wolffyluna

Was I planning to be working on the Celebrimbor/Maeglin fic? Yes. Am I instead planning the Tar-Miriel/King’s Man OFC fic? Also yes.

Original Kings Man Do Not Steal

The OFC is starting to get character traits and a backstory. Only daughter of a-- not necessarily noble (and definitely not of the line of Elros), but relatively high ranking due to pretty consistently showing up to Fight For King and Country. She is a King’s Man both in philosophical sense and the fact that she’s is loyal to Ar-Pharazon is particular-- which is why she’s picked to be Tar-Miriel’s bodyguard. Like, she is meant to guard her, but she was picked because Ar-Pharazon wanted to have someone he could trust follow Miriel around and spy on her.

She’s loyal, and cares about justice and fairness and protecting people to a fault. (and goddamnit. that’s Utena. I am describing Utena. fUCK). And she cares. She cares deeply and intensely and passionately. ...and that care and passion for justice and fairness is what brings her around (somewhat) to Miriel’s side. It’s why she falls in love with Miriel (who while much less... showstoppingly obvious about it, cares about those things, and what is faith if not another kind of loyalty.) (The OFC never stops being a King’s Man, never starts being Faithful-- but her opinions of the Valar evolve. They’re not the embodiments of Evil Incarnate, their people. Powerful and flawed people-- but people.)

I have some ideas for her name, but their either ‘Unfortunately, translation’ or ‘Unfortunately, confusing.’

• Unfortunately, translation: I remember reading a headcanon that the Narn i Chin Húrin is big in Númenor, and yep. Especially Túrin, a guy with a canonically low opinion of the Valar. So it’s totally plausible her parents would name her Master of Fate/Whatever Túrambar is in Adunaic. ...guess what language Tolkien never gave words for Doom or Fate? Yeah. And this girl needs an Adunaic name. Definitely not Sindarin, definitely not Quenya.
• Unfortunately, confusing: This girl, in contrast to Miriel, is very comfortable with an Adunaic name. It’s not something forced on her, it’s the best language for her. So why not give her a name that contrasts with Miriel’s Adunaic name that was forced on her... by giving her a similar one. I’m thinking ‘Zimrazagar’ (’jewel-sword’) It’s cool! It suits her! It fits the theme of the story! Unfortunately the way it fits the theme is by being very similar to the name of another character!

What do you do with a problem like Ar-Pharazon (and Annatar)?

This section is a statement of intent. I don’t know how to deliver on this intent, but I want to write it down.

I don’t necessarily want this story to be sympathetic to Ar-Pharazon. I want it to be fair to him. I don’t want him to be cackling evilly because I need an antagonist to drive the plot. He will be the antagonist! He will drive some of the plot in an antagonistic manner! But I want what he does to make sense from his perspective. I want the readers to go ‘I don’t like what he did, but I can see why he wanted what he wanted, I see why he tried to get it that way.. even if I hate what he’s done, I can see why he did it.’

(I don’t think I’ve done this well in my previous fics. I want to do better.)

(While Sauron being-evil-for-the-sake-of-evil is less of a problem-- I still want to be fair to him. I still want what he does to make sense. If nothing else, I want what he says and does to make some sense, so that the people agreeing with him don’t come across like morons.)

I’m vaguely tempted to write a Gwindor centric fic after I finish Love Not Wisdom, but I’m not sure that’s the greatest idea, for a few reasons:

1. Editing Love Not Wisdom, I’m really seeing how much trouble I’m having with Beleg’s voice. It’s not that I’m bad at it, it’s just he’s formal and poetic– while I shine when I’m writing from the POV of someone snarky and opinionated and aggressively informal. I can feel myself writing with one hand behind my back. And while Gwindor of course wouldn’t have the same voice as Beleg– it’s similar. (Then again, his voice might end up thecleanstreets-ish, which I at least have experience with?)
2. It’s going to have a geology motif. It’s inevitable. And I’ve already done a fic with a geology motif. A Silm fic focused on a torture survivor, no less! But there’s part of me that’s all like “But now you have a better idea of how ore deposits form, and Angband will make more geological sense than Gondolin did! And isn’t metamorphism such a good metaphor? :D And you could work our what the quenya for ‘chalcopyrite’ is!” And just– I don’t want to be one note! I get fixated on weird symbols and motifs at the best of times! More geology probably isn’t a great idea!

I was torn between doing NaNoWriMo and Yuletide this year (practically speaking I could do one, but not the other), but I think I'm leaning towards doing NaNoWriMo.

Mostly because I feel like writing an original romance, and come November I'll probably have an idea that's fully 'cooked.' It's hard to describe why I want to write an original romance without sounding really arrogant: I think it will be a good use of me and my audience's time to write in that genre. Not because I think I'm god's gift to Romance (heavens no), but because I really like the genre, but I'm picky. There are a lot of common tropes that set my teeth on edge. And I am imagine they set other people's teeth on edge as well! So it seems reasonable enough to write a romance that I'd like, and hopefully some other people do to.

The Vampire/Undertaker idea I mentioned earlier could be fun, but I haven't come up with a plot yet.

I also have another idea: It's an arranged marriage plot, in a high fantasy setting. (Mostly because while I like arranged marriage stories, I like a very specific kind, where neither party is exactly thrilled by the prospect but they're going to make a good go of it, and then fall in love.) Probably M/F, but with both protagonists being bi, because it's my story and I can do what I want. And culture clashes! And being very noble and courtly! And animal companions! (So far the F!Protoganist has a lovely non-magical horse, and M!Protagonist is a sorceror-prince with a rat-king familiar-- who are maybe not a familiar befitting the prince, but are lovely themselves.)

Thanks to bingewatching 'Ask a Mortician' and reading a bunch of romance novels + a'how to write romance novels' book, my brain ended up producing the first scene of an f/f undertaker/vampire romance?

I've written it down, naturally. And like, it'll probably stay as just this one scene. But it was fun to write. And featured a weird meetcute, in the form of the vampire tryng to break out of the body refrigerator she found herself in.

So, I've finished a big fic project. I'm happy! It's complete! ...but I'm at an eensy bit of a loss on what to write now.

Below is some-- more or less brainstorming, I would say. Getting the ideas out into list form so I can better evaluate what to do, and to gauge interest. I can't promise I'll do the most popular one, but letting me know which idea is your favourite, or suggestions (eg '[trope] would go so well with [story idea]), or even prompts for the more nebulous ones would be awesome.

(nsfw under the cut)
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As said above, comments, votes, suggestions and prompts are all very welcome!