Meta Monday! (On Tuesday...)

[narya_flame]

The SWG's block party challenge for Monday was "go behind the scenes of one of your own fanworks," and I forgot to do it because work.  Today I haven't got the energy to think of a fic and come up with something interesting to say about it, so if anyone wants to play, I'm flinging this open - anything you fancy asking about any of my fanworks, or the characters I write, or why Tolkien, or my writing process in general, go ahead.  Ask as many things as you like, though complicated or multiple questions will take me longer to respond to! Who knows, it might get me into the mindset to write again, because who knows where that has gone lately.

(There are some fun ideas for general writing questions here, but I'm also more than happy to answer specific questions about individual fics.)

Comments

[spiced_wine]

I am interested,, but is it just today, as I am off to bed. Can I ask some tomorrow.

Okay, but now I will ask you what moved you to write about Elemmakil and Voronwë, as they are so rarely written of, (and I love how you write them, too)

More tomorrow, but this while I think of it :)

[narya_flame]

Oh, that one is easy enough to answer! I had actually never considered them together before I wrote Comfort and Joy; I'd thought a little about Voronwë, and I'd written his father Aranwë as Findis's son in my fic Song for the Morning, but it took Marchwriter requesting a Voronwë/Elemmakil fic for Sultry in September for me to go "ooh! Yes!" So really it's all her fault XD

(I always used to think that if I wrote Voronwë with anyone, it would be Tuor, but once I'd started writing him with Elemmakil, that was it. No way back!)

[spiced_wine]

:D Thank you. Now I’ve read them together I think they’re a (rather tragic and poignant) OTP

[narya_flame]

And yes, ask things tomorrow or whenever! <3

[spiced_wine]

Thank you, I will!

[hhimring]

Maybe, talk a bit more about "Into Darkness Fell His Star"?
The Notes already suggest that it has a somewhat complex history>

[narya_flame]

It's been brewing for a long time, to say it is so short! Last year, when I claimed the Maglor in History card for B2MeM 2019, one of the prompts that came up was the death of Gil-galad. I've never thought Maglor was present for that battle, so I wondered about having him involved in the composition of the Lay - but when it was discussed on the SWG Discord, bunn mentioned she's always thought it was composed by someone in Arnor who didn't witness the battle and perhaps didn't know much about Elvish afterlives. The idea made sense; Into Darkness Fell His Star was my way of meshing the two headcanons.

For one reason and another (TRSB, Paradox, and then the big move) I didn't finish the piece in 2019. I felt very called out by the "finish a WIP" prompt in 2020 (not specifically regarding this piece - I have so many WIPs sitting around!) but until I had a play with the SWG generator and got the prompt about a character finishing a song or other creative work, I didn't really have the "aha!" moment I needed to get Into Darkness finished. I reworked it so Maglor appeared partway through the composition process, and inspired my OC bard to finish it.

[hhimring]

Thank you!
It came out really well and seemed to fit the Lay!

[narya_flame]

Oh, thank you, I'm so pleased it worked :D

[spiced_wine]

In Auld Acquaintance

Proust put down the bag, straightened, and folded his arms. “You stood and watched me this way once before, many Ages ago,”

When did Maglor watch him like that? :)

[narya_flame]

Right at the beginning of Pilgrim, after Thorin's funeral. That time, Olórin knew who he was before Maglor showed himself. In Auld Acquaintance I suspect his "form" is less powerful, as he didn't feel or recognise Maglor until he stepped outside his house.

[spiced_wine]

Thank you :)

Another.

When writing Paradox, did the OC’s kind of appear in your mind altogether, or gradually as you wrote? I assume Claire was the first, who was next, Harrison?

[narya_flame]

I've been thinking about Claire for a long time; she's been in my head since I first had the idea for the fic back at uni! But I'm glad I waited to write her, I think I needed a bit of life experience before I could convincingly tackle her struggles with her career and the decisions she ended up making.

The other OCs were added to the party much later. (Actually in very early drafts, Claire lived with a couple of other postgraduates, but they weren't interesting and got dropped quite quickly!) When I seriously started working on the fic, I was neck-deep in nostalgia for my own undergraduate days, and I wanted to bring a bit of that innocence and silliness to the story. It was actually Theo who sprang to life first, I think because I knew so many people like him in St Andrews - daft, well-off, well-meaning idiots. I couldn't figure out why Claire would be living with someone like that, though, unless there was an existing connection, so Harrison came into being pretty swiftly afterwards. Rosie...I'll be honest, I wanted another girl, and then I was slightly disconcerted when she started behaving a lot like 19-year-old me!

Luc just turned up uninvited XD

[spiced_wine]

Aww, that’s so interesting! And yes, Luc was a surprise, but I can’t imagine the story without hi in it, now

[spiced_wine]

When Maglor vanished for several weeks before Christmas and looked, when Claire took him his card, as if he’d been suffering his eyes had a dark, sunken look I hadn't seen there before Do you know where he was?

[narya_flame]

Drifting, I suspect. Once you're out of St Andrews that coastline can get quite wild, and I think he spent more than one night away from his house. Other than that, though, I suspect he was "home", just not making himself visible very often. I don't think he was eating well or taking care of himself; I think he went tumbling into that "black pit" he shows Claire later on, the night Theo ODs and they all find out what he is.

[spiced_wine]

I suspect he was "home", just not making himself visible very often. I don't think he was eating well or taking care of himself; I think he went tumbling into that "black pit" he shows Claire later on, the night Theo ODs and they all find out what he is.

😭 Oh that just makes me weep. I am so glad he never answered off forever

[elwinfortuna]

I would really be interested in hearing what drew you to write fic about Tolkien's works. I think there's many many people who love the Hobbit and LOTR, less who love the Silm, and even less who feel drawn to write fic, so what for you tips it over into "must write fic about this canon" specifically?

[narya_flame]

Ooooooh. Good question :D

I've been making up stories set in Middle-earth since I was a kid. I had no idea there was any such thing as fanfiction; my uncle got me into the Bakshi cartoon when I was a toddler, then bought me the trilogy to read one summer when I was still in primary school. But Middle-earth always felt so real to me - I wanted to go, and I was always a daydreamer, so go I did! (At least in my head.)

I got into reading fanfic in my teens, back in the days of lotrff.com. One day, sitting in my room at uni (first semester, bit overwhelmed, bit lonely) I posted a tiny piece of gen fluff set in Rohan. The bug bit, and that was that.

I think what keeps me writing fanfic, though - and Tolkien fic in particular - is the wonderful community. It's so supportive, and inspirational. Writing ofic, by contrast, feels very solitary, although I do write it a little.

[lilith_lessfair]

Tell me more about Summerland and it’s surrounding ‘verse. Tell me anything you want to tell me about those.

[narya_flame]

Oh my goodness, Summerland :D

Well, as you probably know, that didn't start off as mine. It was actually a complete surprise; Spiced wrote it for me as a gift during the crazy-hot summer of 2018, as a little "what-if" exploring Vanimórë meeting my OC, Claire, from The Ways of Paradox. (Actually she posted it when I was up in Scotland for a friend's wedding, and I was reading it on my phone under the table!) After an encounter with Thuringwethil, Van gave Claire immortality by adding a few drops of his blood to a glass of brandy - not that she knew what he'd done, or that he'd saved her life.

It was supposed to be a one-off, but I was intrigued by the idea of Claire going off to find Maglor under these new circumstances, so different from the ones I explore in Paradox. So I started working on a sequel (Summer's Song), set in Venice. As Spiced and I chatted and bounced ideas around, other thoughts emerged, and she added Coldagnir and Edenel into the original fic in a kind of "coda." For Fandom Stocking 2018, we both wrote each other fics set in that 'verse - Spiced wrote Storm Warning for me, and I wrote Beyond the Portal for her - and I continued to work on Summer's Song.

Annoyingly I lost the notebook containing a lot of my drafts for that fic, so I'm in the process of trying to piece it back together, which is frustrating because nothing I recreate feels as good as I imagine the first draft was! But I adore working on it; it's like going on a mental holiday, writing Maglor and Claire exploring Venice and the islands, and knowing that big events are in motion in the background...

One of my favourite "little" things about that 'verse is the fact that Olórin is back in the world, and he and Maglor affectionately snark at each other via ósanwe. It's also the only 'verse I have ongoing where I know exactly how it will end. It's just going to take a good while to get there!

[lilith_lessfair]

Yes, I thought it was interesting how it was both very much a part of Paradox’s world and then how Van’s actions had created something quite different entirely.

Olórin in the world is intriguing. He’s appeared in one of mine and he’s quite the fellow.

[narya_flame]

Yes, I thought it was interesting how it was both very much a part of Paradox’s world and then how Van’s actions had created something quite different entirely.

Yes! It is an AU of the Paradox world; things wont play out the same way there for multiple reasons.

Olórin is one of my favourite characters. He's only made small appearances in my 'verses so far but he is so interesting.