will write for food...

[edenfalling]

I am having serious trouble working up motivation to write, which is frustrating. Like, I will open a document, check where I was in the story, type maybe five words, and... nothing. Blank. It's particularly annoying if I've been mentally juggling and arranging ideas earlier in the day so I know roughly where I want to go and just can't quite get there once I am actually trying to type letters on a keyboard.

One thing that I've found helpful in the past when I've had trouble writing is to switch gears and write something completely different, and also -- this is the key part -- something with an external rather than internal pressure/reward system. Like prompt!fic.

So.

Give me one to three characters plus a mood, a scenario, or a prompt word, and I will write you a ficlet that is at least three sentences or 100 words long.

Help me out, please?

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1. Kiss the Bride: Susan Pevensie as Queen of Narnia, coping with marriage proposals. 425 words, for madamehardy. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

2. In Sure and Certain Hope: Dave, John, Jade: somber but hopeful. 275 words, for shinyrock6498. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

3. Under Pressure: Lessee. How about some Naruto: Sakura, building pressure. 400 words, for branch-and-root. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

4. Literal Interpretation: Jade, John, Davesprite, god worship. 675 words, for asukaskerian. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

5. Freedom Ride: Kanaya, Aradia, Prompt word: whoops. 425 words, for gracefularchitect. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

6. Tall Ship of War: How about Shezan and/or Ilgamuth, and boats? 225 words, for autumnia. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

7. My Sorrow's Share: Arwen and the pro/con of choosing humanity. (I'm on a Silmarillion kick.) 125 words, for mmarycontrary. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

8. Crowning Glory: How about Susan Pevensie, combs or haircombing? 625 words, for cat_i_th_adage. (Also a cottoncandy_bingo fill, because why not!) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

9. Picture Perfect: Karkat, Dave, Davepetasprite, likeness. 150 words, for primtheamazing. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

10. Pay It Forward: Ayakawa Yukiko and educating the next generation, please. :) 1,150 words, for wistfulmemory. (Also a cottoncandy_bingo fill!) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

11. Mischief Night: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke; "strangely satisfying". 550 words, for eos_joy. (Also a cottoncandy_bingo fill!) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

12. Necessary Measures: Rose, Jasprose, and Kanaya, bickering. 200 words, for primtheamazing. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

13. In Abeyance, In Arrears: Bro, Dave, dour. 150 words, for anonymous on Tumblr. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

14. Broken If Revealed: Daredevil: awkward reveal, "This is- it's not what it looks like...?" 2,150 words, for shinyrock6498. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

15. An Unorthodox Pedagogical Approach: If you’re willing (and can without spoilers), I would love a future fic showing Naruto, Shinnin, and Sakura working together as a team while on a mission. 300 words, for wistfulmemory. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

16. Part of Your World: Jade, Rose, prompt word: adventure. 675 words, for gracefularchitect. (Also a cottoncandy_bingo fill!) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

Comments

Freedom Ride

[edenfalling]

In response to a prompt from gracefularchitect: Kanaya, Aradia, Prompt word: whoops

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"'Whoops?' That is not a reassuring word coming from a starship," Kanaya said with an equally unreassuring dryness in her voice.

Aradia couldn't move much in the helmsrig, but she spared a brief flare of teek to flap a dismissive biowire in her crewmate's direction. "Don't get sarcastic at me, everything is under control! We're just making an emergency landing behind the exhaust vents of Battleship Condescension. Looks like we get to test Equius's voidy thing against live trolls a few days earlier than planned." She toggled on the ship-wide intercom and repeated the last two sentences for the benefit of the crew at large, then routed all complaint calls to Karkat up on the bridge.

Kanaya seemed to be struggling between an impulse to disapprove of Aradia's approach to protocol and an equally strong impulse to laugh. She compromised by setting down her pruning shears (biowires could and would take over an entire helmsblock within a week if they weren't properly tended) and resting a hand on the control board, next to the bank of buttons and levers formerly marked 'Emergency Failsafes' and now either melted into slag or relabeled 'Let Aradia Have a Life (Without Electrocuting Her in the Process, Numbglobes!)'. "Do you want to accompany the boarding party?" she asked.

"It would be fun, wouldn't it? But no." Aradia sighed. "It's more important to ensure we have a quick escape than to throw another body into danger. I'll do what I can to lure some ghosts through the hull and pass on any useful information. Just don't get captured. The point of a rescue mission is to leave with more people than we came with, not the other way around."

"We'll bring Sollux and Feferi back," Kanaya promised.

Only if that was the way things had to go to make the timeline work, Aradia thought. And she didn't know the future anymore. She had no way to be sure that saving her matesprit and moirail -- saving an Heiress who wanted to dismantle her heritage and the most powerful psionic hatched in generations, who also happened to be the descendant of a heretical rebel cult leader -- wouldn't spark some even worse catastrophe down the line.

But no. That was the voice of futility and the empty dead. She was alive, her friends were out of the game, and this time around they were going to make the universe bend toward justice, Empire and Empress be damned.

"Yeah," Aradia said. "Of course you will. And then we can really get to work."