Usually I consider mechanically-meh writing to be a dealbreaker, but it's remarkable how low my standards slide when there's something in particular I want to read. If I were to plot my requirements for "Subject Matter Interest" versus "Writing Proficiency", it would be an exponential decay function.

Why are you so busy? When last we lived together you spent your evenings and nights in quiet contemplation of fanfiction.

Great idea. Definitely a great idea. That could only take you good places.

Although I understand your intention, I'm having trouble assigning those to axes. Which one is the x? Which one is the y? What does versus even mean? This is the problem with word problems.

I've got two nights of band, one night of lab and one night of trivia. Plus it's always hard to write at home, despite Moose's assistance.

It was so hollow. I had to go back to my synthpop/power metal station after less than an hour.

How is your writing going since I saved you from your naming woes?

I always describe plots in "x versus y" format. I'm not sure why I thought that was a universal policy?

Solution: Bring Moosey to band. Alternatively, skip foul trivia? It is only hurting you.

If you found it hollow, that sounds like a failing of you, not of the music. You were getting only good things, from the description you gave.

Like I said, it's BLAZING. Had a 2000+ word day yesterday. I had been worried that my outline was too short, but now it looks like it's an actually appropriate length for 50,000 words, which is new for me. Plot points just keep happening. The MC has almost met her nominal love interest the centaurpede.

I usually assume "y vs x" since I tend to use "against" in place of "vs." I think "y vs x" is standard for math applications.

I like receiving free food. I also like trivia.

I like all of the songs individually, but if there's nothing breaking them up, the lack of substance becomes inescapable. It's like trying to build a cake when all of the layers are frosting.

Why nominal love interest? Why not no qualifier love interest? And it takes over 1/5 of the story to meet the qualifier love interest?

Huh. I might have been misleading people for my entire academic career. Whoops.

Is the food actually free? Or does Dad buy it? How do you get food when Dad isn't there?

I think maybe you're not good enough for the power of '80s pop. The music is sublime. It's not its fault you can't handle it.

He and the MC get married, but I haven't decided if they're actually romantically involved or not.
Yeah. It takes 1/5 of the novel. I realized shortly after starting that my plot was a bad idea from the get-go, because the first 15000 words or so are spent with one set of characters, and then there's a setting shift and the MC spends the next 20000 words or so with a completely different set of characters, and the two groups don't meet until the end. This was never a good plan. I'm just rolling with it at this point.

Whooooooops. My sinuses are funky. Whoooooooooooops.

It's free when Dad is there and buys it, or when we win a gift card and share it, or when somebody gets free chips for wearing team apparel when the team is on the tv in the bar. I paid about $5 last week for a meal at a sports bar/grill (and then I forgot my box, which is a tragedy).

It's not pop, exactly, or Michael Jackson would be in there. It's like 80's dance/Eurodance. Dance is even emptier than pop, and more electronic.

They get married for political or economic purposes? How uninspiring.
Please continue to roll. I think I've heard that type of plot before.

I think I'm going to shower with my hot chocolate mug so I don't have to go downstairs to wash it. My sinuses...

...Why is that a whoops? Did you do this to yourself? WHAT DID YOU DO?

Sounds like largely not-free. Occasionally profitable, however. Persist if you must. If it hurts your NaNo efforts I suppose that is the cost of bar/grill food.

I'm honestly not sure what you consider "empty", musically. I wouldn't consider a lot of what I hear you listening to on Communion After Dark to be particularly full. Lack of variation could be a problem, but couldn't you just diversify your station a bit?

Oh, I'm rolling. I'm rolling hard.

That's just sad. I'm sorry for your suffering.

My sinuses were really funky last night, is all. Upside, cough is mostly gone. Downside, I'm very fuzzy right now. Fuzzy and snotty.

They have a lot of pasta, too. But I can't eat it if I look at the calorie counts.

That's what I was thinking too, but even when my ViKiNgPoP station doesn't play any metal for a while, it still seems more substantial than the all-dance station. I think it might just be that synthpop uses more towering walls of synth-y layers than dance does. It definitely needs revisiting when I'm feeling more like a human.

It worked just fine. Mug is clean. I am clean. Fewer stairs.

From funky to fuzzy? That definitely sounds like lateral movement rather than upward progress.

Why would you ever look at the calorie counts? That way madness lies. Eat the pasta. Become the pasta.

Please do revisit. I can't understand why dance would be any less substantial than any other high-energy, high-synth genre. I find it to be particularly good background music for menial tasks.

But what are the chances that there are bodily secretions now imbued into the mug? You can't trust a shower.

I'm starting to think I have the ethics of a cliched supervillain. We were debating the topic of gene drives at the first-year grad student seminar today and the whole time I was talking I kept thinking, "This is what I would say if I were the passionate but misguided scientist at the beginning of a SyFy original movie who's about to create Sharktopus".

Yeah, it's not good. I skipped trivia so I wouldn't have to subject them to myself. So many kleenexes.

I looked because eating an entire day's worth of food in a single sitting is just irresponsible. And it's so easy.

I don't think I'll change my mind. There's something different. I just can't articulate it while I'm funky/fuzzy.

Eh. Saliva is a bodily secretion.

I know you have the ethics of a cliched supervillain. You don't have to wonder about it. I will tell you.

Did you get my email? There is a person who needs your knowledge on the internet.

Also, I just read the most terrible fanfic ever. Not to say that it was poorly written. I'm using terrible more in the sense of the wrath of god. I'm not sure I can tell you what it was. A/B/O x Zombie Apocalypse mashup? There. That is all.