sunfright | Entries tagged with writing

I signed up for "Unconventional Courtship" a fic challenge where you have to write a fic based on a romance novel (Harlequin-style) summary and I picked one and I've written a fic and I am in a good mood.

Seeing as I have returned to CMBYN hard, my pairing in this fic is Michel/Elio (because they're my favourite), and the (altered) summary I've picked sounds like this:

A gorgeous Frenchman – with a proposal…

Michel is startled to discover that the tenant of his Senlis residence, Elio Perlman, is young, curly-haired and sensational! There is an immediate attraction between them, but despite his family’s premature plans to arrange the wedding of the year, Elio holds back, unable to let go of his past.

But the more time Michel spends with Elio, he sees that beneath his reserved façade there lies a broken heart and painful memories… Michel is determined to be the one man who can make him whole again…

I've written a 3k long fic inspired by this prompt and my posting date is June 4th. I could really use a beta, people! If anyone here is feeling up to giving me some feedback on this 3500 word long fic which is very gen/maaaaybe pg-13 and mostly just two people talking, I would be very, very happy. I'm also going to put an ad up over at

betaplease. I personally don't think you need to be canon-familiar since this is a what if-AU anyway, but always happy to have a beta who has read the books, too.

I made a manip for my pairing with the template available over at

unconventionalcourtship and am insanely happy with the result. Although I prefer the books to the movie, Chalamet will always to some degree be my ideal Elio while I've used Gary Cole as PB for Michel, because reasons.

I've ordered both CMBYN and Find Me in hardback, because now I'm apparenetly a collector. I've also ordered Aciman's newest release, The Gentleman from Peru, which came out a few weeks ago, so I have a whole Aciman collection. I feel obsessed, but it's just so lovely being inspired by something again...

READ-THROUGH #2 AND EDITING, DAY 5, CHAPTER 9 + 10, LEST THEY LEAVE

It's evening now, and it's been a day. I slept really well last night, so much so that I remained tired all morning, falling back asleep between nine and eleven, so I therefore didn't get to do my usual morning editing routine. That has disrupted my day somewhat and I still haven't read over today's chapters a second time, something I'll try to remedy now and the rest of the evening before bedtime.

I'll try posting some thoughts and observations and maybe quotes here.

When I read over chapter nine the first time, I was a bit underwhelmed by its intro, so I added a new opening to it, transitioning seamlessly into what I'd originally started out with. Well, time to check if that holds up, I guess. Here we go.

Well, that didn't work, but I gave it another editing round. The two first sentences I'd inserted did give the smoother transition I wanted, it was just the wording of it I had to rephrase. And there was something in the paragraph following it that also needed tweaking. I think it works now. Will just have to give it a rest and edit it once I do the last read-through on Sunday, if it still needs some.

A couple of hours later, and I read it over again and I like it much better. It's a good chapter start and I think the flow of this whole scene works. Very breezy and kinda over in a flash, like waking from a dream. Very much the impression I wanna give anyway.

Every scene with Sylvie and Armand in it is my favourite scene. This one is no less so. I worry it's a bit on the short side and that it will take away from the impact, but I just really like the very condensed feel of it, the kind of urgency that creates, so... I'll let the betas speak in this matter. If they find it too short, they gotta say so.

I love the whole adventure that Eloisa and Sylvie go on together and I kinda love how I've structured it. Lots of editing done this round, but I'm feeling confident about it, so no need to check and double check. Chapter 10 hereby done and I can start on chapter 11 tomorrow as planned. Getting closer to the finish line.

In non-writing news, I've made an extra X-mas present for my parents tonight, something homemade, a small collage with one of my poems along with a card. All the presents this year are from K. and me together, except this one. This one is just from me to them. I hope they'll appreciate. It was a spontaneous idea, so it might just be silly, but I tried.

K. and I played kalaha tonight while eating delicious cake and having warm drinks (coffee/tea) and it was wholesome, but also I'm completely wiped. I just want to sleep, but I also wanted to have these two chapters done, please and thanks.

I've done it.

I've finished a novel.

17 days after opening the blank Word document and naming it "The Colour of Amber and Gold", not knowing quite what that meant yet, I'm sitting here with 189 pages. 13 chapters. 71.160 words.

I'm honestly amazed with myself. Amazed and proud.

But this also means, I feel like I can finally talk about what I've written, because now I know both where it begins and where it ends. I know the characters, I know the structure of the story.

The long and short of it can be summarized as following: She wanted to be on her way; Paris seemed as good a direction as any. When her distant older brother, Charles, involves her in his plans of ensnaring his wealthy business associate's heir, Armand Dubois, and when Charles' girlfriend, the enticing Italian actress, Eloisa Paolo, also enters the picture, Sylvie Gallard has to slowly realize that wanting to be on your way somewhere can land you in many different places.

That doesn't spoil too much, but it does indicate what kind of fucking journey this writing process has been, what a study in characters, what a study in dialogue, relations and development - in the various characters, yes, but especially in the storyline itself. This is a 'quiet' story, even if it takes place in the Roaring Twenties - or les Années Folles, as it's called in its French setting - I mean, it's me writing it, you can't expect action from me, the drama is all centered on the emotional state of especially Sylvie, so to see virtual explosions and big drama happen from that starting point? It has been such a learning process.

Originally I had intended to include an epilogue, to pick up on especially Eloisa's character, but with the function she has in the story, I decided it wasn't necessary and I didn't mind leaving the reader guessing as to what happens, so it was a bit of a surprise when I, earlier today, sat there with my finished chapter 13, realizing I was actually finished, I was fucking done.

Sure, there's a lot of editing to be done, betas to find and engage, stuff like that... But the bulk of the writing? It's over. That part isn't coming back. What a ride it has been. I'm very, very grateful.

The next coming days, I'll be reading over the novel again, just to get a first impression of it in its entirety, and I hope to share some bits and pieces from it as I go along. ♥

At the moment, the biggest question I'm left with is title. The working title was The Colour of Amber and Gold, but that isn't very catchy. I've thought about just shortening it to Amber and Gold, but that's somehow a bit anonymous and maybe just generic enough... So, I don't know. We'll see. Maybe something pops out at me during the reread. Fingers crossed.

Had my biggest writing spurt so far for this writing project and managed to churn out 7k words in a day, including my two kinda pivotal scenes, the two scenes that originally made me start writing. It's a huge relief, true, but I also feel a little sad that I'm now roughly a chapter from being done with this novel altogether. If I have a just as focused day tomorrow, I should be done before I go to bed.

That's both amazing and really sad to think about.

It's been an amazing process, this round.

Current Music: juice newton - angel of the morning

With everything that's going on with AO3 and OTW, I might simply go back to posting my stuff to assorted journals again. I have a writing journal,

madscenes, where I could post original/ballet-inspired stuff and most of my fandom stuff (CMBYN mostly), I'm not all that attached to, so I might just leave it be. As for my upcoming Omina beast of a novel-length fic, I've just made everything set in that verse its own community,

yearlong, so both "The Year of the Wolf", its still untitled spin-off and various other fics within the same setting will end up there once they've been through the beta grinder and are finished. This is me recognizing that AO3 never was the best place for most of my stuff anyway, because it's not an original fic archive and doesn't work as one such either. I might put the Omina novel up there still - and I might not bother, it depends. I don't expect it to get a lot of readers anyway, so whether it sits here on DW in a lonely community or under a canon header no one besides me would ever search for, same thing.

And if this is the direction OTW is going in and has been going for a while? I don't need that shit. Not enough spoons to deal with it, honestly.

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August 2024