The Piano, Chapter 8 (now complete)

[logastellus]

The soft whirr of the CD spinning up in his alarm clock wakes Wilson.  He shuts it off before the CD begins playing, and turns his head to look at Julie.  She is asleep, still and peaceful.

For once, he feels pretty peaceful himself.  He knows things are still not well between

Comments

[logastellus]

Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful and insightful review, and for all of the wonderful encouragement you offered me along the way. In retrospect, from a reader’s perspective it was probably a mistake to post this in chapters - the way the themes and relationships build upon one another, it probably needs to be read in one sitting instead of broken up in pieces. Unfortunately - and this is entirely my failing - I don’t think I could have written it any other way. I was undoubtedly quite foolish to attempt something so complicated for my first venture into Housefic; there was a good chunk of time in the middle when I despaired of my ability to realize the ideas in my head, and if it weren’t for a sense of obligation to the people who had read and commented on the first few chapters, I would never have finished it.

“There's a very nice, very subtle bit of foreshadowing -- of real cruelty and the legal definition of it -- in Ella's conversation with House about killing her husband.”
Heh. If only I could take credit for meticulously planning that. I hadn’t thought about it quite that way, actually. (don’t you just love it when you’re clever accidentally?) I’m fascinated by what we see on the show of House and Wilson’s respective issues with intimacy. I wanted to set up Ella as someone who had been betrayed, someone wounded, whose own intimacy issues would give me a tool for exploring Wilson and House.

“And how the music connects everything is so well done.”
Thank you! That’s really where this story began, in wondering why we haven’t seen House touch his piano in so long, and what (if anything) that means. As you once said, the piano is a barometer of House’s mood. It occurred to me that because music touches him so deeply, his music would also be something private, intimate, something he doesn’t share with just anyone. And so I came to the idea of music as a metaphor for intimacy, and that became the thread around which the story was woven.

[pwcorgigirl]

For a first venture into Housefic, you hit the ball out of the park!

I think it's a two-edged sword of a decision about whether to post during the writing of a long fic. Good readers can help you shape it with excellent feedback, but it's so painful to feel like you're blundering around in public with something. The one time I tried a multi-chapter fic (at one point I was juggling 11 characters, most of them major) I seriously doubted my sanity in the middle of it but didn't want to let down the people who were reading it.

Isn't accidentally clever a wonderful thing? I always think of that as the Muse putting in long hours while I'm off doing something else!

[logastellus]

That was "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners"? Loved that. As soon as I finished it, I recced it to my roommate with a post-it note on her door that read "Go read this RIGHT NOW. This woman should be writing scripts."

"I seriously doubted my sanity in the middle of it but didn't want to let down the people who were reading it."
Yes, this was it exactly. Whatever I write next will be shorter, I think; but now I have a lot more confidence about my ability to complete a long piece. This has been a heck of a learning experience!

And hats off, all hail to the Muse, indeed. I did do quite a bit of very deliberate foreshadowing and echoing of themes among characters; it is startling and pleasing to see that the Muse gifted me with even more that I wasn't even aware of doing! It just reinforces the feeling that I am not so much writing these characters as they are speaking through my pen. Or keyboard, or something.

By the way, I love the new icon. It suits you. Though I'll confess that I do miss the doggie a little! :)

[pwcorgigirl]

That was indeed the fic. Major kudos to extrabitter, who beta'd it and made it much better than what I started with. After it was done, though, my brain felt like Wiley Coyote after he's fallen off a cliff.

The doggie icon will be back. I've got him, the cat and a couple of music ones in rotation.