Notes on
The Use of Negative Space (Vorkosigan Saga)
There are fandoms dear to my heart that I haven't talked much about on LJ, and one of these is the Vorkosigan Saga. I discovered these books many years ago, they are among my favourite comfort rereads, and Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favourite authors. I've enjoyed so many amazing stories in this fandom, I've offered it for Yuletide before, but I've never written anything for it.
When it was eligible again to be nominated this year, I thought it was a good chance to offer it. When I was matched on it though, I had some moments of panic. Things I realised:
(1) Just because I've reread the books so often I've internalised whole passages, does not mean I can reproduce that voice.
(2) I love reading stories about Aral, but the idea of writing a military genius, when I am not a military genius, is pretty intimidating.
I ran through a lot of different ideas, but none of them gelled into a proper story. (The world may need Aral/Alys bodyswap hijinks, but it seems I am not the one to pull them off.)
I considered swapping another fandom - I thought about Lego Batman interactive fiction, and I even read The Seven Serpents many years ago - but I really wanted to deliver a Vorkosigan story if I could. And my recipient had a
wonderful letter with a generous range of prompts.
Among them, he expressed a liking for slash and dubcon, which are also particular likes of mine. So I thought I could do something with that. And he also raised the idea of how Aral used to sketch and then stopped, which has also intrigued me. And both of those lead to Ges Vorrutyer.
I've only read a handful of the fics about him, because he's one of the most disturbing characters we meet in canon. And yet he casts a large shadow for all that he appears so briefly. We only see three things in Aral's portfolio of drawings: architectural studies, sketches of his first wife, and sketches of Ges. What if he stopped drawing after Ges? Because of Ges?
Then it was a matter of working backwards, to figure out when Aral started drawing, and when he met Ges. I had expected there to be more slash and dubcon in the story, but it turned out to focus more on the violence in Barrayan culture, and how messed up Aral's early life was. (He was thirteen when they invited him to take part in Yuri's execution.)
As the deadline got closer, I grew increasingly anxious about how short the story was. I looked for ways to expand it, but the problem with writing a story about things implied and not explicit, is that anything not absolutely to the point can seem overwritten. In the end, I decided it would take a better writer than me to add more Ges without him doing villainous monologuing.
I was relieved and happy that my recipient liked the story as it stood.
Additional notes:
The book of woodcuts of arms and armour is the same one Mark was reading in Mirror Dance.
Aral says he recognises the smell of soltoxin gas in Barrayar, because he was there at the destruction of the Karian mutiny. He never says which side used the gas, and I still wonder. I took some liberties with the dates, because the mutiny took place fifteen or sixteen years ago, while his relationship with Ges ended eighteen years ago.
Putting those soldiers out of their suffering seemed like it could be the origins of his offer to Cordelia about Dubauer in Shards of Honor.
I knew little about drawing techniques, but the research was fun.