#wailing/howling/cheering/complaining about wips!

[nocompromise-noregrets]

WIP meme!

@writerman and I were just talking about wanting one of these, and saying we'd tag each other in the first one we saw in the wild, but I now can't find one when I need one, so I'm going to make one up instead. So!

List the titles/filenames/descriptions of your WIPs and tell us a little bit about them/wail about them/beg for inspiration/whatever you want! Then tag some people for a no-obligation mutual wailing/cheering/complaining session!

I'll go first:

My Heart Is An Empty Vessel: the Giant Ongoing One That Is Eating My Life. I know what needs to happen, I know I'm nearly there (if being probably about 30 chapters from the end qualifies as being nearly there), it's just getting the bloody thing over the line. What I need is to buckle down and get on with it, which is the thing that I am signally Not Doing. It's going to be fun, too, I'm bringing Elrond and almost the entire Rivendell crew to Dale for talks, but I'm terrified that I don't know what they're going to talk about/how it's going to go/what to do with it, and I ought to know by now that if I get writing it'll tell me what it wants to do, I've just...been putting it off, more or less, for a long time. I think I don't want it to end.

Break You But You'll Mend: the sequel to Empty Vessel, which has sprouted all manner of plotlines that I don't quite know what to do with, including an OT4 (Bard, Thranduil and their respective wives Maudie and Auriel), Sigrid and Tilda making friends with the Twins, Elrond, Erestor, Glorfindel, Celebrían, Sam, Frodo, Bilbo and all manner of others, Auriel having to come to terms with her natural father (Celegorm) being out of Mandos, the girls going looking for Thranduil's parents, Thingol, Melian, Dior and the rest of the Doriath crew, and Tilda adopting Mauhúr the Orc from @lemurious' A Few Trusty Lads. Oh, and Sigrid and Tilda are plotting to ask the Valar for another few favours. WHAT IS GOING ON.

All I Want Is You: the daft modern AU set during the 2020 lockdown(s). Again, I know what needs to happen (a wedding! a YouTube channel featuring the kids experimenting with all the random weaponry they find in the attics and cellars of Greenwood Hall under Bard's expert medieval-weapons-specialist eye! last year's experimental pairing! Arwen and the Twins appearing here and there via video chat!), it's just getting my head down and actually writing the thing.

A Somewhat Unexpected Journey: in which Bilbo, having remained in Erebor with Thorin, gets a letter from home and goes back to the Shire to retrieve his tiny orphaned cousin, accompanied by Tauriel, Kíli and Fíli. I am struggling with this one because I can't quite get my head round Bilbo-remains-in-Erebor fics - because if he and Frodo aren't in the Shire, then Frodo doesn't develop the relationships that then make the Fellowship of the Ring work. Also because Bilbo is, in my mind at least, so much a part of the Shire and the Shire is so much a part of him. I suspect that when he gets there, he's going to realise this, and then is going to have to do a certain amount of thinking things over and persuading Thorin that perhaps a nice country retirement is in order (and persuading Fíli that now might be a good time to come into his own, as it were). I'm also struggling because Bagginshield is really not my thing XD I can see it, of course I can, but it's so prevalent in the fandom that it rather puts me off (this is also, tangentially, why I didn't really get properly back into the fandom when the Hobbit movies came out - the Sherlock fandom was so batshit insane at the time, and so overwhelming, that it's put me off Martin Freeman and Zinglebert Bembledack* for life... XDDDD which is probably the other reason why I can't quite be doing with Bagginshield - Martin Freeman just annoys me. Sorry, guys, and sorry, Martin, it's not your fault. I just...I can't help it. XD )

Part whateverit is of It's Always Been You: in which we lurch from the spring after the Battle of the Five Armies to Aragorn and Arwen promising themselves to each other to the War of the Ring through the eyes of Rúmil and Orophin, and probably the Twins, and we see the beginnings of Legolas' Complete Personality Transplant. I think it's the scale of this one that scares me, which is quite ridiculous, all things considered, because all I really need to do is skip from Lothlórien scene to Lothlórien scene, plus Helm's Deep, and then probably put in the Grey Company and Pelennor Field etc from the Twins' point of view and probably the Battle of the Greenwood, and...ah, fuck it. I just need to buckle down. (it was part three, but there are other oneshots that appear between the three parts, so now I have no idea what number it is and it doesn't have a title either SIGH)

Two of a Kind: which is my ongoing ridiculous original novel thing, which needs extra scenes bloody everywhere, and as usual it's not cooperating. Most of it is written, it's just filling in the sodding gaps. Aargh.

Oh, and my My Slashy Valentine assignment, which is currently not cooperating and which I can't talk about in any case. XD

Right. That's me done! No obligation tags for @writerman, @allegoriesinmediasres, @mihrsuri, @bigneonglitter, @lonelyheartsmotel, @verecunda, @lemurious and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it. If you feel like wailing/howling/cheering/complaining about your WIPs, please feel free to do so!

*this is an Eddie Izzard-ism from a sketch she did some years ago about an imagined workshop trying to come up with a stage name for the singer Arnold Dorsey - his stage name is Englebert Humperdinck, and all Eddie's suggestions scan the same...as does the name of Funtospoof Actor'sname. I've been calling him it for years XD