I've finished submitting all nine of my stories, though saying that doesn't mean there wasn't a hiccup in doing so.
One of the things I liked, and I can't remember if they did this last year. However, I know they didn't do this year previous to that (2021 or prior), was to ask why a story that is rated mature is, in fact, rated mature, which would, in turn, explain why the ambassadors already knew someone was taking a certain prompt and going in a direction that was a potential issue.
But, it goes back to what I said in an earlier journal entry - you can warn for triggering material such as non-consensual content, but you can't warn for the way you handle it. And listing off a bunch of trigger warnings really doesn't tell, I think, the ambassadors why your story is rated mature but it's good to remember unlike other readers ambassadors aren't worried about spoilers. Certain things like those trigger warnings and why they are there are things they want to know.
As for my stories, here's how things stand on getting to the next milestone.
- 72. Portrait Between the Pates - 120.60%
- 18. Whispers of the Veil - 80.9%
- 30. Buried Within - 78.6%
- 11. Black Curiosity - 60.8%
- 26. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words - 58.8%
- 15. Three Witches - 53.4%
- 43. After a Thousand Years - 47.2%
- 76. The Silent Place - 42.1%
- 20. What You Can't See - 41.9%
Now for the progress.
Black Curiosities
I've added a chapter to this since I last updated, but this story is also one of the ones I've not said anything about because it's the last one I got to the 2k milestone mark.
I've some mixed feelings on this one because I know for prompt eleven, the go-to interpretation is that the changes in behavior for the townspeople are negative unusual changes rather than positive ones. Still, the only one that seems bizarre would be Stephanie, as she's going to tell Sebastian Granger outright she's got a thing for him despite the fact he's married.
I think, though, and this just popped into my head, Martha being over-exuberant about the energy she is using. I also like the idea of Jake taking a break from work to spend time with his kids. I also plan on having other unusual changes occurring because of Cassie's shop throughout the story, where she's fixing problems and bringing positive changes that are considered unusual for individuals around the two.
Which - that's honestly going to be harder to pull off than simply going with negative unusual changes, so it's one of those things; if I do it well, it will help me for ONC, but it's also something that can backfire.
And, to be honest, it is worth it. I'm enjoying writing this story a lot, and I do see myself finishing this one by the end of ONC as well as getting it between 20-40k. Of course, my goals for ONC every year are to finish projects and write stories I enjoy. Making the Longlist, well, Longlisting isn't an easy thing to do. Nor is having one's story picked as an Ambassador Pick, which wasn't a feature of last year's ONC. This isn't to say Longlisting is out of the question - I've done it before, but I choose not to beat myself up and instead focus on writing something I'm happy with, particularly with my dyslexia issues.
Three Witches
This one I've not updated since I hit the milestone. I am still not planning on forming a pattern out of their POV because that could backfire later on, but I already think the story will flow better otherwise.
Whispers of the Veil
So, I wrote my potential trigger scene for this one. To be more exact, I rewrote it and ended up with two chapters instead of one. It's definitely softer than the original draft I wrote out prior deciding to work on hitting the milestone with other stories since I'd already hit the milestone for this one.
