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Sticky: Writing Update 3/27/26 - Two Months In
Mar. 27th, 2026 05:05 pmHey, everyone! It’s been another thirty days since my last significant update on my current writing project, which means that I’ve now been working on it for almost exactly two months (exactly sixty days). I’ve continued to stick to my writing goals; I’m still setting 500-1,000 words per day as my designated goal to give myself some leeway, but really I’ve been hitting 1,000 almost every day and usually gone at least somewhat over. As of today, I’m now at 77,256 words in total, across 14 full chapters, about half of another chapter, a prologue, and two interludes (the prologue and interludes being shorter than regular chapters). This puts me overall at slightly over two fifths of the way to my target I want to hit for length, so I’m very pleased with my progress!
( Update )
( Update )
Embers: Chapter Twenty-Five, Part One
Apr. 3rd, 2026 09:03 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains some racism.
( In which General Iroh meets an old friend and invokes an old tradition. )
Warning: This post contains some racism.
( In which General Iroh meets an old friend and invokes an old tradition. )
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains discussion of war, including lots of deaths, violence, attempted genocide, cannibalism, slavery and in-universe racism.
( In which we take another extended digression into a different side character's backstory. )
Warning: This post contains discussion of war, including lots of deaths, violence, attempted genocide, cannibalism, slavery and in-universe racism.
( In which we take another extended digression into a different side character's backstory. )
Embers: Chapter Twenty-Four
Mar. 27th, 2026 09:03 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This chapter contains violence, some racism, and discussion of abuse.
( In which Prince Zuko finally makes a life-altering decision... and oh, some other stuff happens, too. )
Warning: This chapter contains violence, some racism, and discussion of abuse.
( In which Prince Zuko finally makes a life-altering decision... and oh, some other stuff happens, too. )
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
( In which the High King's men prove themselves to be surprisingly easy to impress. )
( In which the High King's men prove themselves to be surprisingly easy to impress. )
Embers: Chapter Twenty-Three, Part II
Mar. 20th, 2026 09:12 amMG’s Note: I apologize for once again missing Monday’s sporking. My computer is still fine, thankfully, but I had a very hectic weekend. I ended up deciding just to push the sporking I was intending for this Monday to next week to give myself a bit more breathing room. However, I should be back on track this coming Monday for The Iron Tower Chapter Four, Part I!
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains some violence and discussion of mind control, cannibalism and eugenics, and lots and lots of racism.
( In which we take time out on the way to an important battle for Vathara to, once again, remind us how she really feels. )
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains some violence and discussion of mind control, cannibalism and eugenics, and lots and lots of racism.
( In which we take time out on the way to an important battle for Vathara to, once again, remind us how she really feels. )
Just wanted to let people know that tomorrow's Iron Tower post is going to be delayed, definitely until tomorrow evening at the earliest, possibly until late Tuesday. I've had a very hectic weekend! Just wanted to give people a heads' up, especially in light of my delays in the last two weeks!
Embers: Chapter Twenty-Three, Part I
Mar. 13th, 2026 08:58 amMG’s Note: First off, I’d like to apologize to everyone for missing out on last week’s post. Fortunately, I am fine, but my computer was in the shop! Fortunately, it’s all fixed now. Check out this post for more details.
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
( In which, while on their way to rescue Katara, the Gaang take some detours to get lectured some more. )
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
( In which, while on their way to rescue Katara, the Gaang take some detours to get lectured some more. )
Hey, everyone! If anyone has been wondering where I've been for the past week, I just wanted to go ahead and give you an update. I'm doing perfectly fine, if you were worried! Unfortunately, my laptop wasn't; I unexpectedly had to take it in to the shop last Tuesday afternoon. They were busy and it took them a while to get to it; thankfully, the actual problem turned out to be very easy to resolve and I didn't lose any of my work. As of this afternoon, I've got it back; yay! They did give me a loaner, but while I could get some work done on it, it unfortunately wasn't very good and would start acting up if I left it on too long in one sitting, which was a problem for projects that required a lot of time and attention. Such as sporkings. Sigh. In any case, I was able to respond to some posts and comments last week but not all of them, and wasn't able to post anything of substance for myself. So I just wanted to go ahead and let everyone who follows me here know I'm okay and the issue is resolved!
As for what this means for my work, the current plan is to essentially push things back a week, posting what was supposed to be last Friday's Embers this Friday, today's Iron Tower next Monday, and so on. I may try to catch back up in the near future to get back on my original schedule, but no promises. The good news is that since my daily writing goal is something I can knock off fairly quickly I was able to keep up with that, and I'm now up to 54,157 words on my WIP!
Anyway, thank you all for bearing with me, and our regularly scheduled content should return on Friday!
As for what this means for my work, the current plan is to essentially push things back a week, posting what was supposed to be last Friday's Embers this Friday, today's Iron Tower next Monday, and so on. I may try to catch back up in the near future to get back on my original schedule, but no promises. The good news is that since my daily writing goal is something I can knock off fairly quickly I was able to keep up with that, and I'm now up to 54,157 words on my WIP!
Anyway, thank you all for bearing with me, and our regularly scheduled content should return on Friday!
Summa Elvetica: Chapter Five
Mar. 2nd, 2026 06:29 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This chapter contains discussion of a battle, including violence and deaths, as well as reference to slavery.
( In which we take an extended digression from our journey into a side character's backstory. )
Warning: This chapter contains discussion of a battle, including violence and deaths, as well as reference to slavery.
( In which we take an extended digression from our journey into a side character's backstory. )
Embers: Chapter Twenty-Two, Part II
Feb. 27th, 2026 08:22 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains discussion of mind-control, eugenics, some disturbing imagery, and a whole lot of racism, including use of a slur.
( In which loyalty somehow keeps getting worse, but bashing Katara is the more important thing. )
Warning: This post contains discussion of mind-control, eugenics, some disturbing imagery, and a whole lot of racism, including use of a slur.
( In which loyalty somehow keeps getting worse, but bashing Katara is the more important thing. )
Writing Update 2/25/26 - One Month In
Feb. 25th, 2026 11:24 amWell, for anyone who’s still interested in these posts, today seemed an appropriate day to go ahead and share some more on my current WIP! Why today? I committed to knuckling down and getting to work on this project in earnest with my current draft on Tuesday, January 27th of this year, which means that as of today, I’ve been working on it for exactly thirty days – roughly one month, or the equivalent of a NaNoWriMo session! And, thus far, I’ve successfully stuck to my overall goal of writing between 500-1000 words per day, every day (many days I’ve actually gone over); I’m currently at 38,418 words total (across seven full chapters, a prologue, and an interlude). So, while I’ve not hit the traditional NaNo goal in this time period (that was 50,000 words, for a reminder) I think I’ve definitely made some very respectable progress!
I think one of my biggest weaknesses as a fiction writer is my tendency to overthink and over-critique myself. I have a real tendency to drag my feet and not start my actual writing until I’ve mulled an idea over in my head enough to convince myself it’s as perfect as I can make it – and since that’s a moving target, it can sadly set me on a spiral where nothing actually gets written. Setting my daily goal for myself lets me get over that hump, by shifting the focus to producing something rather than aiming for perfection. After all, I can tell myself I can always go back and revise later. Right now, my goal is just to produce a complete rough draft of my novel, and see what develops from there.
So, with all that out of the way, what is my current WIP, you may ask? Well, a few months ago I posted about some of the story ideas I’d been mulling in my head for a while. This is one of them, specifically the first one; I’ll go ahead and repost the brief summary here for reference:
I. This is probably the most developed of the concepts I have. Epic fantasy novel (intended to come out at circa 150,000 to 200,000 words) set in a renaissance Italy inspired city-state, following a young noblewoman who gets caught up in an elaborate plot involving strange magic, cutthroat politics and her own family’s secrets coming to light, as she finds herself fallen from grace and forced to navigate the city’s dark underbelly, and ultimately to defeat her enemies and stop a tyrant from gaining power – and maybe wrestle with some difficult questions about herself and who she is along the way. Lots of action, intrigue, magic, magical transformations and questions of identity, some unlikely friendships and a touch of romance, and my own take the idea of D&D style tieflings. I envision this story as being largely self-contained, but with opportunities for sequels, and it’s set in a world I’ve been slowly building in the back of my mind as a sort of broad setting where I could play with different kinds of stories in different fantasy subgenres – I’ve also written some scraps of Elric of Melnibone-esque sword and sorcery stories in a different part of the same world, and have even vaguer ideas for a more classic high fantasy saga in yet another part of it.
If I had to do an elevator pitch for this one comparing it to existing series by other writers, I might go with something like “Mistborn meets Brimstone Angels.” Title-wise, I’m currently calling this Crimson Shadows, though I don’t much like it and expect to change it (for one, The Crimson Shadow is already the title of one of RA Salvatore’s non-Forgotten Realms series, and I’d rather avoid the comparison since that story is quite different). In any event, I’m feeling pretty good about what I’ve written for it so far and feel like I’m making good progress – like I said in the initial overview, I’m aiming for something in the vicinity of 150,000 to 200,000 words, maybe comparable in length to something like Dune or Warbreaker if those comparisons mean anything to you. Based on my outline and how much I’ve written so far and where I currently am in the story, that seems quite doable, especially if I can maintain my current pace over the next couple of months. If anyone reading this is curious about anything else about this project, feel free to ask!
And before I go, I do have one more thing I’d like to share; I’ve been playing around with designs for a couple of my main protagonists over the last couple of days, and so by the power of HeroForge™, say hello to Thea and Lys!
I think one of my biggest weaknesses as a fiction writer is my tendency to overthink and over-critique myself. I have a real tendency to drag my feet and not start my actual writing until I’ve mulled an idea over in my head enough to convince myself it’s as perfect as I can make it – and since that’s a moving target, it can sadly set me on a spiral where nothing actually gets written. Setting my daily goal for myself lets me get over that hump, by shifting the focus to producing something rather than aiming for perfection. After all, I can tell myself I can always go back and revise later. Right now, my goal is just to produce a complete rough draft of my novel, and see what develops from there.
So, with all that out of the way, what is my current WIP, you may ask? Well, a few months ago I posted about some of the story ideas I’d been mulling in my head for a while. This is one of them, specifically the first one; I’ll go ahead and repost the brief summary here for reference:
I. This is probably the most developed of the concepts I have. Epic fantasy novel (intended to come out at circa 150,000 to 200,000 words) set in a renaissance Italy inspired city-state, following a young noblewoman who gets caught up in an elaborate plot involving strange magic, cutthroat politics and her own family’s secrets coming to light, as she finds herself fallen from grace and forced to navigate the city’s dark underbelly, and ultimately to defeat her enemies and stop a tyrant from gaining power – and maybe wrestle with some difficult questions about herself and who she is along the way. Lots of action, intrigue, magic, magical transformations and questions of identity, some unlikely friendships and a touch of romance, and my own take the idea of D&D style tieflings. I envision this story as being largely self-contained, but with opportunities for sequels, and it’s set in a world I’ve been slowly building in the back of my mind as a sort of broad setting where I could play with different kinds of stories in different fantasy subgenres – I’ve also written some scraps of Elric of Melnibone-esque sword and sorcery stories in a different part of the same world, and have even vaguer ideas for a more classic high fantasy saga in yet another part of it.
If I had to do an elevator pitch for this one comparing it to existing series by other writers, I might go with something like “Mistborn meets Brimstone Angels.” Title-wise, I’m currently calling this Crimson Shadows, though I don’t much like it and expect to change it (for one, The Crimson Shadow is already the title of one of RA Salvatore’s non-Forgotten Realms series, and I’d rather avoid the comparison since that story is quite different). In any event, I’m feeling pretty good about what I’ve written for it so far and feel like I’m making good progress – like I said in the initial overview, I’m aiming for something in the vicinity of 150,000 to 200,000 words, maybe comparable in length to something like Dune or Warbreaker if those comparisons mean anything to you. Based on my outline and how much I’ve written so far and where I currently am in the story, that seems quite doable, especially if I can maintain my current pace over the next couple of months. If anyone reading this is curious about anything else about this project, feel free to ask!
And before I go, I do have one more thing I’d like to share; I’ve been playing around with designs for a couple of my main protagonists over the last couple of days, and so by the power of HeroForge™, say hello to Thea and Lys!
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains violence, deaths and depiction of drowning.
( In which tragedy strikes and the Thornwalkers begin their true journey. )
Warning: This post contains violence, deaths and depiction of drowning.
( In which tragedy strikes and the Thornwalkers begin their true journey. )
Embers: Chapter Twenty-Two, Part I
Feb. 20th, 2026 08:42 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains discussion of imperialism, abuse and racism.
( In which everyone gangs up on Katara to make absolutely certain she knows just what Vathara thinks of her. )
Warning: This post contains discussion of imperialism, abuse and racism.
( In which everyone gangs up on Katara to make absolutely certain she knows just what Vathara thinks of her. )
Summa Elvetica: Chapter Four
Feb. 16th, 2026 08:57 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains discussion of racism, slavery and genocide.
( In which the beginning of the journey proves to be the perfect time for a whole lot of infodumping. )
Warning: This post contains discussion of racism, slavery and genocide.
( In which the beginning of the journey proves to be the perfect time for a whole lot of infodumping. )
Writing Update 2/13/26
Feb. 13th, 2026 07:23 pmFor anyone who's interested in this, after my most a couple of weeks ago I've been continuing to plow ahead on my current WIP. I've mentioned that my goal has been to write 500-1000 words per day, which I felt was very doable and easy to work in around the various other things I've got going on in my life atm, and so far most days I've at least hit 1000 and often gone over (occasionally quite a bit over, if I find myself on a roll;))! At the moment, I've completed a prologue and four full chapters, as well as a significant chunk of chapter five, and as of this afternoon I officially hit 23,302 words in total. Yay!
Anyway, I know it's not sporking or reviewing and that's what most people who follow me are probably here for, but I am quite happy with my progress so far and I felt like sharing! If you want to see more updates like this, do let me know. And if anyone has any questions about my WIP, I'd be happy to answer those too. But until then, if anyone's reading this, thank you!
Anyway, I know it's not sporking or reviewing and that's what most people who follow me are probably here for, but I am quite happy with my progress so far and I felt like sharing! If you want to see more updates like this, do let me know. And if anyone has any questions about my WIP, I'd be happy to answer those too. But until then, if anyone's reading this, thank you!
Embers: Chapter Twenty-One
Feb. 13th, 2026 08:47 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This chapter contains some violence and discussion of mind-control and incest.
( In which ships are sunk and loyalty somehow becomes even creepier. )
Warning: This chapter contains some violence and discussion of mind-control and incest.
( In which ships are sunk and loyalty somehow becomes even creepier. )
This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
( In which we learn everything we ever wanted to know about the daily operation of the Thornwalkers but were afraid to ask. )
( In which we learn everything we ever wanted to know about the daily operation of the Thornwalkers but were afraid to ask. )
Embers: Chapter Twenty, Part II
Feb. 6th, 2026 09:26 amThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains some violence, and discussion of imperialism and genocide.
( In which the story makes it abundantly clear, if it wasn't already, just which characters the narrative will be favoring. )
Warning: This post contains some violence, and discussion of imperialism and genocide.
( In which the story makes it abundantly clear, if it wasn't already, just which characters the narrative will be favoring. )
Personal Update
Feb. 5th, 2026 03:45 pmHey everyone, I don't know how many of you care about this, but I've got some good news I'd love to share with someone! In my most recent writing update post, I mentioned how I hoped to have good news on my second New Year's resolution (my first being to knuckle down and make substantial progress on at least one of my major story ideas - now up to 12365 words on my current WIP, for the record!). Well, now I do! My second resolution was to finally stop dragging my feet and commit to making actual, concrete steps towards transitioning IRL, rather than sitting around and letting dysphoria keep eating at me while I dithered. Well, today I can official say I did that - I had my first consultation for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) today! And I thought it went really well! Just thought I'd share, and thank you all again for having been such a supportive community for me over the years!
