(no subject)

[fearlessfan]

I am having a slightly rotten day, and so my resistance to memes is even weaker than usual! Here it is:

Comment with a story I've written, and I will tell you something I knew, learned, or wondered about while writing it that didn't make it onto the page.

Comments

[kaelie.livejournal.com]

The Story.

[fearlessfan.livejournal.com]

Obscenely late reply, buddy! Car drama intervened (as well as my characteristic lateness). Also: I called you today but had to hang up before I got to voicemail because I saw a cop. Will be leaving you rambly voicemail soon!

Now, to your comment! The truth is, the thing I remember most about this is that it led to me joining the mailing list Sihaya - which led to me getting to know you so much better, and meet Elizabeth and Nephele and everyone else, people who I'm still close to all these years later! I was really nervous about posting the story, but I went for it and even though there was a typo in the subject line (I still remember the horror of realizing that after the fact, and it was a mailing list so I couldn't change anything!).

As for things I knew about the story that didn't explicitly make it onto the page, I guess the only thing I knew was that Rogue wasn't ever going to get any better. Though I guess that's probably implied. I had a sequel in the works to that effect, but it was too depressing and I never finished it.

And now I've babbled at you enough! :)

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Jury Duty!

[fearlessfan.livejournal.com]

This reply is terribly late, my apologies!

You asked me about Jury Duty! This story taught me the value of being loose and letting my mind wander and find the jokes as I wrote, and not obsessing over every sentence as I wrote it as I typically do. The threads of the story were all thought up in advance (Jenna's quest for Worst Dressed, Tracy having jury duty, Jack having lost in poker to Oprah), but the sections themselves were almost free-written and then tightened up later. I think it allowed for the tone of thee story to be a little looser and wackier (or at least I hope so!), and so I guess more than anything it taught me not to be afraid of changing my approach to writing a story.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing that! It's really insightful and reminds me again of how much I love that story, and how lucky I was to have it written for me at Yuletide.

[sinsense.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Jury Duty, but DAMN I was beaten to the punch. I will take What Partners Do, instead!

(But if you should haaaaappen to want to tell me something about New Beginnings Pie or the Redemption of Clarissa Saunders, I will certainly be excited to read it. And by "excited" I mean "will squeal and do a little flappy-hand-dance.")

(I am not responding to comments because I am Asleep, but FELLOW JESS! You are amazing and everyone loves you because of your amazingness, stop thinking anything different or I will smack your knuckles with this kitten here. [waggles kitten at you meaningfully]

KITTEN: "Quorp!"

FEAR US AND OUR MIGHTY POWER.)

[fearlessfan.livejournal.com]

FELLOW JESS! This reply is appallingly late, especially since you said such lovely things in it! Thank you!!

Also, your kitten is super adorable and the pictures you've posted of him have on more than one occasion been so adorable so as to tip my day from crappy to okay. The power of kittens!

You asked me about multiple stories! Since I am long-winded and self-indulgent, I couldn't resist!

What Partners Do

The thing I appreciate most about this story is that it's how I met you, Fellow Jess! Seriously, that's what I think of. As for the writing of the story itself - it was something that sat barely-started on my hard drive for ages, something I never thought I'd finish because the audience for it was so nonexistent. But I kept plugging away because I wanted to write the story but wasn't sure how to go about it. I guess the thing I learned from this one is that no half-finished story is a lost cause; one day you may open it and suddenly find yourself writing the last two-thirds of it, as I did.

New Beginnings Pie

This is a story that did have some extra backstory, bits I had written into one of the sections and later cut out. I'll see if I have any saved in an earlier version - basically, it was about how Earl came into Jenna's life just after her mother died, when she was feeling so lost and confused and was eager to be with someone who loved her as much as he did. And then the love started to suffocate her.

Redemption of Clarissa Saunders

The thing I learned from this story is the value of waiting before posting - I posted this story literally minutes after finishing it, and it shows; there were typos, dropped sentences, and an ending that I'm still not really satisfied with. I still wish I'd waited a day and worked on it a little longer, but I impulsively posted it and so there it's sat ever since. The thing is, since it was something I'd so desperately wanted (Clarissa fic!), I still enjoy it, as flawed as it is.

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Spring Cleaning!

[fearlessfan.livejournal.com]

This reply is so late, I apologize! Also: I feel like I say this every time I see this icon of yours, but seriously, it is SO AWESOME.

Spring Cleaning! The thing I learned from this story is the importance of a beta - props to lesasoja, who was a godsend for this story! She pointed out that the Ryan sections rang false because I'd initially written Ryan as having much kinder feelings toward Michael than he actually displays on the show. Basically, I had let my creampuffy nature and tendency toward the warm fuzzies to infiltrate Ryan's character, and as a result, his scenes didn't really ring true. And I had totally, totally missed it, and would never have caught it without her. Yay for betas!