2013 WIP Round-up (Part 1 of ?) : The Andrastian WIP set
2013 is my year of getting (far too many) Thedas-based fanfic WIPs posted and done. I knew work would force me to take a writing break from the end of March through early May but that's all behind me now. Whoo. Now I just need to remember WHAT I WAS WRITING!
This is the first of a few 2013 WIP Round-up posts for me so I can keep track of active projects.
Here are a few new WIPs that were added to my pile WHILE I was on a writing hiatus. ;)
(The old WIPs are all still active and will be mentioned in upcoming posts.)
Three Andrastian stories/story sets: Bethany Hawke's Diary (story title TBD, novella? shortish novel?), Victoria Hawke's Universe (story series title TBD, multiple short stories, Sebastian-focused) and Andraste's Story (title TBD, novella).
WIP 1 - Bethany's Story (novella) - Back in March I realized that I needed to write Bethany Hawke fic that had absolutely nothing to do with shipping. Something that is a big exploratory look into Bethany's identity, her friendships with other people (especially other women, including potential role models), her relationships with her family members, her feelings about her religion and faith, and her hopes and dreams for herself.
I realized that I needed to write about Bethany going through difficult moments of growing up and finding the courage to make her own decisions for herself, her future as a mage, and her relationship with other mages and with the Circle. Most of all, I realized I needed to write about Bethany spending time with other women and thinking about what it means for her to grow into herself and become the woman she wants to be. And, given that this is Bethany, there is a lot of internal struggle involved and that struggle is what needs to drive the story's conflict.
Unlike a lot of fanfic, this is a story that I want to remain gen. I have nothing against shipping Bethany with just about everyone in the DA cast yet, for this story shipping just gets in the way of the principle story conflict and the variety of gen relationships that I want the story to focus on. A ship can very easily hijack the focus of a story and given how much canon!Bethany wants to have a family of her own, I feel that for the story I want to tell romantic shipping gets in the way of working through Bethany's central story conflict: her relationship with the Andrastian faith. (Of course, this doesn't mean a story that is puritanically devoid of flirting or any interest in other people.)
Anyhow, I was planning on putting this WIP off until the middle of the summer but the plot bunnies are biting so I'm playing with it now. I'll probably start cranking out text in the very near future, rotating the production of this with a few other WIPs (not on the list below).
Over the past few days, I accidentally created an entire Thedas-canon-verse for it, partly by grafting this Circle!Bethany-universe to the universes for a few other WIPs that almost entirely unposted but have many 10s of thousands of words, and partly by creating a new Hawke who I designed for romancing Sebastian (Victoria Hawke). Which brings me to...
WIP 2 - Victoria Hawke's Universe (series of short stories) - Sebastian is a character who fascinated me from the start but I just haven't had time to delve into him (much less delve into all of the good fanfic written about him). Thus, Victoria Hawke's universe was born. ;)
Not sure what I will do with this beyond writing a bunch of short stories but I want a space for short stories that is *VERY DIFFERENT* from my primary Kirkwall (mage!Mari Hawke's Kirkwall, which insists on epic stories that take me forever to write, where forever is 15 months of planning, oceans of words written, and few posted). Basically, a world for me to occasionally write super short fic which, knowing me, ends up becoming a giant collection.
One thing this will feature is short fic (probably double drabbles and flash fic) with ultra rare pair Cullen/Sebastian. 8}
WIP 3 - Andraste's Story (novella) - Ever since I've started reading World of Thedas, I have felt a SERIOUS NEED TO WRITE ANDRASTE FIC. Very Joan of Arc Andraste with:
- Tribal pre/early-Ferelden
- Young mage Andraste
- Andraste/Shartan romance
- Andraste's somewhat arranged, highly survival-based marriage with tribal leader Maferath (huge May-December trope in my head)
- Andraste's initial disciples
- Debauchery in early Tevinter
This baby will take a bit of planning but I'm slowly starting the planning now. Once the story takes shape, I suspect I'll take one of my weeks off during the summer to madly bang out a draft. This one might want an ideas/story beta once a draft is written.
...
So, that's it for my Andastian WIP set. The rest of my many WIPs will be listed in upcoming round up posts.
Crossposted at http://vieralynn.dreamwidth.org/205721.html.