Lots of random stuff to share today. First things first though - elrhiarhodan gave me a plot bunny that is bouncing all over my brain regarding teen Neal. Now, I grew up in the country where age 16 is a rite of passage. Even though most kids have been driving on the farm since they were old enough to reach the pedals, there's something about being road-legal. In the city where public transpo is much more readily accessible (and parking is not), is there an equivalent rite of passage?

( It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas )

( Heading West )

I'm sure there are other things to ramble about, but my brain has wandered back to plotting that story. Why oh why can't things just come directly from brain into the computer all written out. That would be awesome.

This has not been the best week, but it seems to be ending on a bit of a high note, so it's not a total wash. TGIF!

All the Drabble Meme fills have be posted in the Drabble Meme Roundup post. Enjoy!

( Writing )

( School )

( Work )

( Bonus Bomer )

First thing's first - I posted my 50th WC fic this week. It was, appropriately, for Caffrey-Burke Day; the relationship between Neal and Peter has always been one of the biggest draws of this show for me. Also, I never thought I'd write five stories much less fifty - I was not nearly as prolific in previous fandoms - so this is kind of amazing to me. I want to thank everyone who's taken the time to read and review and cheerlead and prompt and request follow-ups and everything. I appreciate and love you all!

Next up - ( Out of the Frying Pan (spoilers under the cut) )


In other news, I can't log in remotely to work yet today (network issues at the office), so I'm re-watching last night's episode and polishing the next Bookstore AU story. :D

Way back in the Dark Angel fandom, there was an amazing crack!fic called Beeper Wars, which included talking squirrels - the leader was named Sumo. It remains one of my most favorite crack!fics despite many of its chapters being lost to the Great Geocities Purge (and I'm not sure it was ever completed before the author left fandom).

I saw the picture below the cut today, and I immediately thought of Sumo and how much I miss that story and how much I wish I could write crack!fic well enough to do Sumo justice in the WC universe.

( Matty and Squirrel )

Dear Muse,

Writing death fic at midnight is no way to help me fall asleep. I appreciate your enthusiasm for WC fandom, but seriously? Random death fic on a Wednesday night. Surely I've trained you better by now.

Sincerely,
Never-Gonna-Fall-Asleep-Now Angelita

P.S. I wish I'd gotten around to making that new facepalm icon I've been thinking about for days now. Le sigh.

It's definitely a TGIF kind of day.

( School... )

Writing...

I am about 3/4 or more done with my WC BB, which is quite exciting. I was worried about it for a long time, but I'm hoping to complete a draft this weekend.

Neal Hughes I will get back to once WC BB is finished, which is kind of ironic as it was my first choice in BB but I thought I could get it done before then. Which is still a possibility! But I want to make sure that I can get BB done by deadline.

WC RPS continues to invade my brain. Date 5 should also be finished and posted this weekend.

I have other, smaller, writing projects that are on-going as well. Despite the lengthy hiatus, fandom continues to be awesome. You are all kind, amazing people, and I adore you. I don't say that enough, so I'm putting it out there tonight. *HUGS*

I have a writer friend on Facebook who posts these great bits about writing, and this one reminds me of myself, so I had to share with you all. :)

I meant to go to bed more than an hour ago - my headache has been getting steadily worse all night - but I got hit with an ending for Unbreakable that had to be written right now. So, the rough draft is complete, though there's a lot of clunkiness in the end - lots of repetitive word usage, etc.

But, it's done! It's bittersweet - I've so enjoyed writing the story, but I'm ready to move on to the other ideas that I have brewing. WCPairings and Big Bang are right around the corner, and the auction fic must be written next.

I've always had trouble ending long stories in my previous fandoms, so I don't even know what to do with myself when it happens. Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, and enjoyed the story. The last part will be posted in the next few days.

So, I have a rough draft of the Neal & Diana scene written for Unbreakable, and the Peter & Neal scene is pretty much done. I have one more scene in mind, and then it will be done! I can't wait to share it with everyone :)

I've also started outlining the Neal Hughes story for Big Bang, but I have to do some research in order to figure out the timeline of events, so it's going to take a couple of more days to get the Neal story outlined. Then, I'm going to go back and add in the Hughes family story. I'm taking a stab at a full third person omniscient story with the focus on multiple characters - wish me luck. I tend to get stuck in Neal's head and curl up there to stay.

I have several ideas still for the Sandy auction fic - still actively determining the best story to tell and have it be good enough to meet my own (probably ridiculously high and demanding) expectations for it.

And I'm brainstorming ideas for WCPairings. Wheeeee... busy day.

Also, I have a terrible sinus headache because I didn't take any allergy medication last night (I take it before bed so that if it makes me drowsy, it doesn't matter). I wanted to try a different one, so I waited. UGH. So not a good idea. I'm seriously considering asking to get off work early, and I've worked through migraines before when I've had to. Today isn't particularly busy for me at this point, and I just want to go to sleep. Hmmm... I'll see if I feel better after I eat and lie down for a bit.

I came across this quote today, and it reminded me so much of Neal that I had to share with my flist.


When one has not had a good father, one must create one.
~Friedrich Nietzsche


( Bonus Neal & His Two Dads )

Via Facebook (of course)

I really didn't think it would be this difficult to write the last chapter of Unbreakable. I've known how it would end for a while, but putting fingers to keyboard has been surprisingly hard. I've really enjoyed writing this story that much.

I have a draft of the Peter & Neal scene that has been a long time coming, but it needs some TLC to make it as good as I want it to be for all of you awaiting it. And there's a Neal & Diana scene I need to write as well. Those are the two main pieces, but other characters will pop up too.

In short, I'm working on it!

( Bonus Neal & Peter (for being so patient!) )

So....

I don't know why I thought (extended) hiatus would be kind of quiet. There are challenges and exchanges and communities doing all kinds of things.

I feel like I should really just be challenging myself to write all the ideas that I have swimming around in my brain (which is in addition to the Sandy auction fic that I have not forgotten about, I swear - I promise that it is next on my list regardless of these other projects).

run_the_con was so much fun that I had to at least attempt some other fandom fun things. We'll see how it goes. And I want to play in the sandbox with the cool kids, so, with that in mind, I've signed up for whitecollar_bb, which I'm using to write the Neal & Hughes story that I keep teasing in chat.

I will also be signing up for wcpairings once I complete the sign-up form. I get to be the oddball in a pairings challenge asking for no NC-17. *facepalm*

Also, randomly - the muse is being a bastard and refusing to cooperate. Someone track him down and kick his ass for me.

I'm actually writing something I never planned on writing in this series, which is Neal explaining things that happened and a specific incident from the captivity. When I started writing Unbreakable, I wanted the events of the kidnapping and captivity to be ambiguous - not only did I not really want to write torture, but there's something to be said for the mental image of the hints being worse than most things I could write. This story has always been about healing and recovery.

But now that we're in the home stretch, the muse is pushing me in this direction. It still won't be the whole story, but it'll be there in some form. This morning I started toying with the idea of a flashback. The old advise about it being better to show than to tell has been nagging at me.

This chapter has been much harder to write than I anticipated, but I plan to have it up this weekend - possibly tonight if I get a chance to write today. (Work has been crazy this week with a lot of people out sick, and I work from home, so it's been a struggle to keep up with what's going on in the office as I try to keep the systems running remotely.)

Also, there will be one more part after this one. I'm excited to write the end because it's been percolating in my head for a while now. I have plans for Neal and Diana, and I can't wait to share them with you!

I've had a lot of caffeine today between the migraine pills (might as well take them to try and relieve the sinus headache since it usually turns into a migraine at some point) and the soda that I haven't been able to give up yet, so I can't sleep.

I almost had a heart attack when I looked up at the clock though and thought I'd completely lost an hour somewhere. I hadn't written more than a page of the Neal & Diana piece I'm working on, so I knew it couldn't have been an hour's worth of writing. Damn the time change for freaking me out.

For the record, I think the time change is completely antiquated and should be discontinued.

In other news, tonight was Arrow at the Paleyfest, and I love me some Stephen Amell, so I livestreamed it. I'm always interested in the origins of TV shows, how actors are cast, how they figure out their characters, the general creative process behind it all, etc. All the things Paleyfest is good at exploring. So, I loved it. If I were to write fic for any other show right now, it would be Arrow. However, I find it difficult to write in more than one fandom at a time, so I'm sticking with WC - I have so many ideas to write.

TGIF! Join us for Friday Night Chat, where pretty much anything goes - White Collar finale highs and lows, the possible consequences for our fave FBI Special Agent, what we're writing now, how we're going to get through hiatus, Matt's and Tim's assets, so forth, so on, etc...

WCWU Chatroom

So, as theatregirl7299 so eloquently said it today, there is such a thing as fic ADHD.  I totally have it.  Every idea, new or old, seems so much more shiny than the one I'm currently trying to work on.  My apologies to leonie_alastair for whom I owe a Sandy FandomAid fic, and anyone waiting on any story I've promised to write, including the follow-up to Hanging On, more of the Will 'Verse, the Neal is really Hughes' missing son story, and so forth and so on.  (I'm considering signing up for Big Bang for the Neal Hughes story - I think it will be long enough once I get it outlined.  Still working out the details, but those who are members at wcwu can see a snippet of it from Sunday's prompt chat.)

On the bright side, Elizabeth is slowly getting back into my good graces, which will help out some of these fics immensely.  And the Neal/Sara of last night's episode made me love them even more and want to write them even more.  I know they're not the most well-received pairing in fandom, but I love Sara as a character and Neal/Sara as a couple.  I should perhaps make another post about why one of these days.

In other news, all my ideas lately have been about Future Fics, which I haven't seen much in this fandom.  There are a few really good ones that I've read, but I'm not sure if it's kind of faux pas or what.  I have the worst memory ever so I may have read some but don't remember them well enough - that happens to me all the time.