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inmyownlittlecorner

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Hi Folks, and welcome to my writer’s journal!

I have dabbled in writing in various phases of my life. In High School I wrote short self-insert stories about a private investigator and I started and abandoned a Star Wars fanfic. In uni I started and also abandoned a fanfic of the Canadian vampire cop show Forever Knight. Then I wrote nothing for about fifteen years. In December 2018, I was reading the first two Harry Potter books to my kids, and I suddenly remembered how much fun they were. I quickly read the rest of the series to myself, and while I was doing that I got bit by the writing bug again. 

My projects usually fall under one (or more) of four categories, although sometimes I just write something truly off the wall. (All graphics in this post are by me.)

 

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The Unstoppable Force/Immovable Object Series+

This series is a canon-adjacent behemoth with a Snape/OC action/adventure/romance at its centerpiece. Severus is curmudgeonly and flawed as ever, but he gets a chance to interact with some new faces, and we get to see him in some situations that help more positive aspects of his personality see the light of day. Miranda Rose, the OC, is an American No-Maj-born witch and a bounty hunter (it’s a family business). Moonlight+, book one, covers Order of the Phoenix through the beginning of Half-Blood Prince. I spend most of my time playing with the dark spots of canon, and the story roams all over the UK and to Romania (and Charlie!). I’ve also written a bunch of one shots that fit in this continuity, some of which don’t feature Snape if that’s a deal-breaker for you.

Confession+ is a one shot exploring what happens when a witch goes to confession to a Muggle priest who has no idea about the magical world.

Severus Snape and the Midnight Tea+ is a story about Sev teaching potions to Luna Lovegood—or rather, about Sev learning how to expand his teaching repertoire to help Luna reach her potential. This is a great place to start if you’re not sure about all this Snape stuff. There’s no romantic pairing, and I think this fic does a good job of depicting my take on the prickly potionsmaster.

 

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Neville Longbottom, Knight of the Woeful Countenance+

I love Neville and want nothing but good things for him. Last year, @crestwood challenged us to write a spin off of another member’s fanfic, and @Oregonian graciously allowed me to spin off her story Forgive Us Our Trespasses+ (go read it now—I’ll wait!). It’s the story of Mairi Alpin, a Muggle ghost at Hogwarts. My story Mairi's Ghost+ continues her tale, with Mairi giving Neville the support he needs to finally master potions class.

I had originally intended to leave Neville and Mairi’s story there, but @kuusi palaa requested that I continue it with the tale of Neville’s pilgrimage to Our Lady of Walsingham, and Infelix Ego+ was born. There will be at least one more story in this series, because when I finished writing Infelix, I knew that the story wasn’t quite over yet.

 

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leo serpentis+

This is the uncensored history of Abraxas Malfoy and Minerva McGonagall. It started with me wanting to write a rare pairing for one of @CheekyTorah-Lex's challenges, and since I’d been assigned Minerva McGonagall as my main character, I started poking around for someone near her age. When I realized that Lucius Malfoy’s father was a potential suitor, the doomed ship McMalfoy was born.

illecebrous+ is story number one, set on New Year’s Eve just before Abraxas and Hera Bulstrode are going to be married (Hera is Lucius’s Mum in my head canon). Things do not go exactly as planned.

ennui+ is set about five years after illecebrous, at a Hogwarts Alumni weekend. Hera and Abraxas attend with little Lucius in tow, but when Abraxas gets the chance to talk to Minerva alone for the first time in years he does everything he can to take it.

velleity+ is a novel that I’ve only just started for RonsgirlFriday’s noir challenge. It is set during the last three years of the first wizarding war, and we’ll finally get down and dirty with Abraxas and Minerva.

 

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Found Magic+

I did an AU challenge over the summer where we were asked to write an AU of any fandom. a rock and a hard place+ is the result of that, and it (of course) spawned it’s own series). In this series, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, and Arabella Figg decide to take matters into their own hands and rescue Harry from his life at the Dursleys. The catch is that Severus has to adopt Harry as his son—and he has to become Petunia’s magical blood brother. It Will Be Good+ follows this story. It’s set about two years later. Life for Petunia and Dudley has only gotten worse since Harry’s departure, and Petunia makes a dangerous decision to try to escape. This series will contain at least one more one shot, as well as a multi-chapter fic about Harry’s first year at Hogwarts.

Thanks for stopping by my journal 

Edited by dreamshadow
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Ooh I'm intrigued by the fic about Snape tutoring Luna.  To be honest I haven't read much Snape fic because I've always felt neutral to negative about him, although I don't virulently hate him.  Seeing how he'd interact with Luna interests me, though.  Could you say a bit more about their dynamic? 

Also, how is it to write Mairi, who's both a Muggle and an OC?  I'll admit I've never written a Muggle character before, mostly because I'm a bit intimidated by what a totally blank slate they are.  You don't want to completely ham up the "oh my god, MAGIC?!" angle, but it's hard to know what to do with them! 

Also I love how many of your fics seem to focus on religion!  Religion is weirdly absent from canon and so any attempt to meld canon with religion interests me a lot.  Also I was a medieval history major so I'm all here for pilgrimages and haigographies :)

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Your projects are so unique! I am particularly intrigued by the Neville one and the one with Abraxas & Minerva. I love a good rare pair 😊 Also, your picspams are absolutely gorgeous! They give a certain mood that I love to experience in stories. I cannot wait to check out more of your work! 

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On 9/5/2020 at 9:10 PM, Hawksquill said:

Ooh I'm intrigued by the fic about Snape tutoring Luna.  To be honest I haven't read much Snape fic because I've always felt neutral to negative about him, although I don't virulently hate him.  Seeing how he'd interact with Luna interests me, though.  Could you say a bit more about their dynamic? 

What's great about their dynamic is that Luna is not afraid of Snape at all. And since she doesn't really care what people think of her, she's pretty much impervious to any of his sniping. She's there to learn, and whatever else one can say about Snape, he's a genius. Once he figures out that he can't scare her into good behavior, he has to come up with another plan. After he figures out that the best way to deal with her in class is to keep her intellectually stimulated, things go a lot smoother for the both of them. I think Luna is terribly insightful too, and that she's able to give people what they need--even when they don't want it, or realize that they need it.

On 9/5/2020 at 9:10 PM, Hawksquill said:

Also, how is it to write Mairi, who's both a Muggle and an OC?  I'll admit I've never written a Muggle character before, mostly because I'm a bit intimidated by what a totally blank slate they are.  You don't want to completely ham up the "oh my god, MAGIC?!" angle, but it's hard to know what to do with them! 

Writing Mairi was a great way to dip my toe into writing a Muggle OC, because at the time I wrote her she was not only a ghost, but she'd been haunting Hogwarts for centuries. So she was already tied to the magical world I was used to writing about. @Oregonian also did a bang up job writing about her in the original story, so really her character was already built for me, thanks to Vicki's hard work.

On 9/5/2020 at 9:10 PM, Hawksquill said:

Also I love how many of your fics seem to focus on religion!  Religion is weirdly absent from canon and so any attempt to meld canon with religion interests me a lot.  Also I was a medieval history major so I'm all here for pilgrimages and haigographies :)

Thank you! I'm very interested in folklore and religion, and any chance I get to incorporate them into a fic I'll take. That's awesome that you studied medieval history!! I would be down to chat about that any time :)

Thank you for these amazing questions!

18 hours ago, victoria_anne said:

Hi, lovely! I love the Moonlight story and while I was sad that you took it down, I'm glad you've been posting it again! I didn't realise it was only book one of a series, though! Do you know what's going into the other ones? Can you tell me a little bit about them?

Oh my goodness thank you! 😭 🥰 It means so much to me that you liked it. And yes, it is going to be part of a series, and I have at least a general idea of what happens (and a lot of world building to do). 

  • book 2 is libera nos a malo. It's set during HBP and I'm about 8 chapters into it. Things are pretty rocky for Sev and Miranda for the first half of the book, and when they start smoothing out there, things start getting rocky with the war. In this book, Miranda also learns to be an animagus so that she can accompany Remus on his werewolf parlays. This is what has me stalled because I've decided on a complicated structure for werewolf society. In short, there are 7 wolf packs in the UK (we're going to pretend there's way more woodland and wolves in the UK then there probably actually are). Some of the packs want to go with Greyback, and some of them really don't want to go with Greyback, but they don't really trust the wizards either. And the rest of the packs are just kinda hanging out to see who wins. This means that I need...uh....some werewolf characters. 3 of the OCs are under the spoiler bar:
Spoiler

(graphics by me)

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Pryderi ap Tegid (fc: Steve Buscemi)-- He has the experience to pull the packs together, but lacks the will

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Cadfael ap  Llewellyn (fc: Ioan Gruffudd) -- he's got the drive but lacks the experience.

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Mary MacDonald (Hayley Atwell)--yes she's that Mary. The wizarding world thinks she's dead, but not for long.

  • book three is The Quick and the Dead and covers DH. It will be...pretty dark, but I'm hoping to insert some humor. I expect to delve into what's going on at Hogwarts during that year, Sev and Miranda will be trying to keep their heads above water, I'm really hoping to connect the story to Fred and George, we'll see some blood purity trials, some inferi, some folks playing another game entirely...it'll be a glorious mess.
  • book four doesn't have a title yet, but it will open about 6 years post-DH. Many of the canon characters will show up in this story, Eileen Prince in particular. I'll also be making heavy use of port-keys as the story roams all over the magical world.
18 hours ago, victoria_anne said:

You have so many projects going, it's impressive! What does your writing routine look like? How do you stay motivated? 🤗

lol, I was just telling @Pixileanin that I feel pretty overwhelmed by all my projects right now. I think the best way for me to stay motivated is to listen to myself. When I'm feeling super tired, I take a break. When I'm feeling like flitting from project to project, I flit. When I'm feeling like focusing on one project and letting the other ones simmer on the back burner, I focus and let the others simmer. I also find that, with all of my projects, I eventually hit a tipping point where it's really easy to power through to the end. Unless I'm feeling super tired, I try to draft and/or rewrite 1K words a day (but I often take Sundays off from writing).

Thank you for your kind words and thoughtful questions!

11 hours ago, prideofprewett said:

Your projects are so unique! I am particularly intrigued by the Neville one and the one with Abraxas & Minerva. I love a good rare pair 😊 Also, your picspams are absolutely gorgeous! They give a certain mood that I love to experience in stories. I cannot wait to check out more of your work! 

Thank you so much!! I'm blushing 😊 🥰

Edited by la_topolina
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I'm totally in love with the amazing banner that @beyond the rain made for my story Rota Fortunæ

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Rota is the story of Slytherin Cassandra Borgin--she's Mr Borgin's niece. Cassie is in the same year as Draco, Harry, and the others, but she's a different sort of Slytherin. She spends most of her time playing the piano and keeping her ears open to what everyone in the common room is saying--so she usually knows everything that is going on. She also joined Dumbledore's Army 5th year because she was absolutely indignant about how Umbridge was keeping all the Slytherins form learning DADA. This story is about the fall-out from joining the DA.

Cassie was going to stay in this one-shot, but of course that didn't happen. Her next appearance is near the end of Moonlight when Sev realizes that he needs to find himself a spy who can help him figure out what Draco is up to. Her story continues in  libera nos a malo and she'll likely be with the whole of the tetralogy. There may even be a little romance in her future--but it won't be with Draco (or Snape).

Edited by la_topolina
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I've been down the rabbit hole the last few days trying to re-write chapter 9 of libera nos a malo+libera is book two of my Unstoppable Force/Immovable Object (Snape/OC) saga, and we're in the middle of HBP canonically. But I hit a snag--see, back in chapter 2, I had Miranda pop in to the Slug Club Christmas Party. I loved that scene in the book, and I thought it would be fun to drop her into the middle of it. During that scene, she had an exchange with Dante Sanguini that implied they had a uh...fraught history. I had intended for Sanguini to be a cameo and disappear after that scene--but he REFUSES TO LEAVE. He showed up again in chapter 6, and now he and Miranda are off on an adventure to St Patrick's Purgatory, which is located on Station Island in the middle of Lough Derg, Ireland. Apparently he's going to be telling some of his life story in this chapter too, so I had to make an effort to get his timeline straightened out in my mind. This involved a little bit of historical research and, of course, searching for a face claim. Fortunately, @RonsGirlFriday gave me a lovely suggestion: 

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Blake Ritson--isn't he pretty?

Dante and Miranda have some fun chemistry, and I sort of ship them, which is a weird feeling to have in the middle of a Snape/OC endgame. They met in Rome when she was in her early twenties and had a...time shall we say. I'm now totally distracted thinking about the long one shot, or possibly short multi-chapter, about how that all played out. Dante's backstory also firmly plants him as a supporting character for the rest of the UF/IO tetralogy as well.

This is what I get for inviting a vampire into my story.

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I'm sensing a theme within your works based on just kind of perusing your journal here. It appears you create an OC or like a subplot, intend it for one thing, but then your brain latches on and wants to use it for other things as well. I feel this on so many levels. When I was heavily in the Downton Abbey fanfic community, I wrote a throwaway line once and someone said "I want to know more about this." Somehow a 15 chaptered origin fic (that I ashamedly never finished) was born. But anyway, I love whenever our brains work that way. It's like a gift/curse thing I guess?

Also, I love the idea of Cassandra Borgin. I also try to expand upon families that already exist in the canon. I don't know it's kind of fun and exciting to do, I guess? It always kind of helps me justify their existence I suppose. Do you feel any of that? Or do you just like creating original things in an already established environment?

I seriously need to read some of your works because dang...you're drawing me in with those graphics and these epic storylines and original ideas. Maybe something to do over early morning coffee. :) 

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On 9/12/2020 at 4:50 PM, la_topolina said:

Cassie was going to stay in this one-shot, but of course that didn't happen.

I would like to second what you and @prideofprewett said about subplots and using things for other things. I live in this genre of story-building. It is so on brand for me so at home in this WJ 😊. I just finished a story series (3 novellas) that all developed from this exact situation. Sometimes characters are just SO GOOD and you want to see them again! 

I have a question for you @la_topolina, based on the concept above...sort of...anyways, do you ever find it hard to shake one characterization of a recurring character? Snape for instance, when writing him for different stories does he change much for you from story to story or is he the same and the situations and other characters different? For me, jumping from Rose and Scorpius in my Stubborn Love Series to this new story where I need/want them to have different personalities I keep finding myself writing my OG versions of them. Does that even make sense? I need more coffee...

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On 9/18/2020 at 3:25 AM, prideofprewett said:

I'm sensing a theme within your works based on just kind of perusing your journal here. It appears you create an OC or like a subplot, intend it for one thing, but then your brain latches on and wants to use it for other things as well. I feel this on so many levels. When I was heavily in the Downton Abbey fanfic community, I wrote a throwaway line once and someone said "I want to know more about this." Somehow a 15 chaptered origin fic (that I ashamedly never finished) was born. But anyway, I love whenever our brains work that way. It's like a gift/curse thing I guess?

Yes, this is exactly what happens to me--and I agree it's both a gift and a curse! I love the way it lets me flesh out even minor characters, but sometimes it feels stressful because there are only so many hours in the day and I know I'll never get to write all the ideas that come to me. I love that you do this too!! Did you write any other Downton Abbey fics??

On 9/18/2020 at 3:25 AM, prideofprewett said:

Also, I love the idea of Cassandra Borgin. I also try to expand upon families that already exist in the canon. I don't know it's kind of fun and exciting to do, I guess? It always kind of helps me justify their existence I suppose. Do you feel any of that? Or do you just like creating original things in an already established environment?

Yes!! It's so exciting to expand on the families we already know. I mean, I do enjoy putting in totally original characters, but sometimes it's tiresome to come up with all the names. Fleshing out the names and families we already know can be just as rewarding and isn't quite as much work.

On 9/18/2020 at 3:25 AM, prideofprewett said:

I seriously need to read some of your works because dang...you're drawing me in with those graphics and these epic storylines and original ideas. Maybe something to do over early morning coffee. :) 

Thank you!! I'm blushing ❤️

On 9/18/2020 at 9:49 AM, RogueSlytherin said:

I would like to second what you and @prideofprewett said about subplots and using things for other things. I live in this genre of story-building. It is so on brand for me so at home in this WJ 😊. I just finished a story series (3 novellas) that all developed from this exact situation. Sometimes characters are just SO GOOD and you want to see them again!

Yes!! I totally agree--when I love a character I just don't want to let them go.

On 9/18/2020 at 9:49 AM, RogueSlytherin said:

I have a question for you @la_topolina, based on the concept above...sort of...anyways, do you ever find it hard to shake one characterization of a recurring character? Snape for instance, when writing him for different stories does he change much for you from story to story or is he the same and the situations and other characters different? For me, jumping from Rose and Scorpius in my Stubborn Love Series to this new story where I need/want them to have different personalities I keep finding myself writing my OG versions of them. Does that even make sense? I need more coffee...

Oh, this is a really great question! So far, when I write Snape or Miranda or really any of the characters, they are the same regardless of the universe they are in. I have a fluffy Snape AU where he never hears the prophecy and he turns to the good side much earlier, and then I have another AU where Snape is sorted into Gryffindor--in both those stories he's still pretty much the same Snape, but a much healthier version if that makes sense. Miranda is in all those stories too, and she's pretty recognizable, even though in the Gryffindor AU at least her circumstances are worse than they are in the UF/IO universe, but she's still the same. I think it's really cool that you try to vary your Rose and Scorpius! That sounds like a great challenge :)

 

Thank you for these lovely thoughts and questions ❤️

 

🌻 Writing Update 🌻

I know I'm not the only one who's been struggling with writing lately, but I'm pleased to say that over the last week or so it has started to get a little easier. Last week I posted Chapter 9+ of libera nos a malo and I was really happy with how it turned out. I wanted to come in here and post a little about the stories I'm planning to pursue over the next month or two (and it gave me an excuse to make some motivating picspams)

 

Project Alpha: libera nos a malo+

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I'm working on rewriting chapter 10, and I hope to post it in the next week or so. Miranda will be tying up the loose ends from her adventure in chapter 9, she'll wander into a 7th year DADA practical and wind up doing a 2 on 2 dueling exhibition with Sev, Filius, and Tonks, she'll attempt to deal with a paranoid Horace Slughorn--and I'll finally be putting her and Sev alone in a room together. I hope they will work out their differences, but I've certainly learned by now that my characters will do what they're gonna do. All I can do is watch :meowpopcorn:

Other things I want to do with this project include:

  • Creating the rest of my werewolf OCs
  • Making a basic outline for the rest of the book, as I think this will be my NaNo project

 

Project Beta: Mary MacDonald/Emmeline Vance fic

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This is my entry for @CheekyTorah-Lex's challenge, and I'm switching up my original plan. I had an idea for a super-tragic story set near Emmeline's death, but I just can't deal with that in my current state of mind. SO--new plan. I'm going to write a fluffy story about them getting together. There may even be the only-one-bed trope, we'll see.

 

Project Gamma: Roman Holiday (working title)

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Speaking of characters running away with the story--Dante Sanguini has run away with UF/IO. I can't stop thinking about what happened when he and Miranda met (in Rome when she was 25) and so I think I may just start writing it. I haven't figured out how to work the 30 angle in yet, but if I can it may well be my entry into @MalfoysAngel's challenge. Whatever happens, I expect there to be fireworks. It'll also allow me to pull out my old Roman travel guide and feel nostalgic.

 

Project Delta: New (to me) Fandom--Da Vinci's Demons

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I'm always late to the party, and while this show ended back in 2015, I...think I want to watch it. It's full of historical inaccuracies--one blogger said that it's bonkers--but anyone who's read enough of my stuff will know that I enjoy bonkers. I've read all the episode synopsis I could find online, I've watched clips on youtube, and I've started reading some of the fic on Ao3. Now I just need to get my agoraphobic self to the library to check out the DVDs (or more likely, find a way to stream them at home) so that I can watch it. It follows a young Da Vinci (Tom Riley) and antagonist Girolamo Riario (Blake Ritson--oh INTJ antagonists, I just can't quit you). There's some pretty blatant sexual tension between those characters (and Leonardo is canonically bisexual)--and of course I already have a story idea. I want to write an AU set after the second season (the third season is kind of a mess because the show was supposed to go four seasons, and then it got canceled, so none of the story arcs made sense) that will throw in Riario's historical wife Caterina Sforza (aged up because this is fiction and I can do that). Sforza is an AMAZING historical figure and she totally should have been in the show. Riario is totally a demisexual, and I expect him to eventually have feelings for both Leonardo and Caterina. I strongly suspect that someone on the creative team of this show read Hal Foster's Prince Valiant at some point, because the show ranges all over the world in the crazy way that Prince Valiant does.

 

Anyway, that's my plan. We'll see how much of it actually happens...

Edited by la_topolina
typos
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@la_topolina I love these picspams! 😍 Everything sounds so good...your writing sounds so rich and I know you’re already excellent with bringing canon characters to life, so I can’t wait to check out these as well!

And to answer your question, I wrote quite a bit of Downton fic. I mostly wrote Robert/Cora (surprise surprise another “old married couple“ 😅) and Baxter/Molesley (because they’re totally supposed to be together). Basically everything is full of angst and unfinished 😂 It is my shame. 

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Project Update

I finished Project Beta, Two Step+, just in time to enter the challenge. I wound up making the story pure dialogue, which was fun to play with (I've never done that style before). I still have the angsty tragic draft of Emmeline/Mary on my computer, and perhaps someday I will finish it. In any case, it fits neatly into my UF/IO Continuity.

Project Alpha is being...elusive. The first scene of chapter 10 is done and pretty much perfect. And then I started drafting the epic dueling demonstration and it fell totally flat. So, in spite of the motivational picspam I made in my previous post, Tonks and Filius are not going to appear in Chapter 10. I have another idea that I'm hoping to try out over the weekend and see if that fixes the problem. 

Projects Gamma and Delta are still in the dreaming phase, although I did noodle around and draft 3K of project Delta, despite not having watched the show yet. I'll probably scrap most--if not all--of them, but it was fun to do. And I might try my hand at making Project Gamma a short story (about 10K-ish) to see if I can practice that form a little...

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  • 3 weeks later...

(all graphics in this post by yours truly)

I FINALLY finished chapter 10 of libera nos a malosuspension d'incrédulité+ 

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When last I wrote, I was auditioning Flitwick and Tonks for this chapter in an epic 2 on 2 dueling demonstration for the older DADA students. It...didn't work, so I scrapped it BUT I think it may well work out in the next chapter. What DID work for chapter 10 was introducing my OC Isahak Lal (face-claim: Sunny Pawar) to Miranda and Aaron while they are on patrol in Diagon, Knockturn, and Phyne Alleys. Isahak is delightful in his angry despair, and Miranda and Aaron clicked with him just as I'd hoped they would. 

After all that, I still had to put Miranda and Sev alone in a room together--which I did--and things went about how one would expect things to go with these two. 

 

For the rest of this month, I'm hoping to kick out a little 2K Severitus fic to fit in with my Found Magic+ series. This story will be from Sev's POV, and will be set just after he takes 4-year-old Harry away from the Dursleys'. I'm also hoping to get started on the draft of the Dante/Miranda fic. Oh, and sometime I should really sit down and outline the rest of libera because it's too darned complicated for me to wing it. And maybe come up with an OF short story idea. It'll be fun to see how much of that I actually get done, lol.

 

BUT...along with all of that, I'm still thinking about this new (to me) fandom, Da Vinci's Demons. I started watching the first episode the other day, and man has it been a long time since I've watched an R-rated movie or anything that wasn't on basic cable. The show is pretty violent, but I really want to get to know these characters. Even the first twenty minutes I watched told me that Leonardo is a delight. I expect to be making liberal use of the fast-forward button...

I have the beginnings of the fic idea coming together in the back of my mind, and I spent some time scrolling on pinterest, so I now have a face-claim for Caterina Sforza (Rebecca Ferguson)

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(Leonardo da Vinci, Girolamo Riario, and Caterina Sforza)

That's all I've got for now! I hope your reading and writing is going well ❤️

 

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:pikashock:  NaNo 2020  :pikashock:

Hi folks! I'm back for another NaNo. I've got three projects planned, and I'm gonna go big and aim for that 50K.

(all graphics by me)

 

Project Alpha: Mirante

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Mirante is my ship name for Miranda Rose/Dante Sanguini. Miranda is the star of my Unstoppable Force/Immovable Object series, but before she met Sev, she had a fling with none other than Sanguini. This is their uncensored story, set in Rome. Miranda is there on assignment to steal retrieve a certain object 👀, when she runs into Dante. There's danger, vampires, lust, bone chapels, etc, and this is my entry for @MalfoysAngel's challenge, so I guess there will also be smut. Hopefully I can figure out how to write it, as I am blushing already. 

 

Project Beta: OF short story

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It's been a while since I've written a piece of original fiction longer than 3K, so I'm going to give it a go for NaNo. I have a general idea--a girl from a broken home meets one of the fair folk--and I hope to flesh out my characters in this last week before NaNo starts. I'll admit, I'm very nervous about attempting this story.

 

Project Gamma: libera nos a malo

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There are ten chapters currently posted of part two of my tetralogy--and I'm at the end of my draft. The fic is up to Ron's birthday in HBP, so we have about four more months of story timeline to work with. Isahak Lal is going to have some adventures, Miranda and Remus will finally meet the other werewolves, things are going pretty okay with Miranda and Sev--and Robert Walker, the MACUSA ambassador is about to uncover Sev's unsavory past. I also need to figure out what the heck is going on with Remus and Tonks, because...uh...that's going on too.

 

❤️ Thanks for stopping by my nest, and I wish you the best of luck with your own writing! ❤️

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Thanks for these questions and kind words Bianca :cuteghost:

14 hours ago, victoria_anne said:

1. What is it you love about Miranda/Dante as a ship? Were you sad when you had to break them up?

So, this ship has a funny story, in that it wasn't supposed to exist. Dante was supposed to be a cameo and only appear at the Slug Club party, where he and Miranda have an exchange that implies they have a history. But then...he showed again a few chapters later to take Miranda to the opera...and then he showed up a few chapters after that to go on a job with her to Ireland...and now he's firmly planted himself in the rest of the story. When I was writing the chapter where they go to Ireland, I LOVED their chemistry. They've got this sexual tension going on that they sometimes ignore and sometimes start to give in to--and they have this friendly repartee that I also love. Writing that chapter made me want to go back and write when they first met because I thought they were so hot together. In fact, if Dante weren't a vampire, I think he might be a good partner for Miranda. But I think that vampires have a pretty structured, hierarchical society that Miranda would NOT do well in. She wouldn't be able to deal with the scrutiny or anyone telling her what to do. But at least they can be friends now, right?

14 hours ago, victoria_anne said:

2. How long to expect the short story to be? What was the initial inspiration?

The short story is for submission to a Catholic literary journal, and there's an 8K word limit, so it can't be longer than that. The prompt was to write a story about the experience of grace and the next world in an everyday setting...so I took that literally (like usual) and decided obviously this story needed fairies. 

14 hours ago, victoria_anne said:

3. How much of your stories do you usually plan before you sit down and write them?

Uh...usually I don't really plan much at all, but I'm trying to be better about it. I think I'll always be something of a discovery writer, but I also acknowledge that if I go into a writing session with at least a vague idea of where to start the story/chapter/scene, then the session will be more productive. Hence the trying to flesh out some of these characters and outlines before I start. I can throw the plan out the window later (in fact, I love throwing the plan away) but I think it will help to have made a plan in the first place.

Edited by la_topolina
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Hi Noelle! Lovely to see you have so many projects planned. 

I'll go easy on you with the questions, or try to at least :P

1. Who was your inspiration for Miranda?

2. How do you maintain her characterization and voice?

3. So you said in reply to victoria that the short story had to be a maximum of 8,000 words. How do you anticipate splitting up the remaining 42,000 words?

 

Good luck!

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Hey Noelle! Lovely to see Miranda getting a background story and a very exciting one at that! You know it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that she was involved with  vampire. Setting it in Italy sounds like a dream! How do you write about such a place? Have you been, do you do research?

Also your OF story - good luck! I know how daunting it can be to delve back into OF after focusing on fanfic for a while, but with your talent, I'm sure you'll do wonderfully. I was wondering, you mention you're a bit apprehensive about writing it, but what about the other side? What makes you WANT to write it? :)

And one more question! What is your ideal NaNo snack and drink? :)

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11 hours ago, Professor McGonagall said:

1. Who was your inspiration for Miranda?

 

In a way, Severus himself was the inspiration for Miranda in that I started with him and inverted to get many of her characteristics. She's an extravert while he's an introvert; she has a large, close family while he is estranged from his; she's capricious while he's steady, etc. But I made her similar to him in certain ways too: she's intelligent, she's good at dueling, she can tell a lie if she needs to, and she's motivated more by her personal relationships rather than "causes" or "ideals." So I think they have some common ground, and that they are each strong where the other person is weak. 

11 hours ago, Professor McGonagall said:

2. How do you maintain her characterization and voice?

 

At this point I've been writing her so long that I can usually just do it--and if it's off I can tell that it's off. The NaNo story is a little bit more challenging, because I'm working backwards to her younger days, but it's still her, albeit a less experienced version of her.

11 hours ago, Professor McGonagall said:

3. So you said in reply to victoria that the short story had to be a maximum of 8,000 words. How do you anticipate splitting up the remaining 42,000 words?

 

I'm hoping to come into NaNo with the Mirante draft finished or almost finished. If I can do that, then I will probably spend about 10K words rewriting it (since I literally rewrite every word, I count it towards the total). Then I'll spend up to 16K words drafting and rewriting the OF. The rest of the words will be spent on libera nos a malo. I have 10 chapters published and, according to my outline I have 10 more chapters to draft.

11 hours ago, Professor McGonagall said:

Good luck!

Thank you!! You too ❤️

10 hours ago, shadowycorner said:

Hey Noelle! Lovely to see Miranda getting a background story and a very exciting one at that! You know it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that she was involved with  vampire. Setting it in Italy sounds like a dream! How do you write about such a place? Have you been, do you do research?

 

Thank you! I have been to Rome once, back before I was married. That trip left a big impression on me, and so I know all the locations where the action will happen. I pulled out my old guide book, and between that and the internet I should be okay to be fairly accurate. I'll be looking up maps and floor plans, and looking at images of the various locations. Reading Sigrid Undset's Jenny, which is largely set in Rome, also made a huge impression on me as far as using Rome for the setting of a story goes. I don't think I'll be able to do the Eternal City the justice that Sigrid does, but I'm going to try.

 

10 hours ago, shadowycorner said:

Also your OF story - good luck! I know how daunting it can be to delve back into OF after focusing on fanfic for a while, but with your talent, I'm sure you'll do wonderfully. I was wondering, you mention you're a bit apprehensive about writing it, but what about the other side? What makes you WANT to write it? :)

 

Oh, that's a good question! Largely because I just want to see if I can do it. That's not a very writer-ly answer, but it's true.

10 hours ago, shadowycorner said:

And one more question! What is your ideal NaNo snack and drink? :)

I don't usually snack while I write, but I do drink a lot of tea.

 

Thank you both so much for these lovely questions ❤️

 

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YAS NOELLE, YASSS.

What about Dante makes him (theoretically) a good partner for Miranda (if he weren’t a vampire)?

Do you have headcanons about Dante’s life before he was a vampire and how he became one? Will any of that be revealed in your fic?

I’m really glad Remus is being featured so much in libera and I adore your writing of him so far. Not a question, just had to say it. :P 

Who are these characters in your Project Beta picspam? Can you tell us about them? 👀 

Where/when is your Project Beta story set?

💚 💚 💚
 

Edited by RonsGirlFriday
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On 10/28/2020 at 8:57 PM, RonsGirlFriday said:

What about Dante makes him (theoretically) a good partner for Miranda (if he weren’t a vampire)?

 

I think it's in the ways that he is similar to her. They both have a great ability to have fun and to make the best of things. They're both open-minded and resilient. Even when Dante is melancholy, he kind of enjoys being melancholy once in a while, so it's not the oppressive sort of melancholy that Sev labors under. Dante is entertaining, and he appreciates Miranda's abilities.

On 10/28/2020 at 8:57 PM, RonsGirlFriday said:

Who are these characters in your Project Beta picspam? Can you tell us about them? 👀 

 

The girl in the middle (and the upper right corner) is Justice Reid, the protagonist. In the upper left is her mother, Jodi Shepherd. Her father, Francis Reid, is in the lower right corner, and her fairy friend, Finch, is in the lower left corner. Justice is a pessimistic fourteen-year-old, and aside from Finch, she doesn't really have any friends. She lives with her mother Jodi, and she hates it. Jodi is a...difficult person to live with, which is why Francis finally walked away. He sees Justice as often as he can, but he's a bit passive (and a bit alcoholic) and he didn't really fight as hard for equal custody as perhaps he could have. Finch and Justice have been friends since she was small, and nobody else ever sees him.

On 10/28/2020 at 8:57 PM, RonsGirlFriday said:

Where/when is your Project Beta story set?

 

It's set in a small town (which I guess I need to name, lol) in middle America. Late 80s/early 90s (essentially pre-cellphones for kids)

Thank you so much for these lovely questions ❤️

 

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Noelle, hello! ^_^ Wow, I love your surprised pikachu right at the top, that kind of caught me off guard 😂 Shoutout to you though for trying to do work on three different projects, especially those of such varying themes and formats and needs.

With this Miranda/Sanguini fic, how you do you plan for them to address his, well, vampiric nature and what that means for them if/when they have to meet again in the future due to the travels Miranda has for her career and he (presumably) has as a vampire?

What are you most worried about for writing the smut, and what are you most excited about for writing the smut?

How do you manage to keep such a cast of characters all straight and on proper character arc paths in your head for libera nos a malo?

 

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I love the surprised pikachu too @magemadi--and I often feel the way that expression looks, lol

18 hours ago, magemadi said:

With this Miranda/Sanguini fic, how you do you plan for them to address his, well, vampiric nature and what that means for them if/when they have to meet again in the future due to the travels Miranda has for her career and he (presumably) has as a vampire?

Some of this will come out through Miranda's thoughts/dialogue, because she's done some extra research on vampires/how to deal with vampires. One of her contacts in Italy is a vampire, and this will put her on Dante's radar. More information will come out as they interact with each other, and when she visits a vampiric court. 

18 hours ago, magemadi said:

What are you most worried about for writing the smut, and what are you most excited about for writing the smut?

I guess I'm worried that it will be boring. And that's really what I always worry about for my writing, so I guess it's not that different from writing anything else. As for what I'm excited about--I'm excited to tackle something new and figure out how to do it.

18 hours ago, magemadi said:

How do you manage to keep such a cast of characters all straight and on proper character arc paths in your head for libera nos a malo?

I have no idea. But seriously, I have notes jotted in a couple different notebooks and in a few different docs on my computer. I've also started creating character sheets for the more important OCs. Other than that, I just remember everything 😬

 

Thank you for these lovely questions!!

 

DAY ONE

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As is traditional for me, I have decided to tweak my goals on day one. It's not a huge change this time, but I think it is one that will help me be more efficient. Rather than try to rewrite/edit/polish projects Alpha and Beta, I'm only going to draft this month. that's it--nothing else. While this means that I won't be able to enter Tasha's challenge, I think it will allow me to finish a draft of all three of my projects, which makes me very excited. It also means that if my mental health wanes at any time during the month, I won't have the pressure of completing stories weighing on me.

Other than that, I did four 10-minute write sprints, which got me to 2026 words--not bad for day one! I've learned that with drafting it's best for me to do several shorter sprints rather than one long one. I draft the same amount of words in 20 minutes as I do in 10 because with the longer sprint I...get distracted (or a child interrupts me, let's be real).

I hope y'all  had a great first day!

WC: 2,026/50,000

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On 10/29/2020 at 9:21 PM, la_topolina said:

Finch and Justice have been friends since she was small, and nobody else ever sees him.

OMG I love this so much and will be eager to read it if you post it. 💚 (But I think I recall you decided not to necessarily post your OF? In any event, I'm sure it will be wonderful, and good luck with it!)

 

3 hours ago, la_topolina said:

I guess I'm worried that it will be boring. And that's really what I always worry about for my writing, so I guess it's not that different from writing anything else. As for what I'm excited about--I'm excited to tackle something new and figure out how to do it.

Literally nothing you write is ever boring! It will be divine and I'm here cheering for you! 

 

2K+ words is a fabulous first day of NaNo -- congrats! I support your revised goal of drafting only. Though if you ever get stuck when drafting and feel like editing your existing stuff, who could complain?? But even if you can't get stuff done in time to submit for challenges, it's important to write for yourself, to your own satisfaction. 💚

It's a marathon, and you've already covered 1/25th of it in 1/30th the time! 🥳

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@RonsGirlFriday thank you for your vote of confidence :cuteghost:

I will not be posting Justice's story to the archive--but I will be in need of a beta reader when the time comes (long after NaNo, lol)

And thank you for reassuring me that my stuff isn't boring! I really appreciate it ❤️

 

Day Two

I finished my draft for Project Alpha, and took a bunch of notes at the bottom of the draft about what I need to change/add for the rewrite. I will go back and fix all the typos so that I know what I meant when I come back to it--but then I'm putting it away until December. (When I draft I go so fast that a good third of my words have typos in them) I am no longer sorry that I broke up Dante and Miranda--while they have chemistry, and I think they can be friends--they definitely could not be long-term lovers. They would wind up hating and/or killing each other. 

I also started Justice's story today...and I think I will start the story over tomorrow because it's in the wrong place. The scene I wrote today opened in Justice's room as she comes home from school, but she needs to be outside on her bike. It's just the way it is.

Current Word Count: 4,033/50,000

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Look at you! Completing drafts and stuff! :loveshower: Congrats! This first question is gonna make me sound like a total weirdo but...did you go through with writing the smut in Project Alpha? I just saw that you were kind of rethinking your approach this NaNo, and weren't submitting for the Dirty Thirty Challenge, so I was just curious. In the non creepiest way possible, I swear. xD 

How do you like writing OF compared to fanfiction? Do you like it better or is it more intimidating or...just tell me your thoughts about both?

Your fantasy elements in Project Beta sound just as incredible as everything you did in Other Worlds. Do you read a lot of things that have fantastical elements? Or do you research? Or do you make things up based on other stuff?  

I hope those questions were ok! And good luck as day two closes and day three approaches! 💖

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Thank you Courtney!!

20 hours ago, prideofprewett said:

Look at you! Completing drafts and stuff! :loveshower: Congrats! This first question is gonna make me sound like a total weirdo but...did you go through with writing the smut in Project Alpha? I just saw that you were kind of rethinking your approach this NaNo, and weren't submitting for the Dirty Thirty Challenge, so I was just curious. In the non creepiest way possible, I swear. xD 

 

This question is totally valid and not creepy at all. I did in fact draft the smut, and it will remain (in a rewritten and hopefully better form) in the final draft. The only thing I cut from the original challenge prompt was the attempt to make the story include a 30th anniversary something (which I couldn't quite get to work organically). I felt very silly while I was writing the smut, but I did do it.

20 hours ago, prideofprewett said:

How do you like writing OF compared to fanfiction? Do you like it better or is it more intimidating or...just tell me your thoughts about both?

 

When I'm writing OF I feel like I'm working off the map which is...disconcerting. Since I've only written HP fanfic so far, I feel very comfortable with the world and the characters. So OF feels new and strange, and I feel like anything I have to say is dumb or has been done before and it's boring. So I guess I feel the same way and have the same anxieties, only they are amplified when I write OF.

20 hours ago, prideofprewett said:

Your fantasy elements in Project Beta sound just as incredible as everything you did in Other Worlds. Do you read a lot of things that have fantastical elements? Or do you research? Or do you make things up based on other stuff?  

 

I've spent my life reading myths, folk tales, and fantasies. It seems like anytime I sit down to write the fantastic elements creep in somehow. I've pretty much resigned myself to the idea of becoming a fantasy author (both urban and high fantasy). I might write a couple of historical fiction things that avoid the fantastic world, but most of my stuff will likely have some fantasy in it. Part of this is probably because I never grew out of my belief in fairies and such. Most of the time when I'm starting a story, I will find a folk tale or myth to tie it to as a starting point and build from there.

 

Thank you for these awesome questions! They were fantastic ❤️

 

Day Three

I'm working on Project Beta now and it's gotten...personal. I'm wondering how many times I'm going to wind up writing this story and why it always comes back to the same themes. Idk, maybe I'll wind up scrapping it all in the editing phase, but for now I'm just going to keep with what I've got.

For your amusement, I thought I'd share a little bit of a rough draft, so folks can see how very rough these things can be:

Spoiler

Rome was nothing but churches, but Miranda had still stubbornly refused to go to Mass. She went while she was at home with her Mother, but while she was abroad, she avoided Mass obstinately, as though doing so would show God how angry she was with Him. She still spent much of her days wandering the ancient, twisting streets in and out of churches, and she had gone to stand through the Papal blessing so that she could tell her mother she’d been there, but Mass she avoided like the plague.
 

See? 

Current Word Count: 5985/50000

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