Baby's first gold tooth, initials inscribed
Hi, everybody!
The delightful gekizetsu tagged me on that "five favorite pieces you've written" thing going around, and I am apparently powerless to resist a girl with weird cowlicks.
So.
(1) Lacuna. This story was a challenge for me on so many levels. I don't like writing sex scenes, and this story has quite a few. Also, this story insisted on coming out in the second person, which was uncomfortable and awkward for me. I had to say some of the lines out loud to make sure I'd gotten them right. In addition, the point of the story was a relationship that very few people liked; I don't think I changed anything for the audience's sake, but I was aware that I was treading a very fine line. I had a hard time with two points particularly, and I like to think I got away with one of them: the fact that Cassie is essentially a Mary Sue. She's a smart, literary girl who falls for Dean - I'm trying to think of someone in this fandom that at least part of that doesn't apply to. The other thing is still a sore spot for me - the ending. It's not as strong as some people would have liked, and I think it's a flaw in the story. I mean, the ending is exactly what I wanted, but I think my expectations and my readers' didn't match up. This is the first story on which people - that I knew and that I didn't - felt free to offer up constructive criticism, and for that alone it would make it to this list.
(2) Sita. This story was an entirely different kind of challenge. I hadn't written a lot of dialogue before, and this one was pretty much nothing but, since I decided to interpret a challenge literally and write in script-format. I like that it's a post "Devil's Trap" piece that just gets going, lets the implications of that episode be felt without wallowing in them. I'm also very pleased with the way the show's mythology tied in nicely with a story from my own culture and religion, a story I grew up with. And I totally succumbed to Mary Sueness here too, giving Dean a little Indian girl to pal around with. I have no shame.
(3) Thanatopsis. I'd been wanting to play with contrasts between "insider" and "outsider" viewpoints for a while, and this story was how I got to do it. I like the way the pieces fit together, but not neatly. Plus, I'm very proud of the way I took a wretchedly maudlin prompt (one of my own) and came up with a story that didn't pander to it. And I still ache over the sorrow of this little baby Dean.
(4) Devil in a Yellow Dress. This one was a blast to write. Or at least the first part was - I got some upsetting real-life news about halfway through, and I couldn't recapture that joy the second time around. No one seemed to notice the break, though, so I'm glad that the delight I had in the first part spilled over. This one was really supposed to be just a little zany het story, but the brothers' relationship ended up being the part that was the most fun and challenging to write. I think this one is just plain fun.
(5) the BEN AND DEAN scenes. These scenes have been incredibly liberating for me, in so many ways. I've never posted a WiP before, and it's a whole new challenge (I have to say I don't know how people routinely post WiPs - it's nerve-racking). It's also very interesting to try to figure out who these boys are, to distinguish them from each other and from the selves they were with Sam. These are the stories closest to my heart, and it's a weird feeling, because I've never been responsible for *creating* my own happy place before. I've always found it in stuff other people have written, but here I'm kind of doing it myself, and it's overwhelming.
So there are my top five fics for this fandom. I won't tag anyone, because I'm probably the last to do this, but have at it, if you're so inclined.
The delightful gekizetsu tagged me on that "five favorite pieces you've written" thing going around, and I am apparently powerless to resist a girl with weird cowlicks.
So.
(1) Lacuna. This story was a challenge for me on so many levels. I don't like writing sex scenes, and this story has quite a few. Also, this story insisted on coming out in the second person, which was uncomfortable and awkward for me. I had to say some of the lines out loud to make sure I'd gotten them right. In addition, the point of the story was a relationship that very few people liked; I don't think I changed anything for the audience's sake, but I was aware that I was treading a very fine line. I had a hard time with two points particularly, and I like to think I got away with one of them: the fact that Cassie is essentially a Mary Sue. She's a smart, literary girl who falls for Dean - I'm trying to think of someone in this fandom that at least part of that doesn't apply to. The other thing is still a sore spot for me - the ending. It's not as strong as some people would have liked, and I think it's a flaw in the story. I mean, the ending is exactly what I wanted, but I think my expectations and my readers' didn't match up. This is the first story on which people - that I knew and that I didn't - felt free to offer up constructive criticism, and for that alone it would make it to this list.
(2) Sita. This story was an entirely different kind of challenge. I hadn't written a lot of dialogue before, and this one was pretty much nothing but, since I decided to interpret a challenge literally and write in script-format. I like that it's a post "Devil's Trap" piece that just gets going, lets the implications of that episode be felt without wallowing in them. I'm also very pleased with the way the show's mythology tied in nicely with a story from my own culture and religion, a story I grew up with. And I totally succumbed to Mary Sueness here too, giving Dean a little Indian girl to pal around with. I have no shame.
(3) Thanatopsis. I'd been wanting to play with contrasts between "insider" and "outsider" viewpoints for a while, and this story was how I got to do it. I like the way the pieces fit together, but not neatly. Plus, I'm very proud of the way I took a wretchedly maudlin prompt (one of my own) and came up with a story that didn't pander to it. And I still ache over the sorrow of this little baby Dean.
(4) Devil in a Yellow Dress. This one was a blast to write. Or at least the first part was - I got some upsetting real-life news about halfway through, and I couldn't recapture that joy the second time around. No one seemed to notice the break, though, so I'm glad that the delight I had in the first part spilled over. This one was really supposed to be just a little zany het story, but the brothers' relationship ended up being the part that was the most fun and challenging to write. I think this one is just plain fun.
(5) the BEN AND DEAN scenes. These scenes have been incredibly liberating for me, in so many ways. I've never posted a WiP before, and it's a whole new challenge (I have to say I don't know how people routinely post WiPs - it's nerve-racking). It's also very interesting to try to figure out who these boys are, to distinguish them from each other and from the selves they were with Sam. These are the stories closest to my heart, and it's a weird feeling, because I've never been responsible for *creating* my own happy place before. I've always found it in stuff other people have written, but here I'm kind of doing it myself, and it's overwhelming.
So there are my top five fics for this fandom. I won't tag anyone, because I'm probably the last to do this, but have at it, if you're so inclined.