#writerly round up 2023

[keicordelle]

Brain is still mush but I'm bored and can only watch so much anime in one sitting, so I figured I'd pick and choose some of those 2023 in Review writer asks to answer

1. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

Dabbled a bit at the start of the year with some darker themes in smut. I think it turned out pretty well, but I definitely learned I just prefer to write sweet, romantic, and consensual. I'll play with it more at some point, I'm sure, but I think I've found my niche.

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

55! 43 of which are published atm

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

BG3, definitely. Even if I still haven't posted anything for it yet :P

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

FFXIV, Genshin Impact, BG3, and that one Hades fic that I really hadn't intended to write

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

Astarion. I expected to like him because he's a sassy vampire. I did not expect to identify with him as much as I do. I don't doubt he will be firmly lodged in my heart for years to come.

9. What fic meant the most to you to write?

The Soft Green Glow of Affection. I didn't really expect this fic to mean so much to me, but the softness between Aether and Xiao really hit home. Love offering solace to a tortured soul. (Not at all a theme with me, no siree)

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

Beneath the Human Guise was my first time working with a threesome, and it was a hell of a challenge keeping pronouns and names straight, not to mention being sure I hit the dynamic I was looking for. I'm really happy with how it turned out tho

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

To Soothe the Suffering of Ten Thousand Years was surprisingly easy to write! I love writing scar exploration, but I didn't expect it to flow quite as smoothly as it did

14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

Shortest: The Warmth of Home at 849 words Longest: The Daily Inconveniences of an Au Ra at 39, 341 (though admittedly some of that is from 2022 -- I still think just the 2023 additions would push it to the longest fic of the year tho)

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

No Regrets! This fic was the precursor to my Thanuri fic A First for Everything, and I'm still very very proud of how it turned out. Sweet Emmanicard first time <3

18. What was the hardest fic to title?

They're all hard /o\ But I think that honor has to go to Rinse and Repeat. That's the fic where I gave up and phoned a friend to help title it

19. Share your favorite opening line

"Oh for the love of all creation, save us both from this torment and just go ask him to fuck you, would you?"

from The Alternative Uses of Aetherial Shackles. I like how jarring it is, and how it definitely mirrors the startle Eros would be feeling to have his daydreams interrupted by such a demand.

20. Share your favorite ending line

By the time I awoke, Estinien was gone.

from Just for Tonight. Love me a bittersweet ending.

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Answered here

25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)

I write exclusively in the Notes app on my phone and then transfer it over to Word to edit it

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

Ahem. I would like to thank my friend Zena for being the most excellent sounding board/cheerleader/occasional unwitting beta reader. Also my friend Kore for being infinitely more adept at titling things than I am and for being so willing to help me with that. And above all else, I'd like to thank my fans: everyone who commented, kudosed, and read my works this year. You make it worth all the hardship that is writing <3

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024?

2024 is going to be the year of series, I think! I look forward to continuing with A First for Everything, and I've also got 2 different BG3 series in the works: one a self-indulgent Kazstarion piece, and one centred around Gale! Plus a few shorter multi-chaptered thinks I'd like to work on for Genshin. I look forward to sharing more about them all!

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: December 3rd, 2023

NaNoWriMo destroyed my executive function, but hey, I'm still at it. Here's the round up of all the stuff I've been working on this past week!

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EST. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[theloniousbach]

ALMOST COUCH TOUR: ETHAN IVERSON with Peter Washington and Eric McPherson, MEZZROW’S, 31 MARCH-1 APRIL 2023, all 4 sets

There’s so much that I enjoyed here.

I’ll start with Eric McPherson’s impeccable drums and cymbals as he was so tasty and often melodic. He has played often with Fred Hersch in a great trio with John Hebert. Peter Washington plays powerfully with Bill Charlap and Kenny Washington just as he did here with ETHAN IVERSON and McPherson. This could be a juggernaut along the lines of Keith Jarrett mashing up Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans when he played with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motian.

The tunes, another pleasure, were Charlapian in the dive into the Great American Song Book—The Song Is You (briskly), Just Friends, These Foolish Things, Lover Man, and a refracted All The Things You Are with Washington leading the ways. But there were also two Monks (Bye Ya and Round Midnight) and I’m Getting Sentimental Over You, also acknowledged as part of the Monk repertoire. Tadd Dameron’s Good Bait twice and similarly Stomping At The Savoy. There were serious bows to bebop with Scrapple from the Apple, Bud Powell’s Dance of the Infidels (twice) and Cecelia, and Con Alma. They did Oscar Pettiford’s Blues in the Closet but also a couple of spontaneous blues for friends in the audience.

Iverson has a writerly sense of curation, reinforced by me being on his Transitional Technology mailing list which links to his blog Doing The Math. So that is part of his playing which seems both sparer and more direct than I remember him from my early forays into The Bad Plus canon which intrigued me but didn’t grab me. I saw him with them only once, probably at a point where he was disengaging. “My” TBP was with Orrin Evans who struck me as earthier. But it is clearly Reid Anderson’s and Dave King’s band and it is their spiky, quirky compositions that rule the day. Iverson wrote some with them and was a full partner.

Still it feels like he recast his approach since he left, playing with Mark Turner in Billy Hart’s band, playing mostly standards with Tom Harrell, some other Mezzrow’s gigs with specific purposes like remembering Count Basie.

He’s a writer with opinions—and better opinions than mine to be sure. But there’s a swagger, a presumption in his writing that bothers me, perhaps because I wonder/worry/fear that that’s how I come off. He was also a protege of Stanley Grouch whom I would have said rubs me the wrong way and that I was in the other camp. I haven’t reread Crouch, but several of Iverson’s opinions strike me as formative. A big survey of 100 fundamental tunes in jazz education is compelling in its scope, curation, and soundness putting rhythm at the heart of matter is one. He also did a thorough discussion of the Jarrett American Quartet with a latter assessment that suggests that he didn’t dig into the “real bebop.” That’s a flaw.

These sets had plenty of “real bebop” and strong rhythmic power which was the point of having Washington and McPherson and projecting to working with them regularly.

Iverson’s playing is, by now, spare and clean, all in the service of the music—and maybe that’s Crouchian. While he doesn’t burst into my top handful of pianists nor even the top 10, possibly 15, there was clearly something intentional and, I think, important going on with these gigs. So I’m glad I spent the week pursuing them.

[keicordelle]

(Feeling crappy too)

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Aw, I hope you feel better soon! I hope we both do◞‸◟

21. Favorite piece of dialogue

From Waterlogged Windbag: "Why don't we start with the depths of the earth and we can go from there? The weight of a thousand tonze of crushing earth might well wring some worth from that limp pile of algae you call a brain."

Coming up with Garuda's sassy dialogue for this fic was so much fun. Really tested my abilities to come up with sea-based insults lol

[keicordelle]

Wanted to give question 22 it's own post because excerpts make things long. So:

22. Share an excerpt from your favorite scene

"I didn't mean you had to think it over right now. There's no rush. Take some time, a few days or weeks - as much time as you need," I said, stooping to retrieve his discarded shirt and pass it to him.  He made no effort to take it, those aqueous eyes clear and certain as he looked up at me. "This is all the time I need. You're right, it should mean something, and with you it will." "Emmanellain... You don't have to do this for me. I'll wait for you, as long as you need to be ready. I don't want you to do anythin' you'll regret." I lay my hand over his shoulder, brushing down the soft skin of his arm in a soothing gesture. He shook his head, his usual flippant disposition utterly absent as he said, "I won't regret this, I know it. Not if it's you. I don't need any more time. I want this, not for you but for me. For us both." He hesitated, vulnerability creeping in around his eyes. "Unless you're put off by my lack of experience." "No! Not at all!" I hurried to reassure him. "I don't give a warf rat's arse if you've had 100 partners or none. You're you, that's what matters to me. So long as you're sure." "I am," he said, in that same overly-earnest tone. Then it melted away as he grinned at me, his usual mirth returning as he continued, "You'll simply have to show me what to do."

from No Regrets

I actually borrowed a bunch of stuff from my plans for A First for Everything for this fic. It's going to be quite some time before we get to any spice with Thanuri, but this is very much in line with the dynamic I have in mind for them

[morganhazelwood]

Weeks In Review: November 28, 2023

This round up is a double-week, because OMG, I've been busy &didn't post. #NaNoWriMo destroyed my executive dysfunction, but I read like 30+ books because I have no will power. Thank you for reading/listening &keeping me from screaming into the void.

The round-up is back! Sorry I missed a week, my executive function is broken, thanks to NaNoWriMo, but everything else has been chugging along, silently. In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: November 4th, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing fears about her writing, musings on #NaNoWriMo, & writing tips from this week's author spotlight guest: Jens C. Büdinger. Plus, what I've been reading &my NaNo progress. (DAYLIGHT SAVING ENDS SUN)

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ NaNoWriMo Productivity Stream (End of Daylight Saving): – 4:30pm EST. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and get my NaNoWriMo words…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: October 28th, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing tips about interpreting form rejections, my fav tools for starting a new manuscript, and #writingtips from this week's #authorspotlight guest Keith RA DeCandido. Plus, #NaNoWriMo kickoff parties!

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Sunday Afternoon NaNoWriMo Launch Party: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done yourself. Content Around The Web: On…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: October 21st, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing tips about #crime in SPACE, musings on handling #rejection writing, and writing tips for #preptober -- #NaNoWriMo is coming!

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: October 14th, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing notes about writing for young adults, the rise of Cozy Fantasy, this week's sf comedy author spotlight with WE Parker, and a pile of preptober tips. Are you in for NaNoWriMo?

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: October 7th, 2023

As always, I was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! I'm sharing notes about the struggles of writing SFF from the margins, my #CapClave 2023 recap, and a pile of preptober tips. Do you like #NaNoWriMo?

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: September 29th, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing tips about what I look for when beta reading, musings on how fanfiction can help writers, and #writingTips from this week's #authorSpotlight guest: Bob Mazerov. Plus, I'll be at #CapClave all weekend

Coming in early, because I’m off to CapClave! In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: September 23rd, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing tips about constructed languages, musings on the state of publishing, and more! Plus, check out my upcoming events!

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: September 16th, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing tips on fairytale contract law, how and when to use adverbs, and writing tips from this week's author spotlight guest William Seale. Plus, check out my upcoming events!

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan & Friends’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EDT. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: September 9th, 2023

As always, Morgan was a busy bee ALL WEEK LONG! Sharing tips on why context matters when writing, the different ways different cultures see spirits -- had how to use that in your writing, and more! Plus, check out my upcoming events!

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan’s Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EST. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…

[morganhazelwood]

Week In Review: September 2nd, 2023

My regularly belated weekly round up! I've been grousing about how querying is THE WORST, sharing tips from the pros on world building economics, and more! There's several new books out by previous #authorSpotlight guests! Plus, check out my

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings. Coming up this week: On Youtube/Twitch: Morgan’s Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EST. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done…