Tag: how does a Dets write?

Sansûkh Chapter 41 – Sneak Peek (YES, ANOTHER)

So as many of you are aware, because of my #@$%ing laptop woes, I haven’t been able to get the chapter out when I hoped. 

*pouts*

But! I get a new laptop this afternoon, and I have access to some of my work. So, here we are: another little sneak-peek! Thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy!

Sansûkh Chapter 41 – excerpt from draft 

Dear Da and Mum, Gimris and Bofur,

I’m alive. I’m not hurt. I’m not wounded. I’m eating. I’m
wearing my helm, I promise.

I have worried constantly about the Mountain. Is all well
with our family? Are you hale? I heard of the death of Dain, and I sorrow with
you. May Mahal watch and protect him. Do our friends prosper? How does Dale?

You will know this from other messengers, no doubt, but the
War is won at last and the Quest has succeeded. My friend Aragorn is now King
in Gondor and Arnor, and there is much work to be done. I have pledged the work of my hands and mind to rebuilding the Gates of Minas Tirith, and would see many of our people join me in making strong both the city and our friendships with Men. Too, I have found the most glorious place in the White Mountains above Rohan. I must speak to our new King about it. But. That’s not what
this letter is about.

I’ve found my One.

I would tell you this in my own voice and in the same room,
if I were able. But with things the way they are, well, we are no longer
unknown, not even here in Minas Tirith. Indeed, we’re rather famous, it seems?
Anyway, all this is to say: you may hear the news thanks to rumour and gossip,
and I would prefer it to come first from me.

This is hard to put to paper, but I will try it in one
strike, and perhaps it will sting less. Here goes: You may have already deduced
that my One is no Dwarf. Aye, he is not. He is an Elf.

Please, put the letter down and do not throw it in the fire.
Mum, please stop Da from throwing the letter in the fire.

Gimris, sit on him if you must. At least until he calms down
enough for the rest.

Bofur, stop laughing.

Here is the rest: He is Legolas Thranduilion, the son of
Thranduil. He is in fact the very Elf who once insulted Mum and called me a
‘goblin mutant’. He makes truly appalling first impressions. It’s sort of
breathtaking, how poor they are.

Bofur, I said stop laughing.

I have not lost my mind. I am not writing this under duress.
I am not under some ridiculous Elf-spell or bewitchment. This is not some
flight of fancy or passing infatuation. I am perfectly aware of what I do and
where my heart has found its home.

He is not as I thought him to be. I am not as he thought me
to be. The past is more complicated than we were ever led to know. We were both
entirely, completely, grievously wrong. About many, many things. And I thank
Mahal and all the Valar that I know better now.

The whole story is long (and full of tedious walking,
horses, boats and running). But
suffice to say that my eyes have been opened, and I see more clearly now than I
have ever done.

Legolas will return with me to the North, after we have seen
our friend crowned and the Hobbits healed, and after we have attended to a
small journey that we have pledged to each other. We wish to wed. Legolas
wishes to meet with you, and I with his family and people.  

I want only peace between my beloved and my family. I will understand
if your reception is chilly, but for love of me, I beg that you receive us,
that you hear him with an open and unclouded heart, and leave the past where it
lies – for now.

I love you all. I miss you all dearly.

Gimli

P.S. All right, Bofur, you can laugh now.

My beloved King and father, my dear and valiant brothers,

I will be home before the snows fall again. I have missed
you. So very much. The lands to the south are warmer than our woods, but the winds blow strangely and the sea-birds call in voices that are hard to ignore. I have missed our trees and our rivers. I have not heard a Silvan accent in what feels like decades, and these stately Galadhrim and the steel-eyed Peredhil make me feel gauche and incomplete. 

Aragorn is crowned, but his kingdom lies ruined, exhausted from centuries of watchful suspicion and outright war. The olvar here are starved for the sun: the spume of Mordor now dissipates, but it has choked the life from much that is green and good. I have begun whispering to them, coaxing them to put forth leaves and stretch high, but the plants are as weary and frightened as the people. 

I long to be home, where wild roots sink deep and strong into the earth and not even darkness can tear them free. Soon, I will begin the journey. I have a promise to keep, to go south to visit the White Mountains and from thence to see the Onodrim and wander the ancient boles of Fangorn. I think that they would approve of what I do here, with these frightened young trees. 

After I have seen to my promise and to the mountains and the woods, my feet will turn northwards, and home. 

My hus

I would have you meet my

I will be bringing a guest: Gimli, son of Gloin, a
Dwarf-Lord of Erebor. He is one of the Nine Walkers, the champion of Galadriel
of Lothlorien. She bestowed upon him three hairs from her head.

You read that correctly.

He is also the one to whom I plight my

I love him.

You also read that correctly.

It grieves me to know that my love will cause you more pain.
I do not love him to hurt you. I love him because he is brave and kind and
noble and great of heart. Because he has brown eyes and a warm smile, and his
hands could crush bone but he holds me so gently. Because he is Gimli, and no
other.

I write these words not to warn you, nor hurt you. I love
you, and I am proud to be your son, your brother, proud to walk Middle-Earth
wearing the emblems of the Greenwood. I write these words to give you time, and
to prepare you. I would not spring Gimli and the nature of our connection upon
you, nor you upon him, without first telling you of what has transpired.

Much of what you know of Dwarves is wrong. I beg of you, put
aside old tales, caricatures and suspicions, and meet Gimli with an open heart
and clear eyes. He will surprise you. He is endlessly surprising.

I did not care for him at first. I thought I despised him. I
thought every cruel thing that has ever been spoken was true. Yet he was
ever-faithful, ever-stalwart and generous and true, even in the face of terror
and grief and disdain. Our journey has torn away every false belief, and slowly
I have learned to see Gimli, just as he learned to see me. Once I saw him, truly saw him, then I could not help but
love him.

Laindawar, please do not sneer at him. He is a Dwarf, yes,
he is smaller than you, bearded and broad and thick-bodied. He is also a mighty warrior, and
though he is quick to anger he is quick to forgive – and how he forgives. His heart could contain the whole world. He knows
little of trees, but much of home.

Laerophen, I pray you do not account yourself wiser than
him. The Dwarves may have lost much of their records, what with their sorrowful
history, but there is much we do not know and will never know. He sees this world differently to you or I, but no less clearly. He has secrets
upon secrets, his eye is keen, and his mind is quick.

Father, I cannot NOT love him, not even for y

Adar, forgive me for the direction of my heart. And
please do not drain the wine-stores dry

And also I beg that you forgive me this: Gimli’s grandmother
was a Firebeard. Her name was Haban. She died at Moria, during the terrible War
of Orcs and Dwarves so many years ago. She was an honest and hard-working trader who travelled far and
wide, transporting her goods from Ered Luin to the Iron Hills and between. She was a loyal soul and a clever one: the old tales make her people seem like monsters, but she puts the lie to them. She was a good Dwarf. Gimli has her red hair.

Last but not least painful: He is the son of one that we imprisoned, eighty years ago. The one with the red fire-touched hair and the scar over his brow is Gloin, Gimli’s father. Thorin Oakenshield is Gimli’s cousin. I mocked his family and stole his image, long before I ever saw his face.

He has long since forgiven me, and will soon
forgive you for love of me.

Galadriel calls him ‘Lock-Bearer’, but he holds my whole
heart in his great and gentle hands.

I can only hope that your hearts are gentle in return.

Your son and brother,

Legolas Thranduillion, Prince of Greenwood the Great

TBC – thank you so so much for reading!

(The first sneak-peek for ch41 is here)

HI ITS ME IM PROBABLY BOTHERING YOU BUT I HAVE 2 QUESTIONS. 1. When will you update sansukh because i am dying? 2. so, the dwarves in the halls are dead, but they can get tired and need sleep and have real bodies, etc., so what happens if idk someone accidentally gets stabbed (cause that happens all the time) would they die again? I NEED TO KNOW

HELLO HELLO! I promise you’re not bothering me!

1.    SOON. No really, I mean it! I wanted to have the update done last week – but then my LAPTOP DIED and I am cross about it. The absolutely excellent computer repair folks have recovered my data, thankfully, and so the 9K I have written of ch41 isn’t lost (PHEW). I can’t get to all my notes, sadly, but I have bits and pieces put together here on Mr Dets’ PC. 

I pick up my new laptop this afternoon. 😀

I posted a little sneaky peek here, if that helps tide you over! I will post another sneak-peek in a moment, too. Thank you for being patient!

I am sorry that I can’t give you an update schedule. I am a mum and a wife and a sister and an aunt and a teacher and I have an incredibly pressure-and-paperwork-filled job and a very busy sort of existence in general, and sometimes my mood sinks through the floor, so it’s very hard to predict. My little hobby is usually the thing that gets shunted to the side when things get rough. But please rest assured that I will never abandon the fic, and I will ALWAYS be thinking of the next update.

2.   WHOA

UM

IDK 

THAT’S A P EXTREME QUESTION THERE WHOA WHOA WHOA

uhhh… well, assuming? that this injury is a mistake and an accident (I SURE HOPE SO) I expect that Mahal would probably step in and help his kiddies out of their predicament. 

But he’d totally be doing the concerned-parent-rant the whole time: “YOU HAVE TO BE MORE CAREFUL, YOU WORRIED ME, FOR ERU’S SAKE WATCH WHAT YOU’RE DOING NEXT TIME YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK, I’D BE GROUNDING YOU UNTIL DAGOR DAGORATH IF I WASN’T ALREADY”

Wordcount update on Ch41: 9.5K

Trying not to become distracted by composing. BUT I HAD LIKE, FOUR GREAT THEME IDEAS ALL AT ONCE sladjgfaljshdf no. no. write. back to writing.

*surreptitiously opens musescore again*

*closes it AGAIN*

Hi! I absolutley love Sansukh! I want to read it more than I want to read the actual books half the time. Everything about it kills me and I love it. I was just wondering, how did you come up with Legolas’s brothers? And um will we ever find out everyone’s dark names? (Especially the Ri Brothers and Dwalin cause I love all the dwarves but especially them and I think you already told us Kili’s so I don’t think I need to ask about him.)

Alaksjdfaljshdlasjdhfa THANK YOU SO MUCH NONNIE Oh my goodness, my face is scarlet. 

Ahhhh okay! Well, the idea behind Legolas’ brothers was born out of a half-formed idea from an earlier one-shot fic, From One Age to Another. When I was writing Chapter 16? I think it is? of Sansukh, all of a sudden there they were, nearly fully-formed. 

Plus, Legolas as a character is given some new dimensions when he is given more family members, because it gives him more relationships. And his brothers themselves roughly embody some possible Elven attitudes: Laindawar is aloof, disdainful and martial, a believer in Elven superiority of might. Laerophen is brilliant and learned and introverted, a (former!!!) believer in Elven superiority of intellect. There’s more to them than that, of course, and Legolas shares some of these beliefs at first. It has been interesting to play with how Thranduil’s own attitudes might have been adopted in different ways by THREE different offspring, rather than just the one. Resentment towards the other houses of the Elves, for example, or attitudes towards the other peoples of Middle-Earth. 

It also makes Legolas the youngest of three, and I personally like that dynamic for him. He has a lightness and a recklessness and a… spontaneous gaiety in the books? If you know what I mean? He’s singing all the time, or making ridiculous pronouncements (”I go to find the sun!”) that feels less… responsible? Staid and sober? Than a Crown Prince would seem. 

I feel like I am not putting this well!

I ALSO wanted a representative of the Wood-Elves at each place of battle, to be our Elven focal point. I consciously arranged it so that we would be able to see one of the sons of Thranduil in each location, their attitudes being challenged by whatever they confront. So, Laerophen at Erebor – the bookish, awkward outsider in a realm of Dwarves. Laindawar in Mirkwood – in his element, defending his home guerrilla-warfare style, but having to deal with pesky posh Galadhrim and a bloody Brown Wizard. And of course, Legolas at the epicentre of it all.

IDK, it happened and I ran with it! 🙂

Oh, dark names! I had fun with these! Yes, we have a list of them already! Here’s the list, and here’s the meanings of some of them! And here’s my dark-names tag for you!

(yep, I have done the whole Company, and so Dwalin’s name and the Ri Bros are there!)

so I’m pretty sure the data of Dis’s birth is cannon — is the date of her death also cannon? (if so, I can’t recall it, so I thought you might know.) and a general question about your writing process (which is amazing btw), is how you go about dealing with inconsistency or giant holes in cannon?

Hey Nonnie!

Yeah, the year of Dis’ birth is canon… but get this: there’s no date of death. Check the Line of Durin family tree (I cropped it a bit, to show the last four generations)!

image

SHE DIES IN YEAR ? OF THE ? AGE

Ooooh, boy. Well, there’s inconsistencies aaaaall the way through canon, oddly. To be fair, in a work of this magnitude, it’s nearly impossible for there not to be some clashes here and there. There’s Tolkien-changed-his-mind inconsistencies, Christopher-Tolkien-Has-Opinions inconsistencies, movies-vs-books inconsistencies, Silm-vs-everything-else inconsistencies… and the list goes on.

Basically, I pick the version I like the most/fits the best – or if there’s no information readily available, I make it up 🙂

Yisss, write the boromir lives au plezzzz, me begging you on me kness, gollum-style!!!!

Ahhh, I’m certainly interested in the idea, Nonnie! But the prospect of another rewrite of LOTR makes me go AUUUUGH ARRRGH AAAAUHGKAHDG. So, it might end up being a one-shot or something… we will see! 

I have a few other things I want to finish off (I comma square bracket needs some attention) and Star Wars is calling me very insistently right now. I won’t stop writing for LOTR/The Hobbit though!

I’m a little conflicted, so I hoped you could help. I’m currently working on a fanfic that started out as a one shot and has since blossomed well beyond. I’ve got three chapters written and have up to chapter seven thoroughly planned out, and I’ve been writing a chapter a day, as well as plotting, since I started. I want to post it on my AO3 and FF accounts, to see what people think, but I’ve already got a few WIPs and am afraid of having another one. Should I post now or wait til it’s done?

Oh gosh, Nonnie, I am a bad person to ask about this! I had 55K written when I began posting Sansukh, and over time I slowly chomped through my headstart until it became the mad scramble-slash-Sisyphus’ stone scenario we have today. 

It depends on you. Some people like to have the constant feedback, little pointers such as ‘I LIKE [THIS BIT]!’ or “GASP I HATE [THAT THING]” from the readers. Some people only need a beta reader or editor. And some people can write and edit without any external input, and post after the whole story is complete, because they like not being put under pressure.

One of the above is gonna speak to you more than the others, and you know better than me which one it is! Don’t be worried about taking more time to make a decision you’re comfortable with: it’s YOUR work!

I don’t worry too much about having multiple WIPs in the offing. It means that if you get stale or stuck on one project, you have another to work on, with fresh eyes.

(a chapter a day is AMAZING – go you!!! That is absolutely wonderful! 😀 You should be so proud of that, well done!)