Writing

[shapinglight]

I have a couple of days off, so I've been trying to do some writing. Not much luck so far, I'm afraid. First, I spent five minutes staring at a blank document, but inspiration failed to strike so I had a look through my documents folder. Came across a drabble I'd tried to write which still looked promising, but I can't make it work. Then I found what I'd written of a Darla historical fic back in January, wrote another twenty words or so and gave up. Apparently, I'm not in the mood.

Prompts, anyone? I can't even think of anything porny.

That said, I think the next story in my Spike/Giles retelling season 7 series may be ready to post. I just need to read it through one more time and make sure the bit of tinkering I did this morning really works. If it does, fine, if not, I'll have to tinker again. Either way, I'll post it tomorrow. And then the scary bit starts because I have to work out what happens next.

Oh fic writing brain, why won't you work?

But prompts would be good. Can't promise to write them, but I don't seem to have any ideas of my own.

ETA: re: prompts, at Writerconuk, as a result of brutti_ma_buoni's prompts talk, I realised that the sort of prompts that work best for me are the 'what if' sort. I'm not so good with single word-type prompts.

Comments

[sueworld2003.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, sorry to hear you're still not in the mood. :( Looking forward to reading your Spike/Giles fic though.

Ring you at 7.30?

[quinara]

Ooh, freeform prompting! How about Buffy and/or Illyria + Spike's music collection?

I'm sorry the writing's not easy at the moment! I'm having a bit of a block with various things where I can't seem to find the angle that makes me want to tell the story, rather than just be content with it in my head. On top of that, with Fag Ends, I keep on having Boggy's problem where the prompts keep prompting me away from Spuffy! (Mostly to Dawn, in fact, with these fireworks...)

[shapinglight]

Yes, that's fine.

[shapinglight]

I'm afraid the fireworks prompts aren't working for me at all, which is not the fault of the prompts. It is difficult sticking with Spuffy, especially when you're not feeling it, which I haven't for a while (though I don't think I'm done with it either).

I think you might have to be a bit more specific with the prompt. In fact, remembering brutti_ma_buoni's talk at Writercon, I probably should edit my post a bit.

[quinara]

Oh, yes, forgive me for running straight to the 'red, silk, beheading' line of things! (They're possibly the sort of prompts I like?) How about instead 'Illyria is confused by Spike's habits [or his music collection, if you want something specific, but anything Spike does is fine!]; what if Buffy was forced to explain?' I suppose that's sort of pushing you towards Spuffy, but, er, I can't help it?

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

Well, after my last mod post I got a lot of requests to write more Season 6 with Lydia the watcher in it. But I've not been motivated to do so.

Here's a spuffy what-if: What if Buffy went to Willow with her secret, rather than Tara?

[ruuger]

I can't think of a good prompt right now, but have you ever checked out comment_fic? They have a new themed prompt post up every day, and you can browse the delicious archive for old unfilled prompts by fandom. Here's the list of unfilled Buffy prompts, for example (you may need to refresh the page a few times because there are so many links).

Re: Lydia

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

What! You're done with the old girl already? Heh. That was a sweet little piece, though... I'm pretty thrilled that I got you to do it so I wouldn't have to! *iz lazy*

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty excited to hear that there's imminent Spike/Giles! That'll hit the spot.

Of course, ever since you mentioned that you've not done much Faith, I've wanted to see your version of Spike and Faith intersecting at some point. I keep thinking that a post-Lover's Walk meeting might be interesting, as Faith barely appears for the five episodes following. (Licking her wounds from Revelations, no doubt.) What's she been up to? Something circa Who Are You? is another natural place. I know there are a few versions of that out there, but yours would be different and exciting, I think.

[ex_peasant441]

I'm hopeless at thinking up prompts. My mind invariably goes to kitchen products and won't leave it.

What if...

Giles discovered he wasn't British.

Wes got a message to 'ring home: urgent! re your... (illegible)'

Spike had to fight Darla for the last hair dye in the shop

\o/ prompts prompts prompts!

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

What if Spike had never bleached his hair?

What if the world was ending in two weeks time? (or however I phrased it in the prompts thing)

What if Drusilla disliked the colour of the bridesmaids' outfits?

[avidrosette.livejournal.com]

What if Spike took a breather from Sunnydale during the s6 angst and ran into Wesley, whose rogue demon hunter phase lasted a bit longer than it did in canon?

What if Spike had to run an errand for Buffy in Bon Temps, LA and met your choice of character from True Blood?

[lyr]

What if Willow's tabula rasa spell was never undone, and the entire gang never got their memories back?

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

What if Giles and Spike had a tea duel in all seriousness and Xander and Willow caught them at it?

[shapinglight]

Oh, yes, forgive me for running straight to the 'red, silk, beheading' line of things!

Hee! I like this prompt. I will try to do something with it, if I can overcome my total and utter blahness about writing. ;)

[shapinglight]

Well, after my last mod post I got a lot of requests to write more Season 6 with Lydia the watcher in it. But I've not been motivated to do so.

I enjoyed that story enormously, but I can understand not being motivated to write more (or, in my case, anything). I loved the way it ended and was happy with that, and if that's how you feel yourself, well, you have to go with how you feel.

That what-if is great. It could lead to all sorts of wackiness (or horribly angst, I'm not sure - maybe Willow would go all Dark Willow on Spike's arse. Hmm.)

[shapinglight]

The link's not working at the moment, but hopefully it will later. Thanks very much for that. I'll have a look through it (though of course should have asked this question on Monday, as I'm back at work tomorrow and won't have time to do any writing anyway).

[shapinglight]

I'm pretty excited to hear that there's imminent Spike/Giles! That'll hit the spot.

I hope so.

I do like the idea of writing Spike and Faith, but to be honest am scared of attempting Faith. Once I got my head around it, it was relatively easy for me to try and write in Buffy's POV (though no doubt I make her too 'British'), but it helps that characters superficially like Buffy are a staple of American TV shows and can be familiar to someone like me that way. Faith, however, is a very different kettle of fish. Hmm.

[shapinglight]

The middle one is interesting. Thanks.

Re: \o/ prompts prompts prompts!

[shapinglight]

What if Drusilla disliked the colour of the bridesmaids' outfits?

Heh! I could probably get a short Wedding From Hellverse fic out of that one. And I do like the end of the world one. :ponders:

[shapinglight]

What if Spike had to run an errand for Buffy in Bon Temps, LA and met your choice of character from True Blood?

I rather like the idea of Spike/Lafayette, but whatever I wrote would probably be even more of a horrible caricature of the Deep South than TB already is. ;)

Spike meeting Wesley the inept demon hunter would be great fun.

[shapinglight]

I like that one a lot. Plus, it gives me an excuse to rewatch the episode. :)

[shapinglight]

A tea duel? I like the sound of it, but what are the rules? Or could I just invent them?

[ex_peasant441]

Hope you can write today :)

I'm sending good vibes your way.

[shapinglight]

Thanks. I'm just about to post the story.

[ex_peasant441]

Well done. I'm looking forward to seeing the final version.

[shapinglight]

Just to let you know, I managed to write something with your prompt. Probably not what you were thinking of - if fails the Bechdel Test miserably, for a start - but hopefully it'll raise a bit of a smile.

[quinara]

Oooh, yay!! And don't worry; it wasn't really a Bechdel-appropriate prompt - I just like seeing Buffy and Illyria interact, and Spike seems like the most sensible way of getting people who aren't mildly mad like me to bring them together... ;)

[shapinglight]

Better warn you again, it may be sexist too.

:worries:

[quinara]

!! I'm sure it isn't - though I could always give you my opinion before you release it to the wide, cruel internets, if you feel like sending it to me? I'm not about to hold it against you! (Hell, I posted my fic where a particular perspective has me appropriating a religious holiday not my own in the name of comedy and domestic fluff with white characters... So far people seem to be seeing it the way I saw it, as not that?)

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Tea duels are much fun, as I can attest to having duelled on the weekend.

The rules are that you face your opponent down across a table, each of you with a cup of hot, milky, tea in front of you, dunk your regulation rich cream tea biscuit into the tea up to a minimum of 3/4 of the biscuit length for a count of five seconds. Then you pull your biscuit out and the last person to eat the biscuit without having it splosh all over them is the winner. Managing to eat the biscuit is called a 'Nom'.

You must eat the biscuit for it to be counted as a Nom; even if your opponent's cookie crumbles before yours, if you fail to eat yours whole neither of you Nom and there is no winner.

Very silly, much fun to be had, and really difficult if you get a fit of the giggles half-way through :-D

[shapinglight]

Ah. Yes, I can see that working. It could be a follow on to my marmalade drabble with Spike/Giles and a clueless Buffy. :)

[shapinglight]

I think it may be sexist in the way those annoying TV adverts are sexist in which the women are wise and know everything and the men are basically gibbering idiots.

I'll try tweaking it a little, but suspect there's no getting away from it entirely.

[quinara]

Oh yeah, I know what you mean. I think with that sort of thing it's all about how you dress it up; I doubt your prose is going to be espousing gender essentialism even if the characters fall into role for a day or whatever.

[shapinglight]

I'll try and tweak it so it's more obviously Buffy playing along. I'm trying to stick to 1000 words, though, in case I can use it on Fag Ends next month.

[quinara]

in case I can use it on Fag Ends next month

Hee!! Sneaky...

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

What If prompts are AWESOME! I can only write drabbles, and they HAVE to be what if, or I can't write it. At all. :-) It just kickstarts my brain at least. So I hope it worked out for you!

[shapinglight]

It did actually. I've managed to write a couple - a short fic and a drabble - and am now hanging on to both of them for a few days before posting, in case I feel I can improve them.