It is now 'My questions about writing, let me ask you them!' time.

[giddy_london]

A succession of LJ comments last night went kind of like this:
giddy_london: Fic writing not going well. Richard doesn't seem to want to do anything more than sit in the bath and smoke and get progressively drunker, and that's not really much of a story. Bastard.
tigertale7: Fucking Hammond. He is a little bastard, I agree. He'll eventually offer a compromise, though.

Comments

[pippinmctaggart]

There are definitely characters I find difficult to write, but I think it's more because I know less about them and I'm not drawn to them as much. For example, Viggo, Sean Astin, Liv, Miranda. I don't know their voices, you know? And I find it hard to write a good, true, properly dark Snape, because, well, he's dark. And this makes me despair. I have no abilities outside of fluff and generic angst.

I'm curious to see how I do with writing Richard and James in our tig, though. Right now, I feel like I can't grasp their voices at all, but we'll see.

[giddy_london]

Oh, I would love to be able to write Viggo! I'm actually in the process of a Viggo/Elijah tig with a flister, but I'm writing Elijah in it since I'm so comfortable writing him. Viggo, though, is someone I've never been able to grasp. And Snape! I am terrified of writing Snape because I know I could never do him justice. Canon Snape is just... *hands* And there are already too many brilliant fanon Snapes for me to even think about it. Maybe I have a block against writing someone else's fictional characters, but no problem writing real people? But surely that makes no sense. (Also, I think your Snape in our tig is pretty fantastic!)

See, I think you'll be fine writing Richard and James. In a general sense, I find them both pretty easy to write, though obvs. less so the short one. Hee. And you would be able to write them if I could get off my ass and write something so that you could write! Bad self!

[not_a_lamb]

I think I find it easier to write characters with whom I relate more. For instance, Orlando, elijah, and Dom. I've never been able to write a proper Bean. Alas. And Sean A comes out like a bitchy twat. No demension. I really should sit down and just write Bean for a while, maybe VigBean, but I can't quite bring myself to knowingly produce bad fic.

For some reason I find Ron really hard to pin down as well. He always comes off as just a bunch of one-liners and he's so much more than that. You know what would be really disturbing but sort of interesting? Snape/Ron. If someone could make that work, I'd be so interested in that! (interested in a tig PipMCT? You could write Snape; I'd write Ron; we'd both grow as writers and never show it to anyone LOL!)

[giddy_london]

Oh, I definitely agree with you. I've always found it easy to write Elijah because we're of a similar age and have similar interests in a couple of areas. And, you know, I wrote him more or less every day for well over a year. I feel like I'm okay at Orlando and Dom, and even Bean. I could never write Astin because I have no interest in writing him, and he would totally be a bitchy twat, as you say, because I'd make him that way. I definitely encourage you to write Bean!

Poor Ron! I do think many fic writers use him as comic relief, but you're spot on when you say he's more than that. I didn't really care for him in the books or the films until OotP, which is when I think he really started to develop into a more three-dimensional person. And I'm sure if you went searching for Snape/Ron you'd find some!

[lhazzie]

I cannot for the life of me write Remus Lupin. And considering I'm making a start on a long-awaited Sirius/Remus epic, it's proving to be somewhat depressing.

I have lots of ideas about him, I know certain things I want to have happened in his life. I know what his parents are like. But I cannot see him in my head, never have been able to, can't hear him think and I'm not fully sure how he would react in any given situation.

(bloody hell that's some rain. ...It's raining. Heavily. On my skylight. Loudly.)

[tarteaucitron]

i struggle with lupin too! i have a feeling it's partly because his canon characterization went completely haywire in deathly hallows. i've lost all sense of who he is. :|

[lhazzie]

Argh stupid internet. I replied. Internet went off, couldn't post. Just gave up trying, and it came back on.

So... yeah. Well, I just about had a handle of what he thought and felt during school, why the others thought he might be a spy, and what he did after the Potters' died (involving lots of anonymous sex with men I think).

And then he goes and gets a girl knocked up. Which is something I never saw coming, so I must have been totally wrong etc etc.

Mostly though, it all stems from the fact that I can;t see him in my head. I know what everyone else looks like...

[giddy_london]

Oh! I'd no idea you were contemplating a Remus/Sirius epic! That is something I'd definitely like to see from you. I would think, though, that Remus is probably hard to write because there is so much more to him than was written in the books. There could be a lot of different things you could make up from what little you can piece together from canon. But maybe that's part of the trouble? That so much of his life and characterisation can be interpreted?

[swing_set]

I have Richard-trouble too!

I love Hammond, lovelovelove him, but I always feel that I get his voice wrong. I feel like I feminise him horribly, so as I write I make a conscious effort not to turn him into a coy schoolgirl and remind myself of his competitiveness, his sense of humour and his agressive side.
But then I worry about turning him into a parody of himself, which isn't fair either, at which point my brain dribbles out of my ears and I get in a sulk. It's very annoying. :P

[swing_set]

Also: If you knock up James, I will be your bitch forever. Or for at least a week.

[giddy_london]

Oh god. It's SO tempting! Could you imagine?

[swing_set]

Doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoooooiiiiiit. *encourages* XD

[tarteaucitron]

orlando i can't write. is he really dumb? is he just pretending? idk!

i could write snape till the cows come home. not because i identify with him - although it's a lovely way of channelling anger and general disparagement - but because there is so. much. there. i heart him for ever and then just a bit further.

[giddy_london]

See, I can write AU!Orlando, but that's it. And it's only because I got to make him a total smartypants lit geek. Otherwise, I'd have no idea how to go about it. He'd end up an idiot.

Tarte, I could read your Snape till the cows come home. There are a lot of wonderful fanon characterisations of Snape out there, but yours is one that really resonates with me and feels solid and real.

[tarteaucitron]

hee. orlando as a smart kid. surely the crackiest au ever! *applaud*

that is such a lovely thing to say! *blushblushblush*

[giddy_london]

You want smart!Orlando cracky AU? Have you seen Geek!Orlando? HILARIOUS.