Dead WIP roundup
(Icon chosen for my poor baby WIPs, and because it's a pretty icon that I don't have very many opportunities to use!)
I'm looking through my WIP folder and calculating the possibility that I'll finish them. It's not looking good. Look under the cut if you want to be frustrated. *g* There are a few shorter stories that I still intend to finish, which are left off the list because, in general, talking about a story while I'm actively working on it runs a high risk of killing my interest in it. And quite a few of my other WIPs have never made it past the idea stage. There are 25 files in my WIP folder, but when I open up quite a few of them, it's basically a handful of disconnected story notes and scraps of dialogue.
Title: Cyberia
What is it? John finds himself in 2002-era Siberia with a young, arrogant Rodney McKay who doesn't know him, and no memory of how he got there. He begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.
How far along is it? 25,000 words (:sob:)
Chances of completion: Very slim
What happened? The &:$%@# Replicators. I started writing this during the Season 2 hiatus, and as soon as Progeny aired, I realized that I was going to have to radically rework my plot because a) It's way too similar to Progeny, and b) unless I set it pre-season 3, John would immediately tumble to what was happening to him and why everything was a little bit off. Also, I haven't really been interested in writing John-and-Rodney solo adventures lately, and this one, for obvious reasons, is pretty strictly focused on them.
Title: Nor Iron Bars a Cage (tentative title)
What is it? The obligatory John and Rodney in prison story.
How far along is it? 12,000 words
Chances of completion: Probably slim unless I get inspired
What happened? See above re: John and Rodney solo adventures. I kinda suspected all along that this one would probably never be completed, because it was mostly just shamelessly poking at the characters for h/c purposes. However, at some point I actually came up with a plot, regarding the two of them getting drawn into a civil war on this planet. The problem is that, if I develop it as I'd like, it would be novel-length, and I'm not sure if I'm up to getting sucked into another novel-length fic right now, especially when it really wouldn't cover any new territory for me. (What interests me about fanfic, mostly, is the new and unexplored; as much as I love John and Rodney, I'm starting to feel that there's very little left for me to explore there.)
Title: The Great Atlantis Boat Race
What is it? A moral-building idea on John's part gets out of control and results in a boat race around Atlantis in homemade, not particularly seaworthy craft. Hilarity ensues.
How far along is it? 2500 words
Chances of completion: Slim, but possible
What happened? The idea is terribly fun, but it relies heavily on the Season 2/3 era cast (in particular, I'm not sure if I could do it without Elizabeth -- at least, I'd have to replot drastically). And there's not much written on it yet. It's a really fun citywide, ensemble-cast idea, though.
Title: The Devil You Know
What is it? NCIS crossover. Gibbs' team investigate a truly bizarre murder that just keeps getting weirder, involving crop circles and apparently "alien" artifacts.
How far along is it? 3600 words
Chances of completion: I'm honestly not sure
What happened? Frustratingly, I have this one almost entirely plotted out. Except for some fuzziness at the end, I know what happens. But it's almost entirely NCIS (basically the NCIS team in the Stargate 'verse), and I'm really having trouble getting the voices down. Also, it relies heavily on SG1 canon knowledge that I just don't have; the amount of research that I'm having to do is offputting, and I'm worried about getting something wrong. The only way I can see this one being resurrected is if I sit down and have an SG1-a-thon sometime soon.
Title: untitled Keller story
What is it? Set early season 4, John and Rodney escort Keller on a humanitarian mission that ends with all of them stranded in hostile territory and injured.
How far along is it? 4400 words
Chances of completion: Probably none, without major changes
What happened? The idea was to use Keller for an outsider POV on John and Rodney. I kinda already wrote this plot for astridv's requested Keller/McKay story, though, except this one would have been gen. And, again, the John/Rodney relationship hasn't been that exciting to me lately. If I'm going to do this one, I think I might do it with a slightly different subset of characters. I do like the idea of writing Jennifer doing doctory things offworld (vaccinating kids, helping out with plague victims, stuff like that).
Title: Island in the Sea of Time
What is it? Sequel to "Old Soldiers Die Hard", set about ten or fifteen years in the future, after Stargate declassification.
How far along is it? 1800 words
Chances of completion: Not sure
What happened? No plot. :D It's really just a series of disconnected vignettes and notes, dealing with Annie from "Old Soldiers" and with the canon cast adjusting to the changes of the last fifteen years. If I could figure out a plot to tie it all together, I'd like to finish it, but I don't really have any ideas that work with what I've got.
Title: The Sound of Silence
What is it? Started writing this for the Wordless Challenge at sga_flashfic. A horrible misunderstanding offworld leads to Rodney's tongue being cut out by the locals. (Yeah. I know.) It's basically about the psychological adjustment post-healing, though.
How far along is it? 3100 words
Chances of completion: Probably none
What happened? Too much bloody difficult research, because I realized that I know nothing whatsoever about the physical effects (can you swallow? Eat? What sounds can you make?) and Google is very little help for researching that particular ailment. I'd intended this to be a fairly realistic, perhaps fairly dark story, but was finding it a total slog because I was having trouble finding the resources I needed and having to make everything up as I went along. I love researching things if I'm interested in the topic, but researching this particular disability was like walking uphill through mud. Also, I very much dislike using "nonsensical offworld alien superstition" as the basis for an entire story, and that's pretty much what we had here. And, on top of that, I really don't like wallowing in angst and the whole situation is tailor-made for angst, which meant I had to keep dragging the story out of the Angst Pit. Mainly I wanted to write this for the whole idea of a Rodney who was much less physically standoffish, communicating with others by touching them, but it's not really worth it for what I'd have to go through to get there.
Title: The Family Way
What is it? Between "Missing" and "Seer", Keller and Teyla discuss her options for her pregnancy, including abortion.
How far along is it? 2500 words, and technically done, pending a rewrite
Chances of completion: Hate to abandon it, not sure if I want to post it
What happened? This is actually done, except for some parts that really should be expanded and rewritten somewhat. I even ran this by a friend to see if she thought it was too controversial, which she didn't. I'm just ... reluctant, for reasons that are difficult to define. I felt as if the show brushed too easily over Teyla's apparent decision to keep and raise the child in light of everything that was happening, and I wanted to deal with that from a perhaps more pragmatic standpoint, especially since it would give me an opportunity to examine Western Earth values vs. Athosian ways of doing things. But I'm worried that it might come across as grandstanding on my part, especially since, in canon, it doesn't appear that Teyla even considered not keeping the child. So ... still hanging onto this one.
Title: Closure (tentative)
What is it? This is a sequel to the fairly dark sequel that I wrote to rhymer23's "Types of Intelligence". This one is darker yet.
How far along is it? 1600 words
Chances of completion: Depends on how depressed I want to be, really, and how much she minds me mucking about with her ideas, especially given what I tend to do with them.
What happened? I'll be perfectly honest here: After reading one too many stories (in a number of fandoms) in which a character is rescued from horrible torture and is back on to shiny canon-standard quality after a few months of therapy, I wanted to write a story in which they're so profoundly messed up that they can't even cope with normal life, let alone life in the Pegasus Galaxy (sort of a la River Tam). It's hard to write an idea that's so profoundly depressing, though.
I'm looking through my WIP folder and calculating the possibility that I'll finish them. It's not looking good. Look under the cut if you want to be frustrated. *g* There are a few shorter stories that I still intend to finish, which are left off the list because, in general, talking about a story while I'm actively working on it runs a high risk of killing my interest in it. And quite a few of my other WIPs have never made it past the idea stage. There are 25 files in my WIP folder, but when I open up quite a few of them, it's basically a handful of disconnected story notes and scraps of dialogue.
Title: Cyberia
What is it? John finds himself in 2002-era Siberia with a young, arrogant Rodney McKay who doesn't know him, and no memory of how he got there. He begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.
How far along is it? 25,000 words (:sob:)
Chances of completion: Very slim
What happened? The &:$%@# Replicators. I started writing this during the Season 2 hiatus, and as soon as Progeny aired, I realized that I was going to have to radically rework my plot because a) It's way too similar to Progeny, and b) unless I set it pre-season 3, John would immediately tumble to what was happening to him and why everything was a little bit off. Also, I haven't really been interested in writing John-and-Rodney solo adventures lately, and this one, for obvious reasons, is pretty strictly focused on them.
Title: Nor Iron Bars a Cage (tentative title)
What is it? The obligatory John and Rodney in prison story.
How far along is it? 12,000 words
Chances of completion: Probably slim unless I get inspired
What happened? See above re: John and Rodney solo adventures. I kinda suspected all along that this one would probably never be completed, because it was mostly just shamelessly poking at the characters for h/c purposes. However, at some point I actually came up with a plot, regarding the two of them getting drawn into a civil war on this planet. The problem is that, if I develop it as I'd like, it would be novel-length, and I'm not sure if I'm up to getting sucked into another novel-length fic right now, especially when it really wouldn't cover any new territory for me. (What interests me about fanfic, mostly, is the new and unexplored; as much as I love John and Rodney, I'm starting to feel that there's very little left for me to explore there.)
Title: The Great Atlantis Boat Race
What is it? A moral-building idea on John's part gets out of control and results in a boat race around Atlantis in homemade, not particularly seaworthy craft. Hilarity ensues.
How far along is it? 2500 words
Chances of completion: Slim, but possible
What happened? The idea is terribly fun, but it relies heavily on the Season 2/3 era cast (in particular, I'm not sure if I could do it without Elizabeth -- at least, I'd have to replot drastically). And there's not much written on it yet. It's a really fun citywide, ensemble-cast idea, though.
Title: The Devil You Know
What is it? NCIS crossover. Gibbs' team investigate a truly bizarre murder that just keeps getting weirder, involving crop circles and apparently "alien" artifacts.
How far along is it? 3600 words
Chances of completion: I'm honestly not sure
What happened? Frustratingly, I have this one almost entirely plotted out. Except for some fuzziness at the end, I know what happens. But it's almost entirely NCIS (basically the NCIS team in the Stargate 'verse), and I'm really having trouble getting the voices down. Also, it relies heavily on SG1 canon knowledge that I just don't have; the amount of research that I'm having to do is offputting, and I'm worried about getting something wrong. The only way I can see this one being resurrected is if I sit down and have an SG1-a-thon sometime soon.
Title: untitled Keller story
What is it? Set early season 4, John and Rodney escort Keller on a humanitarian mission that ends with all of them stranded in hostile territory and injured.
How far along is it? 4400 words
Chances of completion: Probably none, without major changes
What happened? The idea was to use Keller for an outsider POV on John and Rodney. I kinda already wrote this plot for astridv's requested Keller/McKay story, though, except this one would have been gen. And, again, the John/Rodney relationship hasn't been that exciting to me lately. If I'm going to do this one, I think I might do it with a slightly different subset of characters. I do like the idea of writing Jennifer doing doctory things offworld (vaccinating kids, helping out with plague victims, stuff like that).
Title: Island in the Sea of Time
What is it? Sequel to "Old Soldiers Die Hard", set about ten or fifteen years in the future, after Stargate declassification.
How far along is it? 1800 words
Chances of completion: Not sure
What happened? No plot. :D It's really just a series of disconnected vignettes and notes, dealing with Annie from "Old Soldiers" and with the canon cast adjusting to the changes of the last fifteen years. If I could figure out a plot to tie it all together, I'd like to finish it, but I don't really have any ideas that work with what I've got.
Title: The Sound of Silence
What is it? Started writing this for the Wordless Challenge at sga_flashfic. A horrible misunderstanding offworld leads to Rodney's tongue being cut out by the locals. (Yeah. I know.) It's basically about the psychological adjustment post-healing, though.
How far along is it? 3100 words
Chances of completion: Probably none
What happened? Too much bloody difficult research, because I realized that I know nothing whatsoever about the physical effects (can you swallow? Eat? What sounds can you make?) and Google is very little help for researching that particular ailment. I'd intended this to be a fairly realistic, perhaps fairly dark story, but was finding it a total slog because I was having trouble finding the resources I needed and having to make everything up as I went along. I love researching things if I'm interested in the topic, but researching this particular disability was like walking uphill through mud. Also, I very much dislike using "nonsensical offworld alien superstition" as the basis for an entire story, and that's pretty much what we had here. And, on top of that, I really don't like wallowing in angst and the whole situation is tailor-made for angst, which meant I had to keep dragging the story out of the Angst Pit. Mainly I wanted to write this for the whole idea of a Rodney who was much less physically standoffish, communicating with others by touching them, but it's not really worth it for what I'd have to go through to get there.
Title: The Family Way
What is it? Between "Missing" and "Seer", Keller and Teyla discuss her options for her pregnancy, including abortion.
How far along is it? 2500 words, and technically done, pending a rewrite
Chances of completion: Hate to abandon it, not sure if I want to post it
What happened? This is actually done, except for some parts that really should be expanded and rewritten somewhat. I even ran this by a friend to see if she thought it was too controversial, which she didn't. I'm just ... reluctant, for reasons that are difficult to define. I felt as if the show brushed too easily over Teyla's apparent decision to keep and raise the child in light of everything that was happening, and I wanted to deal with that from a perhaps more pragmatic standpoint, especially since it would give me an opportunity to examine Western Earth values vs. Athosian ways of doing things. But I'm worried that it might come across as grandstanding on my part, especially since, in canon, it doesn't appear that Teyla even considered not keeping the child. So ... still hanging onto this one.
Title: Closure (tentative)
What is it? This is a sequel to the fairly dark sequel that I wrote to rhymer23's "Types of Intelligence". This one is darker yet.
How far along is it? 1600 words
Chances of completion: Depends on how depressed I want to be, really, and how much she minds me mucking about with her ideas, especially given what I tend to do with them.
What happened? I'll be perfectly honest here: After reading one too many stories (in a number of fandoms) in which a character is rescued from horrible torture and is back on to shiny canon-standard quality after a few months of therapy, I wanted to write a story in which they're so profoundly messed up that they can't even cope with normal life, let alone life in the Pegasus Galaxy (sort of a la River Tam). It's hard to write an idea that's so profoundly depressing, though.