[Meme] mini-ficlet meme, & fic-specific questions meme

[edenfalling]

A couple memes from Tumblr, because why not. (Well, and because I want a place to archive an answer to the second meme, and as awkward as DW is for archiving, Tumblr is ten million times worse.)

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Mini-ficlet meme

Leave the first sentence of a fic in a comment and I will write the next five.

(May not be exactly five.)

Things To Do Post-Sburb When You're Bored: Rose said later that "I was really fucking bored" was insufficient explanation or indeed justification for the First Triennial Human/Troll Flashstepping Competition. (Homestuck, 575 words, for madamehardy)

Tomorrow's Memory: Because she had stopped counting the passing of daymonths after reaching one thousand, Aeriel could scarcely believe the change wrought in Avaric. (The Darkangel, 425 words, for rosaxx50)

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Fic-specific questions meme

Drop the title of one of my fics and a number in a comment, and I will tell you:

1. What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me?
2. What's my favorite part of the fic?
3. What's the part of the fic I'm most proud of?
4. What part of the fic was the hardest for me to write?
5. What part of the fic am I still dissatisfied with?
6. Who's my favorite character in the fic?
7. Were there any major decisions I made about the fic that could have made it go a whole different direction?
8. Was there anything I only learned about the fic after I had finished it? (themes, motifs, symbolism, etc)
9. Did anyone in the fic surprise me by doing anything? If so, what?
10. If I had to sum up this fic in a sentence, what would it be?
11. If I were to rewrite this fic, what would I change?
12. Did any thing about this fic's reception surprise me?
13. What were my beta's major comments about the first draft of this fic?
14. If I were to write a sequel to this fic, what would it be about?
15. Any other question about the fic!

Comments

[edenfalling]

(Note: this comment is an archived version of a Tumblr post from Sunday, April 19, 2015.)

Asuka asked: trollstuck! 1. What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me?, 5. What part of the fic am I still dissatisfied with?

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Trollstuck: Make Her Pay

1. What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me?

In late March 2012 (so, not quite two months after I fell into Homestuck fandom, for which I totally blame you, Asuka *grin*), I ran a little prompt!fic meme on my journal and explodingfrogs prompted me to write, and I quote, "an AU in which the human kids grew up as trolls alongside the canon troll kids on Alternia." I asked if this meant all eight kids or just the beta kids, they said whatever, and I said okay, the alpha kids can be the beta kids' Ancestors.

Then I turned the idea around in my head for a couple weeks while I fought a different prompt!fic, decided the best place to jump in was the aftermath of the Team Charge debacle (but before Vriska kills Aradia), set the beta kids' blood colors and a few group relationships, and started writing. Typing quirks, backstory, and so on developed as needed while I wrote.

I do not remember when or why I decided to try writing an audience participation story. My knee-jerk impulse just now was to say it might have been a 'take that!' response to the ff.net crusaders' screeds about 2nd person being inherently interactive, but I went to check the respective dates and that mess didn't happen until October 2012, so. *shrug* What I said at the time was, and I quote, "I have decided, partly because outside pressure is a useful source of motivation in some specific cases, and partly because while I know more or less where I want this story to end, I have no attachment to any specific method of reaching that ending (so long as I hit a few particular scenes en route), that I am going to write explodingfrogs's prompt fic as a sort of collaborative audience participation thing."

As for why the story is occasionally illustrated, that just sort of happened. I didn't want to have to do art! But sometimes a plot bunny is really insistent, and I figured what the heck, experimentation is good for the soul.

5. What part of the fic am I still dissatisfied with?

A) It's still unfinished. *headdesk*

B) I don't think I got Karkat's or Terezi's verbal tics down as well as I should have, and in the first chapter Jade is a little too fanon-y rather than canon. Ah well, so it goes.

C) I do wish I were better at drawing faces and bodies.

[mme_hardy]

Four by Four, "3. What's the part of the fic I'm most proud of?"

[edenfalling]

Hmm. I think I am proudest of the Dave-and-Rose and Jade-and-John chatlogs in chapter three. I wanted to show that they jumped into this idea of "let's all get married when we're older" at a very young age -- only four and a half months before the start of the game -- and though they have very strong emotional connections to each other, it's natural for them to have doubts. I also think I did a pretty good job of showing those doubts in ways that are noticeably different for each sibling pair, because of inherent character differences and circumstances and such.

[edenfalling]

(Note: this comment is an archived version of a Tumblr post from Wednesday, April 22, 2015.)

lunarcress asked: 5, 11 for four by four, 8, 12 for out of season and 2 for both?

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Four by Four

2. What's my favorite part of the fic?

Hmm. I think it's a toss-up between Jade blithely assuming they can all get married right away in the first chatlog, and all the parts in the second chapter where three or more people are trying to hold two or more conversations at once and talking over each other. I like making vague gestures toward the disjointed nature of actual internet chat experiences.

5. What part of the fic am I still dissatisfied with?

That it's not finished! (This is my answer to all WIPs, generally speaking.)

11. If I were to rewrite this fic, what would I change?

I think I'd make it a little clearer in the first two chapters that they are only thirteen and that becoming a sedoretu is sort of a... best case scenario ideal happy ending they would like to happen, but they are very unclear on the details.

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Out of Season

2. What's my favorite part of the fic?

Oh gosh, I don't know. All of it?

I guess if you held me at knife-point and forced me to pick one scene, it would be when Peridan visits Marigold Beaver, and Shezan finally consciously admits to herself that Marigold is a person and a child... and yet doesn't change her mind about the sacrifice at the festival. Because people and situations are complicated.

8. Was there anything I only learned about the fic after I had finished it? (themes, motifs, symbolism, etc.)

Shezan liking Ilgamuth! I didn't realize she saw him as anything other than one of Rabadash's less objectionable friends until the final scene, when she decided to start flirting with him. At that point I said "Argh WTF?!?!" or some variation thereof and had to do some hasty backfilling to make that development not come out of absolutely nowhere on a textual level.

Aside from that, the themes were pretty much what I envisioned once I had a functional outline: the story is about ethics, faith, loyalty, patriotism, etc., and how to make hard choices when there are no wholly "good" options. I specifically wanted Shezan to be a person of true and strong faith who didn't worship Aslan, who didn't change her mind on that score, and who didn't get her belief pulled out from under her by the bait-and-switch Lewis pulls on Emeth in TLB. (I don't care if you worship a god for what other people think are the "wrong" reasons. You are still worshipping that god, not some other god you may have never heard of.)

I think the tension between Shezan's faith-centric view of the world and Axartha and Rabadash's more secular outlooks was a little more foregrounded than I intended at first, but in retrospect I'm not sure why I didn't expect that to be a major theme, so eh. Probably that was just one of the things I subconsciously told myself wouldn't be a big deal so I wouldn't realize how long the story would be and get cold feet before typing the first words.

12. Did anything about this fic's reception surprise me?

I was very surprised by its relative popularity! I mean, "Out of Season" is a fic about OCs and canonical villains, set in a country other than Narnia or England, explicitly designed to challenge one of Lewis's theological points, and also designed to turn Rabadash into a three-dimensional person whom people might plausibly choose to follow out of loyalty rather than fear. Not to mention it's almost entirely gen, and what little romance does occur is between an OC and a character so minor he rates all of two glancing half-sentences in canon. I am very pleased that people enjoyed the story despite those potential turnoffs.

[rosaxx50.livejournal.com]

Meme 1: Because she had stopped counting the passing of daymonths after reaching one thousand, Aeriel could scarcely believe the change wrought in Avaric.

And, staying in the same fandom

Meme 2: The Starlady and Her Shadow: A Folktale of Avaric, 14 and 4.

[edenfalling]

I will get back to you on Meme 1 -- I need to flip ideas around for a day or three and see what settles out.

As for Meme #2...

4. What part of the fic was the hardest for me to write?

It wasn't so much a part of the writing as a part of the planning -- I dithered for a while over whether to cut Oriencor out of the story entirely and give her role to Aeriel. It would have simplified things a lot, but in the end I decided that since the story was meant to be folktale-as-mangled-history, I didn't want to give Avaric a mythology that so utterly contradicted what the rest of the world likely believes. Hence two villains.

14. If I were to write a sequel to this fic, what would it be about?

I don't think fairy-tales lend themselves well to sequels, but companion fics are a possibility. The whole bit with Pirs and the suzerain and so on is ripe for a folkloric retelling, or maybe a story about Ravenna's two daughters... *ponders options*

[rosaxx50.livejournal.com]

I look forward to it!

Hm, if the story is considered the nation's mythology, are there official or unofficial "history" stories that go along with that one?

Oh, that had been my meaning with the question, anyway, on other stories same 'verse rather than direct sequels. I'd certainly like to see those companion fics and/or alternate myths of the Darkangel events.

ETA: I notice you also cross-posted your answers on tumblr. If you want to take the shortcut and just tag me instead of making the whole linking thing, I'm @venusmelody over there.

[edenfalling]

There's an official history that is much more accurate, though I think still slanted to paint Aeriel in a negative light. I am pretty sure that the folktales in other lands are equally mangled when it comes to facts -- they just take a more positive view of Aeriel.

I like to keep stuff on DW/LJ for my own archiving purposes -- it's much easier to find them again later, if I want to look up something I said -- but I tend to crosspost fandom things to Tumblr in case anyone over there might find them interesting to read. I will tag that post now. :-)

[edenfalling]

Done! Tomorrow's Memory: Because she had stopped counting the passing of daymonths after reaching one thousand, Aeriel could scarcely believe the change wrought in Avaric. (425 words)