#vanlim

[becausedragonage]

Well, I have roughly 55k words written for the Alim in Valdemar fic. Much of it isn't even really a rough draft, just exploratory stuff to find out what happens, but it's there and I'm starting to feel the itch to go back to the beginning so I can nail down some real chapters.

I said previously that I didn't want beta readers for this fic, but I think I might. I don't want to do endless passes, but interacting with beta readers and seeing what they suggest is something I find really fun. Once I get some real chapters written I may see if anyone is interested. that's still a little bit of a way off though.

[becausedragonage]

So. The question I asked about dual first person POVs was because I was having some terrific fun rewriting some of the Alim in Valdemar fic in 1st person. I've since lerned that Dual POVs (1st person) are a Thing, especially in romance, which makes sense I guess

A quick note: If it seems like I am writing a ton on this fic with nary a chapter on AO3 in sight, yes. Yes. Because I'm really like a kid in a sandbox.. My primary concern with this fic is to have fun.

Back to the point of this post.

Just like with the sex scene (I gotta write some more of those) I'm finding that my aversion to 1st person may have been limiting? Like, the stuff that's so much clearer when I'm writing from "I" instead of "he" is crazy, and the differences between Alim and Vanyel, something I've been worried about because they are both Special Boys, are becoming a lot clearer. It's also helped me see better what Alim looks like 12 years removed from the Blight.

Vanyel turns over grief, worries, and doubts a lot in his mind. Alim shovels them into a corner. Alim, post Blight, was still very much caught up in being who he was in the Circle, but 12 years there are a lot of bang and dents that make him less, um, proper?

Anyhow, another win for getting outside my comfort zone. I should have this fic ready in about 10 years after about 58 rewrites, and I'll have had a ball the whole time.

[becausedragonage]

Why I'm giving up on the idea that I can simply churn out a story and put it up with a minimum of editing:

Machela’s farm was several days' walk from Vigil’s Keep, closer to the North Road than the coastline. It was a huddle of stone buildings, the biggest of which was the barn against which her family's home leaned like a drunken old man. The barn, key to their livelihood, sported a newly shingled roof while the family home's darkened shingles had started to crimp and lift several years ago. For the Keeses’, work came before leisure, comfort was only sought after all the work was finished and past generations had let the architecture of their homestead tell that story. It explained why Machela chose to forgo the customary offer of tea when he and Will arrived and went right to her complaint.

I've rewritten this damn paragraph half a dozen times and it still has issues that I haven't managed to address.

A) I all of a sudden don't think Machela's family would neglect the house like that.

B) The fourth sentence has some issues with its structure.

C) There's a better ending sentence in another draft, but it doesn't give the info this last sentences does.

I'll sort it out, but the way you can be happy with 2k words and then it's just one little paragraph that keeps causing issues.

[becausedragonage]

So, I think I've puttered around with the Alim in Valdemar thing long enough. I'm dumping an outline for the first part into Manuskript (a Linux Scrivener alternative) and getting to work.

The first part will, if all goes according to plan, cover Alim's arrival to the defeat up a big boss, but not THE big boss. It will be mostly from either Alim or Vanyel's POV, but there will also be some from Tantras and Ferra (a spur of the moment OC). The latter two will have a role in this first part but are going to be Big in the second part.

There are four bloody parts to this.

One: Alim arriving to the Big Boss fight. Classic quest, whump, bromance.

Outlined.

Much of the first draft done.

Two: The four characters sorting through feelings. complications, and a pre-murder mystery that leads to a bigger boss. Mystery, romance, angst.

I know the arc.

that's it.

Three: Years later, and the bIG WhuMp. I may be turning one of the four into a bad guy.

Detailed arc

A good deal of it drafted

Four: The 'depends on what I do at the end of the third part' bit where it changes to Vanyel in Fereldan.

Two scenes drafted

Fuck all done on every other front

As ever, whether I ever get this up is always in question. Leading with that disclaimer has gotten me this far though, so maybe it will happen. Regardless, this is going to take me forever.

[becausedragonage]

I have run out of new things I want to get down for the Alim in Valdemar fic, so I'm concentrating on rewriting and revising the first chapters. It is turning out to be an intense kill-your darlings exercise since a lot of what I'd thought would happen has changed, and much of what was happening in them is now irrelevant or makes no sense.

*le sigh*

[becausedragonage]

Well shoot. I thought I had three nice arcs to my Alim in Valdemar fic, and then I got really dissatisfied with how one turned out nice and happy.

So I'm at four.

[becausedragonage]

Alim in Valdemar the first:

I'm writing a bunch about how he gets Big Mad with Vanyel over some actions of Vanyel, and I kept having Alim get sulky the way he did in the Hard Way Home fic and in game (Jowan doing blood magic and Alistair walking away from the Wardens? Unforgiveable.), but of course, they've got to hook up and get it on at some point because the whole point of this fic is for me to get melodramatic and do things I usually don't. That can't happen if Alim has consigned Vanyel to the realm of unforgiveable jerk.

So no big sulk.

Thankfully, I finally realized he's 34-35. He's had a good 12 years of having to navigate his emotions and the politics of running the Fereldan Wardens and an arling. He can get Big Mad for a little bit, and then step back and think about how to resolve it.

I also had Vanyel being Wrong in this situation and was trying to think about how Alim could convince him of that. But Vanyel himself is almost 30 with his own perspective. It's not bad for Alim to understand that and realize that he's not going to be able to convince him. Vanyel's concerns are different, and he may have some good points.

And all of a sudden I realize I'm writing about experienced adults, not young dudes suddenly pressured into extraordinary situations, and realize that it doesn't ALL have to be crazy melodrama.

[becausedragonage]

You should have absolutely no faith that anything referenced in this snippet will appear in or factor into the big Alim in Valdemar fic, but I had it stuck in my head, so it needed to be written down.

If Kinnon, Alim's boyfriend in Kinloch Hold, met Vanyel.

“He chooses men who save him in some way," said Kinnon. "Zevran kept him alive during the Blight and you kept him from being Tranquil.” “And you?” Van asked. “Without me his Orlesian would be atrocious.”