Last night I went to see a great talk by Lynda Barry and Matt Groening, about their long friendship, their comics, and Matt's work on The Simpsons & etc. I love them so much
( Read more... )
Glad you found a good way to deal with redoing parts of a story.
As a perfectionist, I'm always looking for new and better reasons to go back and perfect things! The trouble is when I've revised and revised like a hundred times, and then I go back to my original draft and it's so much clearer and then I have to smack myself.
I think it's the influence of academia that's made me a more structural/thematic editor. I do have to go back and find typos because they hide from me, but when I'm editing I'm mainly removing superfluous words (because my natural style is not concise!), finding places where I've used the same word three times in two paragraphs, and GRAPPLING like an obsessed person with the emotional content.
My current obsession is with whether Spock is too emo in my ballroom scene. But since it's from his POV there's no good way to indicate that, hey, he's feeling this inside but outside it's not that obvious. Okay, there are "good ways" to do that--Kazuo Ishiguro does that incredibly well in The Remains of the Day, but let's just say I'm not at his level. :D
Oh, I shall have to track down The Remains of the Day as I liked his Never let me go. I am no help in determining whether or not a given scene is too emo but as for the "majorly broiling underneath the surface, calm on the outside" issue... can you try to show it in the others' reactions? Mayhaps have someone (though not Suresh, lol) ask him at some point why he's taking things so calmly or something? IDK.
As for your editing and obsessions, well, I've found your fics so beautiful and flowing so naturally that I'd say the work pays off. ;-)
The Remains of the Day is so great! One of my favorite things is how completely unreliable the narrator is--so he'll be telling you how he's standing there all calm and efficient and everything's great and then someone will come up and be like, are you okay, because I can't help noticing you're crying right now.
I feel like it works well in that direction, but it's a little harder going the other way, if that makes sense. Like, if the character is acting weird/upset, people will remark on it. If he's acting calmer on the outside than he feels, why would they notice? UNLESS they're expecting him to be upset--but then he's a Vulcan so most people already think he has no feelings. But I'm going to take a stab at it--maybe I can find a way to do it subtly.
Also, *blush.* Thank you for your nice words about my fic. I love working on it and my hope is to give it those qualities. So, thank you!
That unreliable narrator sounds awesome! Though I couldn't help but think that something like that must be Spock's absolute nightmare. :P
UNLESS they're expecting him to be upset--but then he's a Vulcan so most people already think he has no feelings.
Yes, damn Vulcans, they always make things more difficult for the poor writers. *thinks* Maybe someone could say that it's good Spock's a Vulcan and that any other guy would be crazy jealous. And Spock would be like, thank Surak it's not obvious, while of course not showing any reaction to the outside world. And he'd be slightly miffed that his professional interest in Uhura showed so strongly that it was being misinterpreted. Or something. BTW, your icon makes me want to cuddle him.
Yeah, his interest isn't strictly professional, but he's keeping it under embargo because (a) they're still teacher/undergrad at this point, and (b) he has no conception that she might feel the same way. (Which she does, but is also hiding for similar reasons.) He's been so scrupulous about not acting in any was inappropriately with her that it kind of freaks him out to learn that everyone assumes they're having an affair anyway. The bitter irony of having to suffer the stupid gossip and smart remarks that come from doing wrong, but without any of the rewards of actually doing it--it kind of grates!
So, hm. Suresh is the only one who doesn't think that Spock and Uhura are together...so his remarks make sense, I think? He's assuming Spock's jealous (there's an earlier scene where he already picked up on Spock's interest in Uhura) and kind of poking at his denial of it. Whereas someone else who thinks they're secretly involved might just be like, huh, I guess they're pretending not to be together because they have this forbidden relationship. Would they mention it? I don't think I have a character up my sleeve who would. In the previous story it was Admiral Martu who makes the annoying joke to Spock--something like, don't even tell me whether or not you guys are together, because if you say you are I'll think you have no discretion, and if you say you're not I'll think you're out of your mind not to be hitting that.
Is it wrong that I seem to get most of my comedy from torturing Spock about the fact that he and Uhura aren't having sex? Poor Spock! I do eventually fix that, however. He seriously needs a hug, though, by this point in this particular story. :( poor woobie!
Yes, it seems no one of the available characters would comment on it. Hm. Well, part of Spock's appeal is that one kind of knows he's harboring all these emotions inside but that he doesn't show them much so many readers are going to consider that in their interpretation of his musings, I guess.
Is it wrong that I seem to get most of my comedy from torturing Spock about the fact that he and Uhura aren't having sex?
As a perfectionist, I'm always looking for new and better reasons to go back and perfect things! The trouble is when I've revised and revised like a hundred times, and then I go back to my original draft and it's so much clearer and then I have to smack myself.
I think it's the influence of academia that's made me a more structural/thematic editor. I do have to go back and find typos because they hide from me, but when I'm editing I'm mainly removing superfluous words (because my natural style is not concise!), finding places where I've used the same word three times in two paragraphs, and GRAPPLING like an obsessed person with the emotional content.
My current obsession is with whether Spock is too emo in my ballroom scene. But since it's from his POV there's no good way to indicate that, hey, he's feeling this inside but outside it's not that obvious. Okay, there are "good ways" to do that--Kazuo Ishiguro does that incredibly well in The Remains of the Day, but let's just say I'm not at his level. :D
Reply
As for your editing and obsessions, well, I've found your fics so beautiful and flowing so naturally that I'd say the work pays off. ;-)
Reply
I feel like it works well in that direction, but it's a little harder going the other way, if that makes sense. Like, if the character is acting weird/upset, people will remark on it. If he's acting calmer on the outside than he feels, why would they notice? UNLESS they're expecting him to be upset--but then he's a Vulcan so most people already think he has no feelings. But I'm going to take a stab at it--maybe I can find a way to do it subtly.
Also, *blush.* Thank you for your nice words about my fic. I love working on it and my hope is to give it those qualities. So, thank you!
Reply
UNLESS they're expecting him to be upset--but then he's a Vulcan so most people already think he has no feelings.
Yes, damn Vulcans, they always make things more difficult for the poor writers. *thinks* Maybe someone could say that it's good Spock's a Vulcan and that any other guy would be crazy jealous. And Spock would be like, thank Surak it's not obvious, while of course not showing any reaction to the outside world. And he'd be slightly miffed that his professional interest in Uhura showed so strongly that it was being misinterpreted. Or something. BTW, your icon makes me want to cuddle him.
Reply
So, hm. Suresh is the only one who doesn't think that Spock and Uhura are together...so his remarks make sense, I think? He's assuming Spock's jealous (there's an earlier scene where he already picked up on Spock's interest in Uhura) and kind of poking at his denial of it. Whereas someone else who thinks they're secretly involved might just be like, huh, I guess they're pretending not to be together because they have this forbidden relationship. Would they mention it? I don't think I have a character up my sleeve who would. In the previous story it was Admiral Martu who makes the annoying joke to Spock--something like, don't even tell me whether or not you guys are together, because if you say you are I'll think you have no discretion, and if you say you're not I'll think you're out of your mind not to be hitting that.
Is it wrong that I seem to get most of my comedy from torturing Spock about the fact that he and Uhura aren't having sex? Poor Spock! I do eventually fix that, however. He seriously needs a hug, though, by this point in this particular story. :( poor woobie!
Reply
Is it wrong that I seem to get most of my comedy from torturing Spock about the fact that he and Uhura aren't having sex?
*giggle*
Reply
Leave a comment