Quick Recap of the Current GiftFic Docket

[scribblemyname]

This is why I'm a little stretched just now. :grins:

• Short Story: “Justice” for thecatisacritic
• Novel: One Good Storm with thecatisacritic
• Short Story: “Everything is Blood” for lithiumlaughter
• Novel-in-Verse: Blank Verse for lithiumlaughter
• Novelette: Fault Lines for Couples Big Bang
• Meta: Science article series for thecatisacritic

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

You do have a lot going on. Are you sure you don't want to back off of something? I'm not sure what would be best, as I do need that science stuff and want to get Alik's story done, but I hate to be a burden and I don't want to make things more difficult for you.

[scribblemyname]

I'm not sure what I'd cut though. I hate to have another abandoned short, I'm not ready to deal with the novel yet, I still am too much in love with the work involved in lithiumlaughter's pieces, and once I knuckle down and hit the science pieces they'll be fine. The Couples Big Bang just switched out pairings and I'm sure I can hammer it out in ten chapters taking maybe a day each to write. I just didn't realize 2nd check-in was upon me and am torn between getting it started or hitting "Justice" right away. There's really only so many hours in a day.

[scribblemyname]

Though really, after how easily the poetry book came together, I'm really wanting to get back to hammering out a K&T collection I think you'll like.

I still like the angel figurine as a title, but I can make two versions and have good ideas about how to do that. Yours will be "Kingdoms and Thorn," the 'Clean' edition, and I can be a little more broad-spectrum clear in "Glass Angel" and even include some of the K&T poems.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Justice was about the only thing I could see you cutting, but...

For purely selfish reasons today I'd rather you worked on it.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

It seems like a lot of work to put together a separate collection, especially if it's just for me. You can make whatever you want the one to be and just... consider me not its audience, I guess.

[scribblemyname]

Doesn't work that way when it's giftfic. :rolls eyes amiably:

[scribblemyname]

Fair enough. I'm going to do a rough-in for both I think, instead of something solid for either.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I'd take anything at this point. The poor chickens are driving me insane and to tears all at once, so... That's why I want to be selfish and ask for fic rather than be the good person and say my stuff can wait.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

It wasn't all gift fic. I'm not the only one who likes the K&T verse.

I don't like making you do extra work. You shouldn't have to just because I'm picky and neurotic.

[scribblemyname]

I just put together an entire poetry collection in three days flat because I was having a ball and it was designed to please solely two people: me and lithiumlaughter, but her first.

So we have slightly different taste and I have to decide how to work it artistically with Kingdoms and Thorn to please the solely two people I'm concerned about: me and you. I won't be happy unless I succeed. That's how I'm made. It's a gift. I can't unwire my need to get it right.

[scribblemyname]

Speaking of which, a while back you asked for the author's notes that went with "History Lesson on the Night Train" and I couldn't quite get it right. Here's the brief I'm including in the poetry book:

Teller is the speaker in this poem and was a member of team fourteen, ranked second. Her birth name is Alya Shamayes. Other handles include Taker, Blooded, Thief, Breaker, Remaker.

The man being observed is Pieter Andrews, who had been in a relationship with Ashen, another former military operative, for quite some time preceding the incident recorded. Ashen’s name has entered common parlance as a name for the special ability she possesses, the ability to transfer life from one person to another.

The cities mentioned in the poem are Kingdoms Cities. The treaty which ended the Thorn Rebellion ceded the geographical region from the Thorn Republic’s control.


Also Related:

The Thorn Rebellion in the year 20 was inevitable, as all Kingdoms and Thorn Republic historians agree. The team operatives attached to the Projects were top-secret, genetically-modified special humans belonging to the Thorn Republic military. Nevertheless, they were not volunteers but rather children who had been raised to the life. When they did rebel, the conflict quickly ended in a treaty ceding the western half of the continent from Thorn Republic control but without establishing a new governing body. Eventually the cities became Kingdoms Cities where multiple nations could occupy a single city. All are, however, subject to treaty law, which includes specific human rights granted to special humans.


It's not the history in prose form, but it's something. :shrugs:

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

No wonder you don't have time to read my stuff.

[scribblemyname]

I haven't been working on most of these either. My brain was just fried after doing the Invisible Ficathon, so I could get a little poetry pulled together but that was it (I've always been able to write poetry when everything else was fried). I am only now side-eyeing my TBR stack again.

I almost threw that in this list too, but technically it wasn't giftfic quite.

[scribblemyname]

Well, if I only rough it in, you might not see anything today, but here's the general idea here of structure:

http://pcwrede.com/plot-shapes-iii-beads-on-a-string-and-spokes-on-a-wheel/

The spokes one. We have multiple angles and the overlap will actually work well for us I think, if we just let it be.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Okay.

You're getting more technical with structure than I would.

You're thinking of making more overlap, then?

[scribblemyname]

It's an overwriting case. I'll need to write out the entire angle almost from each side, then pick and choose which parts to keep and arrange.

I just can't make it work as a linear story.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I guess. It just seems like a lot of extra work.

I don't want to make you do it.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I don't know. That seems like a lot to do.

Maybe you should let it go.

[scribblemyname]

I do hate abandoning fics, but I'll let it go if you help me run a mini-promptathon for more ficlets. We can even both prompt and write if you want. I have a desperate need right now to FINISH something, not just bang my head on the novel again.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I really don't like letting it go, either, because it has been nagging at me for weeks now, but if what you want is something small to finish, that doesn't seem like it. That's a lot to do for what was supposed to be a short piece.

Considering that I have had at least three other concepts of Alik mixing with the K&T verse, I think finishing this one is... inevitable, but I don't know that it's what you need right now.

I would really appreciate prompts right now. I haven't settled on anything to work on, and I've been going crazy.

So... Prompts. I will have to think a bit. What are you hoping for? Fluff? Not fluff? Specific world or no world? Characters?

[scribblemyname]

I can't really address that. The difficulty has never been in complexity for me. The difficulty has been in grasping the whole I want to work toward, then it just rushes out of me. If I can't quite grasp it, it's hard. Really hard.

I need to either abandon it or work on it at this point. I can make no guarantee I'll ever come back. (I see a graveyard of half-done fics and poems littering the life behind me. They are heavy.)

I usually figure it out as I write the post what parameters I want. I do know I don't want to do an angst-fest, and fluff-fests aren't half-bad. I like being able to specify world/characters or not myself. Any preferences on your end?

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

So... Does that mean that you have this one and could do it?

Because the idea of it not getting done depresses me far more than it should. :(

I don't have anything for me. I've been bouncing all over and can't focus on anything (except, apparently, mind ficcing different versions of Alik in KT,) so I'm pretty open.

I'll prompt along whatever you put as a perimeter, though.

[scribblemyname]

In a rush? No. I have a direction which will either write me to the next block or else write me to the big picture. Nothing longer than 4000 words usually comes to me in that perfect big picture right off the bat.

Okay. So just let me know which you'd rather. I don't mind the headspace-clearing effects of promptathons, but I need to stay totally in headspace if I'm going to hammer out something like "Justice."

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I am going to blame headache/chickens for this, but I'm confused.

Do you want to work on Justice?

And does that mean no prompts or are you saying prompt for Special Unit type stuff?

Incidentally... One of my incomplete fics apparently was influenced by the Special Unit stuff, or so it seemed last time I read it. So... If it would help to prompt me for that, you could.

[scribblemyname]

I mean what I said initially:

I do hate abandoning fics, but I'll let it go if you help me run a mini-promptathon for more ficlets.

I will abandon "Justice" if you feel I ought IF I get a promptathon instead for reasons outlined above. Otherwise, I will write it and it'll be messy and work and rough and I don't care. I want something done and off my plate.

Maybe it wasn't obvious, but the Invisible Ficathon was work, and a lot of those pieces didn't just fall together. I got it done though because there was no other option. Failure was not acceptable.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make this more difficult for you. I wanted to make it simpler, which was why I suggested letting Justice go, though as I told you, I don't like the idea much.

I don't know that putting your creativity in my hands, even for gift stuff, is a good idea right now, seeing as I am a total mess. I thought that having something shorter would help, but since shorter means no Justice...

I don't know. I think I need that one done for my own sanity (thank you, Alik, I really wish I could hate you because you're such a pain, but I don't hate you. *sigh*)

I know you had to work for the Invisible Ficathon. I am not trying to make this a case where failure isn't an option, and I honestly was trying to make it less pressure, not more.

And I do appreciate you thinking of me with the poetry book, but I don't think even clear poetry would make me like it. I don't want you to waste money on me.

[scribblemyname]

Ah. Well, shorter is Justice or something else, so if you'd rather Justice, I'll just do what I'd planned. If you'd rather prompts and ficlets, that's fine too. I'm just at the point of decision. I'm picking one and running.

Sorry for blowing the day not writing either.

I don't actually put myself in your hands, so to speak, creatively, or I wouldn't blow off fic and research when they aren't working and go write poetry for three days because that's all I can swing. I choose to work under pressure and join challenges and ficathons because that's what inspires me to finish things.

It's very useful.

I just figured if it was written for someone who felt like someone was holding their head underwater whenever they read poetry, that it was a collection of poetry that wasn't communicating with poetry but rather people, so it had potential if you really did want to try to get it without involving others. Since you don't, don't worry about it. I'm not about to start reading murder mysteries either.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Justice doesn't seem shorter, not when you said you'd have to write all the parts to it and then piece them together. Still, if it will work, I guess it should be it.

I'd love little pieces and prompts, but I'm sick of Alik twisting around what little I know of K&T on me, so I figure he gets one "canon" story and he can leave the others alone since they're dumb ideas anyway.

I guess I just wasn't feeling right making the decision of Justice vs short pieces for you.

It would probably be a good starter for someone who doesn't like poetry, but I'm not comfortable with compilations like that anyway. It may be aimed at high schoolers, but my standards of what's appropriate for them is not the same as most people's, either, and I know there was still plenty in the supposedly inspirational Chicken Soup books for teenagers that I felt uncomfortable with.

I'd rather stick to things I know I'll be okay with, and that is such a small group, but it doesn't take much to hit on one of my squicks, it seems. :(

[scribblemyname]

'Kay. "Justice" it is.

I don't mind letting a collaborator help make a decision about abandoning fic. Makes sense to me.

[thecatisacritic.livejournal.com]

Okay.