Writing Meme

[thisbluespirit]

Found doing the rounds, although specifically snagged from honeynoir, because why not? (Apart from the fact that I'm not entirely sure I could answer all of these).


Give me a number and I'll answer the question (or try to anyway):

1. Which is your favorite of the fics you’ve written for [name of fandom]?
2. Favorite piece overall?
3. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?
4. Which has the most “you” in it, however you’d define that?
5. What is an image/set of images that you’re particularly proud of?
6. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?
7. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment?
8. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment?
9. Favorite character to write?
10. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you’ve written
11. If I’m showing off just one of your pieces to someone, which one should it be?
12. What WIPs do you have going now? Are you excited about them?
13. Are there any things that might have happened in any of your stories, but you changed them at the last minute? (So-and-so dies, they don’t actually kiss, main character has long extended ballet-based dream sequence, etc.)
14. Would you want to write canon for any of your fandoms (like be hired by showrunner to do an episode)? Which one?
15. Does font matter to you when you’re writing a draft?
16. 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.
17. Any mean comments? How’d you deal with it? Who laid the smackdown?
18. If you could go back and revise one of your older stories, which would it be?
19. Do you make up scenes at work/on the bus/at the gym? Who are the characters that pop up the most? Do you write them down?
20. Go nuts, and talk about writing. Or write me a little ficlet-whatsit using a character/image/line I shall now specify—

Comments

[john_amend_all]

I'd be interested to hear your answer to 7.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I'd like to think any I'm aware of have been deleted or rewritten by now, but there are plenty, really - just I try not to look at them or think about them too much until I've got brain to fix them. I'd delete more fics if they didn't have reviews.

I suppose I never could get chapter 1 of Strangers at Fairhurst to my satisfaction, but after you've been trying to rewrite it for 9 years, there does come a point where you just give up. But there's definitely still something off about the opening.

[aralias]

what about number 10?

[thisbluespirit]

I have a brain like a sieve. I mean there have been many lines of dialogue that I at least thought were witty/great at the time, but I forget.

I think, even though it's not especially witty or probably memorable to anyone else, I am still pleased with the bit in Of Elements and Existence where Steel has been having a conversation with Death and then says, "Not very helpful, are you?" Because I think that is the most essentially Steel thing I have written in what has amounted to a scary no. of words.

ETA: And someone asked me this over on LJ, too. I'll see if I can find something else... :-)

[honeynoir]

2?

[thisbluespirit]

2. Favorite piece overall?

Sorry about the length of time I've been taking to reply - this is by far the hardest question!

I mean, I write stories, and I'll like them a lot (or not) and then I come back to them and wince (or not) - and it varies. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

My favourite story in terms of being the most fun to write was How The West Was Lost (in which the Doctor and the Brigadier ended up in Carry On Cowboy), that being the only long story I've ever been truly sad to finish. Maybe if I think "best", it'd have to be A Gallifreyan At Blandings (in which Ten is Lord Emsworth's latest secretary, for Reasons). Because pastiching Wodehouse is a crazy thing to do, and I pulled it off. (I'd say I look at it and think "who wrote this?" except, I know it was me, because I remember spending two weeks plotting it out, working out the Emsworth's family tree via Wikipedia and reading nothing but Wodehouse and then two days typing it up as fast as I could.)

But those were both before I was ill and feel like a long time ago (and are too long for me to look at much), as do most of the rest, so now I don't know. Maybe there was a darkness, call it solitude, obscure and sad as it is (for Joan Aiken's Midnight Is A Place), or more cheerfully and briefly, The Rose Garden (a Sapphire/Silver/Steel moment in sunshine I wrote for kaffy_r for fandom_stocking).

But ask me tomorrow, and I'll probably say something different. (Don't ask me tomorrow! ;-p)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

14 - interested in your answers for Sapphire & Steel or Doctor Who.

[thisbluespirit]

14. Would you want to write canon for any of your fandoms (like be hired by showrunner to do an episode)? Which one?

Not just at the moment for obvious reasons, but it would be pretty amazing for DW. I think it'd have to be Big Finish, because otherwise I'd have to leave the internet because everyone would hate me, so that would be sad. But yay! Unlikely, but anyway, yay! \o/

As for S&S, much as I have enjoyed the audios I've heard, I think really only PJ Hammond can write it properly. Whenever anyone else does it, it inevitably loses some of that uncompromising weirdness.

However, it has to be said, that in this hypothetical future where I am well and writing for Big Finish, if they suddenly decided to make some more S&S and wanted me to write one with Silver in... well, if David Collings ever read words I wrote aloud, I would die of some kind of mixture of happiness and probably embarrassment.

:-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh. I thought the S&S audios were brilliantly done. But apparently I'm easily satisfied.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, I don't mean they were bad - and remember, I've still only heard 4 of them! And I liked them and want to listen to the rest as well.

But there is something in the way that PJ Hammond writes S&S that isn't there even in Assignment 5 - everyone else just writes something that is inevitably more conventional as a narrative. It's hard to explain quite what it is, but so much about S&S is deliberately wrong and yet it still works, or that's why it works - but for someone else to copy that just seems too difficult - there's something really unique about it.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I see.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, you know I enjoy the audios! And I write reams of fanfic - but I'm still aware of the difference. It's just unnatural to most of us to write something that doesn't make sense - in a way that isn't bad writing.

It's one of the things that I adore about it - it is so very weird and unlike anything else. I love looking at the ways everyone else has interpreted that, in fic, and through the audios (which gave me extra Silver ♥) but when you come back to the TV show, it's just something else again and more things than anyone else can quite make it. Which, is of course, partly the cast, too, but it's clear in A5 that it is v much PJ Hammond.

But I would write Silver, of course I would. :lol:

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I suppose I haven't really noticed PJH's lack in A5 because I've not seen the show often enough to register - I've only seen all 6 Assignments twice in total (with a span of about 30 years between).

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: Whereas I have been vidding/screencapping/rewatching my boxset rather obsessively of late. (I don't think anyone noticed though - it doesn't show much, does it? ;-D)

Some people prefer A5, of course, but there is a slightly different feel to it. I like pretty much all the S&S there is, but I still have to admit that the turn-my-head-inside-out freakiness aspect of it is owned by PJ Hammond!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

No, no one has noticed. There are no outward signs whatsoever...

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, good. :-D

[paranoidangel]

How about 9.

[thisbluespirit]

9. Favorite character to write?

Normally, I would say: I have so many! (Eight and Charley together, Tegan as a POV character, Six! Six is such fun to write. Nearly everyone from B7!)

Right at the moment though, there is undeniably a shorter answer: Silver. He is such a fun character to write in so many different ways. I think people might have noticed that by now, though.

[paranoidangel]

I was half expecting you to say an S&S character :)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

13, please. ;)

[thisbluespirit]

13. Are there any things that might have happened in any of your stories, but you changed them at the last minute? (So-and-so dies, they don’t actually kiss, main character has long extended ballet-based dream sequence, etc.)

Much as I'd like to claim I'm always having to delete long extended ballet-based dream sequences, the answer to this is one I think I've mentioned to you before: the original version of UNIT: Strange Weapons did not have Tilly in. However, as I wrote it, I felt the story had a big problem, because there was nothing quite emotive enough enough to propel Nat to make the choice he does at the end. (Trying to be vaguely non-spoilery here. For you, as I think I've said before he was supposed to die; that was the whole point of the story.) And when I was getting really frustrated with it, Tilly arrived out of the blue and it changed everything, as you know better than most.

What it says about me that I answer the problem of "this story is missing something!" with an unexpected displaced Victorian housemaid with ideas of her own, I don't know.

But probably to greater and lesser extents this is true of just about everything I've ever written in some way. I expect you'd agree?

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember you telling me this before (the thing about Tilly definitely - and I'd forgotten the thing about Nat, but now that you mention it, you did). I was hoping for some juicy revelations re Sgt Kennedy obviously. ;D Possibly involving him in a ballet-based dream sequence, in fact.

From having read all of the 80s UNIT stories and other things you've written, I would say that Tilly as a character and the way she's introduced to the story is the sort of thing I think of as very "you". You quite often make different choices to the ones I would make, but they always seem to work within the context of your stories. I mean, obviously that's because we're both individuals and not Cyberfanficcer or whatever, but it is true. I recall that time I was messing about and wrote that little ficlet with Bambera taking over from Colonel Ashcombe at the end of the 80s UNIT era, and you were sort of gently (and in a very nice way), going "this is wrong...this is wrong..." And I think that would still be the case even if I'd somehow known all of your private bits of "canon" about the OCs and that and got the "facts" right. It's just different perspectives and interests, I guess. Everybody's unique in that way, and a good thing it is too.

[thisbluespirit]

Sergeant Kennedy would like to refute these allegations about him doing any kind of dancing; this isn't the first time you've said such things. And, no - I was never going to kill Kennedy off, despite my teasing you about it.

And :lol:, now I feel bad, because first that last sentence of mine was merely me expressing myself v badly (I meant to say "which is just how it is with writing, I'm sure you'd agree?") but I am not sorry now, because, awww. Thank you. And secondly, because (very nicely, oh dear /o\) did I not say how THRILLED I was when you actually wrote that Bambera ficlet? Because I was. I think, though, I just will talk about the 1980s characters at the drop of a hat (and you will drop hats about the place, Fezes, too, no doubt) and also because there is a final story (which was v vague then and is a thing that exists in rough now) and I do seem to recall that something contradicted my extensive and private canon with regards to Evered. But it was v exciting to have someone write within that series. If I got too carried away with my favourite topic (1980s UNIT Ocs!) and didn't make that clear, I'm sorry. I was really hoping you were going to post it elsewhere, as you originally said, and then I could put it in my series and look insufferably smug.

But, on the other hand, I should probably not be insufferably smug; you're very wise. ;-p

And also thank you. That's v nice to hear.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

He said...! I know all about those UNIT sergeants and their leisure activities...

Yeah, I was trying to get a shocking confession out of you there to the effect that you had planned to do away with Sgt Kennedy at some point...whereas really I know that you probably aren't the type. Good to have suspicions finally cleared up, anyway. :p

And yes, as far as I remember you were very complimentary about the "ficlet" (which now that I dig it out from my hard drive I find is actually about 2,400 words, so not so very "-let" really). I think it does illustrate though how invested you can get in characters - and how familiar - without really meaning to. And when writers say things like that, I think a lot of people think they're being pretentious, but it's absolutely true. You come to know them and love them, even the baddies and that. I think my equivalent must be the retro-Torchwood characters, even if I didn't invent them really, most of them, I sort of know my versions of them all too well by now.

I think I was going to do a revised version to take into account the "factual" points you raised before posting it to Teaspoon or anywhere, but I find now I can't even find where I originally posted it and your comments, so:

http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=49836

Enjoy (I hope!) :D

And you know, I'm glad it's nice to hear, because I do mean all of it. And, you know, hope you do post that final story some time. I'll be waiting for it. :)

[thisbluespirit]

If it makes you feel better, I am the sort of evil person who knows full well she's not going to kill Sgt Kennedy and then winds you up about it? (I did originally mean to kill Evered in the last one but it didn't work out, but I'm pretty sure we've had a conversation about that before, too.)

And yay! \o/

(And don't worry, I've just looked at it - and yes, ficlet, not so much, :lol: And I think I wasn't sure when Evered died in my complicated post-series head-canon, but clearly it's now some time after this fic, anyway. And I was sure you'd mentioned Harrison's fate! Ha. Ahahahahaha. :-D)

Well, your TW characters have been entirely built up by you, and it's not just Gerald and Harriet - I really like Lydia and Douglas (and I've forgotten the name of the Whitehall type who I put briefly in the last UNIT fic) too. I'm sorry I can't read the latest. But my brain won't do lots of things I want to do. Also, I get ridiculously upset by things that didn't used to bother me - I don't think I dare read even your version of TW, given that TW always did trouble me quite a bit. :-( But I am glad to know it's coming along - it's a fantastic series. (It's just a shame Teaspoon's gone so quiet, isn't it? In this gap we've been having, no. of reviews have dropped right down. Bit of a blow to the ego, I have to say. Maybe you still get lots, but I get nothing mostly! Have you thought about posting them to AO3? When eve11 was talking about statistics a while back, we did notice that Torchwood fans seem to be a lot more evident there - I suppose there will be quite a few people who don't really watch DW as such, and so don't really want to use Teaspoon. Mind, all those multi-chaptered fics... 0_o)

:-)

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Hmm. 19! Or 11. !9 and 11? :D

[thisbluespirit]

19. Do you make up scenes at work/on the bus/at the gym? Who are the characters that pop up the most? Do you write them down?

I don't go to work, on the bus, or to the gym (ever, anyway)... but yes, of course. Who writes and doesn't think about writing at all sorts of times and places? Travelling in particular, of course; I always tried not to at work, except in breaks. And, yes, I always take a notebook with me so I can write ideas and scenes down. Sometimes I lose my pen, though, and it's distressing. ;-)

11. If I’m showing off just one of your pieces to someone, which one should it be?

Why, thank you, pitry! ;-) This is the hardest question of the lot, I think and depends who you're showing it to. I mean, do they like really obscure British TV? is there much point if not? And, like a lot of us, I've written some quite different things and, er, rather too much of it as well.

Maybe Of Elements and Existence (Discworld/S&S)? Because at the moment I still like it quite a bit, some sections are funny, some are even kind of serious about the two universes involved, and it's not something that anyone should ever have even thought about writing, so it should do. Also, not spoilery, even if not necessarily comprehensible to those who don't know at least one of the fandoms.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Huh - always carry an extra pen! :)

(mmm. Now I'm curious. How comprehensible would it be to someone who doesn't know S&S? :D)

[thisbluespirit]

I do carry spare pens; it's just that sometimes they all disappear at the same time!

Hmm, well, aside from the fact that S&S is supposed to be mysterious and incomprehensible, I would say it should be okay? It's v hard for me to say - the only way is for you to test my theory out really. ;-p

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

4, please!

[thisbluespirit]

4. Which has the most “you” in it, however you’d define that?

Good question. I'd like to think most of them weren't too devoid of "me" one way or the other, although fanfic - we're always trying to write somebody's else's characters, aren't we? Anyway, aside from an epic 1980s UNIT series (original characters always win in this category), which is probably the truest answer, but taken as a whole is well over 100,000 words of fic, apart from that, there's Robophobia (And How To Cure It)

It's an odd one to answer this question with because it was one of a jokey series of AUs I was writing for Doctor Who (because if Leela could leave to marry Andred, Peri Yrcanos and Mel run off with Glitz, companions could conceivably have married any other random guest character they ever met. And so I wrote daft AUs where they did. My sense of humour, it is strange, yes). Anyway, this one (theoretically Leela/Poul) ended up being oddly important to me because, as it turned it out, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings and love for Robots of Death and identify with Poul far too much. I love Robots of Death ridiculously, I really do. I have similar feelings for Image of the Fendahl, it's a bit of Chris Boucher thing, I suppose.

[doctorpancakes.livejournal.com]

Hmm... 10!

[thisbluespirit]

10. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you’ve written

Dialogue; always the fun bit! There are probably quite a lot of lines I have been much too pleased with at the time. I think, possibly this from Truth & Compromise (a Discworld story):

Sacharissa thought about this, and realised that she had left out an important preamble to her question. “Not, of course, that I want to be married to him. Of all the narrow-minded, arrogant, stubborn, superior, ing people I’ve ever met, he’s the worst! He treats me as if I’m the – the hat stand!”

Otto stopped. “Zer hat stand?” Then his long face cleared. “Ah. Zer vearing of zer garments of zer loved ones –zis is a mark of affection, yes? Is not zer giving of one’s coat a chivalric -?” He stopped as Sacharissa’s glare took effect.

“No!” she shot back. “What I mean is, he walks past me without so much as a good morning, even when,” said Sacharissa, gesturing downwards with one hand, “a person is wearing a very nice new dress, that certain other people happen to think is very flattering!”

“Oh, splendid, congratulations,” said Otto, shaking her hand.

Sacharissa blinked. “Otto?”

“Zat settles zer matter. You two must be married!”


And probably Six, on how not to get married to Boudica, although it's not actually dialogue:

How to object to proposal of marriage from a woman who would lead a revolt against the Romans, burn Londinium to the ground, and in defeat poison both her daughters and then kill herself? It called for tact and a delicate touch. Thank goodness he was currently enjoying an incarnation that excelled at both.

Because Six = ♥ :-)

[eve11]

LOL these are both awesome. Six!!!

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! :-)

[doctorpancakes.livejournal.com]

Oh man, those are flawless and adorable. You're awesome! :D

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thanks! :-)

[lolmac]

How about 17, if you don't mind getting into that?

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, you're right - this is a difficult topic, one I feel v hurt and slighted about. Because nobody has ever left me a mean/crazy comment. I feel so neglected and unpopular! :lol:

Silliness aside, I suspect my lack of die-hard shipping tendencies, the fact that I don't post to ff.net, and that I lurk in tiny fandoms accounts for it.

Of course, I've had negative reviews and constructive criticism, but I think all of them have been pretty fair and often useful - and I have my flist to thank on many occasions from saving me from looking even more stupid than usual.

The nearest I can come to this is a rather bizarre comment I once had on a DW fic years ago, although I think the person just had a bit of random sense of humour, really. It was my Spooks/DW crossover Anarchist Sprites and they... accused me of making my story up. Which I was, I couldn't deny it. (Specifically the alien anarchists, but still. I was. Or, at least, I definitely hope I was. Alien anarchists aren't a thing that you'd want to be Out There.)

But, yes. I'm still waiting to be stalked/attacked etc - and really v thankful that I seem to have escaped it. I've had a couple weird LJ comments and someone who stole my David Collings vid clips. Which was a turn of events so unlikely, it made my years (and I sorted it out with the v young vidder amicably enough, I think).

[liadt]

5 silver plates!

[thisbluespirit]

5. What is an image/set of images that you’re particularly proud of?

Why, this one!

Oh, they don't mean that kind of image; they mean writing. And, honestly, I get so conscious of using any sort of simile or metaphor in my writing, I really don't have a favourite. I just try my best and wait for other people's reactions to confirm whether it was a good or bad idea. I don't know why I do that - as if I only have a really prosaic license, I'm still waiting for the poetic one and someone'll turn me over to the authorities for an unwisely frilly simile.

[liadt]

Yes, your doorway picspam is worthy of many awards and plaudits across the land \o/.

[eve11]

3?

[thisbluespirit]

3. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

That's hard to say. The most difficult story I wrote was for reasons other than plot, although it was partly that too, was a NYR fic I wrote for Allo Allo - The INgenuity of Madame Edith - and I had trouble working out a suitably funny solution to my complicated problem (the Nicked Knockwursts had been nicked again) but the toughest thing was working out what to do about the accents, because Allo Allo works by comedy accents. I spent ages deliberating on accents or no accents in the text, deciding on them, listening to every character really hard and writing it up. And fairly soon after realised that it would be better if I hadn't done the accents after all. I really need to find it, revise it (minus the accents) and post it to AO3 someday.

Other than that, most plot problems are usually those gaps in the story where you have things worked out but haven't quite decided how to get from A to B, at least not without being boring.