monday.

Nov. 6th, 2023 07:14 pm
sunfright: Logan Marshall-Green with the text  "fuck". (warrior)




With some nice encouragement, I got started. THE YEAR OF THE WOLF is now on AO3, well, the first ten poems are. I'm filing away at the sheer amount of days as we speak and will try to get the rest of January up tonight, but can't make any promises. There's a lot.

This is the one fic where I will really encourage people to note the warnings. Although it's not as such a graphic story, it works with some themes that could be triggering, so please keep that in mind.

This is the first ever novel length project I've written. It's honestly my baby. I'm proud of it and would love comments and kudos, of course, but I'm also very open to constructive criticism, so if there's anything you've got thoughts on, please let me know!

This has come such a long way.


monday.

Nov. 6th, 2023 05:58 pm
sunfright: A page from Renée Vivien's 1904 edition of "Une femme m'apparut" with edits in ink. (eternal edits)




Okay, the Omina fic I wrote this spring? I really need to get it out of my system at this point, I feel like I can't truly move on to other writing projects until that one is done.

So, the next couple of days I'll do some formatting of the text and upload it to AO3. The only question is, what order do I upload it in?

The story consists of 365 prose poems, one prose poem for every day in the year. The prose poems tell a chronological story, so they have to go up in the right sequence. In my core text, each chapter covers a month, so about 28-31 prose poems, but I'm considering uploading each poem/day on its own, as its own chapter.

What are your thoughts, wise people on my friends' list. How do you think it would be most easy/comfortable to read? By the day or by the month? If I upload it a day at a time, the month will be inditated in the title/subject line thingy, so you'll still know whether you're reading for, say, March or May.

Each day/poem is about-ish 250 words long, by the way. If that makes a difference.

Help me, friends-list Kenobi!


monday.

Oct. 30th, 2023 02:11 pm
sunfright: Logan Marshall-Green with the text  "fuck". (triumph)




I'm not dead, there's just been a lot. I'm not gonna get into it. Important point: I'm not dead. Let's have a fresh start instead.



Because November is approaching, just two(-ish) more days to go and there'll be kick-off writing parties both at my local library and online in the evening. I've been through a lot of ideas and ended up discarding them all, having now landed on a (surprise) original idea - as in, not fanfiction, all ideas are, of course, original to some extend - for the first time in a couple of years.

New default icon thanks to that.

About loving the France I know and being indifferent to the France I don't... Also, a lot of writing talk, feel free to skip. )

Anyway, that is my plan for November. I am going to "pants" this novel into fruition, which means I'll write the start I have in mind, not worry too much about planning the rest and just write stuff as it occurs to me. It'll probably be messy and unstructured and the first draft is no doubt going to be chaos, but that is a learning experience, too, and it's not like I'm going to show this story to anyone except my girlfriend anyway, haha. She is forgiving of my messes and I can afford not to be too perfectionistic or pedantic with her. She can take it.

The question is, can I?



I've picked this icon by [community profile] bemybrokenheart for this post, because I hope the Arc de Triomphe will spiral me to NaNo victory and triumph with this story. If not, well, it's a very pretty icon.

That's it, people. This is me, being back. Hope you missed the endless rants about writing and story-developing and character gushing. If not, I don't know how to help you.


monday.

Sep. 18th, 2023 01:20 pm
sunfright: Logan Marshall-Green with the text  "fuck". (the craft)





Our weekend trip to Copenhagen went really well. K. had booked a hotel very close to the venue and we honestly only walked, like, five minutes to get there which was a big stressor off our shoulders. The hotel itself was super nice and was located in an old town house type of building and kept in an old-fashioned style with 19th century painting-replicas on the walls and such. The restaurant was excellent and the room was beautiful. I haven't slept as well as I did in that bed for years, not kidding you. It was soooooo good.

The performance was amazing. I am still not sold on the sets and costumes, although some of them are okay-ish, I guess, but mostly it felt like a whole cast of eye sores running around in really colourful clothes where the eye couldn't really find rest in anything. The lighting would have been extremely effectful if the colour scheme of the rest had been more demure. I missed the look of the black/white La Sylphide greatly that night.

However, the dancing, storytelling and acting of this performance was through the roof. Completely other level. Especially the first act, oh wow. I loved Stephanie's sylph, she was flimsical and airy and light, very alluring and paired with Alexander Bozinoff's James, I just bought the whole story of his downfall 200 percent. He was a very conflicted and devoted James, devoted to Effy (or trying to be, at least), devoted to his own dreams (the sylph) and devoted to doing what was right, by himself and by his community. In the end, he picks himself and that becomes the end of him. It was amazingly clear and well told.

What really won me over for this cast, though, was Christina Michanek as Madge!! OMG, she was amazing. I completely loved her. She was old and young and magical and a force of nature and strong and ugly and beautiful, all at the same time. Never have I seen a better Madge. She was spectacular. Along with a very strong Effy in Camilla Ruelykke (who, fun note, was actually Effy in the very first production I saw of La Sylphide on stage twelve years ago as well, she has grown so much into the role), this cast was completely on point with everything.

I loved it.

La Sylphide was shown alongside a short Balanchine work called Scotch Symphony and I liked parts of it. Holly danced the lead and she was completely in her A game. So well danced by her. I also really liked the solo Scotch girl danced by Tara Schaufuss, her part was my favourite part. But all in all, it wasn't the best Balanchine I've seen and the ballet itself felt a bit... fragmented. Somehow. Good fun while watching it, not something I'll remember for very long afterwards, except maybe specific moments.



Being back in Copenhagen was lovely, but stressful. Neither K. nor I are strong travellers and walking about with luggage and such is just always a hassle that takes more of our energy than it gives us back. Besides the hotel which was nice, we didn't get to see much. We did a very brief visit to the Glyptoteque, because there were so many people there and I simply couldn't stand it in my head. Ugh. But we did see the familiar sights and that was nice. Then, we got lunch. Lots of walking around, waiting around, then ballet and sleep. Probably not how most people would spend a weekend in CPH, but we do what we must.

I did enjoy myself and I hope we can do just a few more of these kinds of trips in the future.

Not this season, though. Besides La Sylphide there isn't anything I really want to see. Next season, then!



What did happen when we were on our way back by train was that I suddenly, for the first time in almost a week, had a raging urge to work on my Napoli project again, so although I was dead tired once we got off the train and got back to our place, I actually managed to get started on the next scene and today, after a good night's sleep, I even managed to finish it! It's one of the longest scenes in the entire fic and I really like it, I think. I need to read it over again, start to finish, but it ended exactly where I wanted it to and leads onwards seamlessly.

I only need one minor scene now to finish this chapter and then, there's only one more chapter left along with the epilogue and then, I'll be done. I hope to have first drift finished in a couple of week's time.

Still loving the process of working on this very much. Which is a relief, because most of last week, I was done with it.


monday.

Sep. 11th, 2023 06:18 am
sunfright: A page from Renée Vivien's 1904 edition of "Une femme m'apparut" with edits in ink. (eternal edits)





While thinking about how to carry my Napoli story onward, I looked over what I've actually written this weekend and if I'm feeling a little bit fatigued, I can totally see why! OMG, what a spurt. I've written almost two scenes every day since Thursday, much more than I had first anticipated and planned on. So, since I know what a burnout feels like, seeing as I went through a major one on the Omina project, I'll try not to do that again. We're going a little slower, I think, curbing the intensity just a bit from here on out. I have enough time.

And maybe have some side projects to relax with? I've never been particularly good at dividing my focus in terms of my writing, but if I have no real "ambition" with the side projects, maybe it won't feel like I'm taking away from the main one.

I tried it out a little yesterday, sitting down with my copy of A Woman Appeared to Me by Renée Vivien and doing some RP-related character analysis stuff for Vally. Mainly looking through her dialogue in the book. And it kinda rekindled an old idea I had a long time ago of writing a story that takes place within the universe portrayed in Vivien's book, but inviting the character of Lilith from Takarazuka's Lucifer's Tears into it. Lucifer's Tears takes place, like, a couple decades, maybe, after the events of A Woman Appeared to Me, but this is what we have AU's for and honestly, for Lilith's character in particular, it makes no great difference. At the point in canon I'm considering taking her from, she is removed enough from society that whether she lives (or dies) in 1904 or 1924, it should be no biggie, really.



That means, I'm probably gonna take a small break from the Napoli project today, either until I feel so inclined to pick it up again or if not before, then tomorrow.

Instead, I'll be rewatching Lucifer's Tears this morning (well, later this morning, it's 6am here) and see what interesting ideas I might get for the x-over from a revisit. The two canons both deal heavily in symbolism and metaphorical "good and evil" debates, so I think they'll be a natural fit. Not to mention, one of the recurrent themes of A Woman Appeared to Me is snakes and how "the eyes of Lilith can bring them to life again" which would be interesting to explore with a blind Lilith as part of that tale.

I'm imagining this will be another very atmospheric, quiet, sitting around talking a lot story, which just seems to be my style, so what can I do? If it ain't broken, don't fix it.



Made myself a new icon of one of the pages from the original edition of Renée Vivien's A Woman Appeared to Me with her own handwritten edits for the second print. Both because I felt it was fitting with a writing-inspired icon and just because, this book matters so much to me on a personal level that it seemed inevitable I'd eventually get myself an icon relating to it. The icon is made from an image I found on Tumblr, someone had uploaded three pages of the book with Vivien's own notes in ink from the National Library of France and it just looked so pretty...



[tumblr.com profile] returntomytilene

I also really, really need to get my hands on the new translation of this work that was published in recent years. Christmas, this time, I promise.



The general idea for this fic, I guess, is Vally - the love interest of the narrator of A Woman Appareared to Me, a cold, calculating woman who herself claims not to be able to love which is undoubtedly a lie for her own protection, but you know - finds Lilith in the streets and, having just been dumped by the narrator, decides to take her in, because the girl catches her fancy. Lilith actually gets proper medical care thanks to Vally's funds and survives her ordeal and the two, while she recovers, strike up a friendship that should, hopefully, end with Vally having been touched by Lilith's beautiful soul and opening herself up to love. Hurt/comfort, but you're not totally sure who's the hurt one and who's doing the comforting. Thinking this could work well as a series of micro-scenes. Depending on how long it gets, could be for [community profile] tinyfandomflash. There are some good prompts from this year to work with, like Paradise Lost, for example.



Also, listening to this right now (Cécile Chaminade: Arabesque no. 1), for inspiration, because this piece of music will always remind me of the characters in that book, especially Vally.



I guess those were some very early morning thoughts?


August 2024

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