Some thoughts on my NFE fic
Posted my NFE fic up to ff.net tonight so if you'd like to read it, "the girl from beyond the world's end" can be found here.
And now for some thoughts. I guess I should put a spoiler warning here? SPOILERS AHOY. Ok, we're good.
GBWE is SCAUverse compliant. Funny, cause I was so prepared to shift gears after writing my entire NBB in the verse, but seriously, that prompt was almost made for me and I am so glad I got it.
Back when I first came up with SCAUverse, I was writing a fic called "In the Walls of Iathglas." (Ok, it actually had several different names, but this is the one I remember it by.) In this fic, Jill and Eustace travel to a castle - versions range between a country estate gifted to Eustace and the castle of a neighbouring country's king - and there is much sexual tension before Eustace throws caution to the wind and proposes to Jill despite the knowledge that they will almost certainly be called back to England one day.
GBWE is the prologue to this unfinished fic. It is also, in a round-about way, the epilogue.
See, I'd always known, even back in the days of playing with Iathglas, that the lead-up involved a proposal by Rilian that Jill declines. That whole scene on the balcony, including the champagne flute, has been in my head for a looong time. And with the prompt that I was given for NFE, I finally got a chance to really play with this idea again. Instead of focusing on what came after the proposal, I wrote the story leading up to it.
This gave me the chance to do a little worldbuilding by way of creating a country (although it never actually appeared except by mention) and establish the roles of Jill and Eustace during SCAUverse. I came up with the names and species of everyone in that council room - and then only used, like, two of them. I got to play with dryad headcanons. And I was able to write a strong, resilient, influencial Jill.
At the same time, I accidentally ended up writing an LB AU as well.
I had also been tossing around ideas recently for a SCAUverse extension to LB. After all, if Jill and Eustace remain in Narnia for fifteen extra years, this means their experiences, views, behaviours, actions, etc are all going to be different. Thus, the story of LB would be changed. I actually went a step further in the fic, changing the circumstances in which Jill and Eustace are brought into Narnia.
What was completely unintentional came out of rereading a section of LB and realizing that Tirian is really a fairly incompetent king in a crisis. At first, I was going to merely go along the lines of emphasising Jill and Eustace's strengths and then it occured to me that the whole book would make more sense if Tirian was actually working with the Calormenes to help them overthrow Narnia.
Okay, so I didn't actually go that far in the fic. But yes, it occured to me and it actually could make So Much Sense. Did he call the children or did Aslan show him the dinner party as a warning? And then suddenly, he's got these kids, these known heros, and a traitor he may be but a killer he is not, so he leads them about on a wild goose chase as the Calormenes capture Cair Paravel, the true seat of power. Because really, stable hill? Really? You're going to worry about the beliefs of a handful of country Narnians when there's a whole city in danger?
I didn't have enough room to flesh the idea out in GBWE, unfortunately. I'll have to go back and write this alternate idea up some other time. But that is where the even later idea for given-up!Tirian comes from. He's depleted, pessimistic, merely humouring the children as he leads them along Narnia, no longer thinking strategically. In a sense, it's just as bad, and almost as crushing a blow for the children. Plus, it gave me a chance to write Jill's rallying speech at the end, which was fun.
It also ended up adding a stronger impact to the comparison with Rilian. Which always helps.
So. Those are my thoughts. One last one: I name the beasts of the four riders yet merely describe Death's mount. Someone guessed it was a dragon. Good guess - but not my intention. Yeah, I put Death on a tortoise.
(You can blame freudiancascade!)
EDIT: OH. It just occurred to me that as a hardcore Eustace/Jill shipper, it was really hard to write actual Rilian/Jill. Really hard. But I prevailed! Although if you squint, you can still see signs of E/J all over the place. (Most notably, the scene where Rilian asks for Eustace's advice on courting Jill. Read that scene again aware that Eustace is secretly head-over-heels for Jill - no wonder he drinks Rilian's champagne!)
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As for the NFE fics, I've read some of them and they are fantastic. The rest I really really need to get to. Really. Like, really really.
And now for some thoughts. I guess I should put a spoiler warning here? SPOILERS AHOY. Ok, we're good.
GBWE is SCAUverse compliant. Funny, cause I was so prepared to shift gears after writing my entire NBB in the verse, but seriously, that prompt was almost made for me and I am so glad I got it.
Back when I first came up with SCAUverse, I was writing a fic called "In the Walls of Iathglas." (Ok, it actually had several different names, but this is the one I remember it by.) In this fic, Jill and Eustace travel to a castle - versions range between a country estate gifted to Eustace and the castle of a neighbouring country's king - and there is much sexual tension before Eustace throws caution to the wind and proposes to Jill despite the knowledge that they will almost certainly be called back to England one day.
GBWE is the prologue to this unfinished fic. It is also, in a round-about way, the epilogue.
See, I'd always known, even back in the days of playing with Iathglas, that the lead-up involved a proposal by Rilian that Jill declines. That whole scene on the balcony, including the champagne flute, has been in my head for a looong time. And with the prompt that I was given for NFE, I finally got a chance to really play with this idea again. Instead of focusing on what came after the proposal, I wrote the story leading up to it.
This gave me the chance to do a little worldbuilding by way of creating a country (although it never actually appeared except by mention) and establish the roles of Jill and Eustace during SCAUverse. I came up with the names and species of everyone in that council room - and then only used, like, two of them. I got to play with dryad headcanons. And I was able to write a strong, resilient, influencial Jill.
At the same time, I accidentally ended up writing an LB AU as well.
I had also been tossing around ideas recently for a SCAUverse extension to LB. After all, if Jill and Eustace remain in Narnia for fifteen extra years, this means their experiences, views, behaviours, actions, etc are all going to be different. Thus, the story of LB would be changed. I actually went a step further in the fic, changing the circumstances in which Jill and Eustace are brought into Narnia.
What was completely unintentional came out of rereading a section of LB and realizing that Tirian is really a fairly incompetent king in a crisis. At first, I was going to merely go along the lines of emphasising Jill and Eustace's strengths and then it occured to me that the whole book would make more sense if Tirian was actually working with the Calormenes to help them overthrow Narnia.
Okay, so I didn't actually go that far in the fic. But yes, it occured to me and it actually could make So Much Sense. Did he call the children or did Aslan show him the dinner party as a warning? And then suddenly, he's got these kids, these known heros, and a traitor he may be but a killer he is not, so he leads them about on a wild goose chase as the Calormenes capture Cair Paravel, the true seat of power. Because really, stable hill? Really? You're going to worry about the beliefs of a handful of country Narnians when there's a whole city in danger?
I didn't have enough room to flesh the idea out in GBWE, unfortunately. I'll have to go back and write this alternate idea up some other time. But that is where the even later idea for given-up!Tirian comes from. He's depleted, pessimistic, merely humouring the children as he leads them along Narnia, no longer thinking strategically. In a sense, it's just as bad, and almost as crushing a blow for the children. Plus, it gave me a chance to write Jill's rallying speech at the end, which was fun.
It also ended up adding a stronger impact to the comparison with Rilian. Which always helps.
So. Those are my thoughts. One last one: I name the beasts of the four riders yet merely describe Death's mount. Someone guessed it was a dragon. Good guess - but not my intention. Yeah, I put Death on a tortoise.
(You can blame freudiancascade!)
EDIT: OH. It just occurred to me that as a hardcore Eustace/Jill shipper, it was really hard to write actual Rilian/Jill. Really hard. But I prevailed! Although if you squint, you can still see signs of E/J all over the place. (Most notably, the scene where Rilian asks for Eustace's advice on courting Jill. Read that scene again aware that Eustace is secretly head-over-heels for Jill - no wonder he drinks Rilian's champagne!)
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As for the NFE fics, I've read some of them and they are fantastic. The rest I really really need to get to. Really. Like, really really.