Motivational *mumble* Friday Post

[dawn_felagund]

I am two days late this week! This is ridiculous. My theory that my brain works worst on Wednesdays (Wednesdays have been my least favorite day of the week since I was a little kid) is being proven by my attempts to make motivational posts on Wednesdays! My apologies, everyone.

This week's quote is in honor of muses ... or whatever that crazy, fickle force is that makes us write like unstoppable superheroes one day and then fritter away the entire uninspired day on Tumblr the next. I also liked it because this is, after all, the Season of Writing Dangerously, i.e. taking creative chances that might sometimes feel a little like madness.

"The man who arrives at the doors of artistic creation with none of the madness of the Muses would be convinced that technical ability alone was enough to make an artist ... what that man creates by means of reason will pale before the art of inspired beings."
~Plato

As always, feel free to brag, rant, plead for help, whine, celebrate, cheer each other on, and anything else related to your SoWD projects!

If you have a quote, image, video, or other idea that you think would inspire your fellow participants in one of these motivational posts, please do let me know. Also, we're coming up on the halfway point of SoWD in about two weeks, and we have something special planned for that occasion. If you like making banners and such and would like to help us out, please let me know. (If you've volunteered generally to help with SoWD, no need to volunteer again; you're on the list of people I will contact.)

Here's to a week of madly productive muses! :)

Comments

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I don't know where they went, but all my muses for the SoWD projects have gone on hiatus and don't seem to be coming back. It doesn't help that it has been hotter than a herd of Balrogs here all week and that nixes my impulses to do anything except lying around and trying not to liquefy entirely.

Could I gauge some interest for my fic projects, maybe, in order to work up some drive to continue one of them? Which sounds best?

* Maglor and his wife attempt to make things work again after she's left him when learning about Alqualondë.
* Cuiviénen!Indis and her girlfriend go to a gathering of the the tribes, learn about Avari and afterwards hunt mammoth.
* Nerdanel and the orphans of Tirion after the Darkening.
* Fëanorian OC-centric story, the prelude of the Doriath kinslaying.
* Female!Maedhros/Female!Fingon Bechdel Test pass in Aman.

[ladybrooke]

Keeping in mind that I'm insanely picky in what I think I like without seeing the story first, I'm really interested in the Nerdanel and the orphans of Tirion story. Which is saying a lot, because she's normally a character that I pay zero attention to. :D

But I'm sure any of them would be interesting to continue. *hugs* I hope it both gets cooler there soon and that your muses come back. It always sucks when that happens.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* It's cooled down a little by now, so I here's hoping they'll come creeping out of whatever hiding place they've gone to...

:D Thank you for the input! This fic hinges on a tidbit from the Lost Tales - in that version many of the Noldor abandon their children and go into exile, and that idea has been gnawing on me since I re-read it. The Silmarillion is positively sanitized by comparison, but the notion that everyone dragged their children along to fight Morgoth just doesn't seem plausible.

[ladybrooke]

I hope it's kept cool, now. And that your muses have returned (since I've taken forever to reply).

You're welcome! :D I'm glad you get fic ideas from Lost Tales (I have to admit, I rarely read the earlier HoMe books. *cough*) It really doesn't seem plausible....

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

•fiercely wields a stick to keep these plotnazguls at bay•

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

XD Thank you! Plotnazgul, that's an apt description! (Although to be fair all of these are projects I did sign up to write at SoWD...)

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

True, but... they are really great bunnies. It makes my muses sit up and suddenly pay attention!

[ysilme]

Herd of Balrogs? What an apt description! I currently shun the study sauna Balrog den the "comfy PC for writing" is, and typing on my tiny netbook makes my hands cramp... fried brain also doesn't help, of course.

Since you're asking, to me Maglor and his wife and the Fëanorien OC-centric sound most interesting.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Balrog den is apt! It's cooled down here a little bit by now, and admittedly we didn't get it as bad as some other parts of the country - I'll forever be grateful for the North Sea! But it still was bad enough to deliver a dose of fried brain, and I nearly didn't want to touch my laptop because that was running hot as well.

Thank you for the input, too. :) I just found a batch of songs that might work me into the right sort of mood to continue this fic, so this is likely the one I'm going to tackle next. ^^

[ysilme]

That sounds great! :o)

"North Sea" - we've been close to it two weeks ago, this had indeed been much better. But speaking of Balrog den, we got some relief over the weekend, providing also some images that remind me of the Balrog den again.

[independence1776]

Maglor and his wife (what else did you expect from me? :P), but all of them sound interesting.

[ysilme]

Sorry for the code fail with the strike tag, btw.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

:D Nothing else! It's really quite tempting to work on this one next and finally do away with all the truncated beginnings already sitting in that file. :)

[zdenka]

I like Feanorian OCs. :-) Nerdanel in Tirion also sounds interesting.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) The Fëanorian OCs actually have a few chapters posted already, and Book I of the story I wrote as my NaNoWriMo project last year, but the whole thing needs a ton of revision and I'm shuddering just about getting started. XD

[dawn_felagund]

Goodness, it's like you just let me loose in a candy store only instead of candy it's full of delicious Elves ... ;)

It's hard to choose which of these sounds most awesome! At the moment, I'd probably have to go with "Nerdanel and the orphans of Tirion after the Darkening" due to my penchant for post-Darkening Finwion-wives-saving-the-world stories. But the Cuivienen!Indis sounds might intriguing too ...

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Now I'm imagining a candy store staffed by delicious Elves. Thanks a lot, Dawn. :^D

post-Darkening Finwion-wives-saving-the-world stories
A genre that you introduced, pretty much! ^^ I hope that when I write this story it doesn't turn out too similar to The Work of Small Hands, which I've been wanting to re-read in order to avoid major overlaps, too... but there need to be more fics focusing on the Finwëan ladies, so I hope my attempt won't be a total failure...