writing rambling

[isiscolo]

The story I have been working on is in beta. I am still kind of ridiculously in love with it, because the flaws haven't yet been pointed out to me and it is as perfect as a new boyfriend or a shiny toy. I am always boggled when people claim to hate their own just-posted stories. I always think the most recent thing I have written is the best

Comments

[china_shop]

I've found it hard to read Ray/Ray lately, because one Ray is always Ray and the other is Kowalski or Vecchio, which irritates and confuses me.

I was just thinking about this. Is it partly the disconnect between how they think of themselves and how their partner refers to them? Because I can see that with Fraser POV fic where he thinks of himself as Benton or Ben but everyone else calls him Fraser, it would only emphasise his isolation, maybe? But when you're reading cute R/R, you don't want that distance.

Or is it more because Ray can refer to either of them, so it becomes weirdly generic and slippy? Or is it something else entirely. *ponders*

I wonder if it would work for Kowalski to think of himself by his surname -- he does sometimes in F/K fic, actually (eg. "Jeez, Kowalski, get with the program and just do something." /example made up due to laziness).

[isiscolo]

Hee, perfect icon

[china_shop]

Part of it is that I don't find "Fraser" isolating or distancing in F/K, because that's what Ray calls him in canon.

Yeah, no, I didn't mean that surnames were automatically distancing, but that perhaps the discrepancy between how the POV character thinks of themself and how they're addressed might create a disconnect. You know? So if I think of myself as "china" and my partner only called me "Ms. Shop", there's a question there about whether we each view me differently. Or maybe not. I mean, Fraser would never think of himself as "Benny", and I certainly don't see Vecchio calling him that as distancing (though I used to).

I think to myself, Vecchio. What the hell did you just do?

*nodnod* And that matches up with my Kowalski example. That we can (often?) have them addressing themselves by surname, even if the POV name doesn't match that.

I mean, the whole POV/name thing is artificial anyway, because I don't think of myself as "china" or "[my real name]" in my internal train of thought; I think of myself as "I". You know? So any

[isiscolo]

They don't work slightly less for me, but they still irritate me. I think that the heart of the problem is TWO GUYS NAMED RAY. Stupid canon.

[china_shop]

Hee!

I guess there is the thing where if the POV character is calling himself Ray, shouldn't he be distinguishing between himself and the other Ray in the story. Hmm. I wonder if I can think of something else to try.

I've just started a Stella POV snippet, which also has "Ray" problems, and in some ways the naming is even more complicated than with Fraser POV, because I don't think Stella would think of them by surname at all. *tears at hair*

[isiscolo]

Well, hmm. Depending on the voice, you could have her actually think of them by full name, or give them shorthand "Ray One" and "Ray Two"...or maybe "Snookums" and "Honeybunch"! :-)

Yeah, I dunno.