Monday Morning Musings and Meme
Mar. 12th, 2007 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireI rarely use this thing as an actual journal, but my brain seems to have be on overtime this weekend. Length warning: Here be ramblings.
Life gets rather odd when you're doing part-time study, mostly because you have this vague guilty feeling that every spare minute should be spent working. So going to see parents-in-law and cats on Saturday felt like I was playing truant, but was definitely worth it. I ended up having an hour's discussion about Roman civilisation with them (the parents, not the cats) which I thoroughly enjoyed but now worry may have been a tad boring for them. It's definitely a subject that, once I get started... I also discovered the fantastic www.box.net, which is useful online document storage for those of us who wander between computers. It's much friendlier than google docs, and much more instinctive to use.
In other news, my father-in-law helped me with a tricky plot problem, the men from UNCLE have finally decided they want to play, now I've reassured them that, just because it's Torchwood, it doesn't mean they have to kiss Jack. I had fun with the meme (and worry I'm getting addicted, see below) and less fun with the rejection letter. But as the world didn't actually end, I shall send the story to someone else who will appreciate it.
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crystalshard and I both had productive weekends, exchanging a surprising number of emails and comments in a bid to be crowned 'fastest beta in the west'. I haven't had that many messages in my inbox since rivers_bend and I tried to figure out what was happening with the new colours on my journal ["It should be aqua" - "It's purple. No, wait, aqua." - "I can see aqua now, except for the friends page, which is purple." - "what do you see now?" - "hang on" etc etc]. Crystalshard has also written me a lovely little fluff ficlet which is here
minervasolo had the following meme up on her journal, and it got me thinking. I don't think of myself as having a style of writing on or off-LJ, so I wondered what would best represent me to someone. Looking at the list, I think the generous way of putting it would be to say that I like to try different things. Less generously, I have the attention span of a duck. Since WIPs currently include parts of a massive series, a long crossover piece and possibly my most insane idea yet (yes, crystalshard, I know it's fun, but it's nuts too...), I may have to go along with the latter...
Anyhoo, here's the list:
Refrain [Torchwood; ~730 words]
My 'Torchwood' pieces are actually more 'Jack Harkness' pieces. I love writing him and about him, because there's so much you can do with the character. This piece was written heavily under the influence of Barber's Adagio for Strings, and I think it shows. You don't need to know Torchwood to understand it, just that Jack, who doesn't age and can't die, met Estelle in the 1940s and fell madly in love with her. It's now 2008...
The Waiting Years II: Coming Back [Jack Harkness; ~9200 words]
My favourite piece from "The Wandering Years" is actually the fifth, 'Promise', but I think this is a better piece of writing. The plot, characters and style seemed to come together just right, and I loved finding a new way of writing an old-fashioned ghost story.
Yours, Mine and His [House; ~7500 words]
This is, by some way, my longest piece of Housefic. The logistics of it were a nightmare, and the writing was a real wrestling match, but I was so pleased at how all three characters came out. And as one of the few House-fans who doesn't hate Stacy, it was nice to be able to give her some space to speak.
Correspondence [Criminal Minds; ~2000 words]
Yet another totally different style; this time, it's emails. I wasn't going to write any fic for Criminal Minds but the episode just begged for an ending, and I wanted to see how much of a story you could tell just in email form. It worked surprisingly well.
Undead [Buffy/Torchwood; ~12500 + ~2600]
Not just for its length (though it's pretty damn long) but because this was a totally different style again. The action scenes were really hard to write, but good practice, and I was so chuffed when people asked for more!
So that's me. In an attempt to look less self-promoting, if asked, I'll tell you which of your fics I'd rec to someone as representative of your writing. That way, I feel less embarrassed by all this rambling...
Life gets rather odd when you're doing part-time study, mostly because you have this vague guilty feeling that every spare minute should be spent working. So going to see parents-in-law and cats on Saturday felt like I was playing truant, but was definitely worth it. I ended up having an hour's discussion about Roman civilisation with them (the parents, not the cats) which I thoroughly enjoyed but now worry may have been a tad boring for them. It's definitely a subject that, once I get started... I also discovered the fantastic www.box.net, which is useful online document storage for those of us who wander between computers. It's much friendlier than google docs, and much more instinctive to use.
In other news, my father-in-law helped me with a tricky plot problem, the men from UNCLE have finally decided they want to play, now I've reassured them that, just because it's Torchwood, it doesn't mean they have to kiss Jack. I had fun with the meme (and worry I'm getting addicted, see below) and less fun with the rejection letter. But as the world didn't actually end, I shall send the story to someone else who will appreciate it.
crystalshard and I both had productive weekends, exchanging a surprising number of emails and comments in a bid to be crowned 'fastest beta in the west'. I haven't had that many messages in my inbox since rivers_bend and I tried to figure out what was happening with the new colours on my journal ["It should be aqua" - "It's purple. No, wait, aqua." - "I can see aqua now, except for the friends page, which is purple." - "what do you see now?" - "hang on" etc etc]. Crystalshard has also written me a lovely little fluff ficlet which is hereminervasolo had the following meme up on her journal, and it got me thinking. I don't think of myself as having a style of writing on or off-LJ, so I wondered what would best represent me to someone. Looking at the list, I think the generous way of putting it would be to say that I like to try different things. Less generously, I have the attention span of a duck. Since WIPs currently include parts of a massive series, a long crossover piece and possibly my most insane idea yet (yes, crystalshard, I know it's fun, but it's nuts too...), I may have to go along with the latter...Anyhoo, here's the list:
Refrain [Torchwood; ~730 words]
My 'Torchwood' pieces are actually more 'Jack Harkness' pieces. I love writing him and about him, because there's so much you can do with the character. This piece was written heavily under the influence of Barber's Adagio for Strings, and I think it shows. You don't need to know Torchwood to understand it, just that Jack, who doesn't age and can't die, met Estelle in the 1940s and fell madly in love with her. It's now 2008...
The Waiting Years II: Coming Back [Jack Harkness; ~9200 words]
My favourite piece from "The Wandering Years" is actually the fifth, 'Promise', but I think this is a better piece of writing. The plot, characters and style seemed to come together just right, and I loved finding a new way of writing an old-fashioned ghost story.
Yours, Mine and His [House; ~7500 words]
This is, by some way, my longest piece of Housefic. The logistics of it were a nightmare, and the writing was a real wrestling match, but I was so pleased at how all three characters came out. And as one of the few House-fans who doesn't hate Stacy, it was nice to be able to give her some space to speak.
Correspondence [Criminal Minds; ~2000 words]
Yet another totally different style; this time, it's emails. I wasn't going to write any fic for Criminal Minds but the episode just begged for an ending, and I wanted to see how much of a story you could tell just in email form. It worked surprisingly well.
Undead [Buffy/Torchwood; ~12500 + ~2600]
Not just for its length (though it's pretty damn long) but because this was a totally different style again. The action scenes were really hard to write, but good practice, and I was so chuffed when people asked for more!
So that's me. In an attempt to look less self-promoting, if asked, I'll tell you which of your fics I'd rec to someone as representative of your writing. That way, I feel less embarrassed by all this rambling...
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 10:01 am (UTC)Hope you like it :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 10:57 am (UTC)and now I'm curious. Which of my fics would you recommend to someone as representative of my writing style?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 02:05 pm (UTC)You know, choosing your stories is a really tricky one, as so much of your kind of stuff is not my kind of stuff...;) I've tried to choose a range of things that show not only your 'usual' but your skill at driving home the emotional punch without getting soppy. So, in a purely detached, objective way, (and with the occasional blush) I'd have to say:
Someone to watch over me - fantasy grounded in reality
Resevoir Docs - for fun
Changes - because your original stuff should be read too
Grey Matter - because the emotions feel so real
More than a day - small but perfectly formed.
Would you agree?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 12:40 pm (UTC)That's just because they haven't met him yet. ;) I'm convinced that it's only a matter of time after meeting him that everyone is compulsively driven to kiss the man.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 02:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 06:42 pm (UTC)Also, I think you win the title of "fastest beta in the West." Yours came back to me overnight. Mine took two days. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-13 04:08 pm (UTC)Anyway, sorry it's taken me a while on this - could I interest you in today's special offer on tags, so that your friends can find what they're looking for? ;)
I decided to go for:
Constant as the changing weather - duh
A torch across time - plot- and character-ful
All Eternity - variations on a theme that work so well.
Daddy's little girls - because you do humour too!
Definitions of love (Jack) - original and poignant
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-13 05:48 pm (UTC)And hey, I DO tag my stuff! It's all tagged 'torchwood' and 'fic'. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-13 06:01 pm (UTC)I managed to miss the tags...sorry! ;)