Ficlet O'Clock Open Prompts

[scribblemyname]

I've missed doing this, and when my best friend who loves these things was out of pocket for a while, I mostly didn't try. So here's the way it works. You give:

1. fandom, storyworld (optional)


2. character and/or pairing (optional)


3. prompt

We write ficlets. Feel free to ask questions on fills and get more fills. Fill whatever you like. Prompt whatever you like. The thread stays open until somewhere after activity slows down to a trickle, I randomly call done working the thread.

So personally I've been missing writing original fiction and Rogue/Remy fic (and Logan/Ororo and Kitty/Pyro), but prompt whatever (like Bobbi or Natasha or Skye or...), just no deathfic or supernatural please.



I dumped in a couple to start, but I'll be in and out. :)

---

MASTERLIST

blamesthepen

• Alik + Vred, This moment, we own it.


• Katya, pillow fights


• Cadence + friend, pillow fights


• Alik + Vred, platonic soulmates


• Malina + Alik, insomnia


• Anyone But You (The Enadar Version) [Felise/Enadar + Alik]


• Disbelief (Enadar Take Two) [Felise/Enadar + Alik]


• Alik + Malina + Enadar, finding someone to love


• Clint/Natasha, Remy + OMC, I will not take from you and you will not owe


• For the Hundredth Time, I'm Not Marrying Your Brother [Lisea + Malina]


• Katya, dodging the matchmaker


• Alik + Vred, platonic soulmates + pillow fight


• Whistler + Stratford + Dare, platonic soulmates


• Cameron/Verina, trying to sleep with a new baby in the house


• Alik + Enadar, dogs and cats


• Forsythe/Stasia, a relationship in 5 kisses


• Katya, cuddles


• Katya, stealing the remote control


• Alik + Vred, a genetic recessive who doesn't have/show a soulmark


• The Danger of Discussing Marriage with Your Best Friend [Cadence/Dare]


• Another Cadence/Dare "Pillow" Fight


• My husband became a shepherd to me / I became a shepherdess to him


• Already Through [Vred/Malina]


• Cadence/Dare, You gotta make your own stuff work


• Lisea + Alik, Emotions aren't that hard to borrow / When love is a word you haven't learned

scribble_myname

• Anyone But You [Felise/Enadar]


• Crazy [Agents of Shield, Bobbi/Hunter]


• Five Cups of Coffee and a Stack of Pancakes [MCU/The Unusuals, Bobbi/Walsh]


• Marrying Into the Family [Felise/Enadar + Malina + Lisea]


• It's Only Natural [X-Men, Remy + Scott]


• Speculation [MCU, Steve + Clint/Natasha]


• When All Else Fails, Walk the Dog [616, Clint]


• Burn Your Kingdoms Down [Kingdoms & Thorn, Sear]


• There Is That [Felise + Enadar]


• Mixed Feelings [Felise/Enadar]


• I'm Not a Flirt, It's Just the Way I Talk [X-Men, Rogue/Remy]


• On the Properties of Love [Kingdoms and Thorn, Justus/Rachelle]


• Toto, We're Not in the Multiverse Anymore [X-Men/Narnia, Kitty]


• Almost Soulmate [Vred + Alik]


• Secrets [The Unusuals, Walsh/Beaumont]


• Picking the Family Pet: Spouse Supervision Required [Original]

Comments

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[blamesthepen.livejournal.com]

“You could have,” Dare said, accent thick. Stratford turned to look at him. “You could have found an understanding woman if you hadn't taken me in.”

Stratford grimaced. “You do not get to blame yourself for me remaining single. That is my fault, not yours, and to be honest, as much as I find women very attractive—spare me that look, I know I've seen you stare at a girl or two in your time and you are old enough now to consider marriage—I have been quite set for companions in life.”

“Your crusade is not a companion. Or a substitute."

“Now you sound like Whistler,” Stratford told him. He shook his head. “With him as a brother and friend and you as my son, what need have I of anyone else in my life?”

Dare leaned back with his drink, managing to shrink his lanky form into the chair, and did not answer. Either he believed Stratford should be as happy with a wife as Whistler was or Dare was having troubles with a girl of his own.

“Who is she?”

Dare shook his head. “If there was a she to discuss, I'd discuss her with Whistler, not you.”

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[scribblemyname]

So commented on the wrong comment, but this whole bit is very interesting.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[blamesthepen.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I was actually having a hard time writing Dare as an adult, which is not really a good sign because that's when most of the story takes place unless this turns into a mess like Quinn and Candelaria's did.

I just really enjoy the byplay between Stratford and Whistler.

Though I missed a more obvious pair of platonic soul mates in Flint and Enya.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[scribblemyname]

Write it!

And if the backstory interests you more, seriously, write that. It might help to not stress about the part you're not writing and enjoy the part you are.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[blamesthepen.livejournal.com]

I probably will but I need to do a little rereading first. I haven't looked at anything Fire & Water since my last "going to destroy everything I've ever written" mood.

I am just afraid when I get into it, I'll have books worth of stuff when he's a kid like I do for Alik, Malina, & Enadar or whole plotlines when they're kids that I feel are necessary as in Quinn and Candelaria's story but that make getting to the main story difficult. There's always so much back story with me because I'm obsessed with where we came from shaping who we are and then there's too much and no one wants it but me because I think it all matters.

*sigh*

There are a few things in Dare's childhood that are necessary, though. I do need to write them.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[scribblemyname]

I don't think you're the only one who wants it. I think you're the only one who wants it in one story.

It's a series. Think of it like a series and write it like that. Then you can jump in everywhere. There a ton of series that go into the whole life but not many single books.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[blamesthepen.livejournal.com]

I just feel like it all matters

Most of my stories seem to be one-offs, though. I don't do well with series despite all my longing for sequels. It's worked only a handful of times.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[scribblemyname]

Not all series are composed of standalones, think Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones or the list goes on. It's all important. Great. Just split into books and you are already writing series.

I think your series/sequels only fail because you think of them as standalone books and try to shoehorn your sprawling stories into a shape they don't fit. The "prequel" and "backstory" stuff you write are previous books in a storyworld, whether you intended them that way or not. And they work. They just don't work shoehorned into the present day material.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[blamesthepen.livejournal.com]

I don't know those series. One of them I've heard is full of sex and violence and so I won't be knowing it.

I don't know why any of the backstory would be of interest without the main story, though.

And the main story doesn't make sense without it. Splitting it doesn't work.

I should have stuck to not writing. I don't think I can make this work. My friend is half-done with the cover and I was going to put it on my site as a serial, but I'm starting to feel the need to burn stories again.

I hate this. And myself a little (a lot) right now.

Re: Because it works for this and I may have to do another... 2

[scribblemyname]

Ah. Well, I simply mentioned them as 15+ books to tell a single story arc examples. I'm not and never will be reading any of them either.

The backstory IS interesting without the main story because it's the beginning of the story, just like any story is interesting for you to read it at all before you're done with the book.

The main story needs the backstory to feel whole and have everything come together, so you need it all.

Okay, I'll throw the old term at you. Serial fiction. Comics work this way. You buy a comic book and it tells a bit of the story, however much fits in the book, but it doesn't tell the whole thing. You have to buy the next volume and keep reading.

Your stories are like that. They're huge and serial and for logistical reasons don't fit in a single 1200 page volume because hello, just no, too much for a reader, but they fit in say four 300 page volumes, which all function as a single story. This is a common way of writing a series.

There's no help for it. Some stories are just bigger than one reader-handleable novel can contain.

Your Untouchables series worked well like this. Your original fiction works well like this.

And you can drop a backstory volume whenever you want. This is what roughly half of all long series out there are already like. Series that can be read out of order or that make sense without the first few pieces are actually the minority unless you want to talk children's fiction, which you're not writing.


ETA: Just remember, this is all information, data. Do as you please with it, but if you don't know, you can't take advantage of it. If it helps, use it. If it doesn't, discard it.