Life is a Cabaret

I know I've not been posting much recently, but I promised myself I would post today. So have a big long update. :p

i. First, Remix! The fic I received was Full of Grace (the human wisdom remix) by NEStar, West Wing, a remix of "All Human Wisdom." It's Josh-centric and about his relationships with some of the women in his life, so of course I loved it. What's funny is that the person last year remixed the same fic, but in a very different way. It's really, really interesting to see what two different people will do with the same fic.

I wrote The Camera Steals Your Soul (The Leading by Example Remix), Narnia, Susan-centric Pevensie sibling gen. I really enjoyed remixing this one. I knew as soon as I read the fic how I would remix the story, and I ended up quite happy with it.

That was the only fic I wrote for Remix this year. I wasn't quick enough for a pinch hit and nothing in Remix Madness really called to me with the amount of time I really had. That week happened to be the week of my Legal Research and Writing final brief. Speaking of...

ii. Law school! It's exams season. My exams are all on Tuesday and Friday this week and next. I'm...sort of having a hard time caring? I mean, my first one this Tuesday is the only in-class exam -- all the others are take-homes where I'll have an extra five hours to spend on them. Of course I've been studying, but I'm not really stressing about it. I've been far more interested in making up a schedule for next year. XD

What really makes me excited is that I got into the legal clinic I wanted for next spring. It's called the International Women's Human Rights Clinic, and from what I understand, what I'll be doing is in-depth research on another country's laws regarding women, actually going to that country during spring break for fact-finding, and then writing a report on our findings. There might be some drafting legislation in there too. It's going to be so cool! And speaking of other countries...

iii. Uganda! I need to send in my visa application this week, but otherwise I'm pretty on track. I am so looking forward to this. I can't believe I'm going to be spending three months in Africa, working on human rights. Wow.

iv. Okay, so...how do people find places to live that are not student housing? XD I've only ever lived with my parents or in dorms, but I need to find a place for next year. It's complicated by me not being in the country for the summer, so my parents are on my case about doing it now. I've just never done it before, and don't really know how it works. Hmm. I think I might just check out one of the apartment complexes nearby.

v. Writing! I've been doing it. I finished another fic in the Start Infinity Again series -- the planned final fic, in fact. That means it's not going to see the light of day for a long time, and it's probably going to change a lot between now and when I can finally post it, but it's a big relief to have it done. It ended up about 9000 words, and I actually still quite like it. :p

Now this means that I only have two more stories I have to write in order for this to feel like a complete and coherent universe. Both stories are chaptered with plot, so I'm probably going to have to save writing them for this summer. I don't anticipate having regular internet access at home, so that will leave me with little to do but write. :p

Also, I signed up for ksbigbang. My second Big Bang! My story is fleshing itself out in my head more -- I know the basic plot trajectory of the story, and last night I thought up several key scenes. Once I've got all the scenes basically plotted out, I can start writing, and it will go a lot quicker.

Hmm, think that's about it for now. I'm...going to try to be better about updating. :p

Okay, so I have lots of news, and have actually had lots of news for a while, but never really felt like taking the time to update. So...here we go, in no particular order.

i. Today I went to see an argument at the Supreme Court. Law school in DC for the win! Also I never want to do appellate advocacy.

ii. I am going to New Orleans for spring break! I am excited. I've never been to New Orleans, and I've always wanted to go. It's for a school-sponsored trip, so I will actually be working at the public defender's office, but I will be in New Orleans and also gaining legal experience so awesome.

iii. Speaking of travel, I have a summer job already and I will be going to KAMPALA, UGANDA to work in human rights. I am also really excited about that for multiple reasons. I'd really like to work in international human rights after I graduate, so it will be great to get some experience. And also my younger sister is in Tanzania again and will still be there this summer and she's already said she'll come visit me. This means I'll actually get to see her before next winter break. :p

iv. I started volunteering for the OTW. As a first year law student, I feel rather out of my depth and like I don't have much to contribute right now, but it's really nice to see people doing actual legal work, particularly related to fandom. I think I'm going to learn a lot.

v. I finally edited the first sequel to Start Infinity Again, one of the ones I wrote last summer. Hopefully I can get that to my beta soon, but first there are some other fics (shorter fics) in the series I want to write. I keep being hesitant about posting my chaptered sequels because, while they're complete, I want the universe to also feel complete whenever I post something. The third fic especially needs more story to round out the universe, but the second also raises some questions I would like to answer before I let it see the light of day. I just really don't want to post another universe that feels incomplete.

vi. Every so often it hits me that I actually am at a religious school. First with the birth control debate (which has been of particular interest for many reasons, one of which is that I sort of know Sandra Fluke. Not well, but we're in some of the same organizations.), and then today people were walking around with dark marks on their foreheads and then I realized oh, it's Ash Wednesday.

vii. More probably (hopefully) later. :p

Family has left, but today we leave to go visit more family. Back on Thursday, after which I have three priorities:

1. Actually get started on the summer job search.
2. Play more Zelda: Skyward Sword while I still have access to my sister's Wii.
3. Outline and maybe get started on the fourth fic in the series started by Start Infinity Again, which has been developing itself further in my head. It's...another one of those fics with plot. *headdesk*

Otherwise -- LiveJournal, I've put up with a lot over the eight years I've been here -- the eight years I've been paying for this site. And I'd still put up with this latest fuckwittery, even though I had to change my journal style to keep the actually good comments page...but your customer service is for complete shit.

I'm not abandoning LJ, but I think I'm finally going to stop renewing my paid account. And I'll give that money to Dreamwidth, who cares more about their user base.

So...first, can someone remind me how to import my journal entries from LJ to DW? Last time I did it was in 2009.

Second, I am, unsurprisingly, rynne on DW. If I don't already have you added there, could you give me your username?

Goodbye, November. You were mostly significant for me finally being able to post my Big Bang. Which, you know, in case anyone missed it -- Start Infinity Again. Generations fix-it! Kirk Prime in Reboot! Crotchety old married couple space husbands!

I've been working out my notes for more of the universe starting with that fic. Yes, notes. I don't have a spreadsheet, but that's mostly because I don't really know what to do with a spreadsheet. I do have a table in a word document, though. It's got basic idea details for each planned fic, plot notes for the fic and where it fits into the universe, and character notes for what I'm trying to do with the characters. It's...really organized. Much more organized than I usually get for fic. XD

And at least two more of the fics have expanded in my mind into becoming chaptered fics. Not necessarily very long chaptered fics, but still chaptered. But I'm going to have to wait to actually write any of them until winter break. Which, speaking of.

One last day of classes, and one class left. Next Tuesday is my first final, the 15th is my last, and then I'll be done with my first semester of law school. Wow, that went quickly.

I'm trying not to freak out. Last week my Contracts prof gave us a practice exam question that he'd meet to give us individualized feedback on, and my meeting with him was today, and he said my answer was one of the best in the class. Which was, wow, not expecting that. We talked about the things I could improve, and then our last Contracts class today was a review session, so I feel pretty prepared for that. It's the other two I'm more worried about. *sigh*

Okay, two and a half more weeks of school, and about as long until I post my ksadvent fic. So...I need to write that, while studying for exams. At least I have a pretty solid idea -- now I just need to sit down and write it.

I've been...expectedly productive this year. :p

Last night I finished that third fic -- 22,400 words. It actually feels very bare, though -- not a skeleton, but certainly a very gaunt body. I think there might be more to this story, but I also think I need either some distance, some help, or both, to bring it out.

I think that's it for the longer fics in this series, though! Everything else I have planned will be one-shots, and much shorter. There's only one that I think might pass 10,000, but that's still a might. That will make things much easier -- I can do one-shots. :p

But I also think I'm going to take a break from this universe. There are still things I want to write this summer, while I still have time, but those things have nothing to do with Kirk Prime. That will be nice. XD

In more real life news, my job finally decided to actually PAY ME. It's a stipend, but it applies retroactively to the entire time I've been there, so when I'm done in a couple weeks I will actually get a check. So totally awesome. :D

On the other hand, though, they did want me to start coming in an hour earlier. And I agreed, because I would like to be paid. But getting up an hour earlier is going to be hard until I get used to it. *sigh*

I only have less than a month left in Reno, though. In less than a month, I'll be in DC! But this does mean I have to finish the things I want to do before my life gets swallowed up by law school, and I just hope I can get to the things I most want. I think I might. This has pretty much been my most productive summer ever. :D

Oh! And in another awesome turn, there is actually going to be a sci-fi convention in Reno next month! Anyone coming to WorldCon? :D

Of late I'm being a pretty one-trick pony. Or one-note song. Whatever.

I've got an outline of the third fic. I managed to actually come up with a plot for it, a plot that lets me hit a lot of things I wanted to address, so I'm pretty stoked. I think I'm going to start writing it tomorrow. I think it'll be shorter than the last one, but not too much. Maybe 15,000 to 25,000.

(Hah, watch me eat those words when I finish it. My initial estimates for the first fic were 40,000 to 50,000, and it ended up 77,000. But I at least have all the basic scenes for this new fic planned out, so all that remains is to actually write them.)

Note that right now I am also:

1. Working an office job. (Part-time, but still working.) This takes up my mornings.
2. Training for my online tutoring job. This takes up some of my evenings.
3. Taking a class at my local university. This takes up my afternoons.
4. Doing in-person basic literacy tutoring and also attending dance class. This takes up more of my evenings.

Ahahahaha well. Hopefully this is good practice for being really busy in the fall. Let's see how fast I actually manage to write, given my schedule.

Today I passed 20,000 words...on the sequel to my Big Bang. I haven't even been writing that quickly, compared to the first fic. What I have been doing, at least, is writing steadily. I usually get at least a thousand words, usually more, each day. I won't let myself go to bed without doing some writing. It's really making a difference. I not only have my Big Bang done, but the sequel is long enough to be a BB itself.

What's sort of mind-boggling, though, is that in just another couple thousand words, I will have written over 100,000 words in this universe. In less than two months. That is so utterly amazing to me, both the number and that it's only in two fics. I also have more fics planned, and two of them at least are shorter (I think even one-shots! XD), which is also amazing to me. I have a real universe going.

This is so awesome.

I think I can actually do quite a bit this summer. I still have two months until school starts, and I think I'm probably going to finish the current fic early next week. I can then do the two shorter fics I have in my head, and think about the next longer fic, which I only have a basic idea for. I think I can get quite a lot done before school begins, much less before I can actually post anything, because I have to wait for my Big Bang posting date, which is October at the earliest.

But still, I am excited. Now what I really need are fic ideas that have nothing to do with this universe... XD

I downloaded the free trial for Scrivener and have been playing around with it. I did get my Big Bang all squared away in it, but earlier today I finished my preliminary editing of it, so there's not really much more I can do with it until I have a beta.

Mostly what I did was some outlining of the sequel. I have all the chapters for that planned out, and know basically what I want to have in my chapters, but I don't think I'm ready to start writing yet since I want to have more detail about each scene before I get that far. Still, I am pretty pleased with what I already have, since I only came up with this idea a few weeks ago. It's definitely going to be shorter than the Big Bang, but even if I think about it more, I still think I can get it done this summer. Which would be seriously awesome.

In other news, today I asked one of my supervisors if it might be possible for me to get paid. I mean, I love volunteering at Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I'd rather work there without money if the paying alternative is another job like the theater from the past two years, but...it would be nice to be paid to do work I actually enjoy. Unfortunately, she said it isn't likely. Non-profits are definitely feeling the economy.

Thank god I have supportive parents, really, though I would like to be more independent. *sigh* Well, once I'm in law school, things will probably change. I should enjoy what I have while it's nice and easy. XD

Okay, I said I was going to cut down talking about my Big Bang, and I will. This will, in fact, probably be my last post about it for awhile. Because...

I FINISHED IT.

OMFG I FINISHED IT.

It is 76,000 words. Thirteen chapters. DONE.

You know, I think I actually wrote the last 40,000 words in a week. Wow.

Now comes the hardest part -- waiting. I was in such a hurry to finish this thing that I didn't care that the rough draft isn't due until September and that my posting date won't be until October at the earliest, but now I'm sort of looking at the fic and thinking...I have to sit on this for four months? I'm an idiot.

But whenever I think that I didn't have to start it so early, much less finish it so early, I remember why I did -- I was afraid that if I didn't start it now, and finish it now, I never would.

But I don't have to worry about that anymore, BECAUSE IT'S DONE!

And, hah, it hasn't even been a month. I remember I told ladyblahblah when I was a week or so into it that I didn't think I could finish in May, but I could probably finish in June.

Hah. It's still May. The very last day of May, but still May.

It's too bad that May isn't NaNo month, or else I would totally have won. 76,000 words in three and a half weeks. Totally a new record for me, in many different ways.

Now what I'm going to do is close my document and not open it again for at least two weeks, probably closer to a month. I am not going to poke and prod at it. I am going to read some books and play some video games and just not think about it.

I do, at least, have plenty of time to deal with all the revisions it will need later. For now I'm just going to exult in OMG I FINISHED IT AND IT'S EPIC OMG.