December meme for eleanor_lavish, devon, and st_aurafina

[kate]

eleanor_lavish: What is your favorite fic that you've ever written? What was your hardest? Easiest?

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 episodic_supernatural, while I enjoy it, is rarely the stuff I'm very proud of.

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 spn_j2_xmas last year, and I am still super impressed with how it turned out. I really love this fic a lot, it's my favorite thing I've written in SPN so far.

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, NewYorkReload for the ante_up_losers exchange. I really enjoyed that story, the handle I had on Cougar and Jensen (which is not always the case with them) and just... everything. It did exactly what I wanted it to do and I am super happy with it. Also, Let The Bodies Hit The Floor, (Cougar/Jensen, PG13 for violence) which describes a super-competent and scary Jensen in negative space - another writing challenge I set myself where I just plowed on ahead and did it, and think I did pretty damn well.

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 clavally's prompt of Dean, crossdressing. PG13, 1350 words

The Losers: The Games People Play, a series of vignettes to accompany zoronoa's Losers Board Game. PG13, 4k words

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 sga_santa. G, two stories, maybe 3k words?

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\

devon: Which Firefly character(s) do you identify with most? If it's not too personal, let us know why?

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.

st_aurafina: I'd love to hear about women of Supernatural in the later seasons.

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.

Comments

[eleanor_lavish]

Yay!!!!! I love reading fics that are beloved by their authors (and oh, man, I hear you about the ones that are popular not always being the ones that I, personally, loved writing the most). Adding to my holiday reading list! <3

[kate]

EDDIE! OMG! :D :D :D I love that icon!

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!

[sanj]

Huh! I dropped out of SPN in Season Five, when things just starting getting too ridiculous for me with the meta, but this roundup of cool-sounding characters (Felicia Day, seriously, how did I miss that?) makes me want to check out later seasons. :)

[kate]

Oh, that's so interesting! I dropped out early in season two. I came back midway through season eight, and as I marathoned the early seasons, I was really pleased with the first five seasons and how brilliantly they wrapped it all up with a nice tidy bow. And then... whoops, we got renewed for another season! Seasons six and seven really felt discombobulated to me, and eight was better but a really rough season. Nine... there was a great idea with nine that they just never really lived up to the potential of. Ten, so far, is pretty good - still not living up to the potential they've built into their storylines, but trying, anyway.

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.

[jesse_the_k]

Thank thank thank you: I found an SGA fic I had not yet read, and I get to rectify this RIGHT NOW! (Four Funerals...)

[kate]

Ha, that's awesome, hope you enjoyed it! That's actually one of my favorites - it was tough going some of the time, but I love how it turned out. :D

[st_aurafina]

I have watched the first of those SPN episodes that you listed with Naomi, and yeah, I totally get what you mean about Mrs Tran!! And I think I'm definitely going to be onboard for lesbian!Felicia Day who gets along with Dean. Oh, and they brought back Claire? That's cool - I hope her story turns out as awesome as it deserves to be.

SPN - I'm still loving it from a distance. Maybe creeping a little closer, thanks to these awesome posts. Thank you!

[kate]

Yay!!! Naomi's awesome, and yeah, Mrs. Tran is terrific, too. I love her a lot.

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.