Chapter 8 progress

[ostarella]

I ran into a stumbling block with 8 - there was one small scene I wanted to include, just to anchor things with canon. I figured it was just a small thing, and even though I wanted it in there, it was bugging me as to how to do it. I couldn't figure out how the details from the scene in the show could fit, realistically, into this story. Nor how to "casually" bring it up. So, this morning, half-asleep, it came to me. Both solutions.

One - I took canon too literally.

Two - instead of making it an incidental - make it the culminating point of the chapter, *and* it figures heavily into the why's of the rest of the story.

I am Brilliant.

Okay, maybe just brighter than a burned out light bulb  ;-)

It was so neat, though - all I had to do was add two sentences to what I already had written and it changed the whole feeling of the chapter. That's what I love about writing - when suddenly, everything just...fits.

Now I just have to find time to get down and dirty with the details.

Comments

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

I think that's my only real problem with slash - the characterization. I read an article by a gay man on how men's relationships are portrayed in fanfic, and basically he said "You've got it soooo wrong!" The feminization is one major flaw, but also the basic interactions between the couple (or triple). They just don't act like I would expect them to, in any kind of relationship. It really is like reading about strangers - just two guys. And I think that's the reason the stories get formulaic. If you don't have a good handle on the characters, it's hard to write a really creative story, so you have to fall back on clichés or formulas. Otherwise we probably wouldn't recognize our guys. ;-)

[beckyblack]

I've read one definition of slash that it's "straight men having sex", which is fair in lots of cases. And it's possibly understandable when it is 99.9% women writing slash. But nowadays there's more available to read, watch, study about the way men relate to each other in situations that women wouldn't perviously have known anything about. So there's no reason not to get some realism into it.

And it's great when you run across an actual gay guy who writes slash fic! If they are a good writer it's like striking gold. There's a guy who writes slash for Bashir/Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (one of my favourite slash couples) and finding that was a joy.

Sometimes the slash story seems far too much like the standard romantic "bodice ripper" story, with the strong man and swooning heroine. But that means one of the guys has to be turned into the swooning heroine.

Luckily for me, I never read romance novels. :D

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

That's one thing that I never "got" in slash stories - where the guys would proclaim they're in this relationship and yet they aren't gay. I don't know, maybe I'm not "up" on gayness, but they seem to think that just because it's a monogamous relationship, that makes it not gay. I'm confused - or someone is. ;-)

But yeah, romance novels - I read them when I was a teenager (that's my only excuse). I think the really bad thing about romance novels is the heroine can be strong in everything except the relationship. So that does follow through in slash stories - Face takes out several bad guys with a heavy duty machine gun and then runs to Strong and Wise Murdock, crying for comfort at the life they can never have. Ewwww

[beckyblack]

Ah yes, the actual homophobic slash! How does that work? The implied message of it is: "Yes, I'm sleeping with my best friend, but I'm not one of those filthy homos!" If that is what the character is basically saying the story needs to address the issues that character may have to deal with. :D

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

But yeah, romance novels - I read them when I was a teenager (that's my only excuse).

I think I read some, but not many, but I was in the waiting room of a train station today (It's a steam railway, and we took a steam train to see Santa) as it was bitterly cold, and there were loads of books. Took one out, just to read the back, as a matter of interest, it being a romance novel, and the blurb thingy on the back.

"blah, blah, blah, ...as he ran his fingers through her chestnut mane..." lol! I thought it was talking about a bloody horse, not a woman!!!! ...does mane give you a horse image, rather than long hair? well it does me!