Life & Writing Update

If you follow me on Twitter (@VinkWildflower). Instagram (@vinkunwildflowerqueen) or Tumblr (vinkunwildflowerqueen and/or vinkunwildflowerqueenupdates), you probably know all this already. But if you don't and you're here because you read They Don't See (the parts of you that made me want to stick around), saw my Author's Note and were wondering why I haven't posted anything in awhile.... hi. It's been a while. This is what has been going on: 

I posted my last fanfic, Do the Work, in September 2021. And I had so many plans, guys. I was going to write a Christmas fic, remember that? 

And then pretty much as soon as I had announced this plan, I bought a house. But no biggie, still doable. Just a little more pressed for time.

So I moved house in November 2021, and then injured my back while moving house (bulging disc- I can't even tell you how much this hurt. Six months later I'm still doing physio and dealing with pain).

That meant a Christmas fic wasn't going to happen, and honestly it was January before I started writing again. And... then I found Good Omens, and fell down that rabbit hole (not sorry about it. Absolutely recommend). 

But between that and actual real life things (work, mental health, seeing Delta Goodrem in concert finally after buying tickets in 2020), it means the writing is slow. 

Still working on the Christmas fic (tentatively planned for this Christmas. After last year, I'm not committing to anything!); and there's a oneshot I hope will also be up soon. 

If you're here after reading They Don't See, especially on the day I'm posting it A) Happy birthday to me!; and B) you'll note I'm experimenting with posting all the chapters of a multichapter fic all at once. 

If you like this, or you prefer getting one chapter at the time, let me know! 

Writing Projects that aren't really writing projects...

 Well, they are. But they're not fanfics. 

I've mentioned some of this, but not in any real detail. 

Basically, all my notes and headcanons for my Oz (and I cannot stress enough that it is just mine, I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's mine) have been stored in a OneNote file for years. Functional, but not super pretty.

Many of you know how much I love Canva. I've been using it since 2015, and the more they add to it, to more I'm using it. It's a thing I use pretty much daily now. 

In 2020, between boredom, writer's block and the pandemic, I started turning all my OneNote info into Canva things. Maybe a little less functional and harder to edit, but so pretty. 

The plan has always been to share with people who are interested when they were finished, which is laughable because I've realised that they'll never be truly finished. A lot of it I will continue to add to and edit over time, I'm sure. 

But there's still some parts I can share.

What I've Done:

1. Ozian Travel Magazine [60 page PDF- currently]

What You'll Find Here: Profile on each province of Oz plus moodboards (just my headcanons really); Land Beyond Oz (my headcanons for Quox, Ev and Fliaan); a guide to Ozian holidays throughout the year; Guide to the Vinkun royal residences; guide to universities throughout Oz.

2. Ozian Character Guides [32 page PDF- currently]

What You'll Find Here: Prolfile and moodboard for all the main characters- Elphaba, Fiyero, Glinda, Nessarose and Boq; Family Trees (for the Thropps, Glinda, Fiyero and Boq); Visual Guide- how I see the character's parents; Random notes- personality type summaries, notes on milkflowers, Frex's resume. Fiyero's educational transcripts, the Wicked characters as Taylor Swift albums, the Wicked characters as their Hogwarts Houses and patronuses (made before the JKR event of 2020. I can't support JKR's views, but Harry Potter still means a lot to me)

3. A History of Oz [39 page PDF- currently]

What You'll Find Here: Timelines- events pre-musical and for the events of the musical (again, this is just mine- not saying it's canon or the "right" one); calendars 1935-1945 (the time period during which my fics are most commonly set); my prolfile and headcanon on the Wizard of Oz (the character); Notes on politics in both Munchkinland and the Vinkus; Notes on religion in Oz; Notes on technology in Oz.

4. Ozian Royalty [73 page PDF- currently)

What You'll Find Here: Notes and bios on the royal families of Ozian provinces, mostly the Vinkus including way too many generations of Fiyero's family tree.

5. Ozian Baby Names [38 page PDF- currently] 

What You'll Find Here: Alphabetical Lists of baby names and surnames I've used over the years. 

(This needs to be edited again already, because I've added a bunch more)

6. Ozian Pop Culture Guide [57 page PDF- currently]

What You'll Find Here: List of people to flesh out the world- authors, musicians, athletes, nobility and socialites, etc. 

(still working on this one)

7. Ozian Playbills [25 page PDF]

What You'll Find Here: As part of the Ozian Pop Culture Guide, I made a long of plays, musicals, etc that have been in Oz. And then I went too far and made playbills for the 25 musicals, plays, operas, ballets and pantomimes "currently" running on "Ozway" as of Elphaba and co starting Shiz. Because... I don't have a good answer, actually. Boredom? (Also fun is making up playbills for a show based on a title you made up when you have no idea what the story actually is, lol).

8. Modern Ozian Weddings

What You'll Find Here: Ozian wedding related things.

(Haven't actually done much of this yet besides the cover. But I will) 

Completed things are on my Google drive, and I'm happy to share the link with those that ask.

Just keep in mind that a) no matter how many times I proofread things, I'm still finding typos. So forgive me; b) you may not agree with my Oz and how I see things/have done things. That is the beauty of fanfiction. You do you. 

Christmas Fic Trope List: This or That

 I love a good, mildly cheesy romance. If you've read any of my fics, I'm sure this shocks you. 

I mean, I have my limits (eg. I love the movie Letters to Juliet, but I cringe every time I hear that last line); but I love a good Hallmark romance movie, Netflix movie or books I can buy for like $5 on my Kindle and read in maybe an hour. 

There's always so many more of them at Christmas, with their own tropes that come with them. I thought it could be fun to have a go at writing one, but have other people (ie you reading this) pick the tropes that the story employs. 

You get to pick ONE (either green or blue) from each row of the list below. Fill in the Google Form here

My hope is obviously to have this finished to post around Christmas. 

But Real Life just handed me this big change, which is going to take up a lot of time and energy, so if I'm not going to finish it in time, I'll save it for Christmas 2022. 

Want to do this yourself, but maybe want to use different tropes than what I picked? TV Tropes is your go-to! 

Here's a list of Romance Novel Tropes

Here's a list of Love Tropes

Here's a list of Romance Novel Plot Tropes

Here's a list of Christmas Tropes

Family Ties: Fiyero's History Essay

 Sometimes I get bored and make things, ok?

But seriously, when I had the idea for this one, I could SEE it like this. But I can't put it like this on FFnet. 

Shout out to Canva for making it possible to be a thing! As best as I could make it, anyway. 

Hopes, Fears & Tears: The Wedding Post

Here is a collection of images that inspired the wedding details for Life's Epochs: Hopes, Fears and Tears. 

 Elphaba's Wedding Look:

I don't remember which specific veil I was picturing when I wrote this chapter, I had all these images saved. But this is the style- the cap veil! (Also known as a Juliet cap veil)

The bridesmaid's dresses: 

2019 has been a Time

I've finally finished Life's Epochs: Hopes, Fears and Tears, the sequel to Until the End of Time. If you're reading this post, you've either just read the first chapter... or you just happened to check my blog. Either way, thanks for reading this.

It's fair to say that the posting of this story has happened much, much later than I anticipated.

Every year, I am full of hope and confidence about what writing goals I would like to accomplish. I always hope that I'll find more time/motivation/inspiration to write than the year prior.

Obviously, this year that has not happened.

I've made vague mentions on social media about things, but overall I haven't said much about what's been happening. Partly because a lot of the events, while they affected me, are not mine to tell. But people have been incredibly patient with waiting for this story, and now that it's finally ready to be shared, I feel I should say something. 

(Also, aren't you all glad that I don't post until I'm finished writing?)

So, 2019 started with a bang. Not in a good way. In the 'I went to 3 funerals in a month' kinda way.

Then some family stuff went down which really shook me, enough that I've gone back into therapy after 2 years.

And then around March, I just stopped writing.

Well, it was more like I couldn't write. Nothing flowed, I hated everything I wrote, and I was second guessing everything I had planned. So, I froze. I took a step back and stopped.

Usually if I'm not writing, I'm reading. If I'm writing, I'm not reading. Very rarely do I manage to balance the writing and reading of fanfiction.

But for about a month, I was neither writing nor reading. I was doing nothing. I had a few days where I couldn't even bring myself to leave the house. I was in a super bad place. I was really worried for a little while there that I'd just never write again.

So what changed?

The MCU.

Now, here's the thing. I had seen some of the very early Marvel movies- namely, the Iron Man movies and the first Thor movie. But superhero movies were never really my thing, so it was a surprise to me that I had enjoyed the Iron Man movies.

But once it became a whole universe thing over multiple years, I just didn't have the mental energy at the time to engage in a new fandom.

But it was something I was always pretty up to date with what was going on and the characters, mostly thanks to Tumblr. The last year or so I was getting more interested in committing to the MCU, and so at the beginning of the year when most of the MCU films went up on one of the streaming services here, and I wasn't writing/reading anything, I had the time to commit to watching all the movies.

And I got hooked. Iron Man is my favourite. I fell in love with Tony's character development throughout the MCU, and as of Civil War, his developing mentor/mentee/father/son relationship with Peter Parker.

Then I started checking out fanfic for that, and fell down that rabbit hole (we've all been there!) and after a few months of devouring fics (especially after Endgame came out), I started to think about going back to Hopes, Fears and Tears.

But even though my interest in writing had reignited, I still felt like nothing was flowing. I still kinda hated everything I was writing.

My psychologist suggested that I put the story aside and just focus on writing- try to fall in love with writing again.

So, I started writing. Just for me. Nothing I'd post, which meant I was free to only write what I wanted to write. I didn't have to worry about whether or not a plot event was out of character, or too much.

In 79 days, I ended up with a 50 chapter, 170k+ word IronDad/Spiderson fanfic. Which makes it the longest thing I've ever written. And I'm actually really proud of it.

And finishing it felt really good, and it felt amazing to be able to write and have it flow that strongly. It feels like a long time since something flowed that easily. I don't think I've written a completed fic that quickly in years.

That's how I came back to finish Hopes, Fears and Tears. 

I just want to say thank you for being so patient while I took a much needed break. I got some really lovely messages via Tumblr to encourage me to finish this, and everyone was very understanding- without knowing the details- about my needing to step back.

I appreciate you all!

Wicked #34: Wicked in Nowra

This weekend I saw a[nother] community theatre production, this one in Nowra NSW.

This was show 34 for me, but it was also notable because I took 3 friends with me. Two of whom had never seen the show before, and one who came and saw the production in Wagga Wagga with me in November 2017.

Overall, it was a good production. The staging wasn’t too different, so I have very few notes. Which meant I could relax more and enjoy the show, rather than frantically try and remember every difference I deemed notable on a mental loop until I was able to write everything down!

Our Glinda I’ve seen before- in the Wollongong production I saw in August 2017. I loved her performance then and I loved it now! She was truly excellent. Our Elphaba was also wonderful- and only 17.

The rest of the cast was really solid- although Morrible was a little late on every cue in Act 1, which was frustrating. But my friends didn’t notice, so maybe it wasn’t that bad? The transitions between scenes were also extended (to allow time for crew to move on and off set pieces). Again, this was very noticeable to me, but it didn’t seem to bother my friends.

The orchestra was uneven in patches, and my friends did notice this. However, it didn’t distract them too much. They all said how much they enjoyed it on the way home. My friend K, who saw it for the first time, said “I can see why you love this so much” and then was exclaiming over how well it fits with The Wizard of Oz and that she needed to buy the soundtrack.

Here’s a few things I did note, however:

No One Mourns the Wicked: Glinda entered way too early. Like, as soon as the Ozians started singing “Good news!” the bubble was entering the stage. It was just a bubble that she sat on suspended by wires, so there was one time when it moved a little too fast and swung a lot. Elphaba’s birth scene was also done through use of silhouettes behind a curtain, rather than being shown on stage.

Dear Old Shiz: This was where Morrible missing her cue was the most noticeable. The cast were just left to make awkward whispers before she finally arrived.

Dancing Through Life: Fiyero, when talking to Boq at the beginning of the song, put his sunglasses on Boq’s face and ruffled his hair.

One Short Day: During the train station scene, G[a]linda was having sound issues. Ultimately, one of the crew ran on stage and handed her a handheld microphone to use. Glinda was then late to enter during OSD- she didn’t come on until her “The hustle and bustle” line, and her dress was still unzipped.

The actress playing Glinda was a total pro through all this though. She handled it all really well.

Defying Gravity: Like the production I saw last week in the Gold Coast, this was also done through suspending Elphaba in the air by wires.

Thank Goodness: The dais was upstage, and when Glinda and Fiyero moved downstage to talk, Morrible seemed to be telling the crowd scary things- judging by their actions.

As Long As You’re Mine: The only thing noted here was that there was so much dry ice!

And at the curtain call, after final bows, the cast all sang a bit of One Short Day together, which was fun.

So, this was probably the best community theatre production I’ve seen (that didn’t feature professionals- ie Canberra and Gold Coast). Definitely better than the Wollongong production, but also better than the Wagga Wagga production, despite the sound/orchestra issues.

Now I’m back to not knowing when I’ll see Wicked again!