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NaNoWriMo - My Cartoon of the Day - Day 29: Join Your Fellow Wrimos at a Write-In

It's the penultimate day of NaNo 22 and it's time for that final push to get to your finish line! Find your fellow wrimos and let's encourage each other. A (virtual) write-in is a time and place where we all come together to write our stories. We can do this! If you have already completed your work: cheer your fellow wrimos on. If you haven't: let's buckle up and Get.This.Done. It's two days & one night left and every word you write in your story is one you did not have before.

Day 29: Join Your Fellow Wrimos at a Write-In

Who do your characters go to for support and encouragement? Who is cheering them on? Consider what you and what your characters need to conclude their story. Find companionship and comfort in the fact that people around the world are writing together with you in this challenge. Let's put pen to paper & write!

NaNoWriMo - My Cartoon of the Day - December 1st: Time to Rest & Recoup

We did it! The rush to the finish line is done. It's over and dusted. We are DONE. November is gone and over with and our NaNo season is coming to a close. For today: rest & start recouping. Bask in the glory of having completed your challenge and the satisfaction of having had the courage to attempt it. If you did not achieve what you set out to do: face your feelings, acknowledge them and rest in the knowledge that I am proud of you for attempting it.

Any word you wrote is one you did not have before. Life interferes sometimes and serendipity happens. For me: November is a month of creativity. It is rare that I manage to complete NaNo in all the years I have been trying - but I embrace the effort, the attempt, the striving & desire to tell stories.

Dec 1st: Time to Rest & Recoup

Take a moment to reflect and breathe. How do you feel? What did you enjoy most about NaNo this year? What did it teach you? What did you learn? Would you like to maintain your daily writing habit? Is your story finished? What would you like to integrate into your daily life now that NaNo is over? Who were your biggest supporters and how would you like to thank them? What do you need to recoup? To rest? To breathe? To celebrate? I'll see you tomorrow for the Thank-Goodness-It's-Over-Party and the final bonus cartoon!

The Timeless story Nisam sam by @thealocksly has a kind of visceral sadness to it. (link to her Tumblr post).

It offers glimpses and mentions as to what Lucy went through during her captivity by Rittenhouse. It has a realness to it - a matching of Lucy's stillness & silence on it all on the show. (Even if I think she's a bit more broken in this story than on the show itself).

The way Lucy shrinks in on herself versus the way Flynn respects and cares for her by the act of holding space is wonderful. Flynn's realization that he needs to look at the woman in front of him, rather than the woman he knows from the journal is wonderfully done.

There's a softness to this story. A quiet respect & caring & prelude to healing on her own terms.

NaNoWriMo - My Cartoon of the Day - Day 18: Dressing Up All Fancy: Organize a Ball!

Your characters get a fancy engraved invitation to attend a glorious ball! A chance to dress up prettily and party the night away. A romantic subplot is lurking around the corner as they ask if there's still space on the dance card? Or perhaps it's a time of intrigue and mystery as all the major players are in attendance and secret identities come crashing down?

Day 18: Dressing Up All Fancy: Organize a Ball!

Whether it be a night of magical bliss or horrifying dread - a fancy ball is a chance both for bringing story lines together as characters meet and for branching out as there's so much more happening beneath the surface! Watch out for story ninjas, get your fanciest jewelry ready and have a blast!

There are not nearly enough stories in which Lorena lives. This Timeless story Rise Like a Reckoning by @amandamonroe is particularly clever & well-written.

The working title of this was "Lorena Flynn Has a Chance"

Ex-CIA agent Lorena Flynn is back. She's got her daughter, her husband, and the woman who saved their lives years ago. She's taking command of the bunker and taking Rittenhouse down.

Lorena is capable, formidable & headstrong & this time: she had a fighting chance. Though injured, the whole family makes it out alive. Lucy visits them all & Lorena had wanted to be the one to go for the Time Machine.

I love Lorena's character. I love how Iris finds her parents spycraft boring, but immediately adopts Lucy as her new best friend cause she makes spying fun! Lorena easily overpowers Wyatt & outsnarks Denise. I absolutely adore all the meta: ("Who died and left you in charge?"; "Dead-wives-club").

Lorena's warm embracing & support of Lucy is heartening as is her support and insight into her husband who doesn't remember contacting her but who confronted with his family can't manage to walk away.

The subtle changes to the timeline are incredibly clever & believable. This story leaves me wanting more.

Today's reread is Blood Sins - A #FlynnFriday Imagines Series by @doctorliamsr, @timelesshonesttrailer & @ununpredictableme. A Vampire AU focused on Lucy, Garcia, Lorena, Rufus & Jiya.

I love reading stories about Lucy & Garcia as well as stories about Lorena & Garcia - so when it's the three of them together - it's absolutely marvelous. There is such respect, love & caring in this relationship here that it is wonderous. The Vampire AU aspect is nicely done and the mystery intrigues me: what happened? What is going on with Nicolas sort-of-aging-but-not-really? What will Karl's research into Lucy & Rufus turn up? When can we meet Iris? (pretty please *puppy eyes*?) Why are they suddenly after Lucy so desperately? How will Lorena, Garcia, Lucy, Jiya & Rufus handle the continued attacks & fight back against Rittenhouse?

Lucy gushing over history is always fun. Rufus being a brilliant researcher & scientist is always brilliant! Jiya being powerful, lovely & accepting no nonsense. Lorena & Garcia honouring & encouraging Lucy's setting of boundaries & having her choose actively - I am here for all of it.

The Timeless AU Incandescent & Adolescent (Wonders Never Cease) from @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels is a light-hearted, sweet & familiar story.

She Loves Me AU: Garcia Flynn and Lucy Preston have resented each other from their first meeting. Absolutely, one hundred percent, no warm feelings whatsoever, resented each other. Good thing they’ve each got a wonderful pen pal to whom they can pour their heart out. …oh wait.

The 30s setting, the awkward formality in language, the letters as a reimagining of the journal, all the banter, the humorous supporting roles of Rufus & Jiya, Jess & Wyatt, and gentle support from Mason... it's sweet. The stakes are smaller than whole of Rittenhouse, but still very personal: someone is embezzling from Denise's shop the gang works at.

It's a fun little story to read when I want something uplifting & something that brings a smile to my face.

Lucy Writes Her Journal

One of the things that fascinates me is that Lucy Preston was a writer yet we hardly ever saw her write and try to process in the show Timeless, and subsequently few fanfics show it, even when canonically, she wrote the journal that put everything in motion as well as multiple books. I love reading about those moments when Lucy sits down and researches and writes, and I love reading about the journal.

I've seen many takes on what the journal contained, and I enjoy the few screenshots that seem to highlight talk of specific historical events.

In this picture, she's got pages of notes to help her craft the journal. It's a period in time that fascinates me and I'm intrigued by the thought of the active deliberation that went into it.

Hope y'all enjoy this picture too. It was a fun artistic experiment - I love playing with various styles.

Now also on AO3

NaNoWriMo - My Cartoon of the Day - Day 17: Main Characters Take Charge!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that characters in stories are prone to take on lives of their own. We are well into week three of NaNo and this is often the moment when your characters stop waiting for you to come up with a story and start insisting on steering the wheel themselves!

Day 17: Main Characters Take Charge!

What shenanigans have your characters gotten up to that you hadn't planned out? Any new characters who walked onto the page and insisted on being part of your story? Resistance against the ideas you had for them and blazing a path of their own devising? How have your story and your characters surprised you?

In these pandemic times, the Timeless story A Butterfly Garden by @vita-s-west is particularly graceful. The focus on Lucy & Flynn returning to a quiet life after all the experiences in their fight with Rittenhouse mirrors in some ways my experience in the current pandemic & the way I battle my anxieties by returning to creativity, stories & nature.

There are many evocative descriptions in the story, and there's a kind of quiet attention throughout that I particularly enjoy.