Sarah's Writing Blog

Hello there!

This is the update for my on-going ASOIAF fanfiction, The Ghost in the Rock.

TGITR takes place in a modern AU, Brienne of Tarth is a working single mother in a hot, sweaty town in the Riverlands, doing what she can to make a life for herself and her daughter. Jaime Lannister is her co-worker and a source of much irritation (and desire) in her life. She knows little about his past except for the violent crime he committed that saw him disowned from his family fortune and esteemed place in the world.

One summer night they’re thrust into a terrifying, and inexplicable experience that changes their understanding of the world itself and puts them into grave danger. Suddenly the find themselves working against a supernatural force to save themselves and those they hold dear.

Read Chapter 1 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66325276/chapters/171008536

Read the newest chapter here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66325276/chapters/194019386

Notes on the chapter:

This chapter was largely delayed due to some struggle with motivation and writer’s block. I re-wrote the first half of the chapter two times and I’m still not entirely pleased with it. I worry that in my attempt to cultivate a narrative thread of interpersonal drama that I might alienate readers who are reading solely for the ship. While I want to write my story, I still want people to READ my story ya know?

I’ve been finding I really like writing about crappy ex/current boyfriends about as much as I like writing steamy romantic tension. I love the tension that comes from the characters hating each other and then realizing they’re stuck with each other for the rest of their lives.

The second half of the chapter includes on the bigger scares so far, and I think the scene came out okay. I feel like there should be more but I continue to re-read it and find nothing else I can do to improve it, even though I WANT to improve it. I’m worried that some of book!Brienne’s bravery and calm has been lost slightly in this chapter. But there’s not really a canon-model of how Brienne reacts to profound horror until the last two chapters of AFFC, and she spends much of that time restrained and made powerless. I think a Brienne with the ability to react to a supernatural threat would react, and would react as sensibly as she could under the circumstances.

Another gripe I have with this chapter is I feel like my descriptors are a bit lacking. I can’t read something that’s overwritten but hate it when no settings or environments are described. I am that meme of Spiderman pointing at himself.