Tantai Jin Apologist

7 Days, 7 Stories

2026-04-26T19:53:45Z

This week I've been busy. I signed up for the 7 Days 7 Stories challenge on getyourwordsout.

There was a lot of trial & error involved. My plan was to select a bunch of fanfic ideas sitting in my notes & work them into story outlines. How much of an outline I'd get would vary of course. A multi-chapter longfic or a oneshot with a lot going on would get a bulletpoint summary of the plot, while a shorter/simpler oneshot might get a very very rough 'insert cool stuff happening here later' draft.

Because I couldn't be sure which ideas would work out, I didn't select a week's worth of idea's in advance. There were a couple that were promising because I'd worked on them enough that they had taken up their own section in the notes app because they needed multiple pages to cover the planning, & a few that had individual notes pages because they'd come from Tumblr posts that had gone into some detail on suggestions for the prompt, & then there was a page of miscellaneous ideas. I just created a new section in my notes, copied a bunch of ideas pages over, then culled anything that was too vague (there were a bunch of 'ideas' that were basically intriguing Ao3 tags I'd found) or was more an idea for something that'd be cool to include within a larger fic. And that was my pool of ideas to work through.

( Day by day )

So I have a bunch of stuff ready to be worked on, which should hopefully encourage me to get writing them, simply by having an outline ready, so there's less initial work to do.

I might actually do this again. There are a couple of ideas still left in my notes. Plus my Tumblr has a 'writing ideas' tag full of posts where people suggested interesting ideas, that I could go through & decide if they'll actually work. I do have things to do this week though, so it'll have to wait.

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Summary of today's writing progress

2026-04-26T10:17:29Z

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So, I got a new pen

2025-09-16T19:38:45Z

I mostly write digitally on my Surface, but I still like to have an actual pen & notebook around to write things out on actual paper if I feel like it. But it was frustrating to have a bunch of different coloured pens around, considering I prefer the Surface (I don't have to transcribe everything in order to post it, & also I can easily erase stuff). But I like using multiple colours to keep things organised. You can get pens that offer 4 colours in 1. But you don't get to pick the colours. You can have boring colours, or quirky weird colours. But if you want a couple of standard colours like black & red but also want something more interesting? Tough luck.

Then I stumbled onto the concept of customisable multi-function pens. I can pick my colours! Not only that, but I can pick thickness, which is extra useful as I have awful handwriting & a fine tip makes it slightly less illegible. I got the 5 colour version of the Uni-Ball Style Fit, with black, red, violet, & rose pink inks (all in 0.28mm), & a pencil.

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WHY

2024-07-29T20:13:30Z

The hardest chapters to write are the ones where it's technically fully written, but only in the sense that you've got a loose collection of short snippets & parts of conversations & you've got to put them together in some kind of cohesive order & connect them all somehow & fill in the gaps & force yourself to accept that that super cool line does not fit in anywhere & has to be cut

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The Life of A Writer

2024-04-11T23:32:53Z

Me: Wow I'm so tired

Me: Ah, time for bed!

Me: *curls up under covers, so nice & comfortable*

My brain: HEY! HERE'S A PREMISE FOR A MOSHANG FIC! SUPER ANGSTY! HERE IS AN ABSOLUTE ZINGER OF A FIRST LINE, & THE OPENING PARAGRAPHS PRETTY MUCH WRITE THEMSELVES! BUT IF YOU DON'T WRITE THAT SHIT DOWN IMMEDIATELY IT'LL BE GONE! NOW! NOWNOWNOW!

Me: Why. Why must you do this to me.

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Important Research Things

2024-03-08T17:15:35Z

Started rereading SVSSS with the intention of putting together a rough timeline of some kind, but it quickly spiralled into an elaborate system of multi-coloured highlights & scribbled notes in the margins like I'm back at uni working on a fucking essay

I am gonna get such a good grade in canon, a thing that is both normal to want & possible to achieve

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Into the Fire Update

2023-10-17T22:41:07Z

The good news: I've got a chapter of Into the Fire ready to go

The bad news: It's kind of just some stuff thrown together & polished just enough to make a coherent chapter & that's it for the fic

Problem is I went into this one with no idea where it was going, which I usually avoid for just this fucking reason (not to say I usually know exactly how a fic is gonna play out - because I almost never do lol - but I always have some goal to head towards, even if that goal can be something super vague like 'let this AU play out in the canon timeline until X point is reached' & can shift a little along the way), but I had a premise that interested me & enough ideas to start off with & I'd hoped an actual plot would present itself along the way &... it hasn't

All I've really got is a few ideas for things that they can talk about in negotiations, & wanting to actually confront Iroh's past & not brush it off like 'He was good the whole time actually pls ignore how he joked about burning a city to the ground' like canon tries to

I made a meme & everything

And I just have other stuff I would prefer to be working on instead

I might not have bothered with a chapter at all, but I did kinda leave it on a cliffhanger so I wanted to resolve that (also it was a planned scene that has been written for months)

I can't entirely rule out that I might pick it up again. But in the same way that I can't rule out that I might win the lottery. Anything can happen. And knowing what I'm like, the lottery win is more likely

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