Writerly Mumbo Jumbo
Pull The Shade Down
AU, DS, Fraser/RayK-ish
Yep.
I'm definitely going to miss (have already missed?) the deadline for the Mix and Match Challenge at ds_flashfiction. I just don't do deadlines. Not usually. And the story I've been writing for it just keeps growing, and Fraser is impossibly dark and creepy, and I just don't know where he came from. I'm switching him with Victoria by the way, and it's made his meeting up with RayK much more complicated. As if it wasn't complicated the first time around.
Hunh.
Scar, Stain, Superimpose
CSI, Nick/Greg
Dear Nick,
Why are you so well-adjusted?
From,
Confused
I don't feel like I've properly shown Nick's distress, especially considering the season finale, and the way he *did* react. Nick cries. He sheds tears in difficult situations, and people have sweet nicknames for him, and he's just one of those characters that the other characters honest-to-goodness love, and have a special weakness for (and I don't mean that in a sexual sense).
It's one of the things *I* love about him, and I'm sure some people hate about him. But I have a hard time writing that sort of sensitivity of his into the story, because I've put myself through so many 'don't make the men wimpy' drills, and I guess, despite knowing crying isn't wimpy, it appears to fall under that category, characterization-wise, fandom-wise.
And after reading through what I have so far of the mostly finished fic, I've realized that I've completely blown my characterization of him.
Yes, he's dealing with what has happened to him, but it doesn't feel like he's dealing with it enough. It feels like I mentioned it in passing.
He's focusing too much on reuniting with Greg, whom he's had a falling out with prior in the story, and apparently what happened in the season finale (I keep saying it like that because I don't want to spoil anyone), pushes him to the breaking point -- he wants that happiness back again, especially when he has so little of it, so I get why I wrote that in, why Greg represents love and health and beauty and happiness in his life. But...
Damn him, why is he not more fucked up right now? Where is his agonizing? Why isn't he feeling more psychologically disturbed?
I think it's time for a major re-write, and possibly, the use of more stylized writing (not purple prose) to bring out the angst. Weirdly, I think it needs more melodrama. Has anyone that is actually reading this ramble run into that problem before? Just me? ::sighs::
Sorry I Tried To Fuck You That Time, By Shawn Hunter
Boy Meets World, Cory/Shawn
Yeah, that's the title. It's a series of moments (vignettes) through Shawn's fifteenth year, an explanation for Shawn's behavior about Cory and Cory/Topanga. And no, there's no sex, the title says "I Tried".
This one's coming along okay, despite the fact that I haven't worked on it much in the past week. That comes from laziness, not a block. I just haven't felt like writing it. I do today though. Whee!
War Light
HP, Future-Fic, Harry/Ron
I re-read this with a fresh eye last night. I haven't worked on it in months, and think I know what my problem with it was. I had this image of the story in my mind, of this big one night in the middle of a war story - in three parts. Not epic, but novella-length, with a lot of King references about freedom, equality, and time. The execution of it was less great, because while part one moves, moves, moves, the second part drags, drags, drags.
And while it's perfectly okay to milk a scene for its intensity, to lengthen and pull at the scene to up the anticipation --- the second part has no need of that. It literally feels like filler. So why's it there in the first place? Can't I fit in all that expository information contained in part two somewhere within the action of part three?
I finally get what a lot of professional authors mean about 'moving pieces of your story around to see how they fit' --- sometimes they do this just for fun. Because you can find a better story, sometimes, with a different structure.
---
I'm going to try and work on all those today, just to get back into the groove, and since I'm watching the kids, and I've already cleaned the house (whee!). I'll give myself a feasible word count to write of each. Or, in the case of War Light, and Scar, Stain, Superimpose, reconstruct the narrative to make the story better.
Mostly, I'm talking out my ass. Is it weird that I've begun taking fanfiction writing so seriously this past year?
I don't FEEL pretentious. Thinking, talking, doing, and reading about writing is a good thing in my opinion. But sometimes I wonder if I come off that way, pretentious and self-absorbed, like I take what I'm doing too seriously, and people are going to point and laugh and say, "It's just fanfiction, get over yourself, stop worrying about the quality."
And I'll reply, "But, but... I like to."
You see, I want to be a writer. But I don't think I want to be a professional writer yet (not like I'm there, even, but I thought I should state this). At one point in my life, yes, but in the next ten years or so? No. I think I would be happy working a small-time job, living in a small apartment, in a small town, and writing whatever I want in my free time. I think, for a long time, that's going to be fanfiction. Because it makes me happy, and I enjoy it, and I'm not just using it to hone my writing skills (although almost any kind of writing has the latent effect of making you a better author).
/writerly ramble