'Tis the Season to be Late?

[gilpin25]

We got the first of the Round Robin letters in a Christmas card this morning, and I'm waiting for my mild-mannered husband to turn into someone highly dangerous, who must be approached with caution. And only if you're bringing in the dinner.

These are the letters you get from people you don't see from one year to another, but who send you a printed sheet of their accomplishments activities during the year. Usually with an incredibly flattering and air-brushed photo that the Royal Family would envy. Snarkiness aside, most of these are interesting, but there's a few that set your teeth on edge. These particular people are friends of my parents, I haven't seen them since our Wedding so we're talking years here, but they still think we'd like to know that daughter Tabitha will be reading Politics at Cambridge, son Gerald is spending three years in Hong Kong earning fabulous sums of money thanks to a promotion, and now that all the kids have flown the wealthy nest, the parents have invested in a sixty foot ocean liner to give them an interesting new hobby.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but only just in some cases. I'm bracing myself for the one from our friends in New Zealand, who emigrated a couple of years ago, and seem to own more of the country now than Peter Jackson. It takes quite a lot to get my husband annoyed (just me, normally), but these letters drive him nuts. Last year he wanted me to compose one to send back which claimed that he'd climbed Everest on an afternoon off, and I'd won six Booker prizes in a row... ;

Which sort of brings me onto my Advent Fic. I'm just about on schedule for finishing 24.12.06, have written about 3500 words, have no idea what the genre is as I've included at least four and, in a shocking new move for me, I've given Harry a line to say. But I'm thinking of chopping it. And I've looked at some of those excellent angsty and short ones already posted and think perhaps I should be chopping a lot more. Anyone else writing long fics or is it the season to be brief so you can wisely wrap presents?

Comments

[an-fhanai.livejournal.com]

Thankfully we only get those letters from people we talk to on a fairly regular basis - anything else usually goes through the filtering process of our parents, since we've yet to get on any "important" friends' mailing lists. I don't mind a bit - getting stuff like that only serves to remind me that I've failed spectacularly every year of my marriage to get any cards out at all.

I know what story I'm going to write, and I'm making notes on it now, but I haven't actually started it yet, so it very well could end up being far more monstrous than it should be.

It's nice to have a mix of story lengths, you know. The question is whether or not a longer fic will drive you nuts and take away too much time from your own Christmas preparations. Don't worry about it being long. Long = more R/T. How can that be a bad thing? ;)

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

I know what story I'm going to write, and I'm making notes on it now, but I haven't actually started it yet, so it very well could end up being far more monstrous than it should be.

You're making me feel a lot better, you know. And you sound calm. I'm sat here opened mouthed at people doing two or three stories... ;)

It's nice to have a mix of story lengths, you know. The question is whether or not a longer fic will drive you nuts and take away too much time from your own Christmas preparations. Don't worry about it being long. Long = more R/T. How can that be a bad thing? ;)

Please will you just remember you said all that when you read it? LOL.