How Your Fanfic Sausage is Made

[lookninjas]

Okay, so here's the thing. The last story I posted, (All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues) is one that I have a lot of feelings about. It is also one that I spent a lot of time with -- I got up every morning for about three weeks and chipped away at it and chipped away at it. So now I find myself in this weird state of mind where it's all done

Comments

[megobsesses]

I've really been enjoying this verse and find it fascinating to see the depth and detail to your thought process and research. Know that we're out here, reading and thoroughly appreciating your work.

(And, of course, I've fallen in love with your Ben and Blaine, especially when together!)

[lookninjas]

I do know that you guys are out there, believe me. And I appreciate having you guys around. Thank you!

[killer_penguin]

ah, I have sooo many positive comments on your latest fic and the ben!verse in general.

but I thought you might appreciate hearing that you really spot on nailed writing about Alzheimer's disease from a caretakers perspective. Like to the point where if genders were changed and there wasn't the illegitimate child bit, it was kinda like reading excerpts from the last few months.

so if you were in any way worried that your writing on Alzheimer's might have been read as a something uninformed written for shock value, you could not be further from the truth. Really quite painfully spot on

[lookninjas]

Thank you so much. And, at the same time, I'm sorry.

[rena_librarian]

That thing, that I told you once, about how you seem to really have a grasp on what your characters would do but don't explain why until three stories later? And then you said it's because it doesn't always click into place for even you, until later? YOU'RE MAKING MY POINT FOR ME. =)

(And truthfully I haven't even read the Daddy Issues story yet; it's bookmarked for later because this has been a helluva week.)

[lookninjas]

No worries -- honestly, it's been a hell of a week for me, and I'm technically on "vacation" right now. (Oh, local community theater production of Dracula. How you kick my ass. You and your last minute costume crises, askjfijedjlksd.)

It's just weird, I guess. It's like, if each story were a reel from someone's home movies, there's twenty or thirty frames in each one that got spliced in from a different movie. And I see those frames, out-of-context, as I'm transcribing the story out, but I don't know where they come from until I pull out another reel and suddenly it all makes sense.

That is a very weird metaphor. Even for me.

[rena_librarian]

I saw that in your other entry, lol.

It feels like a very Lost-ian metaphor, what with the Orientation Films in the Dharma stations. =)

[flaming_muse]

So interesting; thank you for writing up this post!

I love the baby penguin conversation with them in this fic; it made me laugh and has stuck with me since I first read it. :)

[lookninjas]

Yeah, there was no way for me to not put that conversation in some story, sooner or later. I loved it way too much.

[midasu]

I love reading how you thought it all out. I love the Ben verse, it is complex and has, well, it has still waters running deep. I love how there is all this quiet but passionate emotion. I love how alike Blaine and Ben are.

[lookninjas]

Thank you so much!

I love how alike Blaine and Ben are.

What's funny is that although the broader strokes were intentional, a lot of the smaller things aren't. There would be moments where I'd write Ben reacting to something, and then take a step back and go "Huh. That was very Blaine-esque." (The part where he and Katie are talking about John being MIA, and Ben says "But he could still come back. There's still time" was the one that really stood out to me. It's that Blaine-esque optimism and sort of blind faith that got to me.)