NaNo is Coming

~ crossovercreativechaos

…Eep.

Long story short, RL is several distinct flavors of Awkward to Pure Hades at the moment. And I want to add 1667 words a day to that? For a month? What am I, nuts?

All right, you hyenas. *Squinty look* I can hear you cackling from here. I’m a writer; of course I’m not entirely sane.

By this time I’ve actually got it down to a pattern. (Or so say my beta readers – I’m generally too frazzled to be sure.) A few months away from NaNo I have no clue what I’ll be doing. I scramble. I panic. I research all kinds of odd things, in hopes that somewhere, somehow, I will run across The Great Idea that will make everything work.

But nothing does. All is lost. I am a writer adrift, bereft of inspiration – or worse, I have two equally good ideas that I can’t decide between. I gibber. I chew my metaphorical nails, and apply head liberally to keyboard.

…And then about 2 weeks to a few days before NaNo, I end up stumbling on a possible Idea. It doesn’t seem like The Great Idea, but it is an idea, and it promises to at least get me started long enough to throw in the random ninja attacks.

(Haven’t you used random ninjas in your NaNos? They’re so awesome….)

Aaaaand then NaNo starts and there’s pretty much no more time to worry about this not being the Great Idea, it’s at least an idea that gets wordcount onto paper and that’s all you care about until you collapse, flattened, on Dec. 1st.

And guess what? You get 50+ K words of a decent idea onto paper, suddenly you’ve got a workable rough draft. And with that – you have a good story. And that’s what really matters. 🙂

So, in the lead-up to that – doing NaNo and keeping afloat of RL is probably not going to give me much time to fic as well. I could, however, drag out some of my incomplete fanfics from storage to post bits up during November if people felt interested.

At the moment I’ve got 3 main possibilities in mind. Through the Cracks (RK/Valdemar fusion). Waking to Another Sky (SAO/SG-1 cross in the SG ‘verse). And Monstrous Compendium Online (SAO/Eberron variant cross, with each being an alternate Material Plane – Eberron has magic, SAO-Earth magic is thought to be myth).

Let me know if anyone has preferences!

75 thoughts on “NaNo is Coming”

    2. I would love to see an RK/Valdemar fusion – Blades of Blood/Witchy Woman is still quite possibly my favorite Vatharafic, and the Velgarth novels were something of a formative experience for me 😀

      Like

      Reply

  3. Waking to Another Sky or Monstrous Compendium Online have my vote.

    The first because I freely admit that one of my draws to your SG1-related fics is how the status quo of the show can be completely destroyed.

    The second? Lisbeth with access to magi-tech is all I need to say. *EG*

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. I’m all for whatever you want, but I have to admit to be interested in what you do with SAO/SG-1 especially in an SG-1 setting. Also, I adore the way you write SAO. It was part of why I was expecting an action anime when I started it. (Totally threw me when I realized it was a romance.)

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I tend to play up action in a setting, I admit – I’m happier without much romance. The Phantom Bullet arc was one of my favorites.

      For Waking, it was interesting figuring out how to fit SAO around the SG timeline, tech and all. Though positing “alien tech” for part of the Nervegear made some things easier. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    2. >The Phantom Bullet arc was one of my favorites. >
      Yep. The relationship tangle had been resolved, Asuna has her waifu (What? Not like Kazuto every wore the pants in their relationship, I remember the knife *G*) and we get a new character that basically becomes a semi-sister to Kazuto.

      Because honestly, I could never see Shino as a love interest to Kazuto. Just something about their interactions said more mutually trolling/teasing brother/sister than anything else. Though she was the clearvictor at the end of the Calibur story.
      I mean: “Please think of me every time you draw this sword.”? *ROFL*
      Nothing he could say would get him out of the doghouse from that one.

      It’s a shame that Argo never really resurfaced in the series. Because her and Sinon co-op trolling/teasing Kirito and Asuna would be glorious.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. >*G* In Waking, Argo gets to troll Jack O’Neill. Hee.>
        Hmmm. That would imply that Jack can’t just ship her home etc ‘for her own safety’ or whatever since she’ll be around long enough to get under his skin.

        And that means that she has access to information that he/his superiors want but can’t just squeeze out of her. Assuming she’s Terran here that means that the SAO equivalent in this story likely gave the players skills, knowledge and/or the understanding to construct advanced technology ala Change of Fate.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. I kinda suspect Argo is an AI, and that Kayaba discarded her when the author did. Either way, I’m always happy to see her show up.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. >Kayaba was CREATIVE!>
        Right, scratch off ‘Kayaba was a hidden Ancient’ from my ‘alien tech source for the NerveGear’ list.

        I mean they were highly advanced but well……….

        Liked by 1 person

      8. I have a terrible weakness for name jokes. After noticing what wouldn’t be a coincidence for a western author educated before WWII, my next preference evolutions were spurred by coming across Arpeggio of Blue Steel*, and finding out what the space battleship Yamato was called in Star Blazers.

        Currently I’m imagining** a version of Alicization where the boat full of contractors is sunk by an unknown contact, which then surfaces.

        *Or maybe Gryphon’s Arpeggio/Kancolle fanfic. The Kancolle side tends to interest me less for some reason. I may have missed a particular wiki entry, until now, because I was searching for USS or HMS. Anyway, built ’36, sank ’45.

        **And kicking myself for earlier overlooking the word choice.

        Like

  5. Through the Cracks has me intrigued because RK is an old dear friend and Valdemar is a new one. And seeing how the characters would translate into that setting sounds very interesting indeed . . .

    Through the others sound interesting too . . . because again, how the characters will translate in their new setting or meeting each other should be interesting. In the ancient curse/blessing (depending on who you ask) sort of way.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. That sounds amusing. At least for us.

        Part of me can’t help but think “Oh come on, Sanosuke, whatever it is cannot be that bad. So what if the fox lady and the writer are giggling at you? They do that anyway.”

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I’m skipping NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve been training my daily word count, and keeping a log. The records show that my max apparently doesn’t break 900 words per day.

    Do what fits your needs.

    I’m deeply interested in the incomplete fic. In order of greatest interest to least (but still interested), Waking, MCO, Cracks

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Broadly speaking, anything from your brain is worth its weight in gold, in my opinion.

    Though I would agree your SAO stuff is always a delightful break from the harem comedy….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. As a huge fan of not just SAO, but your SAO/Star Wars fusion I’m really liking the idea of you doing more with that fandom. I’m more interested in what you’d do with SAO/SG-1 than the SAO/Eberron, but that’s mostly because I’m more of a Sci-Fi fan than a Fantasy fan. That and I’m more familiar with the world of SG-1 than I am with any of the D&D settings (Eberron is D&D and not some other property right?)

    Like

    Reply

  11. I’ve been too busy to leave much in the way of comments lately (which is a /tragedy/, because your snippets always leave such delightful food for thought!) but when it comes to NaNoWriMo and whatever real life throws at you? You do you, I’ll happily wait patiently for your return.

    In terms of voting on fic ideas… I admit to a great love of how you do SAO /and/ of Eberron (I suspect I have /not/ been subtle about either of these things in comments elsewhere on here)… which is why it may be amusing that that one – while something I’d find interesting – ranks the bottom of my preferences.

    Don’t get me wrong, seeing Lisbeth and Silica puzzling out real magic while Kirito feels around its edges for what this means he can do as a swordsman would /definitely/ be interesting – especially in the complex setting that is Eberron (who else is assuming Klein’s a Half-Orc/Half-Dork; Argo’s a particularly sneaky Gnome or particularly clever Halfling… if she’s not a house cat type Shifter; Kirito’s probably a vanilla Human or Half-Elf… if he’s not something naturally Psionic given your preferences; Silica’s a Halfling or a Shifter; Lisbeth’s a Dwarven Smith; Asuna’s either some kind of Elven Nobility or Dragonmarked, which is what Suguo /also/ is to facilitate the upper class arranged marriage they’ve got going on… Oh. And Yui is a /very/ young Warforged for some reason in a child/puppet sized body). But as awesome as your world building is and that would be? I like the other ideas more.

    Vote 1 is for RK/Valdemar. RK is one of my oldest favorites and what brought me to you in the first place, and Valdemar… I like it. I’ve only /read/ It Takes a Thief, but I’ve got a basic understanding of the setting. I’d definitely like to read more. And I just don’t get enough new RK these days.

    Vote 2 is SAO/Stargate. I /love/ what you do with both casts, and seeing Jack eat his own assumptions is great everytime you pull it (though his twitching self-realization post-Sanzo has definitely been my favorite). And… I dunno. It just sounds fun!

    So yeah, that’s my opinion. I’ll look forward to whatever though.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. I’ve actually spotted your Valdemar bookmarks – or perhaps I should say ‘the Valdemar fics in your bookmarks’ – recommended in general and to me in multiple places, but… Well, I don’t mind/have a problem with spoilers – especially when I already knew I’d run into spoilers going into something – but I always feel like I won’t fully understand/appreciate the works until I’ve managed to solidly ground myself in the source material first, so I’ve refrained from clicking on Valdemar fics till now. But for your RK? I will make an /exception/. (Actually, that was something that made me refrain from finishing your Urban Legends series for the longest time: I /only/ know Airwolf from what you’ve written and supplementing that by looking stuff up online as needed.)

        Still, “By The Sword” gives me a solid starting point, so thanks!

        (And I realized I was being silly earlier: Argo is /obviously/ a Changeling in an Eberron cross. And since I forgot Agil, he’s probably the Half-Orc to explain his size, leaving Klein as the dwarf, and Lisbeth as the Gnome… so Silica is almost assuredly the Feline Shifter… Though I keep being tempted to declare Klein the Half-Orc – purely for the Half-Dork jokes the rest of the party get to make at his expense – with Agil as a Dwarf due to his solid presence and reputation for mercilessly hard bargains… I may have more DnD NPCs to stat out for future use at this point. I guess they can join the Bleach-in-Eberron characters and my existing Pathfinder/DnD Vash the Stampede, Maka Albarn/Soul Eater Evans, and Peter Parker. I /refuse/ to admit I have a problem.)

        Like

  13. I vote for whatever helps you get through the month. (I’ve got an idea lined up myself, third try on this and I won’t have a crazy month at work to work around, but it’s still daunting!)

    Honestly, I look forward enough to your books I’d be fine if you went silent, but I do have a slight preference for RK/Valdemar(due to not seeing much good Valdemar fic).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Oooh, Serpent’s Shadow is awesome, I like her elemental Mage series in general, though I do feel that some of the later ones go way too dark for me. Admittedly, they actually have *good* blood magic in setting, so I can see a very different way of doing it that’s still just grey then black.

        Zuko in Valdemar would turn out brighter then poor Laven Firestorm, I would hope.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. Given a choice I would vote for you to work on/post the RK/Valdemar fic; however I would like to say several things first.

    I do understand if you just want to focus on your wrimo project. might go through withdrawal, but I will not demand you write for my entertainment.

    Second, Mercedes Lackey actually put out a blanket request that no one write fanfiction of her work after her mentor, Marion Zimmerman Bradley, was accused of plagiarism by a fanfiction author. I personally view it as an okay thing to do as long as you have no intention of causing trouble for the author, but you might feel differently.

    Good luck with NaNoWriMo!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Marion Zimmer Bradley.

      I understand Lackey has retracted that ban.

      Bradley seems to have had issues. Of the sort which might cause someone to fabricate such an incident. Or at least, that was one possibility raised in one of the discussions arising from said issues being more widely disseminated.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I’ve never gone looking to see if she retracted the ban or not, but that’s good news!

        Sorry about getting the name wrong. Sadly I’m not a fan of hers so I frequently forget her name or the spelling.

        Thanks for the correction.

        Like

      2. From what I’ve picked up on the internet… issues is putting it mildly. Ugh. Not sure I’ll ever be able to pick up one of her books again.

        (I had the same reaction to reading Anne Perry books after finding out what is, legally, in her past history. Have not been able to pick one up since.)

        Like

  15. My votes for “Through the Cracks”!!!!

    Your Rurouni Kenshin fics are one of my favorites and Valdemar with a Vathara spin is something I didn’t even know I wanted until I saw this post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. I’d vote for the Valdemar cross – I’m reading the series right now, and I’m remembering A)how much I love it and B)my many, many issues with Valdemar and the Heraldic system.

    (The magic horsies fuck with the heralds’ memories, lifebonding is horrifying if you think about it too long, the underlying attitude towards sex work and sexual abuse is disturbing, and the Heralds are Always Right because they are Good People serving a Good Country.
    The RK series, on the other hand, is . . . skeptical of that sort of attitude. To say the least.)

    Like

    Reply

  17. How interesting that you already listed them in my order of preference. I really want to see what you can do in the Valdemar setting, and your RK fics are some of my favorites. Good luck with nano!

    Like

    Reply

  19. Oh hard but lovely choices. I’m going for the Rk/ Valdemar cross though. I been on a Lackey binge lately and this sounds way to tempting.

    Like

    Reply

  20. Do whatever gets you through the month, we’ll survive. I’m impatient for more original work from you.

    If you really want a vote though, I enjoy RK, but don’t care much for Valdemar. Something about Lackey’s writing puts me off, like being around a used car salesman. For the others, don’t know Eberron so I’d have to vote for the StarGate thing.

    I was around the net when the fan in question in the Bradley fic story finally spoke up about the her side of it all. It seems to have been exaggerated. Do a search for Jean Lamb, fanfiction controversy and you should be able to find it. I’d already stopped reading Bradley, but had heard enough of the urban legend to be interested in what a participant could clarify.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  21. The SAO/SG1 sounds good because I know the sources. That said, I had never heard of Saiyuki until I read your stories, either. I Regret Nothing.

    I know nothing about Valdemar and Eberron, so I would like a good story to compare to the original and say “Vathara’s is better”. I have yet to see otherwise.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Setting for Dungeons and Dragons. Low level magic is more common, high level magic is more rare. Apparently more of 1920s and ’30s feel than a lot of D&D, which are often more heavily inspired by much earlier time periods. Religion and alignment are officially vaguer.

      Like

      Reply

    2. D&D setting, very neat; poke Amazon and you’ll get the flavor. Better yet, do a Google image search on Eberron motivational posters. *EG*

      “One of them is from an ancient druidic culture dedicated to preserving the world from nameless horrors. The other is a roving marauder looking for a fight.”

      Orc vs. elf. Guess who’s on which side…. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  23. I’m not sure about Vademar, though I do like Rurouni Kenshin but I do very much adore SAO.
    I’ll put my vote in for SAO/SG-1. I’d love to see how you have the SAO cast tearing the SG casts assumptions to shreds.

    Like

    Reply

  24. Waking to Another Sky (SAO/SG-1 cross in the SG ‘verse)! If only because that is the only combination where I know a lot about both universes!

    Like

    Reply

  25. I’d love for you to finish off the nearly done fic, you do SAO perfectly and it would be really interesting to see another crossover. Your fics are always really well researched so the world building is actually one of the funnest parts for me.

    thus my vote is for; Waking to Another Sky And Monstrous Compendium Online

    Do what you want though, as the author thats all that matters.
    Although, if you write another slashfic, please mention it before we buy them on Kindle.
    (a Bromance tag doesn’t count dammit!)
    🙂
    It was a good book all the same

    Like

    Reply

    1. Ah. My mistake. I tend to think slash involves sex, and there was none… sorry.

      I’m posting the RK/Valdemar first because it’s the closest to finished; I’ll try for Waking to Another Sky once I have a bit of a breather! 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. Its ok, the book itself was good enough that i could edit the m/m stuff out.
        The whole light magic thing was actually fairly awesome, and i hope you keep working on those ideas. Your other novel had similar magics and it was one of my favorite bits.

        No rush for ‘Waking to Another Sky’, even if i’m not familiar with the other fics parts i’m sure you will make it interesting, heck you actually got me reading Magi once i read the fics you made in that verse.

        Like

Leave a comment