November Writing and December Plans

[osprey_archer]

Did not get much writing done this month. Feeling discouraged about writing in general, to be honest. I’ve been struggling to write (so many of this year’s writing posts are some variation on “didn’t get much writing done this month”!), and my royalties are considerably lower than last year, and it’s all very frustrating.

I have decided that for whatever reason I am simply not Ready to write Sleeping Beauty, so rather than continuing to bang my head against that wall, I’m going to set the project aside for at least a year, probably more, it seems optimistic to imagine that I’ll be able to stand the sight of it after a mere year has passed. I remind myself yet again that Ursula K. Le Guin had to sit on Tehanu for eighteen years before she was ready to write it. Eighteen years!

Have been noodling on a couple of projects but who knows if they will come to anything.

***

Anyway, in years past when I have been struggling to write, I have found prompt memes really helpful. (The Time-Traveling Popcorn Ball originally grew from a prompt meme.) So I thought I would post one!

Tell me a little about a winter story I haven't written, and I'll give you several sentences from that story.

Winter doesn't have to mean holiday (although it certainly can!). Think snow, icicles, hot beverages by toasty fires, sledding and sleigh rides and being trapped by blizzards and unfortunate incidents involving holly dryads.

I will write ficlets for most any fandom I've written before (Captain America, Queen's Thief, various Sutcliffs, American Girl... I haven't actually written a Biggles or Worrals fic before but I've been thinking about trying) or for my own books, or for a completely original story.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I'm sorry about the discouragement--I *loved* the things you published this year, but I realize that's not the same as sales.

Prompt: Even when the snow was falling fastest, they could see by the light of the porch lamp wolves circling round and round the cottage. Keeping them prisoner--or protecting them from harm? That was the question.

[kore]

I'm sorry about the discouragement--I *loved* the things you published this year, but I realize that's not the same as sales.

Me too! I LOVED the Green Knight pilot book.

[skygiants]

(as did I!! as you know!!!)

[troisoiseaux]

+3!!

[osprey_archer]

Even when the snow fell fastest, they could see by the light of the porch lamp wolves circling round and round the cottage. Gentian huddled close to her older sister Philomena, who wrapped a fold of her should around Gentian's shoulders as they stood by the frosty window, which seemed to give cold as a fire gives heat.

"I shouldn't have taken the carving," Gentian whispered.

"Shh. They're not here because of that," Philomena said.

"Are you sure? Because if it is - if I give it back to them - " But Gentian shuddered as she said it, for even now she didn't want to give that carving up: the leaping wolf, carved from the lithe graceful curve of an antler.

"No, no," Philomena said. "It's nothing to do with that."

She slipped the warm folds of her shawl around Gentian's shoulders. Gentian, squinting to see through the swirling snow, didn't look up till the hinges squeaked. Then she cried out, and dived after her sister, but the door swung shut with a final gust of snow, and though Gentian tried the handle, Philomena had spelled it shut.

Gentian ran back to the window. Briefly she saw Philomena's dark hair and white blouse, but then both dissolved in the falling snow, which now hid even the wolves.

A wolf howled. Gentian shuddered, clutching her shawl close in fisted hands.

The door opened. A gust of snow blew Philomena into the room. Gentian jumped to her side, and together they pressed the door closed against the powerful wind. \

Then Gentian wound the shawl around her shivering sister, and took her cold hand to lead her to the fire, and set the kettle to boil.

Philomena's shivering eased as she sipped a cup of chamomile. Gentian sat with her cold hands clenched in her heavy wool skirts. "Well?"

Philomena shook her head. "I don't understand it," she said. "They didn't attack. But they won't let me pass."

[asakiyume]

😍Love it!