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(Note: this comment is an archived version of a Tumblr post from Wednesday, April 22, 2015.)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