We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far

Okay, I am going to write a January books post even if I feel like I haven't finished anything.

Recent: Because I have in fact finished The Ironmaster's Tale, Swordheart, and Blood and Ember. Swordheart was on hold for most of December because the climax had a lot of emotions and I did not feel up to that. But I did in fact get myself to finish things, one of which was not a reread. Also some fic.

Current: I borrowed Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft from a friend and I have been reading so many game sourcebooks. Also Grizelda's Guide to Ghost Hunting, which I bought last October from Bundle of Holding and then completely forgot about, whoops. It's very good.

I am halfway through a bunch of things, some of which are getting regularly picked up and some not so much. Nature Tales for Winter Nights edited by Nancy Campbell has some nice sections.

I did in fact start Middlemarch, through the Serial Reader app, which has segments a little shorter than full chapters. However it's been a while since I caught up so we'll see. I do really like it, although in a "/o\ oh my godddddd Dorothea" sort of way.

Future: I have a book on Chinese knotwork, although currently my nonfiction reading brain is taken up with TTRPGs. And on the theme of ghosts I might reread The Bone Key by Sarah Monette.

Sometime this month my holds on Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa and The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong should come in.

Oh, also I finished a Discworld ficlet yesterday.

I have two more threesentenceficathon fills, and the longer ones from the last post are now on AO3. I may put up a very short recs post tomorrow.

These are both more or less original fiction.

( Vaguely-Slavic fairy tale )

( Four Apples )

Okay, so last year when I was taking a break from writing I got an idea for a novel set in Toronto in 1920, and that’s been brewing ever since. Here’s my various posts about it on tumblr. (That link works on desktop but may not work if it tries to open in the app, because Tumblr Is A Functioning Website.) And then this October icannotreadcursive made a list of original character prompts, so I did a few of those, and generally it was a fun thing to think about at work even for the ones that didn’t get written down. Although they are also all in the tag above, here’s the links separately:

Day 3: In a cherished memory (Josie)

Day 4: Waking up from a nightmare (Fred and Tom)

Day 10: In a different time period (Modern AU, everyone)

Day 16: Expressing or exploring their spirituality (Verry, definitely not doing that)

Day 24: Being cared for by someone they love (Verry, Tom, and Fred)

And earlier this month I also posted a ficlet for Band Sinister by K. J. Charles.

I am also in trickortreatex, but I haven't opened my gifts yet so I will post about that after the anon period.

The threesentenceficathon is now closed for prompts, but remains open for fills forever. Here’s some more of mine, in all different fandoms; I will eventually post the last bunch of them once I’m sure there’s not going to be any more.

( The Old Guard )

( Our Flag Means Death )

( Snow White (Disney) )

( Marvel Comics )

( This Is How You Lose the Time War (El-Mohtar & Gladstone) )

( Batman Comics )

( Goodbye Earl - The Chicks )

( Original D&D-ish fantasy )

Ficlets so far for Whumptober 2021 and Comfortween Rerun. AO3 versions have generally been slightly edited.

1st: Every Claim You Stake
Wandavision, Agatha Harkness & Wanda Maximoff, warnings for lots of Wandavision spoilers and the kind of themes you’d expect if you’ve watched Wandavision. On Tumblr | On AO3

3rd: slut pride
Definitely not actually whump. Clint/Natasha/Bucky, about as E-rated as you can get in less than 60 words. On Tumblr

5th: Trading In
Now with actual whump! Clint & Natasha, pre-canon, broken nose and first aid. On Tumblr | On AO3

11th: (not) Waving
Clint/Bucky, nightmares, warnings for drowning, torture, and standard Winter Soldier backstory, but everyone’s safe now. On Tumblr | On AO3

17th: Don't Move
The Old Guard, Andy/Quynh, graphic depictions of severe injury, canon typical character death. On Tumblr | On AO3

This is going up too late for Three Sentence Ficathon, and too early for any drabble challenge that I know about. (seasonsofdrabbles is the big one.) But, well, now is when it was finished.

And I like short fiction for its own sake. I like writing it, I like seeing a prompt, having an idea, writing, finishing, and posting within an hour or two. I like editing something to absolutely polished, shining prose levels in a way that is impossible or at least enormously time consuming for longer works. I like having five different ideas in my head and being able to write all of them, if I want to.

Also, there's a pandemic on, and even before then things were stressful. Sometimes 100 words is all you've got. Doesn't mean you shouldn't write those 100 words anyway. It can feel like it; but drabbles are worthwhile fics in themselves. For that matter, sometimes these days all I can read is 100 words.

So first of all, a note on terminology. A drabble is exactly 100 words long.* That is inherent in its definition. A work of fiction which is not exactly 100 words long is not a drabble. This is my hill and I will die on it.

But there are lots of other very short stories. One sentence fiction, twitfics, 55 fiction, 60 word stories, three sentence fiction, 221bs, double drabbles, triple drabbles (etc.), and all kinds of counted-word and non-counted fiction. In fandom these can all be generally called ficlets.**

I have posted over 30,000 words of very short fiction in the last ten years, including over 70 drabbles.

Most of this advice is going to be relevant to all ficlets. Some of it is more relevant to counted-word fiction, by which I mean stories that have a mandatory exact wordcount, whether it's 60 words or 100 words or 221 words.***

So, there are two main problems when writing very short fiction: subject matter and details.


Subject Matter: Narrow Your Scope
( Read more... )

Trust Your Audience
( Read more... )

The Details: Fiddling with Contractions
( Read more... )
This process is sometimes frustrating and can feel like you're making the story worse for the sake of an arbitrary wordcount. And you can stop at any point, and say, no, the original was better, I'll just post it at 107 words. But in general, this process—this thinking, in depth, about the sound and purpose of every single word and phrasing and sentence and how they work together—this is how you improve your prose style. In all writing, not just drabbles.

Not that hyperconcise bare-bones prose is necessarily better. It's not. It's also not actually necessary, even in drabbles. And of course different kinds of short fics, like three sentence fics, encourage a very different style.

And you may write three drabbles, say "Fuck this format," and never write another one. The point is not writing one specific way. The point is paying attention to how you write, learning different ways to write, and then deciding if you like them.

Drabbles are one way of challenging yourself as a writer. They're prose, but in some ways they work the same as poetry does. They're quick, they're fun, and they make you think about your writing in a different way. Try some. Post them. Have fun.

Also on AO3.

( Footnotes: just more of me being pedantic, do feel free to ignore. )

So I have realized, or remembered, that the reason it's hard for me to write longform these days is because of my living situation, which means it is not my fault and I don't need to feel guilty about it (\o/) but also that there's not much I can do under the circumstances to fix it (/o\). A while ago Gretchen McCulloch talked about how when everyone started working from home there were lots of articles on how to adjust for people who were used to working in offices, but not many for people who were used to working in coffeeshops. There were even fewer for people who were used to writing on the subway. It is warming up really quickly here, though, so it's theoretically possible I could start writing outside soon.

Anyway. Here is a twitter thread of my recentish femslash, idea from doctornerdington.

And here are my Three Sentence Fics up to today.

( Greek Mythology (2) )

( Narnia (3) )

( Marvel )

( The Old Guard )

( The Enchanted Forest Chronicles )

Having another round of Pandemic Exhaustion but here are more 3 Sentence Fics.

Another one at be_compromised. They are also having a Valentine's Mini Promptathon until the end of the month.

( MCU )

And at rthstewart's:

( Slightly Scandalous by Mary Balogh )

( Captain America (2) )

( Hamlet )

( And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie )

( Harry Potter )

( The Old Guard )

So for MFDE I wrote genderswap Clint/Nat mission fic.

And here is the thing I have been working on for forever:

Title: Growing Seasons
Rating: E
Universe: Marvel
Characters: Clint Barton, Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanov
Warnings/Enticements: Historical AU, Post-American Civil War, Farming, Domestic Chores, Blizzards, Slow Burn, Sharing a Bed, Angst, PTSD, Polyamory, Past MCD, Past Steve/Bucky, Background Dark Themes, Period Typical Attitudes, Future Explicit Sexual Content
Summary: “I’m sorry for imposing on you like this,” the stranger said, pulling his scarf down to reveal dark stubble and a surprisingly pretty mouth. “But the storm came up sudden, and I got no idea where the nearest town is. Could you point me in the right direction?”
“You won’t make it in this storm,” said Clint. “Stay until it blows over, it’s no trouble.”
Word Count: 2787 this chapter; 20k total

On AO3

More Three Sentence Ficlets!

( Original Science Fiction )

( Discworld )

( Mulan )

( Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead )

( Agent Carter )