If nothing else, I swear not to mix up "effect" and "affect," not to write PWP (PWithP to be considered as appropriate), and to remember that David Bowie's eyes, and thus also Jareth's, are both blue.

Notes on WIPs and Upcoming Stories:

As of this writing it is Day 1 of NaNoWriMo 2017. Instead of starting something new - difficult for me with these hanging over my head - I've decided to devote my NaNo to my WIPs: I will write 50k words combined on With A Heart, Bridge to Somewhere, and Siren Song, or until I finish them, whichever comes first.

With a Heart as Willing: If As Easy was like navigating a Labyrinth, With A Heart is like building one, but I promise it will happen eventually. The course is set, and the ending is already written; it will be 23 chapters total. As of November 1, 2017 I have 14,587 words unpublished, 1,679 of which belong to Chapter 18. This may in fact be all there is to Ch18, I'm not sure; I have decided I need to finish at least the first draft of the rest of the story before posting more. At present, Ch21-23 are finished, and 19-20 have some text; however I likely need at least 7,000 more words to truly finish. See above re: NaNo; I hope this will be soon!

Bridge to Somewhere: Jareth needs an engineer. The Labyrinth sends Sarah. Short, sporadic updates, with a planned length of 13 or 14 installments.

The First and Last Diary of Sarah Williams: Seventeen-year-old Sarah Williams disappeared from her locked bedroom in the spring of 1986. The only clue her family found was the diary left on her bed, but it reads too much like fiction to ever be believed. Upcoming, after I finish writing With a Heart. Because of the structure of the story, it must all be written before posting, so "upcoming" may last a while.

Siren Song: A Dresden Files/Labyrinth crossover, short-story length. Jareth is Dresden's Erlking, not another Sidhe. Set after the most recent Dresden book and more than twenty years after Labyrinth. Hopefully this will be done soon so I can put it up before it gets Jossed by Peace Talks.

Story-Related Links:

As Easy Mayst Thou Fall

David Bowie reads Peter and the Wolf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpoizq-jjxs
Peer Gynt Suite no. 1, op 46: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyM2AnA96yE
Peer Gynt Suite no. 2, op 55: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi3MxWuonq8

With a Heart as Willing

The Owl Cluster (NGC457): http:///2010/09/07/ngc457-the-owl-cluster/
Chopin Prelude in E Minor, Op 28 No. 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoRO_SDruVo

Some thoughts on the writing, and Labyrinth fanfic. Having read quite a bit of it, there were a lot of things I set out specifically aiming not to do. This used to be at the end of As Easy Mayst Thou Fall.

1. I've read a lot of stories where the author writes something like "And Jareth and Sarah talked easily of blah blah blah." It's fine if she doesn't start out scared or angry, but in most setups they have too much history just to let it drop, or to have everything be not awkward.

2. Enough with the clothes porn. We don't need to describe every single aspect of Jareth's wardrobe (which, though frequently changing, retains the same basic themes), nor do we need one million descriptions of the dresses or whatever that Sarah wears. Mention it when it's important or different or special, and otherwise, leave it be.

3. David Bowie has blue eyes. They are the same color, but appear different because of a permanently dilated left pupil that is the result of an eye injury he sustained as a teenager. I never mention it and that was deliberate, because every so often I think that if I have to read the phrase "mismatched eyes" one more time I'm going to go all HULK SMASH on my monitor, and then I wouldn't be able to see to write. I actually do know why Jareth has one larger pupil, in my story, but it was never important enough for Sarah to ask.

Later addition: It was pointed out to me in a few comments that given the disparate pupil size, "mismatched" is indeed accurate, even if you aren't referring to color. That is quite true; but when I wrote the above I was coming off a high of reading nothing but Laby fic for weeks and there are still too many times that "mismatched" is used as a descriptor when it is irrelevant. It's fine to use when relevant, fine in moderation. Just find something else to say when something else is more applicable - that is to say, most of the time.

4. It was important to me to write a story where Sarah loves Jareth for reasons she understands. A lot of Laby fic is all, "you're so villainous and sexy, kiss me you fool, I don't care," and it's pretty obvious why: nice innocent heroine plus attractive older villainous anti-hero is a Harlequin cliché. I've got nothing against those sorts of romance novels, but I didn't want to write one.

This was also my first time writing a longer fic; my previous endeavors capped out at two chapters at most. I did a few things consciously to try to stay consistent:

1. Re-read constantly, and don't be afraid to write the end before the middle.

2. Make rules regarding dialogue, especially for main characters. In my story, Sarah speaking sounds a lot like me, in syntax, phrasing, and vocabulary. I didn't do it to make her a self-insert; she isn't like me in personality or experience. Jareth was much harder to capture, and in the end, what I settled on was to write him without ever using contractions. I know he uses them in the movie ("Oh, you didn't?") but this simple rule helped me keep him sounding different. Frequently, avoiding contractions required me to re-word his lines so they wouldn't sound awkward.

3. Decide on your rules of perspective early, and stick to them. In this story that meant sticking with Sarah, because Jareth is the mystery she is trying to fathom. Sometimes, the hardest thing to write was Jareth not speaking: every time he's silent, in this story, I know what he's thinking.

I also learned a few things about posting fanfic, and the ffn community, which I thought might amuse.

1. Of every hundred people who read, if you are lucky, ten will review;
2. Many people do not read author notes; and
3. You'll never please everyone.