December talking meme: Fic Writing

[ariadnes_string]

thirdbird asked me “what was the most difficult fanfic you've written? Which one are you most proud of and why?”

And since I’ve been trying to wrangle my Yuletide assignments this week, it seems a good time to answer it.

The short answer is: whatever fic I’m writing at the moment seems the most difficult fic I’ve ever written! And then, if they are really too difficult, I don’t write them at all, because I am a writing wuss.

The only-slightly-longer answer is: any fic over about 3,500 words is the most difficult fic I’ve ever written. Maybe 5,000. Almost without exception, the fics I’ve written that are longer than that, I’ve stalled out after about 5-6k, and taken months or years to come up with a second half. I suck at plot. Even the last fic I wrote over 5k, which literally took it’s whole plot from A Study in Pink, so I didn’t have to come up with anything, was really hard to write. I don’t know why I ever embark on such ventures, except that sometimes it seems like the only way to fulfill an assignment or prompt. Or maybe I think I’ll learn something as I go along—but I think my brain just doesn’t work that way. Sometimes they come out okay, despite the difficulties, but I hardly ever re-read them. I’ve been wanting to write a sequel to “Swim Until You Can’t See Land,” and failing because: plot.

So I guess it makes sense that the fics I’m proudest of are short! I like the fics I’ve managed to write that allow my own intense feelings about characters, and the characters’ intense feelings about each other, to shine through. Often, I feel like I get distracted by descriptive or figurative language, and that mutes the emotion in a story—or, the emotion is muted by my aforementioned difficulties with plot—so when I can get those things to combine, I’m happy. Often, these fics are the first stories I write in a fandom, since I guess the emotions are new and bright then—this is true of two stories I’m proud of: The Khyber Knife (John/Sherlock, R) (which just happened, so I’m amazed, more than proud); and A wind that passeth Away and cometh not again (Homeland), which I worked a lot harder on, and thus correspondingly prouder.

But sometimes I get a bit more into a fandom before I write something I like. For example, Four Kisses, which is a Southland fic, (Cooper/Sherman, R), and which was the third and last story I wrote in that fandom. I’m proud of it for a bunch of reasons: I think it’s in character, though the characters were hard for me to write—I certainly never thought I’d plausibly get them into a pairing; it has a 4X structure, but it still manages to have something of a plot; moreover, it has a “first time” plot, which is something I’m not very good at imagining; it’s not a particularly dark or gritty fic, but it has enough of an edge to it to make me happy—a lot of its emotional intensity is not connected to the romance; it has some nice images, but the story doesn’t get bogged down in them. And when I read it, it reminds of how much I loved the first few seasons of the show. It’s not one of my most read or best-liked stories, but it makes me happy.

Comments

[d_generate_girl]

Oh my goodness, I LOVED "A wind that passeth Away and cometh not again". I recall reading a ton of Homeland fic in a daze after finishing S1, and that was so perfectly Brody. I'm so glad that you wrote it!

[ariadnes_string]

Yay! I'm so glad you liked it! i had such strong feelings about Homeland S1--I'm glad they came across and in character!

[garryowen]

Haha. You're very funny. My writing comments would be the opposite in every way except that I also suck at plot. I write novel-length fic anyway. Oops.

I love your short fics. Like snapshots.

[ariadnes_string]

I think it's because I am by nature more critic/observer than a storyteller. We can't fight our natures, eh? I love reading long narratives, but I have trouble coming up with them. Even my criticism is short :)

Glad you like the little fics!

[thirdbird]

Same! All the long fics are harrrrrrrd. Short form ftw.

I haven't read your Homeland or Southland fics (I get those two shows mixed up a lot, perhaps understandably, though I understand they're extremely different!). Could I enjoy them without knowing anything about the canon, do you think? And which of those two shows would you most recommend that I watch, assuming I ever get the time/energy to watch anything again?

(You answered my questions so nicely, and how do I respond but by asking two more...feel free to ignore, though, if you're busy Yule-ing!)

[alizarin_nyc]

DUDE.

Full stop: watch Southland. Watch all of it. Don't give up on it like I almost did the first season. It moves slowly, but deliberately and things happen very suddenly without a lot of clunky foreshadowing like normal US TV. By the end you will feel like you have experience a work of art. Not perfect, but real and true and tough.

Homeland S1 is definitely worth a watch, but I got muddled in S2 and stopped watching after that.

FYI and not that you asked. x

[ariadnes_string]

short form solidarity *fistbump*

No need to read either of them! The Homeland fic follows the canon of S1 very closely, and has major spoilers, so probably wouldn't be enjoyable without having seen the show; the Southland one isn't particularly reliant on canon, though it certainly depends heavily on the characters--maybe you could enjoy it without having seen the show? Maybe not?

I think you might enjoy watching Homeland more. S1 has a tight arc, and is intensely suspenseful--like True Detective, or Top of the Lake, or Broadchurch (though it's harder-nosed than Broadchurch). It features spies, mental illness, religion, captivity and many of my other favorite things (though maybe they aren't yours).

Southland, especially the 1-3 seasons, is amazing, too, but more episodic, with some characters who don't end up going anywhere. Liking it depends partly on how much you like gritty, grim police/detective drama, of the un-stylized variety (think Homicide, not Hannibal), though it also subverts the genre. Another reason I really like it is how intensely it manages to convey LA--I've never seen another show set in LA that feels as much like LA (from my limited experience of LA, anyway). But if the regionality isn't your thing, you might not enjoy it. Amazing performances, characters, issues, though.

lol, that doesn't help much, does it?

[alizarin_nyc]

I love your fics, and the fact that they are shorter in no way diminishes their power or poetry.

I once did a Sherlock Big Bang and nearly died. It was so stressful, and there were probably three or four different stories I just strung together. Under 5k is more my style.

Also: HI.

[ariadnes_string]

Aw, thank you!

I have dropped out of every big bang I've ever signed up for. Even when I had a good idea going into it, I was too daunted by words/time/length of endeavor. Sigh.