#ybyf

I just wanted to jump on here and give everyone an update since it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything. Five months here on Tumblr, 16 months since there’s been an update to any of my fanfics at best and 50 months at worst. (And for some reason One White Blank Page seems to be going through a renaissance period of new readers despite the fact that it’s been 16 months since there was an update.)

It’s crazy looking back at it, but I started writing One White Blank Page 4 years ago when I was a full time college student! A lot has changed since then, in the world at large, and in my own little personal bubble of a world.

In 2022 I took a hiatus from posting or updating any fanfics at all. It was a year where everything felt so incredibly out of control for me, and that feeling spiraled into my creative life and took away most of my drive to hunker down and actually create. I’m looking at 2022 as having been a ‘fallow’ year where my metaphorical fields had to sit untouched for a while in order to prepare for a new season of creating.

This year I’ve been brimming with creative energy! And I’ve been focusing most of my efforts into a piece of original fiction that I’ve talked about here a bit before. It’s a New Adult novel that I’ve tentatively titled You Got The Wrong Hero, and I do aspire to one day query and publish that novel. Of course, in order to do that I have to actually have a finished novel to publish!

So, this year, I’m choosing to focus the brunt of my creative efforts on YGTWH. At this time, I’m planning on having the first draft of YGTWH finished towards the end of this year. Because I’m going to be focusing so much of my creative energy and free time into getting the first draft of YGTWH finalized, I’m not going to have much time to focus on my existing fanfics.

Now, this isn’t to say that I’m abandoning my existing fanfics! I love those fanfics that I’ve written and I have every intention of returning to them. But this is a notice that I’m going to be on a fanfic hiatus until I finish that first draft of YGTWH.

Apologies to everyone who loves my Megamind and ATLA fanfics I have up, but it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to write a book that gets published and I genuinely feel like the idea, plot, and characters of YGTWH are enough to get me there if I can only give them the time and effort they deserve and actually get them down on the page.

I threw a (very) tentative schedule for my upcoming writing life for the next few years down below for those who are interested in when they can start expecting me to return to my existing fanfics. And below that I have a short list of tropes and ‘comp titles’ for YGTWH for anyone who might be interested in being a beta reader once I get this first draft done!

TLDR; I’m not dead and I haven’t abandoned any of my fanfics! I’ve been on hiatus and will be for a while longer while I finish some stuff up. See the (very) tentative timeline below for an estimate of when I will return to working on your favorite fanfic!

One White Blank Page (OWBP):

How was she supposed to look into Megamind's eyes every day and survive seeing that same judgment reflected back at her from yet another face she cared about?

Cupid’s Got A Gun (CGAG):

Minion's voice darkens as he speaks, and for a moment, Megamind thinks he might have to throw the door of the invisible car open and empty the contents of his stomach onto the pavement.

You Bare Your Fangs Or You Bare Your Throat (YBYF):

She watched as his eyes followed the slow path the singular drop of blood was taking as it trailed down his finger, before he lifted his hand to his mouth and licked it off his skin.

Gangsters Paradise (GP):

He’d spared her life, and in return, she was doing everything in her power to try and destroy him.

Time And Time Again (TATA):

🥰 fave fic you’ve written?

Oh boy... I am really in love with One White Blank Page, but I do honestly think that Cupid’s Got A Gun could surpass it for me personally once I get a few more chapters out. Gangster’s Paradise is definitely going to be too dark to be my favorite, and You Bare Your Fangs Or You Bare Your Throat is something that just struck me after I read Midnight Sun lol.

Please don’t make me pick between OWBP and CGAG... I love OWBP because it’s very much so a story of, I didn’t want to fall in love with you, but once I got to know you, falling in love was inevitable. And I love CGAG because it’s a story of, I can’t let myself love you unless you can prove to me that you’re going to be my strength, not my weakness.

The love story in OWBP is certainly going to come easier between them, and while I love that, I want to see them struggle for it like they’re about to in CGAG.

🎤 fave line in a fic you wrote?

Oh boy, this one took some time to find... So, I think this may be my fav line for the Megamind fandom, it hasn’t been posted yet, but it’s from wedding vows at the very end of OWBP:

“I fell in love with you in a million little ways, and in a million little moments.”

If I have to pick from what I’ve already posted my favorite line would either be from OWBP or Time and Time Again (which is my ATLA fic)

For TATA that line would be from chapter 2:

“If you, or Aang, or anyone ever tries to stand in the way of my freedom, I will destroy the people who thought that I could be controlled.”

And in OWBP that line would be in Chapter 10:

“Tell me, Governor Ritchi. Will an alliance written in blood crumble before an alliance written in ink?”

But, I’m also quite fond of an upcoming line from CGAG and it’s:

“As long as you’re not a threat to me, then I’m not a threat to you.”

^Which becomes a sort of mantra in that fic.

Oooof this got long! (Also, almost all of my favorite lines are vaguely threatening. Not sure what that says about me as a person, but it can’t be good lol) Anyways, thank you for the ask @verdigrispatina! :D

Working on my fanfiction projects has been pushed onto the back burner ever since April. I always struggle a lot with my mental health from April to June (in no small part in thanks to the mainstream holidays that fall in these months, and my birthday) and it usually takes a lot out of me. (I’ve only been able to work on YGTWH because working through those characters relationships with their parental figures has been cathartic for me.)

But, this morning I woke up to a really sweet comment on YBYF and saw a few people on a Discord server talking about how much they like the story and it motivated me to work on it. (I still lurk on Discord on occasion, but I try to step away from social media during this time of the year because when my mental health is shit social media usually just makes me feel more alone and alienated. So, that’s why I haven’t been on social media platforms much anymore.)

So, I finally finished working on the dialogue for the next chapter of YBYF, which I feel a little guilty about because I’ve been trying to write a fluffy one-shot for @nientedal ever since the year was young and I feel bad working on any fanfiction that’s not that little project. But at the same time I know that I just can't really write fluff right now because it’s hard to channel happiness into my writing when it’s been so long since I’ve actually felt much of it. However, it’s easy for me to work on something darker like YBYF.

And I know I haven’t been very active on here ever since April, so I figured I’d start trying to step into fandom and social media again by dipping back into the shallow end of the pool so to say. So, here’s a dialogue snippet from each of the main characters in the next chapter of YBYF (which is already at 2900 words):

Megamind:

“I've killed a lot of people. I couldn't count them all if you asked. If I ever get out of here I'm going to kill the people who locked us in here.”

Roxanne:

“I'm trying to figure out what's going on with you. Because I seriously have a hard time picturing the guy who cancels plots when I'm feeling sick, and who single handedly funded a charity hospital, and who turned me down for sex when I drunkenly threw myself at him, somehow also being the guy who graphically murders people.”

The Villainess: