Not So Drunken Rambling
This was going to be drunken rambling but I was a little too drunk Friday night when I tried to write it and then had to be in the office on Saturday so… sober rambling. It's self-indulgent and includes me trying to give advice, which is always good for a laugh!
In 2005, I tried a similar exercise as mini_nanowrimo. The idea was to write a minimum of 500 words, rated at least pg-13, every day for a month. I wrote a series of unconnected ficlets, focusing on a different paraphilia each day but using the same pairing. I flunked on day 22 and sulked about it for the rest of the year, pretty much.
Still, I was tempted by mini_nanowrimo and even more so when I saw apreludetoanend and smilla02 were taking part.
I think I decided fairly quickly than I had to commit myself to a story rather than a series of things. In fact, that would be my advice to anyone considering doing something similar. If you have a short attention span, go for a story rather than individual pieces. At least with a story you know pretty much what you're meant to be writing each day.
I toyed with several plots but this was one that I'd wanted to write for a while and which I felt had the most potential to be drawn out over a period of thirty days. Originally I wanted to call it Life on the Dark Side of the Moon, but I'd already got Life in Monochrome so dropped the 'Life' part. I imagine it's fairly obvious but the whole Dark Side of the Moon thing is about being out of reach and unknowable, and also hopefully playing with the moon-tide relationship. Yeah, it's best when I don't try to explain, isn't it? Things just get muddied.
I knew my overall story from day one. Not all the ins and outs of it because my writing tends to go its own way once I start, but enough that I wouldn't have to do any major retcon. That's another thing, be pretty sure of your story before you start - when you're posting every day you don't get any second chances in your plot!
That said, in the original draft, it was all terribly complicated with Sam having to all but drown Dean. He had to abandon him and let him drown, before getting him back at a certain point. And I was never happy with it and then my innate fascination with burning people at the stake raised its head and I thought it much cooler to go with an elemental fix of fire driving out water. The most important thing was that Sam had to abandon Dean to a possible death to save him. I have a kink for love that is so fierce and certain that it can take ridiculous risks.
As for planning, I knew there were several plot points that had to happen. The porn coming roughly halfway through was a given, for example. So I wrote out my one to thirty and jotted down a few words for each plot point that I was sure of and tried to place them on the timeline. I left a few gaps, intending to be inspired by the daily prompts given at the mini-nano comm., but they got filled pretty quickly.
One thing about having to write every day, especially when you're as easily distracted and lazy as I am, is that I had to be writing something I wanted to. Otherwise, I'd either write something too poor to post or I'd not even manage to write at all. So yeah, it threw the pacing a couple of times and I'd be the first to say that The Dark Side of the Moon as a finished product isn't perfect but it's kind of liberating to be essentially posting a neat draft.
Other points of possible interest? Ben was originally several people, but it got awkward so I merged them into a single character. And he played more of a role than he was meant to but I like writing OCs so I'm okay with that. Also, in the original planning, there was no storm scene. Which makes me wonder how the hell I was planning on filling that gap because I like how it works. I actually decided on including the storm one morning when I was at work and actually had to excuse myself from a meeting so I could get the basics down before I forgot! Never let it be said I let work get in the way of the important things!
What else? Oh in about the third week, I think it was, just after Bobby's arrived on the scene, I got the idea for a fic that dealt with the same kind of thing and had to write that too, which made my head rather jumbled and which I shall post when people are a little less sick of me turning up on their f'lists every single day!. And then, when I was nearing the end, I got the urge to write some haunted-hospital fic, which is almost done now and which I shall include a small snippet of, just because I'm having fun writing it.
It's Dean/OMC - and he's meeting the OMC in this scene - and includes Dean/Sam (because I love my OTP).
:::
Normally he sees Dr Somerville about once a month. Dr Somerville is a very busy man but Dean killed lots of people in interesting ways before they caught him so Josh is no big frickin' deal to him. It was only yesterday that Dean last saw him and so he's surprised when Chet brings him back to the consultation room, expecting Dr Rechtman and kind of dreading it because the woman's a bitch.
Chet manhandles Dean into a chair when he freezes at the sight of Dr Somerville. He doesn't want to be seeing Dr Somerville now because he knows a month hasn't passed and if he lets him go screwing around with the calendar in Dean's head, Dean knows he'll get his Wednesdays confused with his Aprils.
The only thing to do when Chet gets handsy is to go limp so Dean does just that and lets Chet struggle to haul him upright in the chair, all the while conscious of Dr Somerville's scrutiny. Dean knows Chet'll get his own back sometime so he doesn’t feel guilty for showing him up.
With a serene rush of flame, Mary catches fire on the ceiling and Dean sighs. It's gonna be one of those days.
The new guy is sitting next to Dr Somerville, watching. His dark blond hair curls about his ears and he looks too young, too fresh to be let loose in a building full of psychos and whackjobs. Dean approves of Dr Somerville being here to hold his hand. Dean is a bad bad man.
"This is Dr Harrison," says Dr Somerville. "He's going to be staying here with us, talking to you on a daily basis and trying to help you understand why you did those terrible things." There's a pause, Dr Harrison offering Dean a smile that Dean studies with disinterested curiosity. Then Dr Somerville glances towards Dr Harrison and goes on. "Dean hasn't spoken since he came here, almost a year ago now. He had a few difficulties settling in but he's much calmer these days."
"Hello, Dean," says Dr Harrison. "How are you doing?"
In the lens of Dr Harrison's glasses, something moves. Dean instantly directs his gaze down to the tabletop and writes his name in the layer of ash.
:::
Right, I think that's everything I wanted to say. Aside from the most important thing, which is just how grateful I am to all of you who read and commented and encouraged me to keep going. Thank you very very much - I am endlessly appreciative of your kindness. ♥
And this is the last time I'm going to be using this icon! Which is somehow the saddest part about finishing this to me! :(
In 2005, I tried a similar exercise as mini_nanowrimo. The idea was to write a minimum of 500 words, rated at least pg-13, every day for a month. I wrote a series of unconnected ficlets, focusing on a different paraphilia each day but using the same pairing. I flunked on day 22 and sulked about it for the rest of the year, pretty much.
Still, I was tempted by mini_nanowrimo and even more so when I saw apreludetoanend and smilla02 were taking part.
I think I decided fairly quickly than I had to commit myself to a story rather than a series of things. In fact, that would be my advice to anyone considering doing something similar. If you have a short attention span, go for a story rather than individual pieces. At least with a story you know pretty much what you're meant to be writing each day.
I toyed with several plots but this was one that I'd wanted to write for a while and which I felt had the most potential to be drawn out over a period of thirty days. Originally I wanted to call it Life on the Dark Side of the Moon, but I'd already got Life in Monochrome so dropped the 'Life' part. I imagine it's fairly obvious but the whole Dark Side of the Moon thing is about being out of reach and unknowable, and also hopefully playing with the moon-tide relationship. Yeah, it's best when I don't try to explain, isn't it? Things just get muddied.
I knew my overall story from day one. Not all the ins and outs of it because my writing tends to go its own way once I start, but enough that I wouldn't have to do any major retcon. That's another thing, be pretty sure of your story before you start - when you're posting every day you don't get any second chances in your plot!
That said, in the original draft, it was all terribly complicated with Sam having to all but drown Dean. He had to abandon him and let him drown, before getting him back at a certain point. And I was never happy with it and then my innate fascination with burning people at the stake raised its head and I thought it much cooler to go with an elemental fix of fire driving out water. The most important thing was that Sam had to abandon Dean to a possible death to save him. I have a kink for love that is so fierce and certain that it can take ridiculous risks.
As for planning, I knew there were several plot points that had to happen. The porn coming roughly halfway through was a given, for example. So I wrote out my one to thirty and jotted down a few words for each plot point that I was sure of and tried to place them on the timeline. I left a few gaps, intending to be inspired by the daily prompts given at the mini-nano comm., but they got filled pretty quickly.
One thing about having to write every day, especially when you're as easily distracted and lazy as I am, is that I had to be writing something I wanted to. Otherwise, I'd either write something too poor to post or I'd not even manage to write at all. So yeah, it threw the pacing a couple of times and I'd be the first to say that The Dark Side of the Moon as a finished product isn't perfect but it's kind of liberating to be essentially posting a neat draft.
Other points of possible interest? Ben was originally several people, but it got awkward so I merged them into a single character. And he played more of a role than he was meant to but I like writing OCs so I'm okay with that. Also, in the original planning, there was no storm scene. Which makes me wonder how the hell I was planning on filling that gap because I like how it works. I actually decided on including the storm one morning when I was at work and actually had to excuse myself from a meeting so I could get the basics down before I forgot! Never let it be said I let work get in the way of the important things!
What else? Oh in about the third week, I think it was, just after Bobby's arrived on the scene, I got the idea for a fic that dealt with the same kind of thing and had to write that too, which made my head rather jumbled and which I shall post when people are a little less sick of me turning up on their f'lists every single day!. And then, when I was nearing the end, I got the urge to write some haunted-hospital fic, which is almost done now and which I shall include a small snippet of, just because I'm having fun writing it.
It's Dean/OMC - and he's meeting the OMC in this scene - and includes Dean/Sam (because I love my OTP).
:::
Normally he sees Dr Somerville about once a month. Dr Somerville is a very busy man but Dean killed lots of people in interesting ways before they caught him so Josh is no big frickin' deal to him. It was only yesterday that Dean last saw him and so he's surprised when Chet brings him back to the consultation room, expecting Dr Rechtman and kind of dreading it because the woman's a bitch.
Chet manhandles Dean into a chair when he freezes at the sight of Dr Somerville. He doesn't want to be seeing Dr Somerville now because he knows a month hasn't passed and if he lets him go screwing around with the calendar in Dean's head, Dean knows he'll get his Wednesdays confused with his Aprils.
The only thing to do when Chet gets handsy is to go limp so Dean does just that and lets Chet struggle to haul him upright in the chair, all the while conscious of Dr Somerville's scrutiny. Dean knows Chet'll get his own back sometime so he doesn’t feel guilty for showing him up.
With a serene rush of flame, Mary catches fire on the ceiling and Dean sighs. It's gonna be one of those days.
The new guy is sitting next to Dr Somerville, watching. His dark blond hair curls about his ears and he looks too young, too fresh to be let loose in a building full of psychos and whackjobs. Dean approves of Dr Somerville being here to hold his hand. Dean is a bad bad man.
"This is Dr Harrison," says Dr Somerville. "He's going to be staying here with us, talking to you on a daily basis and trying to help you understand why you did those terrible things." There's a pause, Dr Harrison offering Dean a smile that Dean studies with disinterested curiosity. Then Dr Somerville glances towards Dr Harrison and goes on. "Dean hasn't spoken since he came here, almost a year ago now. He had a few difficulties settling in but he's much calmer these days."
"Hello, Dean," says Dr Harrison. "How are you doing?"
In the lens of Dr Harrison's glasses, something moves. Dean instantly directs his gaze down to the tabletop and writes his name in the layer of ash.
:::
Right, I think that's everything I wanted to say. Aside from the most important thing, which is just how grateful I am to all of you who read and commented and encouraged me to keep going. Thank you very very much - I am endlessly appreciative of your kindness. ♥
And this is the last time I'm going to be using this icon! Which is somehow the saddest part about finishing this to me! :(