Downal Wyth Bluddy Clichés: Prompt 3

[manniness]

Guess what?  Yup, another Thursday.

If you were thinking about writing something for one of the previous prompts, please feel free to do so!  There's no expiration date on these!

Right, so what's the next cliché?

Alice wants to be a businesswoman.

Or some similar variations: 
Alice eagerly accepts Lord Ascot's job offer.
Alice wants to go to China.

Many fics show Alice as a competent businesswoman (my own included) but I wonder if there might be more to that story.

Copy and paste the relevant fields below in your comment on this post if you have a contribution.  Let's have fun with this one!

Title: I think this is pretty self-explanatory.
Author/Artist/Creator Name: Please use this if you are posting for someone else or recommending someone else's story!
Media: Fic / Art / Fanmix / etc.
Worksafe:  Yes / No
Rating: K / K+ / T / M / M+
Warnings:  Violence, Sex, Non-consensual Sex, and other Objectionable material
File size:  1,000 words / 2 MB / etc.
Summary/Notes:  Tell us a little more about your contribution or recommendation!
Link to story: Link to the author's homepage or story.
Comments: Why are you recommending this to others?  Or your general impressions of it are fine, too.

More recommendations and contributions may be posted HERE at the alice_tarrant community.

An introduction to Downal Wyth Bluddy Clichés and a list of links to previous clichés can be found HERE.

Comments

[just-a-dram.livejournal.com]

I write one of two ways. I either write the scenes that have sort of come to me through inspiration and then construct a story around them, connecting the scenes together. Or, I write more organically from beginning to end with maybe some notes along the way of dialog or images I want to be sure find their way into the scenes.

For me, the organic style is easier. It feels less like work, plotting to bring aspects together. However, I don't think the quality suffers either way. About half of my fics are written one way, half the other, and I don't think anyone would be able to tell which were which.

I would say go with whatever feels right to you. If you love the scenes you've got, by all means don't throw them out. Use those as your pivot points and sew the whole thing up using your outline to guide you.

Manny might have useful advice for you as well.

[prismdropz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice, I definitely appreciate it.

I guess when I finally get time I'll just have to sit down and organize what I've got so far and see how to go from there.

[manniness.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, Dramie, on which style of writing feels less like "work". The AiW fics that I patch-worked together are "Right Where She Needs Him" and "The Champion's Hatter". With OPK and "Choosing the Path", I had a very vivid idea for the climax (and notes on the turning points which included bits of dialog to "capture the moment") and wrote from beginning to end. Sometimes I couldn't use the dialog I had planned, but in those cases I was even happier with what ended up coming out. With Wanderamaranth, our joint fics were always patch-worked. Sometimes one of us would write waaaaay ahead (plot-wise) of the other and then we'd have to go back and futz with the transitions and characterization to make it all flow.

For a first novella, I'd say it's easier to write from beginning to end (keeping your Awesome Ideas in mind) and just be open to adjusting them if you have to. It's also easier to edit from beginning-to-end because if your characters develop or change over the course of the story, then patch-working it can really throw a spanner in the works and mix everything all up. I use the patchwork style when I know precisely what tone and direction I need to go in (like with "The Champion's Hatter" I knew I wanted more than a ghost story - I wanted something very philosophical and pertaining to the cost of happiness), but I'm not sure how to bridge my Big Moments (the Mally moment on the balcony, Chessur's POV, Mirana's revelation at the end, and Alice's interaction with the Tweedles and Nivens were all LATE additions). The patchwork style usually ends with me printing out the story, cutting up sections and laying them out on my living room floor as I try to organize my thoughts coherently.

Linear writing can be irritating because you get stuck sometimes on how you want one part to flow into the next, but the rewards are great: FINALLY writing the scenes that you've been plunny'd by. (^__~) It was such a Moment of Awesome when I could FINALLY write Alice's proposal to Tarrant in "Choosing the Path". OMG. Epic moment for me.

[prismdropz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice. I really, really do appreciate it, and at least it'll give me somewhere to start instead of procrastinating endlessly.