you won't make yourself a name if you follow the rules

This Facebook post by Heather Flores came to my attention via the PDX NaNo Facebook group. The course mentioned herein on the Heroine's Journey comes in mini and maxi; the mini version is like four days long and, while the suggested donation is $27, one can (I did) sign up for free. (I'm afraid to ask how much money the maxi is...)

I just finished day one, and I can already tell this is going to have intriguing consequences on my NaNo project. Because Flores is right: a feminist story doesn't reenact kyriarchal models.

( I'm not arguing there's anything objectionable enough to bar everyone from doing the thing about writing stories that *do* partially reenact kyriarchal models. )

...So my NaNovel? Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction. I hesitate to say ML is a magical girl anime, but I can't picture ML existing substantially in its present form if Sailor Moon hadn't, either. Cartoon violence is pretty much part of the package.

But, you know, let's think about this. My outline's kind of light on the fourth quarter action plot anyway; I know how things play out emotionally, more or less, but in terms of character actions and dialogue, I'm a lot less sure. So I might could change my outline so that one of the fourth quarter realizations is that canon-typical violence won't solve this problem. So that the happy ending needs the characters to resolve things through cooperation and communication. So that the protagonists' motivations aren't what they want to obtain or to defeat, but what they want to know or to change.

*eyes canon* ...yeah, this is gonna be amusing.

But I think I can do it.


( footnotes )

REQUESTING ANSWERS FROM: autistic and/or ADHD artists, especially novelists and other writers of book-length projects

DISALLOWING ANSWERS FROM: neurotypicals

QUERY: How does one stay on task for enough months to complete a large project? A novel draft, for instance?

fucking hell titles are hard. so are writing markets.

things that need proper titles:

1) Camp NaNo novel
2) fluffy queer romance short
3) "good fucking gods does this reaction to 45 have enough fucking content notes on it yet" short

things that need paying markets to buy first pub rights for them from me:

1) "Light and Storm", the Leto short
2) fluffy queer romance short
3) "good fucking gods does this reaction to 45 have enough fucking content notes on it yet" short

(I'm not kidding, it has thirteen content notes and I'm still thinking I missed a few)

(also Camp NaNo novel will eventually be wanting an agent to do the hard part of finding a traditional publisher to buy it, but that can wait till there's at least a first draft)

and my usual approach of "title = song lyric!" isn't going to fly unless the lyric is the song title, because US copyright law has a lot of bullshit in; "title = poem quote!" works better in that respect but lacks a certain...hm. memorable originality?

on a related note! people who try to publish origific: is it worth $6/mo (or $3.33/mo for $40 up-front for the year) to subscribe to WritersMarket.com $30 for a print Writer's Market 2017 with free year's subscription to the associated dot-com? like, recall I have no money? but I really want to sell these short stories and have no fuckin' clue where would want them?

(I mean, the Pagan/Polytheist Calls for Submissions group on Facebook exists? and occasionally someone even posts a paying market? but not often! and I explicitly want to send "enough fucking content notes"—which I think has a real title now: "Courage: I Remember—I Say Her Name"—to somewhere that is explicitly looking for dystopias, and the word "dystopia" has been used once in the history of the group.)

Give me Grimm/Andersen/Disney-style fairytale prompts with queer, trans, and/or disabled protagonists. Examples: Autistic Snow White. Lesbian Rapunzel. Cane-using Cinderella. Trans female Beauty (of -and-the-Beast).

(I'm not asking for fairytale people-of-color prompts because I'm pretty sure that's not my lane. Probably gonna racebend lots of these anyway.)

I won't promise to write something for every prompt. But I want to play poke-the-haters-in-the-eye.

Pick a question to ask me:

1. Describe yourself how you would describe a character you’re introducing.
2. Is there any specific ritual you go through while/before/after your writing?
3. What is your absolute favorite kind of fic to write?
4. Are there any other fic writers you admire? If so, who and why?
5. How many words can you write if you sit down and concentrate intensely for an hour?
6. First fic/pairing you wrote for? (If no pairing, describe the plot)
7. Inspiration, time, or motivation. Choose two.
8. Why do you choose to write?
9. Do you ever have plans to write anything other than fic?
10. What inspires you the most?
11. Weirdest thing you’ve ever written/thought about writing/etc.?
12. A fic you wish you had written better, and why?
13. Favorite fic from another author?
14. Your favorite side pairings to put in?
15. Your guilty writing pleasure?
16. Do you have structured ideas of how your story is supposed to go, or do you make it up as you write?
17. Would you describe yourself as a fast writer?
18. How old were you when you started writing?
19. Why did you start writing?
20. Four sentences from your work that you’re proud of.

HAH WORDS. fuck you trollbrain I MADE WORDS.

When you see this, share 3 random lines from 3 WIPs.

Saturday morning at nine-forty-five found Tara sitting at a two-person table in Brewniverse, mug of ambition in one hand and cinnamon bun in the other.

-

Grandmother Mairwen told me the tale of Cadair Idris, the mountain called the Giant's Chair. To put it in a nutshell: aspiring poets climbed the mountain and spent a night under the stars. Some woke mad. Some woke poets. (Grandmother seemed to think there's a difference.) Some never woke at all.

-

Sistrums jangled, cymbals chimed, castanets clacked, dancers stamped. Meritamun, princess of Kemet, poured a measure of beer for the goddess Hathor and another for herself. Hathor must surely be drunk by now.

Gretel likes stories. She dreams of being Aschenputtel, dancing in shoes of silk and glass and gold.

Gretel likes listening to stories, but she likes telling stories better. She wants to tell you about the witch with the candy cane house.

Gretel has to listen carefully for her little brother, even as Hansel has to look out for her. Sometimes people are mean, and sometimes the world isn't fair, and that means she has to be careful. She'll always tell you she learned that from the witch with the candy cane house, but she might not tell you true.

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post exactly one sentence from each of your current works in progress in your journal.

"What if I get it wrong?" Gillian asked, the smell of copper and grass and primroses all around her.

( and a whole lot more )


(1) Rereading my Supernatural WIPs is making me want to rewatch the show. Argh.