wolffyluna

Xie Lian stopped dodging eye contact. “If you wanted to fuck me, you could.”

Feng Xin’s brain grappled for some part of the idea that he could hold onto. The first thing that came out of his mouth was: “But Hua Cheng?!”

“He’s fine with it.”

I have finished something-you-could-reasonably-call-the-second-draft of my novel! (I've done the major structural edits, but in this case this means adding a bunch of scenes and subplots that were missing, so everything is like. kind all the same messy as hell state. which is not what my shorter fiction second drafts are like, but then my shorter fiction generally does not need me to tack a gazebo and a conservatory onto it, though.)

Also, something I find funny: the completed draft? 49,000 words. So close to 50k! So close! But not quite!

Sanguinius and Horus kiss for the first time, and Sanguinius sees their futures that may or may not come to pass.

(Or, one time Horus and Sanguinius actually kiss, definitely, and five futures that might happen where they do, as well.)

I know that writing a "good" version, that requires no to minimal edits, is not how it works. I've got to write The Dumbest Version first, and clean it up later.

But oh god, every time I write, I can feel the mess I'm leaving for future me. The scenes written in the wrong pov. The "I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards." The scenes that need to be cut. The characters who change characterisation halfway through, and then I have to fix all their previous scenes.

And it pains me, because there's going to be so much to edit. Not just because it's novel length and there's going to be a lot of words-- with short fiction, I can generally look at an outline and tell if a scene is necessary, but I don't have that skill with a novel. I'd have to read it once its' done to tell if a scene is missing or doesn't need to be there. And let's not include the whole "making the car while trying to drive it" that is writing about original characters in an original setting.

I made a bunch of things for the Battleship Exchange, and now it is author reveals I can admit to making them!:

• the line i called the horizon [podfic], Arthuriana, Galahad/Mordred, is a podfic of @consumptive-sphinx​‘s Galahad/Mordred 'you have two soulmarks: your soulmate and your mortal enemy' fic.
• four grams of iron [fic], The Magnus Archives, Michael Shelley/Gertrude Robinson, Explicit. Gertrude attempts to do a nice thing for Michael before she sends him to his death. Mind the warnings and the tags. Dead dove: you can eat it but be prepared to eat a very greasy bird.
• Lovely! [art], The Magnus Archives, Jane Prentiss/Nikola Orsinov art, warning: Jane Prentiss typical gore
• Storm Gifts [fic], Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Ashe/Dedue, pre-timeskip huddling for warmth and 'oh no, I have a crush‘
• the roll of the waves [fic], Original Works, Pirate/Her Ship/The Sea.

Ten of Swords: a painful and inevitable ending.

Ar-Pharazon has fears about the loyalty of his new wife, Tar-Miriel, and asks a soldier, Zimrazagar, to spy on her, in the guise of guarding her.

Zimrazagar intends to stay as a mere bodyguard, with a sideline in spying, but even with the best of intentions, she does not succeed.

...and it all ends in drowning and death,

Velanna teaches Sigrun about the natural world.

I've just finished the first draft of Love Not Wisdom, my Túrin/Beleg-- at one point it was a pining fic, but I have no clue what it is now. A meditation on the dangers of love, or something like that? But I've finished the first draft of it.

It's sitting at 27.6k words. And that's without definitely missing at least two scenes. Which makes it my longest fanfiction by 6k words*. And it's not done yet.

I'll admit I didn't expect to hit the end of the first draft so quickly. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.

*Not my longest work of fiction. My deeply embarassing novel that I still hold deep affection for that I wrote in 2014 is longer. But I'm pretty sure that even now as a first draft, Love Not Wisdom is better.