ramble about writing and narrative structure

I've been trying something new with my writing.

I gave up on lengthy original stuff last year, having realized that I'm really only good at fic and essays, if anything. The reason: omg I suck at plot so bad. I just do. Plot and I are not on speaking terms, yo. I can work with the internal, but I can't balance it with externality.

What fic allows me to do is bypass the need for plot, because the source text has that covered. I'm free to play with words and circularity and metaphor, to poke about in the holes and corners of said text. And I can do that. I can make pretty little things that fit into those corners. What I'm trying to figure out is whether there's any way that I can apply those abilities to original writing. Because I would like to operate outside of fandom sometimes.

I've got a zygotic story that I started two years ago that I'm quite fond of. It's one of those fantasy stories where the internal is externalized, and I've found some really lovely images. But it's so unbelivably hard for me to string them together coherently. And I'm wondering if I really have to. My poetry professor has been working with me on removing the narrative scaffolding from my poems and letting them stand free. And I want to do the same thing with my prose.

So: a story made up of short ficlets, all fitting in to a narrative, but sometimes out of order or from different POVs. Think it could work?

high day

Good Ostara, world.

It's falling auspiciously for me this year--on the first day of the new term. Ostara, iffn ye don't know, is one of the old Celtic sabbats that corresponds with the equinox. It marks the time of new beginnings, community, communication, acting on winter intentions, fertility, and abudance.

It very much dovetails with what I need to do right now. I had decided this winter that, once again, I was going to try to come out of my shell. I get very shy about belonging, and it doesn't help that I keep being the new kid. I hide away in my academic work and don't participate in the community. And I do want to change that. So, this high day is going to be a big one.

Living as far north as I do, I can't really observe Spring until Beltaine. There's still snow on the ground, and nothin will grow for some time. But there is change in the air, and so I mark Ostara. My fertility/abundance associations are with Beltaine, because only then are they seasonable. But I've got Ostara herbs to carry this day, and tonight I'll do a burning. And something new is going to start.

Herbs and flowers for the high day: daffodil, violet, olvie, gorse, peony, iris, broom, honeysuckle, jasmine, lavender, lily, sage, willow, lotus, aloe, nutmeg, tansy, marjoram, lovage, lemonbalm, dogwood, orris, oak, elder, meadowsweet, acorn, vervain.