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edenfallingRandom RemixRedux notes:
I have looked over my remixee's archive and read several stories whose pairings/characters/summaries jumped out at me. I think two are very promising candidates for remixing. One would be easier, since it already walks very close to one of my own obsession points in that canon. The other would be much trickier, but the story really pulled me in and it has a lot of implicit spaces and times that I could use to weave a new story over the same bones.
I will go read the rest of my remixee's stories in our matched fandom during this coming week, to get a better sense of her habitual characterizations and themes, even though most of those stories are for a pairing that I find... not squicky, nor categorically implausible, just not something that interests me. It's one of those pairings where I like the interaction and possibilities in genfic, but I need to be carefully coaxed and cajoled to accept a romantic and/or sexual relationship. Unfortunately, if someone is writing a pairing as an OTP, they are not likely to write it in such a way as to overcome my skepticism toward it, because shipfic writers tend to take their pairing as a given instead of working anew to convince readers of its plausibility.
(This is not, btw, a condemnation! It's just an observation. If I already buy into a pairing, I don't want to keep rereading arguments about why it makes sense. I'm just saying that from outside -- and for this pairing, I am definitely outside -- that shorthand doesn't work.)
But as I say, I do find those characters interesting when they interact in a gen fashion -- there is a lot of potential for dramatic stories! -- so I am hoping maybe one or two of my remixee's shipfics will have enough other stuff in them for me to maybe background the OTP stuff and foreground the plot and other aspects of the interaction. And if not, well, there are always those two other stories that really pinged me. :-) I just think it would be nice to stretch myself more this year -- to find something fascinating in a story that's otherwise outside my general zone of interest.
Anyway, I've also read some stuff my remixee has written outside of the fandom we were matched on, but only three of those jumped at me and I think only two are possibilities to work with; I just don't remember the particular moments of canon the third story deals with well enough to feel confident playing with it. (I could, of course, reread those chapters, but they are scattered and I am lazy.) So I am saving those as backup as well.
I may come back after the reveal and fill in the fandom and pairing details I am talking around now. And then again, I may not. As I said, I'm lazy. *grin*
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ETA: Okay, this is me coming back three months later and saying that the pairing in question is Remus Lupin/Severus Snape from Harry Potter.
You see, I cannot believe in them as a pairing during their Hogwarts days. I don't care how well you write it; for me, that would contradict canon personalities and character traits, which is much, much worse than just contradicting events... plus if Snape is in love with Lupin, that makes his reaction to Lily's death rather bizarre. I find it wildly improbable for them to become a couple during PoA-HBP (though I could probably be persuaded by outstanding writing helped along by a compelling plot). And then in DH, of course, Lupin is married to Tonks, Snape is still obsessed with Lily, and then they all die.
So if you want to convince me of this ship, you have very limited time period options unless you are going wildly AU, and you are going to have to do a very good and delicate job with characterization. Also, you are going to have to explain away Tonks, Lily, and possibly Sirius (preferably without setting off my inner feminist rage, btw), so good luck with that. *grin*
I have looked over my remixee's archive and read several stories whose pairings/characters/summaries jumped out at me. I think two are very promising candidates for remixing. One would be easier, since it already walks very close to one of my own obsession points in that canon. The other would be much trickier, but the story really pulled me in and it has a lot of implicit spaces and times that I could use to weave a new story over the same bones.
I will go read the rest of my remixee's stories in our matched fandom during this coming week, to get a better sense of her habitual characterizations and themes, even though most of those stories are for a pairing that I find... not squicky, nor categorically implausible, just not something that interests me. It's one of those pairings where I like the interaction and possibilities in genfic, but I need to be carefully coaxed and cajoled to accept a romantic and/or sexual relationship. Unfortunately, if someone is writing a pairing as an OTP, they are not likely to write it in such a way as to overcome my skepticism toward it, because shipfic writers tend to take their pairing as a given instead of working anew to convince readers of its plausibility.
(This is not, btw, a condemnation! It's just an observation. If I already buy into a pairing, I don't want to keep rereading arguments about why it makes sense. I'm just saying that from outside -- and for this pairing, I am definitely outside -- that shorthand doesn't work.)
But as I say, I do find those characters interesting when they interact in a gen fashion -- there is a lot of potential for dramatic stories! -- so I am hoping maybe one or two of my remixee's shipfics will have enough other stuff in them for me to maybe background the OTP stuff and foreground the plot and other aspects of the interaction. And if not, well, there are always those two other stories that really pinged me. :-) I just think it would be nice to stretch myself more this year -- to find something fascinating in a story that's otherwise outside my general zone of interest.
Anyway, I've also read some stuff my remixee has written outside of the fandom we were matched on, but only three of those jumped at me and I think only two are possibilities to work with; I just don't remember the particular moments of canon the third story deals with well enough to feel confident playing with it. (I could, of course, reread those chapters, but they are scattered and I am lazy.) So I am saving those as backup as well.
I may come back after the reveal and fill in the fandom and pairing details I am talking around now. And then again, I may not. As I said, I'm lazy. *grin*
-----
ETA: Okay, this is me coming back three months later and saying that the pairing in question is Remus Lupin/Severus Snape from Harry Potter.
You see, I cannot believe in them as a pairing during their Hogwarts days. I don't care how well you write it; for me, that would contradict canon personalities and character traits, which is much, much worse than just contradicting events... plus if Snape is in love with Lupin, that makes his reaction to Lily's death rather bizarre. I find it wildly improbable for them to become a couple during PoA-HBP (though I could probably be persuaded by outstanding writing helped along by a compelling plot). And then in DH, of course, Lupin is married to Tonks, Snape is still obsessed with Lily, and then they all die.
So if you want to convince me of this ship, you have very limited time period options unless you are going wildly AU, and you are going to have to do a very good and delicate job with characterization. Also, you are going to have to explain away Tonks, Lily, and possibly Sirius (preferably without setting off my inner feminist rage, btw), so good luck with that. *grin*
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-15 03:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-16 05:36 am (UTC)But yeah, it can be hard to know where to start. I've done Remix twice now, and my first try -- Comfort (The Extremely Basic Remix) -- is a failure as a remix, though I like it as a story. I was very much at sea, so I ended up just expanding the original version and shifting its focus slightly rather than pulling out the story's bones and constructing a new body around them.
I think I did better with my second try -- Seasons of Cloud and Shadow (Like the Deserts Miss the Rain) -- but I screwed that one up by writing too close to the posting deadline, which meant I didn't have time to let the story settle and shift in my mind, nor to get it thoroughly beta'd. Which is no one's fault but my own, of course. *sigh*
Anyway, now that I think I know how to reimagine someone else's story, I want to get the timing right as well, so I can post the best story I am able to write, instead of the best story I am able to write at the last minute. *grin*