Years 26; An Experiment

This is not the last chapter but I promise Years will be less than 30 chapters...

Random Picspirations

I just happened across this photo that kind of reminded me of Maverick...but now that I look at it, the model looks a little young. At this point Maverick in Years he is mid-30's.

I also can't remember if I said this but,  I imagine Roxie as Margot Robbie or one of her many dopplegangers. 

 

 

I've also discovered 2017 Dylan Sprouse has some  Nova vibes.  Mostly the hair length and glasses, he'd just have to be a decade younger...

 

 

 

 

 

Years 26

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this entire chapter is a...bit experimental. It is told with no prose. I make one reference to the comment section and there is no real reason for it.

Recap 

In August 2019 Charlotte and Rias are in a fatal plane accident, Luce's depression comes back and he attempts suicide for the third time on Christmas. He checks into to a mental hospital, meanwhile Nova gets in trouble for breaking probation and gets 30 days detention. 

Alone on NYE,  Haley spends time with Maverick--who he had been seeing prior to the accident and makes his resoultion to get his family back on track.

By Valentine's Day they are back together and Haley is putting all his emotional and mental energy into keeping it that way.

This chapter will explore a little bit about what happened in the aftermath of Charlotte and Rias' death.

At the end of Chapter 25 a photo of Haley and Nova is being discussed on Twitter, but let's go back a little...

Chapter 26

Playlist

- Electric Love by Born

- Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears

- Breathe 2.0 by Vincent

- Fuck It All Up by DOLF

-Liar by LEON 

VNTD LYT ? Years 25

 

2009 Shawna: IDK, I  know this probably wouldn't happen IRL but lets do like a modern day cult. It  exists within society, it's been around for a long time, there's like money tied up and it's generational and there's like some sex stuff, blackmail and branding. A young blonde girl escapes. I know crazy:

2020: 

 

 

When I wrote United Light my only cult reference points were some MSNBC documentaries aboutu Jonestown and some research on Branch Davidians. I had a hard time imagining a cult existing in modern times and ex-members lives.  One day, not anytime soon, I'd like to sit down and re-imagine United Light, maybe even go more psychological thriller ? But I also like the post-UL women's fic stuff. 

IDK, UL really got off the rails...speaking of serials going off the rails:

Years 24

Most of what is fueling Years is that I wanted to hit some plot points in the Vice!Verse, including Charlotte and Rias' death.  I think if I wasn't trying to hit some of those points and get Nova to the age he is in in Nova, this serial would have ended at the wedding.

Recap

It's 4 months after Rias' death and Christmas 2019 doesn't go exactly as Haley plans. It ends with Luce in a mental hospital and Nova spending 30 days in juvenile detention because he attempts to apologize to his friend Brixton and ends up getting arrested on a probation violation...

Years 25

Playlist

-1- 

One Touch by Jesse Gline

CANDY by BAD CHILD 

-2-

This Will Be by Natalie Cole

Diddy Bop by Louis the Child

Falling For You by Peachy! 

Analog Frog (Years 24)

I can't believe how many of you picked up on my mention of the nail polish color Analog Frog. In chapter 23 Mavrick randomly picks it up while looking around Haley's room. It is a real polish from Smith & Cult (I forgot the company name in the comment section). There is a little story behind why it shows up:

 

There is a deleted scene in Nova where Nova explains that the chipped sparkly purple nail polish he is wearing is from when his Dad painted his (Nova's) nails the day before he died. Nova hasn't taken it off in three months and been looking for where it went off to and gets upset when Sara says she found the bottle but it's dried out and Luce gets upset with him for yelling at Sara.

I needed a name for the nail polish so I think I just went to a random "too cool for school" makeup brand website and picked a purple color. The scene got deleted because it seemed like there was too much fighting in the scene but I always kept that name in the back of my head.

What's Next ?

I've sort of avoided talking about what is next because I don't have much. And unlike last time I did an exit I'm 100% at peace with this. In the last 12 months I wrote most of Sunshine, Release, Little Miracles, Nova and all the three AUs so I think...I may have burned myself out.

I think when I finish Years I'll TDOSH the rest of The Lost Sentinel and share what I had wanted that to be.

I have plans to write an 8-10K Extended Epilogue of Years that directly ties to SWM.  And I have an idea for a quickie short story  in the Harrison High world from Nova's POV. Then I'll probably send Lucely & co into retirement.

I'm going to let the cat out the bag and say a chapter of Years is going to be told completely through non-narrative story telling devices. It will be all in texts, transcripts and documents. It's taking a lot of my "creative energy"  (blergh, that sounds pretentious) to put it together in a narrative form so I really haven't had the time to work on anything else.

Recap  

Haley's brother dies in prison and he and his sister Isla reunite in California to bury him. Nova goes back to Chicago with Isla for two weeks because of his behavior  and his parents have some fun. After an intense session at a club, Haley reconnects with Maverick over karaoke. But they are interrupted by Nova having anxiety nightmares. 

Almost exactly a year later Charlotte and Rias are in a  fatal plane accident.

This chapter is going to pick up at Christmas time, about 4 months after the accident and there will be some intentional head hopping...

Years 24

Playlist Playlist (I've reached the general mood round of playlists.)

-1-  Dancing on My Own by Thomas Loof

-2- My Only Wish by Britney Spears

-3-  You Know It by Colony House

Are You Bored Yet by Wallows

 As I'll Ever Be by Chaz Cardigan

A Little About Nova Chapter 23

 

Dear Lile,

My head is still spinning from Rogue's ending and just how much I fell into that serial...are we calling it a serial or shot ? I could "listen" to you talk about your process, hopes and dreams all day. I was re-reading the comments and I feel like the least I can do with my platform is throw some nudges for an update about Red Booth. Either way,  I am so excited for everything coming next!

Speaking of Red Booth, Lile made a comment in my comment section about not mentioning accessibility in NYC in Goodwill. I saw it as Tomas  knowing how to navigate his areas of the city. I think there is mention of him being carried in the basement at the tattoo shop. I brought it up in Years because they are all unfamiliar with the city

 Nova

I wanted to talk about Nova a little bit since this is the first time we are getting  him from an adult's POV. Nova is partly the way he is as a result of free range parenting. He spent most of his childhood and preteen years being watched by Sara and Luce and they both have a very early 80s idea about parenting where kids stay outside the house and just come home before the streetlights come on.

Because Nova is friends with Holland, who is older and had to grow up quickly herself, he tends to get involved in things he is too young for. Also, Haley hasn't done the best job creating the parent/friend boundary.

A loft of his behavior is the behavior he had in the Vice!Verse but I think it comes across differently IRL.

Recap

After their 6th attempt at IVF fails, Haley and Luce decide to stop trying and focus on Nova, who has been getting into increasingly more trouble posting inappropriate pictures and sneaking out to meet an older boy. Just when Haley decides to send him out of state with his sister Isla, he learns his brother died. A brother Luce didn't know about...

We're still in summer 2018, this picks up a few days after the last chapter....

Chapter 23

Playlist

-1- Delicate by Taylor Swift

-2- Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin

-3-  Now or Never by Halsey

Years 22 Burn Baby Burn

 

SHV with Rogue Hangover: Ummm...hey we wrote and titled this post like two weeks ago and moved it to this week.... right ?

CPShawna: Yeah....

 

Burn

Haley's godson Sky is going to make a couple more cameos and I kind of forgot what how to write him  so I ended up...re-reading  Burn over break ? Burn was this really random thing I wrote but...it's maybe one of my top 5 Vice things ?

I'm not saying it's good, because it really bounces around in genre and tone, but it captures so much of what interests me. It had the SFF element, some mild cyberpunk leftovers from Vice and takes some big melodramatic turns which are always fun to write.

Sky is a lonely kid who always wanted a family and when he discovers he has one he expects to find the loving, functional, whole family he sees on TV and instead finds the exact opposite.  At one point Lansing Prescott is just wandering around drunk and treats Sky like the 3-year-old he lost as he grits his teeth through a  sham marriage with Maxwell so Maxwell can be president because even though he's seen Maxwell's dark side he's still in love with the idea of him.

I think that's why I subconsciously gave Lansing a mini-HEA in this. I'm not sure I  know how to flex my cyberpunk muscle anymore but their is a certain "cold cruel world" aspect that doesn't exist  when I jumped it in modern times. I just want everyone to be okay...but I miss the darkness 😈. 

UPDATE: Uh, so Lile talked about this serial in her Rogue wrap up and I do not remember anyone having sex in front of anyone...it's from a 16yo POV so it wasn't on page but maybe I inferred it ? Now that I think about it...I didn't read the last chapter...it's not my fave, I like the melodrama parts.

Years 21

I really had fun breaking away from prose with that last chapter. The chapter originally opened with Haley at Nova's school and as they fought in the coffee shop they do a reveal of what had happened in the previous year but it felt very info dump-y. 

Years 22 

Recap

Sara Grace turns herself in and spends 11 months in federal prison. She is now free to live her life and decides she wants to spend half the year in New York with  her daughter Twyla and half the year in Las Vegas with Luce and Rias.

Nova is kicked out of school for possession of marijuana and has to go to school online. Despite Nova's mounting behavior problems Haley still wants a baby and after they learn Luce's sperm are nonviable Twyla agrees to be the surrogate and egg donor. In my head that chapter was fall 2017 and this chapter is going to cover about six months later in summer 2018...

Years 22

Playlist 

-1- Rain on Me by Lady Gaga

-2- Sorry Not Sorry by Demi Lovato (I picked this song weeks ago, I swear)

-3- Silence by Marshmello (This one too)

-4- Beige by Yolk Lore

Follow The >>> Years 21

 Hi !

The trailer for this movie about two married men in their late 50s and one of them has an illness gave me some serious Years-ish vibes and is also a great example of what I mean when I say everyone is hot.

I will likely never see this movie (I'm honestly not sure my heart could take it 😥) but I love that this is what 59 looks like now! Colin Firth has some Luce-like features a little.

What I Did Over My Break

I never really had  plan for my break and I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I'm working on the pen-penultimate section right now and it is creeping along sentence by sentence.

No new plot bunnies showed up but I'm okay with that.

Also, one of the future chapters (assuming I don't do some big overhaul) is going to be close to 10K!

Recap

In 1998 Luce Grace helps Alex Haley escape from an abusive relationship with porn producer Kenneth Maxwell and in 2002 they begin dating. Over the next 14 years Haley becomes a nurse, has a son, Luce suffers a stroke and crashes his car leaving him  with traumatic brain injury and paralyzed on one side. The accident puts a strain on their relationship  but find their way back to each other through their shared connection and BDSM. Luce  relaunches their bankrupted company Fallwater on a smaller scale to build fetish websites and supplements his income with a part time job teaching math at a community college.

In 2016 they get married and Luce adopts Nova--who has ADHD and (along with his best friend Holland) has become something of a troublemaker. At 11 the two steal expensive makeup and in the middle of Luce and Haley's  honeymoon they discover 12-year-old Nova has skipped school to spend time with Lindsey Gregory, the girlfriend of a boy who made fun of Nova in a group chat.

 Just as it seems like Luce and Haley have their future figured out they find out Sara turned herself in for running away from police custody in Arizona in 1990 and was able to plead out for a 5 month stint in federal prison...Luce is not happy...

Years 21 (Follow the >>>)

Playlist

-1- Bloodstain by Wrabel

-2- Long Way Down by Tom Odell

-3- Overhwhelmed by  

-4- Your Song by Rita Ora

Years 20

I'm not even going to pretend chapter 20 isn't the wedding chapter.

Chapter 19 

One of the earliest things I needed to figure out when I was thinking about Years is *when* Luce and Haley would get married.

In the Vice!Verse they secretly get married almost as soon as they get together because Haley kidnaps Sky to a satellite ship and wants Luce to be his next of kin if something happens to him. I couldn't really come up with an equivalent for this serial---especially since  same sex marriage wasn't legal in Nevada until 2014. 

I kind of liked the idea of them being older when they got married and for Nova to be a little bit more of an active participant.

Somebody asked about picspirations and honestly, IDK but just image all the adults are hot

I Drive Myself Crazy

I've been listening to my old playlists (I've given up on finding new music) and I saw an inspy playlist in my library called LSAM and drove myself crazy for an hour trying to figure out what it was for. I tried looking at the dates I added songs and coorlated them to blog posts but that didn't get me anywhere.

Then I searched my docs and saw LSAM was the document name for Pulse but I still didn't know what LSAM stood for. It bugged me and then on a whim I searched my blog and I guess I originally called Pulse Let's Solve A Murder...there is no point to this story, it just took up a lot of my brain space.

Chapter 20

CPShawna: Okay, SHV, how much from Lile did we still for this one ?

 

Recap
In 2015 Luce and Nova take Haley to Ceasers Palace where Luce pops the question. Haley says yes and is walking on air but six months later then he finds out Nova shoplifted a very expensive makeup palette. Let's skip ahead to 2016...

Years 20

Playlist

An Extra 90s Playlist For Some Reason ?
-1- Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden

-2- Hold on by Wilson Phillips

-3- Born to Make You Happy by Britney Spears 

-4-  Blonde Sun  by Angus Maude

When Life Gives You... Years 18/19

Years 17
In Chapter 17Haley turns 40 and Luce surprises him by taking him to a party Maverick is hosting.  I wanted to close the loop on the rough patch of their relationship after his suicide attempt and also show how BDSM is a strong piece of their dynamic. In my original incarnation of this chapter I wanted to show some of Haley's insecurities about his physical appearance (which are mostly PTSD from his relationship with Maxwell) and have him get upset at the party when it really wasn't about Luce. But I think when I finally  wrote the chapter Luce was more in the wrong than I intended.

WIP
I'm kind of in another tough spot with Years at the moment. Writing this serial (and all the AUs) has been surprisingly easy and kind of cathartic. I think I'm on track for a record number of posts this year and I'm hoping not to lose the momentum.  I'm just trying to get the pacing right and keep hitting walls...so that's what I'm dealing with. I want to take a note from Lile and just skip those hard sections but something in my brain won't let me.

I haven't really looked at writing other things, it's occurred to me that I might TDOLL either Sunshine, Nova or one of the AUs.

Chapters 18 + 19

Recap
Haley turns 40 and Luce takes him to a BDSM party that gets them out of their rut and reignites the flames...

* Double Chapter Post *
Chapter 18
Playlist
-1- Whitby by Stephan Moccio
-2- Can I Call you Tonight

Chapter 19

-1- Locked out of Heaven by Bruno Mars
-2- Till The World Ends by Britney Spears
-3- I Like Me Better by Lauv

XXX Shawna XXX Years 17

It's getting hot in here...

 

XXX
A lot of Maverick's  life was inspired by this video from The Cut. I'm not sure how much of this interview is staged but I lifted the idea of porn star roomates directly from here.



In my quest to sort of see what the trade show AEX is based on was like I looked at some adult film star social media and watched some vlogs. The industry is almost exclusively cam shows and Onlyfans content which has put pretty much everyone else out of business. Companies like Fallwater and Virtue can't really succeed.

I watched  pieces of some terrible documentaries about Cam Girls (these isn't a lot of articles or sources  about men who do this) and it is interesting to see the devotion of their fans who feel like they have a relationship with these women. The women are aggressive about getting their money so that's why I added a lot of ads in Maverick's podcast. Anyway, that about sums up my scandalous  XXX research.

Blogger
I did a little bit of a blog refresh, I'll probably change it as I try to remember how to do this. I haven't changed my blog in almost 6 years so I'm a little rusty.

Chapter 17
Recap 
Haley and Luce are living together and working on bringing the romance back to their relationship but something  is still not clicking. Meanwhile Grayson is diagnosed with ADHD and Haley is trying to figure that out too...

Chapter 17
Playlist
-1- Out of My League by Fitz and The Tantrums
-2- I Got You by Jessie J
-3- Feel My Needs by Weiss
-4- Almost by Hozier

Pretty Colors: Years

 

 

Dear Lile,

 It's just now occurring to me I have no idea what Lile meant when she said something about chapter 15 and 16 of Years being like AYC. Those chapters had a lot of domesticity and parent/child stuff...

My Madness

So, I learned something new about my Microsoft:

 

 

I think I've mentioned before I color code drafts. The color-coding thing has really come full circle in Years. Previously, I used color coding to outline UL and Compulsion but now I'm using it both to outline and write Years. I'm normally more of a pantser but I had to outline my last few serials to make sure the years were lining up. When I zoom out my draft  looks like this (this isn't the whole thing but you get the idea) :

I like using colors because then I can easily spot where one chapter ends and another begins. I also just like typing in pretty colors!

Years 16

Recap

After Luce's suicide attempt he moves in with his brother Rias and spends the next year and a half working to get better. He is able to end the conservatorship by going to therapy and even finding a part time job teaching math at a community college. He and Haley make amends and Luce moves back in but things between them still aren't exactly the way they used to be, especially in the bedroom...

Years 16
Playlist
-1- Electric Feel by MGMT
-2- Please Keep Loving Me by James TW
-3- Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli

-4- Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding

Yola.com Would Never: Years 14 + 15

*stares in new Blogger*

 

Years Thirteen

 
Update: It's been a while, I guess I should add a recap ? In chapter 13 36-year-old Haley and 4-year-old Grayson have been living in Luce and Sara's condo for over a year.  When being Luce's caregiver becomes too much, Haley hires outside nurses but Luce's depression, overwhelming medical debt and mood swings get the better of him and he attempts suicide by having Grayson put medicine down his feeding tube when Haley is away on a overnight trip to film segments for a "buzzfeed for porn" website.

Luce is rushed to the hospital and Haley is questioned by CPS. Okay to the post:

In chapter 13  I wanted to explore the tensions among Haley, Luce and Sara occupying the same space. I've always seen Sara and Haley as having a good relationship and working together even if they aren't emotionally close.  Sara is kind of a distant person. I've sort of been flying close to the Lucely timeline in the Vice!Verse but now we've gotten to some years that aren't even alluded to in the Vice!Verse.

Years 14 + 15
I feel like these chapters are the very beginning of another tonal shift. A lighter one believe it or not.


Recap
Luce is two years into his recovery and struggling with depression. When Haley goes to California to shoot a freelance videos, Luce takes advantage of Grayson to commit suicide. Luce is under a conversvatorship by his brother but Haley is left responsible. This picks up six months later...

Chapter 14
Playlist
-1- Like Everybody Else by Lennon Stella
-2- Torn by Boyce 
-3-  Faith by Sleeping At Last
Chapter 15
-1- Concrete Jungle by Au/Ra
-2- Sideways by Citizen Cope 
-3- You Keep Lifting Me by  Amber Run