State of the Me & State of the Pups
Too lazy for fancy pictures.
ACTIVITY: I think I did pretty well this month, all things considered. I had that one really horrendous week where I got very little gameplay accomplished, but I feel I picked up fairly quickly after that. That I can have an off week and still be perfectly on pace to make reqs is good. I think that forcing myself to step back from powers plot was absolutely the right thing to do. It definitely would have put me over the edge. There were a few strategic drops, but mostly I kept with everything. I've got something like 20 tags in my inbox right now, but nothing is older than the 23rd, and only that old because I had that allergy attack last night. I tend to hold myself to a higher standard than I do everyone else, and I'm trying to work on not getting stressed out if I don't feel like replying immediately.
This month I began a new method of approaching my threads wherein I know I need to start at least one new thread per day (or the equivalent), as I have 10 pups, and they each need to have at least 3 threads (30 threads = 30 days). It's just a change in how I view activity, but it has been working pretty well so far. It has also had a really nice bonus of prompting me to be more diverse in who I tag, which is something I've been wanting to improve. I also feel like most of my threads have been a good length, which I try to keep an eye on.
WRITING: However, I have felt a bit off in terms of my actual writing recently. For awhile I've been actively attempting to improve the mechanics of my writing to make for a more solid whole: Strengthening overall sentence structure, eliminating -ing verbs where possible, forgoing redundant or unnecessary prose simply because it sounds good, etc. I do feel that overall it's making a difference to my mastery of the mechanics of writing fiction, but I've lost some of my confidence and some of my spirit, probably in part because writing regular fiction and writing RP fiction are very different. So I'm trying to get that back. Also, I need to stop reading GRRM, dude is a fucking awful writer.
SCHEDULE: If you only read one part of this post, this section should probably be it. October is typically a busy month for me, often for entirely arbitrary reasons. My busy period actually begins this week, as I have a paper due on October 1st, and obviously I'll need to write it prior to that date. My birthday is on the 4th, the final for my accelerated class is on the 12th, and we're going to Florida to visit my family and go to Hogwarts from the 19th through the 23rd (Which means not only will I be MIA those days, I have to get my schoolwork done ahead of time). The good news is that my last astronomy lab is due on the 7th and my accelerated film class will be over on the 12th, so I will be down to only 2 active classes after that. I will, however, miss the first part of amusement park plot, but as long as I'm around for Halloween, I'm okay with that, and once November gets here I should have a bit more room to breathe.
PUPS IN A NUTSHELL:
ACTIVITY: I think I did pretty well this month, all things considered. I had that one really horrendous week where I got very little gameplay accomplished, but I feel I picked up fairly quickly after that. That I can have an off week and still be perfectly on pace to make reqs is good. I think that forcing myself to step back from powers plot was absolutely the right thing to do. It definitely would have put me over the edge. There were a few strategic drops, but mostly I kept with everything. I've got something like 20 tags in my inbox right now, but nothing is older than the 23rd, and only that old because I had that allergy attack last night. I tend to hold myself to a higher standard than I do everyone else, and I'm trying to work on not getting stressed out if I don't feel like replying immediately.
This month I began a new method of approaching my threads wherein I know I need to start at least one new thread per day (or the equivalent), as I have 10 pups, and they each need to have at least 3 threads (30 threads = 30 days). It's just a change in how I view activity, but it has been working pretty well so far. It has also had a really nice bonus of prompting me to be more diverse in who I tag, which is something I've been wanting to improve. I also feel like most of my threads have been a good length, which I try to keep an eye on.
WRITING: However, I have felt a bit off in terms of my actual writing recently. For awhile I've been actively attempting to improve the mechanics of my writing to make for a more solid whole: Strengthening overall sentence structure, eliminating -ing verbs where possible, forgoing redundant or unnecessary prose simply because it sounds good, etc. I do feel that overall it's making a difference to my mastery of the mechanics of writing fiction, but I've lost some of my confidence and some of my spirit, probably in part because writing regular fiction and writing RP fiction are very different. So I'm trying to get that back. Also, I need to stop reading GRRM, dude is a fucking awful writer.
SCHEDULE: If you only read one part of this post, this section should probably be it. October is typically a busy month for me, often for entirely arbitrary reasons. My busy period actually begins this week, as I have a paper due on October 1st, and obviously I'll need to write it prior to that date. My birthday is on the 4th, the final for my accelerated class is on the 12th, and we're going to Florida to visit my family and go to Hogwarts from the 19th through the 23rd (Which means not only will I be MIA those days, I have to get my schoolwork done ahead of time). The good news is that my last astronomy lab is due on the 7th and my accelerated film class will be over on the 12th, so I will be down to only 2 active classes after that. I will, however, miss the first part of amusement park plot, but as long as I'm around for Halloween, I'm okay with that, and once November gets here I should have a bit more room to breathe.
PUPS IN A NUTSHELL:
- SHARI - Has the cast off and is fully back to work, doing well, working on her personal relationships. In speed dating mostly for lulz. I think she's going to do another ladies night in November.
- SIRIUS - Swinging between being introspective and being manic, but this will even out. The threads in his private EP weren't as long as I would have liked under normal circumstances, but after awhile I just couldn't play him having an emotional breakdown anymore.
- PEPPER - Still in a lull. I keep pushing her EP back because I haven't come up with anything interesting for her to do, and I hate making directionless EPs. The things Pepper is good at are really not interesting, so I think I'm going to try and come up with a little side plot to add a bit of flavor.
- CALIBAN - I have been planning on him having amnesia next month, but that was before I knew we'd be going to Florida. To be safe, I'm pushing that back to November or December, as I'd like to do it properly. I'm also trying to decide if I want to get permission to have one of the giant spiders from canon cause it, because the idea of a head injury really, really bothers me.
- LUX - Has been in the backseat the past few months, but I'm ready to pull her forward again. I've talked to a few people about getting her some more diverse interaction, and as long as everything goes to plan, she'll get an EP today.
- CLARK - Has the love of his life, will be blissfully happy awhile. I have to reevaluate all of my tentative plans for him now, but that's okay.
- TONY - Got canon punctured this past weekend, although I haven't really gotten into it yet because he has a way of shutting my other pups out. Anyway, there will be consequences of that, none of which I am entirely certain of.
- JANE - I feel like Jane is just kind of floating in limbo right now, and I need to find a way to anchor her more solidly. I love playing her and want to continue doing so, but I feel I've dropped the ball a bit. My principle goal is to make her some more friends, just get her tagging around more in general so that I have something to build from.
- FREDDIE - Finally got an EP. I've been slow in my replies to it because I posted it on a Friday, which I always forget is a bad idea for me, but now that Lionel's EP is finally slowing down, I should be able to redirect that activity to Freddie. Also, he's going to be in a period of adjustment for awhile, so I find myself questioning how I write him much, much more than I do my others, so that contributes to slowness, too.
- LIONEL - Lionel Fucking Trane, OMG. It took a bit to get into the swing of his EP, but once it got going, he wouldn't shut up. Maxxie's trying to get into his pants. Jon Snow is his dream man, and also going to give him riding lessons. I wouldn't call him happy, as things with Moosh are still weird, but he's got some really good momentum.
- LORAS - How do I begin to explain Loras Tyrell? Loras Tyrell is flawless. He has two appointments to kingsguards and a sister who was queen three different times. I hear his armor's insured for $10,000 gold dragons. I hear he unseated the Mountain in a joust. His favorite king is Renly Baratheon. One time he met Sansa Stark and she told him he was pretty. One time he went berserk and killed two dudes in a blind rage…it was awesome.
So, here's the deal: When I began reading ASoIaF in earnest, I literally said to myself, "Self, you may not app the pretty queer knight, you are becoming a cliche." And for awhile that was no problem. I enjoyed the concept of Loras, but if you've read the books you know that he's not in them all that much, especially at first. But then he joined Joffrey's kingsguard and there were parallels with Jaime, yada yada, I gave in. He is a very good fit for me, but more importantly, I feel that his is a story which deserves to be expanded upon. If anyone wanted to app Renly or Margaery, it would not go amiss. :D