Random ideas

[soubie]

You may have noticed that my writing of fic seems to have slowed to something not quite a stop but a very slow amble. So I'm going to be totally lazy and show you my notes in bullet form and not bother to try to frame these ideas in any sort of story or anything. I suppose it will be punishment to me that they won't now be interesting to reveal in

Comments

[just_ann_now]

My Abandoned WIP folder has twenty six stories in it. Some of them were for specific, long-forgotten tolkien_ weekly challenges, but, still. Twenty-six! All I manage to get down these days are isolated phrases. I see all the stories in my head, but just can't get them translated to paper. Oh dear.

(Even if these tidbits of your aren't stories, they're still hysterically funny to read, especially all the Small William stuff, and food he doesn't eat *chortle*)

[soubie]

I don't know about 'doesn't eat'. 'Won't eat until very, very hungry' may be nearer the mark. (or 'until there's a definate possiblity his Mum is going to get angry about it'). And I don't suppose pirates would be serving seagull if there was anything better left in the stores.

(On the other hand, blanc-mange is just horrible.)

[just_ann_now]

What exactly is blanc-mange? I always thought it was something like what we call"pudding", but perhaps not?

[soubie]

Nooooo, not at all. (That's custard, luv.) Blancmange (the hyphon has been dropped) is a sort of mush made from milk heated with cornflour and sugar til it thickened. It may or may not have any other flavouring, like coffee or chocolate- what gets put in front of Small William may have a blob of jam in it, if he's lucky. (Apparently at the time of the Mayflower it was called 'flummery', but I reckoned that most dodgy French rebrandings of English items were circa C18).

Despite what Bill Bryson would have you believe, it doesn't appear much on modern British menus- though we were given it at school occasionally in the late 1980s; I seem to remember it being slightly pink, suggesting that it was at least allegedly 'strawberry flavour'. (I think it went out when councils made cuts into school dinners; and it's one thing that hasn't come back with measures to reinstate 'proper' cooking in schools, probably because its value in terms of calcium isn't worth the hassle of trying to get 300 kids to eat it.)

[elendiari22]

Aww, Small William! I love that he has "Uncle Jack" around, and that he's secretly a mama's boy, and that he is so like Will that it's almost scary. I'd love for you to write a story about the day Will returns from ten years at sea.

[soubie]

U2? Okay, cool beans.

I think he's a lot less lonely than Will; but a lot more confused. I don't know about worried- worried about different things, probably.

I actually had to modify him a bit, since I know the child in the film didn't seem excessivly anxious or hyperactive. But in that situation, why should he be?

As far as Small William's concerned, Elizabeth is a goddess. Just that she's a goddess of the old sort- terrifying even when she's being protective.

I don't know how any new fic would look after I was already suffering terrible impulses to write the prequal to 'About Orfea' as a parody, not of Orfeo ed Euridice, which should be straightforward, but a parodic 'Nozze di Figaro', with a certain amount of 'Cosi Fan Tutte'and a certain amount of generic farce

[edoraslass]

OMG your little William is SO ADORABLE I just want to make him pancakes and hot chocolate and give him big snuggles.

I like 5 & 6 of Elizabeth particularly; they make a great deal of sense and I personally have always imagined that a LOT of women react that way to pregnancy. Natural or not, it's kind of creepy, and there's a lot of weird changes going on that you have absolutely NO control over. One of my friends referred to her "parasite" while she was pregnant. :)

And of course I like 12 - not just because I'm a Norrington girl, but because it does make sense that she wouldn't realize exactly how used to having him around she was until he was gone.

[soubie]

I forgot to add that William calls most unknown adults 'Captain' until he sees evidence otherwise. Just to be on the safe side. (And he would probably approve of your chocolate because that's different.)

I think that year was just one massive upheaval after another for Elizabeth, and, while she coped with it, she didn't have to like anything else, so why that?

[edoraslass]

OMG you're just making him MORE. ADORABLE.

[soubie]

I should probably edit that in, shouldn't I?