NaNoWriMo, 2023 (Log 3)
In which The Suff made its way to the Holy League Universe.
Author’s Note: Substack told me that this post is “too long for email”. So for best experience, I recommend readers to read this directly on the website.
And my adventures through the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) continues on as we finally hit the halfway point.
Here are my previous two logs:
Click on this link to see the whole section dedicated to my NaNoWriMo challenge.
What’s New
I’m still writing from the Land of Obama and Ye. In the last log, I wrote about how I caught the so-called Toledo Virus. As expected, it ended up spreading to pretty much everyone in my brother’s house. Unfortunately, it’s still around and I’m still dealing with it. However, the worst of it is gone and now it’s more annoying than anything.
If you’ve been keeping up with my daily logs in Chat, then you’ll know that I’ve been complaining about how I’ve been distracted by other things. But honestly, that’s just my OCD and me being overly critical about my own progress.
But I’ve been able to reflect on this week. The result? I’m happy at what I’ve been able to do - not just with Project Holy League Universe 3.0, mind you. As you may know, I've managed to produce a trailer for my novel Inquisitor’s Promise with the help of
.That might seem off-topic, but it’s not. Because this led me to an important realization just two days ago:
As it turns out, writing doesn’t take as long as people think it does - and by that I mean the writing itself, not the mewling over what words to put and all that nonsense. I say this because as I reflect on what I’ve done with Project Holy League Universe 3.0, I am actually satisfied with my progress. In fact, it was just yesterday that I finally hit a breakthrough on my work-in-progress (WIP) short story that I’ve put on hold. And I have The Suff to thank for that.
The Suff (Or, The Part Where I Talk About Some Substack Inside Joke)
Yeah, you heard that right. As I was trying to figure out a way move my story forward, I ran across
’s Chat thread about The Suff which brought me to a post by that put together a timeline for this Substack-based urban legend known as ‘The Suff’ - click here for the post.I’ve read a couple of the stories, namely the ones by
, , , , , and others. And I’ll be sure to read some more just to get a handle on this thing.“But what is The Suff?” some may ask.
To answer that question, it’s basically the Substack version of the slenderman. Though it had an electronic component to it. This brings me to my WIP.
Remember when I posted this meme on Substack Notes?
The ‘dystopian WIP’ in that meme is the story I’m working on right now, known as The Iniquity of the Federation. Honestly, I was dreading this WIP when I started my NaNoWriMo project. While I did have a small outline written up, I realized back then that what I have was not enough meat to get the story that I wanted.
And when I finally got back into this WIP, it was a slow and tedious progress as I slowly added in the words while I had other things to deal with whether it be other projects or some personal stuff.
But then, I read all The Suff lore. I was thinking of a fun way to include this easter egg into the Holy League Universe. At first, I thought up a short story in my head. But then one thing led to another, and instead I decided to include it as part of this WIP.
Here’s an excerpt:
“The Suff?” Sixteen said with horror, her eyes widened. “You can’t mean…”
The bearded pr0ph3t nodded. “Ah, so you have heard of it.”
Sixteen nodded, eyes still wide. No doubt she had heard of suff.exe, known colloquially as The Suff. How could she not? That computer virus had been infecting various servers of the Domain from all over the Federation. Whether in the inner parts of the Earth or in the outer reaches of the Electrosphere, anyone physically connected to the Domain through the Federation’s virtual reality systems was liable to be attacked by The Suff. Billions had been killed, supposedly.
“But…,” the bunny girl protested. “The Suff is just a myth!”
“Who told you that?” pr0ph3t asked. “Big Brother?”
Sixteen paused, then looked away. Her silence told her interlocutor everything. Of course, there was a reason why she desperately wanted to believe that The Suff was not real.
“I understand your plight, my daughter,” Joseph interjected. “After all, only people who procure the services of bunnies would be attacked by The Suff.”
“Yes,” the bunny girl said. “So it’s true then?” She looked to the two men, eyeing them suspiciously. “Are you Cross Cultists responsible for The Suff?”
“No,” pr0ph3t replied, shaking his head. “The Suff is a very old phenomenon. Much older than the Federation, believe it or not. Furthermore, suff.exe is yet another demonstration of a truth self-evident for almost as long as humanity’s existence: the price of sin is death.”
As you can see, The Suff have been (will be?) wreaking havoc in the 46th Century. Of course, things might change. Would The Suff remain in the final version? We shall see about that.
My Progress
I’ve been collecting more badges from the NaNoWriMo website. As you can see from the above picture, I have gotten about 25k words in my manuscript. In my previous log, I said that I expected my progress to slow down once I hit my WIP. That turned out to be true, but not as much as my worst fear. Again, sometimes inspiration hits at the weirdest of times and it’s really funny how one thing leads to another and everything just fits - somehow.
I’m still feeling the remnants of the Toledo virus, but I’m more than ready to keep going with this project. Now that I’ve gotten about close to 2/3rds of my WIP, I feel even better about completing this project. And some more.
Thanks for reading. If you like my novel-writing journey, check out a completed novel of mine, Inquisitor’s Promise:
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share this post and publication. Also, feel free to support my works. I appreciate every bit of support.
You get bonus points for the bunny girl. lol.