lemme just grab my trumpet here to make the announcement...
Hey, look, I wrote something! AND NOW IT'S DONE!
FINAL CHAPTER OF NOWHERE LEFT TO RUN (or start at the beginning on ff.net or on AO3 (yep, I started posting it there out of spite).
The final list of warnings (because this monster kept evolving as I wrote it): violence (shootings, fights, death of original characters), bad language, mentions of racist ideology, sex, a brief mention of suicide, and an incident of non-consensual drug use.
So, fifty-three thousand words of fic and I managed to turn killer angel John Reese into The Equalizer. (The difference between the two jobs is a few shades of gray.) And I gave him as much of a happy ending as I could manage for someone in that situation and with his history.
A few people who read my journal saw me talking about this idea ages ago. Basically it started back in January/February with 1) the Machine identifying Ingram as a threat in a flashback (simply for questioning the morality of the Machine's existence) and 2) Reese and Fusco were labeled as threats to the "Admin" by the Machine for their inquiries into Finch's past. I had already started thinking of the Machine as an entity with independence. These two notifications made the Machine a potential threat to those outside the parameters of people planning homicidal acts.
My brain ran away with the idea. Carter keeps asking about how Reese and Finch get their information. What would happen if she started digging into Finch's background as a way to learn more? And then the part of me that loves the idea of Reese and Carter as a couple chimed in with how this would be a great way to overcome a lot of the hurdles that would normally keep them apart.
I made a lot of notes throughout the second half of season one; as the show progressed, it ended up supporting my idea rather than making it less plausible. So after season one ended, I started writing. My initial "outline" (I'm not sure that I can justify using that term, but it's close enough) was for seven chapters, and I guessed it would run about twenty-five thousand words long. I was so very wrong about that.
But in spite of how much longer it took me to write--both in terms of how many words and how much time--I'm pretty happy with the results.
I definitely couldn't have done it alone. There were several times, especially in the early stages, where I asked sabaceanbabe and lizardbeth_j for input about various plot ideas and how to keep the characters closely aligned with their show counterparts. And sabaceanbabe beta-read every chapter, killing off a lot of bad phrasing and punctuation. Hooray for beta-readers!
While writing fanfiction is, in many ways, a shared activity, my first and best audience is always me. I write what interests me and what I want to read. (I re-read my own stories from time to time--maybe even more often than I re-read other favorite fics.)
Maybe that sounds terribly vain, but really: who knows what I like better than I do? Anyway, my favorite aspect of the story is that even though Reese goes through a lot of experiences that are, hopefully, growth points for him, he still isn't completely fixed. And never will be. Even with the happy ending I gave him, he still doesn't really fit in with most of society. Instead he's found a niche that works for him, and put pieces of relationships into place that he can accept.
I hope that came across to readers. One really big frustration with writing only in Reese's POV was trying to make it clear when he was just plain wrong about stuff. I finally had to let some of that go; it's his story, and he's not going to see things from a neutral perspective. Even though Carter calls him on some of it, she's sympathetic to him and not an objective viewer herself.
Early on I had an unwritten set of rules for writing this:
Comments and questions in reviews made me alter a few things as I wrote. Serialized novel-writing online should totally be a thing (still), yup. The feedback improved what I was writing. For example, I didn't even think of Stanton as setting up John at the end of chapter nine; as the 'omiscient' writer, I knew she hadn't. But of course readers don't have that information, so I changed the beginning of chapter ten to reflect Reese's concern that maybe she was the reason he got caught.
Some things popped up out of nowhere. For example, I'd had in mind to briefly reference the relatives in Montana, which turned into Reese driving past their old cabin, which led to "John Reese fixes the roof?!" to my great surprise.
But the main lesson learned from writing a longer story is that repetition is okay. Initially I found myself trying to avoid it, like I would normally do for a much shorter story. I finally realized that it was okay to repeat myself when I had to keep going back and reread certain parts to recall exactly what I'd said earlier. If I had to do that as the author, it was needed for the readers.
As much as I feel a great sense of accomplishment right now, I really hope not to be blindsided by another multi-chapter story anytime soon. That was way too much work: the writing itself, researching firearms, researching Belize City and Idaho and Montana (but mostly Belize City), trying to pare down Reese's dialogue to match his fairly laconic character on the show, etc. So much work!
If it does happen again, I'm going to try to brainwash myself into accepting that writing an AU story is okay. I generally don't even try; I'm very attached to canon when I write. Originally I wanted to have this finished and posted before season two began, just so I could have my story complete before the show took a different direction.
Admitting that makes me want to laugh at myself. This took about four months of planning/brainstorming, and then six months to write. Compare that to my previous longest story: two years of contemplation, and two months of writing, and I only had ten thousand words at the end. So this was written faster (way faster) and with less advance preparation.
So: yay me!
If you read all of this, have a cookie.
If you're on my reading list and have posted/been posting a longer fic for a fandom I like, expect me to start showing up with belated comments. (Any preferences for where I comment? AO3 or LJ?)
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/261836.html. Comment where you wish.
FINAL CHAPTER OF NOWHERE LEFT TO RUN (or start at the beginning on ff.net or on AO3 (yep, I started posting it there out of spite).
The final list of warnings (because this monster kept evolving as I wrote it): violence (shootings, fights, death of original characters), bad language, mentions of racist ideology, sex, a brief mention of suicide, and an incident of non-consensual drug use.
So, fifty-three thousand words of fic and I managed to turn killer angel John Reese into The Equalizer. (The difference between the two jobs is a few shades of gray.) And I gave him as much of a happy ending as I could manage for someone in that situation and with his history.
A few people who read my journal saw me talking about this idea ages ago. Basically it started back in January/February with 1) the Machine identifying Ingram as a threat in a flashback (simply for questioning the morality of the Machine's existence) and 2) Reese and Fusco were labeled as threats to the "Admin" by the Machine for their inquiries into Finch's past. I had already started thinking of the Machine as an entity with independence. These two notifications made the Machine a potential threat to those outside the parameters of people planning homicidal acts.
My brain ran away with the idea. Carter keeps asking about how Reese and Finch get their information. What would happen if she started digging into Finch's background as a way to learn more? And then the part of me that loves the idea of Reese and Carter as a couple chimed in with how this would be a great way to overcome a lot of the hurdles that would normally keep them apart.
I made a lot of notes throughout the second half of season one; as the show progressed, it ended up supporting my idea rather than making it less plausible. So after season one ended, I started writing. My initial "outline" (I'm not sure that I can justify using that term, but it's close enough) was for seven chapters, and I guessed it would run about twenty-five thousand words long. I was so very wrong about that.
But in spite of how much longer it took me to write--both in terms of how many words and how much time--I'm pretty happy with the results.
I definitely couldn't have done it alone. There were several times, especially in the early stages, where I asked sabaceanbabe and lizardbeth_j for input about various plot ideas and how to keep the characters closely aligned with their show counterparts. And sabaceanbabe beta-read every chapter, killing off a lot of bad phrasing and punctuation. Hooray for beta-readers!
While writing fanfiction is, in many ways, a shared activity, my first and best audience is always me. I write what interests me and what I want to read. (I re-read my own stories from time to time--maybe even more often than I re-read other favorite fics.)
Maybe that sounds terribly vain, but really: who knows what I like better than I do? Anyway, my favorite aspect of the story is that even though Reese goes through a lot of experiences that are, hopefully, growth points for him, he still isn't completely fixed. And never will be. Even with the happy ending I gave him, he still doesn't really fit in with most of society. Instead he's found a niche that works for him, and put pieces of relationships into place that he can accept.
I hope that came across to readers. One really big frustration with writing only in Reese's POV was trying to make it clear when he was just plain wrong about stuff. I finally had to let some of that go; it's his story, and he's not going to see things from a neutral perspective. Even though Carter calls him on some of it, she's sympathetic to him and not an objective viewer herself.
Early on I had an unwritten set of rules for writing this:
- no I love you's
- in fact, avoid the use of the word love as much as possible
- no 'sex fixes everything'
- no pseudo-father/son relationship between John and Taylor in the epilogue
- no perfect happy ending; everyone has to sacrifice something
Comments and questions in reviews made me alter a few things as I wrote. Serialized novel-writing online should totally be a thing (still), yup. The feedback improved what I was writing. For example, I didn't even think of Stanton as setting up John at the end of chapter nine; as the 'omiscient' writer, I knew she hadn't. But of course readers don't have that information, so I changed the beginning of chapter ten to reflect Reese's concern that maybe she was the reason he got caught.
Some things popped up out of nowhere. For example, I'd had in mind to briefly reference the relatives in Montana, which turned into Reese driving past their old cabin, which led to "John Reese fixes the roof?!" to my great surprise.
But the main lesson learned from writing a longer story is that repetition is okay. Initially I found myself trying to avoid it, like I would normally do for a much shorter story. I finally realized that it was okay to repeat myself when I had to keep going back and reread certain parts to recall exactly what I'd said earlier. If I had to do that as the author, it was needed for the readers.
As much as I feel a great sense of accomplishment right now, I really hope not to be blindsided by another multi-chapter story anytime soon. That was way too much work: the writing itself, researching firearms, researching Belize City and Idaho and Montana (but mostly Belize City), trying to pare down Reese's dialogue to match his fairly laconic character on the show, etc. So much work!
If it does happen again, I'm going to try to brainwash myself into accepting that writing an AU story is okay. I generally don't even try; I'm very attached to canon when I write. Originally I wanted to have this finished and posted before season two began, just so I could have my story complete before the show took a different direction.
Admitting that makes me want to laugh at myself. This took about four months of planning/brainstorming, and then six months to write. Compare that to my previous longest story: two years of contemplation, and two months of writing, and I only had ten thousand words at the end. So this was written faster (way faster) and with less advance preparation.
So: yay me!
If you read all of this, have a cookie.
If you're on my reading list and have posted/been posting a longer fic for a fandom I like, expect me to start showing up with belated comments. (Any preferences for where I comment? AO3 or LJ?)
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/261836.html. Comment where you wish.