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Nov. 8th, 2017 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoNo energy for writing, what with real life being as it is; definitely won't meet 100K by the end of the year. Ah, well. That's not the end of the world. I've written more individual things this year than I have any other, and while I'm sure a lot of it is very short, I'm still kind of impressed with that. So.
There are so many things that I want to write with my huge bag of characters aaaand I'm not sure where to even start for the next one. (Let's just ignore the 20-page thing that's waiting to be typed up. Shh. Pay no attention to the stack of looseleaf under my bed.)
One thing that I've had tumbling around in my head for a while is something that I haven't written yet because I'm not sure if it would be better as one long story, or two separate-but-linked stories. When Niko and Vesa first met, and how that went for them; and then the tragedy with Tarja, and how that went for them. Both events involve a similar scene, and it'd probably work better as lone story because then it would be more clear that the parallel/mirroring is a deliberate choice rather than accidental repetition. But ugh, do I really want to write a long thing...?
[/side-eyes that 20-page thing again]
Ah, well. I'll just think about it some more.
And then there's a whole bunch of other stuff where, I have this handful of characters, and their story, and there are a few things related to the Slavic mages that I just plain haven't decided on yet.
So, one side of Vesa's family is Ukrainian/Russian, and they're all vidmy - Slavic mages. But a lot of things related to them are very... I have options, and I'm still fiddling with decisions.
#1: I've decided that Slavic mages can "turn into wolves". The question is - is this done as spiritual doubling or literal physical transformation/metamorphosis? There is precedent for doubling in SSSS, in the form of fylgja and luonto, but no precedent for metamorphosis. Then again, we have no precedent for what Slavic mages would be like in SSSS's world, and we're unlikely to ever see any Russian/Ukrainian/whatever characters at all, so I can make up whatever I want.
#2: I was toying with the idea of Vasyl having an actual encounter with Veles, and receiving some sort of magic from him, or being given an understanding of how to use magic that he and Ludmila already have. Since I've decided that both of them are witches before Year 0, it kind of fits (I haven't decided whether they're practitioners of Rodnovery or if they're something looser/less organized - leaning toward the latter though). It solves the problem of how they managed to make it through Year 0 alive, especially if one bit of that magic is indeed metamorphosis. But it seems a bit cheesy. (Then again, whatever, I do what I want.)
#3: I know that SOMETHING happened to Yaroslava, but I don't know exactly what. I know that she had a row with her father, then went out into the forest and disappeared. Years later, Vasyl told Svitlana, "She went into the forest, and she met Veles." This could mean that she literally met Veles, but it also could mean that she died/was eaten by a troll/just plain disappeared/whatever. But depending on the answer to #2, it could very well be the first option.
#4. Assuming Yaroslava did meet Veles, what precisely does this mean? Did he take her to the underworld with him, and therefore she's dead? Did he take her to the underworld with him, but technically she's not dead, and she'll someday return to the land of the living, with or without permission? Did he act like some weird old mentor to her, and keep her safe in the forest somehow, and eventually bring her to some other location close to civilization (or what passes for civilization at the time)?
...Originally Yaroslava was supposed to just be dead, but then I decided that I like her too much to have her get eaten by some mysterious something-or-other, heh. So I'm kind of unsure about it now. I like the idea that she would be alive somewhere, unnerving people with her strange magic and give-no-fucks attitude, even if she probably would never meet her last surviving relation - there is, after all, no reason for Vesa to ever go downriver (and he wouldn't qualify for the travel permit, anyway).
Most of this only matters if I decide to write from the POV of someone who would know the answer; aside from #1 (doubling vs metamorphosis), I could leave it all up in the air, because most of it would be on Vasyl's word - and that only matters if I decide to write something from his POV, or from Yaroslava's. Ludmila was not present for most of those events, and Svitlana would know nothing for certain, and of course Vesa has only half-remembered stories that he can hardly make any sense of. Vasyl is... he is the sort of person who might embellish the truth, or even make something up, if it made what happened easier to accept, and eventually he is inclined to believe his own version of events, regardless of how true it is. (Meanwhile, Ludmila is like "...Vaska, I'm very fond of you, but you are so full of shit." PFFF.)
...I had a ton of other things I was going to jot down here, but I can't recall what they were. Doubtless I'll remember it tomorrow, during work, when I have no time to write down anything at all. ;V OH WELL.
There are so many things that I want to write with my huge bag of characters aaaand I'm not sure where to even start for the next one. (Let's just ignore the 20-page thing that's waiting to be typed up. Shh. Pay no attention to the stack of looseleaf under my bed.)
One thing that I've had tumbling around in my head for a while is something that I haven't written yet because I'm not sure if it would be better as one long story, or two separate-but-linked stories. When Niko and Vesa first met, and how that went for them; and then the tragedy with Tarja, and how that went for them. Both events involve a similar scene, and it'd probably work better as lone story because then it would be more clear that the parallel/mirroring is a deliberate choice rather than accidental repetition. But ugh, do I really want to write a long thing...?
[/side-eyes that 20-page thing again]
Ah, well. I'll just think about it some more.
And then there's a whole bunch of other stuff where, I have this handful of characters, and their story, and there are a few things related to the Slavic mages that I just plain haven't decided on yet.
So, one side of Vesa's family is Ukrainian/Russian, and they're all vidmy - Slavic mages. But a lot of things related to them are very... I have options, and I'm still fiddling with decisions.
#1: I've decided that Slavic mages can "turn into wolves". The question is - is this done as spiritual doubling or literal physical transformation/metamorphosis? There is precedent for doubling in SSSS, in the form of fylgja and luonto, but no precedent for metamorphosis. Then again, we have no precedent for what Slavic mages would be like in SSSS's world, and we're unlikely to ever see any Russian/Ukrainian/whatever characters at all, so I can make up whatever I want.
#2: I was toying with the idea of Vasyl having an actual encounter with Veles, and receiving some sort of magic from him, or being given an understanding of how to use magic that he and Ludmila already have. Since I've decided that both of them are witches before Year 0, it kind of fits (I haven't decided whether they're practitioners of Rodnovery or if they're something looser/less organized - leaning toward the latter though). It solves the problem of how they managed to make it through Year 0 alive, especially if one bit of that magic is indeed metamorphosis. But it seems a bit cheesy. (Then again, whatever, I do what I want.)
#3: I know that SOMETHING happened to Yaroslava, but I don't know exactly what. I know that she had a row with her father, then went out into the forest and disappeared. Years later, Vasyl told Svitlana, "She went into the forest, and she met Veles." This could mean that she literally met Veles, but it also could mean that she died/was eaten by a troll/just plain disappeared/whatever. But depending on the answer to #2, it could very well be the first option.
#4. Assuming Yaroslava did meet Veles, what precisely does this mean? Did he take her to the underworld with him, and therefore she's dead? Did he take her to the underworld with him, but technically she's not dead, and she'll someday return to the land of the living, with or without permission? Did he act like some weird old mentor to her, and keep her safe in the forest somehow, and eventually bring her to some other location close to civilization (or what passes for civilization at the time)?
...Originally Yaroslava was supposed to just be dead, but then I decided that I like her too much to have her get eaten by some mysterious something-or-other, heh. So I'm kind of unsure about it now. I like the idea that she would be alive somewhere, unnerving people with her strange magic and give-no-fucks attitude, even if she probably would never meet her last surviving relation - there is, after all, no reason for Vesa to ever go downriver (and he wouldn't qualify for the travel permit, anyway).
Most of this only matters if I decide to write from the POV of someone who would know the answer; aside from #1 (doubling vs metamorphosis), I could leave it all up in the air, because most of it would be on Vasyl's word - and that only matters if I decide to write something from his POV, or from Yaroslava's. Ludmila was not present for most of those events, and Svitlana would know nothing for certain, and of course Vesa has only half-remembered stories that he can hardly make any sense of. Vasyl is... he is the sort of person who might embellish the truth, or even make something up, if it made what happened easier to accept, and eventually he is inclined to believe his own version of events, regardless of how true it is. (Meanwhile, Ludmila is like "...Vaska, I'm very fond of you, but you are so full of shit." PFFF.)
...I had a ton of other things I was going to jot down here, but I can't recall what they were. Doubtless I'll remember it tomorrow, during work, when I have no time to write down anything at all. ;V OH WELL.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.