wherein Liz discusses a dilemma

So... my Yuletide recipient specifically requested world-building and OCs. I have a fragmentary story in this fandom that consists of nothing but world-building and OCs, which I started years ago and abandoned because A) it wants to be a novella at least, possibly a short novel, and B) I didn't think it had enough connection to canon for anyone besides me and maybe three other people in the world to want to read it.

BUT! The whole point of Yuletide is to write the story that maybe only three people in the whole world want to read, because they want to read it that much. So obviously I should drag my old fic out of storage, dust it off, fix the stupid squidgy bits that I'm sure have become apparent after years of distance, and finish it by Christmas.

ON THE OTHER HAND! The point of Yuletide is to write a new story specifically for your recipient, not to repurpose stuff you were writing anyway. So obviously it would be tacky in the extreme to drag my old fic out of storage and attempt to foist it on my recipient. Even if only the opening three scenes exist right now, at a grand total of 1,500 words, and I'm sure the story needs another 20,000 words to get much of anywhere useful.

...

You know what, I should write a different story first -- create a whole new OC and scenario in a different setting and time period -- and then come back and see if I can get anywhere with the old one.

a few of my favorite things...

This is the picture I mentioned from last week's RE lesson. The kids were supposed to draw a picture of somebody feeling a particular emotion or of things that made them feel a particular emotion. By way of demonstration, I decided to draw things that make me happy, starting with flowers.

One boy promptly said something to the effect of, “Of course you like flowers. You’re a girl.”

“Lots of people like flowers,” I said, “and I like other things too. Like waterfalls and trees.” So I drew a waterfall and a tree. The kid said it had to be an apple tree, because they were the happiest, which is fair enough; it is now an apple tree.

In retrospect, I wish I’d said something more along the lines of, “Lots of people like flowers. They’re also a lot easier to draw than two people kung fu fighting on top of a speeding train that’s heading for an exploding bridge and is about to crash into a gorge in a huge explosion!” because seriously, who doesn’t love over-the-top action movies? With purple flowers in the foreground to add a pretense of art and poignancy to the imminent fiery death, of course. *wry*

But I am pretty sure I couldn’t actually draw that at the best of times, and certainly not in crayon in five minutes. And waterfalls are awfully cool too. :-)

[link to original post, for when Tumblr inevitably breaks the embedded image]