Tyto

I've finally found the time to finish editing this fanfic. It's been too long since I've started and it's taken much longer than I thought to finish it, especially since I basically restarted and rewrote it. That means I can take a small break from writing to practice a few animation programs I have, starting with a Toon Boom license I had from school (with how dated it is, though, I expect to either upgrade or go with something else). I've always loved animation and want to try doing scenes in a few MAPs. It's been a while since I've done any animation work, though, so learning another program couldn't hurt. I have some backlog of the Warriors Fanfic writing guide to get out there. Some of the sections I thought up in the middle of last year and just never finished them because of this fanfic. I think it's the best of the three in the set and I really liked challenging myself with the narrative structure (a parallel narrative with one side in reverse chronological order and one moving forward starting from the middle of a "story," a bit of a weird one). I absolutely can't stay away from writing for long, though, and will likely start writing another fanfic by the end of the year. A much shorter one, I've already decided, of an idea I thought of in 2015.

3/4
          Editing is taking longer than I thought to the standard I want to hit. I said in a previous post last year or something that it would probably take a while because I have to edit part of a first draft written almost four years ago, another part written a year ago, and another part I finished about four months ago. I have basically just rewritten the entire first part of my fanfic because I really don't like what I wrote about. All the themes and motives had to change to match what I wrote a few months ago. And, due to the weird formatting of the story, it is taking longer than I thought it would, even longer than I thought I meant by the word 'longer' last year. I hope to start posting by April or something because I believe I've had it for too long. I don't know whose waiting, but I still want to finish this.
          
          Also, with how much I am rewriting and how small the chunks of time I have to do it, it is messing with my editing. It would be like giving a manuscript to for developmental editing that you wrote several years ago and they give you back places where the story can be changed, chapters to cut, etc., only for you to not even want to tell that story anymore. Because the themes of the entire story have changed, I basically have to write a second first draft for part of the story. I know some writers can do this, write the same book over the course of many, many years. I don't want to. I'm sure if I took less breaks during the process like I did with this one, it would've been fine. Consistently writing over the course of a year is way different from writing all of a part in a month and waiting a year to write another part.

I wanted to post my fanfic by January and another by the end of the year, but I've been trying to edit my work closer to how a professional editor would do it. That is, make a pass for character inconsistencies, plot holes, adding/removing chapters (using parallel, reverse chronological narratives makes this tough), and making sure themes and motifs are kept up throughout, another pass for tone, syntax, word choice, and dialogue, another pass for spelling and grammar, and a final pass for formatting (more relevant for print). I want to edit like this going forward because I want to write and edit like a pro even though it's a hobby because it would be nice to self-publish original work, and I just don't want to deal with the costs of editing and making sure every single word is perfect when I don't plan to make writing an income stream. Having a book published is just a cool thing to do in my opinion (assuming it isn't some kind of spam). Also, the faster I can edit the more fanfiction I can put out. So far, writing it takes far longer than editing since I never have any guaranteed time to myself. Outlines help with this a lot, I'm told, and I've never written a story without one.
          
          Editing like this is a slow process since I've never done it before, but it's been much easier than just having at it in the margins of a word document. I feel like with some kind of standardized outline, complete with sections for editing, tone, and the like this would be even easier. And I have wanted to put one out there for Excel/Spreadsheet outlines since I don't like most of what's out there. Also, no one outlines in Excel, so there's not much out there.

I've noticed something in my writing that doesn't match with other work: chapter length. I don't usually follow any kind of consistency. It's one thing for the final chapters to be a little longer than the others, but I found one chapter in 'A Reign of Thunder and Lighting' that's 10k words and another that's less than five-hundred. Even in what I'm writing now, I have a few chapters at about 10k and a very consistent bunch near the end. I have no idea what this actually means (probably nothing), but it's just something I've noticed. Sometimes, the chapter probably shouldn't 'just be as long as it needs to be' because it keeps the internal critic too far down; If some information is too short to be a chapter and irrelevant, maybe it can be tacked onto another chapter. That 10k word chapter could've been broken up or shortened rather than basically being two chapters in one. Again, I have no point for typing this. It's just something I've noticed fishing for references in my older fanfics. I usually let my inner critic have its way, too.
          
          I also didn't miss 'rogue' being 'rouge' in that book. I'm sure I'll get around to changing that, but everyone reading seems to know what it's supposed to be.

I've been looking forward to a short break from writing, probably because I've been doing this one story for so long. I started it before the pandemic, didn't touch it for a while, restarted it twice, and wrote pretty much all of it in the last seven months. It's the longest I've ever taken to write anything (but, in my opinion, the best of the three fanfics I've written) and it still isn't done yet. I am, however, going to finish it before the end of the year. I don't like moving on from projects unless they're finished or scrapped for good. No putting it on a shelf and saving it for later unless it's really small. And I've been on this one for way longer than I'd ever want to be again.
          
          I also read LEGACY: TIMELESS, a follow-up to LEGACY. It's better than the first but runs, in my opinion, much longer than it should with how many plot details it adds and how many details the characters unnecessarily keep from each other. Reading both of these and Onewhisker's Confession has actually improved my on-the-fly editing skills and is getting my reading speed back to where it was in high school.

I just finished reading 'LEGACY' by Blue741776. Even though I don't like how OP the MC is, it's so engaging. It's something I've known was missing from my own work for years now. Focus, good descriptions, characters to cheer for or hate, all of it can go under making a story more engaging. My stories especially lack description that works for literature and engaging characters. I know idle comparison between the personal work of yourself and others is useless, but I can't help it.
          
          The other day, I was looking at how long the entire 'LEGACY' series is and wondered what the longest Warriors fanfic is. I ignored a multi-author anthology at over 750k words and found a fanfic called 'CHILLED' by Prin Pardus at around 550k words. I wanted to beat that. I started thinking how I could take a fanfic idea I've had on my idea board since last year, a typical life-to-death fic, and expand it to go around 1m words. Having many arcs, multiple POVs, learning how others did it by adding mundane details, copy-pasting large sections of public domain fiction, repeating words and scenes like flashbacks and dreams, until I realized I shouldn't do it. Aside from being a job in of itself, I've not even read a million published words for pleasure (I've analyzed required reading under a microscope, but I don't count that) that weren't editorials or nonfiction. I could take on and finish such a project, but I don't want to do it if it won't be any good.
          
          I've been reading fanfics like 'LEGACY' and published xenoficiton like 'Black Beauty' (again) to write better stories. Less on plot and ideation, more on the little things. How to describe a setting or make a character smile. I really want to get better at that kind of stuff, especially since writing is a passion.

I finished 'Onestar's Confession' weeks ago. It wasn't very good. It has to go over events from previous books (some of which I haven't read in a long time) but adds nothing new to them. The first third of the book is the only time things seem to happen, and everything involving Onestar's leadership is nothing more than worrying about Darktail and being xenophobic because he's scared of losing respect among his clanmates. And Onestar is still very petty. All the clan leaders are except for Firestar and Bramblestar. So many of their problems can be sorted out in a single gathering, but their pride as separate clans makes this impossible. Firestar was right. There isn't much point for the clans being the way they are when they unite every time there's a catastrophic event. But I personally never liked the reasons clans were separated to begin with. Other than that, back to reading fanfics, writing fanfics and watching sparkle wolf animations.

I don't normally watch Warrior Cats videos regarding the fandom itself, but I did see a few about 'Onestar's Confession'. I wanted to see where all the hate was coming from and, aside from Onestar getting together with his former apprentice, his whole character seems kind of shallow (I'm about halfway through the book). His problems grow because he doesn't deal with them up front out of fearing the much-deserved-and-now-compounding consequences. That's a story (at least it could be anywhere else). But every time we see Onestar, he doesn't do enough to carry it. The only thing this cat seems to do is worry about others learning of Smoke and Darkkit and isolating WindClan by being a jerk. Not that the other clans are much better in this regard. I stand by clans being pointless. They were together leaving the forest for the lake, and in helping each clan return to normal, and in fighting the dark forest cats. Apparently the newer books even have rules allowing them to switch clans, challenge their leaders and ensure no clan falls. All while they still fight over borders (coincidentally, maintaining borders is now the lowest priority rule). It's been a long time since I've read Warriors, but I don't remember clan leadership being this petty. Maybe it's just 'Onestar's Confession'.

I've been watching more animated web series recently. I watched 'The Stolen Hope', 'Blood Brothers', and 'Bloodlines'. Unfortunately, like 'Cow of the Wild' and 'My Pride' (for better or worse, that one), these usually never finish. I'm certainly getting ahead of myself for thinking this, but if I started one far in the future, the first and only goal would be to finish it. Though I don't know anyone in this community. Most of the voices appear across many projects. Some are friends off social media. I see why so many solo animators choose the animated-shorts-without-voice-acting route. Still, it's something I've been saying I want to do. I haven't animated anything serious since high school. But I only stopped because I was studying something completely different in college. It all seems much more overwhelming to get into with how much more I know about what makes good animation than I did in high school. Just getting into it regardless of quality is something I'd have to force myself past, unlike high school where I just did it and results be damned. Writing is one of those things that never changes, which is why I like doing it so much. At any point in the past, present, and future, you just grab a writing utensil and get to it. No less difficult but way less intimidating. But that's just future thoughts. I still have a few stories to finish.

Still writing the last book in my Warriors fanfics. Editing is tough with the concept being several years old versus the outline a year or so ago versus actually writing. I told myself I wasn't going to do that again. Oh well. It seems like it's going to be longer than the others with a shorter story, if that makes sense. Most of the words are description, which makes it harder for me. I still want to finish it this year. It still seems editing is going to be easier here for grammar but harder for story. I'm enjoying the challenge, though.