Otter's Rock

...and I have no idea what I'm gonna write.  I have an embarrassment of riches, this year; my recipient asked for not one but two fandoms I could totally write a story for.  But that doesn't mean I have story ideas bouncing around for them, you know?  One of them is an old movie that I know backwards and forwards because I watched it with my grandparents many, many times.  But I haven't watched it all the way through in, oh, maybe ten years?  At least not since I really got into fandom and fanfic.  I could still probably quote major sections, but I really need to watch it again before I start writing or I'll spend more time second-guessing my memories of the movie than actually writing.  Which means I probably won't be able to write the story until I get home for Christmas break, because I don't have a copy of the movie myself.

(The other isn't a fandom that I signed up for, but it's a relatively recent movie that was on TV just a few weeks ago, and the request is one I could do, it just doesn't interest me as much as the other.  And would require more research.  And, okay, all four fandoms are movies and I could write any of them in a pinch, but only the one from my childhood sings to me, you know?)

And I just realized that I have no cowboy icons.  If I am to write a cowboy story, I must have cowboy icons (hopefully from The Fandom I Am Writing In, because my recipient is right, there is definitely Teh Pretty in that movie).  Time to search LJ and DW.

ETA: and while I could find no icons of that movie (not even a single one!), looking at stills and classic movie blogs is definitely priming the pump.

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There are less than seven hours left to sign up for Yuletide.

If you like stories about books, movies, tv shows, songs, whatever, that don't get much fanfic, if you like writing, what are you waiting for?  Go!  It's lots of fun!
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As a general rule, fics with bad grammar/spelling drive me nuts, and also ones with major plot holes (for instance, when characters are made stupider than they otherwise would be so they don't notice the obvious so dramatic tension can be increased). Basically, just make sure you have a good beta to help you and you should be fine. Passing the Bechdel Test (i.e. having at least two women in your story who talk to each other about something other than the men in their lives) will win you bonus points with me. Please, no slash or explicit sex.

Ballet Shoes: I loved this book when I was a child, and recently re-read it and realized I still do. I love that the girls love each other even when they don't understand each other. I love that the girls take care of each other and their family. I love that the girls go for their dreams. I love that being a mechanic/chauffeur/pilot is just as good a career choice for a girl as being a film star or a ballerina. I love that ambition is good, and rewarded, but that doesn't mean you should be a bitch about it.

Chalion series: what I love about this series is the way it brings theology to life without being preachy about it. The way theology is shown to have concrete impact on the way people act, and the way they respond to the world. It's not just gods and goddesses throwing lightning bolts around, but a truly deep spirituality that is fully integrated into the world and the characters. What I also love about the characters is that they are realistic and flawed and still manage great things despite (and sometimes because of) their flaws. What I love about Lois' works in general is the lyrical nature of her prose, the depth and breadth and weight of the way she uses words and themes and mood, though that's harder to pull off. If that's not your style of writing, I'd rather something plainly written than something overflowing with purple prose because you're not used to writing that way.

Heinlein--The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: I love the politics, and the relationship between Mike and Manny (I cry every time I read the end), and the economics of this book (TANSTAAFL!). But let's face it, Heinlein's attempts to write strong women sucked. He tried, which is more than most authors of his generation, but did not succeed. I would love to see a Wyoh who is recognizably herself, and yet made more realistic and given flesh through a deeper treatment. I would also love to see some deeper exploration of what it is to be a woman in Luna society, how that affects and is affected by economics, politics, interpersonal relations, etc.

Wonder Woman--She's Wonder Woman. What more needs to be said?
Okay, okay. I love the whole superhero shtick. Costume, secret identity, fighting evil, alter ego, the works. But I also love people who are realistic, who live in the real world. Sure, Diana can fly. What's life like for her on the ground? In the day-to-day stuff besides fighting evil, and what's it like to go from fighting evil to normal life and back again? How's it different living in Man's World than Themiscyra? Not just the big stuff or the obvious stuff, but the little things that trip you up the most. I want to see her friendships, how they affect her and how she affects her friends.

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Am now officially signed up for yuletide. Yay! I never bother to suggest fandoms to add, because there are always more fandoms that I want to request than I have request slots available, and it is always agonizing paring fandoms down to four; there's no need to make it harder than it already is. I also like to check the requested fandoms page to see which of my requests is most likely to be the one matched on. (The matching algorithm matches the least offered/requested fandoms first, so the fewer numbers after the fandom, the more likely you are to be matched on that fandom--although that also depends on the characters requested and offered, which you can't tell from the list.) I've never managed to guess which fandom I actually ended up getting a story in, but it's fun all the same. Right now, I'm most likely to be matched up on Wonder Woman, because there's only my request and one offer to write. Who knows how that will change by the time signups are closed, and how my requests will interact with all the other requests and offers in the matching algorithm. Also, it's possible my assigned writer will default, in which case the most popular fandom would probably, though not certainly, be the one that I ended up getting. Judging by signups so far, Curse of Chalion is the most popular of the four I requested.

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So, school has started, and since I'm taking classes for grades this semester instead of pass/fail, my schoolwork is taking more time than it has in the past. (My seminary is not geared towards academics, it's geared towards people who want to be in parish ministry their whole careers, I'd say more people take their classes pass/fail than for grades. Not that I ever used the pass/fail thing as an excuse to slack off; but I wasn't obsessive, you know?) Anyway, my writing time is much curtailed.

I'm still excited about in_the_beginning but I'm definitely only going to be writing one of the two prompts I claimed. Moses and his identity issues will have to wait; Miriam and Deborah and the Word of God need to be finished ASAP so they can get sent off to beta.

sg_rarepairings is going to be run on a prompt-claim basis this year, which is both slightly disappointing and slightly relieving. I'm looking forward to it. And to the knowledge that I definitely won't be writing Sarah Gardner/Daniel Jackson this year, having written that two years running due to being assigned to the same person. But given its timing, it will be overlapping with yuletide, and both of course overlap with the end of the semester and the Christmas rush, and gah. It'll all work itself out, right? Right?

Meanwhile, I've got a Reboot Spock/Uhura piece dealing with some harsh Vulcan realities that's almost certainly going to have one of those completely open-ended 'endings' that I like because they're realistic and other people don't like because they don't give closure sitting on my harddrive. It needs a scene and a half, some tweaking, and a betaing, but between classes and my in_the_beginning fic, it's not going anywhere soon. (Okay, okay, I only like the open endings in my own fic, it drives me crazy in other peoples', and part of it is sheer laziness: I don't want to have to write the years of relationship and career exploration they're going to have on the Enterprise's mission that will have a huge effect on what choices the two of them make together and separately about where they're going and how they're going to live the rest of their lives taking into account Spock's biology and the pressure to repopulate the Vulcan species.)

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And now I get to talk about my story some. Woo-hoo.

First off, if you've never seen the movie Big Fish, you need to get it on Netflix or something. It's a great movie about--well, about a lot of things actually. Mostly about storytelling and reality, and about the relationship between fathers and sons, and the problem of the unreliable narrator. It was directed by Tim Burton, stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, and Danny Devito. It's an awesome movie, well made.

Big Fish is about a man named Edward Bloom, who tells incredible and fantastic stories about his life, and his son Will who believes that all the stories are lies and just wants to get to the truth while his father is dying of cancer. The movie is a series of Edward's stories interwoven with bits of Will talking to and about his father. Will eventually accepts the stories for what they are as a part of his father whether or not they're strictly factually accurate. And through the movie (especially at the end) you find out that while the stories are certainly exaggerated, the fantastic people Edward claims to have known throughout his life are all real people who show up at his funeral. Despite his acceptance of his father's storytelling, and the appearance of people he thought his father only made up, Will still believes him to be the ultimate unreliable narrator.

Anyway, at one point Will goes to visit a woman (Jenny) he believes his father had an affair with (he finds the deed to her house in some of his father's papers). He asks her, she says no she didn't, and tells a story of her relationship with Eddie. Despite logical inconsistencies and fantasy aspects (which Jenny tell him come from Eddie's storytelling, when Will questions her), Will accepts her story at face value. Because he does, the viewer is supposed to, as well, because the movie is set up to contrast Edward-the-unreliable-narrator and Will-the-reliable-narrator. But the irony is, Will is almost as unreliable a narrator as his father is, if in different ways. Will's absolute belief in his father's unreliability blinds him to the truth behind it, and his desire to learn the truth leads him to believe Jenny despite the fact that her story is just as fantastic and logically inconsistent as some of the ones his father tells. And because of the way the movie is told from his point of view, I never noticed his unreliability as a narrator (which introduces the probability of Jenny's unreliability as a narrator) until my yuletide assignment made me go back and watch the movie with Jenny's point of view in mind. It was amazing the difference that made.

Anyway, I had so much fun writing this story. Like the movie, it's also about the ways in which stories impact reality and vice versa. It's also about growing up, and learning to control your own life, and about life in a small southern town, and the relationships between men and women.

The Storyteller (or the LJ version)

By Fandom


AA Milne--Winnie the Pooh
In Which Worlds collide, and Eeyore Investigates a Terrible Crime
This is an awesome crossover between Pooh and Discworld. The tone is perfect, it fits both universes, and it even has an illustration. Awesome.


Aliens Series
Far Across the Stars
Awesome look at what could have happened if not for Alien 3. Ripley, Newt, and Hicks, fighting a war against the Company's command of Species 001.

We Did Not Make Ourselves
Post-Alien Resurrection. We are all God's children.


Arthur Conan Doyle--Sherlock Holmes
Commonplaces
Only to be adored was, in the end, nothing; to be adored by someone worthy, everything. (Irene Adler/Sherlock Holmes.) After Reichenbach Falls, in Paris. On the nature of freedom, and love.


Bible--New Testament
Man of Cyrene


Bible--Old Testament
Understanding
For Miriam, the will of God has always been clear.


Big Fish
The Storyteller
The biggest fish in the river gets that way by not being caught. Jenny, growing up.


Calvin and Hobbes
the sandwich story
Hobbes is changing. A story about growing up.


Indiana Jones
Conversations in Sussex
Indy helps Russell wrap up a case; Holmes and Russell locate someone Indy can't forget.


Lois McMaster Bujold--the Vorkosigan series
He Only Said 'Neigh': The Lord Midnight Precedent After the Time of Isolation
David Galen's thesis topic. Now I want to read that thesis, dangit!



Love Actually
Letter To America
Karen tells Daniel what's going on. Wonderful sequel to the movie.

So, it's the day before I leave for Hawaii for my brother's wedding, and I got my Yuletide story finished and uploaded and I was gleeful! and then i realized that while i had remembered to fill in the drop-down box for my recipient's name and triple-checked it to make sure i got the right one, i completely forgot about the drop-down box to tell the archive who the author is.

An e-mail has been sent to the mods. Hopefully it will get fixed before the archive goes live. I feel really badly about creating the extra work for them.

So, usually with ficathons (particularly large, unspecific ficathons like yuletide and Remix Redux) my first reaction to my assignment is panic and horror because there is no way in hell I can write whatever I've been assigned for one reason or another (and it's never the same reason twice). Then I figure out what my angle is, and then I get really excited. Then I write my story, and usually end up really proud of it by the time I'm done.

This yuletide is different. I got my assignment and went, "oh, that sounds cool." I hope that doesn't mean that panic and horror come later in a reverse of my normal pattern, because that would really suck, but at this point I can't see it happening. I do need to go rewatch the source material, however. Not a sacrifice. And I said "any" in the character list, and my assignee wants a story about one of the coolest characters in it. Actually, I may end up writing two stories for her, because in her details for the request she had two fic ideas and both sound really cool. An embarrassment of riches! Would that all ficathons matched me up this well.

I have, however, sent a request to the mods that they ask my assignee some clarifying questions, because it's going to make a huge difference in the story if she really is saying what I think she's saying.