Badly need to fix my first DA2 WIP, A History of Lies so I can structure it as a novel. You do not want to know how many words and outlines and maker knows what is in on my laptop. Please help me think?!

Comment with one or more numbers from this list, I will blather, and hopefully helpful ideas will spark, brilliant conversation will ensue, and a plan will emerge.  (this is also on tumblr for those who prefer that format).

A History of Lies Meme (aka, the Fix the Broken AHOL meme):

1. Protagonists
2. Antagonists
3. Point of view
4. Backstory:  Mari Hawke - (mage)
5. Backstory:  Hawke family & Amells
6. Backstory:  Magic in Kirkwall during prior generations
7. Backstory:  Cullen
8. Backstory:  Merrill
9. Relationship:  Cullen/Hawke (Frienemies -> friends -> lovers)
10. Relationship:  Cullen+Hawke family
11. Relationship:  Hawke+Merrill
12. Relationship:  Cullen+Merrill
13. Relationship:  Cullen+Templars+Chantry+Sebastian
14. Relationship:  Hawke+Kirkwall+Aveline
15. Relationship:  Cullen+Aveline
16. Theme:  How History is Edited & Written / Historiography
17. Theme:  Kyriarchy in Kirkwall
18. Theme:  Geography, Expatriates, Multi-National Identity
19. Theme:  Names, Clothing, Decoration, Identity
20. Theme:  Racism/Orientalism/Colonialism (applied to the Elves)
21. Theme:  Magic, Economics, Regulatory Laws/Procedures, Wealth
22. Theme:  Passing, social privileges
23. Setting:  Gallows
24. Setting:  Hightown
25. Setting:  Lowtown
26. Setting:  Alienage
27. Setting:  Wounded Coast and Sundermount
28. Setting:  Cumberland
29. Story:  Missing scenes
30. Story:  The missing years (9:32, 9:33, 9:35, 9:36, 9:38-40)
31. Story:  Act 1 (& challenges of writing a semi-novelization)
32. Story:  Act 2 (& challenges of writing a semi-novelization)
33. Story:  Act 3 (& challenges of writing a semi-novelization)
34. Personal:  Why does this story interest me?
35. Personal:  How does this relate to my original fiction?

 

 

Superpowers
fem!mage Hawke/Cullen
850 words, rated T/PG/SFW

During a conspicuous moment of stillness on the eve of war, Kirkwall's most notable mage suggests to Cullen that he should leave.

Written for missema's prompt on the 2014 Dragon Age Kiss Battle.

Read on AO3

The Key
Carver/Isabela (w/ Bran/Serendipity, Wynne/???)
4200 words, PG
Carver enjoys delicious friend fic and Isabela writes it for his pleasure.

Read on AO3

Precious Things - Chapter 1:  Forest Edge Manor, Lothering

Characters:  Bethany Hawke, VL’s Emile Hawke, DA2 cast with emphasis on minor characters, plus characters from DA:O and Asunder.

Summary: History remembers Enchanter Bethany Hawke as a defender of mage rights during the events leading up to the Mage-Templar war. Recently, her memoir was uncovered, describing the decade she spent in Kirkwall and how she rose out from her older brother's shadow.

(Pairings: eventual Bethany/Keran; this world includes M!Hawke/Anders and an ambiguous Cullen/Surana plus other canon pairs as needed.)

.

Normally I don’t see much point in telling my life’s story. People have already decided who I am no matter what I say. Of course, it’s not as if they have walked beside me during my dreams, and their nightmares are theirs, not mine, but none of this stops others from thinking how they know what is best for me.

I sometimes wonder why certain people commit themselves to misunderstanding me. Sure, my choices have been governed far more by convention than by idealism. At least, until now.

[Read on AO3]

Another update to Postcards from Kirkwall over here (although accident stuck on my blog first):

Escaping from Lothering:  Varric setting the stage ... and a critical close read of Hawke's codex entry for Mage Hawke vs Warrior/Rogue Hawke

From my Postcards from Kirkwall blog on tumblr:

• Aren't You Worried I'll Just Make It Up As I Go?  Varric is a postmodernist; Cassandra wants the Truth that does not exist.
• Critical RPing in RPG Video Games: What can we learn when playing a game like Dragon Age 2 through the critical lens of kyriarchal analysis?

(tomorrow I finally get to real game play ^_^)

I posted on Sept 9th about a month-long writing productivity experiment that I'm doing this month in which I count the number of words I post (or archive) per month. Given that I'm on vacation (which is rapidly ending), my count is a bit higher than I expect it would normally be. 

All of the details for how much I wrote plus a list of all fiction and essays during the first 9 days of September: are linked from this post.

As of today, I'm my count for September looks like this:

Words Archived:  0  (must make archival versions of two DAkinkmeme stories before end of month?!)
Words Posted:  23561  (definitely higher than my target)
Number of Posts:  14  
Days when no writing occurred: 2

Fiction, Headcanon & Meta posted from Sept 10 - Sept 20:

• DA2 Meta: Thoughts on the Anders Rivalmance - 625 words
• DA2: Fenris/fem!mage!Hawke - "Close" - 2150 words (very NSFW, for this prompt)
• DA2: Cullen/Mari Hawke - Chapter from "A History of Lies" (drunk Cullen has something he must tell Mari) - 2350 words
• DA2: Cullen/Mari Hawke - Headcanon in 15 Question Domestic Meme - 3850 words
• DAO: Cullen/Surana "Accidental Baby" - 650 words
• FFXII: Vossler/Basch "Telepathy" - 430 words

Peaches and Gin
Dragon Age 2
Mari Hawke, Malcolm, Leandra, Carver, Bethany
2100 words (rated R for some obscene language)

Written in response to pixelnyx’s question about “Mari’s relationship with Malcolm and Leandra. And because I imagine this might make a difference, how Mari might moderate her behaviour when it’s Leandra and Malcolm in the same room vs what Mari might say to them one on one.”

———

Family matters flowed easily when father was alive. My youth was full of joy. Me laughing until my sides ached, bare feet kicking in the air as I rolled backward on the floor, hands clasped as my elbows locked, index fingers pushed together and pointing up as I shot sprays of frost into the roof beams.Father threw peach pits into the air for me to shoot. Whenever I hit one, it would plummet to the floor, falling as an icy hailstone. PLONK! I would roll fast and dodge out of the way under the table. Another peach pit would loft into the rafters and, just as fast, I would slide on my side, fingers taking aim. KE-PLONK! CRASH! A peach pit hailstone knocked a cooking pot from a shelf and our old mabari jumped to his feet, barking at the sudden clatter. Carver yelled at me and Father to ‘knock it off, would you?’ He was trying to read. Bethany rolled her eyes and smirked behind her needlework. All the while, Father and I howled just as loud as our barking dog. Side-splitting laughter forced me to clutch my side but Father tossed another pit into the air. The pit careened straight toward the little glass window on our front door, leaving me no time to take a breath as I took aim. I forced out a bolt of ice that knocked the pit from its trajectory. The ice-bound pit crashed into the door-jamb just as Mother walked in.

“Oh, Maker!” Bethany shouted. Eyes wide, she clasped her hands to her mouth.

[Read on AO3]

Crossposted from Tumblr:


Out of curiosity, I made a table that shows the number of stories at AO3 that feature various ships with female Hawke and Male Hawke. I only used AO3 (not ff.net) because AO3 allows me to easily identify only the stories that explicitly ship a pair.

I searched for Hawke paired with canon LIs, Hawke paired with non-LI party members, and Hawke with a small selection of NPCs (selected mostly on my interests and whims than anything else). I decided only to look at Hawke pairings because the author has a greater range of flexibility in how they shape Hawke. Hawke can be an author stand-in, Hawke can illustrate the author's feelings while playing DA2, or Hawke can become the kind of character that the author wishes to write about.

Barring any mistakes in my tallies, here are the stats:

For quick comparisons, here are stats for some other ships that are have 10 or more stories:

• Fenris/Anders: 249
• Fenris/Isabela: 69  
• Aveline/Donnic: 36
• Aveline/Isabela: 16
• Bethany/Isabela: 10
• Bethany/Sebastian: 14
• Carver/Merrill: 32
• Isabela/Merrill: 28

(Personal ramblings beneath the cut...)

 

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(This is crossposted on my tumblr)

I feel like talking about my Aerie of Hawkes. As much as I love my Wardens, I think I love my Hawkes a little more, probably because DA2’s story feels very different to me depending on how I role play Hawke. (Also, less effort is needed to complete a DA2 play-through and I like DA2 a little more than DAO).

 

As part of my “writing something daily and posting it within 72 hours challenge” some of these Hawkes will be used in mini-fic that’s inspired by various prompts (such as the 15 Day Hawke meme, but answered as fic, and over how many days I feel like ^^).

 

So, meet my Hawkes!

 

* Mari Hawke (f!mage, no romances, skeptical-agnostic regarding Andrastian religion) - my first Hawke and my canon!Thedas Hawke who has two variants (original play through and massively meta-gamed for fiction); she lives in the same world as my canon warden- f!Surana’s (with Surana/Alistair as co-wardens post-game).

* Garrett Hawke (m!rogue, sleeps around+flirts with everyone, rivalmances Anders, conflicted-but-devout Andrastian) - my alt-canon Hawke.

* Rob Hawke (m!mage, rivalmances Fenris; BOMB THE F***ING CHANTRY!) - an anarchist bloodmage Hawke-in-progress who should be in Anders smalls but, no, it just doesn’t happen. ;)

* Sana Hawke (f!warrior, something with Sebastian) - a lawful good believer in the Chantry who I started a while ago. I haven’t yet decided if she will rivalmance or romance Seb. TBD.

* And… generic Marian plus generic Garrett who I use for fic fills (currently unassociated with any play throughs. They just live in my head and in the minds of prompter-writers’ prompts).

 

More Details about my growing Aerie of Hawkes are below the cut.

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