anarfea

I am so super excited. I made the decision that to motivate myself to finish, I'm actually going to write the first draft of my novel as a Sherlolly novel, and then focus on scrubbing after. I think this was the right choice because....

I have an outline! I wrote it over the last few days. I'm super excited to see this story taking shape.

I was writing with a mind to scrub, so I got rid of as many TAB specific references as possible. I have a brand spanking new plot with Sir Eustace as a factory owner dealing with striking workers, and Emilia as an ally. I have Janine as a labor organizer! There is a murder. And Holmes comes to investigate the case.

I've also got a slow burn enemies to lovers arc going on with Hooper and Holmes. They start as adversaries, with Holmes investigating Emilia's murder. They gradually learn to respect and then develop affection for each other.

The second half of the novel is an adaptation of the Charles Augustus Milverton. 'Lady Eva' Blackwell, the proprietress of a molly house Holmes occasionally visits, is being blackmailed by Milverton, who is demanding the names of the establishments patrons. Holmes and Hooper try to negotiate with him. Mycroft promises to take care of the situation if only they will do the respectable thing and get married.

Finally, I decided to simplify Hooper's gender identity, and just make him transmasculine. I know far more people who fit this description than I do people who are genderfluid, and I feel like I have a better chance of getting this right.

Anyway, I'm super excited to get started on this. But, I need to balance work on this story with my FTH projects, so, it will be slow going. But I have a story to tell and I'm excited about it.

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breathedout

Eyyyyy, congrats!! This sounds like it'll be great!

clevermanka

Congratulations! I'm happy and excited for you!

oulfis

How exciting!!! Well done -- that's so much cool progress!

With Hooper's gender identity, I wonder if it would make sense to similarly choose whatever gets you most motivated to write -- I can't tell if that's the thing you've currently decided or not. "Getting it right," whatever you choose, could be part of the scrubbing/polishing process.. if whatever you try doesn't work, you could edit back to something easier. Of course if you've decided to simplify because the more complicated thing doesn't get you feeling inspired to write, totally ditch it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what this grows into!