That Fic Meme

[beadattitude]

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means

Comments

[beadattitude]

Well, the being a preacher's kid surfaces at the weirdest moments, but, it comes in handy sometimes. Once I came up with what do you do after you transform back, which, practically, since you've been an animal and transformation takes a lot out of you, you're going to need a bath, some food and a nap, it was pretty easy. And once "bath" hit my brain, and I remembered that there was a river nearby....it all sort of came together.

And then the question was, "what do you say after not being able to speak for a month? after having this amazing experience?" And because there was a rite marking the beginning of this journey, there had to be one to end it. Because otherwise, everything just sort of drifts to a halt and feels unfinished and people feel uncomfortable and ooky.

Ceremonies are important to help us deal with profound moments. I'm not expressing this well, but big life changes? There should be something to delineate this moment in time, the crossing of the threshold from this part of the person's life from that part, and people you care about should be there to support you when you do it. You've already made the decision to do X (marry, baptize, declare your intentions/feelings after a life-changing transformation) but the ceremony is a way of really putting a stamp on that decision, both public and private.

Huh, I'd never really thought about or articulated why I felt this was necessary to the fic, or, evidently, to my philosophy, so thanks for asking!

Anyway, that's where the preacher's kid memory comes into play. I've seen so many weddings and baptisms that the structure and words for it just all came out far more easily than the top, pre-transformation part of the fic.

Rodney's outburst just happened. I have this general feeling for the mark I'm trying to hit - John confesses his feelings and ends up in Rodney's arms - and sit down to write. I think I've mentioned before that a lot of time, my stories don't start with an idea, but a picture. This whole series started with the picture of a little black paw reaching out to tip over a chesspiece.

This story, once it started coming together, had several: Rodney and Ronon skipping stones, John walking out of the spirit house, Rodney standing on the edge of the river, anxious and almost heart-sick, watching Ronon and Teyla and John laughing - and we all know how well he'd deal with THAT - and then the picture of John standing at the edge of the river, head down and face open and vulnerable, waiting to find if out if Rodney loves him, too.