December meme for
eleanor_lavish,
devon, and
st_aurafina
12/18/14 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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I was thinking about this on the trip home last night, and there are so many answers to these questions!
I like most of my fic, I find. Even stuff I wrote a bazillion years ago, while it may make me groan a little, I usually am fond of, if a little embarrassed. I like having a history of how I've gotten better as a writer, it's very satisfying. I felt pretty pleased with my Wincestiel big bang story up until this last week, and now I'm in a place where I have to leave it alone. Usually I enjoy reading stories right after I post them, but this one is making me unaccountably nervous. I'm not thrilled with the two fest fics I put up before this, either, and the stuff I do for
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I'll probably do some statistical meme for the new year that'll outline my most popular fics, and I am super proud of them! But the ones I like are usually less popular. My current favorites:
SGA: Variations on a Theme of John Sheppard series, (John/Rodney, series is about 30,000 words, NC17, major warnings on this one, reader beware) particularly the last one, Passacaglia. I like this because it was so damn eye-opening for me, and it was a technical writing challenge that I just took on and managed really successfully. I will always be really proud of this one.
Supernatural: Take The Long Way Home (Dean & Sam, horror, roughly 2000 words, PG for bloodiness/injury, and maybe swearing, but also warnings, reader beware) was the piece that I wrote for
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The Losers: Any Way You Want It (Cougar/Jensen, roughly 3000 words, NC17, no major warnings) is a piece I wrote for a really lovely Losers fan,
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Other: I enjoy my two Priest fics, partially because they're very different in style from my normal, and I feel like I pulled it off successfully. My Leverage quintuple drabble always makes me smile when I think of it. I am still completely in love with my So You Think You Can Dance fic about Kent and Neil (and still maybe 2000 words from finishing the sexy sequel).
So... yeah. I like a lot of my fic. :)
The hardest? Well. Most of the big ones are hard for different reasons - and I guess the hardest is Impromptu, since I'm 75k in and will probably never finish, a thing that is just made of anguish because it is SO GOOD. And it will likely be posted unfinished, if at all, and that is just so sad-making. Another hard one (really, the hard ones that work out aren't that hard; or... they don't stick in my mind as being hard because I finished them! I think Four Weddings and a Funeral probably goes here, as well as Ionisation and Third Time's the Charm (my second favorite SPN fic)). But the truly hard ones are those I usually can't finish (if posted, and most of them are, they're in my Unfinished and discontinued series). I've got quite a few of these posted, but the one that comes to mind as a great idea that I simply could not get to work: Cambion, where John is half incubus and Rodney (it's supposed to be a surprise reveal at the end) is a djinn. Tried so many things and just could not get it to work.
There are several stories that came super-easily. Some of them are "eh" (like most of my episode caps for the SGA and SPN communities) but every once in a while a prompt will hit me and I will just sit down and bang out a story, bing bang boom, and those usually work out brilliantly. They're usually 1.5k-3k because that's the sweet spot for me. Less than that and I don't get into the story and more than that and they become monsters with a whole new set of issues. Some of my favorites of this type are:
Supernatural: and everything nice for
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The Losers: The Games People Play, a series of vignettes to accompany
SGA: Fill All They Bones With Aches. No idea where the idea came from, but when it did, it hit like lightning and I just whipped this one off. G, 1500 words
SGA/The Losers: The Werecats series. Off a prompt from a pinch hit for
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SGA/Criminal Minds: Meeting of the Minds. This one took about four hot and heavy days to write, but it was easy as breathing, inspired by inhaling the first four seasons of Criminal Minds while I was still heavily in the SGA fandom. NC17, 10k
Alexander: Subversion, off a pinch hit for Yuletide (I'm really good with these types of stories for pinch hits - I've really got to stop signing up for things and just take pinch hits) NC17, 1500 words
So, uh. Yeah. That's me talking about my stories. I could probably do that all day. /o\
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I thought about this one too, on the drive home yesterday, and man, I can totally see pieces of myself in all the characters. None of them really embodies me, though. Let's see:
Mal: I like to think I'm a natural leader - and also occasionally stupidly bullheaded. I'm more willing to admit my mistakes, though.
Inara: I do, actually, like to work within a system, if I can. Not an unjust system (unless my hands are tied), but if the system is (mostly) just, I prefer to follow the rules.
Jayne: Yeah, I can't actually think of any traits that Jayne and I share.
Kaylee: Her positive attitude and non-judgmental... ness.
Zoe: Fierce loyalty and utter competence.
Wash: Childlike nature and creativity.
River: Mmm... maybe not too much here either? I can't think of anything I have in common with River, though I really love her character. Maybe her delight in simple things, and dance?
Simon: Again with fierce loyalty, and also his doctor-iness (I like to help and to heal, if I can)
Book: Self-reflection? The inability to keep myself from giving advice? Not sure.
I would love to say that I'm Zoe, because she is fucking awesome! But I am not somber enough, really. I can be serious, but I think my nature tends toward silliness and happiness and outright joy, unless I'm working, in which case I AM just like Zoe. So maybe I'm like Zoe and Wash mixed together, depending on the situation? I'm okay with that. Definitely okay with that.
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Oh boy. Women in Supernatural is just a huge topic with so much vitriol on all sides. One of the reasons I used to side-eye SPN was because all the hate I heard about Jo and Ruby, and I just hate that kind of stuff. (When I watched the early seasons later, I LOVED Jo and Ruby and it made me so sad that the characters were hated so much by so many women.)
Let's start with post-season 5, yeah? So I think one of the first on scene is Jody Mills (in S6, maybe?) and she is stupidly amazing. A cop near Bobby's place, her introduction to the Supernatural is hugely tragic (her son, a zombie, eats her husband), but she is a fighter and she just keeps going and going and returning to the boys here and there to offer or get help.
An aside for a bit of meta here: One of the reasons I think there are some awesome women in later seasons of SPN is that they finally figured out the magic formula for the fans not hating the women they bring on: make them people that do not and could not have romantic relationships with the boys. Now this isn't exactly true of Jody (there is some AWESOME Sam/Jody fic out there), but she's older, and I think was intended to be something of an Ellen replacement (I don't know anyone that hated on Ellen, and she is right up there in my top three women on SPN), so a motherly relationship to the boys - and the show definitely pushes those buttons (and briefly tried to pair her with Bobby? Which, uh... sorry, but much as I love Bobby, Jody is way out of his league). So anyway, the key is: romantic unavailability to the Winchesters. Jody is too old (not really, but in fandom, there's an age threshhold, and she is on the other side of it). So is Mrs. Tran (though I also have no problem shipping her with Dean). Charlie is a lesbian (and that was the only way to get a young, attractive female recurring guest character on the show - basically, LITTLE SISTER). And that character was a stroke of fucking genius.
Charlie is played by Felicia Day, who is simply the awesomest. Charlie's a lesbian, she actually gets to kiss a girl onscreen, and she and Dean get on like gangbusters. Perfect recurring character material that the fans love. I also love her because she's smart and strong and geeky and awesome all around. I love her so much.
Mrs. Tran, also awesome. She is definitely a mom, but Dean even says to Kevin (while he's wearing headphones so he can't hear): "your mom is hot." And YES, I would really like Linda to show Dean a thing or two. That fic has to have been written, right? RIGHT?!!!
Season 8 brings us Amelia, who.. yeah, okay, I don't love her as much as some of the other women on the show, mainly because her introduction makes her look totally unreasonable (arg, so much frustration for the "I hit a dog" fucking storyline). So, bad writers. But I tried not to hold that against her, and I didn't hate her (like a lot of fandom did, in a way (I think, this is really a guess) similar to Lisa - which again goes to romantic relationship with one of the boys (settling down)). So, yeah.
But S8 also brings us Naomi, who is amazing! And I talked about Naomi before, so I'll leave it at that.
Abaddon. Oh my god. I think again, romantically unavailable to the boys, though there is massive sexual tension with Dean in the 2nd (or is it 3rd?) episode of Season 9. But that's fine! No one seems to mind if the boys get lucky - they can have as much sex with as many women as they want - but no settling down. That seems to be the real issue. Unfortunately, Abaddon was underused and illogical, but hey, that's what fic is for. One of the things fans do best is take the few glimmering jewels that SPN hands us and run with them. The writers could take a page from fandom's book (and Robbie Thompson does - it's why his episodes are always the best), and the show would be SO MUCH BETTER.
Season 10 is Hannah, and... eh. I'm just done with the angels, so I was sort of sick of her. And the weird romantic thing with her and Cas, I hated that a lot. Also the fucking gendering of angels which is BULLSHIT dammit, angels DO NOT HAVE GENDER! The show itself said that and I really fucking hate it when they pull that crap. Caroline, though, the human whose meatsuit Hannah was wearing, was AWESOME. And I am glad she survived and got back to her family.
I think that's it. Any that I forgot to mention?
ETA: YES! I forgot Donna! The Minnesotan sheriff who just got her second episode! With Jody Mills, too! :D :D :D I love Donna - and you can tell she was a fan favorite too, so I'm hoping she keeps coming back, much like Jody, because AWESOME.
ETA2: And OMG ROWENA. Another red-headed bad girl, but she's still awesome, so I hope we will be seeing lots and lots more of her. She also makes me super interested in Crowley's arc this season, which I had not been, previously. And, jeez, now that I think of it, Claire! She has like, 4 episodes now? Possibly more? And that's an interesting character if there ever was one (she is Cas's meatsuit (Jimmy Novak)'s daughter). SO MUCH POSSIBILITY for her - I hope they do her justice.
Here is my December meme topics post, if you have something you desperately want to ask me.
no subject
on 12/19/14 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
on 12/19/14 02:06 pm (UTC)Yeah, I need to start tagging with "author's favorite" or something. I know astolat or speranza has a series where she puts her faves. I like that idea, it's just a little daunting to go back through nearly 300 fics to decide my faves (and then at what point is it a fave? I like most of my stuff, some more intensely than others, but most of it has at least a scene or two I really enjoy, so... deciding is hard!).
So, yay - I hope you enjoy some of that, anyway, and thanks for the awesome question!
no subject
on 12/19/14 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
on 12/20/14 07:42 am (UTC)The female characters (and I forgot Donna - who just came back for a second episode, a Minnesotan sheriff and in her second ep, Jody Mills was there too!) are brilliant and mostly not-dead, which is pretty brilliant. It's sad that it took them seven seasons to figure out how not to kill women off.
Felicia Day comes back after hiatus this season! It will be her fourth episode (I think - or maybe fifth?). And with the exception of the crappy Wizard of Oz episode (which again, SO MUCH POTENTIAL. So much NOT LIVING UP TO IT.), her episodes are far and away THE BEST of the last four seasons. Her character is brilliant and seriously, THE BEST episodes.
Also, Naomi (Amanda Tapping) is great, and the whole storyline involving her is great (this is season eight - really great throughline in season eight with Cas and the angels).
Abaddon was brilliant - her early eps were GENIUS but the writers don't know how to write a good bad guy to save their lives, so the end of her arc is sadly unimpressive.
So anyway - much better with women! Some awesome characters and recurring characters! But still, SPN, so. You know. Take all with a bucket of salt.
no subject
on 12/20/14 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 12/21/14 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 12/21/14 09:16 am (UTC)SPN - I'm still loving it from a distance. Maybe creeping a little closer, thanks to these awesome posts. Thank you!
no subject
on 12/21/14 05:40 pm (UTC)Charlie is amazing - such a fun character! Really smart, too. She's got four eps right now, totally worth watching those as they're mostly standalones (the first two make an arc, but pretty well stand alone together... if that makes any sense).
\o/ I love SPN a lot - mostly for its potential, though, because it can be disappointing. But when it gets something right, it gets it REALLY right.
And I don't know how to not spoil about Claire, but I do want to mention: when I say awesome things to do with character, they're often terrible things, too, because it's all about character development and interesting choices and it's usually not awesome in the sense that they're getting a pony and living happily ever after. So. Um. There's that.