Post-NaNoWriMo Update - March 03, 2017

[amruniel]

Total Words Written: 155.052

Writing went a bit better today. Not really well, nor did it come easy, but certainly better than yesterday. So that's good.
And I hope tomorrow will be even better. (I did stop writing today when I came up with a sketchy idea of what I want to have them to do/say next, so with the addition of using my beloved stretching-session tomorrow to flesh it out more, I might at least have an easy start tomorrow.)

On a completely unrelated note: may I have a short rant here? It's not a very heartfelt one, I promise ;)
So, as you know, I've been studying for an exam last week. Generally speaking the topics covered ranged from the first British settlers arriving at the US shores up to the Massacre of Wounded Knee, covering the Revolution, the Civil War and the settler's treatment of Native Americans. In short: US history (and geography... and a handful of western-movies thrown in for good measure)
Anyway - I crammed my head with tons of facts, names and dates and still didn't really get a couple of the things I had to study (for example, I never really knew what the "Boston Massacre" was, or rather what exactly led up to it, I just memorized the date and the few very basic facts I found in my notes, and didn't have the time to do some research to really understand what was going on).
So, today I thumbed my way through the TV schedule and stumbled about a series of 6 documentations dealing with -yes, you guessed it!- the history of the US beginning with the first settlers arriving. So I figured with all the other bullshit on, I might as well tune in and watch that while working my way through your comments/posts and writing.

And what can I say? If that damn documentation had been aired a week earlier I could have stopped studying because they were not only dealing with exactly the same topics but actually explained even the things I didn't get in a way that I very easily understood (and will actually remember).

Damn you TV schedule-writers! Things could have been sooooooooooo much more relaxed and easy!

Okay, rant over ;)

Comments

[silvan-lady.livejournal.com]

I'd call that Sod's Law, darling! A total pain but hey, now you have even more knowledge for when you write that Early Settlers AU that is lurking in your subconscious just waiting to be discovered!

[amruniel.livejournal.com]

I swear to god you either know me too well (NOT possible!) or you're a mind-reader!

There's been the idea that I'd love to write some historical fiction someday lurking in my brain for the last month or two. Prompted by reading about the Danish invasion of Canterbury, no doubt ;)
And this afternoon, during my customary stretching-slash-me-time, the idea that I could use all my otherwise "useless" knowledge (useless, now that the exam is written and I really don't want to put my study-focus on America once I'll have to chose) to set a possible historical AU in the settlement era. There's so much possibility there!
Vig as an early settler and -of course- rebel, and Orlando as young British soldier sent in to re-establish "order", or both of them settlers trapped by the forces of nature on a cross-country trek, or both of them as explorers running into various difficulties and/or Native Americans in the process, or one of them a Native American, the other a settler, or something set during the Gold Rush, or one a homesteader and the other (working for?) a cattle baron, or them fighting on different sides in the Civil War.
ENDLESS possibilities there!

But now that I'm typing down all these things, I find myself feeling completely overwhelmed with the possible scope of that fic. I'd probably try my hand at it writing in tandem with another person, but alone? Phew. I think I'd get lost.

[silvan-lady.livejournal.com]

You need a plotbunny file and then to store all those ideas in there. Come back to them in a few months and see if one appeals. I do that. The one I'm writing now has been in the plotbunny hutch for eight years!

I wouldn't be so sure about writing a long AU in tandem to be honest. It doesn't always work out the way you think it will. Short things, yes, but a multi-chapter fic, perhaps not.

It can be a great experience, but it can also go very wrong.

[amruniel.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, a plot bunny cage might be a good idea :D
Ideas are piling up these days! (And to think that up until a few months ago my muses had been MIA for YEARS!)

Yeah, I do see the pitfalls and complications of writing something longer with another person as well, but I think it might be an adventure I would love to give a try. (Always has been. Some, if not all, of my favourite non-V/O fics have been written by duos and I always envied them for the possibility to bounce ideas off the other, pitch in if the other hit a tight spot, and just in general work on something together.)

(And honestly, with my tendency to ramble and ramble and ramble on, a co-author kicking my butt and helping to keep things on track might actually make sense and help to get things finished for once :D)

Oh, and by pure chance, I have stumbled upon an article just a few minutes ago where Viggo states that he has always been fascinated by explorers going to uncharted territory.... *giggles* It seems like the man might have cast himself, if the settler-idea ever sees the light of day.