#stt bitw

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Blood in the Wine Writing Plan

Okay, I have been fiddling with my writing tracking software, and I think I found a decent schedule for Blood in the Wine. Friends, I think this fic is gonna be closer to 200k+ 😭, but I'm just focusing on the first half, which may or may not be released as a fic with a cliffhanger. The WC is an estimate.

My plan is to write from now until the end of the year, spend a couple of months editing, and then post a chapter per week. As I get more clarity on specific release dates, you'll see me post more and more. Every week or so, I'll post a writing update—mostly for myself. I plan on taking breaks, but I hate planning those. They will happen as needed, esp when the gift exchange starts up. I will prioritize that fic during that period.

Okay wish me luck, cause this is gonna eat my soul a bit.

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Chapter 1: The Thought that Counts (In Which Nothing Happens)

Eris x OC | Rated E | Read on AO3 | Read on tumblr below the cut

Gianna of Montesere's life is shattered when her family becomes the target of a chilling assassination attempt. Forced into exile at her estranged father's side in the Autumn court, she embarks on a journey that thrusts her into the treacherous depths of Prythian's most perilous family. Amidst the dazzling highs and heart-wrenching lows of cutthroat politics, Gianna discovers an unexpected love in Eris Vanserra that turns her world upside down.

Warnings: Typical violence and scheming, gambling, old-school slut shaming

Read if you like: slow burn, enemies to lovers, political intrigue, worldbuilding, cute dogs

👀 Read Below the Cut 👀

Gianna watched her cousin Ludivine pull wishes from the garden fountain. The dark-haired female stood barefoot near the middle, where four ornate lions were perched on a central pillar, mouths opened wide and spewing out thin streams of water. The female carefully navigated around the creatures, one hand bunching the hem of her purple organza dress so it wouldn't be ruined. Then, humming to herself, Ludivine skimmed her hand across the water and stopped to pick up a coin from the bottom of the fountain. She curled her hand around the metal and held it out, eyes glazing over for a moment.

"They wished for a child," she said with a dreamlike quality to her voice, power rippling around her. Then, when she snapped out of the trance, she gave a haughty laugh and tossed it to the ground beside her.

Gianna's other cousin, Alois, a male several decades older than her and Ludivine, smoothed his hair back and held out a hand, not sparing a glance at his sister's antics. The abandoned coin flew to his fingers before he added it to a growing pile beside him.

"It's rude to read the wishes," he said halfheartedly, turning a page of his book. He had been engrossed in the novel for hours. It took Gianna almost no time at all to realize he had switched the book jacket from a historical text to hide the fact that he was reading yet another erotic novel.

Ludivine threw an accusatory glare at her brother. "Since when have you cared?" she said. She chose another coin and read off the wish. "Good health and a long life. Boring!"

This time she tossed the coin to Gianna, who caught the gleaming piece of gold and added it to her own pile at the table she was sitting.

"It's not like they actually come true," she said, meeting Gianna's eyes and then dunking her hand back into the water to fish out another poor fae's dream.

"It's the thought that counts." Gianna countered with a huff. She would rather die than admit it, but she had come here several times under cover of night to add her own wishes to the hundreds in the fountain's basin. The gardens of the Palace of Splendor were open to everyone, including their subjects, so many fae stopped by to offer their dreams in the hope that the Mother would grant them. So far, none of Gianna's dreams of meeting and falling in love with a prince from a neighboring kingdom had come true, but these things didn't happen overnight.

Gianna shifted uncomfortably in her seat and gazed back at the palace. Tonight may be different, she reminded herself. Tonight was her grandfather's birthday, and royals from across the continent were arriving to celebrate at the palace. The males of Montesere were far too hedonistic for her tastes if her cousin Alois was any indicator. More than once, she had caught him under the influence of mirthroot with multiple females squirming beneath him, equally euphoric and unraveling. If she was being honest, she preferred her males to be more traditional, which earned her endless teasing from both her cousins. Montesere was the one place where fae could live out their desires, and many traveled from other kingdoms so they could indulge. The fact that Gianna actively avoided these activities was unusual, at least according to her family.

"Thinking about your depressing males again?" Ludivine sang from the fountain.

Gianna rolled her eyes. "I'm debating how quickly it'll take for Alois to sneak out of the party and into one of our guest's bed chambers tonight," she lied. Alois snorted and threw a coin across the table at Gianna. Ludivine giggled and stepped out of the fountain into her shoes so she could throw her arms around her older brother.

"Oh, we both know that's not going to happen tonight. Alois is banned from leaving the dancehall without a chaperone." She wiggled her eyebrows and squeezed her brother tightly.

"We all have chaperones," he said, pulling her arm away from where she had it tucked under his chin and around his neck.

"True," Ludivine sighed, "some of us are too fabulously slutty." Gianna didn't disagree. If Alois was indulgent, Lulu was downright obscene, at least from what Gianna had heard secondhand from some of the courtiers.

"At least you're aware," Gianna said, biting back a grin. Her cousins both glared before they all broke out into laughs.

"Don't worry, Gigi," Ludivine said, reaching over to pinch her cousin's cheek. "One day, you will meet a male you like and never close your legs again."

"Lulu!" Gianna leaned over the table to grab at her cousin, but the female ducked out of the way.

"It's true!" she teased.

Gianna fought the urge to tell Ludivine that she was one to talk but saw Alois shaking his head. "If you two are going to have a spat, I will find our uncle instead."

"Fine!" Gianna said, gathering all the coins into a pouch, "We should all go bother him anyway. I haven't seen him since he arrived back here from Prythian." -- They found their uncle sparring with some courtiers at the training fields on the other side of the estate. Gianna hadn't seen him for months, but the time away had suited him. His skin was sunkissed, and freckles bloomed on his face, peppering his nose and cheeks. As Montserre's emissary, Mattheo traveled quite a bit. However, Gianna suspected that the captain of his private boat had more to do with the extended absences than actual work as an emissary.

Today, instead of his usual finery, he wore dirty white stockings tucked into wrinkled pants cuffed just below the knee. He had discarded his embroidered jacket in favor of wearing a simple vest. And despite the aggressive parrying back and forth with his rapier, not a single strand of chestnut hair was out of place.

Gianna watched eagerly while her cousins chatted with her uncle's friends. They were young and rakish like Mattheo, and she would be lying if she hadn't thought about pursuing a relationship with one of the males. But she was far too shy - skittish, as Alois would say. And they were far too forward. As though she were emphasizing Gianna's point, Lulu had lain her head across one of the males' lap, letting him get an obvious eyeful of her cleavage spilling out the top of her dress. He reached down to caress her cousin's waist and murmured something to her.

Gianna rolled her eyes and ignored the jealousy burning in her stomach. She knew the yearning would drive her mad one day, but maybe the Prythian half of her heritage gave her pause. She returned her attention to her uncle, who had gained the advantage in his match.

Mattheo stepped forward once, then back twice, then lunged. He parried a particularly clever jab and, noticing his niece's rapt attention, gave her a goofy wink. He was the youngest of her grandfather's children and the most entertaining. Gianna had fond memories of him watching when she was a child and her mother was away. Together they would traipse around the palace grounds, fighting pretend dragons until she was too tired to keep her eyes open.

Now she saw only him whenever he was between travels, which was far too infrequent as it was. She had asked to go with him once, but her mother declined, leaving no room for discussion. So, for now, she'd settle for hearing her uncle's stories.

Finally, the two males stopped sparring, Mattheo deftly disarming his companion. He handed his rapier to a servant and grabbed a cloth to wipe the sheen from his forehead.

"What brings you three to this part of the estate?" he said.

"Boredom!" Lulu wailed, sitting up and pouting her lips in practiced sadness. "There's simply nothing to do! We've been kicked out until the party."

Mattheo chuckled and patted her head, "Perhaps it is because you three are the root of all trouble for the servants."

Alois cocked his head and narrowed his eyes at their uncle. "Three?"

Their uncle let out a hearty laugh. "Am I to understand that all of you were not responsible for turning one of the guest suites into a gambling den?"

"The one you gladly attended?" Alois replied cooly.

"The one in which I won all your little games?" Mattheo replied with a smirk. Gianna rolled her eyes at them both.

He was right. Nearly a month ago, they had quietly converted a suite into a betting parlor. It had initially been Alois' idea, but the trio had been bored and spent their evenings slowly bringing in and rearranging furniture. Alois was careful to admit only the courtiers he knew were hungry to climb the ranks of court. Lulu had brought in some of her friends to entertain their guests. And Gianna, well, Gianna had played. Card games were her specialty - something that Mattheo had taught her when she had gotten too old to play dragon-hunters anymore. Eventually, their parents caught wind of their endeavors and shut the establishment down only after Mattheo emptied the den funds with his bets.

"You cheated," Alois said. He had been insisting this ever since Mattheo had won every single game the last night the gambling den had been running.

"Perhaps? Or perhaps you aren't as good as you think you are," her uncle replied. Alois shifted and flexed a hand.

Sensing that neither male would back down, Gianna jangled her bag of coins to get their attention.

"How about a rematch at cards?" she said. "We brought coins!"

Thankfully, the tension melted away at her suggestion. Alois backed down and took the bag from his cousin. Mattheo grinned wide and looked back at his friends, still doting on Lulu. One handed her a handkerchief to wipe her false tears.

"We should," he said, "before your cousin charms my friends away."

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my fatal flaw with Blood in the Wine is having entire chapters being conversations™️.

but i guess a lot of court intrigue is talking and scheming.

anyway, can't believe this is the last chapter before Gianna actively bullies the Vanserra family.

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Blood in the Wine: Gianna/Vanserra dinner seating chart just dropped

I tried to follow the rules of official seating charts and ... oh god. I HAVE TO WRITE THIS LMAO

@andrigyn - this minor spoiler is dedicated to you specifically because this is maximum chaos. I cannot imagine anything quite worse than this.

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Blood in the Wine v2 Update

Okay, this is more for me than you, because if I'm ever going to finish this, I need to be a little delulu about it. 😫

Chapters 1-3 are drafted. The avg WC (2071) on this is higher than normal because I already had stuff to work with. The biggest thing I've noticed is that I would rather just draft everything out than try to revisit work, so these chapters will likely need a bunch of revisions. But that's fine!

This upcoming week will be a lot less productive b/c I have a bunch of deadlines on other things.

Goal Draft End: Jan 4 Trending Draft End: Nov 11*

*This is so skewed because I already had a lot written. In a couple of weeks, we'll get more accurate data.

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Just screaming into the void because I'm very proud. I've been working on actually plotting out Blood in the Wine because this story is absurdly intricate in a way that early 2023 me was not prepared to write. I just finished outlining 1/3th of the book. Yes I'm calling this a book cause this long fic is gonna be L O N G (for me). We're talking 100k+ I think?

I've been trying this new method called protodrafting and while it's a lot of work up front it's been incredibly helpful for me. I tend to be an anxious writer - I like to know what's happening and when and the unknowns stress me out. This format lets me get things sorted before I write.

So yeah now I'm done with Gianna's half of Act 1. I am printing every scene out on a separate notecard and then using those to build up Eris's half + identify what other scenes need to exist in order to address all the plot lines in the first act.

The step after that is to toss everything into scrivener, get things ordered in there and then start cranking out stuff.

I'll deal with Act two later since that half of the fic is far more straightforward.

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Question... Why are you so cool? I hope you're having an amazing day

PS. I came across blood in the wine not too long ago by accident and immediately fell in love. Had me hooked from the first sentence.

KFAJSD I am barely cool but thank you. I try to be reasonable at least!

I hope you're also having an AMAZING day. I took a power walk this afternoon to meet up with my friend before she caught her flight to Europe. I think the extra dose of sunshine was helpful.

AND THANK YOU. I love BITW and am glad you are liking it too! I am trying to chip away at it now that I know more about writing, so that when eris week roles around, the story structure will be more solid. It's truly my love letter to fae romance. I hope you take a look when that version comes out. A lot will be the same, but hopefully it'll flow a bit better.

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just had a little a-HA moment for my fic!!! finally!!!!!

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minor spoilers for my fic, bitw

I'm working on bitw chapter 4 and i've done something very clever timeline wise. If you figure it out, kudos to you. If not...this is your hint to think about it.

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Ooooh ooooh ooooooooh #40 for the OC unofficial ask game!!! 👏🏽

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!

hmmmmm... you didn't specify character a so I'm picking Gianna because I'm thinking about her tonight <3

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40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

Gianna is well aware of many of her flaws - she's a hopeless romantic, she cares too much about what others think about her, she's envious, and she is not the most observant when it matters most. She isn't aware, however, of how her frivolous actions have real, political ramifications, which will bite her ass when she gets to Autumn in chapter 5.

When folks point out her flaws to her, she gets defensive, but she doesn't deny that she has these issues.

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I AM DONE WITH CHAPTER 3 OF BLOOD IN THE WINE

5K WORDS BAYBEEEE

NEXT UP IS SOME ERIS

time for me to do some editing and then i'll get that posted. Merry Holiday, Happy Chapter!

thank you @lucienforhighking for the BETA

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#s 22 & 38 for Gianna of Montesere, for the questions for your oc! and letter B for you the creator! 🩷

Hey Anon!!! Thank you for asking (and for reading <3) AND THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT OUR GIRL GIANNA.

For folks who want to play or reblog, here’s the link! 

22 - How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)? 

Jealous is a fun one to think about because Gianna is definitely envious for a lot of the story, but jealousy will come into play the second half once she has more to lose. I imagine that as much as she tries to be calm and collected about situations that make her jealous, she’s bound to blow up at some point. Blowing up may look like asking directly (and perhaps a bit accusingly) what someone’s game is. She’ll do her best to figure it out herself, but if she can’t get the answers she wants or can’t shake the feeling/change the situation, she’ll tackle it head-on. In the land of politics, this obviously isn’t a great strategy, which is why I think pairing her with cool, calm, collected Eris makes for fun conflict. I love Gianna, but she has a lot to learn about politicking <3 (can't wait to see how she reacts after she learns about Nesta)

38 - What memory do they revisit the most often? 

This is a great question because while Gianna just *wants* to love and be in love, her headspace is taken up mostly by her family <3

Gianna adores her cousins. They are playful, but are ride-or-die kind of fae! *And that stays true for their entire lives*. If anything, I think Gianna probably looks back on the time spent with them while she lived in Montesere, because it symbolizes a time of innocence and joy (okay also shenanigans because they all misbehaved). I’ll have to think more on a specific memory - I do allude to an illegal gambling situation, which will make a reappearance at some point, but I don’t think that’s THE memory she’d dwell on haha!

B) What inspired you to create them?

Gianna’s character is actually quite funny because her original iteration had her (in my mind,) madly in love with Lucien, but after being rejected, falls for Eris. I wrote out the first chapter and when my friend read it, she gave me really amazing feedback: “It sounds like Gianna *thinks* she likes Lucien, but actually likes Eris the entire time.” And that prompted me to really step back and rethink her journey. I also wound up changing the time frame…which now that I think about I don’t think I actually explained so I’ll need to add that to the summary haha. (Part one takes place right before Amarantha, but after Lucien is in Spring Court). 

At the end of the day, I wanted to create a character who wants love - from her family, from her friends, from her mentors, from Eris, but has to reconcile the fact that those same people are manipulating her for their own gain. What would you do? Would you join them? How much would you give up for love? 

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WOOO hope you enjoyed reading this! And thank you again for reading BITW. I love the story and I push myself to really give it my all!!!

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💋where do u draw ur fic Inspo from?

are u still going to update bitw?

Love this question!

I mostly get inspiration from other media. I find aspects I love and try to find ways to weave them into my writing. It could be theme, tone, language, etc.

Here are my Recent Sources of Inspiration

Books/Novellas/Short Stories:

The Cruel Prince - Holly Black

Bunny - Mona Awad (one of my top reads for this year!)

Going Postal - Terry Pratchett

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by  Nghi Vo (one of my fav reads of all time)

The Cask of Amontillado by Poe

Music:

Blood in the Wine by Aurora 😉 

The entire Dance Fever album by Florence and the Machine

Chronologic (Album) by Caravan Palace

Other Media:

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Musical)

The tale of the Erlkonig / Erlkonig's Daughter (Folk Tale)

The stories of the Catholic Saints...yes I know this is strange

Also I collect and make perfume so sometimes certain scent combinations evoke feelings/scenes that I want in my writing!!

AND NOW THE BIG QUESTION

Will I Update BITW??? YESS gosh thank you for asking about it. <3 I know the fandom has a preference for canon characters so I feel kinda insane for having that fic exist. I'm glad someone cares <3<3<3

Unfortunately, I am a perfectionist who realizes that I need to chill out, so it's been slow going. You're going to get 2-3 chapters in the next month. At least one before @erisweek2023 and another 1-2 ft Eris for Eris week.

After that's done, I'm 100% focusing on writing as much of Blood in the Wine as I can before 2024. This is partially because I want to hit the 50% mark before the third Crescent City books comes out and lives in my head rent-free.

You rock!!! Thank you for asking!!!!

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writing rants, updates, etc

Finally, I'm revisiting BITW. Unfortunately for me, chapter 3 is a necessary but difficult chapter we need to have to get MC to the Autumn court so the real fun can begin. It has stumped me for a MONTH, so I took a break to work on original fiction and writing circle stuff. Now I'm back and slightly less stumped but significantly more annoyed.

I am at that part of my craft journey where my taste exceeds my skill, and it's a VERY ANNOYING PLACE TO BE. My irl writing teacher has been lovely in helping drill down craft essentials but I just need to write more to get better.

Anyway what you have to look forward to in the next month

1-3 BITW chapters

The final Acotar Writing Circle Fic

Some NSFW prompts??

In August, I will be doing many Eris-related things for Eris week in September, so I may not put out as much writing as we'd all like.

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For the fanfic ask game:

🖊 because I'm curious as fuck

🏅 because you need to hype yourself up!!!

and 💭 because I need to know what you're still hiding in your head

HEY! How are you doing?!

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

From my weird/uncanny neris flavored piece that's coming out this week. Not sure if this will make it into final cut but here's a snippet.

The eldest witch laughed. He wasn’t sure if at his words or if she could sense his memory of the battle. “Feyre never makes it easy, does she? I’m not surprised. And my middle sister is partial to redheads. I’m sure she gave you only half her effort.” “She certainly didn’t lie down and die for me, if that’s what you’re implying,” Eris said, taken aback by how calm she was. He expected her to be furious. Her sisters had died, and she was next. But here she was, laughing as though they were old friends. 

🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

I've finally let myself embrace having a lot of wips. I was trying to maybe only have 2 things going and I've finally just accepted that it's fine to write several things at once. I wish I could at least be a little more regular about what I write/post, but that's a 2024 STT problem.

💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work?

@thevanserrras is aware but I have a spin off story that takes place after Blood in the Wine. In the sequel, Alois finally gets his Happily Ever After. You meet his future spouse in BITW (soon...like chapter 7/8?). You'll know who they are the moment you meet them. 😎