behind closed doors and under stars
Jan. 1st, 2007 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reflectedeve(Does anyone know why Firefox hates LJ lately? That was annoying.)
Happy 2007, everyone! It’s the day of revelation for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide, and now that I’m allowed to be public about my contributions, I thought I’d talk about them a little.
(Oops, I almost slipped up! Turns outgo_exchange's reveal is tomorrow . . . I think? So I'll be able to post my picture then.)
This was the fourthyuletide (and I've participated in each one, yay). And, for the first time, I wrote two stories: my original assignment and a “stocking stuffer." They’re about as different from each other as I can imagine, too: the former lengthy, PG-rated gen, and the latter short, explicit femslash.
The Raven of Portobello Road
for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keswindhover
The Adventures of Tintin
general cast, PG, gen
Request: “Tintin in London”
Liner notes: In spite of the fact that I've loved Herge's boyish hero since childhood, and probably know most of the books by heart . . . this assignment was a huge challenge for me. I don't, as a rule, write straight-up adventure stories . . . ever. I'm big on contemplative, dreamy, symbolic pieces, and occasionally I write a bit of smut. Every single piece of occasional fanfiction I've written has been slash or at the very least preslash (with the possible exception of that one Labyrinth poem. I'm not even sure why I included Tintin in my offered fandoms this year, honestly, because I desperately didn't want to slash it. I'd been on a big rereading kick, though, and I was bursting with enthusiasm.
Luckily for me, I wound up withkeswindhover's very simple and very gen request. I had a brilliant time researching for it; reread a good chunk of the canon, and spent hours on Wikipedia, tintinologist.org, and pouring through Michael Farr's guide to the series. Poor sweetvalleyslut, not to mention my family, had to listen to me constantly squeeing about Herge's genius, or talking through various plot points that most of them knew nothing about.
So yes, the story. I like to take my cues from canon when I can, so I sent Tintin to London based on Chang's presence there after Tintin in Tibet (it's confirmed that he does in fact go there, after his accident, in The Castafiore Emerald). I chose Max Bird as a villain because he is an antique dealer (like Chang's adoptive uncle), and because his fate is never decided in the Tintin books; he is brought up at the beginning of Red Rackham's Treasure and then dropped completely, an unusual negligence. Revenge and further thievery seemed like a sensible theme for the plot. (My decision to set it in the present day is explained in a note; that was too important to leave until now.) The British Museum had to be involved, albeit briefly, because it's one of my favorite places in the world, and the hotel that Tintin and Haddock stay at is the one I spent the first week of the New Year at in 2005. I'm at least somewhat familiar with most of the secondary locations I chose, having visited them during my semester in London two years ago, but I've actually never been to Portobello Road in my life. Hopefully that wasn't too obvious; I did a good bit of research, much more than I was able to include.
From there, I basically wrote like a madwoman. "The Raven of Portobello Road" is the longest piece of fanfiction I've ever written (in fact, I think it's at least twice or three times as long as any previous story), and I spent a great deal of time on it . . . but still managed to write straight up until the deadline, which was frustrating. I did have to cut out some of the detail I'd have liked to include; long as it is, I felt it could have used a few more scenes between the stela incident and the confrontation with Bird. In fact, while I enjoyed the writing process immensely, and am fairly happy with the outcome, I am not entirely satisfied with "The Raven," because even though I think it's fairly faithful in characterisation and tone (god, the Thompsons were fun to play with), it's missing something.
You'd think it would have been obvious to me (I'm a cartoonist, after all), but it took me awhile to figure out the problem: Herge was a visual master, and a Tintin story in prose alone is really missing something. I'm inclined to believe (and Herge agreed with me) that only he could really do justice to a Tintin adventure. What I've come up with is an echo, a tribute of sorts. It was enjoyable to write, and I really hopekeswindhover and others enjoyed reading it. However, I think it's greatest merit--for me as well, in writing it--is that it's a reminder of the real thing, a way of sharing love and nostalgia for the wonderful source material. Which will do, I think. :) And maybe someday I'll perform real adaptation, and write Tintin fic that is contemplative and different from the adventure format of the series. Unless Moulinsart catches me at it. They're a little scary.
Life Like Fallin' Down
forsweetvalleyslut
Empire Records
Deb/Gina, NC-17, femslash
Request: smut
Liner notes: Oh man. You'd think that, exhausted as I was after finishing my Tintin story, I'd have been down for the count. I certainly let a lot of very tempting pinch-hits go by in the day or two before the original deadline. Runaways, Y: The Last Man, ElfQuest! So many comic fandoms! I did attempt to land one pinch-hit, very last minute on the 20th, but I wasn't quick enough.
I really wanted to write more, though. I was ecstatic when the new "stocking stuffer" option was introduced, and I think I originally had a list of five that I wanted to write. However, it was easy to pick out my first choice: my best friend, Bastet, had the semester from hell this past fall, and nothing I'd been able to dream up had done much in the way of making her feel better. But, I figured, what's more cheering than lesbian porn?
Empire Records has been one of my favorite movies for years, and B and I have had a lot of debates about femslash pairings for it (I've always wanted to read Deb/Corey, even though we both hate Corey; she, sensibly, prefers Deb/Gina). I didn't need to do much refreshing, though I did review a handful of scenes to get their voices in my head. It made for a very amusing Christmas Eve: I plotted the thing out in a notebook during the drive to visit my nursing-home-bound grandmother, and was writing it right up until we left for Vigil Mass at my parents' church. (I wasn't feeling terribly pure during the service, heh.) Managed to edit it and get it up literally two minutes before midnight (again) . . . after which I finally got around to wrapping my family's presents. ;)
There's not really much to say about the story itself. It's pure smut; the third explicit (lesbian) piece I've written, and my best, I think. I'm happy with it.
I was completely convinced that I wouldn't fool B for a second; after all, I'm pretty sure she's read every fic I've ever written (aside from all that Labyrinth self-insertion dreck, because she hadn't met me yet, thank goodness). Except . . . she totally didn't guess that it was me. That kind of made my (already fantastic) Christmas complete. And while she wound up with a whopping eight stories in three different fandoms (which I hear are fantastic, I haven't gotten to the B's or E's yet), I was really happy to be able to contribute to her holiday cheer. I'm excited to benefit from this sudden Boy Meets World fandom (it's about time!), myself, but someone needed to bring the lesbian porn. I had a great time doing just that!
What a fantastic year foryuletide. I stretched my boundaries, wrote more in a few days than I've done in most years, recieved a beautiful fairy tale with my own name on it, and will probably be in fic (to read) for the rest of the year. I feel really pumped, so maybe I'll finally keep my annual resolution to contribute to the NYR challenge.
Thanks so much,keswindhover and sweetvalleyslut, for your fun and challenging requests, and so much love to moonsheen, who filled a request I've been hoping for dearly for the past two years. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! Cheers. :)
Happy 2007, everyone! It’s the day of revelation for
yuletide, and now that I’m allowed to be public about my contributions, I thought I’d talk about them a little.(Oops, I almost slipped up! Turns out
go_exchange's reveal is tomorrow . . . I think? So I'll be able to post my picture then.)This was the fourth
yuletide (and I've participated in each one, yay). And, for the first time, I wrote two stories: my original assignment and a “stocking stuffer." They’re about as different from each other as I can imagine, too: the former lengthy, PG-rated gen, and the latter short, explicit femslash.The Raven of Portobello Road
for
keswindhoverThe Adventures of Tintin
general cast, PG, gen
Request: “Tintin in London”
Liner notes: In spite of the fact that I've loved Herge's boyish hero since childhood, and probably know most of the books by heart . . . this assignment was a huge challenge for me. I don't, as a rule, write straight-up adventure stories . . . ever. I'm big on contemplative, dreamy, symbolic pieces, and occasionally I write a bit of smut. Every single piece of occasional fanfiction I've written has been slash or at the very least preslash (with the possible exception of that one Labyrinth poem. I'm not even sure why I included Tintin in my offered fandoms this year, honestly, because I desperately didn't want to slash it. I'd been on a big rereading kick, though, and I was bursting with enthusiasm.
Luckily for me, I wound up with
keswindhover's very simple and very gen request. I had a brilliant time researching for it; reread a good chunk of the canon, and spent hours on Wikipedia, tintinologist.org, and pouring through Michael Farr's guide to the series. Poor sweetvalleyslut, not to mention my family, had to listen to me constantly squeeing about Herge's genius, or talking through various plot points that most of them knew nothing about.So yes, the story. I like to take my cues from canon when I can, so I sent Tintin to London based on Chang's presence there after Tintin in Tibet (it's confirmed that he does in fact go there, after his accident, in The Castafiore Emerald). I chose Max Bird as a villain because he is an antique dealer (like Chang's adoptive uncle), and because his fate is never decided in the Tintin books; he is brought up at the beginning of Red Rackham's Treasure and then dropped completely, an unusual negligence. Revenge and further thievery seemed like a sensible theme for the plot. (My decision to set it in the present day is explained in a note; that was too important to leave until now.) The British Museum had to be involved, albeit briefly, because it's one of my favorite places in the world, and the hotel that Tintin and Haddock stay at is the one I spent the first week of the New Year at in 2005. I'm at least somewhat familiar with most of the secondary locations I chose, having visited them during my semester in London two years ago, but I've actually never been to Portobello Road in my life. Hopefully that wasn't too obvious; I did a good bit of research, much more than I was able to include.
From there, I basically wrote like a madwoman. "The Raven of Portobello Road" is the longest piece of fanfiction I've ever written (in fact, I think it's at least twice or three times as long as any previous story), and I spent a great deal of time on it . . . but still managed to write straight up until the deadline, which was frustrating. I did have to cut out some of the detail I'd have liked to include; long as it is, I felt it could have used a few more scenes between the stela incident and the confrontation with Bird. In fact, while I enjoyed the writing process immensely, and am fairly happy with the outcome, I am not entirely satisfied with "The Raven," because even though I think it's fairly faithful in characterisation and tone (god, the Thompsons were fun to play with), it's missing something.
You'd think it would have been obvious to me (I'm a cartoonist, after all), but it took me awhile to figure out the problem: Herge was a visual master, and a Tintin story in prose alone is really missing something. I'm inclined to believe (and Herge agreed with me) that only he could really do justice to a Tintin adventure. What I've come up with is an echo, a tribute of sorts. It was enjoyable to write, and I really hope
keswindhover and others enjoyed reading it. However, I think it's greatest merit--for me as well, in writing it--is that it's a reminder of the real thing, a way of sharing love and nostalgia for the wonderful source material. Which will do, I think. :) And maybe someday I'll perform real adaptation, and write Tintin fic that is contemplative and different from the adventure format of the series. Unless Moulinsart catches me at it. They're a little scary.Life Like Fallin' Down
for
sweetvalleyslutEmpire Records
Deb/Gina, NC-17, femslash
Request: smut
Liner notes: Oh man. You'd think that, exhausted as I was after finishing my Tintin story, I'd have been down for the count. I certainly let a lot of very tempting pinch-hits go by in the day or two before the original deadline. Runaways, Y: The Last Man, ElfQuest! So many comic fandoms! I did attempt to land one pinch-hit, very last minute on the 20th, but I wasn't quick enough.
I really wanted to write more, though. I was ecstatic when the new "stocking stuffer" option was introduced, and I think I originally had a list of five that I wanted to write. However, it was easy to pick out my first choice: my best friend, Bastet, had the semester from hell this past fall, and nothing I'd been able to dream up had done much in the way of making her feel better. But, I figured, what's more cheering than lesbian porn?
Empire Records has been one of my favorite movies for years, and B and I have had a lot of debates about femslash pairings for it (I've always wanted to read Deb/Corey, even though we both hate Corey; she, sensibly, prefers Deb/Gina). I didn't need to do much refreshing, though I did review a handful of scenes to get their voices in my head. It made for a very amusing Christmas Eve: I plotted the thing out in a notebook during the drive to visit my nursing-home-bound grandmother, and was writing it right up until we left for Vigil Mass at my parents' church. (I wasn't feeling terribly pure during the service, heh.) Managed to edit it and get it up literally two minutes before midnight (again) . . . after which I finally got around to wrapping my family's presents. ;)
There's not really much to say about the story itself. It's pure smut; the third explicit (lesbian) piece I've written, and my best, I think. I'm happy with it.
I was completely convinced that I wouldn't fool B for a second; after all, I'm pretty sure she's read every fic I've ever written (aside from all that Labyrinth self-insertion dreck, because she hadn't met me yet, thank goodness). Except . . . she totally didn't guess that it was me. That kind of made my (already fantastic) Christmas complete. And while she wound up with a whopping eight stories in three different fandoms (which I hear are fantastic, I haven't gotten to the B's or E's yet), I was really happy to be able to contribute to her holiday cheer. I'm excited to benefit from this sudden Boy Meets World fandom (it's about time!), myself, but someone needed to bring the lesbian porn. I had a great time doing just that!
What a fantastic year for
yuletide. I stretched my boundaries, wrote more in a few days than I've done in most years, recieved a beautiful fairy tale with my own name on it, and will probably be in fic (to read) for the rest of the year. I feel really pumped, so maybe I'll finally keep my annual resolution to contribute to the NYR challenge.Thanks so much,
keswindhover and sweetvalleyslut, for your fun and challenging requests, and so much love to moonsheen, who filled a request I've been hoping for dearly for the past two years. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! Cheers. :)