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Updates on Current Projects
Apr. 26th, 2010 09:09 pm* Facing Fearful Odds -- Still stalled out on 9-C. Not sure what to do next. Might be time to seek advice from the betas on where to go from here. As I'm getting ready to publish, I find that you can really see the arc of my improvement as a writer over the ten chapters of FFO. The project has taken a year to complete and you can see that. For a long time, I thought Chapter 5 and 6 were the bee's knees, just the best things I'd ever done (because they took so much fucking effort -- I'm looking at you, Chapter 6-A/B). Now I have enough distance to see the seams in the monster's costume.
* The Full Metal Bitch -- Chapter 2 stands at a solid 2,774 words! Hurray! Still not loving having to mash up The Chase and Bitter Work. The Toph/Iroh fight feels like it should be the climactic scene, not at the 1/3rd mark. I'm not sure what the story beats should lead to instead. I do want to cover Toph teaching Aang, and how she's somewhat more philosophical as a teacher in this AU. Going non-linear is one solution, but tricky. I'd like to avoid it if possible. Blocking out the Toph/Iroh fight has also been a bitch -- I hate writing fight scenes. At least the subsequent three chapters (3; The Library -- The Serpent's Pass, 4; The Drill -- The Guru, and 5; The Crossroads of Destiny) have clear arcs.
* Praise Be to Nero's Neptune -- Been doing some more worldbuilding, such as trying to justify the in-story civil war. I'm interested in this project but it'll take a damn long time to write. It's such a major AU that everything needs to be settled before I can leap into it. I'm doing a dry run on some of my ideas for the Siege of Ba Sing Se and Fire Nation/Colonial & Iroh/Ozai politics in Full Metal Bitch. Two of the Big Ideas that have emerged over the course of outlining it have been "What are the consequences if the Balance is destroyed?" and "What if Aang had a whole nation backing him up?". I want to make this story different from FFO, and that latter idea, of the Avatar not traveling but working within the system, appeals to me as a writer.
* Alike in Heart -- I've picked up my Big Bang genderswap again. Got about ~1300ish words in over the past day or so. It's been interesting getting to know Sonna (girl!Sokka) as a character. My main goal in this fic is to avoid writing "Sokka with boobs." If you swapped Zuko's or Aang's or Toph's gender, there really wouldn't be much changed in their character arcs. They've got high enough status (or wealth) that gender isn't as big an issue for their roles in life as it would be for, say, Sokka, Yue or Suki. Gender roles are key to the shape their lives take. Viewing Sokka's basic personality through the lens of motherhood makes for... well, something of a cross between Team Mom, Papa Wolf and a Mad Scientist. Because if Sonna is going to look after her little sister Katara, she's damn well going to figure out a way to teach her waterbending.
* Trying my hand at some short-form fanfic, just as a change of pace. Nothing worth mentioning yet.
* The Full Metal Bitch -- Chapter 2 stands at a solid 2,774 words! Hurray! Still not loving having to mash up The Chase and Bitter Work. The Toph/Iroh fight feels like it should be the climactic scene, not at the 1/3rd mark. I'm not sure what the story beats should lead to instead. I do want to cover Toph teaching Aang, and how she's somewhat more philosophical as a teacher in this AU. Going non-linear is one solution, but tricky. I'd like to avoid it if possible. Blocking out the Toph/Iroh fight has also been a bitch -- I hate writing fight scenes. At least the subsequent three chapters (3; The Library -- The Serpent's Pass, 4; The Drill -- The Guru, and 5; The Crossroads of Destiny) have clear arcs.
* Praise Be to Nero's Neptune -- Been doing some more worldbuilding, such as trying to justify the in-story civil war. I'm interested in this project but it'll take a damn long time to write. It's such a major AU that everything needs to be settled before I can leap into it. I'm doing a dry run on some of my ideas for the Siege of Ba Sing Se and Fire Nation/Colonial & Iroh/Ozai politics in Full Metal Bitch. Two of the Big Ideas that have emerged over the course of outlining it have been "What are the consequences if the Balance is destroyed?" and "What if Aang had a whole nation backing him up?". I want to make this story different from FFO, and that latter idea, of the Avatar not traveling but working within the system, appeals to me as a writer.
* Alike in Heart -- I've picked up my Big Bang genderswap again. Got about ~1300ish words in over the past day or so. It's been interesting getting to know Sonna (girl!Sokka) as a character. My main goal in this fic is to avoid writing "Sokka with boobs." If you swapped Zuko's or Aang's or Toph's gender, there really wouldn't be much changed in their character arcs. They've got high enough status (or wealth) that gender isn't as big an issue for their roles in life as it would be for, say, Sokka, Yue or Suki. Gender roles are key to the shape their lives take. Viewing Sokka's basic personality through the lens of motherhood makes for... well, something of a cross between Team Mom, Papa Wolf and a Mad Scientist. Because if Sonna is going to look after her little sister Katara, she's damn well going to figure out a way to teach her waterbending.
* Trying my hand at some short-form fanfic, just as a change of pace. Nothing worth mentioning yet.
