Snowflake Challenge: Day 12

[narya_flame]

 

AKA the meme thing. Shamelessly swiping this one from Indy and Lilith.

1. Which is your favorite of the fics you’ve written for X 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.

Comments

[lilith_lessfair]

2, 4, 11 and 20. I’m greedy.

[narya_flame]

2. Favourite piece overall...actually on a technical standpoint I'm going with Comfort and Joy. In just over 2k words I managed to both tell a story and fall in love with a pair of characters and their relationship, from a complete standing start - I'd never even thought of the pairing before I got the prompt. I do have more fics that feature them, both published and in draft, but this just stands as a bittersweet not-quite-love-story by itself, IMO.

4. There are two pieces I've written where, more than for any others, I flayed my soul bare and offered it up to the fandom gods. One is Second Chance, which I wrote when I was 18/19 and grieving for a friend killed in a riding accident. I probably needed therapy; instead I wrote a story.

The other is The Ways of Paradox, which I started posting in a fit of nostalgia for my university life. So many of the little moments in Paradox have direct parallels in my own experiences - although contrary to popular belief, I'm far more like Rosie than Claire. And I had to save Theo, because he was/is very like somebody else I knew who I couldn't save.

11. Provided they weren't keen to avoid fics about Christmas, I'd probably say The Elf Who Saved Christmas. Like Comfort and Joy, it tells a complete, standalone story, and even if you're not familiar with the more obscure details of the Silm and/or haven't read The FC Letters, it should still stand up. Plus it's just fun.

20. Oh Lilith, you opened Pandora's Box.

OK, writing. Narya, do not compose an entire essay here.

I'm actually a bit of a snotty cow when it comes to writing. I don't think everyone has a book inside them (I am counting novel length fanfics and collections of short stories as books). It annoys me when people say that - "Oh, I could write a book, if I only had the time." FIND the time. Few people who write can do it as their job. Everyone else has to make time somehow. If you can't make time, if you can't motivate yourself to make time, then you can't write a book - and honestly you probably shouldn't even if you suddenly found the time. Don't bother, unless you feel like you have a story that needs to get out.

I don't think just anyone can write. I do think, to misquote Ratatouille, that a great writer can be anyone - but I think writing comes from an absence of contentment, a need to change things, or explore, or understand. It's a mindset, it's a need - and it's also a craft, like anything else. It can be honed, and bettered. I don't hold with the snobs who rail against creative writing courses, insisting it can't be taught at all, and that to attempt to do so is stifling to creativity. I don't think you'll ever teach someone who has no ear and no hunger to play with words to be a brilliant writer, but I think with practice and dedication, most people can become at least competent. I do believe that anyone with a natural talent (for anything, not just for writing) benefits from having an environment where they can focus on that, and learn from others, and I don't at all buy that anyone who is really original, really brilliant, will be somehow flattened or made less by being encouraged to apply a bit of discipline and effort.

I also believe that, for people who want and need to write, however good or otherwise they may be, it really is a need and that their lives will be worse without it. I know so many adults with no hobby, no drive for anything beyond their everyday lives, no space for their bodies or minds to play like they used to when they were kids - even those who had a passion as teens or as students, like music or sport, or science - and I think that's so sad. As Ursula Le Guin said, "As for the free play of an adult mind, its result may be ‘War and Peace,’ or the theory of relativity." What are we losing out on, because we tell people to shut off parts of themselves that are so utterly fundamental?

So there you go, a weird mix of snobbery and battle cries...!

[lilith_lessfair]

<3
Thank you.