speeches, meetings, emails (oh my)

when the onslaught of emails is so much that you project the experience onto fictional characters

(specifically, the newest chapter of that one night)

the initial start-of-semester race has… calmed?

part of me almost wishes i were actually keeping a word count of the emails i’m sending for academic + work purposes. i wouldn’t be able to sustainably track that kind of data, but i would love to know very seriously how many words i am sending out into the email universe—particularly because i work really hard to make my emails as clear and concise as possible. BUT OH WELL. i don’t dare track that data, so other data points (e.g., papers, book manuscripts, dissertation proposal) will have to do.

dissertation status:

• still waiting for feedback on the most recent paper i wrote! once that comes back to me, i can incorporate that feedback and submit a shorter version for publication (e.g., research journals)

• trained my new research assistant!

• doing a deep, close read of the literature to know everything inside and out (and to catch up on any new articles that dropped in august while i was taking a bit of a break)

• started my manuscript for the non-fiction book (based on my dissertation research but for a mainstream audience!)

• had my first meeting of the year with my advisor and potentially have my official shortlist for the other two members of my academic committee 👀

• currently ✨on track✨ to defend my dissertation proposal in november 2023

website & fic updates!

had a very inspiring conversation with @sunshinemellow-fic over the weekend about writing and revising one’s writing vs. yeeting unbeta’d word vomit out into the tumblr- and ao3-wilderness, which resulted in the opening of 1-sentence fic requests!

after i fulfilled a few prompts, i was like, “oh shit, this moment is probs a good opportunity to start transferring old 1-sentence fic over here.” lo and behold:

• added a new (non-linked) page for 1-sentence fic

• added a button for the 1-sentence fic page to the fanfiction page

• added this week’s newest additions of 1-sentence fics [butterfly, acupuncture] — although you can see i still need to fix the dates

• started adding a few older 1-sentence fics from Olden Times but then once i felt like i got to a good stopping point, i decided to leave the older ones for Later™ (i have to clean up that fic-only tumblr tagging system anyway!). therefore, i will leave this project for a Later™ treat when i need to engage in mindless organization and order 🔥✨

x-posted a tumblr-prompted drabble into ao3 (because we can’t trust tumblr 🥲🫠🙃)

find the woman in white on ao3!

in other news —

• 🍺 many adventures this labor day weekend (many cocktails, many lagers, though not necessarily together)

• 🦋 PURCHASED AMC TICKETS TO SEE THE ERAS TOUR IN THEATERS; this has, clearly, moved up our plans to create 1989-inspired flower crowns and friendship bracelets, i must PREPARE

• 🍇 i picked fresh grapes straight from the vine on vast farmland (and later made homemade grape juice) and now i can never go back to grocery store grapes, what have i done

thanks, all! ♡ and good luck with the rest of your week!!

eternal summertime sadness!fic = complete

🌊✨just desperately trying to finish 8+-year-long WIPs

this was one of my tumblr sidebars back in the 2010s! 🥲✨ in honor of frosted sea glass!

eternal summertime sadness fic = complete ✨

IT IS DONE.

even though frosted sea glass was actually lower on my “to write” list (behind finishing the snow globe two-shot for @aicosu and doing another chapter update for that one night), i was able to crank out TWO chapters (roughly 15-16k words) in like a matter of days this past week… and finish the thing once and for all. 💙🩵🌊✨

frosted sea glass was completed on august 10, 2023. 💪✨ roughly 8 years after it was first posted (to answer a tumblr prompt)!

i took the day off from writing yesterday (friday) to grab lunch with a friend/former co-worker from japan, who’d moved back to the states last october, and we spent the whole day out, so i didn’t add anything to the word counter. instead, i just basked in the satisfying glow of the specific vibe that can only come from completing an 8+-year-old WIP 😎🪭✨

up next —

my next project will be to finish and post part ii of snow globe and to post another chapter of that one night, especially in honor of the semester starting up in just a few weeks! 😉☕️✨

(also, i cannot believe it but pumpkin spice lattes are already available???
blasphemous.
i don’t even want to smell a PSL until >50% of my tree leaves are multi-colored and the air is less than 60°F, please)

dissertation —

i’m not allowed to collect any data for my dissertation until after my proposal defense (which is currently scheduled for november-ish), and i’m still waiting on a round of feedback of the most recent paper i wrote (from which my dissertation is launching), so i don’t have anything critical for my dissertation process just yet! in the meantime, i’m still putting together my academic committee and staying apprised of the literature, but most of my focus is on seeing all my colleagues and friends and cohort again as everyone returns from summer-baby-sabbatical and kicks off autumn!

i’m so grateful to be in disserland. 😭 i only have to commute to campus once every two-ish weeks for most of the semester! otherwise i have the flexibility to work entirely from home, entirely on my research. 🥲🥲🥲 what a dream. 🩵✨

at the center —

ALSO. starting to gear up for the major re-read and completion of at the center!

someone responded to my tumblr post inquiry for potential betas, and we have tentatively set some prelim plans for later in the fall about beta-ing future chapters, particularly for consistency, plot points + hints + foreshadowing, etc.! i have a whole spreadsheet with all the interwoven links, and i will very much appreciate having another set of eyes to help manage it. GRACIAS, GRACE. ✨

back in the early 00s, i had like a team of three betas. 🤣🥲 (I HOPE THEY LOG BACK INTO TUMBLR/AO3 AGAIN SOON. i think we all collectively took years-long hiatuses from tumblr. 💕)

abigail (@dragonsinparis) is also a forever-beta, but she is also doing very cool things, like working toward getting her novel published!! 🤞✨ GO ABIGAIL GO.

“cleaning” day —

today (saturday) is a cleaning day, both mentally and physically. i’d like to continue transferring some stuff from my fic-only tumblr (@therentyoupayfanfiction) to this site… even though i got my account back, i’m still not comfortable with tumblr… i feel like i could lose everything with no warning again in just, like, a split second. 😅

today, i’d like to:

• post something! a drabble? a ton chapter?

• write at least like 500 words…

• reply to all the fsg-chapter 12 comments on ao3! 🌊🩵✨

happy writing! 💙🩵✨

a tumblr miracle?? + we love data✨

silver lining of tumblr deleting all my data —> opportunity to collect my own (✨fancier✨) data (but also tumblr restored my data?????)

TUMBLR RESTORATION??

first and foremost, in an unexpected twist of fate: tumblr emailed me yesterday and declared that my account was restored!!! behold!!

@therentyoupay

of course, i am ecstatic and grateful beyond all measure.

of course, i trust tumblr 0%.

a good reminder, i think, to put your eggs in multiple basket-websites. 🥲🥲🥲🤞 i will continue to use my tumblr account for community, but i will still gradually move my fic, my fic fanart, and other important keepsakes here. with all the social media sites imploding right now… WHO KNOWS.

but i have always been inspired by my favorite early 2000s fic authors who created their own websites (e.g., http://forthwrites.com/) to house their fanfics and, eventually, to share news and sales of their original fic. ✨✨

WORD COUNTER & PRODUCTIVITY TRACKER

plus, i am really sinking into some of the opportunities that squarespace has to offer… LIKE GRAPHS.

also, as i mentioned in my previous post (🌊 beach day = mermaid!au writing session??), i did, indeed, END UP MAKING A WRITING TRACKER for this year, based on the record-breaking year i had in ✨2015✨. thank goodness that post was not lost to the abyss forever.

check out my 2023-2024 word count tracker!! link above on the navi bar ♡

part of me very badly wanted to make some fancy ones in python, but i have learned through experience that squarespace often can’t handle many embedded code bits at once. besides, it’s a nice accountability check-in to come to the website each day and update the graph directly!!!!!

MULTI-CHAP WIP RISES FROM THE WAVES

on that note, GUESS WHAT I FINISHED YESTERDAY

CORRECT

my eternal summertime sadness fic has risen from the sand

the waves

the cape cod ROCKS AND DUNES

i am finally in the FINAL STAGES OF EDITING AND PROOFREADING ✨ update and COMPLETION coming to ao3 soon!!!

BANNERSSSS

i also made this banner (above) when my tumblr account was trapped in the void and i couldn’t find the fic fanart i usually used for chapter updates! 🥲 (i found it now!!)

i really would love to make a banner for each of my stories, but at this point, i just need to be writing them first, not just playing with banners 😂😂😂 i will only make one once i update that fic, THAT WILL BE MY PLAN.

thank you all for visiting and periodically checking out the new changes to this site!! it (1) protects my work from two-thirds of my life omg but also (2) allows for a fun creative outlet (and organizational outlet lbr) that scratches a part of my brain not already being satisfied from writing fic and writing my dissertation!! ✨ we love a happy brain-scratch trifecta

happy writing, all! 💕

tumblr account termination grief → creates own website

what do you do when 11 years of community, conversation, fic, fic fanart, gifts, recs, and friendship are just deleted while you’re eating dinner?!

https://www.tumblr.com/therentyoupay-deleted/724770445987020800/hi-all-my-account-therentyoupay-was

yesterday and today, i had been planning to wrap the second and final part of snow globe, a gift!work for aicosu based on their “three-word sentence” prompt, “just say it.”

clearly, the energy went more toward PANIC and CONTROL-THE-CHAOS and SAVE-EVERYTHING-YOU-CAN vibes instead, BUT. 🤷‍♀️

here i go, anyway. hoping to have snow globe finished and wrapped up within the next day or so!