Come As You're Not-The Post Party Meta Post

[karaokegal]

All righty then. If you participated and you have anything you'd like to say about the experience of Writing As You're Not, positive, negative or anywhere in between, now's the time. If you want to write a big-ass Meta and link or just muse away in the comments, be my guest.

Comments

[wiredblowfish]

Interesting. The, as you say, costume of writing would be really hard for me. Not even sure how that would go, but I really like reading about your process. What a cool writing challenge.

[karaokegal]

Well, it can really be anything: different pairing, style, fandom etc.

We all have comfortable ruts we fall into, so it's a good way of forcing myself out of that.

I also discovered today that it's also hard for me to write about my writing process. :)

[51stcenturyfox]

I didn't do the costume I considered... I just wrote a pairing that I have never written, and there was no emotional component to wrangle with, just situational sexy tiems, so it was a lot easier than yours.

What I was going to do was a Gwen-bash fic as a costume, because I think that's sort of hilariously opposite to my POV, but I coudn't do it. I couldn't let that be taken out of context, as if I actually MEANT it. I love Gwen, and actually, when she's in my fic, she's not perfect at all or anything. She makes mistakes and is not saintly, etc) but then again, nobody is saintly in this 'verse anyway. :)

[karaokegal]

Well you can never control how people are going to take the stories. Certain folks seem to have a fractured irony meter. I feel like my previous story, the AU/Post-CoE/"Gwen-bashing"/Fix-it fic, was completely misunderstood.

But it's always worth it to put take the leap.

Next year though, I think I'll take the "easy path" in terms of just picking a new fandom.

[donutsweeper]

It certainly does get harder as time goes on! I'm so glad I found out about the party so early in my LJ writing because it got me thinking outside the box and about crossovers. Suddenly a scene between Jack Harkness and John Sheppard popped into my head (a brief bit between the guy who got left behind and the man who hates losing people or leaving them behind) and before I knew it I had 12k of story. And long is rare for me, only my 2 big bangs have ever been longer. That was the first crossover I ever wrote and now have 85 under my belt!

Last year I struggled a bit to find a costume, but this year was REALLY hard, although, oddly enough, I wound up with two different costumes! I'm still not sure how that happened...

I love the idea behind the party- stepping out of your comfort zone can be difficult, but really enlightening for what you're actually capable of.

[karaokegal]

Two lovely costumes!

I'm glad the party has been a good outlet for you to learn things about yourself.

[lefaym]

I also knew that the only thing that would piss off certain segments of the fandom, in the unlikely even they read the story in the first place, more than reiterating Jack’s desire for Gwen, would be to have Ianto desire her as well.

It's funny that you say that, because I actually found that when I wrote Gwen/Ianto it was very well received (though perhaps that's just because people who didn't like the idea didn't read it).

As you know, I didn't manage to write the fic I was planning on doing (Jack/Gwen on Gwen's wedding night), although I think that's more because my writing mojo was pretty much dead for the two or three weeks leading up to Halloween, rather than any difficulties writing in costume -- in fact, I can see the whole fic pretty clearly in my mind (which made not being able to write it down pretty frustrating).

[karaokegal]

I'd still love to see you write some "real" Jack/Gwen. (I loved the CoE fic, but I know my reading of that one is slightly skewed and not particularly what you really intended.) So when and if that story sees the light of day, I'll be all over it. (And available for beta, should it be needed.)

Trust me love, there are people out there for whom the only thing more painful that admitting Jack's feelings for Gwen would be the idea of Ianto wanting her.

[lefaym]

I don't doubt that those people exist, but I think they generally avoid fics labelled "Gwen/Ianto", and there's still a large section of fandom quite open to the ship.

[samstjames]

I'm glad you didn't write Gwen using the spray. Jesus, that would've been like opening Pandoras Box...

I enjoyed the party tremendously and have to admit, that although I had had the idea of writing Jack/Gwen/Rhys PWP concerning the party from the start, I also had a lot of other ideas. And I think I'll keep most of them for next year ^^.

I think I well accomplished my goal of writing something that was angst-free.

In depths bla (friends-locked, sorry) about my further musings can be found here.

I read almost any story that took part in the challenge. I skipped the Merlin stories because really, I don't have the slightest clue about that stuff; or I read some of them, but didn't comment - sorry authors - because I had no idea how to judge them.
Reading all these very different things was interesting and very entertaining.

[karaokegal]

I agree the spray would have been a bad idea, although it still wouldn't have been rape. It can't make you do anything you didn't really want to, it just makes you realize that you wanted to in the first place. However, doing it this way, forced me to write better and smarter and really think through Ianto's motivations.

Back when I was going to use the spray, I was going to have him fall asleep and then Jack and Gwen would have a conversation where it turned out that the spray could only work once and Ianto would wake up with no idea what had happened or why. The idea there was irony and frustration for Jack, but clearly would have raised the rape screams even louder by being more like the effect of roofies.

[samstjames]

Oh yeah, absolutely.

I kind of share your thoughts on the spray - and that it wouldn't have been rape, I guess, although very, very questionable if you ask me - but it's still a bit of... tricky and a very delicate issue.

[karaokegal]

It also would have been a failure to "write as you're not" because I wanted a "happy ending" for Ianto as well.