Ask the Author: ratherastory

[ratherastory]

So, um, hi!

I'm ratherastory, and I'm… not entirely sure what I'm doing. Bear with me, yes?

First off, thank you so much to lazy_daze for inviting me! It's an incredible honour to be up here with so many of the authors whose work turns me into a gibbering mess when I read it. (Uh, I mean that in a good way, obviously!)

Comments

[sailoreyes67]

I WILL THINK OF QUESTIONS, I SWEAR. MEANWHILE YOU HAVE REMINDED ME THAT I NEED TO REREAD ALL OF FUSION RIGHT NOW.

Um, in other words, I'm looking forward to this...

ETA: I'm completely convinced the writers of the show have read that 'verse. Because of the RUBBING THE HAND WITH THE THUMB THING.

So, how do you feel about that?

[ratherastory]

Hee! I'm so pleased you're still enjoying the 'verse!

I will say that Season 7, at the beginning anyway, made me a very happy fangirl. Because, yes, their post-Hell!Sam started out a lot like my post-Hell!Sam, complete with hand-rubbing. I wrote it as a self-soothing mechanism rather than what the show presented it as, which was a way to ground himself in reality through pain/Dean/whatever, but the gesture was the same. Self-soothing techniques are pretty common in people with mental illness/mood disorders/whatnot, so it seemed logical to include one when I was first writing Fusion.

I highly, highly doubt the writers of the show have even heard of me, let alone read anything I've written. But it's a nice thought. :)

[sailoreyes67]

♥ yeah, I guess it's different, but it's still visually similar. And then Dean broke his leg. *remains convinced*

What is your writing process like? I know this is incredibly common but I'm honestly curious. Do you brainstorm and then write straight through? Write straight through without really knowing where you're going? Write in bits and pieces? From beginning to end? In whatever order it comes? Get something half done and finish it years later? :P

[ratherastory]

I'm a "gardener," to quote George R. R. Martin. I plant some seeds, and then sort of see what grows in the soil. I prune and poke and weed, and eventually either I get a really beautiful plant, or else I get an awful, withered dead thing which never sees the light of day.

I work well with prompts, though not overly detailed ones. I start a lot of my stories start with a single idea in mind, sometimes a scene, sometimes just one sentence, or sometimes a really strong visual, and I write to that. I start at the beginning and write straight through: writing out of order does nothing for me and most often will result in my never finishing the story. Same goes for half-finished stories-they never get finished. *gazes sadly at long-forgotten Dresden Files fic*

[counteragent]

I haven't read as much of your oeuvre as I should! Thanks for the links.

So far I've never written anything over 3K, and even those seemed daunting in scope. How do you psych yourself up for long fic?

[ratherastory]

My pleasure!

I've never had trouble writing long stories. My trouble is FINISHING long stories. I have about three times as many unfinished drafts as I do actual posted long stories.

Often enough, I will start out writing a story I think will be short, and it ends up taking shape in my head as I write it, and becomes commensurately longer as I flesh out the details. I realize this is unhelpful, but I don't really have to psych myself up for long fic specifically. When I'm not really in a writing frame of mind I have to psych myself up no matter what, and when I am in a writing frame of mind, I can sometimes (on a good day) crank out 10k or more of a rough draft. It's all about momentum and motivation for me, rather than a question of size and length, if that makes any sense.

[counteragent]

That does make sense, thanks! :D

[hells_half_acre]

One thing I really suck at is editing. When it comes to fanfiction, I usually just write something and if I like it, I post it. If I don't like it, it gets scrapped and never touched again.

I'm always curious with other fanfiction writers about what their editing habits are - or if they, like me, don't really have any.

So, yes, that's my question: Editing habits - Do you have them? Do you edit stories until they are good, or do you just throw ones that aren't working (even if you like the concept) into a scrap pile?

[ratherastory]

I don't have editing habits, no. I should, because when I do edit a story and/or have it beta'd, it comes out invariably better than my first draft. Generally, though, I write a story, glance over it a couple of times to weed out typos and really glaring errors, and slap it up on my LJ. If a story isn't working it usually gets scrapped, though sometimes it gets resurrected in a different form a few months down the line.

[cherokee1]

I really have enjoyed "Fusion". I go back and reread it often, even though I am not a
big whump fan. The domestic angle is what does it for me.
Are you working on any original fic?
What do you think about the fanfic folk that were able to publish their stuff by
filing off the numbers and retrofitting names?
Would that be something that you could or would do?
thank you.
C

[ratherastory]

The domestic angle is probably my favourite part of Fusion as well, though like I said, I am a big fan of the whump.

I am working (slowly) on original fic. I have some original stuff floating around the internet, and I'm hoping to have a novel ready for submission for publication before the end of the year.

I have a few friends who write original fic and have also filed the serial numbers off their fanfic with a good degree of success. I figure if they can manage that and make the story a strong one that can stand on its own without the accompanying baggage of the show/book/movie it was based on, then more power to the author! I've read some very good stories that started out as, say, a J2 AU. A good story is a good story, regardless of its origins. Occasionally I wonder just how the hell something ever got published, but then I wonder that about a lot of fiction that got published that didn't start out as fanfic. :P

[harrigan]

Hmmmm... is there anything you used to do in your writing, that you feel you've learned over time not to do, or learned how to do better?

[ratherastory]

I've certainly learned to hone my craft over the years. While it obviously still needs improvement (everyone's art can always be improved, it's a law of nature), I've learned that it's okay and even necessary for characters to be flawed in ways that I don't like and that the readers won't like either. My heroes and protagonists used to be annoyingly unflawed, but it's not necessary for a character to be liked in order to be a good character. Three-dimensional characters are far more interesting than two-dimensional ones, and have more room to grow and change and influence a story.

My writing has also improved with time in general. It flows a little better, I have a better grasp of narrative and description and dialogue. This is all stuff that comes with practice and with having good betas and by reading other people's prose that you admire. There's no one specific thing I can point out that I deliberately changed, it was more of an organic process.

I hope that answers your question! If not, let me know and I'll try again. :)