Yuletide reveal!
Jan. 4th, 2021 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eccentric_hatI wrote two stories and received two stories for Yuletide this year! I want to make a recs post but in the meanwhile here are the two I wrote:
This was my assignment. I didn't have any particular ideas when I offered this fandom, but I thought the original article was funny, and my WIP is also taking place in the late 60s, so I thought it might be an opportunity to explore that period further. I felt a little at sea when I actually matched on this fandom and my recipient didn't make any specific requests. I considered writing for another of their requested fandoms. But it did seem like writing for such a micro-fandom might be a gift, so I did some digging around. To call it "research" would be excessive. Mostly I listened to the first season of "13 Minutes to the Moon," which gave me a nice historical grounding in the Apollo 11 mission and what led up to it. I spent one particular cold, windy Sunday afternoon walking around Bde Maka Ska and either crying about the Apollo 8 mission or having the wind prick tears out of my eyes, it was hard to tell which. I mention that day because it's a little wild that it resulted in...this.
The actual story was entirely based on the thought "Michael Collins seems like a pretty grounded person." Once I found that, it was one of the easiest things I've ever written, and by far the most ridiculous. My friend caminante has already recruited a full cast and recorded this for a Voiceteam challenge, and I can't wait to hear what they did with it.
The other thought that inspired this fic was just that I still like Morwen a lot, and the only thing that has changed is that I've admitted I'm not her; also, there are a number of times she or Telemain says that they're friends but haven't seen each other for a long time, and I didn't see why.
It turned out that Morwen was kind of a tricky protagonist, because I didn't want there to be anything wrong with her, so I didn't know how to give her a character arc. I don't know if Wrede had this issue, but it might explain why Morwen's personal stakes in book 3 are so low even when the large-scale plot stakes are so high: she was personally doing fine from the beginning, and at the end she still is. Someone disapproved of her, but they were wrong. I didn't want to reproduce that same problem, but I also didn't want to create a situation where someone was in love with her and she was too dumb to realize it, or thought nobody could love her. I'm reasonably pleased with the final product, where she and Telemain haven't been seeing much of each other because he thinks he's been rejected already and she thought he was being avoidant and weird. (Also, Telemain is pretty bad at talking about feelings, and Morwen usually dispenses with it as unnecessary.) It's still a misunderstanding, but it's based on an attempt at respecting each other instead of low self esteem. Also, it occurred to me when I was done that in this version of events, these two might still not get around to getting married until they're in their forties, but at least they won't be avoiding each other at opposite ends of the forest. Also, I had to come up with a lot of plot, and I left myself little time to do it in! I think I might finally be gaining some proficiency in plotting, which is nice.
Amazing! This Secret Meeting Between President Nixon and the Apollo 11 Astronauts Was Almost Lost to History (1151 words) by Eccentric_Hat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: This Speech Was Written For President Nixon To Deliver If The Astronauts...(Clickhole)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Richard Nixon, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins
Additional Tags: Don't Have to Know Canon, although canon is a two-minute read
Summary: The astronauts have braved the spooky dangers of space, jumped around on the moon, seen zero monsters, and returned to satisfy Richard Nixon's great and terrible desire for moon rocks.
This was my assignment. I didn't have any particular ideas when I offered this fandom, but I thought the original article was funny, and my WIP is also taking place in the late 60s, so I thought it might be an opportunity to explore that period further. I felt a little at sea when I actually matched on this fandom and my recipient didn't make any specific requests. I considered writing for another of their requested fandoms. But it did seem like writing for such a micro-fandom might be a gift, so I did some digging around. To call it "research" would be excessive. Mostly I listened to the first season of "13 Minutes to the Moon," which gave me a nice historical grounding in the Apollo 11 mission and what led up to it. I spent one particular cold, windy Sunday afternoon walking around Bde Maka Ska and either crying about the Apollo 8 mission or having the wind prick tears out of my eyes, it was hard to tell which. I mention that day because it's a little wild that it resulted in...this.
The actual story was entirely based on the thought "Michael Collins seems like a pretty grounded person." Once I found that, it was one of the easiest things I've ever written, and by far the most ridiculous. My friend caminante has already recruited a full cast and recorded this for a Voiceteam challenge, and I can't wait to hear what they did with it.
Finer Points of Enchanted Sword Logistics (7826 words) by Eccentric_HatMy first-ever fix-it fic! I had the idea for this one back in the summer, when I reread the books for the first time in many years. I've always felt kind of dissatisfied with the ending of the series, and now that I know the last book was written first, and could reread with that knowledge top of mind, it was obvious how much the previous books were engineered to make the fourth one possible. Talking to Dragons revolves around a magic sword that is loyal to the kings of the Enchanted Forest, so the previous books had to establish the forest, the sword, and also the total absence of anybody besides Daystar who could wield it. The royal family of the Enchanted Forest is thus killed off with ruthless offscreen efficiency: Mendanbar's parents died for separate reasons when he was a teenager, he had no siblings, and there is absolutely no one else in that family until he gets married. BUT they simultaneously establish that he's king because he was chosen; in book 2 it actually says he considers himself lucky to have followed his father to the throne. So who else might have gotten it? And where have they gone? And isn't there any possibility that one of them could have helped shorten the sixteen agonizing years that pass in canon with everything in limbo?
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Morwen/Telemain
Characters: Morwen (Enchanted Forest), Telemain (Enchanted Forest), Cimorene (Enchanted Forest), Willin (Enchanted Forest), Kazul (Enchanted Forest), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It
Summary: In which a witch and a magician consider alternate methods for saving the king of the Enchanted Forest.
The other thought that inspired this fic was just that I still like Morwen a lot, and the only thing that has changed is that I've admitted I'm not her; also, there are a number of times she or Telemain says that they're friends but haven't seen each other for a long time, and I didn't see why.
It turned out that Morwen was kind of a tricky protagonist, because I didn't want there to be anything wrong with her, so I didn't know how to give her a character arc. I don't know if Wrede had this issue, but it might explain why Morwen's personal stakes in book 3 are so low even when the large-scale plot stakes are so high: she was personally doing fine from the beginning, and at the end she still is. Someone disapproved of her, but they were wrong. I didn't want to reproduce that same problem, but I also didn't want to create a situation where someone was in love with her and she was too dumb to realize it, or thought nobody could love her. I'm reasonably pleased with the final product, where she and Telemain haven't been seeing much of each other because he thinks he's been rejected already and she thought he was being avoidant and weird. (Also, Telemain is pretty bad at talking about feelings, and Morwen usually dispenses with it as unnecessary.) It's still a misunderstanding, but it's based on an attempt at respecting each other instead of low self esteem. Also, it occurred to me when I was done that in this version of events, these two might still not get around to getting married until they're in their forties, but at least they won't be avoiding each other at opposite ends of the forest. Also, I had to come up with a lot of plot, and I left myself little time to do it in! I think I might finally be gaining some proficiency in plotting, which is nice.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-11 02:14 pm (UTC)