Plotting. Planning. Scheming. Freaking myself out. Other fun things.
Now that the squeeing/excitement/frothing backlash of S4 is over, I've been focusing on planning out my next fic. Instead of working on the Sherlock x Justified crossover I've been planning since November 2014, a former fic idea has risen from the dead, re-animated by TFP.
I've long wanted to do a story about Mycroft as a young man, just as he was about to embark on his career, and having to deal with difficult choices resulting from the career path he's chosen. Other than one of the plotlines of that story-developed to some degree by the needs of the fic I wrote last year, which is related-most of it was just amorphous blobs in my head. I kind of knew what I wanted it to be “about”, but no clear idea of what it would be. The few ideas I had weren't substantial enough to make a fic out of, and there was a significant element missing. For lack of a better word, what the story was missing was a “heart”, the core conflict that drives the plot. I kind of had one, but it was weak and not interesting enough to sustain the story I kind of envisioned.
Then TFP came along, with all its Holmes family story, and provided me with the “heart” of the fic to go with “head” of Mycroft coming to terms with the personal sacrifices he needs to make to pursue his chosen career. TFP also gave us Uncle Rudy. Not the comedy cross-dresser, but the family fixer. The man who took Eurus away. And my brain latched onto that and spun out a life and history and a metric ton of head canon about him and the Holmes family, especially Mycroft. I have the sneaking suspicion Rudy is going to be the OC that tries to wrest the starring role from Mycroft. He won't be on the page as much as some of the others, but he's going to be the most important, that's for sure. And I'm really looking forward to writing him.
So this is what I've been beavering away on for the last month, not writing any of the meta ideas I've had floating around in my head that'll probably never be written, now. I'm up to thirty pages of notes and scene list. My 2017 resolution to not immediately dive into another 100,000 word monster fic based on S4 is out the window, I think.
But there's going to be one break with tradition with this fic. It's not going to be gen. The prospect of attempting to write shipfic (though the ship is unconventional), particularly Mycroft/OFC, is completely freaking me out. It's not like I have a “readership” to alienate, so I'm not sure why I'm so concerned. Well, other than my fifteen year history of being entirely incapable of writing shipfic that isn't darkfic, and my complete inability to write believable sex scenes, of course.
Nothing quite like diving in at the deep end, right?
I foresee many, many tears and tantrums before this is over.
I've long wanted to do a story about Mycroft as a young man, just as he was about to embark on his career, and having to deal with difficult choices resulting from the career path he's chosen. Other than one of the plotlines of that story-developed to some degree by the needs of the fic I wrote last year, which is related-most of it was just amorphous blobs in my head. I kind of knew what I wanted it to be “about”, but no clear idea of what it would be. The few ideas I had weren't substantial enough to make a fic out of, and there was a significant element missing. For lack of a better word, what the story was missing was a “heart”, the core conflict that drives the plot. I kind of had one, but it was weak and not interesting enough to sustain the story I kind of envisioned.
Then TFP came along, with all its Holmes family story, and provided me with the “heart” of the fic to go with “head” of Mycroft coming to terms with the personal sacrifices he needs to make to pursue his chosen career. TFP also gave us Uncle Rudy. Not the comedy cross-dresser, but the family fixer. The man who took Eurus away. And my brain latched onto that and spun out a life and history and a metric ton of head canon about him and the Holmes family, especially Mycroft. I have the sneaking suspicion Rudy is going to be the OC that tries to wrest the starring role from Mycroft. He won't be on the page as much as some of the others, but he's going to be the most important, that's for sure. And I'm really looking forward to writing him.
So this is what I've been beavering away on for the last month, not writing any of the meta ideas I've had floating around in my head that'll probably never be written, now. I'm up to thirty pages of notes and scene list. My 2017 resolution to not immediately dive into another 100,000 word monster fic based on S4 is out the window, I think.
But there's going to be one break with tradition with this fic. It's not going to be gen. The prospect of attempting to write shipfic (though the ship is unconventional), particularly Mycroft/OFC, is completely freaking me out. It's not like I have a “readership” to alienate, so I'm not sure why I'm so concerned. Well, other than my fifteen year history of being entirely incapable of writing shipfic that isn't darkfic, and my complete inability to write believable sex scenes, of course.
Nothing quite like diving in at the deep end, right?
I foresee many, many tears and tantrums before this is over.