Because I hate you...
I tantalize you by saying that I just planned out the three segments of Blackmail for the prompts 48. Cunning, 47. Top, and 53. Threesome. But they're far enough ahead in the timeline that it'll be a long time before I turn them from outline to fiction, and even longer before you read them.
Now see, this is torture of one kind to people who are reading that story, and torture of a different kind for people who aren't because [kink | prawn | Giles/Buffy | invisible elves]. Thus I spread the hate around!
I had a serious case of block earlier in the year. I was just looking over the dates on my complete story list, and observed that I completed nothing in February and March. I was taking it all too seriously. Deadly. (And possibly also fallout from anniversary-triggered depression.)
I'm liking having the short prompt stuff to work on as a break from the longer, more tangled stories I seem to want most to write. I work myself into a state sometimes with those stories, where I can't move because I'm trying too hard. Shorter stuff breaks me out of that trap, loosens me up. I've got just enough structure with that project that I feel comfortable: loosely planned overall storyline; more tightly-planned stories spanning five or so prompt sequences; the overall tone imposed by the prompt list. Not so much structure that I can't be spontaneous. There's no pressure to write at any particular pace, no pressure to finish, and no pressure to work on that instead of the more gen-ficcy projects.
So! Prompt table experiment a success so far! Yay.
And now, back to non-stop brooding action-action-action with Giles, Xander, and Ethan, with guest appearances by Wesley and Angel.
ETA: I just wrote out a list of pairings present, discussed, or implied in this story, and it amused me. So I share it with you now, in the spirit of tantalization/torture: Giles/Xander, Anya/Xander, Giles/Ethan, Giles/Jenny, Giles/OFC, Ethan/OMC, Buffy/Spike, Buffy/Angel, Angel/Cordelia, Willow/Tara, Spike/Tara. Poor Wesley.
Now see, this is torture of one kind to people who are reading that story, and torture of a different kind for people who aren't because [kink | prawn | Giles/Buffy | invisible elves]. Thus I spread the hate around!
I had a serious case of block earlier in the year. I was just looking over the dates on my complete story list, and observed that I completed nothing in February and March. I was taking it all too seriously. Deadly. (And possibly also fallout from anniversary-triggered depression.)
I'm liking having the short prompt stuff to work on as a break from the longer, more tangled stories I seem to want most to write. I work myself into a state sometimes with those stories, where I can't move because I'm trying too hard. Shorter stuff breaks me out of that trap, loosens me up. I've got just enough structure with that project that I feel comfortable: loosely planned overall storyline; more tightly-planned stories spanning five or so prompt sequences; the overall tone imposed by the prompt list. Not so much structure that I can't be spontaneous. There's no pressure to write at any particular pace, no pressure to finish, and no pressure to work on that instead of the more gen-ficcy projects.
So! Prompt table experiment a success so far! Yay.
And now, back to non-stop brooding action-action-action with Giles, Xander, and Ethan, with guest appearances by Wesley and Angel.
ETA: I just wrote out a list of pairings present, discussed, or implied in this story, and it amused me. So I share it with you now, in the spirit of tantalization/torture: Giles/Xander, Anya/Xander, Giles/Ethan, Giles/Jenny, Giles/OFC, Ethan/OMC, Buffy/Spike, Buffy/Angel, Angel/Cordelia, Willow/Tara, Spike/Tara. Poor Wesley.
I'm...relieved...that you recognize that some readers don't "do" kink and I'm firmly in that category. I adore your style and your brain...but I can't read kink...it's not that I'm ignoring your fantabulous breakthrough of the block - that I applaud!!!!
Prompt tables are a kind of challenge thing. You get a list of prompts, related somehow. Or maybe just 100 unrelated prompts. Everybody gets the same list, or chooses from a couple possibilities. You sign up or "make your claim" about what fandom or characters or pairings you're doing, then complete all the items in the prompt list.