Various ramblings by the small hobbit

Another poor month, only 6,700 words, bringing my yearly total to just over 110k, so hopefully I will still reach the 120k.

A lot of what I've written has been drabbles, so time to word ratio is poor.  This includes my allbingo Fairy Tales entry, with The Death of Sir Roderick (Sherlock Holmes), a casefic in 9 drabbles.

Nothing more to share this month - there's a couple of ficlets written but not as yet posted to AO3 - they'll be up next month.

And I've just sent my Yuletide fic off to beta.

So, rather like my word count for the month, this is short and sweet!

This has been a poor month, definitely the worst this year, as I've written only 5.6K words.  However, I've reached just under 94K for the year, so still ahead of schedule for my annual goal of 120K.

As might be expected, there's not much to highlight this month.  For allbingo Pirate Fest I wrote Poirot Beside The Sea which gave me a chance to write some more Hercule Poirot.

And today I finished posting for no_true_pair You Can't Keep A Good Eight Down with the last pairing being Adam Carter and Ferret.

Looking forward I have my spook_me entry to complete - I like the picture, but I need to get on with the writing.  There should be new challenges for allbingo and whatif_au as well as my regular challenges.  So maybe a few more words.

Although I write a monthly writing post, I rarely manage to include any banners I have earned at the time.  Last month I earned three, and, since it seems a shame not to credit the creators, here they are:

Firstly, melagan ran a Dust Off Your Plot Bunny challenge.  This was the perfect opportunity to write a follow up to Hilary Term 1920 and to take another look at life after WWI: Summer at Bag End   Both are Hobbit (Jackson movies) AUs





Then allbingo ran the Winterfest in July challenge.  For the last few years I've been writing another instalment in my Spooks AU Love in All Seasons series and this year's A Slightly Different Christmas was the next.  Delightful banner by kiramaru7 






And lastly there was whatif_au Bingo  All nine squares are in the series WhatIf AU 2025 bingo  Banner made by brumeier who runs the community and helps provide me with ideas.

Word count for the month 11,500, bringing my total for the half year to just over 62K, so marginally ahead of my goal so far - always good to have a few words in hand!

I've written two squares for whatif_au Bingo: for Air Travel You Don't Have To Be Nuts to Work Here which is Hamlet/The Hobbit and a follow up to the last time I wrote for the air travel theme, Thank You for Flying Elsinore Airways and the second for the High/Low fantasy square, which is written but needs another readthrough before posting.  

The major word production went for my caseficexchange story, which won't be revealed until next month.

My other major achievement this month was to complete my 11 year streak for fan_flashworks with Support Your Local Baby Bank , a Spooks (MI5) ficlet.

First off, melagan  is running a Plot Bunny Dust-Off Challenge, which is running from now until 31 July, here

This is the perfect opportunity to carefully remove one bunny from its hutch and let it run...

Word count just over 7k this month, which is a decided fall.  However, it still leaves my year to date total at just over 30.5k, so I remain on target.

Apart from fan_flashworks the I've only done two other challenges:

allbingo had a Tolkein challenge: The Two Towers Hotel (Spooks(MI5), the final chapter will be posted tomorrow.

and no_true_pair has their 4 character challenge: Mycroft's Plan with two more days to be posted (like the other, it's all written but not yet live).

I've written 13.5K this month, which is impressive, and rather surprising, bringing me up to 23.5K for the year and nicely above my goal, so there's a buffer.

I'm not too sure where all the words can be found.  There's my entry for whatif_au Soulmate Pet challenge: A Trip to the Vet's (Hobbit, Bilbo/Thorin), plus allbingo had its regular Valentine's Fest.  I took Established Relationship as my theme and wrote Making A House A Home (Spooks (MI5), Lucas/Adam) and pure fluff, which suits the season.

I've been continuing with fan_flashworks which gave me the opportunity to write Celebrate Valentine's at Holmes Hall (BBC Sherlock/Hamlet) which is the next part of Mycroft's Wonderland for Every Season now with added ghosts.

In addition small_fandoms has been running a Drabblethon, so I've been writing a drabble every day, first for Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, and then for Miss Marple, who'd gone to see a performance.

And finally ushobwri had their annual WiP month, which totalled 4.2k words, so certainly helped the month's total: Exposing the Waverley Corporation (Spooks (MI5), Lucas/Adam plus Pamela)

This month has been a major writing month reaching 16,700 words and bringing my total to 149K for the year.  I know there's one day to go, but I don't see myself writing another 1K then.  I'm not bothered, I'm just delighted to have passed my goal of 135K.

As is traditional I produced The Marylebone Monthly Christmas Supplement and could hear the Sloth clearly telling me it would have been much better if I'd written some of it in November and not left it all till December!

All the ficlets for The Twelfth Twelve Days of Christmas are written but some are not posted yet.

I've written my story for eventcentral Western Title challenge, which will be revealed on January 9th.

And I've started whatif_au Wintry Mix with the next part of Mycroft's Wonderland for Every Season where they've moved to a new venue: Welcome to Christmas at Holmes' Hall


Despite the higher figure for 2024, I'm going to keep my main goal at 120K for 2025.  This year I joined lands_of_magic to increase my words, but I won't be doing it next year, so 120K seems a sensible goal.

This week's thefridayfive questions, since it's NaNoWriMo this month

1. Where do you get ideas/inspiration for your writing?
Quite often I'm working for prompts from challenges, or exchanges with suggestions from the recipient.  Sometimes I'll want to follow up an idea I've had in a previous work, or there'll be a request as to what happens next and I, too, want to know the answer.  And sometimes, as my regular readers will be aware, they'll be from the deepest recesses of my mind, where no-one with any sense would venture.

2. Do you have a favourite place to write?
Generally on my laptop on my table in the living room, but sometimes I'll write a drabble in a notebook while sitting in bed.  And if I'm away then wherever I can find if I'm in the mood for writing.

3. What are your tricks for getting through writers block?
I'll write a set number of words a day, 50/75/100 (remember I write ficlets generally) so they story still progresses.  This works because I write linearly and simply say 'what are they going to do?' and they might drive along the road, turn to someone and ask a question, or put the kettle on.

4. Favorite genre to write? Do you have a different favorite genre for reading?
Depends partly on my mood.  I like writing and reading casefic or action stories (not of the fighting variety).  But also crack.

5. What is something you really want to write but haven't gotten around to yet?
I have an untold story in my Spooks 'A New Start' series, which has been waiting for months for me to write, mainly because I haven't a clue what will happen.  I'll probably use it for ushobwri WiP month next February.

A lower total this month, but still a respectable number, of 11.8K, so that my year to date is 114K and therefore almost at the lower part of my goal for this year.

I finished writing my no_true_pair entries, which are here: The Eight are Back!

Apart from that I completed the story_works Secret Challenge, using Call the Midwife: Please Help Me

allbingo had two challenges: Pirates which I completed a 2x2 square using Sherlock Holmes (ACD) The Castaway (who isn't quite what he seems) and a further 2x2 card for the Disability Drabble, which I posted direct to the comm: here

Written, but not yet posted and my entry for spook_me and trickortreatex  I'll put the links up next month when they both go live.

For once I've caught up on challenges and exchanges which gives me a clear run into the rest of the year.