A List of Available Smiles

[ficster28]

Title: A List of Available Smiles
Pairing: Phan
Rating: PG-13 (although possibly triggery)
Warnings: Depression (NO self-harm, NO suicide, NO eating disorders)
Wordcount: 13,829
Disclaimer: Most emphatically, I do not believe this to be true.
Summary: This is the truth of depression: it doesn't stop you laughing. It just stops you feeling happy. And it

Comments

[sarcasticweathe]

Firstly, hi! Long time no scribble!
Okay this is gorgeous, as soon as I'd saw it was written by you I knew it would be, then I saw the summary and it's something I'd been waiting for without even realising, like pretty much every depression fic out there involves self harming and/or eating disorders and it just gets tired and that you've looked at the side no one really thinks about or notices and it's just perfect. I haven't even got on to the fic itself yet, this is going to be a long comment..
I love that you don't touch on depression properly 'til the end, like we're given a look into Dan's life and it's non-judgemental, we have to find the how and where's he depressed ourselves, it's very subtle.
I love the juxtaposition between Dan and Phil, especially during the 'News death' scene, it really helps to highlight Dan's depression.
And I love how Dan and Phil are sending private videos between each other, that although this is a fic about depression it has happy moments as well, and how Dan's worries about Law school play a part in it.
Basically I just love it and am going to skip off to the next part.
Also, yay for writing a coherent comment for once :)
Oh and I really love the title, it was what reeled me in before I saw who had written it.

[ficster28]

I'll reply properly to all of these tomorrow morning (it's midnight here) once everyone's out, but I just wanted to make you laugh a bit by telling you where that title comes from. Basically, during Wimbledon (the tennis competition) this year, Andrew Castle, who is one of the commentators, happened to say of a woman in the stands "blimey, that's an odd expression to have in your list of available smiles." My dad just looked at me and said "That's a good title." So this hugely meaningful title, the best title I have ever come up with, is one that I didn't come up with at all; it came from a dodgy comment about a random woman in the stands at Wimbledon. So there you go. My streak of not being able to think of titles continues.

[sarcasticweathe]

Sorry for the lateness, I've been ill so I haven't been on LJ in a while, but Happy late Birthday!
Haha, oh that's amazing. well you didn't use my amazing spider diagram so that's an improvement (I think..) But now that title holds memories and so much more meaning now :)

[favoriteword]

You're so right about the subtlety of it, the lack of judgment. That's what makes it such a pleasure to read; you as the reader have to do some pondering and reflecting, and that makes the whole experience so much more rewarding.

[sarcasticweathe]

(I may or may not have got unreasonably excited at being right about an idea..) But yeah I agree it's much more interesting when you come up with opinions by yourself and are not swayed by the author.