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annacwrites · 4 years

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the wip list

Alright, gang. Buckle up. This is going to be a long one, and at this point I can’t even bring myself to be sorry about it. I meant to put this off but then I started thinking about it, so here we are (at 1:05 in the morning when I have to work at 8:30, what am I doing?).

I’m going to break this down in a couple of ways—fanfiction vs. original fiction, fandom (if it’s a fanfic), series/universe (if it’s in one), and then the individual books themselves (if I have the ability to do that, because quite frankly, for some of these I don’t because I have no idea what the titles are or where I’m splitting the story yet).

Also, “WIP” is an incredibly broad term here. In some cases it means I’ve already written the whole thing but I plan to 100% rewrite it (and haven’t started yet). In some cases it means I’ve written half of the thing but haven’t finished yet. In some cases it means I have it all outlined but haven’t started writing yet. In some cases it means I haven’t really touched an outline on paper yet but I have it all worked out in my head. Take the “in progress” part of WIP with a grain of salt.

(Putting this whole thing under the cut because it is so freaking long. I apologize if the read-more doesn’t work on your dash. Idk what tumblr is doing.)

Starting off easy—the fics:

Harry Potter: (JKR can fuck off with her transphobia and cultural appropriation and all the other stupid and fucked-up shit that she’s done/promoted but, as I said to my friends, she can pry my next-gen fanfics from my cold dead hands. Cursed Child is not canon in my life because I’ve never read it and I don’t care what nonsense she came up with.)

The “In Your Arms I’ll Stay” universe (Tedtoire/Scorose):

The first fic in this universe is the first fic I ever finished. 110k words followed up by a ~137k word sequel. It is a disaster and a half but it’s also my baby and I fully intend to rewrite it one of these days. It is full of standard Tedtoire trope-y nonsense—best friends since childhood! two-year age gap! jealousy about other relationships! obliviousness!—and at 15 I thought it was a really good idea to try to turn it into a mystery too, which is a mistake that I have every intention of rectifying because it was unnecessary and I just didn’t know how to do drama and tension back then.

Anyway. It will probably be two parts again when I rewrite it because one part per school year just works, yeah? We’re covering Vic’s fifth/Teddy’s seventh year and Vic’s sixth year/Teddy’s first year out of school over the course of these parts.

Within this universe we also have Heartbeat and Bone, which is a Scorose fic that I’ve written probably 75% of already but have no intention of actually finishing before I rewrite it. I want to get the stories in the right order so that I can get details straightened out, so Teddy and Victoire get the rewrites first and then I’ll be revisiting this fic. Also full of trope-y nonsense (and my continued acceptance of the headcanon that the Heads have their own dormitory at Hogwarts, because it’s just too much fun that way).

some things were meant to be (Tedtoire):

Oh god, another fic with a cliché title taken from Can’t Help Falling In Love. I have zero regrets because it fits them perfectly.

This one is... half-done? I fully intend to finish it but I need to finish the outline first. It was my 2019 NaNoWriMo project and I am 100% just writing it for the lols (and because Teddy and Vic are like... my comfort ship where writing is concerned). I wanted to play with a different universe and change up their relationship and roles at school a bit, but once again... trope-y nonsense. It’s unavoidable with them. There is obliviousness everywhere.

Star Wars: (it’s Reylo, okay? It’s Reylo. I don’t want to hear it about how the ship is ~so terrible.~ That is literally the furthest thing in the world from a hot take, you can’t say a single thing that I haven’t heard before, and I’m a grown adult and can do what I want. Bite me.)

looking for the map that leads me home (Reylo):

Stole the title on this one from We Take Care of Our Own by Bruce Springsteen, because why the fuck not, right?

To put it simply: musician AU. To put it a little less simply: he’s got a dead career, she wants to have even the slightest shot at one, Rose is the best, Poe’s a singing heartthrob, Finn is a love-struck goofball. You know, all that fun stuff. The entire thing is based on a playlist that I made and every chapter has a song that acts as its theme. I haven’t touched it since January 2018. I want to finish it eventually but it’s not really at the top of the priority list.

There’s a few other fics from other fandoms that I’ve started and never finished but the odds of me touching them again are like... nonexistent, so I’m not including them here. I’ll update this post if anything changes on that front (but it probably won’t).

Now for the complicated part—the original fiction:

Maker’s Magic

This is a trilogy (or at least, it’s supposed to be). This is also a rewrite of the first story I ever finished—the fantasy novel that I wrote for my first-ever Camp NaNoWriMo back in August of 2011, when I had literally no clue what I was doing at all and essentially stole the plot structure from The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and built my own story around it. This is not a good way to write a piece of fiction that you want to publish, kids, but it is a damn good way to get your feet wet when you’ve never really written before.

I am reworking this story entirely from scratch. The characters are... kind of the same as the original story. Kind of. Maybe. I’ve changed a few names and merged a few people together and scrapped some others and entirely shifted the backstory of pretty much everyone, but... they’re definitely still the same, right?

Basically, at this point the plot is really only similar to The Obsidian Trilogy in that we’ve got a trilogy, we’ve got some elves, and it’s your standard good vs. evil fantasy story (in its own unique fashion, of course). I’m still working out the details of this rewrite, but this is kind of the Holy Grail of all of my writing projects and the one that I’m most concerned about getting right, so I’m anticipating that I’ll be in it for the long haul on this one. I’m hoping I might be able to get a draft of the first book done this year, but... we’ll see.

(I also don’t want to give too many details about this project, ‘cause it’s the one that I’d really like to maybe publish one day, so...)

The Willow Hill universe

This started as a single story plus a standalone sequel set in the same universe, conceptualized when I was fourteen and missing horseback riding terribly (so yes, it is a story for all those Weird Horse Girls™ out there). I wrote a good portion of it, then deleted it, then rewrote the entire thing, then deleted it again a few years ago because I was no longer satisfied with the writing quality (after hitting top 100 on the Teen Fiction list on Wattpad way back when, so... I didn’t do too badly as a 16-year-old, but the writing still sucked). I’ve been promising a rewrite to my Wattpad followers since 2016 or something like that (2014? Whenever the hell it was that I deleted it the second time) but haven’t delivered at all.

I now envision this universe as a duology plus the aforementioned standalone sequel, except it’s not entirely fair to call it a YA duology in that the first book is definitely YA, but the second is more romance-y?

I originally just revealed the main character’s endgame relationship in the epilogue of the story, but I love both her and her boyfriend and their relationship so much that I decided that I’m going to be self-indulgent and write the story of them actually falling in love with each other, so that’s book two (so really, you don’t actually have to read book two to understand anything, I’m just writing it because I want to and it’s also kind of a present to anyone who read the original story when they were also a teenager and is now an adult who wants to read other stuff).

Book one is now about the teenage struggle of crushes and trying to figure out what it is that you actually want out of your life and what you value (I say “now” because it was definitely way more self-insert-y the first time I wrote it and it is decidedly not at this point). It’s also sort of a love letter to trainers who are amazing and the kind of person we should all be so lucky as to be coached by.

These characters are my comfort characters where original fiction is concerned since they’ve been bouncing around in my head for the last ten years or so, and I’m hoping I can get at least the first book rewritten in the next year-ish, partly because I’ve been promising it for so long, and partly because I just really enjoy this world and I want to get back to it again.

The Coffee Shop Chronicles

AKA, I lived in one coffee shop on my university campus for pretty much the entirety of my college experience and it was a very inspiring place to be, so this has less to do with coffee shop AUs and more to do with the fact that I met several of my favorite human beings on this earth over a vanilla chai latte and mutual sass with the baristas.

(One of said baristas is very near and dear to me and introduced me to another regular who is now a very good friend with the statement “You’re both sarcastic assholes. You’ll love each other.”)

None of the characters in this universe are based on actual human beings whom I know, but I liked the idea of the campus coffee shop serving as this thing that tangentially connected all of these people to one another, much in the way that I am tangentially connected to god knows how many people via my barista friend. Essentially, the idea is that the stories in this universe are all standalone, but the characters sometimes cross paths with one another at Caffeinated, so it’s sort of... Easter-egg-y in terms of who pops up where in which story.

Currently I only have two stories in this universe that are legitimately plotted out, but there is room for any number of spin-offs based on whichever characters show up in those stories (or don’t—that’s the fun of it being a coffee shop. The barista is the only reliable character). Those two stories are as follows:

Chance Encounters (title so totally subject to change, also stealing the terribly summary from the Wattpad draft that never saw the light of day):

For Bennett McGuire, things with guys just didn't seem to want to go her way. From the disasters that were her attempts at dating in high school to the problem that had been Elijah Becker, she hadn't exactly had the best luck. With all that in mind, it made perfect sense to swear off dating until she finished college—that is, it made sense until one frozen day in February when Gordon Evans walked into her life. After that, who was to say what would happen?

What’s Your Metaphor? (once again, enjoy the terrible summary from the Wattpad draft that never was. I am cringing reading it but also too tired to come up with anything better):

"What's the point?"

It's a question asked widely, for all sorts of reasons, and it's one that April Hayes didn't know the answer to any better than anyone else. All she knew was that she had her plan, and she was going to stick to it, because it was the only thing that seemed to have any sort of logic to it in her life. The things she thought, the things she believed—well, they all fell before the plan, because she didn't have time to ask herself "What's the point?"

That is, she didn't have the time to know the answer—her answer—until one guy by the name of Drew Collier showed up and made her consider things that she had never even thought of before.

High Blood

Yinz can go read my WIP introduction post for this one. It’s a fantasy story. Just for the hell of it, here’s the summary from said WIP introduction post:

At the age of seventeen, Thessaly of Averak had a choice—take the crown of her people and her place as her father’s heir, or set it aside to become one of the High Warriors, dedicated to protecting their people and the country that her long-dead ancestor Enred built after leading its citizens out of a long and bloody war. Amidst raids and famine at the borders, she gave up her crown to better serve the people that her family rules.

Ten years later, all is quiet. At least, all is quiet until Beca’s pendant is stolen by a thief who disappears into the night on the journey back from the summer palace, Tess gets herself stabbed, and the discovery is made that the rock-solid foundations of their family’s claim to the throne—and the peace that depends upon them—are laced with hairline fractures.

(I didn’t write anything to speak of for Camp NaNo July 2020 and actually wound up deleting my project for this on the NaNo site because my dad was hit by a car while cycling the Friday before the weekend when I was planning to write like... 30k words to catch up, so obviously I gave up on that plan (he is doing well now, thank you for asking). I’m hoping I’ll get around to this one eventually because this particular universe arguably has the most potential for having multiple stories set in it, fantasy-wise.)

Emerson’s Lights

Natalie Flynn has been best friends with Evan Acheson practically since birth. They've stuck together through thick and thin, from her braces in seventh grade to his jump to stardom as a singer-songwriter their freshman year of college.

She’d do anything for him, but spending a week with him on tour involves a lot more than she bargained for, culminating in the turn of events that is Caleb Blake, lead singer and primary songwriter of opening act Emerson’s Lights, moving into her house for the better part of a month.

She always knew there would be complications being the best friend of a rock star, but this? This was one that she didn’t bet on.

(Aka, girl meets boy in a band trope. Yay.)

(NaNoWriMo 2020 project)

The famous musician story (this thing doesn’t have a title right now and I’m not even going to try)

Stupid, trope-y nonsense idea that I came up with for my own personal amusement and nothing else. I’ve written a few chapters of it but genuinely have no idea where this falls in the hierarchy of things that I want to get done. Long story short, she’s in grad school for history, he’s a famous musician in town recording for a new album, they meet in the library, she pretends she has no idea who he is, and shenanigans ensue.

And that is where I think I’m going to leave it. There’s four other stories that I can think of off the top of my head that I could theoretically add to this list, but they are legitimately just ideas right now so they can be added at a later date when they’ve manifested themselves a little more strongly. There’s also another quartet in the Willow Hill universe that I came up with in high school that could theoretically be added but I think I might just steal those character names and give them their own little world instead. We’ll see.

Basically, if you didn’t get the point from this list: I am working on a lot of things, and when I say I’m writing, it could mean literally anything on this list (or any of the other ideas that I have floating around). The stories/universe here are the most likely candidates for my time, depending on whether I’m doing a deep dive into my writing or just playing around with something fun, and hopefully (god, hopefully) I’ll be able to move one or two of these to a “completed works” list in the next year(ish).

(Or at least, as complete as a draft ever gets before you start going in on it again.)

#the wip list

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aberorca · 7 years

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Cursed Child 04/05/17 Part One review:

Disclaimer: this recap will involve a lot of gushing about James Le Lacheur. Second disclaimer: even though I tried to make some notes in the interval, there are so many things about this performance that stood out which I want to remember and write about but I know I won’t remember everything because there was just too much.

So, this week we have James Le Lacheur’s last hurrah as Scorpius (which is very sad but let’s not dwell on that but rather her sheer brilliance). I’m going to go ahead and say it - she’s my favourite Scorpius. Now, she and Anthony are both equally brilliant. They are superb actors. It so happens Anthony got the Olivier (and deservedly, too) but I firmly believe that if James had the role full-time, she’d have got the gong. She is superb. When she is on stage I find it difficult to take my eyes off her: her emotions and reactions (she seems much more overtly reactive) are captivating and she has a command and a presence that is really incredible given that she has so little time, relatively-speaking, over the course of the year to develop and mould the role within the show. She doesn’t try to be Anthony and I love that although Scorpius still shares some of the same quirks, such as fiddling with his clothes. I also find that James plays the comedy differently. Her Scorpius gets laughs where Anthony’s does’t, and vice-versa.

Anyway, here we go:

I love watching Harry and Ginny on the platform. I know I’ve mentioned this before but them standing there with their arms around each other gives me all the feels, especially as they get put to the test a lot in the story.

Cases/Trunks: I was in Row A for this show so I was able to see details I don’t normally see. I noticed that Rose has a big, shiny new case with “RGW” on it in huge bold letters. In comparison, Albus’s case looks small, old and battered and has “POTTER” stamped on it in peeling letters. It looks like it could be Harry’s old trunk. This is gloriously metaphorical. Lots of people have talked about how the suitcases carried around in the show are also used as gravestones in the final scene, each with the initials of a dead loved-one, and how the kids are literally carrying around the emotional baggage of their parents. It’s basically the same here, whether Albus’s case used to be Harry’s or James’s, he’s carrying with him to his first year at Hogwarts someone else’s history and identity that he doesn’t want, and which he feels he can’t match with his own. In contrast, Rose is already brimming with confidence, and carries no one but her own person.

I was so happy to have Tom Milligan back. I love him, he’s perfect for James Sirius. His James is the best and I missed him two weeks ago and I’m going to miss him lots when he goes. When James makes the thestral joke, Ron hands him on the shoulder and grins, as if to say “Good one.” When Albus begins to express worries about Slytherin, Ron and James laugh. Ginny and Harry both swung their heads around at them. Ginny definitely had a glare on, but I couldn’t see Harry’s look though I suspect it probably wouldn’t be as stern. I think Harry has a secret soft spot for James Sirius’s jokester nature. When Harry tells him off for teasing Albus on the Platform at the stat of second year, it’s very half-hearted and he fails to hide a bit of a grin. James then playfully slapped Harry in the stomach with his “See you at Christmas, Dad” and the way he said it - I could tell he felt he wasn’t really being told off and Harry just grinned at him, he couldn’t help it. I imagine that James and Harry have a very easy relationship. James takes after his namesakes and has a lot of Weasley (notably Ron and the twins) in him too. I think Harry is really fond of his light-heated nature and secretly a little proud of the level of prankster that James is. He also loves that James carries the quidditch talent and I imagine that when James first got onto the team, Harry would try to make as many matches as he could. Harry, as he says, understands James because he’s seen so much of who James is before. He has seen James in Ron, he saw him in Sirius, he saw him in Fred. Albus, is of course, far more like Harry than James and in consequence Harry can’t understand Albus, because it would be like trying to analyse himself. Of course, the ease with which Harry and James rub together only aggravates Albus’s insecurities. I also think that Harry doesn’t entirely take James’s teasing seriously. I think, when it’s about Slytherin, for example, something Albus is really insecure about, the teasing hurts him much more than Harry or James realise.

That being said, James allows himself to tease Albus but he doesn’t allow anyone else to do so. When Albus got sorted into Slytherin and Yann said “Maybe his hair isn’t that similar…” James hit Yann and gave him a very brief glare that plainly said “Shut up about my brother” and Yann (played by Josh Wyatt) retreated. I think James would have hexed an Albus bully so fast they’d never have seen it coming but the fact that James and Albus are in different houses and different years means that James isn’t in a position to protect Albus all the time. It would also possibly make the teasing worse - Albus would be teased even further for having to rely on older brother for his defence.

Speaking of different years, I can confirm that the school robe designs do vary among the different year groups (you can see this best during the First Task in the Twiwizard Tournament).

Within the first two years of school, James Le Lacheur talks in a higher pitch than he does in the rest of the play to emphasise that Scorpius is younger in these scenes. In third and fourth year her voice drops. I love that she added this detail. Also, she is so delightfully awkward and bumbling in the scene on the train (and in general) when Scorpius first meets Albus. So endearing.

On the platform for third year when Albus and Harry are at odds, a passer-by who was watching (played by Nuno) actually laughs out loud them, in a nasty way. Harry turns around and looks at the man. He was facing away from my direction to look at him, so I didn’t see the look he gave but I imagine that if looks could kill… I really liked this detail. One of the things overlooked in discussion of this part of the story, though not understated in the script, is that gossip dogs Albus as soon as he is sorted into Slytherin. Amos Diggory had “read about” Albus, the “Potter, who is in Slytherin”. Dumbledore hears gossip at the school and at the Ministry. I imagine Rita Skeeter had a field day when she first heard about Albus being sorted into Slytherin. Harry is used to gossip and rumours and I imagine he has a much thicker skin for it by now, but Albus is just a child, the child of the most famous wizard in the world, and not only does he have rumours within school, but outside of it. Every person he meets knows his name, not because they know him personally, but because they’ve read malicious rumours about him and it all comes down to the fact that he, in the eyes of others, doesn’t match his Dad, So Albus internally rationalises this into being all Harry’s fault. It’s hard enough to have a difficult relationship with your parent, but dealing with it in the public eye, with everyone guessing at things and spreading the guesses, must be absolutely awful and it’s bound to affect that status-quo of said relationship. It just makes it all ten times worse.

During the first EGM, I was able to see into the wings of the stage because my seat was at the far right of the aisle. Someone (Anabel, I think) was waiting just out of sight for the St. Oswald’s scene that followed, and her walking frame suddenly started to shoot toward stage far too early. She darted out to grab it before the EGM got interrupted by a walking frame. It didn’t get as far as on-stage so you wouldn’t have seen it unless you could see into the wings. General audience probably wasn’t aware but it was funny.

Ron and Ginny are both in the EGM and when Hermione mentions Harry’s scar, Ron approaches Ginny in the crowd and talks to her. It looked like a “Why didn’t you tell me?” type-thing.

Tom Milligan plays the carer who loses his trousers in the St. Oswald’s scene. He’s also one of the people who pushes the walk against Albus and Scorpius. This isn’t visible to general audience, but he’s still in his boxers when he’s pushing the wall.

I mentioned this two weeks ago but when Draco roars at Ginny after Albus and Scorpius go missing, Harry’s hand whips to his wand and he’s ready to curse the absolute shit out of Draco. The look on his face is murderous. I’d shit bricks if Harry looked at me like that. Of course, Ginny handles it herself because she’s awesome but Harry’s hand doesn’t leave his wand until Draco leaves. Now I’ve noticed this detail (only took me year - oops), I’m absolutely obsessed with it. All the Hinny feels, you guys. <3

More on Harry: Jamie’s waistcoat thing is quite well-known by now (and it should be) but another habit he has is taking his glasses off. He does it when he’s tired, or stressed, or frustrated or emotional. It’s as if he finds it too hard to look through his own eyes, as if it’s too tiring, too strenuous, to see what Harry Potter sees.

When Harry was ordering McGonagall to keep Albus and Scorpius apart, he normally slaps a hand down on the Marauders Map on McGonagall’s desk. It fell off, and he picked it up off the floor and slammed it down again. As a Harry fan, I find this scene really hard to watch because I don’t like his words and actions even if I understand his reasoning behind them. It’s the uglier side of his flaws. But of course, he recognises his mistakes later and makes up for them, because my boy is a heroic human being and that’s perfect example of a flaw and a strength.

When Albus leaves the hospital wing with Harry and meets Scorpius and tells Scorpius that “We’ll be better off without each other, OK?” James L stumbled back at these words, as if Albus had just run him through the gut with a knife. It was a perfect example of how she is so brilliant. She didn’t stay staring at Jamie as Anthony normally does but immediately crumbled to the floor as though in physical pain. Powerful stuff.

Hermione in the first AU: I love how Noma plays her in these scenes, it’s really beautiful. In particular, I love the manner in which she leaves the DADA scene. She walks off stage slowly, bringing the blackboard with her her hand. She’s half-commanding the blackboard but also half-steadying herself with it too. She walks off with such a straight back, her head held high, so dignified despite her personal internal pain. It perfectly exemplifies why Hermione is such a role model - not because she’s clever or becomes Minister for Magic, but because she’s brave and steadfast in her grievances and carries her burdens with grace and dignity, walking into and out of battles with her head held high. Another thing I love in these scenes is that when she and Ron meet on the staircase and he starts talking to her about Albus thinking they were married, she looks away from him and keeps facing away. I get the sense that as she’s hearing this, if she were to look at him, she’d break, because she loves him so much and it causes her such agony that they aren’t together. Having to look at this love of her life, whom she can’t be with, would just be too much for her composure.This scene is the most heartbreaking scene between them: it’s worse than the Dementor scene by far.

The library scene. Oh my, the library scene. It is nothing short of a privilege to see James do this scene. I remember the first time I saw her as Scorpius back in December and this was the stand out scene but this time around I was two rows closer and oh, my God. You could have heard a pin drop in the audience, she just floored everyone. I think I was sitting there with my mouth open, I was transfixed and I had no time to look at Sam, I just couldn’t tear my eyes from James. The way she screams out frustration with Albus, finally at the end of Scorpius’s tether and the way her body moved and twitched and curled, as if someone was performing the Cruciatus curse on her as she spoke about Astoria. The sobbing, the tears and the snot and everything. This was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve seen so far in this play, and that’s saying something. Honestly, I just can’t find words to express how powerful she was. It felt like the Earth had moved.

I love that Albus hands back the time turner when trying to get Scorpius under the cloak, it’s like a peace-offering and a gesture of trust. I love how James, when McGonagall left, sat so rigid and proud, her Malfoy showing, determined to be stoic and dignified after pouring her heart out but then when she admits that “I didn’t much like my life without you either”, the biggest smile split her face, as if Scorpius was for a moment, taken away and just living the pure happiness that Albus brought to his life. Albus then pulled Scorpius into a hug and Scorpius shrieked with shock as Albus did so which was funny and adorable; he’s just so uncomfortable with all this contact. James is a very shrieky Scorpius (which works brilliantly when Jamie plays Scorpius in the Polyjuice scene and gets all overexcited about the books). As I’ve said, James gets laughed where Anthony doesn’t and vice-versa. When Scorpius was talking about actions creating ripples and how they created “really bad ripples” the way she said those three words, so dramatic and dark, made the audience laugh out loud. I wish I could describe it, it was fantastic.

I always make these things too long! That’s all I can remember for now. Part Two in a few hours!

#cursed child #james le lacheur #tom milligan #jamie parker #james sirius potter

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