of them have very mysterious powers in a world with this magic system, then the other three have to be really straight forward."

For AJ who's always experimenting and changing things about himself and the way he looks, the power to shapeshift seemed perfect. But that would have to be really close-range in an attack, so someone on the team needed to be more long-range oriented, but who to put in that role? Brian? Kevin? Howie after all? Nick who ran into problems with his fist? Brian was clearly poised to take the Lancer role to Nick's Hero role, what with my predisposition to Frick & Frack banter and goodness. So if Nick was prone to fist fighting and physical shows of power, then Brian needed to utilize energy power or spiritual power, which seemed like a good fit for Brian "faithful in many ways" Littrell. And at that point, I toyed with Brian being the healer of the group, but it didn't quite make him a foil to Nick in the way I wanted.

So I looked at my other three options: Nick's actually the healer (short fused Nick as a healer, hahaha), Howie "help other people" Dorough is the healer, or Kevin "pragmatic big brother" Richardson is the healer. It never crossed my mind to make Minako the healer of the group, which would probably be the typical way to lean that role in a group combat dynamic. So I tossed around my two real choices for a little while. At the time, I'd planned on all the Boys dying before Minako could try to get the box, so I thought, in a story where everyone dies at the end, what dynamics are more interesting? Especially when Nick seemed ready to go down fighting? Howie who would smile and tell him to take better care of himself? Or Kevin who would frown at him and tell him to think before he acts? Kevin for sure, especially when Minako was already fulfilling the support role for Nick. So I said, alright Kevin's the healer.

This is about the time I decided to put the box in Rubiihoppou, so they needed a way to get from place to place without legal means, and some sort of mythical gate seemed like the way to do it. But in a warring states type era, leaving a border unguarded (even a mythical, no legal means required gate border) seemed like a liability for all the countries, so it probably needed someone impartial to guard it. Ah, that's where they meet Kevin. Pondering their battle dynamics then meant that Howie needed to fulfill the strategist role if AJ and Nick were close combat and Brian and Kevin seemed more defense/long-range combat oriented. Which looking back, Howie is so savvy, so strategist was a great choice! Encouraging the group to record their songs in foreign languages every chance he gets and then his business acumen in recent years? So savvy. (I wish I could think of more examples, but I'm at a loss at the moment.)

Deciding that, Brian had to have a more straight forward defensive power, so he became a barrier warrior and a priest to lean into the spiritual aspects at that point, which all seemed like a good way to foil brash fist fighting shunned Nick. So I got to chapter fourteen, Brian's powers were introduced, and short fused Nick jumped in guns blazing, but was still standing at the end of it. Tiny, persistent Nick popped up and said, "Hey, I know you decided we would all die for the plot. I'll for sure do some crazy things, but I'm not dying. I will make it to the end alive." "There's still time, Nick." "Not dying." And this went on over the next couple of chapters as I focused on Brian a little and there was Nick, still trucking along when they got to Kevin. "Fine, Nick. I guess you're not planning on dying." "Nope." "Be honest, Kevin wouldn't get to the end and decide to die either, would he?" "Nope." "Okay, then in addition to it being defensive, I have to make his healing power bad***." So Kevin got the ability to heal and guard his little brothers while turning the power to heal into an attack (somehow, that part took a while longer still). Again, not sure if these things are spoilers in a ten year old story? Sorry if you feel cheated from this reveal. Tell me if that's the case and I'll be more cognizant about my chat topics in the future.

At that point, we got to the end of PBox and never really discussed what Nick or Howie's powers were. I'd decided on Nick's powers, his backstory, and made the decision to keep it all a mystery until the sequel around Chapter 24 when he pointed out that he had a lot of story left to tell and it would be a much more monstrous undertaking than I'd originally planned for in this portion of the story, in fact him pointing out that he had a lot more to say is what made me realize that this was more than one story. So, then I started hinting at all of what was to come at that time and if you're paying very close attention, you might figure him all out. If not, that's okay, all will be revealed soon. To be honest, I still hadn't decided Howie's exact powers by the end of PBox. But, when I sat down to start PNecklace, I looked over my list of characters with demonic powers, decided what demon powers really were, and filled in the blanks officially based on the individual character, the major plot points I already had finalized, and their group dynamics. Nick and Howie's powers are both plot points in PNecklace, as well as the powers of a few other characters, so I hope you look forward to finding them out in due time! Hopefully it's as interesting for everyone else as tiny, persistent Nick insisted it was! Maybe he's just self absorbed, haha.

Your delightful doodles for this week:
Last but not least, AJ!

As you may have figured out, these little doodles are from some costume design pages (because I honestly forgot what everyone was wearing when I started writing PNecklace). Since I don't have new costumes to show you from PNecklace (yet), have some delightful Nick doodles. If you haven't yet noticed, if I take the time to doodle something for a story, it has my full investment.

In case you weren't sure, yes, anxious Nick sleeps like a tiny dragon until he starts relaxing over time

I randomly doodle Nick the most because he does the funnier things in the story, this is when he's not quite sure what shoes are for

nicksgal:
I hope you enjoyed that novel. Onward and forward to updates!

Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):

Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos (with shiny updated chapters 31-35, more on why next week if you did not gather why from things I've said in other threads)

Chapter Four ("Back to Safaiananpou") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos

Pandora's Box on AO3 (now has the first 35 chapters available if you only want to read fully updated chapters)

Enjoy! I was serious when I said ask me anything and you'll get answers. Been waiting to talk about mundane things like why Nick doesn't wear shoes and everyone else does.

nicksgal:
This isn't what I originally planned on talking about this week, but I think it's appropriate. Ah yes, just like my updates, I have been writing these little chats ahead of time as they strike me. I even have one written down for a few months from now! But we'll talk about that later, when the time comes.

So this week, I had meant to share a post with you called "My thoughts on editing/The History of PBox Part 1," but unfortunately, of all the things I have been hoarding, PBox isn't one of them. I took the month of December off from PNecklace (except for a few things: finishing chapter 22, some interesting snippets and tidbits, editing the chapters I posted, and more of that plantsing I mentioned last week) to fully edit PBox. I've had a great time revisiting it and making it align with my ultimate vision for this story. I've gotten to add some great callbacks in later chapters as well as some foreshadowing and/or call forwards in places it wasn't before. I've also gotten to write some fun new scenes and expand on things I glossed over the first time, things that really ended up being at the heart of PNecklace. But it's also been some tedious word changes (like "could" to "can" over and over again in a paragraph), changing dialogue tags to body language, adjusting character voice here and there, and a few other world building things (that are fun, but time consuming, *cough* castles).

The first few chapters, I was able to edit in about an hour each plus a little more depending on how many new scenes they warranted and then about thirty to forty minutes of moving my edits to a separate document so I could keep track of word count per day. Starting from chapter 31 "To The Castle," each chapter was taking me two hours to edit plus the thirty to forty minutes for keeping track of word counts. Those first thirty chapters featured a lot more scenes like "Nick and Brian make jokes as they plot along" or "Minako treats the demons like individuals and they're surprised, but happy" or "we're introduced to the characters along the way." And obviously entire new scenes take some time to write, but I enjoyed most of the new scenes I wrote. I think the ones in Renee's chapters took more effort than any of the ones in BSB chapters, but it's fun to write something new.

Meanwhile, the end is a lot of battles, which are pretty quick to edit, but not quite as much as witty banter because you have to keep track of everyone's body parts along the way (e.g. whose leg was chopped, where is everyone in the room, did Nick already clench his fist, where is anyone bleeding that changes over time). It's also full of philosophical discussions on life and death, good and evil, light and dark, the meaning of existence, different forms of courage, what are demons, what binds us, true purposes, etcetera. And all those philosophical discussions need their overall tone to stay consistent throughout. Also they were originally big philosophical walls of text, sorry dear readers!

In those first thirty chapters, I also did a lot more delete and rewrite than I've been doing in these ones. So they really are just those minute edits that are important, but so time consuming. My real dream was to finish editing PBox two weeks ago so that all I had to do on the last twenty chapters was my cursory edit before posting for the next couple of weeks. But the Renee chapters took longer last week, so I didn't start anything on the castle until that Thursday. And writing wasn't the only thing I did over those days, so those 2.5-3 hours per chapter added up! At this point, it's not the 15 hours for a ten chapter chunk anymore. Now it's 25-30 hours for a ten chapter chunk, plus the additional couple of hours to comb through the whole chunk one more time before posting. That's a lot of green lines and highlights on a screen for a long time. And trying to do that for two sets of 10 chapters seemed daunting in four days, knowing I had a busy week starting last Monday.

You know I love PBox, I wouldn't be here writing its sequel if I didn't. But the editing became frustrating, and a labor of love should never be frustrating. Then I realized that no one put this editing schedule on me except me. And I only put it on me so that I would only be a few weeks behind on AO3 at everyone's suggestion to cross post. But I'm not that invested in AO3 (though I did enjoy getting a kudos). AC was always my community and if y'all want to read PBox, you've been able to do so for a decade and you can still read the complete thing even as I edit and update it. Do I think it's better as it's been updated? Of course! Do you need the updated version to understand and enjoy PNecklace? No. I mean, maybe you'll enjoy it more (I hope you do), but the characters and plot of PBox haven't changed and those are the parts you need to fully enjoy PNecklace.

So in order to keep the frustration at bay, I only posted five updated chapters last week. And this week you're also going to get five more chapters... just late. I always got told that the Brian focused chapter was confusing and once I reread it with the intent to sit down and edit, I said, "Ah yes, here are the parts that are especially confusing." So it became more of a hack and slash chapter than the other ones at the end have been. That being said, I don't have my PBox edits for today because Brian's chapter took me the past three days to rewrite. So you'll see those tomorrow at some point so that Brian's chapter can muddle for a little bit. But it's Wednesday, so y'all need a PNecklace update and a PNecklace update you shall receive.

Your delightful doodles for this week:

Howie in all his demonic glory (#TeamHowie)

And our favorite annoyingly persistent buddy, Nick (just in case you missed him in the first post when he was a mere link and not a url tag)

New PNecklace pictures next week, plus one last PBox picture... I mean for now. I doodle these characters pretty often when I'm bored.

nicksgal:
This week's updates have now been fixed to reflect the editing updates!

Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):

Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos (with shiny updated chapters 36-40, including a much needed rehaul on ch. 38 "Seer" -- there's no new scenes, but it finally got the confusion diffusion that it deserved)

Chapter Five ("The Crater") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos

Pandora's Box on AO3 (now has the first 40 chapters available if you only want to read fully updated chapters)

Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers. I've never mentioned anything in passing in the story that wasn't going to be important, but you might have other burning questions! How cryptic did that sound? ;) Anyone remember when the crater was mentioned in PBox?

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