I have a good feeling about this
March is almost upon us.
Because a lot of really important stuff is happening in March [3019 TA] in The Lord of the Rings, the Anglophone Tolkien fandom traditionally celebrates "Back to Middle-earth Month" in March. Because this is the year of The Hobbit, this year it's a Hobbit event.
Well, sort of. In reality, it's just based on the name of Bingo Baggins, who just might have invented Bingo (we all know that Bandobras Took invented Golf, after all ;)). So we're playing fandom Bingo.
So there are 75 numbers, 31 of which will be called.
As I went slightly overboard and claimed 16 cards, I actually have at least one prompt for every number, so whichever will be called, I'll have something to write every. single. day.
Oof.
I should be all panicky.
In order to be prepared a little better, I made a spreadsheet* on which I listed all prompts to a number, and sorted them according to which might go together, and noted down any story ideas that I got just from reading those prompts (the instant plotbunnies, so to say). There are several combinations that hit it off at once, which is great, and several which I think can be incorporated with my current WiPs, which is likewise great. Some, I think, can be combined with some effort. Of course, there are also prompts that give me no idea at all. Or inspiration may strike suddenly - who knows!
At any rate, I'm pretty excited.
Part of the excitement is that I've only recently started to write (creatively) again. I've already observed that for about half a year after the birth, I suddenly lacked an interest in books and reading -- anything but magazines (especially on parenting) and parenting guidebooks didn't motivate me at all. I think I managed to read two "real" (that is, fictional, with a story in it) books between August and December of 2011.
Likewise, I didn't have any inspiration to write. I signed up for the Season Of Writing Dangerously, and then didn't do more than start new chapters on three of my WiPs. I signed up for NaNoWriMo, and then stopped after 5000 words. I wrote a lot of reviews (in terms of "this is me we're talking about") for the MEFAs, so that's something, I guess. But the creative juices? All drained out of me, sucked away with the milk or something. Normally, I puzzle on WiPs or my mental comfort fanfic/film/whatever you wanna call it when I'm bored or lying in bed waiting for sleep to come. Even that didn't happen in those months. When lying in bed, I fell asleep right away anyway; when I was bored, the mind was pulling a blank.
By January, things finally began to shift. My body began to return to mostly normal (for instance, I got my period again, not that any of you wanted to know that), and so did the creativity-craving parts of my mind. I decided that I didn't need parenting guides anymore because every so often they just contradict each other anyway, and by now I'd surely read anything worth knowing somewhere. I read books with stories in them again.
And, after waking up one morning with the brilliant idea that the solution to the beginning of the third part of TTS, which I hadn't managed to continue for literally years, was simply to write it from someone else's point of view (yes, I know, that's about the oldest trick in the book. All you other writers are welcome to laugh at me) - and suddenly where there had been several aborted attempts at writing a new chapter, there were two finished chapters. After that, I actively stopped myself because much of what I was about to write will do nicely as responses to certain B2MeM prompts. Hum, hom...
I suppose it'll mess with my usual way of writing. Normally, when I work on a story, I write it chronologically (though I may add some stuff in the editing process, of course - but on the whole, I write from beginning to end). I don't write one scene here, one scene there, and then try to link them later. I don't write the ending first and then make my way backwards. I may make notes or an outline if I have an idea for something that lies ahead of where I am, but I don't turn those into proper prose until the rest of the story caught up.
However, many of the scenes that I have in mind for my WiPs that are perfect for some prompts happen at places I just haven't reached yet. So I'll write them now, and hope that some day they'll fit with the rest of the story once I've reached the right point. We'll see if that works out! (I may even share them, under a spoiler cut.)
So, in short, I'm really looking forward to this challenge, and hoping that I'll be able to participate and write a lot! Yes, even though it'll never make me money. [Well, probably. I'm still secretly (or now, no longer so secretly) toying with the idea of de-Númenorising TEA, just because I LIKE that one and genuinely believe it's good writing. Not that I don't do that for (some parts of) TTS - but it's impossible to de-Maedhros-ise that, and Maedhros, alas, very obviously belongs to Fingon Tolkien. Anyway, did I tell you how I recently re-read TEA? No, I didn't. So I recently re-read TEA, and when I'd finished reading Chapter 8, I hit the "NEXT" button, and then there was no NEXT chapter, and I was sad. And then I laughed at myself, because it was my own fault there's no Chapter 9, BECAUSE I'M THE AUTHOR DAMNIT. That's how much I believe in that story!) XD]
But I digress!
Anyway. Things are moving. March. Tomorrow.
(Maybe I'll be able to work with my bees again without beeing - whoops, typo, but I'm leaving it in because it's so punnily a propos - terrfied of them? WE WILL SEE.
SPRING IS COMING.)
- - -
*Yes, I'm taking it THAT seriously, why are you surprised?