Wool-gathering to the infinite degree
So! I think that with everything in the office-drama easing up, I might get to take a mini-vacay next week during Spring Break!! \o/ Like I'm thinking of taking off starting Wednesday or Thursday, it's too late to leave the city, but I'm sure something fun will come up. Like maybe a trip to the Museum of Natural History or hanging with the Bean.
And here's what I did instead of work today (my brain is FRIED, I need to ease up on the stresscakes for a while). nomelon's fanfiction writer's meme!
1. How about a brief introduction?
'Allo! I'm memphis86 or Memphis or Memfishy or Mem or whatever. I have on a pretty skirt today and I just drank bottle of sugary coffee starbucksy happiness. WOOO!
I live in New York City, and I'm kind of sheltered in that I haven't really lived anywhere else. I've been writing since I can remember, I started out really only wanting to do poetry, and it's been my main focus for a long time. Fandom has been what made me try out short/long fiction. I've been lurking in fandom ever since I figured out the internet, and writing stuff on the side but never really wanting to share it. Supernatural is the first fandom I've been in, and thus far I like it. :D
2. What got you into fan fiction?
Comics! DCU specifically, but the more I read the more I crossed over into Marvel fiction as well. I lurked on Young Justice boards and such for EVER, it was so lame, I just kinda stood by and was too shy to do anything outside of stuff I wrote for myself. DCU was also where I discovered slash, it was a Kon/Tim fic and I was talking about this the other day, how I started blushing and getting all embarrassed for reading it because BOYS TOUCHING LIPS TOGETHER ZOMG SCANDALOUS! Ahahaha, if I only knew...
3. What kind of fan fiction do you write?
Within SPN and J2: I write slash, I write PWP I think? I write romance and humor and sometimes I try for moody or darker pieces and sometimes I do secret writing exercises where I set up challenges for myself.
4. Do you write for the same pairings/characters?
Yeah I guess I'm pretty OTPish? Sam/Dean and Jensen/Jared make me happy. But I read and enjoy other slash and non-slash pairings. Like in SPN I have a major crush on Hendricksen/Dean, and for like 5 minutes before my dreams were CRUSHED I wanted to write Cole/13 (from House). And now I still want Cole/13 but maybe Cole/Kutner... D:
5. What is your most popular fic/muse and why do you think people like it so?
Um, I guess A Priori would fall under this category. I guess people like it because it's got one of those twisty endings? And it's fairly long. I don't know what makes it work so well or better than anything else, I mean I'm satisfied with it, and that's enough for me. Although I don't like to think about it that much since I can get really critical of my own stuff when I keep on working and re-working it; and wind up hating it. It is what it is.
6. Forget other people, what is the fanfic/post/prompt you've written that you're most proud of?
Okay, I'm gonna do three. First I'm really proud of Body & Soul because it was a LONG fic to write, and like 90% of it was hand-written and it was such a struggle to force myself to transcribe it. It was a culmination of a lot of things, not only the story in my head but I added in a lot of things from my thesis on the parts of the soul, and bunch of other pretentious things. Also my middle name (well, one of them) is hidden in the story. Yeah I like to pretend I'm Francis Bacon. :D
Next is a short piece I wrote for the Eight Cozy Nights thing I did over Hanukkah last year. Faded From The Winter is my favorite and God, I really still love it to pieces. I can't listen to the Iron and Wine song without wanting to go back to this, there's like this whole universe of fugue-state!Dean in my head that I want to write. I'm really intrigued by the concept of a fugue state, even just the word "fugue", really has got to be one of my favorite themes.
Lastly, Bless My Soul was the first RPS, and first SPN-related thing I ever, EVER wrote. It wasn't what I first posted, but it's what inspired me to actually join in fandom and stop lurking. I dunno, I'm still kind of in love with the idea. And well, it's something I look at when I want to take stock of how far I've come along.
7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What aspects do you struggle with?
Wow, um, it depends. I find dialogue easy (almost to my detriment because I think I still like writing plays better than short stories), I find things in-between hard? I hate that I repeat myself a lot, and write in cyclical or patterned sections (again, I like writing poetry best of all, and I often have stanzas that cycle or echo each other). I struggle with semicolons, even though I sing their praises all the time. I struggle with well, I don't have a lot of free time during my conscious hours to write, so I get a lot of garbled stuff written most of the time. Words transpose themselves, etc.
8. Write a few sentences of your favourite pairing or character.
Okay, totally basing this on something nomelon said the other day:
Dean sauntered into his office, trying to drop his jacket on the stack of books by the door but instead it fell to the ground. In fact, it fell on the feet of the coat rack he thinks he remembers getting at one point.
"What the...?" Dean looked from the side of the door, out into the full expanse of his office. He hadn't realized just how big it was, without all the stacks and stacks of books and papers cluttering his desk (he could actually see the top of his desk! It was a nice color!) Everything was shelved, alphabetized and, were those Dewey decimals written in on little circular labels? Dean examined his desk further, everything in folders and his filing cabinets! He opened them to see hanging folders with tabs noting their contents.
Dean had to sit down, take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose for a moment. It really was all too much to take in and then he walked in. Messy brown hair, pinstripe shirt and jeans, a pencil and a pen behind each ear and a sharpie marker in between his teeth, carrying what looked like another box of folders.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, letting the sharpie drop before putting down the box to one side and rubbing his hands quickly on his jeans and walking towards the desk, his hand out to shake Dean's. "Hi, I'm Sam, I'm the grad student they assigned-"
"You cleaned my office."
"Yeah, I used to work at the library, and they always said I was pretty good at filing, I like having a clean workspa-"
"I have a lecture in an hour on Black Dog myths, and I need my notes."
"It's filed in European mythology, under 'B'. Do you need the card catalog? I uploaded it to your laptop, actually-"
"Just what the hell are you doing? I finally get this place all messed up the way I like it and then you come around and clean it out!!"
"I, I was just," Sam's face fell. Some of the other teachers and students in the hall were whispering, looking concerned as Professor Winchester started to blow his gasket.
"Close that door!" Dean barked and Sam turned, shutting it quickly and then looking back at Dean with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"You could've said that in the first place, Jerk." Sam's smiling, walking towards the desk as Dean shucks out of his jacket and pulls the shade down.
"Bitch, get over here." And Dean pulls Sam in, the both climb onto the desk and Dean pushes Sam down so he can crawl on him, straddling his hips.
"See, isn't it better than me sitting on a pile of essays?"
"Awww, but I like you all messy with paperclips in your hair and a stapler under your ass."
"Fuck you."
"Like I said, I've got an hour until my lecture," Dean says as he grins and starts unzipping the fly of Sam's jeans.
end.
OMG I am posting this without checking it because I'm totally just pulling that out of nothing...
9. Are there any fan fiction trends/clichés you hate?
Oh man, off the top of my head? I don't like when a top/bottom trend is so popular that it becomes fanon, I have a bit of OCD when it comes to making things balance out so I like writing switches in general. I guess I don't like purple prose in sex scenes, or ridiculous names for "cock". I don't like epithets (the shorter Winchester, the more Sasquatchian fellow, etc.), and I'm sure there's more, I just can't think of them right now.
10. Are you guilty of any of the trends you hate?
Definitely purple prose D:
11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you still write for it?
Probably was for comics fandom, and that stuff never left my spiral notebook. I might write comics stuff someday, I'd love to try my hand at some Batfic, X-men, or Titans stuff or even postboot LoSH (Lyle Norg is my boo, yo). I still have stupid love for Northstar/Iceman and Kon/Tim.
12. Name your OTPs and explain what it is about them you love to write.
Sam/Dean: Oh my GOD. The angst and the chemistry and I love DEAN SO FREAKING HARD. I love his humor and his brave face in the wake of DOOM. I love SamandDean and how they fit together and how they NEED and WANT and it all gets crossed together. I love how they twine their threads together.
J2: BOYS ZOMG BOYS. They are so full of fluffy love and I loooooove a good AU of them, whether it's a movie plot or of one's own creation or WHATEVER. I love how they are together and I love how everyone else interprets them. I like to think of Sam and Dean as having a more established boundary, and J2 is like the playground where you can color outside the lines. (Although, I work better with boundaries which is probably why I write more SPN than RPS).
Dean/Food: I'm a foodie (DUH). I love food. I love Dean loving food. I want Dean to go on Top Chef and judge them all. ZOMG Top Chef is coming back!! :D
Sam/Nietzsche: Heeeeeee... Or Sam/Morrissey.
Dean/Hendricksen: OMG. KINKY. Handcuffs and guns and puffed-out chests and comparing war wounds and I HATE YOU SHOW for killing my OTP. I wanna write some massive AU where Dean goes "legit" and becomes an Elliot Stabler-like detective and Vic is his partner and they fight crime in NYC and are in LOVE and live in the same apartment and Sam shows up one day and he's got grave dust on his shoulders and Vicky pulls a gun on him and he's like "Where's Dean?" and Dean walks in and says "Sam?" and lskfhladskjhfaljdfgb!!! *waaaaaants*
Gordbrick: OH LIKE YOU WEREN'T THINKING IT TOO.
13. What would you call your writing style?
Ummm, well I've heard it be called un-emotional *cough*cough*TWIN*cough*, but I don't really have a name for it, maybe for my humor stuff it's sarcastic? Tongue-in-cheek? And vampires? I guess it's dialogue-driven and character-focused for the most part. I think of some of my more experimental stuff as moody, dreamy or disassociated. It's slash deconstructionism. :D
14. Do you read other people's writing? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
PORN. Anything where Gordon shows up. I have a list of "never-fail" writers that I read right away when they post. Again, I stick to my OTP's mostly, and I really do get drawn in by an interesting title or summary. I like slash fic and porn WITH a plot. I like it when Jensen Ackles wears glasses and gets flustered. I love it when Sam is Sammy and pouts but gets his Dean-lovin' in the end. I like things that have a twist in the end, Margaret Atwood is my favorite author of all time and she does that a lot.
15. Name one thing you'd love to write but have been too afraid or too shy to do.
There's this one fic I have on my secret fic progress post, babyfic with Dean/OFCs and Dean/OMC and it's one of those things I WANT to talk about but can't without ruining the whole thing so I'm just either going to write it or leave it alone. :/
That and, um... mpreg... QUIET ALL OF YOU.
16. Do you feel uncomfortable taking criticism? Or worse, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?
I have SUCH a bloated ego about my intellect and my writing prowess; but since it's what got me through being really depressed and full of self-hate, I don't care about being called pretentious or egotistical. I wear them like badges of honor. :)
I sometimes do have to lick my wounds at harsh criticism, and I'm so used to philosophy, wanting to argue back and prove my point, that it can be difficult. But lately I've been seriously trying to chill, and now when I get a harsh or striking comment from a beta, I just take a deep breath, and really analyze what they're saying. If I see their point, I'll change it, if I disagree, I won't. I have to take myself out of the academic mindset when I get criticism because it's just FIC, it's not 20% of my final grade. Most of the time I'll just go "*facepalm* OMG I can't believe I did that!!"
When I was younger and waaaay more insecure, I'd CRY when people criticized my writing, I like to think I've moved on!!
17. When you write, is there anything that helps?
MUSIC. Most of my fics have soundtracks because I'm making them as I write. I need to have music that inspires me and keeps me concentrating. I need music always otherwise I get distracted. I need music to just sort of grip me and keep me focused.
Also, free time and a good night's sleep helps. And good lighting, I get headaches when the light in a room isn't good.
18. What inspires you?
Music! Again, this is why I soundtrack so much. I get ideas from songs, books, news articles, sometimes just a turn of phrase. Most of my ideas come to me in the early morning, when I'm not quite awake yet, and not quite dreaming.
19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fan fiction experiences and you as a writer?
Wow. Um, positive. Really positive, I came into fandom telling myself not to take it seriously, and if it stopped being fun, I'd stop doing it. I've made a lot of amazing friends, read some great stuff, and I love it! I feel like this is something that I can do to escape when I need to not be in my stress-space for a while.
As a writer? It's fulfilling in the sense that I can see myself improving with practice, and considering feedback, trying to stop bad habits, or break them. But I do feel like I've become a little more disassociated from my original stuff, and I may take some time to work on that after Big Bang and Sweet Charity is done. I love writing poetry more than anything else, really.
If you read that whole damn thing, you deserve a CAKE.
And here's what I did instead of work today (my brain is FRIED, I need to ease up on the stresscakes for a while). nomelon's fanfiction writer's meme!
1. How about a brief introduction?
'Allo! I'm memphis86 or Memphis or Memfishy or Mem or whatever. I have on a pretty skirt today and I just drank bottle of sugary coffee starbucksy happiness. WOOO!
I live in New York City, and I'm kind of sheltered in that I haven't really lived anywhere else. I've been writing since I can remember, I started out really only wanting to do poetry, and it's been my main focus for a long time. Fandom has been what made me try out short/long fiction. I've been lurking in fandom ever since I figured out the internet, and writing stuff on the side but never really wanting to share it. Supernatural is the first fandom I've been in, and thus far I like it. :D
2. What got you into fan fiction?
Comics! DCU specifically, but the more I read the more I crossed over into Marvel fiction as well. I lurked on Young Justice boards and such for EVER, it was so lame, I just kinda stood by and was too shy to do anything outside of stuff I wrote for myself. DCU was also where I discovered slash, it was a Kon/Tim fic and I was talking about this the other day, how I started blushing and getting all embarrassed for reading it because BOYS TOUCHING LIPS TOGETHER ZOMG SCANDALOUS! Ahahaha, if I only knew...
3. What kind of fan fiction do you write?
Within SPN and J2: I write slash, I write PWP I think? I write romance and humor and sometimes I try for moody or darker pieces and sometimes I do secret writing exercises where I set up challenges for myself.
4. Do you write for the same pairings/characters?
Yeah I guess I'm pretty OTPish? Sam/Dean and Jensen/Jared make me happy. But I read and enjoy other slash and non-slash pairings. Like in SPN I have a major crush on Hendricksen/Dean, and for like 5 minutes before my dreams were CRUSHED I wanted to write Cole/13 (from House). And now I still want Cole/13 but maybe Cole/Kutner... D:
5. What is your most popular fic/muse and why do you think people like it so?
Um, I guess A Priori would fall under this category. I guess people like it because it's got one of those twisty endings? And it's fairly long. I don't know what makes it work so well or better than anything else, I mean I'm satisfied with it, and that's enough for me. Although I don't like to think about it that much since I can get really critical of my own stuff when I keep on working and re-working it; and wind up hating it. It is what it is.
6. Forget other people, what is the fanfic/post/prompt you've written that you're most proud of?
Okay, I'm gonna do three. First I'm really proud of Body & Soul because it was a LONG fic to write, and like 90% of it was hand-written and it was such a struggle to force myself to transcribe it. It was a culmination of a lot of things, not only the story in my head but I added in a lot of things from my thesis on the parts of the soul, and bunch of other pretentious things. Also my middle name (well, one of them) is hidden in the story. Yeah I like to pretend I'm Francis Bacon. :D
Next is a short piece I wrote for the Eight Cozy Nights thing I did over Hanukkah last year. Faded From The Winter is my favorite and God, I really still love it to pieces. I can't listen to the Iron and Wine song without wanting to go back to this, there's like this whole universe of fugue-state!Dean in my head that I want to write. I'm really intrigued by the concept of a fugue state, even just the word "fugue", really has got to be one of my favorite themes.
Lastly, Bless My Soul was the first RPS, and first SPN-related thing I ever, EVER wrote. It wasn't what I first posted, but it's what inspired me to actually join in fandom and stop lurking. I dunno, I'm still kind of in love with the idea. And well, it's something I look at when I want to take stock of how far I've come along.
7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What aspects do you struggle with?
Wow, um, it depends. I find dialogue easy (almost to my detriment because I think I still like writing plays better than short stories), I find things in-between hard? I hate that I repeat myself a lot, and write in cyclical or patterned sections (again, I like writing poetry best of all, and I often have stanzas that cycle or echo each other). I struggle with semicolons, even though I sing their praises all the time. I struggle with well, I don't have a lot of free time during my conscious hours to write, so I get a lot of garbled stuff written most of the time. Words transpose themselves, etc.
8. Write a few sentences of your favourite pairing or character.
Okay, totally basing this on something nomelon said the other day:
Dean sauntered into his office, trying to drop his jacket on the stack of books by the door but instead it fell to the ground. In fact, it fell on the feet of the coat rack he thinks he remembers getting at one point.
"What the...?" Dean looked from the side of the door, out into the full expanse of his office. He hadn't realized just how big it was, without all the stacks and stacks of books and papers cluttering his desk (he could actually see the top of his desk! It was a nice color!) Everything was shelved, alphabetized and, were those Dewey decimals written in on little circular labels? Dean examined his desk further, everything in folders and his filing cabinets! He opened them to see hanging folders with tabs noting their contents.
Dean had to sit down, take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose for a moment. It really was all too much to take in and then he walked in. Messy brown hair, pinstripe shirt and jeans, a pencil and a pen behind each ear and a sharpie marker in between his teeth, carrying what looked like another box of folders.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, letting the sharpie drop before putting down the box to one side and rubbing his hands quickly on his jeans and walking towards the desk, his hand out to shake Dean's. "Hi, I'm Sam, I'm the grad student they assigned-"
"You cleaned my office."
"Yeah, I used to work at the library, and they always said I was pretty good at filing, I like having a clean workspa-"
"I have a lecture in an hour on Black Dog myths, and I need my notes."
"It's filed in European mythology, under 'B'. Do you need the card catalog? I uploaded it to your laptop, actually-"
"Just what the hell are you doing? I finally get this place all messed up the way I like it and then you come around and clean it out!!"
"I, I was just," Sam's face fell. Some of the other teachers and students in the hall were whispering, looking concerned as Professor Winchester started to blow his gasket.
"Close that door!" Dean barked and Sam turned, shutting it quickly and then looking back at Dean with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"You could've said that in the first place, Jerk." Sam's smiling, walking towards the desk as Dean shucks out of his jacket and pulls the shade down.
"Bitch, get over here." And Dean pulls Sam in, the both climb onto the desk and Dean pushes Sam down so he can crawl on him, straddling his hips.
"See, isn't it better than me sitting on a pile of essays?"
"Awww, but I like you all messy with paperclips in your hair and a stapler under your ass."
"Fuck you."
"Like I said, I've got an hour until my lecture," Dean says as he grins and starts unzipping the fly of Sam's jeans.
end.
OMG I am posting this without checking it because I'm totally just pulling that out of nothing...
9. Are there any fan fiction trends/clichés you hate?
Oh man, off the top of my head? I don't like when a top/bottom trend is so popular that it becomes fanon, I have a bit of OCD when it comes to making things balance out so I like writing switches in general. I guess I don't like purple prose in sex scenes, or ridiculous names for "cock". I don't like epithets (the shorter Winchester, the more Sasquatchian fellow, etc.), and I'm sure there's more, I just can't think of them right now.
10. Are you guilty of any of the trends you hate?
Definitely purple prose D:
11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you still write for it?
Probably was for comics fandom, and that stuff never left my spiral notebook. I might write comics stuff someday, I'd love to try my hand at some Batfic, X-men, or Titans stuff or even postboot LoSH (Lyle Norg is my boo, yo). I still have stupid love for Northstar/Iceman and Kon/Tim.
12. Name your OTPs and explain what it is about them you love to write.
Sam/Dean: Oh my GOD. The angst and the chemistry and I love DEAN SO FREAKING HARD. I love his humor and his brave face in the wake of DOOM. I love SamandDean and how they fit together and how they NEED and WANT and it all gets crossed together. I love how they twine their threads together.
J2: BOYS ZOMG BOYS. They are so full of fluffy love and I loooooove a good AU of them, whether it's a movie plot or of one's own creation or WHATEVER. I love how they are together and I love how everyone else interprets them. I like to think of Sam and Dean as having a more established boundary, and J2 is like the playground where you can color outside the lines. (Although, I work better with boundaries which is probably why I write more SPN than RPS).
Dean/Food: I'm a foodie (DUH). I love food. I love Dean loving food. I want Dean to go on Top Chef and judge them all. ZOMG Top Chef is coming back!! :D
Sam/Nietzsche: Heeeeeee... Or Sam/Morrissey.
Dean/Hendricksen: OMG. KINKY. Handcuffs and guns and puffed-out chests and comparing war wounds and I HATE YOU SHOW for killing my OTP. I wanna write some massive AU where Dean goes "legit" and becomes an Elliot Stabler-like detective and Vic is his partner and they fight crime in NYC and are in LOVE and live in the same apartment and Sam shows up one day and he's got grave dust on his shoulders and Vicky pulls a gun on him and he's like "Where's Dean?" and Dean walks in and says "Sam?" and lskfhladskjhfaljdfgb!!! *waaaaaants*
Gordbrick: OH LIKE YOU WEREN'T THINKING IT TOO.
13. What would you call your writing style?
Ummm, well I've heard it be called un-emotional *cough*cough*TWIN*cough*, but I don't really have a name for it, maybe for my humor stuff it's sarcastic? Tongue-in-cheek? And vampires? I guess it's dialogue-driven and character-focused for the most part. I think of some of my more experimental stuff as moody, dreamy or disassociated. It's slash deconstructionism. :D
14. Do you read other people's writing? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
PORN. Anything where Gordon shows up. I have a list of "never-fail" writers that I read right away when they post. Again, I stick to my OTP's mostly, and I really do get drawn in by an interesting title or summary. I like slash fic and porn WITH a plot. I like it when Jensen Ackles wears glasses and gets flustered. I love it when Sam is Sammy and pouts but gets his Dean-lovin' in the end. I like things that have a twist in the end, Margaret Atwood is my favorite author of all time and she does that a lot.
15. Name one thing you'd love to write but have been too afraid or too shy to do.
There's this one fic I have on my secret fic progress post, babyfic with Dean/OFCs and Dean/OMC and it's one of those things I WANT to talk about but can't without ruining the whole thing so I'm just either going to write it or leave it alone. :/
That and, um... mpreg... QUIET ALL OF YOU.
16. Do you feel uncomfortable taking criticism? Or worse, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?
I have SUCH a bloated ego about my intellect and my writing prowess; but since it's what got me through being really depressed and full of self-hate, I don't care about being called pretentious or egotistical. I wear them like badges of honor. :)
I sometimes do have to lick my wounds at harsh criticism, and I'm so used to philosophy, wanting to argue back and prove my point, that it can be difficult. But lately I've been seriously trying to chill, and now when I get a harsh or striking comment from a beta, I just take a deep breath, and really analyze what they're saying. If I see their point, I'll change it, if I disagree, I won't. I have to take myself out of the academic mindset when I get criticism because it's just FIC, it's not 20% of my final grade. Most of the time I'll just go "*facepalm* OMG I can't believe I did that!!"
When I was younger and waaaay more insecure, I'd CRY when people criticized my writing, I like to think I've moved on!!
17. When you write, is there anything that helps?
MUSIC. Most of my fics have soundtracks because I'm making them as I write. I need to have music that inspires me and keeps me concentrating. I need music always otherwise I get distracted. I need music to just sort of grip me and keep me focused.
Also, free time and a good night's sleep helps. And good lighting, I get headaches when the light in a room isn't good.
18. What inspires you?
Music! Again, this is why I soundtrack so much. I get ideas from songs, books, news articles, sometimes just a turn of phrase. Most of my ideas come to me in the early morning, when I'm not quite awake yet, and not quite dreaming.
19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fan fiction experiences and you as a writer?
Wow. Um, positive. Really positive, I came into fandom telling myself not to take it seriously, and if it stopped being fun, I'd stop doing it. I've made a lot of amazing friends, read some great stuff, and I love it! I feel like this is something that I can do to escape when I need to not be in my stress-space for a while.
As a writer? It's fulfilling in the sense that I can see myself improving with practice, and considering feedback, trying to stop bad habits, or break them. But I do feel like I've become a little more disassociated from my original stuff, and I may take some time to work on that after Big Bang and Sweet Charity is done. I love writing poetry more than anything else, really.
If you read that whole damn thing, you deserve a CAKE.