Association meme, part 2
Feb. 27th, 2009 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupMore of the association meme, this time from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gabrielleabelle.
Drusilla
Hee. Because of my icon, I'm assuming. :) First, the character: I thought Dru was wonderfully creepy and a perfect counterpart to Spike - they made a very nice matched set of villains in S2. I tend not to read much fic about her and about them together because it seems like a fairly static relationship: a hundred years of larking about the world, eating people. In fact, I have trouble thinking of a character who experienced less change and development over the course of the two shows than she did. However, I have seen some really interesting what-if scenarios with her.enigmatic_blue has one in which W&H accidentally brought her back from the dead instead of Darla, I read a really fabulous AU recently wherein she got chipped instead of Spike (here, by a_pretty_fire), and hello_spikey has one I want to read but haven't yet about Spike taking Dru in after she shows up in LA during Ats S5.
As for the icon, well, I just seem to identify with insane brunettes - if I ever get tired of Dru for my default icon, I have one of Dana that I'll probably switch to. I choose not to consider where this identification comes from. *g* Besides, although it doesn't always hit me in the face when I see her on screen, Juliet Landau is absolutely gorgeous.
Writing (Not fanfic, necessarily, but general writing since you're published)
Oh, writing, that's just a little teensy topic. I can cover that in three paragraphs. *g* Hmm, I've been telling stories to myself since I was little, but I didn't start writing semi-seriously until I took a fiction-writing class in college. And, being college, fiction meant bleak, plotless, desperate emotional landscapes of the Hemingway variety. Somehow after I finished the class I managed to dig out from under these expectations and start writing science fiction and fantasy, which are the genres I read the most of. (Also, they don't tell you this in college writing classes, but it's both much easier to get published and to get paid for your work if you write genre fiction than if you write literary fiction.) I sold my first story in 2006, to a small Australian print mag, and have been selling more or less regularly since then (although early on, the emphasis was on 'less). (For those interested, my full list of publication credits is here. Only one of them is available online presently, but there's another due out this spring that's much newer and more representative of what kinds of things I'm writing now.)
The longest piece of original fic I've ever finished (we're ignoring the ridiculous unfinished alternate-world fantasy thingy from high school) was around 10k, and then it got edited down to 8k in the rewrite. Partly it's because I'm rather intimidated by this whole 'plot' concept. That's actually one of the reasons I want to finish Seraph - even in unfinished rough draft form, it's 30k, and should be around 40k by the time it's done. I'm hoping that in finishing it, I'll prove to myself that yes I can write longer things (even though it's pretty light on plot, too).
I'm not sure at this point what my long-term ambitions are; I'd like to start thinking about writing a novel, as well as continue with the short fiction. I don't expect to ever live off writing fiction – that's reserved for the novelists who manage that magical combination of productivity and popularity – but I don't expect to ever give it up, either.
Spike
- My Spike is occasionally clever but rarely brilliant; he's occasionally wise but never about himself.
- My Spike is frequently embarrassed by his capacity for love but rarely lets that stop him.
- My Spike regularly gets in over his head, but he bulls through rather than admit it – and sometimes that even works.
- My Spike is neither as competent as he thinks he is nor as incompetent as everyone else thinks he is.
- My Spike does not purr (alas). He does not have magical healing saliva. His bite and a few mumbled words do not induce telepathy or empathy with his victim, even when performed during sex.
- My Spike is amused by the very concept of vampiric hierarchy, and he wouldn't call himself a master vampire if you paid him. (Well, it might depend on how much you were offering.)
- My Spike believes wholly in the power of words. If he doesn't admit it, it can't be true; if he wants something and claims it, it's as good as his (or should be, he thinks). When he makes a deal he follows through because he said he would. Once upon a time he tried to woo with words, although that didn't go so well. He may glory in violence, but words are his weapon, his first and last defense.
Genfic
As I commented togabrielleabelle recently, I'm not primarily a ship-oriented person, either in fiction or in real life. In fact, last summer I decided I wanted to reread something romantic to sort of compare and contrast with the shippy fic I'd been reading - and I couldn't think of anything to reread. I mean, Jane Austen, yeah, but... Well, and L.M. Montgomery, but even though she had romance in her books, that's never what I read them for. I have to wonder if I didn't stumble into the wrong fandom, because even the show itself is intensely ship-oriented a lot of the time.
So, I really enjoy fic that explores all the other kinds of human relationships: the Giles&Buffy father/daughter, Watcher/Slayer relationship (although I'm not opposed to Giles/Buffy, either); the Buffy&Dawn sibling relationship (of which there is not nearly enough fic!); the Spike&Dawn pseudo-sibling relationship; Spike's uneasy, sometimes-comradely, sometimes-antagonistic relationship with practically everyone on the show; plain old friendship between Xander, Willow, and Buffy (of which there also isn't enough fic). One of my theories for why genfic gets short shrift is I think there's a perception that relationships without sex/romance are somehow less deep and intense and meaningful than those with (or, alternately, that any relationship beyond a certain level of intensity/depth has a sexual component). I just plain don't agree with that. Another reason is that, if the point of your fic isn't to get your characters in bed by the end, then you might actually need a plot, whereas to some extent romance supplies a ready-made plot structure to work with.
I, on the other hand, can't quite seem to write anything but genfic, although I'm committed to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
seasonal_spuffy this round and there's another pairing I'd very much like to try, just for kicks.
Strong chicks in shows
Hmm, this is sort of a funny one, since I'm still working out for myself what I want from female characters. I love competence and level-headedness, a sense of perspective, a sense of humor. I tend to relate better to characters - male and female - that are damaged, but I admire the characters that forge ahead anyway. So, for example, one of my favorite bits of Serenity is that scene with Zoe and Mal at the end when he asks, ostensibly, about the ship, and she answers for herself and the ship both: "She's beat up some, but she'll fly true." (Actually, I adore Zoe pretty much all the time.) For another, one of the things I loved about Iron Man was Pepper Potts' ferocious competence. And yet another: I rewatched the LOTR extended trilogy again recently, and was reminded just how much I like Eowyn, not so much for the battle prowess, but for her steadfast determination to serve and protect her people.
So I love "strong" women characters in shows, but to me that can mean a whole lot of different things. It should go without saying that physical strength isn't necessarily a requirement. Strength might be the guts to carry on despite heartache, or the emotional fortitude to give up something dear for a good reason, or enough perspective to laugh in a difficult situation. Strength of character is the biggie, but I also like female characters who just have skillz - even though I don't watch either NCIS or Criminal Minds, if I did, I'm pretty sure their respective geek girls would be some of my favorite characters on the shows.
gabrielleabelle.Drusilla
Hee. Because of my icon, I'm assuming. :) First, the character: I thought Dru was wonderfully creepy and a perfect counterpart to Spike - they made a very nice matched set of villains in S2. I tend not to read much fic about her and about them together because it seems like a fairly static relationship: a hundred years of larking about the world, eating people. In fact, I have trouble thinking of a character who experienced less change and development over the course of the two shows than she did. However, I have seen some really interesting what-if scenarios with her.
enigmatic_blue has one in which W&H accidentally brought her back from the dead instead of Darla, I read a really fabulous AU recently wherein she got chipped instead of Spike (here, by a_pretty_fire), and hello_spikey has one I want to read but haven't yet about Spike taking Dru in after she shows up in LA during Ats S5.As for the icon, well, I just seem to identify with insane brunettes - if I ever get tired of Dru for my default icon, I have one of Dana that I'll probably switch to. I choose not to consider where this identification comes from. *g* Besides, although it doesn't always hit me in the face when I see her on screen, Juliet Landau is absolutely gorgeous.
Writing (Not fanfic, necessarily, but general writing since you're published)
Oh, writing, that's just a little teensy topic. I can cover that in three paragraphs. *g* Hmm, I've been telling stories to myself since I was little, but I didn't start writing semi-seriously until I took a fiction-writing class in college. And, being college, fiction meant bleak, plotless, desperate emotional landscapes of the Hemingway variety. Somehow after I finished the class I managed to dig out from under these expectations and start writing science fiction and fantasy, which are the genres I read the most of. (Also, they don't tell you this in college writing classes, but it's both much easier to get published and to get paid for your work if you write genre fiction than if you write literary fiction.) I sold my first story in 2006, to a small Australian print mag, and have been selling more or less regularly since then (although early on, the emphasis was on 'less). (For those interested, my full list of publication credits is here. Only one of them is available online presently, but there's another due out this spring that's much newer and more representative of what kinds of things I'm writing now.)
The longest piece of original fic I've ever finished (we're ignoring the ridiculous unfinished alternate-world fantasy thingy from high school) was around 10k, and then it got edited down to 8k in the rewrite. Partly it's because I'm rather intimidated by this whole 'plot' concept. That's actually one of the reasons I want to finish Seraph - even in unfinished rough draft form, it's 30k, and should be around 40k by the time it's done. I'm hoping that in finishing it, I'll prove to myself that yes I can write longer things (even though it's pretty light on plot, too).
I'm not sure at this point what my long-term ambitions are; I'd like to start thinking about writing a novel, as well as continue with the short fiction. I don't expect to ever live off writing fiction – that's reserved for the novelists who manage that magical combination of productivity and popularity – but I don't expect to ever give it up, either.
Spike
- My Spike is occasionally clever but rarely brilliant; he's occasionally wise but never about himself.
- My Spike is frequently embarrassed by his capacity for love but rarely lets that stop him.
- My Spike regularly gets in over his head, but he bulls through rather than admit it – and sometimes that even works.
- My Spike is neither as competent as he thinks he is nor as incompetent as everyone else thinks he is.
- My Spike does not purr (alas). He does not have magical healing saliva. His bite and a few mumbled words do not induce telepathy or empathy with his victim, even when performed during sex.
- My Spike is amused by the very concept of vampiric hierarchy, and he wouldn't call himself a master vampire if you paid him. (Well, it might depend on how much you were offering.)
- My Spike believes wholly in the power of words. If he doesn't admit it, it can't be true; if he wants something and claims it, it's as good as his (or should be, he thinks). When he makes a deal he follows through because he said he would. Once upon a time he tried to woo with words, although that didn't go so well. He may glory in violence, but words are his weapon, his first and last defense.
Genfic
As I commented to
gabrielleabelle recently, I'm not primarily a ship-oriented person, either in fiction or in real life. In fact, last summer I decided I wanted to reread something romantic to sort of compare and contrast with the shippy fic I'd been reading - and I couldn't think of anything to reread. I mean, Jane Austen, yeah, but... Well, and L.M. Montgomery, but even though she had romance in her books, that's never what I read them for. I have to wonder if I didn't stumble into the wrong fandom, because even the show itself is intensely ship-oriented a lot of the time.So, I really enjoy fic that explores all the other kinds of human relationships: the Giles&Buffy father/daughter, Watcher/Slayer relationship (although I'm not opposed to Giles/Buffy, either); the Buffy&Dawn sibling relationship (of which there is not nearly enough fic!); the Spike&Dawn pseudo-sibling relationship; Spike's uneasy, sometimes-comradely, sometimes-antagonistic relationship with practically everyone on the show; plain old friendship between Xander, Willow, and Buffy (of which there also isn't enough fic). One of my theories for why genfic gets short shrift is I think there's a perception that relationships without sex/romance are somehow less deep and intense and meaningful than those with (or, alternately, that any relationship beyond a certain level of intensity/depth has a sexual component). I just plain don't agree with that. Another reason is that, if the point of your fic isn't to get your characters in bed by the end, then you might actually need a plot, whereas to some extent romance supplies a ready-made plot structure to work with.
I, on the other hand, can't quite seem to write anything but genfic, although I'm committed to
seasonal_spuffy this round and there's another pairing I'd very much like to try, just for kicks.Strong chicks in shows
Hmm, this is sort of a funny one, since I'm still working out for myself what I want from female characters. I love competence and level-headedness, a sense of perspective, a sense of humor. I tend to relate better to characters - male and female - that are damaged, but I admire the characters that forge ahead anyway. So, for example, one of my favorite bits of Serenity is that scene with Zoe and Mal at the end when he asks, ostensibly, about the ship, and she answers for herself and the ship both: "She's beat up some, but she'll fly true." (Actually, I adore Zoe pretty much all the time.) For another, one of the things I loved about Iron Man was Pepper Potts' ferocious competence. And yet another: I rewatched the LOTR extended trilogy again recently, and was reminded just how much I like Eowyn, not so much for the battle prowess, but for her steadfast determination to serve and protect her people.
So I love "strong" women characters in shows, but to me that can mean a whole lot of different things. It should go without saying that physical strength isn't necessarily a requirement. Strength might be the guts to carry on despite heartache, or the emotional fortitude to give up something dear for a good reason, or enough perspective to laugh in a difficult situation. Strength of character is the biggie, but I also like female characters who just have skillz - even though I don't watch either NCIS or Criminal Minds, if I did, I'm pretty sure their respective geek girls would be some of my favorite characters on the shows.
