InsaneJournal

Prepared Post-Reveal Post
Hi the reveal has happened. I'm really excited to find out that a couple of my "Don't Miss" fics were written by authors that I am unfamiliar with – woot! New archives to go explore! My two fics were: After Eden (Judgment) and Black's Blood Curse (The Empress).

spidermoth deftly picked me out of the line up and wins PWP smut of her choice – drop me a line;) Thanks profusely to all who took the time to read stories, leave comments, and/or write recs and reviews for the fest. Even if you didn't like my stories, that's OK. That's why there's chocolate and vanilla (and strawberry and mint n'chip and…) :D Congrats to all who participated.

Extra special thanks to geoviki, marguerite_26, devian_11, frantic_mice (I really did love your reviews and thought they were humorous and very supportive of the fest), and ravenqueen55 for the blind recs and reviews – they cheered me up. As much as people say not to judge a fic by #comments, it was a bit sad to see the lowest number for my prompt for both my entries. Also hearty thanks to all my EWE-mates but especially blamebrampton, winnett, and sesheta_66 for the not-so-blind recs/reviews and various team pimping and cheerleading. Also a very public shout of "For she's a jolly good captain" to sansa1970 who set the tone of writing good fic, supporting each other, and not thinking about the scoring, comments, and misc. fannish BS that comes with a fest like this. The EWE locker room was an awesome place.



"After Eden" had the benefit of being in the 2nd group posted and as I looked at the waning comments I felt bad for a lot of the folks posted later in the fest. Amazingly some incredible fics got a relatively disproportionately low amount of comments.

After Eden (Judgment) was my original assignment. Here's the main Judgment interpretation that I used. I used the overall interpretation of recovering from injury and having to leave the past behind and embark on a new phase of life. I also used the number of the card "20" prominently in the fic. The other use of the prompt was the sex scene which was a visual presentation of the card - Draco as the angel, the white sheet draped over his shoulders, the light on his blond hair. I thought it might have been too heavy handed in terms of using the prompt, but my team said it was fine. I'm really happy with how this fic turned out. I enjoy interpersonal fics and I know a lot of folks want something more of an adventure, crime or political plot. I think this ended up having a similar feel to Unlimited Partnership in that they were matured versions of their canon selves (at least my projection of them at 31) and there wasn't a lot of conflict other than Harry's acceptance of his injury, Harry and Draco's perceptions of each other, and their ability to communicate.

If I were to grade it myself I'd give it a "B". I thought it a little above average. I think there were a number of comments saying that they enjoyed/were impressed the fact that Harry wasn't miraculously healed. It made me giggle, because if I had, then I would've totally not written to the prompt;) From the very the conception of the story it was never going to be anything else but that. Other fic trivia: I thought up the bunny of Draco helping Harry after a serious wand arm injury and the "pangram" was the very first thing I wrote. Also, I knew Ginny's "How's my favorite…" line would raise eyebrows and folks would love it or hate it. I loved it, so I left it in. Harry doesn't flinch when she says it and you see in other scenes that they are close, tease, and are very honest with each other, so it fit for me.

Black's Blood Curse (The Empress) was the last minute pinch hit that I wrote. The week before the due date, I got very nervous that a lot of folks hadn't posted drafts to the locker room or even been around and commented. We had already activated 4 back up authors and down to our last one. I told Sansa that I had a "bunny" for a very short intense focused fic and would write some of it, then if it was needed I could finish writing it- tailoring it to the prompt. Sure enough, 2 people failed to turn in fics at the deadline. I had about 3500 words written and 2 weeks to turn it in. I finished the first draft in about a week, and spent the second week editing and tweaking with help from my EWE team (worships them). The Empress is all about mothers and birth'n babies;)- literally or figuratively. So I put a lot of the focus on Andromeda's and Narcissa's relationships with their children and the contrast against Harry's lack of mother and want of family. I saw the story/situation itself as a womb and the very close quarters being the incubation of an H/D relationship. I also used the card number "3" quite a bit.

If I were to grade it myself I'd give it a "C", I thought it interesting but pretty average. If I do decide to post it elsewhere, I want to change the "goodbye" scene a little to make it clearer that I don't think H/D are in love or have forgotten their past, they're just willing to try and see what happens. I like the idea of a line -"Do you want to see what happens when the rest of the world exists again?" Not making excuses, but I think a "C" fic was better than taking a zero for no entry.

People left critical comments that my dialogue is my strength and my prose is my weakness. Absolutely dead on true. In some ways I think a lot of my stories seem more like screenplays. I use prose to insert plot exposition or simply transition from one scene to another. I'm not sure this is an area I'll ever truly improve. Some of it is just the limit of my writing talent. In the same way I could stand outside and shoot basketballs all day and I'll get "better" but I will never be a very good basketball player. I'm missing the aptitude. There were some comments also regarding the amount of exploration and extension of scenes. Contrast to that some folks liked my fast pace and said that they thought the amount that I gave them was right on. I'm not sure how much of that is style preference and how much would actually make my writing better. On the downside, I'd have to be careful not to let the plot and story drag. I mostly write very simple plots and a few basic themes and too much writing would weigh them down. I need to think on it.

Cheers and thanks to all who helped beta these stories : Thevina, Newshound, and the gang at Team EWE. I'll make sure to site you if/when I repost;)