Daily-ish reISH Report: 

Got distracted yesterday by reading too many old attempts at starting reISH along with the 1.5 prior attempts at a timeline and got overwhelmed by the enormity of the thing all over again.   I started thinking, ‘Shit, I cannot do this, if it’s this hard to sort out it’s probably not do-able and/or I shouldn’t be doing it.’    

And then I got a lovely comment on reSWAN!   Just when I needed it!   And I felt like reISH was conquerable again.  Just gotta go in little chunks one block at a time.   I think I got as far in reSWAN as I did because I just thought I was writing ‘just this one more’ chapter for every update for like 10 chapters haha   So I’m trying to stay focused somewhat like that here.  Just this chunk of the summary/skeleton for now, worry about massive implication later, adjust as needed while you go, etc etc

Today we had surgery on the opening, grafting parts of one previous opening into the new one.  Feels a little like one of those surgeries where you have to wait to see if it takes before you can declare it successful.  Alternately one of the ones you do in order to facilitate the surgery you actually want later down the line.   Truth be told, a lot of the material I have is still sort of ‘opening’ or, ‘opening-adjacent’, which feels a little embarrassing considering how long I’ve been working on this disaster.  It’s just that what feels like the beginning keeps moving.  I start in one place and then realize as I’m writing that I need more before that beginning in order for it to have some strength I need later.  

Much of this is untangling when we meet our two new cast members.  I do have the scenes of meeting both of them written, though the one is in more danger of changing than the other.  

I want to avoid writing too much out of order or too far ahead because I just know I’ll end up with A) people in the wrong mindsets and/or B) things I love that I will be upset to have to get rid of For The Good of the Mission.   So it’ll be work I either have to do a second time to make fit or work that I can’t make fit and will have wasted?  Something like that.

Also went back to the 777 chapter in reSWAN to look up some garbage and got sucked into reading the whole thing again and was like ,’wow, that was great, I just need to do like, like, 20 more times’.   (Just imagined someone reading this and thinking there are 777 chapters in reSWAN and wanting to assure them both that this is not the case and that they were not totally unreasonable for thinking that to be the case.  Anyway)

Also dug up a ton of old files and I forgot I had started a file called ‘bits of SWAN that don’t suck’, which is exactly what it sounds like, it was parts of the original story that I thought were good but that were not in reSWAN so I could give it to people like, HERE, now you never have to read the thing I made in 2005, you have all the highlights right here!  

So I guess a lot went on in the background of the story today.  But it is moving, and both my opening pair are willing participants in the narrative this time instead of crying and going home, which is Nice, Thanks.  They are establishing some baseline before collecting their first plot coupon (but also like some plot spare change, and a plot bobby pin, also some plot lint), and then maybe I will feel like the foundation is sound enough to build some of these walls higher.  

god i hope so

Daily-ish reISH report:

It’s fine, I haven’t misplaced a scene here six times already, it is totally fine.

The other night I found A Song, and by found I mean realized I had been listening to it for months and then suddenly it was like I I just heard the lyrics for the first time and it belonged here and I did like this writhing hand dance of excitement about it so that was Grand.

You hear about people having trouble indicating but characters are in love and mine will not stop indicating this. I’ve created a monster.

So yeah I just thought it would be cool to post shreds of what happened with the thing as I work or something . It will make like a dozen of you happy to know that I have been actively hacking away at it pretty solidly this week, and I thought it might be fun to see blips of activity indicating that that was still the case!

I will post Snippets and the like soon. It’s still got so many components that are so squishy that stuff that I shared with people just like two days ago is not sure to make it in.

I also tend to think of making a summary of the junk I made that day in on my phone using the mobile version of Tumblr so I don’t have access to the read more feature which would enable me to share bits and pieces.

Anyway I hope someone else is also happy that it’s happening as hard as it can at press time.

reISH Report:

Johnny inches perilously close to singing part of a song I got from working in a Claire’s in 2004/2005, thereby closing some kind of prophetic circle

working through ISH like

can i get you kids to stop promising to die for/with each other, dear god

scribbledwriting:

My characters during the editing process:

(via anthropwashere)

demonsgold:

ladyyatexel:

vexture:

@ladyyatexel - I finally made Tenna’s bracelet- all I need is a red one and I can be Gay™️ and wear the flag too lol

Awwwwww 🧡💛💚💙💜


someday, depending on how I ever complete a giant writing project, you’ll have a red one!

Well I mean, what was it, ISH? But that’s not canon anymore? Maybe?

Anyway, Banshee felt Tess was red.

I love ‘isn’t canon’ like

I have non-canonical parts of AU haha  (the entire jimmy’s boyfriend saga, the elusive ‘other’ universe…)

It is ISH (I’m Still Here), yeah, and the form it is in currently, or the one that exists now is not Correct.  It’s very much a follow up to the first version of SWAN, so things have developed differently and the characters are in different places and just wouldn’t make some of the decisions they do in ISH anymore.  I feel like the overall shape will be very similar, and a lot of the events that happened in it will still be happening, but at different times, different sizes, implications, etc.  

So ISH is being rewritten kind of in the same way SWAN was turned into reSWAN, but it’s a bit more challenging to balance letting it spin off into fuck all and keeping some things that feel core to the overall shape of the thing.  I’ve been taking 8000 years to do it, but I’ve been still been gently begging people not to look at the old one if their only exposure to this universe is reSWAN.  I feel like it will just clank badly against the characters as they are now.  

but uh, yes, now that i’ve gone the long ass way around, Banshee did believe Tess was red at one point. 

Edgar: Sir Not Wanting to Appear In This Story

Johnny: Going to Self Sabotage and Take This Story and Everyone In It Down With Me

Jimmy: ANGRY. PLOT. POINTS.

Devi: hateeveryonebutTenna

Tenna: “Cool, let’s go for a drive and I’ll pretend I’m not worried about anything.”