June of Doom & Gloom - Week 3 discussion and etc. post

[huinare]

A slightly belated welcome to the third week of this here.

Have another update/progress/discussion post thing. Any progress in your writing, frustrations, new plot bunnies? Feel free to gab. General discussion question (all welcome, participants or otherwise): Are there particular characters you tend to victimize select more frequently as subject matter when writing sad, scary, or otherwise not-lighthearted stories? or particular groups/settings/time periods? Put another way, are there certain characters who just can't seem to catch a break from you in your fanworks?

Comments

[zdenka]

Apparently I like writing angsty stories about Celebrimbor, Tar-Míriel, and OCs. I've mostly been focused on Noldor and Númenoreans lately. Though Tolkien doesn't let his characters be happy very often or for very long, so I feel like you could pick names out of a hat if you wanted -- everyone has angst potential. :)

I haven't done much for this event this week, because I’ve been working on an exchange fic. I did write a few paragraphs of what is currently labelled "the thing with Feredwen at the Havens of Sirion," wherein two Fëanorian OCs are having a very bad day (and so is everyone else in their vicinity).

[ladybrooke]

With the completely unscientific method of going to my Ao3, looking at my stories labeled angst, and then using the sort and filter thing at the side where it gives you characters: Maglor (12), Turgon (7), Fingon (7), Curufin (6), Fëanor (6), Celeborn (6), Caranthir (5), Maedhros (5), Argon (3), and Finwë (3) are apparently the ten most common. :P

Curufin and Finwë are the only ones that really surprise me on that list - I don't feel like I write Curufin that much. The rest are completely unsurprising for me making them angst. I would have thought Maedhros would be higher though...

I'm not sure it's so much that they can't catch a break from me, as that most of them are the characters I write the most period. To compare: Fëanor (27), Maglor (21), Maedhros (20), Celeborn (18), Orodreth (15), Fingon (15), Celegorm (15), Caranthir (14), Fingolfin (11), and Finwë (8) are my 10 most common period - so there's a lot of overlap.

There has been exactly zero progress. I'm upset and angry atm, and then I hit my head hard on the deck today...

[independence1776]

I'm part of the way through my second draft! (AKA my sister-- who I asked for a subject-specific beta that the first part of my fic depended on-- said I had everything wrong. I took the easy way out and started the fic later rather than completely rewrite the scenes. I'm actually successful in not feeling guilty about that.)

As for characters I pick on… I tend to glom onto certain characters and usually write about them, whether for darker stories or not. So, basically: Maglor.

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

Uh.... well it's turning out a lot *stranger* than I expected ... with a definite element of kink in there. And some pseudo-het and an element of dub-con... so just yeah. :/

There's probably a lesson to be learned somewhere, though what it is idek. Keep me away from the keyboard? Maybe? ::shrugs::

Btw, when do we post? Any special time?

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I've taken my sweet time in leaving a response to my own update posts, for the simple reason that I didn't begin my own fic efforts until late yesterday evening. That didn't seem the best showing for my own challenge, but since I myself stated that it runs all month, I never did violate my own requirements. ;)

I've been pondering some stuff about Mairon/Annatar/Sauron's sojourn in Númenor for a while, so that seemed the evident project to work on now. I originally intended to begin with a short story inspired by Nico's "The Falconer" (this goes with week 2 and the music discussion, really).

The aforementioned song can probably be obliquely blamed for anything I write about Númenor during this month, but what I did end up writing yesterday was just about Mairon-as-high-priest-of-Melkor. Tiny snippet:

“I couldn’t,” the young man apologized.

“Couldn’t what?”

Thrown by the question, the acolyte attempted to find delicate words for the grotesquely obvious, quickly reduced himself to stammering, and concluded with a sudden interest in the floor, “Kill the woman, your reverence.”

“Well, yes, that is apparent.” Mairon’s voice hung artfully suspended between amusement and annoyance. The acolyte, gazing compulsively back upward, noted the same ambiguity in his face. “What aspect of that process prevented your carrying it out?”

I find it worth mentioning that my rough draft of yesterday had the as-yet-unnamed acolyte addressing Mairon as "your holiness." I liked the sort of deadpan irony--even obscenity, if you will--of that title, but I ended up switching it solely on the basis of the cult of Melkor still being in its start-up phase at this point (picture Mairon running it out of Ar-Pharazôn's basement or attic, albeit with the latter's blessing). "Holiness" seemed a bit too lofty, to my mind, given the context. I welcome opinions on that point.

[hhimring]

I try to give everyone a bit of a break, mostly. The ones that get the worst treatment from me tend to get the fluffiest bits as well. As for who, the name of my main series is hardly an accident...

I was sure last weekend I had completely lost it and would never write again. Then I wrote another drabble on Brandir for Tolkien Weekly and a piece about Turin, Sador and Finduilas (with Finrod feels) for the LOTR commmunity challenge--this was unveiled yesterday.
Not certain whether either of these would be gloomy enough to make the grade for your challenge, though, although I guess the end of the Turin fic has a pretty good try.

Msedhros is still stuck on the stairs. I suspect he must be allowed at least to think about Fingon in this fic, otherwise I can't bribe him to do the angsting for me.