Challenge progress report #1

[tikatu]

So far, so good. I got on a roll the other day and wrote three, but one every other day. Today was hard, though. I went off and did beaucoups housework just to get away from writing. Finally, before dinner, I forced myself to sit down and scroll through the prompts I had listed. I wanted to write one for Brains -- he's underrepresented in all my drabbles. I did find one for him this evening.

I've noticed that Jeff (of course), Virgil, Gordon, Grandma, and Kyrano all seem to figure prominently among the characters I find easiest. John, Scott, and Alan less so. I don't think I have any Tin-Tin or Penelope ones in this batch like I do in the 30_beverages drabbles. They are both mentioned, but neither of them are the stars. That's something I'll have to take care of in the future.

I find I have to manually go through and count the words as Open Office just doesn't count them right. Hyphenated words I'm counting as two, except for Tin-Tin. It bothers me because it's obvious that some of my earlier ones just don't have enough words in them. I wish I knew how to get around that.

One of my reviewers (Xenitha) sparked a drabble sequel to an earlier one! That was fun to write! I've tossed them at susanmartha, lillehafrue and funkycheese to get feedback on them. I've also invited others to join me in the challenge. So far, no one has taken me up on it.

Written so far:
--Backfired!, sequel to "Salt or Not?"*
--Compulsions, all_unwritten prompt #1457 "trembling hands"*
--Journal's End, all_unwritten prompt #1453 "the last entry in a journal"*
--What's in a Name?, all_unwritten prompt #802 "My name is..."
--Two Worlds, all_unwritten prompt #1197 "water licking the boat"
--Shattered, all_unwritten prompt #374 "It took only a second to change everything."
The ones marked by an asterix are posted.

More updates later!

Comments

[lillehafrue.livejournal.com]

I love reading your drabbles!!! I suck at them, too wordy! keep up the good work. :)

[tikatu.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Lille! I've been enjoying them a lot!

[ellieet.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about committing to certain characters. In the Sherlock fandom, I can't write Sherlock for too long and there's always a danger of making him sound too formal. I always take Watson's POV (I say 'Watson' because you never know whether it'll be simply John or him genderswapped into Joan, heh) because it's easier in some ways and I am basically a coward when faced with the inner works of Sherlock Holmes' brainbox.

Gordon's always been fairly easy for me to write because he just feels fun and flexible and there's enough of him in the show to really get an idea of this beautiful, mischevious but deeply caring water-baby. (And, in this fandom, I also know the joy in writing your favourite Tracy fella around the clock; we ladies certainly had more than enough choice!) With Kyrano, there's a quiet, enigmatic beauty about that character, the way he speaks and the way he seems to know the answer when no-one else does, as demonstrated by Sun Probe. It's the same with Grandma in Vault of Death. That's something to take advantage of; you never quite know just how much feistiness is hiding beneath the surface (and in the case of Kyrano, you've got to have one strong stomach to be related to the Hood in any way!) In any case, it's fun to have the Tracy boys interacting with their Grandma and even more fun to have her keeping them in line.

As for Virgil, he's calm and quiet and his personality is probably one of the most prominent in the series because he's shown doing a whole range of activities; piano and painting and reading and so there's so much you can do with him. With John, I'm not surprised it's difficult because the poor boy was never favoured, was he? (Dammit, GA!) It can be hard and you have to really get a lot from the limited amount we see him; presumably, he loves space and the stars as well as solitude (a LOT of solitude by his standards) but then there are moments for me personally that seem to suggest otherwise, such as when he's saying how lonely he can get in TB5. Fact is, I don't really think John is as quiet as GA appears to believe he is, simply because Ray Barrett gave him a strong, brisk tone that speaks of confidence. (Having said that, I hope the original idea before GA stepped in wasn't to give him overconfidence; Troy Tempest was enough of a smug, know-it-all smarmpot, thankyou).

Wow, this post ended up long... *phew* In any case, congrats on continuing to write!

[tikatu.livejournal.com]

You should check out my second update. I made a real effort to write Penny (as you know) and Tin-Tin. The challenge itself was fun and I got quite a few drabbles written. What I'm trying to concentrate on now is my original novel before NaNoWriMo starts up again!