journal in progress

Another check in that is two months in one because I forgot the last one lol.

Words Written: 26,790

Words Translated: 2,528

The combined goal for to months is 15k and I more than met it, yay!

I finished my intoabar piece, and it was a lot of fun! I already started brainstorming part three for the series lmao, I'm also thinking about re-reading the lingqi manhua bc I am really fuzzy on canon, but since it's a crossover I can also toss canon out of the window methinks, so...

I wrote an almost 11k episode-style fic for the summerofhorrorexchange, for Mononoke of all things! It's been years since I watched it but I revisited it just for that piece and it was a lot of fun hahaha. Is the movie out yet? I might watch it and see if I feel like writing more on this fandom, the Medicine Seller is a pretty interesting character to write about.

Wrote 3 mushishi fics these past months, two for the mushishiweek challenge (spoiler alert I did not do the smart thing and pre-write something for every day so I only managed to do two ugh) and one for a pinchhit. The pinchhit one was my first Adashino/Ginko work and, tbh, it was super fun! I like Mushishi for the gen and the monster of the week possibilities so I never really explored the slash but I might do more because I had a grand old time.

Also I finished that Time For Chaos Carter/Margot banter piece I started working on after the first fic I did for the fandom for the bethefirst challenge! I love them lots and I'm gonna keep on writing for this fandom of 1 (I know there's more of us on reddit but i'm scared to bring up fanfiction there LMAO). I've already started brainstorming a Vaughn&Fairuz work during the time of Vaughn's recovery at Eagle's Grange and I'm so. pumped.

Lastly, I have decided that August will be the month I look through my WIPs and try to finish as many as I can so wish me luck lol

Oh and, uh translations... yeah. Oops. Ugh.

Can't believe it's already... *checks notes* May? Wtf. Where did the last three months go? Anyway.

Words Written: 27,588

Words Translated: 5,103

Welp, I definitely took a translating haitus for a while there. In my defence, the one chapter I did was super long and every time I went to chip away at it I could feel my braincells fleeing at the mere thought of having to remember all the imperial titles I came up with for this. At least this arc is one chapter closer to completion, and finally the ML is going to stop playing around. Phew.

Onto the fun bit, writing!

Since I set the 90k goal for the year, the goal for 3 months should have been 22,500 words, which I definitely did!

I finished my fic for the smallfandombang with a whopping 13k words! It was so fun to work on, probably one of my favourite fics of the year haha. It ended up taking me in a completely different direction than what I first envisioned when thinking about the Mushishi Modern Era AU, but honestly I couldn't be happier with how it turned out, and the podfic is gorgeous to boot! Now that mushishiweek is coming up I'm wondering whether or not to do more works in that canon... I'll wait until the prompts come out to decide, this year I definitely want to post for more days than last year so hopefully I can get my shit together enough to pre-write some of that.

What else... Oh, I finally took the plunge and snatched a pinch-hit! It was for the merthurglompfest, a fest I was thinking about signing up for but at the time of signups I was busy so I sort of sighed and let it go, but then I saw the pinch hits go up and I took a peek and one of them immediately grabbed be, so I said what the hell, this is my chance! It was actually super fun to work on and reminded me of why I love Merlin so much haha, def wanna write more merlin stuff in the future. Also, having to find a beta for this fic (as per the fest rules, I'm usually a "no beta we die like [humorous comparison]" kind of guy) got me in contact with a wonderful writer who introduced me to the show Lewis! I binged it all in under two weeks I loved it so much, and I'm even watching the pre-prequel Endeavour (which I do like, but it's different vibes from Lewis and I def like Lewis better). Now I'm beta-ing a whole-ass series of fics she's doing for the lewis/hathaway ship and I'm absolutely loving every single word. God some people just have gold in the brain.

The last highlight of the month is definitely the latest fic I did for the bethefirst challenge! I wrote a Vaughn-centric fic for the Time For Chaos podcast (the one that introduced me to call of cthulhu, which I keep gushing about to anyone who'll listen) and honestly it was such a blast. I actually intended for it to go a vastly different way but the start wasn't working out so I re-wrote it in a completely different scenario and suddenly it all clicked. Needless to say, I'm already writing another fic for the fandom (because I need more Carter/Margot bickering in my life), and I'm waiting for season 2 to end (5 episodes left as of writing this oh god) so I can go back to re-listen and write even more. I know I will be the only person writing (and reading) for this fandom but I don't care, I do it because I love: therefore I must. Be the change you want to be in the world and all that.

Anyway hopefully next check-in comes at the end of may and not 3 months later... ㄟ(≧◇≦)ㄏ

End of the YEAR LETS GOOOOOO

For the month(s):

Words Written: 20,035

Words Translated: 2,529

So about 5k of these words were written in November but bc I didn't post them until December I completely forgot to do a roundup post! Also I didn't translate shit during Nov so that contributed to the whole thing.

Anyway December was mostly a degenerate month and it was great! The first fic was a cute and fluffy femslashex piece I did featuring Ophilia and H'aanit. Nice, cleansing, christmas-y, smooches.
The other two were plain smut of the dubcon variety hahaha. One was for the wordcrimes exchange featuring Edmond and Rei from Nu carni. I had a lot of fun with it, though it did drag a little since I had never even pictured these two together so it took me some figuring out to see what they'd be like. The other was for Yuletide! The request was for the manhwa Dark Fall, so the fic was full on noncon in line with canon. Honestly if you read the first two chapters of the manwha you get a pretty good idea of what the whole thing is like, it's only lately that there's been a few crumbs of story sprinkled into the main "plot". That being said, the whole thing practically wrote itself, which I'm not sure is a good thing actually...

I only tld one chapter for TVRW and i cannot wait to be done with this fucking arc. Don't get me wrong, I love reading it, I just haate translating it. I think the next one is interstellar ABO? I can't wait.

End of Year Wrap:

Words Written: 132,671 Fics: 38

Words Translated: 155,545 Chapters: 60

I absolutely blew it out of the water with my inkingitout goal of 75K!! I never thought it was possible! That's more than I have written in literal years!!!!!!!!!

For 2024 I'm going to push myself and aim for 90k, let's see how that goes ผ(•̀_•́ผ) However, I'm not going to officially sign up to the inking it out challenge because I did not do a single check.-in this year and I feel really bad about it rip. Anyway the main thing was that it got me into the habit of doing these check-ins with myself and that was fantastic!!!!!

Also, translations-wise, wow! Even though I did wayyy less than last year (like a third less orz) that's still a really chonky number. Let's see if I can hit 200k in 2024? (although I know fics will take priority). I just need to refocus, find my zen, combat distractions.....

Wish me luck!

Wake me up when September ends... wait what? October? When?!

Words Written: 7,314

Words Translated: 4,635

Written wordcount again only for works I finished, I'm actively still writing my fandomgrowthexchange assignment which is currently like *checks notes* 8k words long?! wait wtf it was 6k like yesterday... this didn't have any maximums right??.... Uh so yeah it's due next week and I'm racing to finish it spiralled out of control like a week or so ago it was only supposed to be like one chapter... ¯\(°_o)/¯
The finished things were chapter 17 of my joondok fic (i have 18 already in the works, it's just a matter of finishing the fgex one so i can write that one aaaahg) and my piece for bethefirst  which i wrote for life going wild ^^ i already have a lot of ideas for more works i wanna do in that fandom because goddamnit i loved those goofy silly guys.
I also signed up for the word crimes 2023 exchange and i'm so looking forward to filling that assignment eheheheh... also might do a thing or two for sick_or_treat  i started one already?? sort of?? i'll see if i have time to do more, luckily it runs throughout oct and nov i think.

As for translations... i'm sorry i fell off. uwu. i' thought i was going to be able to keep up the pace but then i started writing my other stuff and i got carried away.... owo.

I got hit with the big depresso espresso so...

Words Written: 6,765

Words Translated: 2,607

I did what I managed to do, that's all I can ask for.

On the bright side, I had set myself a 6k ish writing goal for each month, and I met it! So not a complete meh month altogether. I wrote a genshin fic in spanish, my first time writing in spanish since, like... actually, i don't think i've ever done creative writing in spanish? hella essays, sure, but aside from a few scripts/poems for school assignments i've never sat down and wrote in spanish 'cause I wanted to, so that's pretty nice. Hopefully I'll be doing more, it was fun. Wrote a piece for the obscure_sorrows collection, a little side story to my ongoing joondok fic, and started a natsuyuu fic for the same challenge that i was unable to complete because I had writer's block and then it got a little out of control. I was only able to do one proper chapter for that ongoing joondok fic before the big meh hit me but hopefully i can come back to it this month.

As for tling, just one chapter, i didn't have any more than that in me to be perfectly honest. the story is wild, as always, and i'm still enjoying it.

I already started agust on a slightly better note so i'm going to take it as it comes and trying not to feel down about it.

Omg I do not know what came over me this month is it because its summer?!

Words Written: 25,629

Words Translated: 21,442

I'm insane no wonder I felt a little burnt out at the end of May lmao.

To sum up I wrote two more works for dick_or_treat and then I gave up, which means I filled 6 out of 8 challenges! I'm going to be honest, I didn't think I'd get that far. I also wrote my entry for intoabar and it was super fun! I had a hunch that I was going to get the Link Click x Ling Qi crossover so I had already started planning it out in my head, and when I actually got it I jumped to writing everything down lmao. I actually want to write more for this now, but we'll see... I only wrote one work for both vocab_drabbles and sweetandshort, I wanted to do S&S's mini monthly bingo but, again, I was a little burnt out so I did not. I also wrote two stories for the @Seven Wildflowers Collection, which will be revealed on the 24th of June I believe. My flowers were Shepherd's Purse and Wallflower. Shepherd's purse was super easy to do, I immediately knew I wanted something with dumplings because that's how I first learnt about the flower! Wallflower took me a little longer but I came up with something short that I ended up liking. I also signed up for a fic on smallfandomfest so I have that to work on before the end of June, but other than that I have no more deadlines as of now.
Anyway the main reason I was burnt out was because I edited and posted 12 chapters for that joondok crackfick I started working on last month, I'm not counting the 5 chapters I did last month in this month's word count but the whole thing is literally 21,886 words and not done yet this is the longest thing I have ever written. But I'm glad this work is the way it is because it's just fun and light-hearted and I gave myself a lot of freedom to just do goofy things with the story, so it's actually fun to work on.

For tling, everything is going pretty smoothly, I'm back to working solely on TVRW and CXR so I was able to release 2 chaps for CXR and 5 for TVRW. To be honest, I thought I was going to have to do a lot more research for this imperial arc in TVRW but, apart from some titles and era-specific terminology, it's actually been about the same or (gasp) less than I had to do in the entertainment circle arc?! All that internet slang really added up lmao. But still, I'm barely 10ish chapters into the arc so I bet there's more to come.
Also I just realised that CXR's author hasn't updated since March :( I know they said they were busy with work so I hope everything is going well for them. If I ever catch up to the chapters (which I'm not banking on tbh) I'm thinking of putting the series on a break and tling something short? (i have a 30ish chapter story in mind) but who knows.

I have also discovered that using text-to-speech to read shit out loud is a fantastic way to proofread everything because it lets me catch odd phrasings or missing letters straight away and now I use it every time it's wonderful. Thank you Microsoft George.

March flew on by, dang. Anyway, here's my words:

Words Written: 15,284

Words Translated: 29,038

Holy moly I smashed that 6,250 monthly goal and more than made up for coming up short on Feb!!! I knew I wouldn't let past me down hehe.

Let's see, the bulk of what I wrote went to an 8k~ fic that grabbed me by the throat at the start of march and wouldn't let me go until I completed it. I wrote it for a few of the bingos I have from tumblr, so it was a nice way to start on a few challenges at once. I never thought I'd write something that freaking long, especially for something like dottoscara which i've never really given that much thought to, but i actually had a lot of fun and i'm already planning a sequel hah. I also wrote two works for vocab_drabbles and a few haikus for sweetandshort, but didn't include those in the word count (would've been like, what, 15 words max?). I also started on my table for 10prompts with one of the vocab works which was nice, I'm already planning a few of the other things i want to do for that table.

Finally, I decided to write a couple of things for dick_or_treat, which starts in April, so I got two challenges done in advance to post when it opens. I don't really write smut like ever, not because i've got something against it (on the contrary, i'm quite the fan) but it's just never really been something that comes to mind when i'm thinking about things to write, and also because going from doing nothing over a G rating to suddenly writing capital E Explicit stuff felt a little, idk, intimidating? I think writing that dottoscara fic helped a bit with that hurdle because, even though it wasn't explicit or even sexual, it was slightly darker than my usual and the first Teen-rated work I've posted, so it felt a bit like, eh, if I can do that, smut is fine. Anyway, i've got all 8 challenges planned out, don't know if I'm gonna get to all of them, but at least i'm participating with a few, and it seems like quite a fun challenge.

As for translations, first off, I just find it funny that last month's word count also ended in 38. Spotting a lucky number pattern perchance?
Anyway, I feel like my translation sweet spot is somewhere between 25-30k words, anything less feels like I didn't do anything, but anything more is like, holy crap, that's too much hahaha. I've been absolutely loving having those teeny short stories to fall back on when I get tired of the long ones, especially since they've been so simple and contemporary. I did start translating another ancient times short story but I haven't even finished the first chap because the modern ones are so fun! I'm really liking the author i've taken them all from lmao, i got so lucky with finding their stuff. I'm thinking about doing the 30~ chapter story they have on lofter but I'm not married to the idea yet.

I have been neglecting chuxingren but it's because the latest chapters in the raws are taking such dramatic twists and turns that coming back to the slow-paced start of the story makes it feel really bland in comparison TAT, this is what happens when I read ahead!!!! bad!!!! i don't wanna tl old boring chapters i wanna tl the new chapters with K and Zhou!!! OTL I also saw a post on the author's weibo that commented on that same slow-pace of the beginning and they said they wanted to rewrite it, but i don't know if it was a joke or not!!!! I both hope it is and hope it isn't, the pace could definitely do with some tightening up and I'm definitely interested in seeing what their rewrite would accomplish, but that would make my work (that no one asked for) so much harder lmao.

For TVRW's new arc, I haven't made up my mind yet. translating it is such a pain in the butt (so much googling of historical terms fml, who knew there was a hierarchical difference between a "consort" and a "concubine"?? certainly not me) but the story is interesting as always, I'm looking forward to seeing more interaction between the leads but it makes sense that the first few chapters are mostly set-up for the new setting, as it were. I was taking a peep at the average length of the chapters and there are certainly a handful of 6k character ones coming up, but then i scrolled farther down and saw that 9k wasn't even the longest one in the novel?! luckily those are much later on so they're either going to be future me's problem or some other poor foolish soul's.

I'm doing everything in my power to stop myself from picking up another 100+ chap novel, because I know I'm at my physical and mental limit, but TLing is so freaking fun i love it so much i wish i didn't have to do stupid things like "study" and "work" and "be a productive member of society" ugh.

First check-in of the year, let's see how I did.

Words Written: 6,634

Words Translated: 32,439

I signed up for the 75k goal of the inkingitout challenge and I met my monthly goal!! Not only did I meet it, I surpassed it by 384 words ᕙ(  •̀ ᗜ •́  ) . I know it may not seem like that much but it's the most I've written in a single month since I tried doing NaNoWriMo like two years ago?? (spoiler alert I did not complete it).

My favourite work was the Eula/Amber fic I wrote for 100ships , closely followed -- surprisingly -- by the tricornered window fic I pulled out of my ass for the vocab_drabbles prompt #45: loquacious. I don't know, I just had a lot of fun revisiting that fandom and I'm so glad I remembered its existence. I was sort of surprised to see there were only about 50~ works on the AO3 tag but now I'm looking forward to contributing to the growth of the small fandom ehehehe.

As for the translation, most of the TVRW chapters didn't need me to put in any translator's notes so that was cool. I'm trying to strike a balance between localisation and a faithful translation, like, i want to keep the spirit of the work but make it so that I don't have to add footnotes every other sentence. I've been taking more translation liberties lately and I think it's helped the flow of some stuff, so I wanna keep that up, but sometimes my brain just does not want to cooperate lol.

Since I wanna do the Inking it Out challenge, I decided to start doing check-ins just to see how things are looking, but mine are going to be monthly, because bigger numbers make brain go brr.

Words Written: 1,813

Words Translated: 37,414

I'm sensing a pattern here... lmao.

But also holy shit dawg. I'm not gonna count translated words for the 75k word count or that would be over in *checks maths* less than three months, and tbh my goal for the challenge is to do more original stuff, whether that's working on OC stories or fics, and while I love the stories I'm translating with my whole bloody heart, they're not mine, and I want to write more of my things, y'know?