From January 2012 - January 2013: A Year of Fic-Writing in Review
"No, no," I always said, "I cannot write Sherlockfic. I am not clever enough. I'm terrible at plotting. How do people come up with those mysteries? I don't get it."
Turns out that if you give me a cliffhanger I can resolve without having much of a plot (I am just *terrible* at writing mysteries, you guys, they require so much *planning,* and when I write my characters just tend to sit around and talk to each other and not much of anything happens and mysteries require *pacing,* they don't require characters flirting and cuddling in an endless series of permutations), then I can write Sherlockfic. Or, at least, I *will* write Sherlockfic.
"No, no," I said, "I can write *Mycroft.* I get Mycroft. I am also an older sibling. And there's so much there to play with, they've deliberately left him a largely blank slate, so I have room to stretch out and make him my own. Mycroft can be a kaleidoscope, he's basically like writing original fiction. But I could never write Sherlock."
Turns out that my entry to Sherlock was through Mycroft. And once I had gotten into Mycroft's head, once I saw how clearly he adored his little brother and every reason why, and how clearly his little brother frustrated him and every reason why, suddenly I could be in Sherlock's head, figuring out exactly why Mycroft drives him as crazy as Mycroft clearly drives him. Sherlock, once I started writing him, settled his teeth in my heart with a selfish ferocity that I think John Watson probably understands very well. Which may be why I feel like I write John with such kinship, because I completely understand how Sherlock Holmes will colonize your entire existence if you let him, leave no room for anything else. I love to be in Sherlock's head. I love the gleaming order of his mind palace, as cool and impressive as Versailles, and the fact that I am convinced that, if you go up to its attic, it is an absolute mess of things Sherlock can't deal with and has shoved up there in an attempt to forget about everything he doesn't understand or cannot know. I find Sherlock to be a sad and tragic character, and there are times when I'm not sure that's exactly canon-compliant, but there are other times when I think that Sherlock, like Mycroft, is left blank enough for us that he can be subjected to a kaleidoscope of interpretations. I have read many different takes on Sherlock. Some of them remind me of my Sherlock, others of them do not, but they all seem somehow Sherlockian all the same. And sometimes I am jealous of someone's Sherlock and wish that I could do that, but then I think, "If I wrote their Sherlock, though, I wouldn't have *my* Sherlock," and then I go back to him and bundle him up all protectively and let him have a snog with John out of guilt. I am oddly cautious with the terrain of Sherlock's mind. I actually really enjoy writing his POV, but I almost never let myself do it. Every once in a while he gets a scene to flesh out John's POV, but my stories--as the canon stories are--are almost entirely from the Watson perspective. I know what's going on in Sherlock's head at all times, because I'm writing the story, but I don't always let everybody else in on it. There is something about the character that makes you want to respect his privacy. He's worked so hard to be the image he presents to the world, so you let him have that. Anyway, it doesn't matter, because John always reaches a point where he knows Sherlock better than Sherlock himself does, and so you'd rather be in John's POV for that, anyway. Maybe what I really want everyone to do is fall in love with Sherlock Holmes. And to do that I need to give you John Watson first.
"No, no," I said, "but I can't write an AU. I mean, yes, I can spin off from the canon in an alternative direction, but all these brilliant reimaginings putting John and Sherlock in an entirely different place? I can't do that, I'm so impressed by that."
Turns out that, once I'd wrapped my mind around my Sherlock and my John, I could put them absolutely anywhere, and they would find each other. I keep writing AUs, and I think that's why: Because I'm trying to find one scenario--just one--where John Watson and Sherlock Holmes don't find each other and save each other's lives. So far, it hasn't happened. They have fallen in love with each other wherever I have put them. (Is it fate if I'm controlling it?)
By the numbers, the amount of fic this Year of Sherlock has given me is astonishing to me:
Stories posted: 24
Words posted: 285,302
Number of unanswered comments because I fell behind when I crazily started posting a fic a day over Christmas and New Year's: Let's not talk about it. I appreciate your patience.
Finished stories not yet posted: 3 (including an epic baseball AU that will make an appearance for baseball season)
Words written but not yet posted: 206,965 (including the unposted parts of the Christmasfic and the Schoolboy Saga)
Unfinished stories on my computer: 2 (I'm not much of a work-in-progress person; I usually start a fic and see it through to the end. One of these is a Scotchverse fic that was supposed to involve Molly, who's otherwise very absent in Scotchverse. It's at a dead end and I don't know if I'll ever finish it. The other is my active WIP, which is, you might be happy to know, another fic in the Lettersverse. What's turning out to be an unexpectedly looooooong fic in the Lettersverse.)
Number of times I have written John and Sherlock meeting each other for the first time: 3.
Number of times I have written John and Sherlock reuniting after the Fall: 2.
Ideas not yet written: ~10? I tuck these into e-mails to myself, so that I can turn to them when I'm done with what I'm working on. But, honestly, normally the idea that needs to be written seizes me on its own. For instance, the Christmasfic was never an idea in an e-mail; it was an idea I had that DEMANDED TO BE WRITTEN RIGHT THEN. The same with everything in the Lettersverse. The day I wrote the first Lettersfic, I was actually going through my e-mails of fic ideas trying to decide what to start on, and nothing caught my fancy but I was desperately in the mood to write, and suddenly I was like, "What if Sherlock's writing John letters?" I'd always wanted to write a story told entirely in letters (in my head, this was a one-shot at the beginning), and I typed the first letter, and I thought to myself, Yes, this will work, this is what I'm writing next. And there it was. And some of the e-mail ideas I ended up working into other fics. For instance, one of my ideas was Sherlock kissing John on the NYE in ASiB, but instead I gave them a NYE kiss in the Christmasfic. A selection of the other fic ideas in my e-mails
Fandom I have now announced I am never going to write in: Cabin Pressure. "No, no," I said, "I am not clever enough to write Douglas Richardson. Can you imagine having to come up with all those witticisms?"
To be continued, I suppose
Turns out that if you give me a cliffhanger I can resolve without having much of a plot (I am just *terrible* at writing mysteries, you guys, they require so much *planning,* and when I write my characters just tend to sit around and talk to each other and not much of anything happens and mysteries require *pacing,* they don't require characters flirting and cuddling in an endless series of permutations), then I can write Sherlockfic. Or, at least, I *will* write Sherlockfic.
"No, no," I said, "I can write *Mycroft.* I get Mycroft. I am also an older sibling. And there's so much there to play with, they've deliberately left him a largely blank slate, so I have room to stretch out and make him my own. Mycroft can be a kaleidoscope, he's basically like writing original fiction. But I could never write Sherlock."
Turns out that my entry to Sherlock was through Mycroft. And once I had gotten into Mycroft's head, once I saw how clearly he adored his little brother and every reason why, and how clearly his little brother frustrated him and every reason why, suddenly I could be in Sherlock's head, figuring out exactly why Mycroft drives him as crazy as Mycroft clearly drives him. Sherlock, once I started writing him, settled his teeth in my heart with a selfish ferocity that I think John Watson probably understands very well. Which may be why I feel like I write John with such kinship, because I completely understand how Sherlock Holmes will colonize your entire existence if you let him, leave no room for anything else. I love to be in Sherlock's head. I love the gleaming order of his mind palace, as cool and impressive as Versailles, and the fact that I am convinced that, if you go up to its attic, it is an absolute mess of things Sherlock can't deal with and has shoved up there in an attempt to forget about everything he doesn't understand or cannot know. I find Sherlock to be a sad and tragic character, and there are times when I'm not sure that's exactly canon-compliant, but there are other times when I think that Sherlock, like Mycroft, is left blank enough for us that he can be subjected to a kaleidoscope of interpretations. I have read many different takes on Sherlock. Some of them remind me of my Sherlock, others of them do not, but they all seem somehow Sherlockian all the same. And sometimes I am jealous of someone's Sherlock and wish that I could do that, but then I think, "If I wrote their Sherlock, though, I wouldn't have *my* Sherlock," and then I go back to him and bundle him up all protectively and let him have a snog with John out of guilt. I am oddly cautious with the terrain of Sherlock's mind. I actually really enjoy writing his POV, but I almost never let myself do it. Every once in a while he gets a scene to flesh out John's POV, but my stories--as the canon stories are--are almost entirely from the Watson perspective. I know what's going on in Sherlock's head at all times, because I'm writing the story, but I don't always let everybody else in on it. There is something about the character that makes you want to respect his privacy. He's worked so hard to be the image he presents to the world, so you let him have that. Anyway, it doesn't matter, because John always reaches a point where he knows Sherlock better than Sherlock himself does, and so you'd rather be in John's POV for that, anyway. Maybe what I really want everyone to do is fall in love with Sherlock Holmes. And to do that I need to give you John Watson first.
"No, no," I said, "but I can't write an AU. I mean, yes, I can spin off from the canon in an alternative direction, but all these brilliant reimaginings putting John and Sherlock in an entirely different place? I can't do that, I'm so impressed by that."
Turns out that, once I'd wrapped my mind around my Sherlock and my John, I could put them absolutely anywhere, and they would find each other. I keep writing AUs, and I think that's why: Because I'm trying to find one scenario--just one--where John Watson and Sherlock Holmes don't find each other and save each other's lives. So far, it hasn't happened. They have fallen in love with each other wherever I have put them. (Is it fate if I'm controlling it?)
By the numbers, the amount of fic this Year of Sherlock has given me is astonishing to me:
Stories posted: 24
Words posted: 285,302
Number of unanswered comments because I fell behind when I crazily started posting a fic a day over Christmas and New Year's: Let's not talk about it. I appreciate your patience.
Finished stories not yet posted: 3 (including an epic baseball AU that will make an appearance for baseball season)
Words written but not yet posted: 206,965 (including the unposted parts of the Christmasfic and the Schoolboy Saga)
Unfinished stories on my computer: 2 (I'm not much of a work-in-progress person; I usually start a fic and see it through to the end. One of these is a Scotchverse fic that was supposed to involve Molly, who's otherwise very absent in Scotchverse. It's at a dead end and I don't know if I'll ever finish it. The other is my active WIP, which is, you might be happy to know, another fic in the Lettersverse. What's turning out to be an unexpectedly looooooong fic in the Lettersverse.)
Number of times I have written John and Sherlock meeting each other for the first time: 3.
Number of times I have written John and Sherlock reuniting after the Fall: 2.
Ideas not yet written: ~10? I tuck these into e-mails to myself, so that I can turn to them when I'm done with what I'm working on. But, honestly, normally the idea that needs to be written seizes me on its own. For instance, the Christmasfic was never an idea in an e-mail; it was an idea I had that DEMANDED TO BE WRITTEN RIGHT THEN. The same with everything in the Lettersverse. The day I wrote the first Lettersfic, I was actually going through my e-mails of fic ideas trying to decide what to start on, and nothing caught my fancy but I was desperately in the mood to write, and suddenly I was like, "What if Sherlock's writing John letters?" I'd always wanted to write a story told entirely in letters (in my head, this was a one-shot at the beginning), and I typed the first letter, and I thought to myself, Yes, this will work, this is what I'm writing next. And there it was. And some of the e-mail ideas I ended up working into other fics. For instance, one of my ideas was Sherlock kissing John on the NYE in ASiB, but instead I gave them a NYE kiss in the Christmasfic. A selection of the other fic ideas in my e-mails
- Telling the series from Sherlock's POV entirely. I'm sure this has been done already, but I just have so many ideas about how I genuinely think Sherlock falls in love with John immediately, panics at Angelo's and tries to put some space between them, and then spends the rest of the series trying to correct that error on his part. A little of this idea actually worked its way into Letters, now that I think about it, so maybe I no longer need to tell this story, maybe I've gotten it out of my system
- Sherlock meeting Mrs. Hudson. And coming to live at 221B Baker Street
- Something that shows up in my e-mail as just "sex druid." I blame too much champagne at 3 am.
- An AU where John and Sherlock are college professors. This is inspired partly by my career, partly by the fact that I am utterly addicted to AUs, and partly by this photo of Benedict Cumberbatch, damn him
- A fic set in a world where everyone has tails. I've never done a magical realism fic, and I thought this would be fun. But I have no idea what this fic is beyond the fact that their tails would keep betraying their emotions. Except for Sherlock, of course, who always has his tail ruthlessly under control (if you don't count the fact that it's a bushy mess because he's terrible at ever combing it and is always dragging it through substances John would rather not think about)
Fandom I have now announced I am never going to write in: Cabin Pressure. "No, no," I said, "I am not clever enough to write Douglas Richardson. Can you imagine having to come up with all those witticisms?"
To be continued, I suppose