On Writing Eleven/Rose
I swore to myself that I would take a break from then_theres_us this week, to avoid being burnt out, but you know that feeling when a plot bunny just bites you and screams, "WRITE ME!"? That's what happened with this one. This plot bunny also happened to be in the form of Eleven, so I'm finally taking the jump and doing him. (Well, not doing him, but I guess I can dream... ;D) I'm calling it There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, and I won't get too specific since I'll be posting it soon and all the details will be available then, but I just wanted to share my thoughts on the experience of writing Eleven for the first time, and how I think his dynamic with Rose in this fic is working out.
It's funny, I was working on it today, and as terrified as I am of getting Eleven wrong, I actually think this fic has been coming the easiest out of all the ones I've written so far. I haven't done many fics solely from the Doctor's perspective--Hell and High Water and As Though of Hemlock I Had Drunk were just about it. Rose is usually easiest for me to write, as she's my age and female, as opposed to the Doctor, who's, you know, over 900 and male.
In my head, though, this one is so ridiculously vivid. I usually have a good picture of what I want to write, but Eleven is really forcing it out of me. I think I'm getting a sense of his completely manic energy that way. A lot of it is him trying to figure out this Rose (he's going back to see her at 16) that is soclose! to the one he knows, only a few years off, but still so completely different, partly because he's a different man, just a stranger, and she's still this compassionate girl he knows, but someone who's still finding her confidence and herself. And he wants her so badly, but can't quite have her the way she wants to, because it would be taking advantage and also kind of messing up the timeline, even if she doesn't know he's the Doctor.
I'm having so much fun with it and I want to see how it ends up. It will be bittersweet, definitely, because it's not like he can stay, but I'm hoping to give them each a really special night. I really want to see how people react to it, because as right as Eleven feels to me, I'm still not sure of how he's coming off. I think he's different, though, from how I've written Nine and Ten, and I think that's the most important part.