wickedwords

Gravity is a Harsh Mistress (2996 words) by Rachael Sabotini
For Dira Sudis (dsudis)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Martian (2015), The Martian - Andy Weir
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chris Beck/Beth Johanssen/Mark Watney
Characters: Beth Johanssen, Chris Beck, Mark Watney
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Bathing/Washing, Team as Family
Summary: Mark didn't come away from Mars completely unscathed.

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When I saw the pinch hit come through for H/c the Martian - with one request per the book and one per the movie -- I jumped at it. Because...H/C! Science Fiction! Potential Threesome! So totally in my wheelhouse, I had to jump at it.

Of course, once I got it, I had a rush of anxiety over writing. There was the little matter of my writing speed being glacier-like, and having less than a week to write it in -- given that I would be out of town on deadline weekend. It was at that point that I recognized the requester, and started banging my head on the desk for not really looking at that first.

So I grabbed a couple of people off the yuletide beta readers list -- alina and Celeste -- just to make sure I was writing something intelligible. Then I asked Gwyn to beta it, as I knew she could whip the story into shape, and find all the missing emotional holes that I initially forget. I worked on it right up until deadline, and am pretty proud of how it turned out.

Dira liked it, and I felt good about my writing process. It was a good Yuletide for me.

I love participating in Mini_Wrimo and WriSoMiFu every year, and those communities are how I managed to get a draft of my yuletide story done again this year. Of course now comes the more hideous part of my writing process -- trying to make the darn thing coherent! If anyone wants to volunteer for beta duty, story undescribed, I am looking for help. :)

Oh. my. I am at BEARS! BEARS! BEARS! on my story. I wasn't able to write yesterday as work had a meltdown while I was at a doctors appointment (still looking good, yay!). So I still have that one last scene to do and I have promised myself I will get it done tonight. ::determined nod::

In other news, Ev received acceptances to two universities yesterday, western (or as he prefers to call it, the mages college at winterhold) and PLU, the college I graduated from. Since Western's his first choice, that's probably where he'll end up, but I want to get the financial aid letter first so we can compare costs.

I ran through the list of yuletide beta offers, and I can find no one who has volunteered my fandom. My story's not done, but I'd hope that would be useful procrastination.

Oh crap! I am no where near being half done with this story. I fear I may need to terminate it, and start again on something more manageable for the timeframe. Story start #5 just going into the hopper...I guess I don't really need a plot.

I only managed 100 words today, as I simply wasn't motivated. I am also having trouble with ripping stuff out and rewriting; the reason I only had 100 words added was because I gutted so much. I'm really going to have to learn to relax and just let the horrible dialog stand until I get more of it done. At this point, rewriting the some 100 words isn't helpful.

While this is technically day 1, I have called in every bit of pre-set plotting I had to come up with my 1400 word total for the day. We'll see if I can't find myself some writer time at work and try to come up with something. I have never been one to sit down and write for long stretches; I'm more the distractable type, getting up and down and up again, so I rarely get into flow. I really want to learn how to get myself to stay seated for long enough to do a real chunk of a story, and I'm hoping this time to do that.

I really enjoyed writing for both Yuletide and 3ships this year, even though doing two stories in such a short time stretched me pretty thin. I was thinking of other challenges to do this year. I've already picked up the Picfor1K challenge, though I haven't started on it (heck, I don't even know what fandom to write! If you want to suggest something, do so in the comments. I won't tell you what picture I got, so you'll be suggesting blind. Bwa-ha-ha!)

So. Other challenges. I am tempted by the au_bigbang, however my track record with long stories is...not good. I'd need a 'finish your novels' challenge and an 'edit your novels' challenge to really get caught up with those.

I do have some old WIPs I'd like to finish. Hmmm. Maybe I should alternate. Pick a challenge and write new, then finish off old. What do you think might help get me back to writing?

My yuletide story is done, but I am stressing over my 3ships story now. I think I have one or two scenes to write, but I really want to have the draft done Monday so I can send it out for beta. What was I thinking, signing up for two exchanges this year? I'm going to need to push it to get this story done.

In other news, I've had a pretty good week. Last Thursday I kept muttering to myself "and I don't have to do chemo today", which was utterly awesome and amazing. I'm still tired, and my muscles are incredibly tight, such that standing for any length of time or just doing some easy stretches is a chore, but...I am done, done, done with chemo, and I'll manage. Friday I met with the radiation oncologist, and did the planning run plus got my tiny little pinprick tats; I start rads on 12/28, and treatment will run until mid-February. So I get almost a two week break! And it looks like Escapade is a plan, so I made the hotel reservations too.

The big thing for me is that I had the borg implant removed on Monday, which was a joyous event. I opted for the IV sedation, rather than just having a local, and slept the afternoon away after. It occasionally aches, and it will for awhile, but I am so happy to be done with that, just knowing it's gone makes the day better.

I did it! I uploaded all of my stories from this year to AO3, as there weren't that many of them.

My full listing is at:
http://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedwords/pseuds/Rachael%20Sabotini

This Side of the Mountain
My mcshep_match story for this year, a fusion with World War Z

Steal Some Covers
My Leverage/Highlander crossover PWP, which is all about Amanda/Parker fun

Since I count the yuletide stories as part of the writing year that the reveal happened, I also posted my yuletide/sga santa stories:

Maid of Awesome
My The Middleman pinch hit from yuletide 2008, a short Wendy/The Middleman snippet.

Patrick and the Flim-Flam Man
My A Dog's Breakfast/Stargate Atlantis AU from yuletide, 2008. Patrick/John

Zelenka's Feast
Another Stargate Atlantis AU, witten for SGA Santa 2008. Lorne/Zelenka is the primary pairing, with a background McKay/Sheppard, and possible Carter/Mitchell.

And a bonus:

Trees are Tricky Things
Yet another A Dog's Breakfast story, this one written as a pinch hit for yuletide 2007. Again, Patrick/John Sheppard AU.

*whew* They might not all be on my personal archive, but at least they're all archived someplace now.