Today, I am not in the mood for humaning, let alone adulting. Just let me crawl back into bed and sleep until the thirty-third day of Never.
I offered answers for a fanfic meme back in June, and promptly forgot about it. (Sorry!)
answer post the first
answer post the second
Forthwith, the third post!
30 by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
senmut
30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst?
Why not both? I mean, there is certainly space in my stories for both. I love a good moment of tenderness, sweetness, found-family and friendship - quippy teasing, the emotional and physical comfort of meals and eating and feeding and being fed. But, oh, too, the pleasure of a 'blank shutdown don't let them see how much this hurt you can go away and weep later but do the job now' scene! The one where characters are madly repressing because things still need doing even if their heart is breaking.
Overall, I write conflict and resolution into my stories, and I think I'm fairly evenly dedicated to each.
3 bypensnest
3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?
I like to think it's that I write different characters to the mainstream, and I write them differently to the mainstream.
That is, my focus is usually the characters whom most writers write as though they're secondary characters in a story: they're there specifically to Be The Friend That The Protagonist Needs, or to be the Person Who Does The Things In The Background, or to be the Walking Talking Proof That This Show Isn't Racist, See We Included A Character Of Color!
And I don't write them as secondary characters. I write their stories as though they're the protagonist.
A lot of people who "like" the secondary characters don't actually understand this. Over the years, I had innumerable Natasha fans tell me, "Oh, but I've got Maria in my story!" And the thing that I didn't actually say to most of them was, "Yes, but she's a secondary character in your story: everything she is and does - everything you see her as - is subordinate to How Important Natasha Is To The Narrative and it shows."
How do you write a character as though they're a secondary character in their own story? Well, for example, you write 1000 words of Maria carrying on the noble work of World Security because It's What Natasha Did For All Those Years And It's What She Would Have Wanted I Got No Right To Do Less. Nothing about what Maria considers important, nothing about the things that she hoped for and lost, that she saw wrong and wanted to make right, that she's struggling with. No, it's Natasha's red in Natasha's ledger and Maria is carrying the torch because Nat was lost...
I like to think that what makes me stand out in megafandoms of This Is My Primary Character And Everyone Else Is Background writers is my ability to write secondary characters as though they're people, while still writing primary characters as though they're people. I can write everyone in a story as though they're whole and real and want something that they'll put effort into achieving with varying success based on the wants and desires of the rest of the people in the story.
I mean, people may not like my take on it (truthfully most people in fandom don't) but I can do a take on it that a lot of people will say "Yep, that perspective rings true to me."
Two more to go! #19 and #5.
If you want to ask one of the questions, drop the comment in the original meme post.
I offered answers for a fanfic meme back in June, and promptly forgot about it. (Sorry!)
answer post the first
answer post the second
Forthwith, the third post!
30 by
senmut30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst?
Why not both? I mean, there is certainly space in my stories for both. I love a good moment of tenderness, sweetness, found-family and friendship - quippy teasing, the emotional and physical comfort of meals and eating and feeding and being fed. But, oh, too, the pleasure of a 'blank shutdown don't let them see how much this hurt you can go away and weep later but do the job now' scene! The one where characters are madly repressing because things still need doing even if their heart is breaking.
Overall, I write conflict and resolution into my stories, and I think I'm fairly evenly dedicated to each.
3 by
pensnest3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?
I like to think it's that I write different characters to the mainstream, and I write them differently to the mainstream.
That is, my focus is usually the characters whom most writers write as though they're secondary characters in a story: they're there specifically to Be The Friend That The Protagonist Needs, or to be the Person Who Does The Things In The Background, or to be the Walking Talking Proof That This Show Isn't Racist, See We Included A Character Of Color!
And I don't write them as secondary characters. I write their stories as though they're the protagonist.
A lot of people who "like" the secondary characters don't actually understand this. Over the years, I had innumerable Natasha fans tell me, "Oh, but I've got Maria in my story!" And the thing that I didn't actually say to most of them was, "Yes, but she's a secondary character in your story: everything she is and does - everything you see her as - is subordinate to How Important Natasha Is To The Narrative and it shows."
How do you write a character as though they're a secondary character in their own story? Well, for example, you write 1000 words of Maria carrying on the noble work of World Security because It's What Natasha Did For All Those Years And It's What She Would Have Wanted I Got No Right To Do Less. Nothing about what Maria considers important, nothing about the things that she hoped for and lost, that she saw wrong and wanted to make right, that she's struggling with. No, it's Natasha's red in Natasha's ledger and Maria is carrying the torch because Nat was lost...
I like to think that what makes me stand out in megafandoms of This Is My Primary Character And Everyone Else Is Background writers is my ability to write secondary characters as though they're people, while still writing primary characters as though they're people. I can write everyone in a story as though they're whole and real and want something that they'll put effort into achieving with varying success based on the wants and desires of the rest of the people in the story.
I mean, people may not like my take on it (truthfully most people in fandom don't) but I can do a take on it that a lot of people will say "Yep, that perspective rings true to me."
Two more to go! #19 and #5.
If you want to ask one of the questions, drop the comment in the original meme post.
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Thanks, hon. I appreciate it.
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And it's complicated to write the kind of a story where everyone is doing their own thing, and the protag must work around and with and in the midst of all that, but there also isn't a central thing that everyone is working towards, a clear and present threat that everyone's focused on.
In that, I can understand why I'm struggling with some of the focus of this book: it's a personal character focus as she finds herself, not a 'this is going to be an problem for the whole world if we don't fix it' issue as happens in Book 2.
Sorry, I got a bit rambly there, but I think I was working out some stuff while doing so. So...thank you!
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I've found that of late I have also been noticing how much more interesting a story is when *all* the characters on the screen or the pages have their own motivations. Black Sails is really good for that. All those people with their own wants, needs and methods for achieving them. I suppose in a film there isn't time to develop everyone in that way, whereas a TV series can, and a book jolly well should.
Anyway, thanks for the answer.
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