breakinglight11: (Default)


I am quite late with this, but as I have been absolutely slammed for the last two months, it’s been something of a theme for the whole challenge. Still, I wanted to make sure I do as I always do, and give an assessment of what I made over the course of the month’s writing.

This year’s challenge was easy in some ways and hard in others. I’ve consistently found the process most useful and productive when I had a project to work on, and so I used much of it for drafting pieces for Mrs. Hawking part 8, which Bernie and I have recently dug into. I made a fair bit of progress, though we still have enough questions about how it’s going to work that I expect the scenes I generated to need a ton of editing. Still, I’m happy for the forward movement on the project. I also returned to Dream Machine, which I haven’t touched in a while, and did a few more new Little Monsters and Texts from Avengers Towers bits, so there was a noticeable focus on comedy. Didn’t write as much other fanfic as I expected, or more than one or two bits of anything else.

I am disappointed to report, however, that for the first time in thirteen years, I failed to finish all thirty-one pieces before the end of the month. I’ve been dealing with some focus issues for a while now, but the real problem is the last handful of months have been totally slammed. Between work, chores, and family obligations involving travel, I lost a ton of time that led to me falling behind. I know it doesn’t really matter— this is a challenge I’ve arbitrarily set for myself, with rules that only I care about, and I ended up doing the same amount of writing in the end that I always do. But I feel kind of bad that my perfect streak of all that time is a little tarnished.

As I was drafting it, I felt like my quality varied a lot. I remember being very frustrated with some pieces, while others came very easily. Looking back through what I wrote with a few weeks’ distance, however, I’m actually pretty pleased with the general level of these pieces. The character voices seem on point, the jokes are strong where there are jokes, and I managed to give some meaningful character motion in the vast majority of the scenes. That’s actually not half bad, even though I know everything will need a lot of editing, both stylistic and functional. I really do strongly believe that you need to just get SOMETHING on the page, no matter how bad, as the first step to making something good.

The breakdown of projects I wrote for:

Hawking part 8 - 14
Texts from Avengers Tower - 3
Dream Machine - 4
Little Monsters - 6
Gentlemen Never Tell 2 - 1
Forever Captain - 1
Witchy - 1

And the breakdown of characters I wrote for:

1. Nathaniel Hawking - 9
2. Beatrice Hawking - 8
3. Clara Hawking - 7
4. Victoria Hawking - 6
5. Mary Stone - 6
6. Leah Lucchesi - 4
7. Twyla Boogieman - 3
8. Draculaura - 3
9. Venus McFlytrap - 3
10. Frankie Stein - 3
11. Ghoulia Yelps - 3
12. Heath Burns - 2
13. Josie Carraway - 2
14. Meryl Dresden - 2
15. Derek Kaplan - 2
16. Joanna Kerrigan - 2
17. Spectra Vondergeist - 2
18. Clawdeen Wolf - 2
19. Bucky Barnes - 1
20. Meredith Barry - 1
21. Clint Barton - 1
22. Lagoona Blue - 1
23. Abbey Bominable - 1
24. Peggy Carter - 1
25. Devon Chambers - 1
26. Zach Barry - 1
27. Cleo de Nile - 1
28. Ryan Dresden - 1
29. Gwen Galway - 1
30. Justin Hawking - 1
31. Reggie Hawking - 1
32. Logan - 1
33. Megan May - 1
34. Catty Noir - 1
35. Nate Reyes - 1
36. Barbie Roberts - 1
37. Steve Rogers - 1
38. Thor - 1
39. Toralei Stripe - 1
40. Arthur Swann - 1
41. Sam Wilson - 1
42. Wade Wilson - 1

Forty-two characters is a fairly large number, even for me. Last year I only wrote for thirty-six, thirty-seven the year before, and thirty-four the year before that. I averaged about three characters a scene, though most of them only had two while the largest maxed out at seven. I’ve always found it tougher to manage larger-cast scenes, so I’m surprised at how many there were this year to skew the average.

Favorite scenes? I thought I did pretty well this year, so I liked a lot. I enjoyed writing for Beatrice Hawking, with her enthusiasm for learning undercover work and managing her privileged background, such as in #23 - Just Powder and #25 - Tweenies.

#23 - Culture Not Costumes is a really funny Little Monsters bit, as is #19 - Relatable. I was also glad I was able to work out #14 - Special Ability, since I was chipping at that joke for most of the month. I’m fond of #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles if only because it’s a serious contender for weirdest thing I’ve ever written.

I also ended up really liking #31 - Derek in Hell, since it’s one of those scenes that I didn’t know where it was going to go until I wrote it. In fact, the only scene I don’t really like is #30 - In Murder’s Path, which doesn’t add anything to its larger piece and was the first of the two scenes I had to write past the end of the month.

Favorite lines? Lagoona’s weird, weird mini-monologue in #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles. Beatrice’s too-enthusiastic recitation of her melodramatic invented backstory in #25 - Tweenies. Nathaniel’s titular line in #24 - Got the Morbs. There’s some cute back and forth between Justin and Reggie in #17 - Let Me Tell You.

So, yeah, a lot of good came out of the exercise this month. Even if I was a little late getting it all done.
breakinglight11: (Default)
Finished. Late, but finished. Thank God.

This is a Dream Machine bit that doesn’t have any paticular place yet. It’s based off of a fight Bernie and I have on a regular basis. With some polishing, it could be quite funny. But for now, just glad I’m done.



Day #31 - Derek in Hell )
breakinglight11: (Default)
This picks up directly after #6 - Alien Parasite. Again, it’s silly and sitcommy, but I think it has potential to be really funny. Especially if I can make the Alien parody work somehow…



Day #11 - No One Can Hear You Scream )
breakinglight11: (Default)
Another sitcommy bit for Dream Machine. Not sure where this would be used, but I know I want an element to be Ryan repairing his relationship with his adult kids. I thought it would be particularly interesting if his daughter Meryl, from whom he was completely estranged and who lives a totally anti-Hollywood life, also gets at his issues about getting older by being married and starting a family young. It also gives a chance for that very classic sitcom scenario of “trapped in an elevator with a pregnant lady”— and who better to force into that situation than Leah, who is incapable of being normal about anything?

In writing this, I wondered if maybe I could write an entire Alien parody, with Leah in the Ripley role, and, because I’m perverse, Meryl as the alien queen. SOMETHING TO NOODLE ON.



Day #6 - Alien Parasite )
breakinglight11: (Default)
A ridiculous bit from the “Friendsgiving” episode I have been noodling on for Dream Machine. The premise of it is that when the shooting schedule runs over and everybody’s grumpy, nobody is able to travel for Thanksgiving. So Meredith tries to host everybody to try and raise spirits and do some team building, but folks are not feeling it. THEN HIJINKS OCCUR.

Other scenes I’ve written for this episode are, in rough order they would occur:

- ”Extreme Rendition”
- ”Friendsgiving”
- ”Emotional Potluck”
- ”Marching Orders”
- ”Competitive”
- ”Glorified Babysitters”

I think this one falls between “Marching Order” and “Competitive”. It’s very dumb and sitcommy, but with some polishing could be very funny. It also occurs to me that Devon should probably be in this scene, since he reacts to a certain character’s appearance. But I was trying to keep the character count down for some reason, so I kept some people out of the room. Still, I’ll have to fix that on a second pass.



Day #4 - Special Delivery )
breakinglight11: (Default)
Ah, 31 Plays in 31 Days. I’m not sure if it’s the creative broccoli I make myself eat, or the vitamin I keep choking down even though my nutritional needs have changed.

Wow, how’s that for a metaphor? I’M A WRITER, YOU SEE.

Anyway, another one down. This is my twelfth year. I confess, it’s become more frequent lately that they are kind of a pain to have to stick to, but I am always happy to have done them once they’re done. I love seeing my long unbroken list of what I wrote, and I’m often very pleased to have created some of the pieces that I did.

This was another year where I was not excessively directed in what I worked on. I did a fair bit of scratching at the upcoming Hawking part 7, but that’s still very much in the planning stages, so not a whole lot was structured or definite. I mostly wandered between various major projects that interested me, from other parts of the Hawking story, to Dream Machine, to Adonis, to a bit of my Marvel fan fic. I even did a couple of scenes from an idea for a King of the Hill story set in the future of that series that happened to be rattling around in my brain.

The stories I wrote for this year )

The characters I wrote for this year )

As with last year, I wrote within a narrow set of projects and across a wide swath of characters. This year’s most frequent appearance was Dream Machine lead Leah Lucchesi with 6 scenes total. Following her was Meredith Barry, Clara Hawking, and Victoria Hawking with 5, Nathaniel Hawking, Derek Kaplan, and Steve Rogers with 4, and a total of five characters, Aidan, Elizabeth Carter, Jamie Carter, Ryan Dresden, and Justin Hawking, ending up with 3. Lately I also like to take note of how frequently I end up writing for certain actors. This time, Naomi Ibasitas has 8 between Leah and Rosaline Pembroke, Cari Keebaugh has 7 from Mrs. Hawking and Josie Carraway, Eric Cheung and Matt Kamm have 6, and Liz Salazar and Jackie Freyman have 5.

My actual drafting, as in, the choosing of the words to manifest the ideas, I feel was generally rather weak this year. Sometimes I feel that way in the writing and change my mind about it later, but as I looked back over all the scenes in retrospect I maintain that assessment. A little bit disappointing, but that’s what drafting’s for— just getting it out on the page, to be improved and punched up later. So I’m trying not to feel too badly about it.

I do think I ended up with a bunch of strong concepts for scenes and interactions. I had several pieces that were interesting from a character standpoint even if I didn’t manage much of a narrative arc. The irreverent screwing around in #23 - “Never Have I Ever” was charming and funny, even if the scene doesn’t really go anywhere. I liked the notions in #20 – “Cinched” even if I’m concerned I manifested them a bit clumsily on the page— I can’t decide if that bit with the watch works or not. #24 – “Shelley Duval” has some punch to it. I love the main concept of Meredith developing an imperious alternate persona as a way of seizing authority in #9 – “Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine”. #14 – “Another Young Girl” has a great thematic interaction between Mrs. H and her grandniece Beatrice. And just like last year, doing the Ember Island Players thing with #31 – “Counterparts” allowed for some enjoyable meta humor poking fun at the Hawking cast members.

Were there any scenes that came out strong overall? A couple. I think the one that came out the most spot-on in terms of arc and character was #21 – “Asshole”. It’s probably the single best crafted scene of the month, with two characters with long history and strong emotions about each other get honest and real. A close second would be #3 – “Rake and Coquette” which depicts Justin and Clara’s breakup. That I was pleased with because I was able to find ways to reveal failings in both parties in a way that was natural to the situation.

Favorite lines? #14 – “Another Young Girl” has, in response to Beatrice asking her great auntie why she doesn’t like her, “Oh, dear God. You are Nathaniel’s daughter.” #16 has the title line, “Your mother is in your bones!” I love basically everything Meredith says in character as Marcelina Tremaine. And #18 – “Blond Salvation” has several that I’m actually really proud of. “Hiding behind that gods-given face.” “How could you come to me? When everything I am was built on your back?” And of course, the title line, “I have seen salvation, and he is blond.”

So, yeah. Maybe not all my best work. But good, solid, useful stuff in there. Definitely something I can build on. No wonder I keep doing this year after year.
breakinglight11: (Default)
Blargh. As the end of the month draws near, I always get to a point where I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for scenes. Add in the fact that I’m nearing my moving date, I really don’t have the time to work these out very well.

This is a couple of Dream Machine bits strung together with basically no arc, from my idea for the Friendsgiving episode. Kind of funny maybe? At least it’s raw material to develop later.



Day #27 - Marching Orders )
breakinglight11: (Default)
Ugh, this is totally thrown together. I was very busy today and didn’t really have a strong idea. So I did a very rough hacky job with the Dream Machine idea for late in season 1 that after the filming in Scotland goes haywire, the team is struggling to pull everything together and get a decent finale out of it.

At least there’s one good joke in there.



Day #25 - Comfort and Support )
breakinglight11: (Default)
Furthering building on the "rough time at the Emmys" idea I've been noodling with for Dream Machine. I was thinking of developing the connection between actors Josie Carraway and the new leading man, Tom Vincent, until he reveals himself to be a cad and a turncoat, leaving Josie to feel like both her personal and professional lives are destroyed. I also thought she'd get nominated for an Emmy for her performance in the season finale, but because of the circumstances, not have the reaction that the rest of the team is expecting from her.

I notice the Dream Machine scenes I've been drafting this month haven't been very funny for a comedy. But I've always said moments of high drama always come much easier to me than jokes or structure. I can always punch up if need be later.



Day #24 - Shelley Duvall )
breakinglight11: (Default)
More from Dream Machine, specifically the debacle I’m planning at the Emmys. I’m still working out the idea, but I want the team to be put in a position where the circumstances force them to make a decision between being self-serving for career purposes and protecting the collaborative and artistic integrity of the show they’re working on— such that they make a hard choice to do good work and do right by each other, but at the expense of their position in the industry. I haven’t fully worked out what that means yet, but I want the Emmys to be the point where they start paying for that.

I’m brining back a character who features in the flashbacks of episode 5, Marian Granville, the original creator of West Chesterham before she left for greener pastures. Bernie had an idea for season 2 that basically involved building a nega-team of our leads for them to be in creative competition with, and Marian could be that team’s writer.



Day #22 - Small Pond )
breakinglight11: (Default)
Another Dream Machine bit. This combines two elements that will be featuring later in how I envision season 1– Ryan reencountering his ex-wife Veronica, with whom he parted on very bad terms, and the reconnection with an old producing partner, Cory Bentley. Cory dangling the possibility of him returning to the big leagues of film production brings out the old version of Ryan from before he got clean, and he’s forced to confront the kind of person he used to be. Spoiler alert: he’s not entirely pleased with what he realizes about himself. I’ve written about Cory before in this scene, “Hello, 1989.”

Veronica Dresden is a character I’ve enjoyed working out. Writing this, I realized how rarely I’ve ever treated drama between former romantic partners. I have not written many characters who have ever been divorced, much less have interaction with that former spouse. And as I think I’ve mentioned, Veronica is a particular challenge because I want to make her angry enough at Ryan that the audience instinctively sympathizes with him, but in realizing how justified she is in her anger, they have to confront their own assumption that an angry ex wife must be a bitch. It’s a tough balance to achieve.



Day #21 - Asshole )
breakinglight11: (Default)
More from the Dream Machine post-Emmys bottle episode idea. Bottles are tough to write, because they often just seem like characters screwing around talking about nothing, but they need to have an arc to them. None of these scenes are really arc-like in any way, because I’ve done basically no work figuring out what emotional beats or points in the character journey need to be reached when. But these are ideas for moments that could help push things along.

This would flow into 2021’s #8 - Flawless, and like all these scenes, are furthering this idea of Leah and Ryan instinctively reaching out because they need support and friendship, but being frightened of and uncool with each other’s vulnerability, not to mention their own. I want to establish a push and pull, where they approach or begin connection but also run away from it. I’ve even introduced an “armor that gets taken off” image in this one.

There is a joke in here I initially planned for other characters, probably in the Thanksgiving episode. I moved it here to smooth something out, but I may move it back. Whatever, this is drafting, I can experiment.



Day #20 - Cinched )
breakinglight11: (Default)
An idea from Dream Machine, in the wake of the eventual terrible night at the Emmys I am imagining; I think it would be probably at the start of season two. I’ve written several scenes from the bottle episode I want of Leah and Ryan hanging out after the ceremony— ”Man Cave,” ”Flawless,” and ”Three-Time”. I was thinking it might be neat to technically make that story a flashback, by showing the morning after the Emmys and having everyone being in a state, then flashing back to how the night went that showed how they got there.

This would be that opening scene before the flashback. Don’t know if it would work, but it’s an idea to try in the full draft.



Day #19 - Crabs in a Barrel )
breakinglight11: (Default)
An idea I’m exploring with Leah in Dream Machine is the tension between the pressure and desire to be pretty with how it affects your ability to be and do other things. It’s something I find myself wrestling with personally, and it seemed like a good fit for a character who was driven by the desire to do art, but had to deal with the pressures of working in Hollywood, plus a bunch of internalized impulses that had to be unpacked, examined, and possibly unlearned. I started this getting dealt with in episode 5 of Dream Machine, but here’s a lot of expansion on it.

I don’t usually like the monologue form, but it seemed appropriate here.



Day #11 - Get in the Door )
breakinglight11: (Default)
This one builds upon yesterday's piece, #9 - "Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine". Inspired by the talents of actress Liz Salazar, I thought it would be fun to send her character Meredith on a journey of making up an imperious persona that would give her the strength to assert herself as a producer. But, not only would the lack of personal accountability drive her mad with power, it keeps her from developing her own professional authority, which is a good struggle for a character to work through.

Here's a scene, which is rough but at least a bit funny, of Derek confronting her over what she hath wrought in her alternate persona of Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine. (Long complicated names make me laugh.)



Day #10 - Iron Fist )
breakinglight11: (Default)
Okay, here's a weird one. In this heat, I'm fighting a bit for scene ideas. But blame Liz for being a great actor.

The other night, after attending a for-fun script reading, I was commenting to Bernie how much I loved Liz Salazar's posh British lady voice, and he said we should find a way to let her use it in a humorous capacity in Dream Machine. Because of our editing backlog we haven't worked on Dream Machine for a while, but I know I want her character Meredith to go through a journey where she's learning to become a producer in her own right, but has to work through a confidence crisis. Bernie and I thought of a funny gag here that made use of both Liz's fabulous posh voice, and fits nicely into a joke for that idea.

This scene is very very thrown together but the idea is good and it is there.



Day #9 - Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine )
breakinglight11: (Default)
SCENE: a long, echoey hallway in the depths of the Author’s brain. 
 
A man in late middle age with a seventies mustache and an expensive, wide-lapeled suit checks the names on a bunch of doors. His oxfords click on the polished floor as he passes them. SYMPATHY PUMPS. POWER FANTASIES. MORALITY PETS. DREAM DADDIES. Intriguing as that last may be, with the blacked-out glass in its window, he continues onward. Finally he finds the one he’s looking for, and slips inside.
 
The rest have already arrived there. They are a… strange assortment, to say the least. Two have the accents, manners, and attire of middle class Victorians, a lean woman in widow’s weeds and a handsome bachelor toying with a walking stick. The last is a modern professional man, just a bit younger than the newcomer, with slicked hair and sunglasses indoors. 
 
When our first man enters, they nod politely and take their seats. Clearly they have very little to do with one another in most cases— even the two Victorians who share a surname prefer not to be in the same room —but they have one thing in common that has brought them there today. 
 
Styrofoam cup of lukewarm coffee in hand, the newcomer addresses the group. “Hey, everybody. I’m the new guy, I guess. The name’s Howard. Howard Stark.”
 
A chorus of diction-appropriate variations on “Hello, Howard,” sound. 
 
“Yeah, I been on the roster for a little while now— mostly comic relief, I guess.” 
 
The Victorian man cackles. “I know, eh?”
 
“Yeah, well, she likes writing in my voice— gettin’ to toss in a little midcentury salesman razzle-dazzle here and there. Mostly I had fun, even though I was the butt of something now and again. Showed up, had some fun, fell in love, got a nice little character journey. But then she had another idea.”
 
The man in the sunglasses snorts. “That’s how it starts.”
 
“Suddenly it’s fifteen years later, I’m in this mess over Vietnam. And everybody’s mad at me, and I’m drinking all the time, and stepping out on my wife. And when my time-traveling buddy takes me fishing to ask me what’s up… turns out it’s all I’m acting out because I’m—“
 
The others in the room finish his sentence all as one. “—getting older.” 
 
Howard nods frantically. “Damn skippy. I mean, I know folks like to figure out why I turned out to be kind of asshole— but loose and drunk? Is that even canon?”
 
“A strong case could be made.” Sunglasses shrugs. “You could say it’s pretty strongly implied.”
 
“Well. Even so. I learned pretty quick this was a thing with her. Guess I figured she’d get on it again— but you never think it’s going to happen to you.” 
 
“And no mistake,” the man with the walking stick agrees. “She gave me a show all to myself— not even my golden boy little brother got that. And she built it entirely around my romantic escapades. And what do I have, smack dab in the middle of my gallivanting? References to middle age spread and the grim specter of aging past my flirtatious charm. Rather takes the wind of a fellow’s sails.”
 
“At least you just got the memento mori treatment,” Sunglasses rejoins. “She threw my back out and had me hook up with an old lady just to get my groove back.”
 
Walking Stick winks at him. “For what it’s worth, Dresden, I think you look smashing.” 
 
“Have to say I agree. But instead of losing my looks, I just had to settle for physical punishment for the sin of not being twenty.”
 
Finally the widow speaks, barking a laugh. “Ha! You call that physical punishment?”
 
Sunglasses rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we know, Hawking, nobody ever gets it worse than you.”
 
“You’re not the one she uses as a sink for all her doubts. You think you’re pulled through the wringer? Call me when she puts a bullet in your gut!” She raps her fist on her abdomen for emphasis, then fold her arms.
 
Howard looks uncomfortably from face to face. “So… what do you? When she’s riding you hard about it?”
 
“Not much one can, I’m afraid,” Walking Stick admits. “She’s the boss. And God knows she’s only going to get worse about it as time goes on.”
 
Sunglasses grunts. “Well. That’s bleak.”
 
“Could be bleaker,” the widow commented. “We could be her. We’ll stay as we are forever.” Her eyes roll to Howard.  “The only one really getting older here is her.” 
 
He considered this. “In that case… anybody feel like a game of cards?”
 
Walking Stick grins. “Best enjoy the bridge while there’s only four of us. Because more are certainly sure to come.”
 
“Hm,” Sunglasses murmurs. “Better set out some more chairs.”
breakinglight11: (Default)
Thought since fall is now underway, it’s a good time to update on what I’ve got going on and what I’m working on. I’m back to work now, after a fairly lean summer.

I have five classes, for which I’m extremely grateful— four at Lesley, one at MCPHS, which is a new institution for me. I’ve been trying to get hired at a new institution for years, and I was actually offered classes at several other schools as well, though this was the only one I had time to accept. It’s a pretty heavy course load, but I need the money, so it’s good I was able to secure it. My kids are already making it clear that they’re going to need a lot of support— maybe more than any other semester of my career —so I’m already feeling the weight of it. I’m also putting everything in place for the next round of Hawking production.

We’re doing a live version of Gentlemen Never Tell to perform at Arisia 2022, but also I’ve decided I want to make recorded versions of the Hawking back catalogue, for accessibility and permanence. So our other show will be a return to Mrs. Hawking part I, to make a high-quality staged production specifically optimized for filming on camera, so people can get into the series even if they can’t make the stage shows, or at least couldn’t back when we first started. Bernie and I also re-edited the Hawking I script, because the original was written all the way back in 2012 and just isn’t up to our current standard. I like the new version much better, but it took us a long time to finish. Since Bernie’s been so busy with his new job, the going was slow.

We’re also working on finishing the first episode of Dream Machine. We put together an assembly cut for the cast party and I was really happy and proud of it so far. But again, Bernie’s the one in charge of the editing, and he’s been absolutely underwater. We’d hoped to have it done by the end of the summer, but it’ll just have to come at its own pace. We’re in the process of finding backgrounds, though I’ve already accomplished most of the sound design. I’m pretty proud of that, seeing as that’s not my usual strong suit.

And I’ve done a ton of work on my Captain America fan fictions. They’re pleasant, low-stakes, and I don’t need to work with or wait on anyone to make progress on them. They get kind of a lot of hits, and I don’t have to be begging my friends to check them out because of the built in audience, so as a validation source they’ve been really addictive. Because they’re the lowest priority, they get shoved to the wayside when I’m busy. But they’re a really nice boost when I need it.

So, quite a bit. Not too unusual for me, I guess. But I’m already feeling a touch of overwhelm. I know I’ll get through it, I suppose I always do. But I think it’s going to take a lot.
breakinglight11: (Default)
And that’s my tenth year of this silly jaunt. :-) That’s pretty cool.

I didn’t have one particular project I was trying to use the challenge to help me complete, the way I have in recent years. Bernie and I decided we were not going to debut the next Mrs. Hawking play, but instead do a staged version of Gentlemen and a recorded version of the first one, so I was kind of on my own recognizance for what I felt like working on.

The projects I worked on this time:

Dream Machine - 9
Forever Captain - 7
Hawking - 11
Adonis - 4

The characters I included this time:
  1. Ryan Dresden - 7
  2. Steve Rogers - 7
  3. Leah Lucchesi - 6
  4. Nathaniel Hawking - 5
  5. Mary Stone - 5
  6. Aidan - 4
  7. Clara Hawking - 4
  8. Victoria Hawking - 4
  9. Veronica Dresden - 3
  10. Rishun Hayward - 3
  11. Meredith Barry - 2
  12. Cedric Brockton - 2
  13. Devon Chambers - 2
  14. Elizabeth Frost - 2
  15. Tony Stark - 2
  16. Jeremy Allison - 1
  17. Zach Barry - 1
  18. Miranda Barrymore - 1
  19. Elizabeth Carter - 1
  20. John Colchester - 1
  21. Marlon Dresden - 1
  22. Gan Jhao - 1
  23. Hamba - 1
  24. Justin Hawking - 1
  25. Don Hayward - 1
  26. Joxer - 1
  27. Derek Kaplan - 1
  28. Vivian Newell - 1
  29. Pavilla - 1
  30. Ken Rafferty - 1
  31. Red Tyrus - 1
  32. Malaika Shah - 1
  33. Arthur Swann - 1
  34. Zagora - 1
At first glance, this looks like the narrowest spread of different projects— just Mrs. Hawking, Dream Machine, Adonis, and Forever Captain. But really, I just didn’t really separate different pieces within the same series or umbrella this time in the manner I usually do. I worked on Hawking pieces from several epochs, three different Captain America fan fictions, three different episodes of Dream Machine, and at least two separate parts of the larger Adonis story. I think I did that because this time I wasn’t always certain which project each piece would ultimately belong in. But I do feel like I generated a lot of work that I will make use of eventually.

I usually end up writing about between thirty and forty different characters, so that’s fairly typical. Twenty male to fourteen female, which is skewed more in favor of men than usual. Ryan Dresden and Steve Rogers featured most frequently, with 7 scenes each, followed by Leah Lucchesi at 6, Nathaniel Hawking and Mary Stone at 5, then Aidan, Victoria Hawking, and Clara Hawking at 4. Nathaniel basically always makes it into the top five. While Mrs. Hawking still has the most 31P31D scenes of all time, she’s only in the top ten this year.

Last year I also started to pay attention to the characters who have actors associated with them. Yet again I’m writing a lot of scenes for Eric Cheung, as he plays both Ryan and Justin Hawking, totaling 8. Between Leah and Malaika Shah, that’s 7 for Naomi Ibatsitas, 5 for Christian Krenek as Nathaniel, 5 for Circe Rowan as Mary, 4 for Cari Keebaugh as Mrs. Hawking, 4 for Jackie Freyman as Clara. There’s also some roles I haven’t officially cast but have people I’d love to see as— like Arielle Kaplan as Veronica Dresden, and maybe double cast as Miranda Barrymore as well, which if you total those up with Mrs. Frost comes to 6.

Favorite scenes for this year? Hmm, I was generally pretty happy with what I generated. It’s in need of a lot of polishing, of course, but I feel like I was getting at good ideas in the overall majority of pieces. Occasionally I feel like I am just screwing around wasting page space, but that didn’t really happen this year. But I’m not sure what I thought was really head and shoulders above the rest. I thought there was some real power in #15 - No Regrets. #2 - Sit Up and Beg came out much wittier than I expected it would upon short notice. And even though I don’t even know if I can use #20 - Bannock in whole anywhere, I think it has some real tenderness to it. And #13 - Man Cave came out very clever and funny, actually close to the particular combination of humorous and vulnerable I was going for.

Favorite lines? I liked in #22 - Recon Mom, when Steve asks if Rishun can sneak two little kids past a strike team, her answer of, “Grant. I have two toddlers. Compared to a church or a toy store, this is nothing.” I also thought I was onto something in #30 - Brazen, with Justin’s “With that pink in your cheeks? I think I’d like to see it up to the roots of your hair.” Justin always gets good lines. But honestly the best is probably “They must have passed you around like a wineskin at a wake,” from #26 of the same name. It manages to be snappy, raw, and in the idiom I was going for— a very tricky thing to achieve. Apparently I’m into the naughtiest ones this time!

So, yeah. I’m pretty happy with the result. It didn’t feel hugely burdensome, and I got some nice work out of it. And looking at my chart of ten years solid is really, really satisfying to me.
breakinglight11: (Default)
The semester is starting next week, so I am busily getting ready. I’m feeling a little bit burnt out, but I need to push through to finish the challenge. I don’t know if my remaining scenes are going to be any good, but I’ll do my best. Here’s another attempt at conversation from the bottle episode of Dream Machine after a bad night at the Emmys with Leah and Ryan.



Day #29 - Three-Time )

Profile

breakinglight11: (Default)
breakinglight11

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 29th, 2025 03:12 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios