I'd be curious to know what your mixed feelings about the story are
Mostly that I am doing substantial worldbuilding outside of what we see in canon, although I'm trying to be as vague as possible about as much as possible, I'm still worried that I don't understand the genre or cultural context well enough to do this kind of worldbuilding without making an ass of myself. Is what I wrote a plausible way of rebuilding a sect? Could a new sect member think about herself the way that this narrator does? Does it even make sense for her to continue to identify with her family's trade after becoming a cultivator? Were there even merchants who specialized in purple? I don't know, and I might be writing something very wrongheaded. I felt the same way about the couple of paragraphs about sect rebuilding in the other fic.
(I feel like the usual way to deal with this for writers who aren't genre-savvy is by writing modern AUs, or by focusing just on what we see directly, but my strongest feeling about Jiang Cheng is a desire to fill in the gaps in his story, and in particular his role as sect leader, so that's what I feel most driven to write.)
I found myself getting annoyed with the narrator sometimes for not knowing or thinking about anything or anyone outside the Jiangs, but I think she's not unusual that way, and would have to have a strong sense of Jiang identity in order to go through those battles as a newbie and still stay with the Jiangs to the end. But I think she's the right narrator for the point of the story, which is that Wei Wuxian isn't the only one to be willing to sacrifice everything for Jiang Cheng and his dreams, and from the point of view of these Jiang disciples Jiang Cheng's ongoing loyalty and love for Wei Wuxian might look like a betrayal of what they were willing to sacrifice. The plan for the second chapter was to have her come to terms with Jiang Cheng's ongoing feelings for Wei Wuxian after Wei Wuxian's return.
ETA: Oh and about the recs, I don't think any of them have spoilers beyond where you are now except for Nothing in Return, which is post-canon. But you might want to stay away from the LXC/JGY one as well, it doesn't technically have spoilers but I think it relies on knowledge of what happens in that relationship past where you are.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-01-22 07:20 pm (UTC)Mostly that I am doing substantial worldbuilding outside of what we see in canon, although I'm trying to be as vague as possible about as much as possible, I'm still worried that I don't understand the genre or cultural context well enough to do this kind of worldbuilding without making an ass of myself. Is what I wrote a plausible way of rebuilding a sect? Could a new sect member think about herself the way that this narrator does? Does it even make sense for her to continue to identify with her family's trade after becoming a cultivator? Were there even merchants who specialized in purple? I don't know, and I might be writing something very wrongheaded. I felt the same way about the couple of paragraphs about sect rebuilding in the other fic.
(I feel like the usual way to deal with this for writers who aren't genre-savvy is by writing modern AUs, or by focusing just on what we see directly, but my strongest feeling about Jiang Cheng is a desire to fill in the gaps in his story, and in particular his role as sect leader, so that's what I feel most driven to write.)
I found myself getting annoyed with the narrator sometimes for not knowing or thinking about anything or anyone outside the Jiangs, but I think she's not unusual that way, and would have to have a strong sense of Jiang identity in order to go through those battles as a newbie and still stay with the Jiangs to the end. But I think she's the right narrator for the point of the story, which is that Wei Wuxian isn't the only one to be willing to sacrifice everything for Jiang Cheng and his dreams, and from the point of view of these Jiang disciples Jiang Cheng's ongoing loyalty and love for Wei Wuxian might look like a betrayal of what they were willing to sacrifice. The plan for the second chapter was to have her come to terms with Jiang Cheng's ongoing feelings for Wei Wuxian after Wei Wuxian's return.
ETA: Oh and about the recs, I don't think any of them have spoilers beyond where you are now except for Nothing in Return, which is post-canon. But you might want to stay away from the LXC/JGY one as well, it doesn't technically have spoilers but I think it relies on knowledge of what happens in that relationship past where you are.