I love talking about my writing
As seen from bluerosefairy and opera142:
Choose five lines of description/non-dialogue and five lines/exchanges of dialogue from your stories that you consider to be favorites, or that are especially meaningful/important to you. Don't agonize over this: go with your first instincts!
And I'm going to add to this: Five lines from your INCOMPLETE FOREVER fics that you love but are sad that the world will never see.
Warning: a lot of self-congratulation within. Sorry.
1. While AJ slaughtered his meal, however, Daniels was neatly twirling his pasta. Calm and composed, the kind of man who never feared wearing white to the dinner table because he knew he'd never spill a drop.
"Fallen" (Wrestling) - I always come back to this line in my head as one of my favorites. It's not particularly well-crafted, no cool words or turn of phrase, but I fucking LOVE this line for its characterization. I think it says a LOT right there about Daniels, to observe that he's the kind of guy who doesn't worry about wearing white to the dinner table. Because he's that obsessed with appearance and perfection, he's that confident, of himself and circumstance. Me? I don't wear white if I can help it if I know a meal is gonna be involved. But Daniels doesn't care, because he's that fucking good.
2. It's always so *easy* for him. While you clawed and scratched, clutched and scraped, AJ just *is*. Your grace is a craft, product of painstaking practice. But all AJ has to do is breathe.
Envy is too easy a word. Jealousy isn't ugly enough.
"Impune" (Wrestling) - I love it for capturing a very visceral and universal emotion: envy of somebody who has it better than you and they didn't even have to work hard for it. And I love the BAM of "Jealousy isn't ugly enough." I'm super wordy, so I'm always proud when I manage to get a snappy statement. From the same fic, I actually really love "He talks about your punches like other people talk about pitches and free-throws, but it's never been a game or a spectator sport between the two of you, least of all now." Yeah, I'm cheating for sneaking another one in here, but I fucking love that line, too, for the sports metaphor galore. Fuck, I just love that whole fucking fic, because it was like a condensed best-of, bam bam bam.
3. He always saw nothing but red with Daniels. He couldn't understand why it had to be like this always. Never any peace. Never any contentment. Just the screech of a phoenix dying, reborn only to be incinerated again and again, to die over and over in the most horrific fashion imaginable.
"Chokehold" (Wrestling) - Another AJ/Daniels, because I gave them the best years of my life. Anyway, this one I love for turning the phoenix metaphor around. It tends to be used as a triumphant thing, a creature being reborn from destruction. But the flipside is that it dies in fire, over and over. How horrifying is that yo?
4. But his hands, they itch.
"Four Things That Never Happened To Patrick Jane" (The Mentalist) - That line, that whole section, spawned this THING with pensive1, and urgh, she is amazing forever and ever for writing the Lance Burton + Vegas!Jane AU. IT'S SO FUCKING BRILLIANT I CAN'T EVEN.
5. If men were from Mars and women were from Venus, Joey Ryan was from Pluto.
"The Businessman, The Hooker, The Porn Director and His Star" (Wrestling [Cypress Oubliette]) - I just like how pithy this one is. It's too bad that I never fully wrote out Joey's arc. This line describes him so perfectly and only two people will ever really get that.
1. "You have to love it more than just what goes on in the ring. And sometimes you have to realize that like a relationship, love isn't enough. Wanting it isn't enough. It's hard. It's messy. It'll come damn close to killing your soul. No amount of love is going to change that. But when it feels right, it'll feel right and you just go with it. You grab it with both your hands and don't let go."
"Near Miss (Is a Hit)" (Wrestling) - The dialogue of my life, right there.
2. "What answer would satisfy you, Alex?"
Alex tilted his chin up, defiant. "I don't know."
"*I* know," Erik said, eyes gleaming dangerously. "Nothing would satisfy you. Not answers, not reasons, not explanations. You can drink the blood of your enemies, you can cut the throat of that bastard father of yours, you can burn the whole world down, and still, you will not be satisfied. You've been owed too much and gotten too little. That ache is never going to go away."
"Incendium" (X-Men: First Class) - Is it egotastic to say that I wrote this thing and it still gives me chills to read every time? Oh well. It's also lolarious that the whole fic is Charles/Erik and there is plenty of awesome dialogue between them that I love, but I pick a conversation between Erik and Alex. I just really love the intensity of Erik here, where he's not just talking about Alex, but about himself, of having been robbed of so much over so long, and nothing's left except an emptiness, and that emptiness is what defines them.
3. "You don't have to do anything. You're the one who has put it upon yourself to be some kind of inspiration to others, some pinnacle of human achievement that everyone should aspire toward. I'm not going to fall at your feet like one of your sycophants, Styles. Don't expect me to 'come to my senses' and realize what a great human being you are. I'm not going to sing your praises and verbally fellate you like Tenay and West and all those *morons* blinded by your flashy moves and your oh golly gee accent."
"Fallen" (Wrestling) - I'd pick all the dialogue from "Fallen" if I could, because Daniels and AJ have some epic arguments in that fic. Writing Daniels' dialogue is always a hoot, because he's verbose, and I'm verbose. It's a match made in heaven. This particular bit I love because I can hear it in my head so clearly. It's vicious and cutting but eloquent, as befitting Daniels.
4. "Passion cuts both ways, AJ. Don't deny what you know is true. We have left our mark on each other, and it is indelible. You will never be washed clean. Face the truth, AJ Styles. Face the truth that's in your heart."
"Chokehold" (Wrestling) - I think nearly all my favorite dialogue is Daniels dialogue. Dialogue tends not to be my strong suit, but IC Daniels talks like he's cutting a promo all the time, and I hear that very distinctly, so it's easy and fun to write, plus it appeals to my own personal style.
5. "You'll always be my princess."
"Anomie" (Wrestling - Cypress) - This is actually a piece of dialogue that doesn't happen "onscreen" and the fic wasn't posted. This is from the last story in the Lance/Jericho arc, and I suck forever for never posting the final few stories, but nobody was clamoring for it, so idk if it's all that big of a loss to the world. Anyway, this is something Lance whispers to Ryan that Jericho sees but doesn't hear, and it's a ~mystery~ that didn't have a resolution because those words were never going to be revealed. I love this piece of "secret" dialogue, though in hindsight, it would've been a dick move. But the fic was never posted, so it doesn't matter either way.
1. "For every Neil Patrick Harris, there're twenty Chad Allens. You sure you want to go down this road?"
"That's kinda unnecessarily cruel, isn't it?"
"Clooney can smug all damn day about how liberal Hollywood is, but the reality is that this town can be as ass backwards as the Bible Belt."
"just tell 'em we're survivors" (RPS) - A conversation between Chris Pine and his publicist, where Pine considers "coming out" after he gets involved with Zach Quinto and his publicist gives him a harsh dose of reality. It IS kind of a cruel exchange of dialogue, but I like it for its truth on many levels.
2. Charlotte Richmond is not the only person to have ever moved Vin Tanner's heart. But she is the first to teach it how to yearn.
"Four Crimes" (The Magnificent Seven) - I don't even know how to describe why I love this bit so much. I guess it's like... it sets up Vin so well here. That Charlotte isn't the first and only to have tempted him, but she's the one who opened his heart to the possibilities.
3. He missed her so much that the thought of her was like tearing stitches, but he was glad that she wasn't here for this anymore.
"Integrity (The Hanged Man)" (Wrestling) - I've been wanting to self-plagiarize this piece of description for a long fucking time. I love the visceral goriness of it. Like tearing stitches. I mean c'mon. That's awesome.
4. The facts are these:
Zach Quinto is as gay as the day is long. Chris Pine is... well, not so much.
But he's working on that.
"your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear" (RPS) - Fic opener, and I'm inordinately in love with it, because it's completely ridic yet I think it suckers you in, which is what an opener should do.
5. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you face imminent death.
Austin's never believed that.
"The Other Side" (Wrestling) - I was on this Austin Aries kick, and this fic along with "Integrity" both starred him, and go figure that I finished neither. Anyway, love this one for the same reason as #4: BAM opener. "Integrity" had a BAM opener, too. I'm starting to think that most of my BAM opener fics never get finished. Most of my favorite finished fics have either flat out weak openers, or a good line that's part of a longer paragraph. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Goddammit, that seems ill-advised, because I'm now looking at my unfinished fics and inwardly going WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. There are technically four wrestlefics that haunt me still. There is also a tiny tiny part of me that wants to write current canon Punk/Cena. GO AWAY WRESTLING JFC.
Choose five lines of description/non-dialogue and five lines/exchanges of dialogue from your stories that you consider to be favorites, or that are especially meaningful/important to you. Don't agonize over this: go with your first instincts!
And I'm going to add to this: Five lines from your INCOMPLETE FOREVER fics that you love but are sad that the world will never see.
Warning: a lot of self-congratulation within. Sorry.
1. While AJ slaughtered his meal, however, Daniels was neatly twirling his pasta. Calm and composed, the kind of man who never feared wearing white to the dinner table because he knew he'd never spill a drop.
"Fallen" (Wrestling) - I always come back to this line in my head as one of my favorites. It's not particularly well-crafted, no cool words or turn of phrase, but I fucking LOVE this line for its characterization. I think it says a LOT right there about Daniels, to observe that he's the kind of guy who doesn't worry about wearing white to the dinner table. Because he's that obsessed with appearance and perfection, he's that confident, of himself and circumstance. Me? I don't wear white if I can help it if I know a meal is gonna be involved. But Daniels doesn't care, because he's that fucking good.
2. It's always so *easy* for him. While you clawed and scratched, clutched and scraped, AJ just *is*. Your grace is a craft, product of painstaking practice. But all AJ has to do is breathe.
Envy is too easy a word. Jealousy isn't ugly enough.
"Impune" (Wrestling) - I love it for capturing a very visceral and universal emotion: envy of somebody who has it better than you and they didn't even have to work hard for it. And I love the BAM of "Jealousy isn't ugly enough." I'm super wordy, so I'm always proud when I manage to get a snappy statement. From the same fic, I actually really love "He talks about your punches like other people talk about pitches and free-throws, but it's never been a game or a spectator sport between the two of you, least of all now." Yeah, I'm cheating for sneaking another one in here, but I fucking love that line, too, for the sports metaphor galore. Fuck, I just love that whole fucking fic, because it was like a condensed best-of, bam bam bam.
3. He always saw nothing but red with Daniels. He couldn't understand why it had to be like this always. Never any peace. Never any contentment. Just the screech of a phoenix dying, reborn only to be incinerated again and again, to die over and over in the most horrific fashion imaginable.
"Chokehold" (Wrestling) - Another AJ/Daniels, because I gave them the best years of my life. Anyway, this one I love for turning the phoenix metaphor around. It tends to be used as a triumphant thing, a creature being reborn from destruction. But the flipside is that it dies in fire, over and over. How horrifying is that yo?
4. But his hands, they itch.
"Four Things That Never Happened To Patrick Jane" (The Mentalist) - That line, that whole section, spawned this THING with pensive1, and urgh, she is amazing forever and ever for writing the Lance Burton + Vegas!Jane AU. IT'S SO FUCKING BRILLIANT I CAN'T EVEN.
5. If men were from Mars and women were from Venus, Joey Ryan was from Pluto.
"The Businessman, The Hooker, The Porn Director and His Star" (Wrestling [Cypress Oubliette]) - I just like how pithy this one is. It's too bad that I never fully wrote out Joey's arc. This line describes him so perfectly and only two people will ever really get that.
1. "You have to love it more than just what goes on in the ring. And sometimes you have to realize that like a relationship, love isn't enough. Wanting it isn't enough. It's hard. It's messy. It'll come damn close to killing your soul. No amount of love is going to change that. But when it feels right, it'll feel right and you just go with it. You grab it with both your hands and don't let go."
"Near Miss (Is a Hit)" (Wrestling) - The dialogue of my life, right there.
2. "What answer would satisfy you, Alex?"
Alex tilted his chin up, defiant. "I don't know."
"*I* know," Erik said, eyes gleaming dangerously. "Nothing would satisfy you. Not answers, not reasons, not explanations. You can drink the blood of your enemies, you can cut the throat of that bastard father of yours, you can burn the whole world down, and still, you will not be satisfied. You've been owed too much and gotten too little. That ache is never going to go away."
"Incendium" (X-Men: First Class) - Is it egotastic to say that I wrote this thing and it still gives me chills to read every time? Oh well. It's also lolarious that the whole fic is Charles/Erik and there is plenty of awesome dialogue between them that I love, but I pick a conversation between Erik and Alex. I just really love the intensity of Erik here, where he's not just talking about Alex, but about himself, of having been robbed of so much over so long, and nothing's left except an emptiness, and that emptiness is what defines them.
3. "You don't have to do anything. You're the one who has put it upon yourself to be some kind of inspiration to others, some pinnacle of human achievement that everyone should aspire toward. I'm not going to fall at your feet like one of your sycophants, Styles. Don't expect me to 'come to my senses' and realize what a great human being you are. I'm not going to sing your praises and verbally fellate you like Tenay and West and all those *morons* blinded by your flashy moves and your oh golly gee accent."
"Fallen" (Wrestling) - I'd pick all the dialogue from "Fallen" if I could, because Daniels and AJ have some epic arguments in that fic. Writing Daniels' dialogue is always a hoot, because he's verbose, and I'm verbose. It's a match made in heaven. This particular bit I love because I can hear it in my head so clearly. It's vicious and cutting but eloquent, as befitting Daniels.
4. "Passion cuts both ways, AJ. Don't deny what you know is true. We have left our mark on each other, and it is indelible. You will never be washed clean. Face the truth, AJ Styles. Face the truth that's in your heart."
"Chokehold" (Wrestling) - I think nearly all my favorite dialogue is Daniels dialogue. Dialogue tends not to be my strong suit, but IC Daniels talks like he's cutting a promo all the time, and I hear that very distinctly, so it's easy and fun to write, plus it appeals to my own personal style.
5. "You'll always be my princess."
"Anomie" (Wrestling - Cypress) - This is actually a piece of dialogue that doesn't happen "onscreen" and the fic wasn't posted. This is from the last story in the Lance/Jericho arc, and I suck forever for never posting the final few stories, but nobody was clamoring for it, so idk if it's all that big of a loss to the world. Anyway, this is something Lance whispers to Ryan that Jericho sees but doesn't hear, and it's a ~mystery~ that didn't have a resolution because those words were never going to be revealed. I love this piece of "secret" dialogue, though in hindsight, it would've been a dick move. But the fic was never posted, so it doesn't matter either way.
1. "For every Neil Patrick Harris, there're twenty Chad Allens. You sure you want to go down this road?"
"That's kinda unnecessarily cruel, isn't it?"
"Clooney can smug all damn day about how liberal Hollywood is, but the reality is that this town can be as ass backwards as the Bible Belt."
"just tell 'em we're survivors" (RPS) - A conversation between Chris Pine and his publicist, where Pine considers "coming out" after he gets involved with Zach Quinto and his publicist gives him a harsh dose of reality. It IS kind of a cruel exchange of dialogue, but I like it for its truth on many levels.
2. Charlotte Richmond is not the only person to have ever moved Vin Tanner's heart. But she is the first to teach it how to yearn.
"Four Crimes" (The Magnificent Seven) - I don't even know how to describe why I love this bit so much. I guess it's like... it sets up Vin so well here. That Charlotte isn't the first and only to have tempted him, but she's the one who opened his heart to the possibilities.
3. He missed her so much that the thought of her was like tearing stitches, but he was glad that she wasn't here for this anymore.
"Integrity (The Hanged Man)" (Wrestling) - I've been wanting to self-plagiarize this piece of description for a long fucking time. I love the visceral goriness of it. Like tearing stitches. I mean c'mon. That's awesome.
4. The facts are these:
Zach Quinto is as gay as the day is long. Chris Pine is... well, not so much.
But he's working on that.
"your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear" (RPS) - Fic opener, and I'm inordinately in love with it, because it's completely ridic yet I think it suckers you in, which is what an opener should do.
5. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you face imminent death.
Austin's never believed that.
"The Other Side" (Wrestling) - I was on this Austin Aries kick, and this fic along with "Integrity" both starred him, and go figure that I finished neither. Anyway, love this one for the same reason as #4: BAM opener. "Integrity" had a BAM opener, too. I'm starting to think that most of my BAM opener fics never get finished. Most of my favorite finished fics have either flat out weak openers, or a good line that's part of a longer paragraph. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Goddammit, that seems ill-advised, because I'm now looking at my unfinished fics and inwardly going WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. There are technically four wrestlefics that haunt me still. There is also a tiny tiny part of me that wants to write current canon Punk/Cena. GO AWAY WRESTLING JFC.