State of the Fic
Jan. 7th, 2011 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficWith the new year around, I find myself in the unique position of not being all that interested in fic-writing. I have a few ideas -- the Sam/Quorra stuff is so nice to write, because I can just bang out a few hundred words about any given premise and not have to worry about a larger plot, although I do have a bit of an arc in mind -- but they're overshadowed by ideas that could be novels or short stories. It's just amazing how organic I'm able to shoot through from "thing I want to write" to "life support system for that one specific thing" to "story full of things I think are neat."
Like, okay, I want to write my own take on Legend of the Seeker. I like this idea I saw in one of Linkara's videos on Countdown of a couple being separated and the third point of the love triangle going with their object of affection (I feel no guilt in stealing this. Countdown took Big Barda. IT OWES ME.) So Richard has to stay and rule D'Hara while Kahlan has to go through a portal to somewhere, and Cara goes with her because ~FEELINGS. She can't just go to another fantasy world, that would be boring. Okay, what if she went to our world?
And now that's spawned this whole backstory of how fictional characters could become real and who would do that and how that could turn evil, and this whole metaphor about storytelling and audiences. And I know that's been kinda done before in Inkheart and probably a lot of other books that were too good to have movies made out of them, which I will need to read to keep from doing a Devin Grayson/Born Again thing (in which the writer puts a character through a similar situation as another writer's story, and so unknowing just does The Same Damn Story But With Rape), but I don't know how many of them have been about how the reader relates to fiction and not how the author relates to creation. I like the idea that a character or story isn't fully-formed until the audience meets it halfway (so in the story, the characters of Cara and Kahlan are "filtered" through the protagonist, so Cara f'r instance looks like Angelina Jolie circa Gia. "What's Gia?" "I first read the books when I was 13, cut me some slack.").
So now I'm in the odd position of having the fanboy and fangirl bits of the story mostly sketched out, while the Cara/Kahlan portion -- the dynamic I built this whole story to justify -- is more vague. All I've got so far is a scene where Cara tries to help Kahlan get over Richard by getting them both laid, in the same room, and Cara is kinda pushing her guy down out of the way and looking at Kahlan and eventually yelling out instructions to Kahlan's guy. Too Black Swan?
The hardest part, I should think, is writing these fannish self-aware tagalongs in a way that they aren't self-indulgent Mary-Sue types, but that they also aren't pathetic sadsacks just getting dragged along by much more interesting characters, a la Jar-Jar Binks (although in that case, substitute "more interesting characters" with "less annoying characters"). But I think I've found a way for our erstwhile heroes to be heroic in a way that won't come off as self-aggrandizing.
Also, it's a lot of fun to tinker with solidly established characters. Like, making Kahlan a black woman who comes to the real world and sees that on all "her" bookcovers, she's white? Or replacing the pain-dildos (I know, I know!) with magic rings that Cara activates to cover her arms in Iron Man-sorta armor -- basically just an excuse for her to wear tanktops all the time? Fun.
ETA: Actually, the hard part is that as of now, the fanboy has Aspergers and the fangirl is agoraphobic, so I'm hoping that doesn't give the impression that all fen are misfits in a work that's, with any luck, going to be a very, very fond parody of fandom. I think there's room to go "what a fun and creative hobby" as well as "also, those Supernatural fans are cra-cra."
Like, okay, I want to write my own take on Legend of the Seeker. I like this idea I saw in one of Linkara's videos on Countdown of a couple being separated and the third point of the love triangle going with their object of affection (I feel no guilt in stealing this. Countdown took Big Barda. IT OWES ME.) So Richard has to stay and rule D'Hara while Kahlan has to go through a portal to somewhere, and Cara goes with her because ~FEELINGS. She can't just go to another fantasy world, that would be boring. Okay, what if she went to our world?
And now that's spawned this whole backstory of how fictional characters could become real and who would do that and how that could turn evil, and this whole metaphor about storytelling and audiences. And I know that's been kinda done before in Inkheart and probably a lot of other books that were too good to have movies made out of them, which I will need to read to keep from doing a Devin Grayson/Born Again thing (in which the writer puts a character through a similar situation as another writer's story, and so unknowing just does The Same Damn Story But With Rape), but I don't know how many of them have been about how the reader relates to fiction and not how the author relates to creation. I like the idea that a character or story isn't fully-formed until the audience meets it halfway (so in the story, the characters of Cara and Kahlan are "filtered" through the protagonist, so Cara f'r instance looks like Angelina Jolie circa Gia. "What's Gia?" "I first read the books when I was 13, cut me some slack.").
So now I'm in the odd position of having the fanboy and fangirl bits of the story mostly sketched out, while the Cara/Kahlan portion -- the dynamic I built this whole story to justify -- is more vague. All I've got so far is a scene where Cara tries to help Kahlan get over Richard by getting them both laid, in the same room, and Cara is kinda pushing her guy down out of the way and looking at Kahlan and eventually yelling out instructions to Kahlan's guy. Too Black Swan?
The hardest part, I should think, is writing these fannish self-aware tagalongs in a way that they aren't self-indulgent Mary-Sue types, but that they also aren't pathetic sadsacks just getting dragged along by much more interesting characters, a la Jar-Jar Binks (although in that case, substitute "more interesting characters" with "less annoying characters"). But I think I've found a way for our erstwhile heroes to be heroic in a way that won't come off as self-aggrandizing.
Also, it's a lot of fun to tinker with solidly established characters. Like, making Kahlan a black woman who comes to the real world and sees that on all "her" bookcovers, she's white? Or replacing the pain-dildos (I know, I know!) with magic rings that Cara activates to cover her arms in Iron Man-sorta armor -- basically just an excuse for her to wear tanktops all the time? Fun.
ETA: Actually, the hard part is that as of now, the fanboy has Aspergers and the fangirl is agoraphobic, so I'm hoping that doesn't give the impression that all fen are misfits in a work that's, with any luck, going to be a very, very fond parody of fandom. I think there's room to go "what a fun and creative hobby" as well as "also, those Supernatural fans are cra-cra."
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 12:08 am (UTC)Please tell me you don't have Quorra going to the doctor. I already started on that one.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 12:55 am (UTC)Well.
You can have that one, then.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 08:55 am (UTC)but I don't know how many of them have been about how the reader relates to fiction and not how the author relates to creation.
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I like this Stephen King story a lot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umney's_Last_Case
The complete story can be found here:
http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/king/king1.htm
It's more about how the character feels than the author.
Plus, hardboiled detective fiction, you can't go wrong with that. ;)
I haven't seen the tv adaptation so I can't comment on how accurate it is to the short story.
I hope this gives you ideas about what to do (or not do).
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ETA: Actually, the hard part is that as of now, the fanboy has Aspergers and the fangirl is agoraphobic, so I'm hoping that doesn't give the impression that all fen are misfits in a work that's, with any luck, going to be a very, very fond parody of fandom. I think there's room to go "what a fun and creative hobby" as well as "also, those Supernatural fans are cra-cra."
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How about one of your fan isn't a fan at all but the brother/sister of one who is "normal and well-adjusted"?
That way you can get an outsider's view on the fandom, have your normal fan and your misfit character all at once.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 12:04 am (UTC)