Self Indulgent Rambings on my Writing

[grenegome]

This post is me wittering on about my fic. About posting, writing, prompts, commenting, kink memes and kink bingo. Mostly Dresden Files with a pit stop for the Mentalist:

I hate posting fic. Not in a will people like this/will they comment kind of way, but in a copypasting/remember the headings/is this too long for the character limit/where do I put a chapter break/remember to link to all the chapters/have I done the cut-tag right/what the hell size font is this/oh crap tags kind of way. Essentially, it’s fiddly, and I’m a deeply lazy person with a fundamental objection to the kind of careful checking I need to do to make sure I don’t cock everything up. And sometimes I cock it up anyway :-D

I’ve been wondering if posting to the AO3 instead would solve some of this fussing (I’ve never tried it, but if it’s set up by fans specifically for the purpose of posting fic, it MUST be more user friendly). But I have a sneaking suspicion that people comment less there? (And I’m a shameless comment whore, regardless of content. Seriously, you can just be pointing out I’ve abused punctuation and I’ll light up.) I may be entirely misguided in that assumption though. But the kind of commenting I like, that can segue off topic into fannish squee about something completely irrelevant, I kind of feel I shouldn’t indulge in that there. Because it isn’t a blogging forum, it’s an archive for stories and feedback on those stories. I think. Perhaps people do use it in this way and I just haven’t hung out there enough to notice.

I shall continue in my pondering.

Ficcishness

My Redjohnloves you fic seems to actually be done on time. Which is a little, well, scary to be honest. I’m amused that I wrote for the prompt that I took one look at and thought “can’t do that”. Except I kept coming back to the idea. And poking it. And then somehow it got written.


Writing to prompts (and kinkmemes!)

It’s confirmed something about my writing that should have sunk in from my time lurking on the Mentalist kink meme where I discovered I REALLY like writing to prompts. Even (especially?) ones I might struggle with. Because the prompt is the essence of all the times I’ve spent ploughing through google and LJ and fic archives looking for a particular set up or a particular pairing, more trying to hit narrative kinks than sexual ones (though, hey, they overlap, I’m not fooling anybody :-D). And just being able to throw that particular query out there with a “pretty please” and crossed fingers, and see what you get? That’s really cool. Being the answer to another fan’s particular craving? Yeah, I really like that. I’ve always enjoyed giving people presents, even just little here’s-a-chocolate-bar things. And, frankly, it gives me the opportunity to justify things I wouldn’t always write. Instead of being honest and saying here’s something a little mad or disturbing that popped into my head, I get to say hey, here’s a prompt I filled! Which, thinking about it, may actually be a little cowardly. Hmm.

I’ve tried to envision a Dresden Files kink meme (though I doubt we’re a large enough fandom to sustain one?) and the sheer volume of possibilities kind of floored me. Because the cast is huge and the canon is cracktastic and I would request so very many badfic setups that were entirely id-indulgent.

Kink bingo (Dresden Files)

I’m not going to get a bingo, but I started with lowered expectations, figuring I just wanted to post something in the amnesty period, and I think it’ll actually be a couple of somethings. I’ve got Harry/original!Luccio for authority figures, which features no actual sex but just seems to cover the ground leading up to it. It’ll need a massive edit, because I want to re-read all the books before I commit more Dresden fic. There are some voices I’m not clear on (Luccio, Ramirez) and really, this is a ridiculous canon to be playing in after only one read through.

Harry/Marcone has half a fic written that’d fit either penance or obedience. There were bits of ideas for a genderswap for body modification, but that was threatening to blow out of proportion and has just been done really well by lightgetsin . I was kind of using it as a vehicle for exploring issues of trust and paranoia between Harry and Marcone in an established relationship, and also include a gratuitous amount of Hendricks being BFFs with Marcone and trying to give Harry a heads up about not being an entirely shit boyfriend (It’s his birthday on Friday, Dresden). So, I might run with it, or I might pull those issues out and graft them on to a different plot, I don’t know. And, uh, if I did write epic and ridiculous plot, it’s STILL going to be set before Changes. Like Harry, I get set in my ways. I was fond of the status-quo damn it, and I didn’t find the books early enough to have my fill of playing in it. Though post-Changes has equal and different kinds of awesome awaiting me, I’m sure.

 And, uh, I want to write Harry/Kincaid. For gunplay. But I keep backing away from that idea in terror. None of these would link up in such a way as to make a bingo for me, so I haven’t tried to get them down before the 31st. But yes, I think I’m going to be amusing myself in the amnesty period.

Comments

[lightgetsin.livejournal.com]

Every fandom needs more sexswap, it's a rule.

. I was kind of using it as a vehicle for exploring issues of trust and paranoia between Harry and Marcone in an established relationship

The actual point being OMG I want a story about this so so so bad.

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I'm now scared of accidentally copying you! (Though...it's fandom, we're about echoing ideas and reinterpreting and re-adapting, I am being silly). And to briefly repeat my flailing at you on AO3: SO AWESOME.

Harry's trust issues with Marcone, in this scenario...would involve not TELLING him he'd been turned into a girl, because it frells his magic up, and he's scared Marcone would either try and protect him or leap on the opportunity to achieve something in Chicago when Harry's out of the game. Except he doesn't stay out of the game, because he's Harry, and then he gets accidentally sort of abducted by Marcone who thinks Harry-as-a-girl was responsible for Harry's sudden disappearance. An idea I find far too hilarious for my own good.

[lightgetsin.livejournal.com]

Okay, that is hilarious. You have to do that!

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

:-D I'm poking at it every now and again, so I'll see where it goes!

[unsentimentalf]

AO3 is much easier to post to, but people comment far less often, in my experience, and their comments tend to be much briefer and less informative. I tend to crosspost, anyway. Because I might possibly get even more comments!

Know what you mean about posting. I always do a dummy run to my journal as my read-only first but it still takes ages to fiddle around with (although I am getting better at it.)

Never written to any kinkmemes/prompts. I think I'd find it extraordinarily difficult. But I have been enjoying the results of other people's ideas!

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

Crossposting (aside from the number of comments issue) does appeal to me, cos I like the stability AO3 offers fandom. The stories would still be there no matter what happened to my presence on LJ. But, yes, laziness has to be overcome first :-D

I do the read only thing too! Though last time I committed formatting craziness that didn't show up in the browser I'd done the dummy run in...well, at least I'm creatively incompetent?

Interesting, do you know why you'd find it difficult?

[unsentimentalf]

I think I start from a different sort of point when writing. It doesn't tend to be the sort of situation that can be briefly described; it's more the idea of setting this particular element of this character against an different characterisation of another. And without that I can't write anything that isn't cardboard. So it's those contrasts that spark a story, and then the plots and situations come out of that.

So I tend to look at the prompts and think, yes, that would be fun to read, but it doesn't give me any way to start writing. Possibly if I spent more time with them I'd find ones that did; I might try sometime.

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

That's intriguing, and oddly, I think most of my non-prompt derived fic starts in a similar manner, though rather than, say, a broad element of a character it'd be a particular manifestation of that character trait that's stuck in my head as a particular interaction. And then I have to write the story to justify the interaction. (In fact, I struggle writing porn because I have to know WHY everyone is in the bed and doing what they're doing, and how they got there.) I kind of struggle with plot, because for me it's an excuse to write the character interactions rather than the point of the story, whereas as a reader I'm like OMGWHATHAPPENSNEXT?

Prompts are an interesting exercise, even if you chose not to take them anywhere.

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

genderfuck, genderswap, sexswap: whatever colour you're looking at, i am waiting eagerly. ;) it's a really fantastic medium for discussion and exploration, plus it makes awesome stories when done well. also I was kind of using it as a vehicle for exploring issues of trust and paranoia between Harry and Marcone in an established relationship yes, please! the established relationship potential with those two, lemme tell you. but you already know. ;)

and oh man, dresden kink meme. it would be awesome, no? just for the fact that there are so many characters and so many possibilities. i get kind of overwhelmed by that every year come kink bingo time. BUT THERE ARE SO MANY, i say. one of these days, i'm going to attempt a blackout-essay. just because pretty much every kink has been hit in some way in the canon.

harry/original!luccio is a total favourite of mine i've never been able to give the time to write, and authority figures is pretty much the perfect square for that, i gotta say, so i am super pumped. prompts are really nice for honing ideas, i find. some big nebulous thing at the back of your head and finding a reason to pluck a few ideas out of it and make something new.

(harry/kincaid. *cough* kink bingo, you say. heavens.)

the amnesty period is one of the best things about bingo, i think. (and not just because there's one day and two fics left on my/our bingo.) there's the fun of trying to make a bingo, but all this time to play around in after without expectation, and with a greater capacity in some ways for really thoughtful and thorough exploration of ideas, characters, writing, kinks, etc.

also! posting. ugh. i have to block off at least an hour after a fic is done to read through it ONE LAST TIME and get it up at one place and READ THROUGH IT THERE WHAT CODING DID I FUCK UP and cross post to others, and then i always figure out something i've done wrong after everything's done anyway. "something" meaning "everything ever how did i mess that up?" of course.

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

prompts are really nice for honing ideas, i find. some big nebulous thing at the back of your head and finding a reason to pluck a few ideas out of it and make something new. THAT'S IT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING AND DIDN'T KNOW I WAS THINKING (how do you do that?).

A kink meme would be love. I half wanted to try and run one but, uh, realised that actually requires some level of organizational skill, so I'll stick with wishful thinking. And if you manage a black-out essay I will award you a virtual medal or something. That'd be epic.

...if your parenthetical coughing means you're writing Harry/Kincaid then there will be SO MUCH GLEE from me, so much.

Are you (and Shiplizard) aiming to hit a bingo as you're so close? (I was totally checking out your card yesterday to try and predict what you might be writing, hah. Not a stalker, honest.)

...I feel less of an idiot about posting now!

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

A kink meme would be love. I half wanted to try and run one but, uh, realised that actually requires some level of organizational skill, so I'll stick with wishful thinking.

haha, i know right? i would be willing to try, but i'd totally need to find a high functioning otherfandom one and stalk it for a while to see how it works. and i'd need a slow month at work or something. maybe! someday!

(*cough* *coughcoughcough*)

Are you (and Shiplizard) aiming to hit a bingo as you're so close? (I was totally checking out your card yesterday to try and predict what you might be writing, hah. Not a stalker, honest.)

(haa, awesome. any guesses?)

i think we are trying? we haven't entirely given in to defeat yet, at any rate. we're maybe a third of the way through each of the other two fics-- if we cut them short. you know. so we'll see. i'd really like to, but it's a busy time (see: one day. also, back to the work week.) so i won't be disappointed if we don't manage for the cut off. that said, i've managed to not manage, so to speak, for the past two rounds, so i think it would be great fun to get a bingo this year.

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...exhibitionism and oral fixation...I'm not actually brave enough to hazard a guess at a pairing because, well, you wrote Bob/Hendricks and I couldn't have predicted that in a million years....though coughing *may* indicate Harry/Kincaid which would be plausible for either kink. And, you know, awesome.

I'm torn between cheering you on for a bingo or going NO DON'T CUT THEM SHORT!!!11!!!1

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

(*coughcough* *cough (http://archiveofourown.org/works/110679)*)

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

*looks at pairings* OMFG AND THE ERLKING. Right...no...I'm going to be strong and get ready for work...argh.

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

oops. timing, sometimes i am pretty slick with it?

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

I was late for work BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. Also, reading explicit fic over my cheerios is an interesting way to start the day.

[dicaxscriptor.livejournal.com]

and also include a gratuitous amount of Hendricks being BFFs with Marcone and trying to give Harry a heads up about not being an entirely shit boyfriend (It’s his birthday on Friday, Dresden)

UM. YES, PLEASE. I would read the shit out of this. Also the Harry/Kincaid gunplay you mention. Write it, write it! *shamelessly enables*

Definitely agree on the pain-in-the-ass-ness of posting fic on LJ. I have spent more time figuring out LJ cuts and the bane of my existence, the Rich Text Editor, than I have spent actually posting fic. I don't even have a particular fondness for one-shots, I just shrink from having to code for a multi-chaptered fic.

Also, I put in my vote for a Dresden Files kink meme. The entire point of a kink meme is being indulgent in, for example, one's secret desire to see someone write Harry/Kincaid/Marcone. *cough* Or to have an excuse to write cracktastic pairings for other people, which is always a win-win situation.

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

I heart Hendricks.

The Rich Text Editor. It has destroyed my italics so many times. And the time I wanted to change the text I'd used in a cut? *sigh*

Vote noted :-D My desire for a Harry/Kincaid/Marcone PWP is in NO WAY subtle now, because that would be scorching *adds it to list of intriguing Dresden Files ideas*

[ladyofpride.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so screwed---with regards to the Redjohnlovesme ficathon thingy going on right now I mean. I have the actual fic written but I keep deleting and rewriting so many pieces of the darn thing, it's going to be a b***h to edit tonight. THAT, and I have to wrap up the ending (oh, UST, why can't I make you RST?). But other than that, I agree with you that writing/posting prompts is rather fun. I definitely want to do it again.

[grenegome.livejournal.com]

Mine's open at the moment, and I'm totally still poking at it (yay for last minute changes?) partly because, uh, I picked the prompt with the character I didn't know how to write and a pairing I haven't shipped before? But that has been its own kind of fun! Sometimes I suspect I'm a deeply contrary person.

*sends you productive fic writing vibes* Let me know if you need anyone to cast an eye over it or anything (if I'm awake that is, think I'm a few hours ahead of you!)