vulgarweed: (snoopy_by_roseinshadow)
vulgarweed ([personal profile] vulgarweed) wrote2008-01-30 01:45 pm
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Dude, where's my spark?

The wintry Wisconsin weekend taught me how to breathe slowly and deeply again (the things you forget!). Lately my jobs have been reminding me that work actually goes better when you're not so tense you can barely move. Just show up. (physically or mentally). That's more than half the battle. You don't have to be justifying your existence every moment.

So where's the writing, though?

I have two GO WsIP that I'm very fond of, conceptually, and they're not abandoned by any stretch, and yet they're in a frustrating place. I add a few hundred words here and there. Been a while since I had the energy to sit down and really fly, which is when the good stuff happens. Been feeling a little fandom-isolated, and I'm sure that's a factor, but I've also been in grim hunker-down-and-work-on-real-world-stuff mode too, and that doesn't help either.

Suggestions? I need to get that lightness of being back, somehow.

[identity profile] shiv5468.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Play. Do some drabbles and some ficlets, silly things, for the joy of it, and to reconnect with your flisty friends.

I did that over Xmas with some advent drabbles and it really got my appetite for writing back

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
*glomps*

See, this is exactly what I need fandom buddies for - pointing out something I should've known in a seductive way.

Give me a drabble topic, if you want!

[identity profile] shiv5468.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Ok, GO I presume, with which I am passing familiar.

Leather - it makes Aziraphale think of old first editions, but Crowley, well.....

Here ya go!

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Not a proper drabble, I can't be bothered with keeping track of word count....

***

It has a particular distinctive scent that has not changed significantly for millennia, despite variations in tanning and polishing techniques.

Crowley had known it for a long time. Creaking, oiled and stained armour, the bodies of leaky boats, hides of cow and horse and deer hanging by the camps. Saddles worn smooth. Tents. The soft fuzz and deep voice of goatskin drums in the old firelight rites.

The first feel of high, soft boots from Spain.

The first time he wore snakeskin he felt like a sort of cannibal, but there was nothing for it. His own sheddings were too dry and brittle to make much of, after all.

The first time he stretched himself out naked across the back seat of the Bentley (and he would sooner eat second helpings of Gabriel's overrated Eucharist soufflé than admit there's been more than one time) he couldn't tell where his own skin began and the soft leather ended.

It wasn't until Europe finally, belatedly mastered bookmaking that Aziraphale had begun to smell of it. Slightly. Subtly. Constantly. An undertone stronger than the scent's basic root of dust and paper and wool.

What did he do with those books when no one was looking?

Crowley had never really been one for presents, but he couldn't stop eyeing it in the charity shop. A distressed old brown airman's jacket of the sort a stuffy chap stuck forever in the 50s might think to be dashing, when he got in a mood to try to be once again. (Never mind that he never had been in the first place.) Crowley thought it was unspeakably ugly, which was a promising sign. But it wasn't the way it looked that mattered to him; it was all about scent, and just maybe, if they both worked up the nerve, texture.

If it hadn't been the right size for Aziraphale before, it surely was now.

Re: Here ya go!

[identity profile] shiv5468.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
YOu see, you've still got that magic. Oh yes.

~sniffs the leather~

Re: Here ya go!

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Ya know, when I worked a vendor's booth at the International Mr. Leather fest last summer, I got myself a little bottle of leather-scented perfume oil. I think I will go put some on. :D

Re: Here ya go!

[identity profile] shiv5468.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I had one of those jackets, and thought I was the bee's knees in it.

[identity profile] celandineb.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm. Maybe read a book or watch a film that is totally cheesy and takes you back to happy moments of yore?

I'm not having anything "fly" lately either, I have to admit, so I may not be the best for suggesting ways to get past that!

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been doing that - seems to be all I have the brain for these days - and it helps a little, for sure.

Maybe the only way out is through; that's the way, often enough.

[identity profile] resonant8.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Totally unselfishly, I say: Would it help to have someone read what you've got, and ooh and ahh and cheerlead and encourage? Because I definitely volunteer.

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
You are so, SO altruistic! ;)

Yes, it definitely would help! I feel so pathetic for being one of those R&R PLZ OR I'LL STOP writers (OK, I won't ever be, that's awful), but man, sometimes I really do need some backup. The stories aren't being written linearly, though, so they don't make an awful lot of sense right now.

[identity profile] resonant8.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, hey, any time you're ready, toss some story at me.

[identity profile] ciara-belle.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd say start with some light, silly things just to get back in the mood.

Also, every time I read your posts, I remind myself to locate and read Good Omens so I can better understand all the fic. :) But we saw all sorts of John Dee stuff at the British Museum and St John's last week, so that made me think of you. ^^

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooooooooo. It's a dream of mine to see that stuff. :) Thanks for thinking of me - it's like being there in spirit, a little.
sarahsan: (Default)

[personal profile] sarahsan 2008-01-30 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Late to every party, I am, and only thirding what others have said, but lately just writing silly, pointless little cookies and flashporn have reenergized me and reminded me what's fun about writing. If you want/need extra prompts, I'd be more than happy to supply (and, by that turn, am currently in the market for any and all fic prompts you'd be interested in reading ^_^).

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I have to run off to work now, but I'd love a prompt from you for tonight.

I have one for you: nowadays all the music in Crowley's Bentley turns into Dethklok, not Queen. What's going on? :D
sarahsan: (Default)

[personal profile] sarahsan 2008-01-30 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh GAWD. <--*direct quote*

Mother Mary, you certainly know how to pick 'em...I'll be back later with something that I HOPE fits, and also a prompt for you. Have a good shift at work, dear!!

[identity profile] catherinecookmn.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
If I'd had more than fifteen hours of sleep in the past seventy-two, I could think of something really neat. As it is, I'm getting strong crossover vibes: Luna Lovegood engaging a certain angelic book-non-seller in earnest conversation about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and other beasties...

[identity profile] musegaarid.livejournal.com 2008-01-30 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I find that short, random PWP's always get the juices flowing. Er, so to speak...

If you'd like a prompt, maybe try some gender bending het stuff? Like girl!Crowley/male!whoever.

(btw - did you see that Ellie showed up at DizzyLand? Expect to see sparks with unattached!Crowley. :D)
ext_3472: Sauron drinking tea. (splode?)

[identity profile] maggiebloome.livejournal.com 2008-01-31 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
Cracky drables are always good.

[identity profile] sticktothestory.livejournal.com 2008-01-31 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
INDULGE. Write something just for you, and don't worry about showing it to anyone.