Season of Writing Dangerously: Motivational Wednesday ... Oops, THURSDAY!

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, yes, I forgot to post the weekly motivational post yesterday. I blame the fact that I was actually working on my SoWD project when I should have been making the motivational post! :D

First of all, congrats to our Impetuous Participants. Since I was late with the post, if you've started your project as of my posting this, then you can claim your prize!

This week's motivational post comes from fantasy author George R.R. Martin. Whether you love his books or hate them, the quote below, to me, expresses one of the reasons why the fantasy genre is such a wonderful playground for the imagination. Hopefully, the quote will inspire you to wing off to your own fantasyland in the next week and make some progress on your projects! :)

“The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth.”

― George R.R. Martin

Please use the comments section of the weekly motivational posts as your own space. Whether you want to brag or blow off steam, feel free to share your progress and experiences so far. Links and snippets are most welcome. If you need help in any way, this is a good place to ask as well.

Comments

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

Happily writing Fingon, and he won't shut up! I'll start posting soon. =)

[dawn_felagund]

Woohoo--a chatty Fingon sounds lovely! :D Hope it keeps going well!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

So far I am having a SoWNE (Season of Writing Non-Existently). Tonight might be the night this all changes (she says every night)!!

[dawn_felagund]

Good luck! I admit I've been taking solace in doing the story-posting part of my goal. (Working on posting one right now ...) But tomorrow evening, I am denying myself Internet access and working on an actual story.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

But tomorrow evening, I am denying myself Internet access...

Yes, this is probably a good idea. In my case I might benefit from using my 'net nanny to literally ban myself from the internet for the evening! Good luck to you too.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you!

I often have to ban myself from the Internet to get stuff done. Or use the Internet as the carrot on the stick: "Write a page and you can check your email."

[independence1776]

I've moved most of my LJ-only stories to SWG! The rest will be posted Saturday. (Three stories are currently in "Trinkets", my random ficlet collection. My B2MeM stories were backdated.)

However… I'm feeling guilty because of it. I thought I only had three stories to post in "Trinkets" and I found seven more. Even though I'll be posting all seven on Saturday, one chapter right after another, I feel like I'm annoying people. For both posting a bunch of chapters at once and for being on the Most Recent list two weeks in a row. (Technically it will be three, because I hope to post something non-SWD-related next weekend.)

[shirebound]

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth.”

I hope to get that chance, too.

[dreamflower]

Two out of three of the fics I have hoped to get updated have been, and look on track to stay that way. Next week, I hope to add the third one.

Chapter 27: The Wedding Bilbo and his cousin Siggy pull off their prank; Adalgrim ties the knot.

Chapter 16 Aragorn gathers the information he needs to make his judgment on the hobbit prisoners.

[dawn_felagund]

Congrats on getting the stories cross-posted! I'm slowly working my way through that part of my goal too, so I appreciate the tedium and effort it sometimes entails! :D

If I can offer consolation on the last bit, as someone who goes to the archive every day--usually multiple times--and so sees how the archive is used: I wouldn't class either of those things as annoying. The archive has been hopping lately, so the Most Recent page is quite populated. Yet it's not so hopping that stories don't get at least a few days in the Most Recent box on the front page. And you're certainly not the only person to post a bunch of chapters at once; I was generally posting AMC in groups of ten chapters! :D

In all of the years of the SWG's existence, I've never heard more than mild grumbling over massive uploads that take up pages and pages of Most Recent, which certainly isn't what you're doing (and you'd certainly have the right to do that too, if you wanted). I understand how you're feeling, since I felt guilty every time an update of AMC nudged someone out of the Most Recent box, but I don't think most people feel that way, or even notice.

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! That's awesome! Congrats. :)

[ladybrooke]

Since for once I'm actually happy with a story I've written (and apparently others are too - it's easily one of my most popular stories I've written recently, considering all sites), a link:

A Pet Fingon: Fëanor gets a surprise one day, when his sons show up for their lessons with a new 'pet'. Starring Fëanor, Fingon, Celegorm, and Caranthir. Short.

~

Currently sitting at 3 of 25 stories, 15k on NaNo (meaning I get to play severe catch up tomorrow!), and only 13 stories left to post on Ao3.

I probably should not have decided to do an original fic challenge at the same time. Oh, and some contests. And a fortnightly challenge. And fan-flashworks. And Sultry in September...At least my already fast typing speed is getting sufficient practice! Even if I didn't know that typing so much could make my whole arm hurt. But still, someone hit me with a brick if I try this again next summer. Please.

Also, does a Lord of the Rings Online/Silm crossover count as sufficiently Tolkien enough to count in my story count? Because I'm writing Sauron romance (post Dagor Dagorath) now, because of that game. *grumble*

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I didn't get a lot (read: anything) written this past week because I had a friend visiting (though we talked fic and I think I have come to a few conclusions that just need implementing in writing now), but author reveals for the Not Primetime exchange happened, so I could actually share that particular SoWD fic: In the Silent Spaces (http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/viewstory.php?sid=1903), in which Finduilas takes matters in Nargothrond into her own hands.

Volume 107/Issue 6

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User caras_galadhon referenced to your post from Volume 107/Issue 6 (http://middleearthnews.livejournal.com/395677.html) saying: [...] AWARDS: • From : ~Season of Writing Dangerously: Motivational Wednesday... Oops, THURSDAY! [...]

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

Not directly concering to Impetuous Participants, but I need to take my rants somewhere public: My final paper for the University is Tolkien related. It is great fun and I've learn so much that I will delightfully insert into a story one day, but right now I have to convince my prof that the Silmarillion is an awesome, worthwhile story.

I am aware what looks I will receive not, but yes she is doubting me. She has studied design and rides on the hype of the new digital media. Doubtful that she ever read the Hobbit, LotR or Sil. Currently I am drafting my arguments what kind of illustrated Silm. books there are, how my own would look like and what effects ebooks have.

Right now I'm faltering between "Oh my god, I'm going to die." and "Take that heathen."

[independence1776]

Thank you!

Actually, that does help! And my guilt really makes no sense because I had zero problem doing the update weekly thing when I posted RAFA. So I have no idea why it bothers me now. But you can definitely agree that it'll be a relief to have everything moved over, because you're in the same boat.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth.

See, GRRM, and that's the great thing about fanfiction: It allows you to go (back) there without dying first... [/snark]

Anyway, I actually managed to finish&upload one chapter of TTS this past week. Now, with the huge LARP event only a bit over a week away, I have no time for writing (which of course is often a reliable source of inspiration :P), so I'm actively not hoping to get anything more done before August... but hey, already ahead of my original plan. Woo hoo!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Oh, rock on! I hope you can convince her - that sounds like an awesome paper!

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the motivation =) ... I hope it works, because explaining the Silmarillion to unwilling minds isn't easy.

[hhimring]

Best of luck with that! I really like what I've seen of your work, so I'm sure your illustrated Silm book would be great!

[hhimring]

Something tells me GRRM is not a vegetarian...

Another double drabble about Aerin here:
http://tolkien-weekly.livejournal.com/987668.html

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's really hard.The Silmarillion does defy pretty much all conventions of modern literature, but then, Tolkien simply wasn't aiming at producing modern literature. I guess that's the main point one has to get across: It was never meant to be read as a novel, it's meant to be read as a history in the style of the early English chronicles. Once somebody accepts that that's what it's supposed to be, it's easier to wrap one's mind around the very particular style, the anachronisms, the genealogy... the whole thing, really.
Again, good luck!

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

I will put it online, when it it's finished which should be end of August.

[j-flattermann.livejournal.com]

I just posted my last part of the story.
Four parts overall 7,356 Words and 9 drawings.

[dawn_felagund]

Me too! Although I'm very hot-cold on GRRM, I love this quote! :)