I'll be honest, I'm not fond of that title - but it didn't seem wise to hold the chapter back for another few days while I spun my wheels trying to find a better one. :P
Anyway, welcome back, guys! Sorry for the long wait. Like I mentioned in my AN, things got kinda crazy this summer, and they didn't really calm down even after classes began again. My schedule has this weird thing where I have a bunch of free time between classes, but I'm stuck on campus (commuting this semester) and I really hate writing in public, so I'm basically just wrestling with myself for hours trying to get anything done, haha. Such is life.
Consequently, as I mentioned, updates will likely be all over the place. Hopefully I'll have something for you all the Sunday after next - we'll just have to see how it goes. Doesn't help that Sprite's chapter is probably going to be a behemoth. It's the last one of hers, and we have lots of stuff to cover! I hope you guys can hang on until the end. :)
@Cinderpaw11: Tbh, in the original original plan way back when, I didn't really intend for Faun/Riven to get too close - I figured they'd be uneasy allies at best, united more through their shared desire for change than any actual affection. Their closeness actually arose when I realized I was going to need 4 more chapters to cover some stuff I'd kinda glossed over, which in turn made me reassess some I'd already written to tie up the themes and such. It came together really nicely, I think - even though, as you said, it's probably not fated to end well.
As for Koulder, hopefully this most recent chapter gave you plenty of his brains to pick. ;)
& thanks again for noting the typoes - for some reason FP changes the formatting when you italicize just one word, sometimes. Very strange.
@Lynxeye: I legit grinned when I saw your username on there. It's been a long time! I hope the most recent lil hiatus hasn't scared you off, because I'm super glad to have you back. At least it probably gave you time to catch up, haha.
That's about it, I think. See you guys soon (maybe)!
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
35: Kinship
Didn't make posts for the last two chapters, it seems - whoops! I suppose I didn't have much to say (or...forgot.....). But here we are!
@Adaon ril'Morgerard: Not sure if you'll see this, but thank you! The Warriors similarities are because I used to write a ton of Warriors fics. When I moved over to original fiction, Vulpine was supposed to be kinda a training exercise to ease the transition - like training wheels, I guess. Of course, then it had to blow up into a 200k+ story.....But I'm glad you're enjoying it!
@Dovefeather5: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Personally, creating stories isn't something I struggle with - they just kind happen, and then completely dominate my life - but they can be difficult to stick with! You kinda just have to grit your teeth and plow through. For a time, I was attempting to write multiple stories at once, and it just became a mess - whenever I was working on one, I wanted to be writing the other. Narrowing your focus can be difficult, but it'll make you much more productive, in my experience. Hope that helps!
@Cinderpaw11 (Guess I'll do a few reviews at once here, wops): Yeah, Sage's whole life story is just one failure after another. He's never really found anything to stand for, though he has had his small rebellions - not telling about Nella's solitaire, running from the Skulk, etc. Sprite's the closest thing he ever had, but even his sunrise plan is, for lack of a better phrase, taking the path of least resistance. He would have died thinking he'd done the best he could for her, and that she has a better chance of making it out - but, as she points out, it was kinda a false choice, since they've managed to scrape by. It remains to be seen whether he'll ever be able to confront any of his demons, esp. considering how weak he's become. Poor guy.
Yeah, Toma's a bro. :) It's been nice having a younger mentor character - one who finds relating to his wards much easier, but still has good advice to offer. His parallels with Faun have been really fun as well. I think his presence is just pretty good at adding light to the story, which is something it needs.
(We'll never see proper proof in the story proper [though for a time I considered an extra one-shot thing] but Toma is right about the hunting trial being an attempt to shift blame away from Musk for Faun's demise. Therefore, we might assume his father has some affection for him, though the degree to which he feels it is unclear.)
And I'm stoked about your feelings regarding Koulder (and that quote is awesome)! Koulder's whole dealio is being an outsider, even where morality/feelings are considered. He's not fully on anyone's side but his own, but even what he wants is unclear.
There's one big thing that might help you understand his character, though - Koulder does not mince words. When he spoke to Sprite, he kinda stumbled over himself, repeated things, etc. etc., but that part of him is gone. Koulder says exactly what he means, even if it isn't always obvious (like "do you miss her" instead of "do you miss Iole" or always referring to Riven as "him" in his convo w/ Trick). Which means that whenever he speaks, it's important to pay attention to everything that pops out of his mouth, and consider all the possible implications.
For example - when he asks Faun about whether 'Please' ever stopped Riven & company from hunting/tormenting him. Remember, Koulder was once just like Faun - someone small and powerless that Riven despised. But Koulder never spoke up, never fought back, until Sprite intervened in his life and shook him up. She encouraged him to speak up, to find his voice - but ultimately it was violence, not his voice, that saved his life. In this one lil bit, Koulder's reflecting on his own past, Sprite, empathizing with Faun's suffering, and setting himself apart from Riven & co. They wouldn't have stopped because of a simple, desperate "Please." But he did, and to him, that makes all the difference.
(Even if it was partially because he'd break his neck if he went any further.)
That line's also key in understanding what he's doing to Faun, as is something in his next paragraph, where he says that he'll kill Faun, but it'll be swift. With this, he's attempting to get across that his quarrel with Faun is not personal. He has nothing against Faun. Rather, he understands the position he's in, the potential for suffering he's been presented with, and empathizes, however faintly, with his situation. More than that, he's not like Riven/Reyes/Waire. He's not hunting Faun for fun. He's not hunting him to make him hurt. He's just doing a job to get something he wants - and, perhaps Faun's end will be kinder with him than it would be with one of the others, if only because Faun's death, not his pain, is Koulder's goal. (Of course, Koulder neglects the fact that he does intend to torture Riven, as he mentions in this most recent chapter. Tsk tsk.)
Then, Koulder goes through the rest - showing Riven the body, killing him, and going home. And that's it. Conversation over. Because that's all that really matters to him. Catch Faun, take revenge on Riven, go home. Then it's all over. There's no reason for him to spit out one last jeer or jab when he leaves, as Riven might once have done - he's just doing a job, sticking to a plan. Nothing more.
That was, uh, a bit longer than I'd intended, but yeah. I could ramble on about junk like that all day. Koulder's been a really fun character to work with, and I've become pretty fond of him. But! Hope that puts some of his actions into clearer perspective for you. We'll get a lot more out of him in the next chapter, for sure.
(And I'd say Koulder almost certainly noticed Faun and Athor cuddlin' it up. He may be a little annoyed with himself for letting Faun get his goat, and possibly might be drawing some...other conclusions, but otherwise, he doesn't much care. Faun being a nice guy doesn't mean Koulder won't kill him. If Koulder doesn't do it, someone else certainly will, and they'll probably make a spectacle of it.)
And thank you for catching those mistakes! For whatever reason, FP sometimes doesn't like it when I offset just one word in italics. Should be fixed now. :)
@Nico: Thank you for your interest in the story! Hope the length hasn't frightened you off yet. :)
Well, I think that's it. See you guys next week, hopefully. :)
@Adaon ril'Morgerard: Not sure if you'll see this, but thank you! The Warriors similarities are because I used to write a ton of Warriors fics. When I moved over to original fiction, Vulpine was supposed to be kinda a training exercise to ease the transition - like training wheels, I guess. Of course, then it had to blow up into a 200k+ story.....But I'm glad you're enjoying it!
@Dovefeather5: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Personally, creating stories isn't something I struggle with - they just kind happen, and then completely dominate my life - but they can be difficult to stick with! You kinda just have to grit your teeth and plow through. For a time, I was attempting to write multiple stories at once, and it just became a mess - whenever I was working on one, I wanted to be writing the other. Narrowing your focus can be difficult, but it'll make you much more productive, in my experience. Hope that helps!
@Cinderpaw11 (Guess I'll do a few reviews at once here, wops): Yeah, Sage's whole life story is just one failure after another. He's never really found anything to stand for, though he has had his small rebellions - not telling about Nella's solitaire, running from the Skulk, etc. Sprite's the closest thing he ever had, but even his sunrise plan is, for lack of a better phrase, taking the path of least resistance. He would have died thinking he'd done the best he could for her, and that she has a better chance of making it out - but, as she points out, it was kinda a false choice, since they've managed to scrape by. It remains to be seen whether he'll ever be able to confront any of his demons, esp. considering how weak he's become. Poor guy.
Yeah, Toma's a bro. :) It's been nice having a younger mentor character - one who finds relating to his wards much easier, but still has good advice to offer. His parallels with Faun have been really fun as well. I think his presence is just pretty good at adding light to the story, which is something it needs.
(We'll never see proper proof in the story proper [though for a time I considered an extra one-shot thing] but Toma is right about the hunting trial being an attempt to shift blame away from Musk for Faun's demise. Therefore, we might assume his father has some affection for him, though the degree to which he feels it is unclear.)
And I'm stoked about your feelings regarding Koulder (and that quote is awesome)! Koulder's whole dealio is being an outsider, even where morality/feelings are considered. He's not fully on anyone's side but his own, but even what he wants is unclear.
There's one big thing that might help you understand his character, though - Koulder does not mince words. When he spoke to Sprite, he kinda stumbled over himself, repeated things, etc. etc., but that part of him is gone. Koulder says exactly what he means, even if it isn't always obvious (like "do you miss her" instead of "do you miss Iole" or always referring to Riven as "him" in his convo w/ Trick). Which means that whenever he speaks, it's important to pay attention to everything that pops out of his mouth, and consider all the possible implications.
For example - when he asks Faun about whether 'Please' ever stopped Riven & company from hunting/tormenting him. Remember, Koulder was once just like Faun - someone small and powerless that Riven despised. But Koulder never spoke up, never fought back, until Sprite intervened in his life and shook him up. She encouraged him to speak up, to find his voice - but ultimately it was violence, not his voice, that saved his life. In this one lil bit, Koulder's reflecting on his own past, Sprite, empathizing with Faun's suffering, and setting himself apart from Riven & co. They wouldn't have stopped because of a simple, desperate "Please." But he did, and to him, that makes all the difference.
(Even if it was partially because he'd break his neck if he went any further.)
That line's also key in understanding what he's doing to Faun, as is something in his next paragraph, where he says that he'll kill Faun, but it'll be swift. With this, he's attempting to get across that his quarrel with Faun is not personal. He has nothing against Faun. Rather, he understands the position he's in, the potential for suffering he's been presented with, and empathizes, however faintly, with his situation. More than that, he's not like Riven/Reyes/Waire. He's not hunting Faun for fun. He's not hunting him to make him hurt. He's just doing a job to get something he wants - and, perhaps Faun's end will be kinder with him than it would be with one of the others, if only because Faun's death, not his pain, is Koulder's goal. (Of course, Koulder neglects the fact that he does intend to torture Riven, as he mentions in this most recent chapter. Tsk tsk.)
Then, Koulder goes through the rest - showing Riven the body, killing him, and going home. And that's it. Conversation over. Because that's all that really matters to him. Catch Faun, take revenge on Riven, go home. Then it's all over. There's no reason for him to spit out one last jeer or jab when he leaves, as Riven might once have done - he's just doing a job, sticking to a plan. Nothing more.
That was, uh, a bit longer than I'd intended, but yeah. I could ramble on about junk like that all day. Koulder's been a really fun character to work with, and I've become pretty fond of him. But! Hope that puts some of his actions into clearer perspective for you. We'll get a lot more out of him in the next chapter, for sure.
(And I'd say Koulder almost certainly noticed Faun and Athor cuddlin' it up. He may be a little annoyed with himself for letting Faun get his goat, and possibly might be drawing some...other conclusions, but otherwise, he doesn't much care. Faun being a nice guy doesn't mean Koulder won't kill him. If Koulder doesn't do it, someone else certainly will, and they'll probably make a spectacle of it.)
And thank you for catching those mistakes! For whatever reason, FP sometimes doesn't like it when I offset just one word in italics. Should be fixed now. :)
@Nico: Thank you for your interest in the story! Hope the length hasn't frightened you off yet. :)
Well, I think that's it. See you guys next week, hopefully. :)
Monday, July 4, 2016
32: Conversations
Posted 32 a few hours ago. And that marks the close of another POV cycle - exciting stuff! Two more to go!
@Vendetta: Yep, that clear struggle between self-preservation and upholding one's promises/doing the right thing is what I was going for! The kinda running theme of Vulpine is that no one event changes everything or a character's entire motivations. Their development is a slow, sometimes repetitive process, wherein they have to fail and pick themselves back up and try again (as Faun mentions in this most recent chapter). Riven's no exception (probably the most obvious example, actually). He has a lot to gain and a lot to lose, depending on his choices - as does everyone else.
@Cinderpaw11: Yep, Riven's predicament was kinda from his own stupidity, instead of heroics, this time. Poor dingus. He's learning his lessons, though, slowly but surely. & yeah, plenty about Koulder is easy to forget - the last time he spoke before 31 was 15! But, seeing as we're entering the endgame now, we're going to see a lot more of him as things move along, for better or for worse....
As for the Koulder/solitaires thing, he presumably never thought it was Sprite (it would generally be assumed that if Iole were meeting a solitaire in secret, it would presumably be a male; in their minds, a solitaire female would have no reason to interact w/ a Skulk vixen), but Sage could have been a possibility. However, even that's sort of shaky, since he knows from Sprite that Sage is apparently elderly, which means a sexual motive is unlikely, and an elderly tod would have a difficult time killing a healthy young vixen, even if she knows nothing about self-defense. Sage was still his best bet, but the circumstances meant that Koulder was probably suspicious of something else going on - he just didn't have enough information to put everything together.
That's all for this week, I think. Seeya next Monday (and happy 4th of July, for all my fellow Americans)!
@Vendetta: Yep, that clear struggle between self-preservation and upholding one's promises/doing the right thing is what I was going for! The kinda running theme of Vulpine is that no one event changes everything or a character's entire motivations. Their development is a slow, sometimes repetitive process, wherein they have to fail and pick themselves back up and try again (as Faun mentions in this most recent chapter). Riven's no exception (probably the most obvious example, actually). He has a lot to gain and a lot to lose, depending on his choices - as does everyone else.
@Cinderpaw11: Yep, Riven's predicament was kinda from his own stupidity, instead of heroics, this time. Poor dingus. He's learning his lessons, though, slowly but surely. & yeah, plenty about Koulder is easy to forget - the last time he spoke before 31 was 15! But, seeing as we're entering the endgame now, we're going to see a lot more of him as things move along, for better or for worse....
As for the Koulder/solitaires thing, he presumably never thought it was Sprite (it would generally be assumed that if Iole were meeting a solitaire in secret, it would presumably be a male; in their minds, a solitaire female would have no reason to interact w/ a Skulk vixen), but Sage could have been a possibility. However, even that's sort of shaky, since he knows from Sprite that Sage is apparently elderly, which means a sexual motive is unlikely, and an elderly tod would have a difficult time killing a healthy young vixen, even if she knows nothing about self-defense. Sage was still his best bet, but the circumstances meant that Koulder was probably suspicious of something else going on - he just didn't have enough information to put everything together.
That's all for this week, I think. Seeya next Monday (and happy 4th of July, for all my fellow Americans)!
Monday, June 27, 2016
31: Divisions
Not much to say this time around, but I figured I'd go ahead and make this post for the record (idk, sometimes I go back and check the dates of when I posted stuff for various reasons).
This might be the longest chapter so far, by a wide margin (second closest is Faun's first chapter, weirdly enough, but I guess that one had a lot of worldbuilding to do). That's what you get when you try to combine past & present events, I s'pose. I'm sure the four finale chapters will all be monstrous as well, there's a lot to be done. v_v
Next week we'll see what Faun's most recent plan is (how many of these have he and Trick made, again?), and some unsettling business with...well, we'll see!
After that, we'll have eight chapters (and the epilogue) to go.
See you guys next Monday!
This might be the longest chapter so far, by a wide margin (second closest is Faun's first chapter, weirdly enough, but I guess that one had a lot of worldbuilding to do). That's what you get when you try to combine past & present events, I s'pose. I'm sure the four finale chapters will all be monstrous as well, there's a lot to be done. v_v
Next week we'll see what Faun's most recent plan is (how many of these have he and Trick made, again?), and some unsettling business with...well, we'll see!
After that, we'll have eight chapters (and the epilogue) to go.
See you guys next Monday!
Monday, June 20, 2016
30: Warmth
30 is finally posted! Last week was kinda weird, sorry about that.
@Cinderpaw11: The teasing is only kinda semi-intentional, honest! Originally I'd toyed with making the Pan/Lorelei story its own thing (a novella, or something), which is why we don't get too much of it whenever it appears. Eventually I discarded that idea, tho (woulda been a lot of work for little payoff, & the story's too closely linked to Vulpine's themes to withhold that way), which bodes well for us finding out the rest....;)
Agreed on Musk being an enormous buttface, tho. Rhea presumably cared for him at least a little, though that wore off when he began expressing some...undesirable behavior that we'll end up seeing in Trick's chap. In theory, the Reynard cares for his closest partner as well, tho we know from Toma that their relationship's become strained (& the cracks in their partnership will continue to show as we go along). As for who Musk's story parallels, I'll say this - small kit, big paws.
Sprite's been a cute lil goober for most of the story, but she definitely has room to grow up - sooner rather than later, with the pressures of taking care of her lil family entirely on her own on her shoulders. We'll see how that goes.
Tbh after figuring out Trick->Holly was a thing, I kinda pondered whether or not it would be mutual if Grint were removed from the competition, but ultimately I concluded that Holly prolly doesn't swing that way. Unfortunate for Trick, but that's life!
That's all for this week, I think. See you guys next time. :)
@Cinderpaw11: The teasing is only kinda semi-intentional, honest! Originally I'd toyed with making the Pan/Lorelei story its own thing (a novella, or something), which is why we don't get too much of it whenever it appears. Eventually I discarded that idea, tho (woulda been a lot of work for little payoff, & the story's too closely linked to Vulpine's themes to withhold that way), which bodes well for us finding out the rest....;)
Agreed on Musk being an enormous buttface, tho. Rhea presumably cared for him at least a little, though that wore off when he began expressing some...undesirable behavior that we'll end up seeing in Trick's chap. In theory, the Reynard cares for his closest partner as well, tho we know from Toma that their relationship's become strained (& the cracks in their partnership will continue to show as we go along). As for who Musk's story parallels, I'll say this - small kit, big paws.
Sprite's been a cute lil goober for most of the story, but she definitely has room to grow up - sooner rather than later, with the pressures of taking care of her lil family entirely on her own on her shoulders. We'll see how that goes.
Tbh after figuring out Trick->Holly was a thing, I kinda pondered whether or not it would be mutual if Grint were removed from the competition, but ultimately I concluded that Holly prolly doesn't swing that way. Unfortunate for Trick, but that's life!
That's all for this week, I think. See you guys next time. :)
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
29: Snow
Sorry I haven't really been making any posts on here - haven't really had anything of importance to say. Just floatin' right along.
@Cinderpaw11: Although I love questions, my literal favorite is reader reactions. When you're writing, it's really easy to doubt whether or not you're handling the scene correctly - if your readers are gonna get what you're trying to imply, if they're going to feel the way you want them to feel, etc. etc. Writing is kinda like floundering around in a vacuum, for that reason, since you have nothing but your own reactions to go off of. Serially written stories like this one are pretty dependent on reader feedback for that reason - so I absolutely appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts/reactions!
Holly/Trick is kinda a weird thing - back when I first starting writing their interactions, I kept getting vague urges from Trick to respond to Holly in ways that were seemingly out of character - more openly, more warmly. And I kept ignoring them, because Trick's kinda a weird character to write anyway (she's finicky) - but they didn't go away, and eventually I realized that she potentially had some buried feelings for her buddy. That, of course, wasn't going to work out, since Holly's 100% interested in Grint - so because it had no place in the story, I continued to downplay it. By the time I hit Partnerships, though, I just kinda threw my hands in the air and let Trick have at it, because even if her feelings aren't essential to the story (& will never be discussed, in-universe), they're still a part of her and it felt dishonest to keep shoving them out of the way. So, yes, Trick definitely has some romantic feelings for Holly, but she'll never act on them, because Holly wouldn't ever reciprocate them.
As for the time-skip, I think my original plan was a few big leaps (because it was going to be 12 chapters) but it ended up being more like little hops (because I expanded it to 16). Regardless, major events will never happen during timeskips, because I really dislike important things happening offscreen (unless it's kinda unavoidable; the set-up of the first trial is going to be so chaotic that it'd be impossible for us to see every death, just saying). That obviously doesn't bar any mates/death/Riven stuff happening in the future, haha.
Finally, if I could get away with writing 100k of nothing but cuddling, I totally would.
That's all for this week. See you guys next time (hopefully; I really need to set an alert for Mondays, or something).
@Cinderpaw11: Although I love questions, my literal favorite is reader reactions. When you're writing, it's really easy to doubt whether or not you're handling the scene correctly - if your readers are gonna get what you're trying to imply, if they're going to feel the way you want them to feel, etc. etc. Writing is kinda like floundering around in a vacuum, for that reason, since you have nothing but your own reactions to go off of. Serially written stories like this one are pretty dependent on reader feedback for that reason - so I absolutely appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts/reactions!
Holly/Trick is kinda a weird thing - back when I first starting writing their interactions, I kept getting vague urges from Trick to respond to Holly in ways that were seemingly out of character - more openly, more warmly. And I kept ignoring them, because Trick's kinda a weird character to write anyway (she's finicky) - but they didn't go away, and eventually I realized that she potentially had some buried feelings for her buddy. That, of course, wasn't going to work out, since Holly's 100% interested in Grint - so because it had no place in the story, I continued to downplay it. By the time I hit Partnerships, though, I just kinda threw my hands in the air and let Trick have at it, because even if her feelings aren't essential to the story (& will never be discussed, in-universe), they're still a part of her and it felt dishonest to keep shoving them out of the way. So, yes, Trick definitely has some romantic feelings for Holly, but she'll never act on them, because Holly wouldn't ever reciprocate them.
As for the time-skip, I think my original plan was a few big leaps (because it was going to be 12 chapters) but it ended up being more like little hops (because I expanded it to 16). Regardless, major events will never happen during timeskips, because I really dislike important things happening offscreen (unless it's kinda unavoidable; the set-up of the first trial is going to be so chaotic that it'd be impossible for us to see every death, just saying). That obviously doesn't bar any mates/death/Riven stuff happening in the future, haha.
Finally, if I could get away with writing 100k of nothing but cuddling, I totally would.
That's all for this week. See you guys next time (hopefully; I really need to set an alert for Mondays, or something).
Monday, May 16, 2016
26: Bitterness
New chapter's up! & I suppose I'll pick up the old tradition of responding to reviews, haha.
@SomeoneI'mSure: Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
@Cinderpaw11: Quite a few elements of Sage's past have popped up throughout the story - more than just a fox of the Skulk meeting with a solitaire in secret. There's one story in particular that's been repeated...but we'll get to that soon enough.
Pan/Lorelei's story is truly the mystery for the ages, haha. It was originally based off a weird dream I had, that kinda kickstarted me into writing Vulpine in the first place (or at least thinking about foxes again, which in turn reminded me of Sage/Sprite, old characters I hadn't really ever done anything with). I'd kinda kicked around the idea of expanding their tale into its own lil story (which is why so much of their story is initially vague) but I kinda gave up on that, so we'll see the conclusion of their legend in due time.
And yeah, four novels in two years was both rough and cake, weirdly enough! I didn't really think of the magnitude of what I'd actually done until I finished my thesis novel. Even then it was just kinda like "I've written four novels in my life, hmm." It wasn't until I went back and looked at the dates that I realized just how close they'd all been written!
Weirdly enough, though, most of them don't have too much crazy family-line stuff. It's completely absent in SQSL1&2, as far as I can remember, and doesn't pop up in Corona either (originally I'd intended a companion piece starring a character related to Corona's main character, but I think they're going to be unrelated after all. Space is a big place, it wouldn't really make sense for them to be connected). It does appear in my thesis novel, Apiarchy, but it's both subverted and played straight - the female main character (Dahlia) is told she's actually the Queen's daughter, who was hidden away after an assassination attempt. Later, she finds out the Queen's full of it, and just trying to cover up the fact that the real heir died years ago; Dahlia just looks close enough to play the part. Of course, the reason she looks close enough is because she and the Princess are actually cousins (their fathers were brothers). However, since power doesn't pass through the male side of things, the connection doesn't make her actually entitled to rule, or anything. So there's definitely a weird family tree, and i plays into the subject of the plot, but the importance of it is later downplayed. Fun stuff!
(Another project of mine, NORTH, has some family tree shenanigans in it, too - but it'll be in the prequel, if I ever get around to that.)
Whoops, rambled on a bit there. Anyway, thanks for sticking with the story, and I hope you'll enjoy future developments as they come. :)
(That goes for the rest of you guys, too. See you next week!)
@SomeoneI'mSure: Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
@Cinderpaw11: Quite a few elements of Sage's past have popped up throughout the story - more than just a fox of the Skulk meeting with a solitaire in secret. There's one story in particular that's been repeated...but we'll get to that soon enough.
Pan/Lorelei's story is truly the mystery for the ages, haha. It was originally based off a weird dream I had, that kinda kickstarted me into writing Vulpine in the first place (or at least thinking about foxes again, which in turn reminded me of Sage/Sprite, old characters I hadn't really ever done anything with). I'd kinda kicked around the idea of expanding their tale into its own lil story (which is why so much of their story is initially vague) but I kinda gave up on that, so we'll see the conclusion of their legend in due time.
And yeah, four novels in two years was both rough and cake, weirdly enough! I didn't really think of the magnitude of what I'd actually done until I finished my thesis novel. Even then it was just kinda like "I've written four novels in my life, hmm." It wasn't until I went back and looked at the dates that I realized just how close they'd all been written!
Weirdly enough, though, most of them don't have too much crazy family-line stuff. It's completely absent in SQSL1&2, as far as I can remember, and doesn't pop up in Corona either (originally I'd intended a companion piece starring a character related to Corona's main character, but I think they're going to be unrelated after all. Space is a big place, it wouldn't really make sense for them to be connected). It does appear in my thesis novel, Apiarchy, but it's both subverted and played straight - the female main character (Dahlia) is told she's actually the Queen's daughter, who was hidden away after an assassination attempt. Later, she finds out the Queen's full of it, and just trying to cover up the fact that the real heir died years ago; Dahlia just looks close enough to play the part. Of course, the reason she looks close enough is because she and the Princess are actually cousins (their fathers were brothers). However, since power doesn't pass through the male side of things, the connection doesn't make her actually entitled to rule, or anything. So there's definitely a weird family tree, and i plays into the subject of the plot, but the importance of it is later downplayed. Fun stuff!
(Another project of mine, NORTH, has some family tree shenanigans in it, too - but it'll be in the prequel, if I ever get around to that.)
Whoops, rambled on a bit there. Anyway, thanks for sticking with the story, and I hope you'll enjoy future developments as they come. :)
(That goes for the rest of you guys, too. See you next week!)
Monday, May 9, 2016
25: Warning, and some other info!
Hello! Not sure if anyone will actually see this, since Vulpine's been dead for so long - but, if you happen to, then I'm glad you stopped by!
Over the past 2ish years, I've been getting a lot of concerned PMs asking if I'm alive and such, and when I'll be able to start posting Vulpine (or anything else) again. My answer to the first is generally satisfactory (yep, I'm alive), but my answer to the second has been less so, for a variety of reasons. I've actually been doing quite a bit the two years or so - it's just most of it hasn't been Vulpine related. I'll give you a quick summation of what I've been up to, and hopefully you'll understand why.
(Basically, I wrote 4 novels.)
What The Hell Happened
June 2014 - planned on getting my shiz together to finish Vulpine ASAP. Even wrote one chapter (the one I just posted) and started another (Faun's, obvs). Then...
Then.........
Then halfway through June, I was brutally attacked by an idea that would not, could not, be banished, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't want to think about it. I certainly didn't want to write about it. It was completely different from everything I usually wrote (Sci-fi! With almost no humans to speak of!) and really self-indulgent for a variety of reasons and just generally felt like something I didn't want to pursue. But it wouldn't leave, and in July there was this "Camp NaNo" thing (a summer version of NaNoWriMo) that I wanted to try. So I said "heck with it," and went for it, and....wrote 125k in a month. Yeah, that's a lot. Unfortunately, the story wasn't quite over.
August - September 2014 - Polished off July's story (entitled "Stay Quiet, Stay Low," but we'll call it SQSL) with another 25k. But then it turned out that this was just the first arc of three. The second was pretty short (22k), but that ended up being a huge problem, because I blew through it in two frantic days, and then had to scramble to come up with a concrete plan for the third. So I wrote the third arc (let's call it SQSL2)...and revised...and wrote...and revised...and wrote...etc., on an on for months, until I was really frigging burnt out on the whole thing.
October 2014: Work on SQSL2 had slowed to a crawl, but I still wasn't ready for Vulpine yet. I floundered around for a bit, until - surprise surprise - another story plot hit me like a truck halfway through the month, conveniently just in time for November, i.e. NaNoWriMo. At this point, I was resigned to my fate, so I just gave in.
November 2014: I wrote 88k of what would eventually become a 203k novel (entitled "Corona").
December 2014-March 2015: I bounced between working on SQSL2 and Corona. Mostly Corona, because SQSL was giving me such a headache. I finished Corona on March 2nd, I think? And then I kinda let things slide for awhile.
April 2015: Decided to get off my butt and finish SQSL2; Camp NaNo is held in both April and July, so I decided to use SQSL2 for this one. I wrote 78k.
May 2015: Still working on SQSL2, albeit slowly. My birthday (the 26th) reminded me of Vulpine (since the last chapter had been posted on the 26th the year before), and I started musing on it a bit, but was too busy to do much else.
June 2015: Still working on SQSL2. Still thinking on Vulpine. Seeing as July's Camp NaNo was coming up, I figured I might as well try to finish Vulpine then.
July 2015: Finished SQSL2 on the first, meaning that it took exactly a year to write SQSL & SQSL2. In total, the third arc ended up being ~160k, plus the 22/28 from the second arc (it varied because I kept switching where the second arc technically ended. I think it's 28 rn), for a total of 188k for SQSL2. I was pretty excited, but I couldn't stop, since it was Camp time. I plunged into Vulpine. Halfway through, however, I realized I was rushing certain events way more than was warranted. I thought I was about to start writing the final four chapters - instead, it quickly became apparent I needed another cycle of 4 instead - that is, I thought Vulpine had 12 more chaps in it, but it really had 16. That bummed me out, and I had to scramble to plan for the extras, which really bogged things down. I ended up writing just 54k.
August 2015: Struggled on w/ Vulpine, but it was a real slog. I kinda gave up at around 68k (total, meaning counting July's wordcount; it was all in one big file) and decided I'd get back to it again when I was ready.
September-October 2015: Nothing in particular, mostly focusing on school. Basically had huge writer's block, felt no real urge to write anything. Sucked.
November 2015: Decided to return to NORTH, my NaNo from 2013. Wrote 50k. Wasn't really feeling it, still, and my semester got stupidly hard very, very quickly. This whole month was honestly pretty miserable.
December 2015 - March 2016: Again, basically no writing. This time, though, I had a new excuse: my honors thesis, a two-semester-long project. I had originally decided to do a novel as part of my thesis (stupid, stupid), but found coming up with an idea was really, really hard. Basically, I procrastinated about thinking about it because it was scary, and because I procrastinated, it got even scarier. Eventually, I had to face facts at the end of March. I decided to attempt it for April's Camp. Before camp started, I wrote about 8k.
April 2016: Holy shit, was this month ever rough. I wrote 80k for my thesis, staying on campus for four consecutive weeks (my parents were sad). But, in the end, I scraped by, finishing my thesis novel - "Apiarchy" - just in time. Then, I found myself still in the habit of writing. I wanted to write more, so I didn't lose my momentum. But what could I possibly write about now?
May 2016: Vulpine time. I went back and read all the stuff I wrote since I'd last updated. Then I wrote a little, finishing off Riven's penultimate chapter (it had been one scene short of being completed when I'd last stopped). Then I planned some more. Then I went back and read everything I had posted. Then I read everything I hadn't posted again. Then I decided to get serious.
Then, I decided to update with the chapter I'd written nearly two years ago. And here we are.
So, to sum up: I wrote 4 novels, clocking in at 150k, 188k, 203k, and 88k, and got some work done on other projects (68k for Vulpine, 50k for NORTH), totaling to a whopping 747,000 words in the last two years. I also outlined a bunch of other projects that might or might not ever see the light of day - only time will tell.
What The Hell Comes Next
Right now, my plans are somewhat fluid. Here's what I can tell you: I intend to post the chapters I've written so far. I think there's 10 or 11 of them, though I may need to count again. There's another chapter that's like two scenes from being done. And then, there are the last four + the epilogue, which all still need to be written. That's what I'd like to get done in May.
After Vulpine's done...I'm not sure. SQSL, SQSL2, and Corona all still need some work. SQSL is mostly okay, but SQSL2 needs some love, and Corona will probably undergo heavy, heavy revisions at some point. Even when that's all done, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable posting them anywhere. We'll see. I'd also like to finish NORTH at some point, but who knows when/if that'll happen (or if it'll be posted when I do).
I also have a bunch of other stories mapped out (I have so many Excel sheets w/ timelines, you have no idea), but again, I don't know when I'll get around to those. A lot's up in the air right now.
But I can tell you one thing - if humanly possible, Vulpine will be finished within the next few months. I'll probably continue updating once a week (Sunday or Monday), but if I finish Vulpine with time to spare, I might start updating twice a week, or something. We'll see.
(Of course, if no one's still paying any attention to it, it doesn't really matter - but it's kinda a question of personal pride, at this point.)
So, yeah. Hopefully you all understand where I've been, now, and what's going to happen going forward. My hands are kinda tired at this point (and I have finals to study for, unfortunately), so that's that. See you all on the flip side! :)
Over the past 2ish years, I've been getting a lot of concerned PMs asking if I'm alive and such, and when I'll be able to start posting Vulpine (or anything else) again. My answer to the first is generally satisfactory (yep, I'm alive), but my answer to the second has been less so, for a variety of reasons. I've actually been doing quite a bit the two years or so - it's just most of it hasn't been Vulpine related. I'll give you a quick summation of what I've been up to, and hopefully you'll understand why.
(Basically, I wrote 4 novels.)
What The Hell Happened
June 2014 - planned on getting my shiz together to finish Vulpine ASAP. Even wrote one chapter (the one I just posted) and started another (Faun's, obvs). Then...
Then.........
Then halfway through June, I was brutally attacked by an idea that would not, could not, be banished, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't want to think about it. I certainly didn't want to write about it. It was completely different from everything I usually wrote (Sci-fi! With almost no humans to speak of!) and really self-indulgent for a variety of reasons and just generally felt like something I didn't want to pursue. But it wouldn't leave, and in July there was this "Camp NaNo" thing (a summer version of NaNoWriMo) that I wanted to try. So I said "heck with it," and went for it, and....wrote 125k in a month. Yeah, that's a lot. Unfortunately, the story wasn't quite over.
August - September 2014 - Polished off July's story (entitled "Stay Quiet, Stay Low," but we'll call it SQSL) with another 25k. But then it turned out that this was just the first arc of three. The second was pretty short (22k), but that ended up being a huge problem, because I blew through it in two frantic days, and then had to scramble to come up with a concrete plan for the third. So I wrote the third arc (let's call it SQSL2)...and revised...and wrote...and revised...and wrote...etc., on an on for months, until I was really frigging burnt out on the whole thing.
October 2014: Work on SQSL2 had slowed to a crawl, but I still wasn't ready for Vulpine yet. I floundered around for a bit, until - surprise surprise - another story plot hit me like a truck halfway through the month, conveniently just in time for November, i.e. NaNoWriMo. At this point, I was resigned to my fate, so I just gave in.
November 2014: I wrote 88k of what would eventually become a 203k novel (entitled "Corona").
December 2014-March 2015: I bounced between working on SQSL2 and Corona. Mostly Corona, because SQSL was giving me such a headache. I finished Corona on March 2nd, I think? And then I kinda let things slide for awhile.
April 2015: Decided to get off my butt and finish SQSL2; Camp NaNo is held in both April and July, so I decided to use SQSL2 for this one. I wrote 78k.
May 2015: Still working on SQSL2, albeit slowly. My birthday (the 26th) reminded me of Vulpine (since the last chapter had been posted on the 26th the year before), and I started musing on it a bit, but was too busy to do much else.
June 2015: Still working on SQSL2. Still thinking on Vulpine. Seeing as July's Camp NaNo was coming up, I figured I might as well try to finish Vulpine then.
July 2015: Finished SQSL2 on the first, meaning that it took exactly a year to write SQSL & SQSL2. In total, the third arc ended up being ~160k, plus the 22/28 from the second arc (it varied because I kept switching where the second arc technically ended. I think it's 28 rn), for a total of 188k for SQSL2. I was pretty excited, but I couldn't stop, since it was Camp time. I plunged into Vulpine. Halfway through, however, I realized I was rushing certain events way more than was warranted. I thought I was about to start writing the final four chapters - instead, it quickly became apparent I needed another cycle of 4 instead - that is, I thought Vulpine had 12 more chaps in it, but it really had 16. That bummed me out, and I had to scramble to plan for the extras, which really bogged things down. I ended up writing just 54k.
August 2015: Struggled on w/ Vulpine, but it was a real slog. I kinda gave up at around 68k (total, meaning counting July's wordcount; it was all in one big file) and decided I'd get back to it again when I was ready.
September-October 2015: Nothing in particular, mostly focusing on school. Basically had huge writer's block, felt no real urge to write anything. Sucked.
November 2015: Decided to return to NORTH, my NaNo from 2013. Wrote 50k. Wasn't really feeling it, still, and my semester got stupidly hard very, very quickly. This whole month was honestly pretty miserable.
December 2015 - March 2016: Again, basically no writing. This time, though, I had a new excuse: my honors thesis, a two-semester-long project. I had originally decided to do a novel as part of my thesis (stupid, stupid), but found coming up with an idea was really, really hard. Basically, I procrastinated about thinking about it because it was scary, and because I procrastinated, it got even scarier. Eventually, I had to face facts at the end of March. I decided to attempt it for April's Camp. Before camp started, I wrote about 8k.
April 2016: Holy shit, was this month ever rough. I wrote 80k for my thesis, staying on campus for four consecutive weeks (my parents were sad). But, in the end, I scraped by, finishing my thesis novel - "Apiarchy" - just in time. Then, I found myself still in the habit of writing. I wanted to write more, so I didn't lose my momentum. But what could I possibly write about now?
May 2016: Vulpine time. I went back and read all the stuff I wrote since I'd last updated. Then I wrote a little, finishing off Riven's penultimate chapter (it had been one scene short of being completed when I'd last stopped). Then I planned some more. Then I went back and read everything I had posted. Then I read everything I hadn't posted again. Then I decided to get serious.
Then, I decided to update with the chapter I'd written nearly two years ago. And here we are.
So, to sum up: I wrote 4 novels, clocking in at 150k, 188k, 203k, and 88k, and got some work done on other projects (68k for Vulpine, 50k for NORTH), totaling to a whopping 747,000 words in the last two years. I also outlined a bunch of other projects that might or might not ever see the light of day - only time will tell.
What The Hell Comes Next
Right now, my plans are somewhat fluid. Here's what I can tell you: I intend to post the chapters I've written so far. I think there's 10 or 11 of them, though I may need to count again. There's another chapter that's like two scenes from being done. And then, there are the last four + the epilogue, which all still need to be written. That's what I'd like to get done in May.
After Vulpine's done...I'm not sure. SQSL, SQSL2, and Corona all still need some work. SQSL is mostly okay, but SQSL2 needs some love, and Corona will probably undergo heavy, heavy revisions at some point. Even when that's all done, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable posting them anywhere. We'll see. I'd also like to finish NORTH at some point, but who knows when/if that'll happen (or if it'll be posted when I do).
I also have a bunch of other stories mapped out (I have so many Excel sheets w/ timelines, you have no idea), but again, I don't know when I'll get around to those. A lot's up in the air right now.
But I can tell you one thing - if humanly possible, Vulpine will be finished within the next few months. I'll probably continue updating once a week (Sunday or Monday), but if I finish Vulpine with time to spare, I might start updating twice a week, or something. We'll see.
(Of course, if no one's still paying any attention to it, it doesn't really matter - but it's kinda a question of personal pride, at this point.)
So, yeah. Hopefully you all understand where I've been, now, and what's going to happen going forward. My hands are kinda tired at this point (and I have finals to study for, unfortunately), so that's that. See you all on the flip side! :)
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