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

[rachelmanija]

I was forced, FORCED I TELL YOU, to read another Biggles book for inspiration, hence the lag on this ficlet.

Haha. Which one did you read?

What a delightful ficlet. Biggles seizes the opportunity to cuddle with and feed his beloved enemy! He starts untying von Stalhein's hands even before he gets his parole!

"We'll only survive this cold if we huddle for warmth."

Sometimes I feel like Biggles senses that he's starring in an epic, tropey, enemies-to-lovers story.

He considers a joke about whether the Soviets are feeding von Stalhein, only suddenly it doesn't seem funny.

OWW MY HEART.

"Next time I take on a job," Von Stalhein says, "I shall endeavor to make it somewhere tropical."

"Next time you take on a job," Biggles suggests, "you should take it with me."

YES. Such a perfectly them exchange.

[osprey_archer]

Biggles Takes Charge, in which Biggles doesn't appear until about the 50% mark! Algy accidentally becomes embroiled in Ruritanian adventures when he visits the abandoned hunting lodge of a friend (who is secretly the heir of the throne of Moldavia) and meets the friend's cousin, on the run from men who want to kill all the remaining royal heirs to destroy the royalist party!

Either Biggles sense that he's in an enemies-to-lovers story or he's trying to manifest this fate by acting on it hard enough. It seems to be working for him!

[rachelmanija]

Oh, that book sounds fun! I haven't read it.

I could absolutely believe Biggles trying to manifest enemies-to-lovers by sheer force of trying. It's a strategy that works for him in general.

[sheron]

The book in which Biggles directly warns von Stalhein about the French police that's looking for him, and does it in the flirtiest way possible:

‘A little bird whispered in my ear. Now let me whisper in yours.’

I love it.

[osprey_archer]

He sees von Stalhein so rarely that he has to make the most of every opportunity to flirt!