Last year my intention to make a lot of progress on an original novel was overthrown by a number of factors including procrastination. Sigh. At least I have an outline and character sketches, and inspiration is flowing again.
This year I decided to try a few writing exercises to get me started. Those exercises involved fulfilling requests from a story gift exchange and from an auction, which pushed me into other fandoms. As much as I love White Collar and the Caffrey Conversation AU, it's been good to explore more worlds as a writer.
Well, I say it's been good. Now it seems that way. A month ago when I signed up for these events I was filled with trepidation. Since 2012 my fiction writing has been focused almost exclusively on White Collar. I haven't even been daydreaming stories for other fandoms. Therefore after I read through the requests I was to fill, at times I wondered what I'd gotten into and if I could pull it off.
Having assignments and deadlines has helped. I signed up for the AO3 2017 Chocolate Box. The moderators assigned me a recipient whose requests for stories matched several of the items on the list of things I'd said I could write about. Stories were due on February 7. As of Valentine's Day recipients have received their gifts of stories, and now (a week later) the authors of those stories are being revealed.
There's a sense of pride in knowing that I managed to deliver three stories for two recipients. The stories gave me practice writing in different settings and voices, and in defining plots that had to stand on their own rather than being part of a series I'd been writing for years. The effort stretched my creative muscles, and it was fun.
There's also a bundle of angst waiting around the corner. What if the recipients don't get my sense of humor? What if readers in these fandoms hate what I've done with their beloved characters? What if the readers from the White Collar fandom who signed up for author alerts are appalled when they see something so different from me?
This combination of fear and accomplishment sums up what I face with my attempt to write an original novel. On the one hand, it's fun and exciting and makes me feel good about myself when I achieve various milestones. On the other hand, there's no telling what kind of feedback I'll get when I share that story with others. If I don't actually write the story, then I'll never have to face negative reviews. Hopefully my experience with the Chocolate Box will build up my courage, and remind me of how much pleasure there is in writing new things.
Meanwhile, round two is around the corner. I volunteered to write a story for an auction, and the person who won that item has asked for a story set in Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It's time to refresh my memory about Carrot and Angua, and then I'll face the fun and fear of writing and sharing my work once again.
Here are the stories I wrote to meet Chocolate Box requests:
Time After Time Lord: Whimsical Supernatural & Doctor Who crossover
Bouquet: Tag to Chidi's Choice (season 1, episode 10) of The Good Place (pre-slash)
Torch Song: Set in season 7 of Supernatural, Chuck sets out to seduce Sam (my first slash, so that really made me nervous)
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