The Fic of a Snick

Last day! I thought I had this day all sorted out, and then brutti_ma_buoni went all introspective with her answer. So in that spirit, I will say that Seraph will always be one of my proudest accomplishments. I tend not to think of it much anymore, because I finished it four and a half years ago (!), and when I do try to reread it I mostly see its flaws; I've grown a lot as a writer since that fic, and distance is often an unflattering vantage point anyway. Still, it's the longest fictional work I've ever written (yet) as well as being the thing that introduced me to fandom and let me meet a lot of people who are still dear friends to this day.

That said, the fic that actually came to mind when designing this meme was this one:

Long Way Home (LJ | A03) - SPN RPF - Jared/Jensen/Genevieve - 21k, rated NC-17
I wrote this all in a huge push during October/November of 2012 for spn_reversebang, inspired by a gorgeous piece of art whose spirit didn't quite make it into the final product but kept me going anyway.

In my perfect world, everyone has written a post-apocalyptic road trip fic; this is mine. Occasionally I manage to write exactly what I want in a fic, and this is one of those: isolation, survival tactics, so much cuddling, weird new relationships built on grief. It is just as much my id on display as the Jensen/Danneel cafe fic, but a different part of it. I think when I look back years from now, this will still be one of my favorite fics I've ever written.

( the whole meme )

Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ( DW replies)

In a House by the Sea, with Mermaids (AO3 | LJ) - SPN - Sam, Dean - 3.4k, rated PG-13

Here's a fic for a major fandom about it's primary characters, whom I've written little about together, perhaps surprisingly. I wrote this fic for an ohsam event for what is possibly my favorite prompt that I have ever filled:

Curtain fic. Boys have stopped hunting. There’s a farmhouse or house by the sea or whatever. Sam has a huge cat that adores him. Dean and the cat make stink-eyes at one another. Both boys are adjusting to their wounds – psychological and otherwise – but they get by. It’d be all pretty great, really, were it not for the fact that Sam’s been hearing sounds – wailing out in the fields (or on the beach), the sound of crying, etc. It’s hard to convince Dean that it’s real, that he’s not imagining it when he’s completely deaf in both ears and has been for the last couple of years. Gen, pls! (And if you put one of them in glasses, I’ll love you forever and ever.)

The prompt's so evocative, suggesting mood and setting and the beginnings of a plot. It just cries out for a story. I'm proud to say that I got every one of those items in except the cat (and I had plans for him, too, but in the end he just didn't fit. I can tell you, though, that he was an enormous buff-colored long hair named Nemo).

For some reason actually writing the fic was like pulling teeth, partly because for once I started it with an image and some nice words rather than a firm scenario. In that way it was much more like my pro-fic writing experiences than fanfic. I like it now that it's done, though. It's by far the happiest Sam-and-Dean fic I've ever written, and probably the only curtainfic for them I'm ever likely to write. The setting still makes me ridiculously happy, because Sam and Dean by the sea! How great is that? And I remain quite smug about a particular detail related to the titular mermaid.

( the whole meme )

Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ( DW replies)

Polysemy (AO3) - China Mieville's Railsea - Abacat Naphi/OFC - 3k, rated R
This was a Yuletide treat a couple of years ago. I had always wanted to write fic for a Mieville novel, and I had just read Railsea, and in their Yuletide letter this person requested fic about the mysterious and fearsome female moletrain captain, Captain Naphi. After a year or so writing the more stripped-down style prose I usually end up with for SPN, it was awfully fun to attempt Mieville's much more rambunctious and stylized prose. It's distant backstory, so it might be worth trying even if you haven't read the novel.

This was also, incidentally, the fic that officially got me writing f/f, a trend which is still going strong.

(By the way, if you've had a hankering to try Mieville, you could do a lot worse than Railsea. It's got that same gonzo worldbuilding that the Bas-Lag novels are so full of, but with much much less ickiness. It's basically coming-of-age novel mixed up with nods to Moby Dick - Naphi is the Captain Ahab figure - It's story of exploration and wonder as our protagonist finds himself going farther and farther off the map, but you don't read it for him; you read it for the side characters and, most of all, for the world and prose. At least, that's what I really enjoyed about it.)

( the whole meme )

Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ( DW replies)

The Very Small Girl and the Monster (LJ | AO3) - Firefly/BtVS - River+Spike with past Spike/Buffy - 2k, rated G
This is one of those rare fics that I look back on and still think turned out just about exactly how I wanted it. The premise is that River is a Slayer and has been dreaming of the past through the eyes of other Slayers. In particular, since humanity left Earth That Was, those Slayers have been getting training from a dangerous, white-haired man in a long coat. So it's a mix of dreams and River arranging events just so, so she can meet this man for herself.

I'm generally pretty happy with the dreams, and with the Firefly-voice (always tricky), and the River-logic (ditto), and the emotional note that the whole fic finally resolves on. It's a fic that manages to have a lot of heart, I think, even with the crack premise.


( all the days )

Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ( DW replies)