redfiona99

So I'm writing Rome fic. Octavian-centric Rome fic. Which means there's already some issues, in re: his sister. And him. Anyway, stuff happens, and there's a section about slaves. And it's Rome fic. And tight 3rd Person on Octavian so the story at no point says anything about this being very wrong. Which, okay, people who are reading Rome fic know what they're getting into, the TV show did that too for effect.

Only then Octavian goes and plans the getting of a wife, and we hit Roman issues re: women's right. And before that, Roman issues re: men who have sex with men. And like I said, I think anyone who watch Rome would know all this but ...

( Person of Interest-The Fix )
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TNA Spin Cycle

The four for this and the previous week are James Storm, Sting, Austin Aries and Kurt Angle, who talk far too much sense on the topic of social media. And I keep forgetting how adorable Kurt Angle is when he's not being Kurt Angle. You know what I mean. And how much Sting and Steve Borden are v. different. I think it's because with the others (and a lot of other wrestlers) their gimmick is them turned up to 11 whereas Sting and not Sting are very different.

Actually, Xplosion also had a Chavo Guerrero interview which was adorable. (Why was Chavo never ruler of the world, or at least, the X/Lightheavyweight/Cruiserweight division?)

Xplosion was a step-up from Impact. Nothing against the wrestling (seriously, it gave me Chavo vs Daniels, life is good. But it was far too short.), but it was a little lacking in go forward. Lacking to the point that I did tidying up/packing rather than concentrate on it, and you all know how little I enjoy tidying and packing.

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Fic thinking

I'm having a lot of fun playing around with the AUs for that last meme, particularly the Matriarchal Marvelverse for joanne_c. Mostly I wanted to avoid writing "The Worm That Turned" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpXzKnnRDpA), and no, I can't explain that any better for people who have never seen the Two Ronnies. While I have no doubt you could do something where everything is the exact opposite or possibly men are horribly oppressed in order to make a point, I am not the writer to do that, possibly because of my family background (according to at least one colleague, my family have no men and reproduce by parthogenesis). So I didn't want to write a utopia, or a dystopia, I just wanted a different-topia.

So I had an idea of a scene for Bruce (about which I shall talk no more until I have finished it), and I was thinking about the knock on effects on the other Avengers. ( And suddenly a universe expanded in front of me )

But yes, as you might be able to tell, this is the 'verse that ate my brain.

Day 15 - Favorite male character

Okay, wandering outside the meme purpose slightly again, because it's a difficult question, and I'm having difficulty separating out the characters I like from the characters I want to be (hello there Sherlock Holmes and the Musketeers). Also, one of the obvious answers, which would be Lucky Jack Aubrey of the Master and Commander books is presently being hamstrung by him being on-land for the portion of 'The Mauritius Command' that I'm up to and we all know that Jack on land is a bad thing.

One might even say, he's all at sea. (giggle, snort)

And that terrible pun brings us to my actual answer. Having scoured my mind for a decent answer, I shall temporarily go with Theo from 'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell. Which is a book I recommend heartily. Theo plays one of young Gerald's many, many tutors. He is chosen because he has letters, the previous one having no letters, not even a postcard. (Spiro means qualifications, it's just that Mother is oblivious. Actually, can I change my suggestion to Spiro.)

Theo is wonderful, and has a love of terrible puns, several of which I have subsequently pinched, nicked and merrily pilfered.

Of course, I could choose pretty much any of the male characters from My Family And Other Animals for this.

( The Other Days )

On the fic-writing front:

1) So I'm writing a series of stories, and the main character of the first one is a character who I don't like in any of her incarnations, well I like her in one of them, and that's because it plays off her character in other incarnations. Anyway, normally I just write her as being off-screen during fics, because I'm worried I don't do her justice, but she has to be the lead character in this one. And I'm keeping her in-character, and she's affecting me the way she always does, which I figure is a good sign. The only problem is I'm aware I am not the person to be writing this character as the things her fans like are the very things I dislike about her. Help, suggestions, bricks are all accepted at this point.

2) Quick question about the way medical training works in the US. Okay, over here, say you wanted to go into specialism X, after you'd finished your medical degree, you'd apply to the deanery that specialises in training people in X (and there's a couple for each specialism) and if they choose you, you move there. Is there anything similar in the US?

3) So I'm writing a 50kinkyways fic, with Stacy in. Fine, well and good. Except I'm once again making a point of her legs, which I always seem to do, and I worry that it comes off bad-fetishy. Because there is more to Stacy than her legs. And yet, you know, smut fic, and WWE always sold Stacy on her legs to the point that a cover version of ZZ Top's 'Legs' was her entrance music. So yes, again, help, suggestions and bricks are welcomed.

I have finished a fic, and am resisting the urge to post it immediately. I will try delayed gratification, if only because since it's written in some sort of conditional future and I know there will be grammar errors in there that will take resting it to spot.

Instead, I bring music from the NME awards 2008. They're all cover versions, the original artist is in the brackets. I was half tempted to also add My Chemical Romance's awful version of Song 2, but I shan't. Really how does a so called rock band, with one guitarist more, manage to make less of a righteous noise than Blur, the indiest of indie bands.

Picture of Dorian Gray - The Futureheads (Television Personalities) -http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZuZXQ2eFhJMHRFQlE9PQ

Golden Skans - Kaiser Chiefs (Klaxons) - http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZuZXQ2eFhqY3BjR0E9PQ

Young Folks - The Kooks (Peter, Bjorn and John) - http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZuZXQ2eFhUME94dnc9PQ

Whip It - Does It Offend You, Yeah? (Devo) -http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZuZXQ2eFhYSHp2Wmc9PQ

D.A.N.C.E. - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (Justice) - http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZuZXQ5R0ZHa05FQlE9PQ

Much though I'd love to write another fic based on the AMW split (to go with the one that's already posted and the other two I'm working on) and have it be a James Storm POV because the truth's a three sided sword and all that. Except for one small teensie problem. I really can't because well... mostly I still want to punch him and hard for doing that to his tag team partner.

And then I have to applaud them for causing that reaction. Because that's one of the reasons I watch wrestling, those moments of total suspension of disbelief where I do forget that there's a script-writer, and just lose it.

A fannish5 thing from a couple of weeks ago:

Name five totally self-indulgent story ideas. (The fanfic you would write if you didn't care if you had an audience and also had no shame.)

And the problem is that I really have no shame. For goodness sake, the last thing I posted was kinky Florton smut. So yes, there's very little I won't write if I want to write it. That's probably one of the things I've noticed about my writing, there's been three distinct stages:
1) Beginning - posting pretty much whatever I wanted because whee shiny new toys.
2) Trying to keep people happy, posting stuff you think they'll like.
3) Writing stuff you want to, and lo and behold, other people like it too.

I like the stuff written in phase 3 best (with one noticable exception) because it's so much more fun to do and I think it comes out better because its got soul.

That being said there are two fics I'll never write because they're blatent Mary Sue-age, and well, they're just not good. They are both CSI Miami fics:

( Some spoilers follow )

They would be bad fics.

The other fic I'll never write is the AMW break-up fic. Because it would be long and plotty, but all the major plot points happened on TV already and I am not a good enough writer to pull it off because it's all about blame and guilt and addiction.

It starts with Storm starting to drink heavily because he doesn't like what him and Chris have turned into, because this isn't them, they aren't supposed to be Jarrett's lap-dogs. So he drinks to forget but he can't ever forget and the drinking really only makes it worse and he knows that but he can't stop.

Harris keeps trying to have a word with him, but doesn't know how to, and can't get up the nerve. Then he gets distracted by Gail Kim, and they're cute and adorable and in love and he forgets to pay attention to Storm.

AMW drift apart, and clash because Storm is hurt and drunk and has no self-control and Harris thinks he's not fighting hard enough and generally there is bad blood.

Then the actually split happens, and Storm blames Harris and Harris blames himself for not paying attention to his best friend and Storm points out it's this thing that Harris has of putting himself at the centre of everything that annoys him the most.

The main problem, other than not being a good enough writer to do it justice is that there's no ending or resolution, because I want a happy ending damn it, but I know it's not going to happen on screen.

So that's the grand total of fics that I'll never write.

All about how I won't be posting fic because the fic that is finished annoys me in some way I can't explain, because it lacks purpose. I mean, even my character vignettes that lack plot have a purpose - it's to show either why a character reacted like that, or the things that shaped him into reacting like that or things like that. This doesn't even do that, and I don't know how to make it better. But I want to since there's a couple of lines I want to save.

Other than that, if it weren't for the quote from Ian McKellan below, I would be proclaiming the surviving members of the A-Team the coolest people ever. Given that, you know, they didn't kill Channel 4 for some of the hi-jinks they pulled.

But of course, Ian McKellan comes out with something like this - Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Wednesday, McKellen said, "When I read the book I believed it entirely. I thought that Leigh Teabing argued his case very convincingly indeed, and clever Dan Brown for twisting my mind in the right direction. And when I put the book down, I thought what a load of... and that's still going on in my mind. I'm very happy to believe that Jesus was married. And I know the Catholic church has problems with gay people and so this would be absolute proof that Jesus was not gay."

And I am much with the love.

Of course most of my remaining marbles that haven't been given over to the great God of Biology have been well and truly scrambled by the pictures of Sean O'Haire that Mynx posted.

Since it will see the first use of the disco alarm clock. Be worried, be very worried.

I'm using the ski-jumping icon since I watched some of that today. The prime match-up tomorrow will be Jacuba Janda v Janne Ahonen (the guy in my icon). Should be good except I won't be able to watch it since I'm finally going to see Goblet of Fire. Expect long post on that tomorrow. Expect a long rant if they've got Diggory wrong - sorry I fell for Diggory in Prisoner of Azkaban when he wanted the result of Hufflepuff v Gryffindor wiped because it wasn't Harry's fault that he got spooked by the Dementors.

On a Harry Potter tip, I've done some work on my Remnants ficathon fic, and some reading up in the HP lexicon so the background of what I write should work. Well a lawyer could find fault in it, but that's about it.

Watched some of the Strongman event shown on Eurosport today, loved it as usual. Most of them were their usual adorable selves and there was this one American competitor who was just so deeply cool - has an idea for my next icon.

Also watched some of the Nordic Combined. Way to go Felix Gottwald - seriously, he made up 45 seconds in the cross-country skiing part. I feel sorry for Hannu Manninnen though, he really didn't look well at the end, even if none of them ever do.

Anyway, at the end one of the Norwegians was getting changed and you saw his underwear (grey boxers for those interested), and then later on Mariuz Pudzianowski got stripped down to his underwear (black speedo-type cut) and I got to thinking, in relation to something usually said about wrestle-fic, which is the distinct lack of foreplay and is it because people are used to seeing the wrestlers in little more than their underwear so it's felt that there's not as much need to write a convincing way of getting them down to them and then out of them?

That shall be my random thought of the day.

Has anyone else ever had this feeling, where you're reading a fic and it's good and then it suddenly takes a 90 degree turn and stops making sense. And for some reason it really annoyed me, because it was a decent fic, characterisation, grammar, the whole lot and then suddenly wham! Anyhow...

I'm a writer who writes in order, like I'll know what might happen later but I won't write the end of a fic before I write the middle and for once it's come in handy. I was having a problem with the not exactly Ric/Randy fic, trying to figure out when Randy would tell the OMC about Ric, but while I was working it out I suddenly came up with a way of writing that I never would have thought of otherwise.

Other than that, I have yet more XMM fication fic to write.

When writing an angsty fic, where it's very much the character's own fault that everything goes to hell, do you find yourself really not wanting to write the part where they land themselves in it?

It's just I'm in the middle of one fic where one character is about to do something stupid and is miserable, and another character, completely not knowing why he is miserable, is trying to cheer him up and is saying completely the wrong things which eventually lead to the first character doing the stupid thing and I'm there trying to write while telling the second character not to say that because he's only making the situation worse.

Meanwhile there's another fic - stuck a bit due to me always getting stuck at sex scenes - again with the drama and angst and everything going to hell, but I'm okay with writing the part where the character makes the decision that eventually leads to the misery because it's not his fault, events conspire against him.

It's all Hamlet v Guildenstern and Rozencrantz yet again. Active choice v plot grounds. I'm so much happier writing misery when the misery comes from plot requirements rather than a character causing his own misery.