So, I know we’re approaching the year mark on the last One Day update. And people have been asking where, and when, and exactly what do I mean by “soon.”
I know it’s the story everyone loves. I love it too. As painful as it is to inhabit Carlisle and Bella in that gut-wrenching of an AU, it’s also delightful to write. For me, it’s all the things that fic should be; a piece that unearths qualities of the characters that go unexplored because of the situation they’re in in the canon, that rips the rug out from under them but keeps them as in-character as possible to allow for a story that makes sense.
That sort of thing is why, after four years (and let’s not kid ourselves, various frustrations I’ve had with being in the Twilight fandom), I still am immensely proud of having written, and still enjoy writing fic. It’s very different from writing something that’s wholly your own, and as far as I’m concerned, that difference is exactly what makes it so worth my time to do.
In 20…10? Has it been that long since Eclipse was released? I volunteered myself for The Fandom Gives Back: Eclipse. I auctioned off the rights to a prompt for two short stories.
But 2011 and 2012, as it turned out, would be the years the fandom turned in on itself. I wrote a post on tumblr about it awhile back, but I found 2012 an extremely difficult year to get myself to write anything. One thing I do that I really enjoy aside from writing and my academic work is that I’m a bookseller. Which means I’ve spent the last year with a lot of pulled-to-publish fanfiction in my face. (It also means I get the gleeful joy of being able to be certain that a couple of titles keep coming off the shelves in my store and being shipped back to their publisher, but that doesn’t always make up for it.) So with all that frustration inhabiting not only my online world, but also the place I spend 20-30 hours a week, I just found that Twific wasn’t something I felt much like doing.
As a result, it’s taken me a longer time than I am happy with to fulfill obligations that, even with all that has intervened, I am still excited to fulfill. I was finally able to put the finishing strokes on Stregoni, to nail Alice’s voice to my satisfaction and get Present Perfect out for consumption, and now, I’m working on the last 1/3 or so of Patroclus Rising, which, when complete, will undergo a good revision and then be posted.
At that point, I will be free of things I’ve promised other people I’d do, and things which, having been so postponed for so long, make me feel a little crummy. Which is really silly, by the way, particularly in the case of Patroclus, as the people who bid on it are almost to a one close friends of mine, and if I said, “Hey, I’m not going to do it,” they’d all understand. But the truth is, I took it on because I enjoy writing prompts—they stretch me as a writer, and much of my best fic in Twidom has come from prompts for some thing or another. So it’s more the agreements I’ve made with me that I want to uphold—the agreement that I’d accept a challenge and turn out something I’m proud of in response. That I want to do…and if I happen to delight the people who were so gracious as to make a donation in my honor for the privilege of choosing that prompt, well, even more awesome.
One Day, though…One Day is my respite. As I said, it’s my reminder of all the reasons I enjoy writing fic, and all the things that fic can be when it’s not being…well, all the things that make me mad about how other people seem to want to use it. So when Patroclus is posted, One Day will be my only WIP, and will likely be my last fanfic for Twilight (although I will never say never…these characters touched fire in me and if I feel I want to write more about them, I damn well will). But I find that in order to maintain a clear head and a joyous heart, I’ve had to pull back almost entirely from the communal aspects of the Twilight fandom, and at that point, I become little better than the writer who is posting things expecting hordes of fans without truly being a fan herself. I would prefer to be a part of things. But when my best friend pinpointed within about two weeks the day when I deleted most of my fandom social media presence and said she could tell because I’ve been so much happier and more myself since then…well, that says something pretty important, and I’m listening to her.
One Day will probably never post with anything close to a regular update schedule, but I hope to not leave multiple months between chapters once it is my only fic going. At this time, I’m going to choose to keep it off FFnet, and I will probably never post it there unless for some reason I ever have to delete gisellelx.com (but even then, I own gisellelx.wordpress.com, and could port this whole blog there.)
One Day is my private joy, but it’s a little private piece of me I’m happy to let my friends peer in at. Thanks for being patient while I get the more public me squared away.
Even your blog posts are a pleasure to read. I don’t read a lot of fan fiction anymore, but I have patience for the ones I really enjoy. I’m pretty sure if I received an alert from you while I was sitting in the old age home, I’d still jump on it. I’m just happy to hear that you will eventually be continuing One Day. It truly is a beautiful, if heart wrenching, story. I’ll wait. It’s worth it. Thank you.
Thank you for being true to you and your writings. I will have you on alert here and I look forward to reading whatever you write pertaining to Twilight. So until One Day comes to an end, I will be patiently waiting. If for some reason it never gets finished, I will thank you for spinning what you already have and giving me hours of reading entertainment. 🙂
Amen!
I look forward to both Patty and One Day. And I’ll take them whenever I can get them. 🙂
I saw the note on your tumblr and thought about emailing you to tell you that team Carlward would be excited with a paragraph and a note saying, “that’s all she wrote.” I am delighted with each word, snippet, paragraph or chapter. And I will still love you if Bella and Carlisle end up together in One Day.
Well, but of course, when it’s not going right, the only reason I’m tearing my hair out is because I know that when I get it exactly the way I want it, it will delight the people who are excited to read it. 😀
Because finishing a paragraph and feeling like, “OMG I should email this to all of them right now!” is a really fantastic feeling.
As to Bella and Carlisle…you’re just gonna have to read. :rubs hands together:
Happy to wait patiently. It’s good to know that you still intend to move forward with One Day.
Thank you for sharing your reasoning, and thank you for a committment to continue One Day. I can stop holding my breath. Looking forward!
I will wait patiently because you are a gem. I’ve truly enjoyed your stories over the years.
{{{hugs}}}
It has always been very clear to me that your commitment to the artistry of writing is what sets your work at a standard far beyond any other fan fiction I’ve ever encountered. I often come back to this blog post because as a non-writer and generally non-articulate person, it is so satisfying to read your argument for respecting that art so plainly laid out. With that said, I’m still dying to know what happens with Bella and Carlisle in One Day, and if you havent opened it up in a while because you’re feeling discouraged or if you’ve been caught up in Patroclus and simply forgotten to pick it back up, then I hope this can be what you need to continue making some really, really beautiful art. On the other hand, if this is to be your final stop in your fanfic journey – for whatever perfectly valid reason that may be at this point – then I want you to know that as a serial reader and never-responder I have enjoyed your stories like nothing else over the last several years.
Thank you ever so much. Comments like these mean literally the world, and they’re why it’s been, and continues to be, such a joy to share these fics.
And do not despair. I had to put my fic writing on hold this academic year because I’ve had this pesky doctoral dissertation to finish. It’s mostly finished now (I joke that I’ve reached “done” for the first of four times before it’s truly done–I’m going to reach the second time “done” in about two weeks), and I’m anxious to return to this story. It has begun gnawing at me the closer and closer I got to finishing school.
In the partially-drafted next chapter, I left Bella in the middle of an awkward first date. So yes, I’m just as anxious as anyone to push this forward and to completion.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a note.
I came across your fanfiction by accident looking for something totally different altogether. I have now read all of your gloriously written works of art. I have been amazed by your use of words and your description of the location details that make your senses smell the waters of the lakes, flowers on the table and especially the nutmeg. Please continue to create beautiful pieces of art. Thanks for helping me relax and enjoy myself during this period of my life. 🙂