wherein Liz wants to write but has no direction

[edenfalling]

So my NFE story is finished, beta'd (thank you, autumnia!), and submitted. Now I guess we just wait for the pinch-hitters to finish like the heroes they are, and within a week or so, there will be oodles of fic to read! :-)

...

I don't know what to write now. I mean, probably I should get the next section of "Trollstuck" out of the way, but I am weighing various possibilities for character plausibility and effect-on-plot and stuff, and I want to let it sit a day or three until I have all my dominoes lined up -- it's less frustrating for me personally if I do my flailing in the pre-writing phase instead of stalling out halfway through a pesterlog like I did when Davven and Jothan were talking. That was just annoying.

So I should write something else instead.

Uh.

*eyes WIP list nervously*

Anyone have any preference? Your options most likely to get something finished and posted this weekend are probably "The Courting Dance," "Lemonade," or maybe the next section of "Weregild." Or I guess "Friends and Neighbors" (that 'Apartment Manager' sidefic I have been writing by inches since forever), or even "Secrets" or "The Guardian in Spite of Herself."

...Or you could just throw random prompts at me and see what happens. That works too! (Note: you are a lot more likely to get answered if the prompt is for Homestuck, Narnia, or maybe Harry Potter. I'm not feeling Naruto all that much at the moment. Except maybe the summer camp and politics AU, or the IN SPACE vaguely cyberpunk AU. Other fandoms are also fair game, but I make no guarantees.)

Comments

[branchandroot]

I could totally go for a little Weregild.

[edenfalling]

Done!

[autumnia]

You're very welcome! It's a nice treat to reading something from the Exchange ahead of posting. :-)

... And I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of "The Courting Dance" if the Muse is inspiring you to write.

[edenfalling]

I will see what I can do re: "The Courting Dance." :-)

[lynati-1.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to see more of Lemonade; I'm torn between wanting the story to be longer and just wanting to learn how the story resolves.

And if you find you're not in the mood to write on it after all, I'll drop you a random prompt for "Harry Potter universe, five years after Book 7, Non-WAFFY."

[edenfalling]

The problem with "Lemonade" is that I screwed up when I started work on the next chapter -- I was going into detail about performing the translation spell and so on, which is interesting to me but ALL WRONG -- and when I realized I needed to delete everything I'd written (Faith's section and most of Duo's section) and start over, I got annoyed and depressed and went off to do other things for, uh, way too long. But I know what needs to happen instead, so I will try to sit down and make it happen on Sunday I guess. :-)

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

Homestuck AU: Karkat has always believed his unusual blood color to be an aberration making him the lowest of the low, guaranteed to be culled if he's ever found out.

So it completely blows him out of the water when he slips up, bleeds where somebody (a lot of somebodies, in fact--no way he can hide this) can see it, and rather than being executed on the spot, he is suddenly being deferred to with more awe, fear, and respect than the Condesce herself. Because in this AU, it turns out that candy-red blood is not a mutation so low that it fell off the hemospectrum, but the blood color of the God-Emperor of Troll-kind.

What happens next?

[edenfalling]

Quoting myself at you from another post:

The thing is, your suggestion would inevitably turn into another AU just as long as Trollstuck (because I would have to explain All The Backstory, and then obviously there would be a plot involving Karkat's efforts to not get betrayed and murdered like the Sufferer while throwing out the hemospectrum and trying to change troll society to the point where he can abdicate, dammit, because he's a leader but not like that, this worship stuff is sick (even if it turns out he does maybe have some kind of vast psychic powers or something, that's just random genetic luck and it doesn't mean people should bow to him, omg why are people so stupid, grrr hiss elaborate scatological metaphor)), and I don't have the time right now, sorry. I am totally willing to sketch out the world-building, though. :-)

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

I honestly hadn't thought about that. I'd thought that, at most, this would result in a one-shot exploring a few ideas and possible consequences, with an open, ambiguous ending and a "maybe I'll continue this someday. If I have the time. And if all these other things which I have on my plate get done first. (Protip: it ain't happening any time soon.) But anyone who wants can pick it up for themselves!" kind of note at the end. (And honestly, I regarded even that much as being a tad optimistic.)

Then again, I had similar expectations of my prompt for Trollstuck, and look where we are now...

Worldbuilding is always fun. I'm definitely interested in your thoughts on the subject, though if you really don't want to make a long-term project of it, I'd be careful of falling into the trap of spending so much time and effort on worldbuilding that it feels "wasted" without a fic.

[edenfalling]

Oh, I world-build for fun all the time! In many cases, I never do get around to writing the story that was the original impetus for creating the secondary world, but that's okay -- the simple fact that the world exists (if only in my head and as some files full of notes) is enough to make me happy. The joy is in the creation as much as in the sharing. :-)

I will post a summary of the scenario sometime this week, because it's fun and I already did a bunch of the "but how would it work???" stuff on Friday night. I just need to write it down in a coherent fashion.

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

I could really go for that Way of the Apartment Manager side-fic, but I also love Lemonade. Or The Guardian In Spite of Herself.

So yeah. Not too helpful. Especially since you're off Naruto at the mo. But a vaguely cyberpunk IN SPACE AU? Ooooh. Hope that happens someday!

[edenfalling]

"Friends and Neighbors" is currently stalled out because I have no idea how to END it. Also I have too many characters on-page. I suspect I need to sit down and just bash my way through one of these days. *sigh*

Naruto IN SPACE comes from this comment and later this fic. (The fic contradicts some of the speculation in the comment; whenever there is conflict, the fic is right and the comment is wrong, just FYI. Thus declareth the author. *grin*) Someday I may write more in that AU; it amuses me.