Writing Meme

[bitterfic]

From bradygirl_12

Choose a story of mine and I'll talk a little about it: what inspired me to write it, what research I did for it, whatever comes to mind! :)

Comments

[bitterfic]

  The Ghost Inside

Writing "The Ghost Inside" was a long, long process. About a year from inspiration to realization.

In the winter of 2009, I decided I wanted to write a story that was a loose retelling of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd centered around Anthony Hope. However whereas Billy Budd is doomed and alone, Anthony has an ally, Johanna who ultimately saves him.

In the film Sweeney Todd, Johanna is a very traditional damsel in distress, more or less defined by the men who love and lust after her-the Judge, her father Sweeney Todd and Anthony. I wanted to make her something else.

In the last scenes of Sweeney Todd, Johanna is disguised as a boy. I imagined her embracing this, becoming essentially a ftm transsexual who identifies as male. Being a man would appeal to Johanna because in her life, men have had all the power. I wanted to write a story however where Johanna ultimately saves Anthony by reclaiming her femininity on her own terms.

To prepare for writing this story I re-read Billy Budd then started writing. The first few scenes establishing Anthony’s imprisonment and the haunting of the ship flowed readily. However when it came time for Johanna to confront the villainous Captain I hit a brick wall.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do or for that matter who the Captain would be. I saw him as someone who had imprisoned Anthony due to repressed homosexuality yet I wanted there to be more to him than that. From the beginning I’d chosen a family name, Charles Wallace, for the Captain. I wanted him to be a version of the part of my father that is stern, puritanical, and self-loathing but at the same time I drew back from writing this. I kept experimenting with other types of characters. Also I was unsure what would go on between he and Johanna. In one scenario she cuts his throat with the razor. In another she has sex with him after which he cuts his own throat.

In the end, I couldn’t figure it out so in the spring of 2009 I laid the story aside. It wasn’t until October of that year that I picked it up again. The catalyst for this was a viewing of the 1930’s film Mutiny on the Bounty. All that low key homoerotism. All that flogging. I started toying with the story and discovered that in the months I had left it alone my ideas of what I wanted it to be had crystallized. I was able to clearly see Charles Wallace and his confrontation with Johanna. I was able to complete the story to my satisfaction.

[lawless523]

Thanks for the info!

I did this meme too - it's interesting what stories people have asked about.

[bitterfic]

I'm hoping more people will ask me about stories I've done, so far you're the only one but I've always enjoyed giving commentary.

[lawless523]

Hee, one story no one asked me about - but maybe it's because it's an Eiri/Shuichi 30_kisses story and they assumed it was merely written for the prompt - came about because I'd read an article about teens prosecuted for distributing child pornography for 'sexting' (sending naked/naughty photographs of themselves via cell phone).

It didn't seem appropriate to mention in an author's note, so I didn't, but I thought it was an interesting genesis for a partially serious, partially funny story about Shuichi e-mailing Eiri a nude photo of himself he'd taken with his cell phone while he was on tour and the photo getting hacked and sent all over the internet. It's one of a handful of 30_kisses stories I would have written anyway that happened to fit a prompt.