waltzing_mice has made more gorgeous fanart for the Epic Romance: this one is called Merlin's Letter. Squee!


ETA: and omg more podfic! of an old Firefly/Deadwood crossover I wrote, read by tinypinkmouse.


Fans are AWESOME.

So, haha, hilariously I had thought that once I'd posted the Epic Romance, I'd stop thinking about it and move on.

Like I said, haha.

It's still occupying most of my fannish brain, but I'm okay with that, as it's a pretty great place to be. After all, it's the world and dynamics I custom built for my own glee! So I've half been reflecting on the process of writing it, and how it helped to shift and clarify what I'm interested in; and half in how I'm planning to perpetuate all the fun stuff I set up (and do more of what I like with what I've got, instead of starting again from scratch).

But, I've been kind of plotting a reflective post for a while, so this seems like an opportunity to make it. ( on the writing of the epic romance )

( on writing more in the 'verse )

SO, MEANWHILE, in mind of all this, I've actually started writing another story in the Epic Romance 'verse (2,500 words and counting!). Part of what's helping this along is being in the UK right now, and walking through this incredible countryside and pretty much constantly shrieking on the inside in inspired glee.

Because, okay, I know this landscape must be pretty yawn, mundane, for a number of you, but I am from Australia, okay? We don't do landscape like this AT ALL. And this is the landscape my 'verse is set in. So it's like stepping right into the world.

Seriously, I wish plein air writing was a thing, where I could just plonk myself down in the woods and start writing a scene set right in front of me.

( some photos )


/ramble!

Title: Along a Wandering Wind
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~64,000
Rating: Mostly PG-13, eventual NC-17
Pairing: Merlin/Gwaine, peripheral Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot
Notes: This story could not have been completed without the support of my various alpha, beta and gamma readers: winterhill, vanessarama, true_statement, doro, msilverstar and the amazing neifile7, who helped me make the major changes that carved the story into a much better shape (and also came up with the summary. Seriously, thank you). Title is from Tennyson.

Summary: Just when Gwaine finds a reason to end his roaming, he must leave Camelot again, this time on royal orders. Whether and how he returns may depend on the secrets Merlin—and others—are keeping from him. (A romance of letters, intrigue and knightly apprenticeship, set post-S3.)




ETA: Also check out the lovely fanart by waltzing_mice: Thinking of the Quill and Merlin's Letter.

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.

( Read more... )

Major revisions: done!
Line beta revisions: done!
Proofing/spagging: in progress!
Title & summary: DONE OMG!

I MIGHT JUST GET THIS POSTED THIS WEEKEND!

Not looking forward to the epic chopping up I'm going to have to do to get it postable on LJ. Stupid word count limit! My largest part is 12,600.

It's actually tempting to just post to Dreamwidth and cross-post the master post. Seeing as I tend to disable comments for all but the last part anyway... But omg, need validation for this story so much that I don't want to not allow comments somewhere I might get feedback!

Cannot believe how close I am to having this thing done, seriously.

Instead of partying on my weekend away, I finished the first beta-ready draft of the Epic Romance.

CHECK IT OUT:



Thasright, the wordcount has come in at almost 61,300. I have just sent it off to my first round of betas (I am staggering my editing iterations, so if you volunteered & haven't received it, your time will come!), and this is one of the most exciting bits - sharing for the first time the massive blurt of words that I've sorta kinda fallen in love with. Please be gentle.

And now I can do that nerdy thing where I begin to craft the header to post with it. And the horrible thing where I rack my brains to try and come up with a suitable summary. Sigh!

And now for deep breaths and walks in the sunshine. And FOOD. I just remembered that sustenance is required in order to function, and not just easter eggs.

( truly outrageous cumulative progress graph under the cut )

As you can see from that, the sheer number of words I've written in the past two weeks is bordering on ridiculous.

And you know how, when you're writing something, you try to avoid too much repetition in the words you use, and it feels really obvious when you're using the same simile/turn of phrase/significant piece of dialogue more than once?

Well, freaking hell, with nearly 40,000 words written in two weeks, I think I've going through my entire vocabulary at least four times, but all my words have not only been washed, wrung out and hung to dry countless times, but are also in desperate need of darning and a good bleach.

And the best bit is that my word fatigue has hit right when I'm up to the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE EPIC FREAKING ROMANCE, Part Six: The Sexing.

Gaaahhh.

It sucks because I want this epically huge story to be really strong and good, but it's hard to tell if it is right now because all of it just feels very tired and repetitive. And I don't want my sex scene to suffer for it, because I'm usually good at them!

Maybe it's just time to take a break from writing.

How do I do that, again?


Also, this is going to need the betaing of a lifetime once it's done. (Another con of writing long stories: the proofing/editing/rewriting stages are epic in their own right.)


On plus side: this picture makes me stupidly happy. I think my OTPs are Gwen/Arthur and Gwaine/Merlin, and Lancelot can just go ahead sleep in whichever of those beds he fancies.

Oh god, I've been writing pretty much constantly for 3 days (~13,000 words! Just this weekend!), and I can't get my brain to shut up. IT'S OKAY. IF YOU CLOSE THE COMPUTER, THE WORDS WILL STILL BE THERE WHEN YOU OPEN IT AGAIN.

Sorry for the constant talking about my current wordcount, but seriously, this is pretty much the most significant thing going on in my life right now and OH GAWD THE WORDS THEY JUST WON'T STOP. It's exciting and exhausting. I love writing. Especially as it's a hobby that involves not leaving my bed much.

And oh boy, you should see my graph! ( ok, you twisted my arm, here it is )

And even though I know I'm not getting any more sensical writing done tonight, I still can't stop looking at my graph (and of course this picture).

And now I really need to sleep. Yay for valerian.

Current wordcount: 33,200 (and I need to finish this scene tonight, so it'll probably end up being more like 35K+ by COB)
Current mood: ( think I might be a shipper after all... )

Check out how freaking productive I've been over the past three days:



Current wordcount: 22,161 ETA: 23,454 (GO TO SLEEP!)
Current mood: Wheee, epistolary fiction! Though, the more epistolary it gets, the more regency the language. Whut. Anachronisms: it's made of them.

( check out this cumulative graph of the past ~3 weeks' writing! )

I wrote about 3000 words today, and have just paused at the end of Part 2. Which, as a Part, kind of sprung up on me - I had thought Part 1 would be in location A, Part 2 in location B, but of course, I've just written 8000 words of getting the characters from location A to location B, so now that's Part 2. Phew!

So,

Current wordcount: 17,403
Current mood: omg, SO MUCH POLITICS, but MeanGirls!Gwaine&Lancelot peppered through totally it make it worth it.


Meanwhile, daylight savings. I'm going to air my unpopular opinion and say BOO, I don't like that it's darker earlier :(

EPIC ROMANCE: I finally just finished this very long scene, which is mainly politics and exposition and original characters. I think it still needs a lot of work (i.e. paring back me going over the top with 'formal' language), and I still have the lingering uncertainty that contributed to it being difficult to write - that it's not porn, that it's original characters, that it's world- and character-building (of OCs), and that that's not what people enjoy in fanfiction.

But the story is epic! It's a big political setting for a hardcore romance, okay? (And I just keep reminding myself that *I* like epic stories that have solid world-building behind them; it makes the id aspects of it all the more grounded and therefore resonant.)

So, current wordcount: 14,178
Current mood: Gwaine is a sullen little butterfly.

Anyway, ALSO TODAY I made nixwilliams watch most of the Gwaine episodes of Merlin, which he hadn't seen before. I think that was largely successful :D It was good to watch again, and I did discover that I actually need to watch it with someone else laughing and making off-colour jokes about it, lest I get preoccupied with the fail.

And very amusing to be paying more attention to my fave characters now that I have those fannish goggles on; you can wring so much more nuance out of it. Like these series of looks in "The Eye of the Phoenix":

Arthur: *says/does something brattish*
Merlin: *gives Gwaine "ISN'T ARTHUR JUST THE GREATEST?" eyes*
Gwaine: *gives Merlin "Are you for real?" eyes*

(Which just cements my belief that Gwaine's decree of Arthur being a worthy noble is him just going, "okay, I suppose this noble is tolerable enough that I can stick around for Merlin without having to storm off in a sulk".)

That whole episode is basically just one big delightful romantic misunderstanding romp, where Gwaine is clearly all hearteyes about Merlin, and Merlin is totally oblivious/preoccupied by Arthur. And Arthur is self-absorbed and brattish in general, the usual farce of his ignorance of Merlin's magic dialled up to comedic 11.

(Also, in his first episode Gwaine refers to Arthur as a thoroughbred. This amuses me.)

Anyway, that descended into a bit of a ramble. How was your weekend?

I pretty much just finished Part 1 of the Epic Romance - coming in at just under 10,000 words.

( check out my cumulative graph of the past 6 days! )

I have a working title but I don't know if I want it to be the title for Part 1, or the whole thing. I suppose if titles occur to me for the other parts, then that'll answer that question.

Meanwhile, I have canon/fanon questions for Merlin peeps! I have done some Arthurian research on these, but am curious as to what the fanon standards are: ( Read more... )

THANKS, TEAM MERLIN!

I have written over 6000 words in four days.

Cumulative graphs are fun.

I rewatched the Gwaine episodes to better characterise, and now my story has both pickled eggs and evil!monster!pheasants in it (indeed, in the same scene).

I got some eye candy icons to entertain me when I post/comment. (Sadly, because I no longer want to give money to LJ, the majority of them will be relegated to Dreamwidth.)*

I'm contemplating if I want to post teaser snippets as I'm working on it, as I did with We Happy Few, because I'm seriously having about as much fun with it (it's more sprawling, though, so the scenes are less compact and thus more tricky to snippetise).

Meanwhile, Merlin fandom is fab, and I am getting the most delightful feedback and omgyouguysLOVE <3

In summary, Epic Romance Status:

Current words: 6131
Current mood: N'AWW DORKS.


* Considering Eoin Macken, I have come to the conclusion that I definitely need an icon of Gwaine looking guileless that says "A model, idiot".

I feel bad for having such a good day when there's such shit going on in the word right now, but there we have it. I went out last night but quit while I was ahead, so awoke feeling fresh as a daisy... okay, maybe not. Fresh as a supermarket posy, perhaps, which is still kind of pretty depending on what supermarket you go to.

Anyway, then I lazed around reading and napping for a while, then went to a local artists' market, then I got flirted with by a hot waitress, then went and had a writing day with copracat, in which I wrote 2300+ words of my Epic Romance story. As I'm a touch obsessive and I'm thinking of this *now*, I'm totally going to keep a spreadsheet and generate a cumulative graph of my progress :D

Yes, I am just that cool.

At any rate, the 2300 words I've written are just the first two scenes, so I suspect this might end up being an extraordinarily long story. I might break my record! In which case, it'll be cool to see how my writing habits trend at different stages of the process :D

Anyway, I also wrote a 1300 word outline for the Epic Romance, and made some character sheets, and location sheets, and did I mention I heart Scrivener 2.0?

So, current wordcount: 2,374
Current mood: GWAAAINE I like you even more than I thought I did!


Meanwhile, This Merlin vid is fantastic.