I've done this before, and now I'm doing it again. This iteration is from auronlu.

Comment with the word "ICONS" and I'll select six of yours for you to talk about in your journal.

( Auronlu's choices and my explanations behind the cut. )

In other news, I have an amybang all week, so if I'm a little scarce the next few days, that would be why.

Title: Search
Fandom: FFX
Rating: G
Wordcount: 670
Characters: Lucil, Elma
Pairings: Lucil/Elma undertones
Spoilers: Not for the game. Maybe very mild spoilers for FFX-2
Notes: Written for auronlu, who requested Lucil and Elma for the Out of the Comfort Zone meme. This story is set within the "Aftermath" universe, right after Chapter 3, but all you need to know from that story is this: Post FFX, Elma comes home to Kilika. A few months later, Lucil comes to visit in the hopes of convincing Elma and others to join her in the Seekers, a band of sphere hunters working for Lord Trema. The rest should be self-explanatory.

( The sounds of insects and dripping water echoed through the jungle. )

Title: The Reason
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 470
Pairings: Beclem/Yuna
Spoilers: For the end of FFX only.
Notes: In the spirit of finishing things up before the end of the year, I caught up on transferring everything I've written this summer and fall to my archive, including my three Trick or Treat 2008 stories. Usually, when I participate in a fic battle, I don't post the ficlets individually in my journal, but I've been meaning to make an exception for these, and this one in particular. The prompt was "Beclem/Yuna, murder", and I was so strongly put in mind of "Aftermath" that I couldn't help but write a metafic for it. Set post-game (and so post-"Aftermath" as well).

( 'I had to kill them, you know.' )

Title: Aftermath
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: ~8000 (Chapter 3)
Characters: Beclem, Nooj, Lucil, Elma
Pairings: n/a
Notes: When I posted the last chapter of this story, I promised that it wouldn't take me another nine months to post another. Instead, it took just over a year. So I am done with making predictions on this one, except that I will finish it eventually. I like this one too much to give up on it entirely.

Very many thanks to bottle_of_shine for pulling heroic beta duty on this one, especially as she had to sacrifice a Strunk & White to the writing gods to help me whip it into shape.

Aftermath: Chapter 3

So I was going back through my LJ archives, and I just noticed that it's been a year and a day since I posted Chapter Two of "Aftermath". Crikey! How did that happen?

I did complete a first draft awhile back, but it was in need of a lot of help -- it was more like a detailed outline than a real draft, and thank god for having a beta reader who was willing and able to tell me so -- and the prospect seemed daunting, so I kept setting it aside. Fortunately, a few weeks ago I got inspired to pick it up again, and I've been making good progress on it for the first time in ages. Including a little bit today, and a good discussion about my changes so far and my future intentions with said beta, which was nice and energizing. So maybe it won't take me another year to finish the story.

Sometimes I suspect what's blocking my writing in general is the feeling that I really ought to be finishing this fic rather than working on quicker and easier things. So I feel guilty for spending time on shorts, and don't give them the attention they deserve, and can't finish them, (or in some cases even get started), and so everything suffers. Also, this is the only multi-chapter story I've written alone since "Salvage"; every other larger effort since has been in collaboration with kunstarniki. And while I absolutely loved writing collaboratively, I wonder if I became too dependent on the feedback from my writing partner. I got used to the idea that someone would be taking a look at every scene I wrote and that I would have feedback within a day or two of sending it along. I'm not getting that with "Aftermath", and so I get tempted into working on shorts that I can finish more quickly (in theory anyway -- it took me *months* to get around to finishing "Simple", for example). Am I really admitting that I'm this much of a sucker for feedback? I guess I am.

I know this lack of time, inspiration, and motivation to write is a bug that's going around fandom, and this is probably just how it's manifested in me. Blah blah whine. If nothing else, making a public statement that I fully intend to keep this story going, and to finish sooner rather than later, might keep me on track to actually do it.

Title: Aftermath
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: ~7000 (Chapter 2)
Characters: Beclem, Nooj
Pairings: n/a
Notes: At long last, the second chapter of "Aftermath" is finished, polished, and posted. Many thanks to bottle_of_shine for a beta read and her comments and encouragement throughout. Let us sincerely hope that it doesn't take me another nine months to write the next one.

Aftermath, Chapter Two.

Title: Aftermath
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: ~6400 (Chapter 1 of ?)
Characters: Beclem, Nooj
Pairings: n/a
Spoilers: For Beclem and Nooj backstories; nothing serious.
Notes: And KJ makes her glorious (?) return to FF.net with the first chapter of the fic that she never expected to write. This story has been a long time in the making; it was bunnied almost a year and a half ago, by a comment yuna_flowering left on an AGL review, asking about Beclem and what turned him so strongly against the past. I always meant just to write a short about that, but then Nooj showed up and... well. I've been working on this off and on since at least October and I figure I have enough to start posting. So here goes. Thanks to bottle_of_shine for a beta read.

Link to Chapter One

I love/hate it when the next story rises up and demands to be written. This is usually how it happens: the first few lines of a story will present themselves, and then the next lines follow it, and then the bit after that. But not when I sit down to write, oh no. This happens in my head while I'm trying to do something else. Like, oh, trying to get ready to leave for work. And it takes over, and I don't want to do anything other than write. Which is damned inconvenient on a workday!

Ah well. I wouldn't really have it any other way. (Hence the "love" part of the equation.)

Seriously, though, I didn't even bother to choose a book to read today; I just made sure I had the blank notebook I recently bought specifically for fic. Got the first couple of paragraphs down on the train, wrote more at lunch, added a bit on the train ride home. Then transcribed it before I headed out for dinner. This is a story I've wanted to write for a while, but you know? I don't think it's quite going to be the story I was expecting. Hmm.

In other fic-related news, we had an open-mic poetry reading in the library today. (We host one each quarter.) Normally I read a classic -- Dorothy Parker, Shel Silverstein, etc. I almost chose "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" but then decided that I might not be able to get through that right now, so instead I ended up reading a de-fanfic'ed version of "Why". It was a little nerve-wracking, reading something aloud I had written myself, but it was nicely received. I guess I'm glad I did it. Still feel a little odd about it, though.

Title: Plans
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: PG
Set: Pre-FFX
Spoilers: Minor, for Beclem
Pairings: N/A
Prompt: Beclem, in a scene where he's "a little more human." For yuna_flowering.
Notes: Another 100-word drabble. More characters that I haven't touched much, but it came fairly easily for all that.

( Plans )