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nym_wibblyI’d struggle to choose just one thing. There’s so much I’d do differently.
I’d leave out all the setup for the sequel, and with it the incompatibility with canon revelations about when Rumple gained the ability to see the future. That ties in to the storyline with Randall and Flora, which could be better used serving Belle’s plotline than the business with the curse falling on Odstone.
In a piece where the original characters have blown me away by actually working, Lulie hasn’t worked; she’s not come alive the way she was supposed to, and her plotline hasn’t taken her where I planned (or anywhere much at all). Maybe that serves her role as her father’s victim, having her that little bit more invisible and frozen in place among these vibrant, rounded female characters who’ve found ways to exercise their agency, or maybe it’s just because Belle has been looking without really seeing until now, but I don’t like it.
I’d go with the canon version of Prince James, if I could go back in time; it doesn’t really matter to the story whether he’s his brother’s equal or opposite, to the extent that I actually flipped a coin when deciding.
I had a really ambitious idea for the whole piece, in which the narrative voice would start out more fairytale-sounding and fantasy-elaborate, while Belle was still focused on her ideals and dreams, and become more natural and straightforward as she grows out of her make-believe, bookish mindset and into the realities of adult life. She began by telling herself the story of herself and moved towards relating the reality. Totally didn’t work. Makes the story sound disjointed, the early chapters sound like I write with a thesaurus in one hand and a romance novel in the other, and I’m slowly working through it to tone down the effect where I can. I think it would’ve worked if Belle had had more time/opportunity to be immersed in her books as the piece progressed. It never worked out that way.
Oh, there’s so much else I’d change if I could. Various later canon revelations that I’d love to incorporate but can’t. A less honest Rumple, an older Belle. So much. But that’s the drawback of being a writer; you always look back with a sense of “if only”, even when you love a piece. A fanwriter gets a double whammy when things get jossed. Gotta move forward. It is what it is.
I’d leave out all the setup for the sequel, and with it the incompatibility with canon revelations about when Rumple gained the ability to see the future. That ties in to the storyline with Randall and Flora, which could be better used serving Belle’s plotline than the business with the curse falling on Odstone.
In a piece where the original characters have blown me away by actually working, Lulie hasn’t worked; she’s not come alive the way she was supposed to, and her plotline hasn’t taken her where I planned (or anywhere much at all). Maybe that serves her role as her father’s victim, having her that little bit more invisible and frozen in place among these vibrant, rounded female characters who’ve found ways to exercise their agency, or maybe it’s just because Belle has been looking without really seeing until now, but I don’t like it.
I’d go with the canon version of Prince James, if I could go back in time; it doesn’t really matter to the story whether he’s his brother’s equal or opposite, to the extent that I actually flipped a coin when deciding.
I had a really ambitious idea for the whole piece, in which the narrative voice would start out more fairytale-sounding and fantasy-elaborate, while Belle was still focused on her ideals and dreams, and become more natural and straightforward as she grows out of her make-believe, bookish mindset and into the realities of adult life. She began by telling herself the story of herself and moved towards relating the reality. Totally didn’t work. Makes the story sound disjointed, the early chapters sound like I write with a thesaurus in one hand and a romance novel in the other, and I’m slowly working through it to tone down the effect where I can. I think it would’ve worked if Belle had had more time/opportunity to be immersed in her books as the piece progressed. It never worked out that way.
Oh, there’s so much else I’d change if I could. Various later canon revelations that I’d love to incorporate but can’t. A less honest Rumple, an older Belle. So much. But that’s the drawback of being a writer; you always look back with a sense of “if only”, even when you love a piece. A fanwriter gets a double whammy when things get jossed. Gotta move forward. It is what it is.