LGBTFest entry

2010-04-03T16:12:42Z

I have volunteered myself for an lgbtfest prompt: "1192. Due South, Benton Fraser, Post-CotW No one in Chicago knew - or needed to know - about Fraser's history, but living off a dogsled in the Northwest Territories made it hard to hide that he'd never been able to afford even top surgery. (Fraser is FtM)."

I've been looking for something to set as a goal for myself, but even the fairly generous timelines of DSFlashfiction aren't something I can usually meet. That prompt put a couple of ideas in my head, though, and I'm confident I can write something in response to it in two (!!) months. I'll probably be stalking people for beta-reads in a month or so. I'll run it by my usual beta-editor, but I suspect this is a bit outside her comfort zone.

I've been really frustrated by my own lack of focus lately. Not that it's unusual but, I've actually managed to complete a couple of projects (modest ones, but still) now. I've probably started more than a dozen story ideas in the last month, put a fair amount of fairly unproductive time into one long piece I've been working on for a while, and I have no less than four podfics recorded and waiting for editing. I just can't seem to get anything finished. Part of it is my god-awful schedule, but a lot of it is just my own inability to focus on anything for more than 30 seconds. Hopefully having a goal will help with some of this.

That said, it's wierd that this prompt is the one that grabbed me. I usually try to write close to canon---it's a major flaw, really, and stops me from making the kind of fantastically creative leaps that characterize the very best fic. So why on earth I glommed on to such a canonically impossible fic idea is a bit of a mystery. I mean, gender identity and the transgender experience is something that's always been of interest to me, but still-- odd. Could be either really fantastic, or god-awful.

We'll see where it goes. Hopefully, I'll get it done in time!

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LGBTFest entry