Snowflake Challenge: Days 9 -12
12 Jan 2019 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kangeikoCatching up on a lot of days today as I am feeling quite a bit better. I'll start on Day 12 and work my way backwards to cover the missed days.
Day 12
In your own space, create your own challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
A million years ago, I did the 100 fandoms challenge - writing fic via a prompt table for 100 fandoms, most of which I'd never written for before. It was equal parts terrifying and hilarious, and I found a bunch of new fandoms as a result.
So, my challenge is - write a drabble or a small ficlet in a fandom you've never written for before. It doesn't have to be anything big, it doesn't have to be pretty, and it doesn't have to be a certain number of words. Just one ficlet, one new fandom. (And if you want to stretch yourself, 3 new ficlets in 3 new fandoms). And tell me about it if you do go ahead with the challenge so I can see what amazing fic you've written!
Day 11
In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I find it hard to think about the fic without writing it down. Normally I'll have a kernel of an idea - an image, a line, a feeling, a concept - and I'll have that to anchor the fic, and let everything else happen around it. In only if for a night (F1 RPF, Alain Prost / Ayrton Senna), that image/feeling was of waking up in a hotel room somewhere and not trusting your memory without all of the concrete reminders of your life around you. How easy would it be to close your eyes and pretend that everything is ok? For Memento Mori (MCU, Tony & Steve), it's the line "Do you think he knew? D’you think that’s why he married her?" which was one of the reasons I wrote the fic. For spilt milk (The World's End, Gary/Andrew) it was the image of the flail chest and the horrifying feeling of being suffocated by your own ribcage. Sometimes it's easy to write it all in one go ('only if for a night' was written in a couple of hours if I recall correctly) and sometimes it takes a while. 'spilt milk' took almost a year, and 'Memento Mori is still a WIP (and there's another few other images that come up later in it which are clear and make perfect sense to me, which is why I'm quietly confident I will pick it up again and finish it off one of these days).
The difficulties I have are when I can't 'feel' the fic. When there's plot to write out, or when there's a battle or an action scene. Sometimes the fics do require them, and I find writing those sections excruciatingly difficult. Obviously they're necessary (no one is gonna read 100k of introspection, let's face it) but those are the bits where my attention wanders the most. Story shifts are also very difficult for me. My monster WIP (till human voices wake us) shifts locations several times, and the transition between those locations is always the hardest bit to write, especially as I tend to plot out what happens in a particular location & end with "& then they have to go to X for reasons" and trust that I'll be able to figure it out later. I have the ending worked out, and the middle written, it's literally the parts between the middle and the last quarter that's giving me difficulty. Stupid third quarter of stupid plot. *mutters*
What I end up writing doesn't always resemble what I start out writing. Several times I've taken the prompt and sat down and something completely different has emerged. I will generally let the fic do whatever it needs to do - and oftentimes it wants to meander for a bit before it settles down into stuff I end up keeping - so I generally write a LOT of wordcount and then prune. My Yuletide fic, The Harvest of Orhoch (Left Hand of Darkness, OC & worldbuilding), started off as around 4.5k words and I knew that the middle section didn't work and that the end was weak. After discussions with my beta it ballooned to around 10k, before dropping back down to 8.5k. The 10-15% attrition in terms of wordcount it fairly typical, and sometimes it can go as high as 25%.
If a fic really isn't cooperating, my method of last resort is animating the whole thing in my head to 'see' if it works, and reading it aloud to check that the voices make sense. It doesn't always work (re-reading some old stuff now makes me wince) but as a general rule - and if I'm writing gen - it tends to help address whatever issues the story is floundering in. It's basically the long-form equivalent of checking a script works via a read-through.
Day 10
Create a fanwork. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I promise I have been writing, and I promise I'll post something soon. But I'm in the middle of WIPs, so... here's a snippet of part 26 of 'till human voices wake us' instead.
*
They landed at the private airfield Tony customarily used for his red-eye commute.
“How’s it looking?” He asked Barton, inching into the cockpit to peer out of the window.
Barton shrugged. “Seems fine. We weren’t shot out of the sky by the Air Force, so we’re probably OK.”
“Oh, good. As long as you’re using incremental measures for your KPI, and nothing binary like, say, death.”
“Coulda woulda shoulda,” Barton muttered, and elbowed Tony out of the way. “Go back and sit with Steve until we’re ready to disembark. Barnes and I have to go put our faces on.”
Well, far be it for Tony to get in the way of a good makeover montage. “Always remember that you can either wear statement lips or dramatic eyes, but not both,” he advised on his way out, then went to collapse back in the seat beside Steve’s.
*
Day 9
Commit an Act of Kindness. In your own space, share what you’ve done, talk about what you’ve done, or simply leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I left some comments on a few beautiful fics that inexplicably didn't have any.
Also... if you're having a bad day or would otherwise like some cheering up, leave me a note with a prompt in one of the fandoms I'm familiar with and I'll write you a drabble or short ficlet as comment-fic.
Day 12
In your own space, create your own challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
A million years ago, I did the 100 fandoms challenge - writing fic via a prompt table for 100 fandoms, most of which I'd never written for before. It was equal parts terrifying and hilarious, and I found a bunch of new fandoms as a result.
So, my challenge is - write a drabble or a small ficlet in a fandom you've never written for before. It doesn't have to be anything big, it doesn't have to be pretty, and it doesn't have to be a certain number of words. Just one ficlet, one new fandom. (And if you want to stretch yourself, 3 new ficlets in 3 new fandoms). And tell me about it if you do go ahead with the challenge so I can see what amazing fic you've written!
Day 11
In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I find it hard to think about the fic without writing it down. Normally I'll have a kernel of an idea - an image, a line, a feeling, a concept - and I'll have that to anchor the fic, and let everything else happen around it. In only if for a night (F1 RPF, Alain Prost / Ayrton Senna), that image/feeling was of waking up in a hotel room somewhere and not trusting your memory without all of the concrete reminders of your life around you. How easy would it be to close your eyes and pretend that everything is ok? For Memento Mori (MCU, Tony & Steve), it's the line "Do you think he knew? D’you think that’s why he married her?" which was one of the reasons I wrote the fic. For spilt milk (The World's End, Gary/Andrew) it was the image of the flail chest and the horrifying feeling of being suffocated by your own ribcage. Sometimes it's easy to write it all in one go ('only if for a night' was written in a couple of hours if I recall correctly) and sometimes it takes a while. 'spilt milk' took almost a year, and 'Memento Mori is still a WIP (and there's another few other images that come up later in it which are clear and make perfect sense to me, which is why I'm quietly confident I will pick it up again and finish it off one of these days).
The difficulties I have are when I can't 'feel' the fic. When there's plot to write out, or when there's a battle or an action scene. Sometimes the fics do require them, and I find writing those sections excruciatingly difficult. Obviously they're necessary (no one is gonna read 100k of introspection, let's face it) but those are the bits where my attention wanders the most. Story shifts are also very difficult for me. My monster WIP (till human voices wake us) shifts locations several times, and the transition between those locations is always the hardest bit to write, especially as I tend to plot out what happens in a particular location & end with "& then they have to go to X for reasons" and trust that I'll be able to figure it out later. I have the ending worked out, and the middle written, it's literally the parts between the middle and the last quarter that's giving me difficulty. Stupid third quarter of stupid plot. *mutters*
What I end up writing doesn't always resemble what I start out writing. Several times I've taken the prompt and sat down and something completely different has emerged. I will generally let the fic do whatever it needs to do - and oftentimes it wants to meander for a bit before it settles down into stuff I end up keeping - so I generally write a LOT of wordcount and then prune. My Yuletide fic, The Harvest of Orhoch (Left Hand of Darkness, OC & worldbuilding), started off as around 4.5k words and I knew that the middle section didn't work and that the end was weak. After discussions with my beta it ballooned to around 10k, before dropping back down to 8.5k. The 10-15% attrition in terms of wordcount it fairly typical, and sometimes it can go as high as 25%.
If a fic really isn't cooperating, my method of last resort is animating the whole thing in my head to 'see' if it works, and reading it aloud to check that the voices make sense. It doesn't always work (re-reading some old stuff now makes me wince) but as a general rule - and if I'm writing gen - it tends to help address whatever issues the story is floundering in. It's basically the long-form equivalent of checking a script works via a read-through.
Day 10
Create a fanwork. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I promise I have been writing, and I promise I'll post something soon. But I'm in the middle of WIPs, so... here's a snippet of part 26 of 'till human voices wake us' instead.
*
They landed at the private airfield Tony customarily used for his red-eye commute.
“How’s it looking?” He asked Barton, inching into the cockpit to peer out of the window.
Barton shrugged. “Seems fine. We weren’t shot out of the sky by the Air Force, so we’re probably OK.”
“Oh, good. As long as you’re using incremental measures for your KPI, and nothing binary like, say, death.”
“Coulda woulda shoulda,” Barton muttered, and elbowed Tony out of the way. “Go back and sit with Steve until we’re ready to disembark. Barnes and I have to go put our faces on.”
Well, far be it for Tony to get in the way of a good makeover montage. “Always remember that you can either wear statement lips or dramatic eyes, but not both,” he advised on his way out, then went to collapse back in the seat beside Steve’s.
*
Day 9
Commit an Act of Kindness. In your own space, share what you’ve done, talk about what you’ve done, or simply leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I left some comments on a few beautiful fics that inexplicably didn't have any.
Also... if you're having a bad day or would otherwise like some cheering up, leave me a note with a prompt in one of the fandoms I'm familiar with and I'll write you a drabble or short ficlet as comment-fic.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-12 08:43 pm (UTC)Interesting snippet.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-12 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-12 10:09 pm (UTC)I did, however, write something in a new fandom just today! For fandom stocking and a prompt that caught my eye. So I met your challenge without even trying to, ahaha. :D
If you are feeling prompt-y, I would love something for Top Gear/The Grand Tour. Maybe 'clocks' as a prompt?
Comment!fic: A watched clock never boils (J/J)
Date: 2019-01-12 11:56 pm (UTC)James looked at him from under furrowed brows. “What?”
“The - the - everything.” Jeremy waved a hand to encompass all of James. “Pacing isn’t going to make it go any faster.” He’d only seen James this nervous once before, under considerably more dire circumstances. He’d practically worn a groove in the floor.
“But yelling at me is?”
“I’m not yelling,” Jeremy said with supreme composure. “I am simply expressing my opinion in a forthright manner.”
“You’re yelling.” James scowled but sat down next to him anyway, his leg jiggling. He was as wired as a cat, jumping whenever a nurse walked by and glancing up at the waiting room clock every few minutes. “How long to these things take, normally?” he asked abruptly.
“Well.” Jeremy considered. “Kat was a quick one, came in bang on time at a shade under eight hours. Fin was… sixteen hours, I think? Emily was the worst, though. Twenty nine hours. Twenty nine. Francie still hasn’t forgiven me.”
James digested all of this in silence. “Emily is the thing she hasn’t forgiven you for?” He asked, just to make sure.
“Well. Possibly among other things.” Jeremy hesitated, then reached over and put his hand on James’s jiggling leg, pressing it to stillness. James stared across at him, wide-eyed. His lips were compressed in a thin line. Richard had been nervous, of course, and when Richard was nervous, James got nervous. And when James got nervous… well, Jeremy couldn’t do anything about Richard’s nerves at the moment. But he could do something about James’s. “It’ll be fine. Come on. Let’s go outside for a bit.”
James glanced back at the double doors, just about visible from their vantage point. “You don’t think it’ll be anytime soon?”
Jeremy looked at his watch. It had been three hours since they’d arrived, an hour after Mindy had been admitted and Richard had called them. By his count, they had a good long while to wait before the Hammonds welcomed their new arrival, even if the little girl decided to sprint through it. “I think we have plenty of time for a smoke.” And a shag, he thought, but did not say. With that amount of nervous agitation, James clearly needed a relaxant of some kind. Either the smoke would do it, or…
Well, the toilet cubicles on the maternity floor were certainly spacious enough. Some even had a handy folding-down table. Good, solid, NHS design, practical and sturdy in equal measure. “Come on, James.”
*
fin!
Re: Comment!fic: A watched clock never boils (J/J)
Date: 2019-01-13 01:07 am (UTC)Re: Comment!fic: A watched clock never boils (J/J)
Date: 2019-01-13 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 12:02 am (UTC)The 100 fandoms thing took me YEARS to finish, but I did get there in the end.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 01:10 am (UTC)I'd gotten to 32 fandoms before I stopped noting them, so I think I'll have a look now and see if I can fill in things I've written since.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-12 10:41 pm (UTC)I think it's important to let the story/characters take you where they will.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 04:06 am (UTC)I did notice they said you could count fandoms you'd already written in.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 03:56 am (UTC)I'm assuming that 'til human voices wake us' is on the Archive?
Your day 9... that is a lovely, lovely offer.<3
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 11:52 am (UTC)Yes, the link to ‘till human voices wake us’ is here.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 06:21 pm (UTC)Oh excellent! Thank you for the link.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-18 01:05 am (UTC)Browsing your icons, I see you have an Atia, a Chiana, and a "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet." I would love a ficlet of Julii, Moya travelers, or Jed and Leo, if the spirit moves.
I'm also offering little stories in the name of the season over here, and would cheerfully return the favor.
The West Wing FIC: Mirror
Date: 2019-01-18 11:48 pm (UTC)*
And the day had started out so well. “Must we?”
“Leo…”
“I’m just saying, we could probably scrounge up another India expert if we tried really hard. I hear Britain’s full of them. Or, you know, India.”
“Leo.”
Leo waved a hand. “You know, you only do this because you’re not the one who has to deal with him.”
There was a lengthy pause. Jed peered at him over his glasses. “I’m fairly sure that I am.”
Which was completely besides the point. “No, you deal with him on the diplomacy, and the, you know, the thing,” he waved a hand, “and meanwhile I’m fetching and carrying for Lord Whatsit.” He rearranged his papers and stood, wondered if he could get Margaret to corral Marbury instead.
“You’re not fe-” Jed started, still peering up at him quizzically, his brow furrowed.
At the same time, Leo finally burst out, “he’s just so -” and then stopped, mortified at how loud it had come out. He’d meant to complain a little - maybe nudge Jed into picking someone else, anyone else - and instead… well. It was late, and the last few days had worn them all down.
Jed stared at him for another long moment and then took his glasses off, folding them beside him on the desk. “OK. That’s… I wasn’t really expecting... “ He trailed off, confusion on his face. He’d only been half-paying attention, sorting through the briefing notes for the next meeting in the five minutes of free time that Leo had decided to barge in on.
He was paying attention now, wasn’t he? His entire focus was on Leo. And he… He looked tired, Leo thought suddenly, and was abruptly sorry he’d even said anything. “I - no, never mind, it was just a - you’re right, I can absolutely put up with him for a few hours.”
“Leo,” Jed asked, very quietly, “what’s this about?”
Nothing, sat on the tip of Leo’s tongue, waiting to spill out the moment he opened his mouth. Nothing, he’s fine, he’s charming and roguish and -
The thing was, Leo knew exactly how charming and amusing Lord John Marbury could be. Especially after he’d had a drink - or two drinks - or half a decanter of brandy. Wasn’t that where his charm lay? The dissipation in those aristocratic good looks, the slow droop of the half-lidded eyes, the curving smile - oh yes, he knew how charming a drink made Marbury.
(He knew how charming a drink made him.)
Leo had started drinking before he got married, and he got married before he became an alcoholic. He knew exactly how charming he could be on a glass of wine, and how much more charming after a bottle. He had wined and dined his wife, and his colleagues, and his competitors, and then politician after politician, as if his whole life had been one big inebriated seduction.
He’s such a character! The Dutch ambassador had said when they had been introduced, eyes wide crinkling with mirth, and she’d let Marbury kiss her hand and lead her to the dancefloor.
You’re a character, Leo, the Russian ambassador said, the second time they had met. He’d been Labour secretary at the time and she’d been new in post and still learning the ropes. New to the US, of course, not to diplomatic service; the Russians didn’t send amateurs. How charming you are.
There are people out there, Leo knew, who had only ever met him the once, or had only ever known him Before. Before Sierra-Tucson, before he dried out, before. He wonders sometimes many of them still think, oh, that Leo McGarry. He’s such a character!
He’d never said to Jed why he disliked Marbury so much. What could he say that someone like Jed would understand? There was no common ground for them on this.
At the end of the day, there was a special kind of loathing a man reserved for the worst version of themselves, for the image that embodied everything they hated and found repugnant and weak. For the charming smile and the cigarette held loosely in one hand and the stench of whiskey on the breath. For the sharp mind dulled just a fraction, for the judgement impaired just a smidge, and for -
Oh, you are so tediously uptight, Marbury had said the last time he’d visited Leo’s office - uninvited - a hand curled around a tumbler of brandy. Why on earth did you ever give up drinking if you knew it would turn you into someone like this?
Marbury’s fingers had been fever-hot where they’d pressed against Leo’s wrist for one bare moment. You really should learn to live a little, Leo.
“Nothing,” he finally said, and made himself meet Jed’s eyes. “I’ll call him.”
*
fin
Re: The West Wing FIC: Mirror
Date: 2019-01-19 04:53 am (UTC)Re: The West Wing FIC: Mirror
Date: 2019-01-19 03:03 pm (UTC)Re: The West Wing FIC: Mirror
Date: 2019-01-23 02:44 pm (UTC)Your story stuck in my brain hard enough that I'm rewatching TWW. The eponymous Marbury introduction episode skirts just on the edge of what you make explicit and painfully clear here. Thank you for connecting these dots in just the right ways to underline Leo's frustration with Marbury and himself. This is beautifully done.
Re: The West Wing FIC: Mirror
Date: 2019-01-24 08:28 pm (UTC)I hope you enjoy the rewatch and thank you for requesting this, I haven't often written in The West Wing fandom and I really enjoyed writing it!