yuletide reveal: The Ogre Downstairs
Yuletide is revealed! The story for me was written by Alexanda, and as soon as the archive is working properly I'll find out her LJ name too.
This year, I haven't been able to do a single batch of recs - I'm not even halfway through the A fandoms yet! (Though I've read a couple of stories here and there for other fandoms.) I figured, with all the people reading and reccing, I'll simply take my time and perhaps do a single recs post here only with my absolute favourites once I'm done.
Anyway, as for the story I wrote, it was Growing Together, for Becca/bookelfe, based on The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones. It was my only story this year (rarely enough), and I didn't expect it to get much attention considering it's rather long and belongs to such a small fandom, but it's been doing okay - not as popular as some of my Yuletide fic, but more than I expected.
It's a gen story, focusing on the life of the children after the book has closed, and I tried to give them each a storyline (but cheated a little bit - Caspar and Malcolm basically have to share one) while unifying the story as a whole. I hope I managed. :-)
I discovered that the biggest challenge in writing it was that DWJ in the book does what fanfic writers Must Not and switched POV in the middle of a scene; I mostly ended up doing POV changes between scenes, but also sometimes in the middle of one, though I tried to make it natural. The second-biggest challenge was to not make Gwinny and Sally too stereotypically feminine (especially considering the knights-in-shining-armour moment!) but I don't know how well I succeeded - but then, the book is written in 1974, I can always tell myself that things were different then. (On a sidenote, trying to fit the world into the 1970s without bringing attention to the fact that it's the 1970s was fun. Certain toys are period-typical, and I tried to make the price of a trampoline fit too. I may be anachronistic in places, I don't know. If so, I hope it doesn't affect people's enjoyment of the story.)
I also discovered that bookelfe's journal is great fun to read, and oh how it itched in me to friend it! I was particularly sad that I couldn't comment on her brilliant summary of The Black Arrow, since it really describes the book perfectly. In the end, I put in a tiny little nod in the story itself.
This year, I haven't been able to do a single batch of recs - I'm not even halfway through the A fandoms yet! (Though I've read a couple of stories here and there for other fandoms.) I figured, with all the people reading and reccing, I'll simply take my time and perhaps do a single recs post here only with my absolute favourites once I'm done.
Anyway, as for the story I wrote, it was Growing Together, for Becca/bookelfe, based on The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones. It was my only story this year (rarely enough), and I didn't expect it to get much attention considering it's rather long and belongs to such a small fandom, but it's been doing okay - not as popular as some of my Yuletide fic, but more than I expected.
It's a gen story, focusing on the life of the children after the book has closed, and I tried to give them each a storyline (but cheated a little bit - Caspar and Malcolm basically have to share one) while unifying the story as a whole. I hope I managed. :-)
I discovered that the biggest challenge in writing it was that DWJ in the book does what fanfic writers Must Not and switched POV in the middle of a scene; I mostly ended up doing POV changes between scenes, but also sometimes in the middle of one, though I tried to make it natural. The second-biggest challenge was to not make Gwinny and Sally too stereotypically feminine (especially considering the knights-in-shining-armour moment!) but I don't know how well I succeeded - but then, the book is written in 1974, I can always tell myself that things were different then. (On a sidenote, trying to fit the world into the 1970s without bringing attention to the fact that it's the 1970s was fun. Certain toys are period-typical, and I tried to make the price of a trampoline fit too. I may be anachronistic in places, I don't know. If so, I hope it doesn't affect people's enjoyment of the story.)
I also discovered that bookelfe's journal is great fun to read, and oh how it itched in me to friend it! I was particularly sad that I couldn't comment on her brilliant summary of The Black Arrow, since it really describes the book perfectly. In the end, I put in a tiny little nod in the story itself.