Entry tags:
That One Thing Meme
You know when you get that first idea for a fic, all shiny and exciting and you immediately latch onto ONE scene or ONE moment that you desperately want to write? Sometimes you write thousands of words JUST so you can write that ONE scene or moment?
Well that's what happens to me, anyway. OFTEN. So I did a quick poll earlier on Twitter and it appears I am not alone in this. And now I am desperately interested to know what everyone else's key scenes/moments in fic are.
So! Tell me. What was that scene you wanted to write in that particular fic? Did it come out the way you thought it would? Did it end up being a key scene, or just another scene? Was it a scene a lot of people commented on? Did you (GASP) need to cut the scene out of the fic in the end? ;___;
Okay, I'll start with James Cameron Got It Wrong since I kind of wrote that ridiculously long crazy story for that ONE scene. From the moment I realised I could turn that fic from the Frank/Frank PWP it started out as into something bigger I desperately wanted to write the Frank/Fun Ghoul/Gerard threesome that happens near the end. I had to write SO MANY SCENES to set that up and make that happen, and in the end, by the time I had set it up I ran out of time to WRITE the damn scene before draft deadline - so my first draft of the fic DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THAT SCENE IN IT (heee, thanks mods for letting that one slide).
And of course once I sat down to write it after ALL THIS SETUP I had the hugest case of stage fright because omg what if this scene I spent 40 000 words setting up sucks? I don't know, I'm weird okay. But yeah, I guess it was a pretty key scene in the end because quite often JCGIW is referred to as the F/F/G fic, you know?
OKAY NOW, your turn! Tell me about your key scenes! Comment below or repost to your journal so people can ask you about specific fics!
Is there a particular fic of mine that you'd like to know what my That One Thing scene was? Ask me! (my masterlist is here)
Is there a shiny new plot bunny on your horizon with a key scene you want to write? Tell me!
Talk to meeeee….
Well that's what happens to me, anyway. OFTEN. So I did a quick poll earlier on Twitter and it appears I am not alone in this. And now I am desperately interested to know what everyone else's key scenes/moments in fic are.
So! Tell me. What was that scene you wanted to write in that particular fic? Did it come out the way you thought it would? Did it end up being a key scene, or just another scene? Was it a scene a lot of people commented on? Did you (GASP) need to cut the scene out of the fic in the end? ;___;
Okay, I'll start with James Cameron Got It Wrong since I kind of wrote that ridiculously long crazy story for that ONE scene. From the moment I realised I could turn that fic from the Frank/Frank PWP it started out as into something bigger I desperately wanted to write the Frank/Fun Ghoul/Gerard threesome that happens near the end. I had to write SO MANY SCENES to set that up and make that happen, and in the end, by the time I had set it up I ran out of time to WRITE the damn scene before draft deadline - so my first draft of the fic DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THAT SCENE IN IT (heee, thanks mods for letting that one slide).
And of course once I sat down to write it after ALL THIS SETUP I had the hugest case of stage fright because omg what if this scene I spent 40 000 words setting up sucks? I don't know, I'm weird okay. But yeah, I guess it was a pretty key scene in the end because quite often JCGIW is referred to as the F/F/G fic, you know?
OKAY NOW, your turn! Tell me about your key scenes! Comment below or repost to your journal so people can ask you about specific fics!
Is there a particular fic of mine that you'd like to know what my That One Thing scene was? Ask me! (my masterlist is here)
Is there a shiny new plot bunny on your horizon with a key scene you want to write? Tell me!
Talk to meeeee….
no subject
But it'd be kinda complex because I want it to happen between like ses 8 and 9 of Buffy (that's in the comics but it's considered canon) and at first it was supposed to be between ses 1 and 2 of Teen Wolf but now if I were to actually ever write it, probably post ses. 2 even tho the ses 2 finale left me feeling kinda weird. I had an idea, like more fleshed out and stuff but then we were all lets wait until ses 2 is over before we do anything else. XD
But yes, basically I wanna do that for these two scenes. These bonding moments. rofl. And possibly it'd be like Gen or pre-slash. /o\ Probably pre-slash.
no subject
Yeah I have unwritten Misfits/MCR crossover fic where Simon and Gerard bond over the Smiths. I totally get where you're coming from.
no subject
And hehe. XDD \o/
no subject
no subject
no subject
So tell me about In Production. :D
no subject
Chill out and learn to love your pussy (http://archiveofourown.org/works/358736) was written solely for that line, or at least the scene in which Frank says it.
You know what they do to guys like us in community service (Nothing!) (http://archiveofourown.org/works/249367) started with the graffiti scene, surprise surprise. It's pretty obvious it's the centrepiece of the entire fic.
The pieces don't fit but they still make a picture (http://archiveofourown.org/works/216798) started with the scene I copied and pasted as the summary. It was never really about Dallon, it was about Brendon and Spencer.
Square Hole Seeks Square Peg (http://archiveofourown.org/works/189808), not that you're likely to have read that, is all about the final scene. I love Nakatsu/Mizuki and there comically gender/sexuality-confused friendship, and pegging seemed like the only answer.
There's always room for an encore (http://archiveofourown.org/works/166516) was always about the moment at the end when the show's over, the Top Gear boys are hanging around on stage supposedly packing up and staring at the empty band room, and Richard jumps up on Jeremy's bass drum to look down at him. I pretty much wrote the whole fic just to make that point worth it.
Anyway, I could go on, but most of my best examples are either fics I haven't finished yet or things from fandoms you wouldn't know. Five is already a lot!
no subject
no subject
no subject
Also that moment with Richard up on the drums is totally burned into my memory.
no subject
and all of hobos was essentially written because i wanted frank sick and homeless and hurting. because i love hurt. it was just a weird idea that came...i think with the sick!frank meme? and stuck around. and now it's a several k monster with a sequel in the works, and the story of my heart.
okay all of that was really not very interesting at all /o\
no subject
WRITE FROM YOUR HEART. WRITE FROM YOUR HEART!
*hugs*
no subject
Deeper Meanings Of Wearing Someone Else's shoes failed like that too. I wrote it all so I could have the scene where Pete-inMikey's-Body is furious at Mikey-in-Pete because Mikey is Kinsey 6 and "he" breaks up with Ashlee so he can have sex with guess. I still have that basic idea in it, but I didn't get to use any of the dialogue I'd originally planned.
Just Like Queer as Folk on the other hand, turned out beautifully. That fic was alllll about the opening scene, where Ray comes out as gay and then Gerard thinks it's a great idea to make Ray more comfortable about outing himself to out his relationship with Mikey. Halfeatenmoon had to help me edit it to make it perfect, but I fucking LOVE IT.
And in that way, A State Of Orange was just about the best thing ever. Because the two clearest images in my head were Gerard sharing his sweater with Frank, and then later Frank starting to dissolve in the sun, and my artist drew both of those scenes. AS COMIC PANELS.
If anyone happens to have questions about other fics, here's my masterlist (http://gala-apples.dreamwidth.org/327726.html#cutid1)
ETA: OH, SCENES OF THE FUTURE! I'm writing Darcy/Jane/Thor mixed orientation fic, and I am gleefully/evilly looking forward to the scene where they try their first threesome and Darcy Just Can't Do The Cock Thing. And then stuff happens, and then Darcy and Hogun have a Deep Meaningful Conversation about what it means to date someone that you're not interested in sexxing. And then I'm gonna do Alicia/Mikey/Pete for polybb, and it's quite possibly the H/Ciest thing I've ever written, because they're all anarchist/terrorist people, and Pete does something really insane and brave, and all around him people are dying and having their lives ruined for doing it, but it makes Mikey fall in love with him. And then I have this crazy plot for a horrorbb, I notficced it over a year ago, and the only part of it I can remember is the part where Frank and Mikey fall in love in a mental institution. BUT I LIKE THAT PART, SO EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE OKAY.
no subject
You're gonna do Alicia/Mikey/Pete for polybb? YAAAAAAY
no subject
(But does it even count? Cause it's not like I ALWAYS had the BURNING NEED to see that. I just thought about it one day and went from there? Idk!)
no subject
Was there a spark for your Jamia/Frank/Gerard one? I am so curious.
no subject
Generally the way stories start for me is with a line more than a scene - which is also why I get stuck so often! lol
no subject
Embers verse started with me thinking about a scene where surly Bob is nursing hostile Mikey. I had no idea how that happened at first, just I knew I wanted a story where they were bitching at each each other with Bob wanting Mikey out of his space, now. From that the whole sprawling verse was born.
no subject
Also I am so totally not surprised at all that your That One Thing scene in Embers is Bob nursing hostile Mikey. That scene is so great and one of the first things I think about in embers 'verse, right after the pink jeep and the extremely hot GSF.
♥
no subject
no subject
That moment was a big thing in my mind, because it was the step between them just being roomies, and Frank suddenly being confronted about things he'd tried not to think about previously.
So yeah, a sort of big thing in that it wasn't actually concrete in terms of detail, but I knew what I wanted to show.
no subject
no subject
And for one of my due South big bangs, I wrote the whole story around the lines Burnt-out city, broken land, dying world. The stink of soot and the bitter taste of ashes.
no subject
Those lines from your DSBB are gorgeous - are they yours?
no subject
no subject
I figured this would be as good an exercise as any if I'm trying to get back into writing fic. This gives me an excuse to look back through my masterlist and start thinking like a writer again.
Okay so first off, the one that springs to mind immediately, XO (http://archiveofourown.org/works/337684) was written around the exchange "I could take you right here, you know"/"Right here against the wall?" Kind of cliche and lame but whatever it worked for me.
Ummm.... the first flash of an idea for what became Obvious and Accidental (http://archiveofourown.org/works/337652) was the part where Gerard is mentally insisting to himself that he and Frank don't act like a couple, all while half-focusing on actions that prove just how much they do. The first line I really remember coming up with there was the part about him searching for the pasta strainer with the smaller holes because "he knows how much more Frank likes the angel hair than regular."
And finally, Won't Be Left With Nothing to Lose (http://archiveofourown.org/works/337748) was sort of always leading up to Gerard sat on the edge of Frank's bed, holding his hand, and Frank blurting out "Can I call you? ...When I get back home, I mean?" I just loved the idea of the brave soldier blushing and kind of shaking his head at himself over this crush he had on his nurse. :)
no subject
Oh god so adorable. Was there a That One Scene in Leather Studded Kiss? (Hahaha you totally saw that one coming)
no subject
I call it the spark, the scene or image or line of dialogue one thing that makes that fic NEED TO BE, and if I don't have it then I might as well not even open up a document--even if I can drum up the inspiration to write something, it all comes out vaguely flat and lifeless.
The really funny/gratifying thing is, when I post, the scene that gets the most comments or the line that gets the most cites is almost always the spark. It's like, the enthusiasm I have for that bit, and the vividness of the spark in my mind comes through, even when the rest of the story, honestly, maybe isn't that great.
The thing that I do, though, that I guess maybe isn't that normal is I immediately write that scene first, and then start filling in the blanks of how it got there. For instance, in my Merlin BB, the scene where Merlin bolts out of the throne room running, and then pushing Arthur up against the bedroom wall and whispering magic to hide them while soldiers pour into the room and Arthur stares at him in disbelief and shock--that was my spark and I wrote that first. Then I spent two months trying to figure out why the hell he was running from and what the hell came next. [snickers]
no subject
the scene that gets the most comments or the line that gets the most cites is almost always the spark. That is SO cool - you obviously put a lot into it and people pick up on that!
I immediately write that scene first, and then start filling in the blanks of how it got there
WOW. I very rarely do that! I think I mostly need to write fic in chronology or IDK I guess I get worried I'll lose motivation to write the rest if I get my favourite part out first or something. Oh that is SO interesting.
no subject
And even if I don't keep going, the psychic, I don't know, satisfaction of having created that one perfect scene is often enough to just satisfy me. That doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I've got a Merlin story where I doubt if it'll ever be finished, because I wrote the one bit I wanted to see and now I just don't need to know the rest in the same way.
But normally it's like, I don't lose motivation because now I want to know *what happened* to cause the spark, what happened after it finished, so then I start getting ideas for more and more scenes, building the bridges between what I've already written. I'm a big believer in momentum, too, the act of writing and using your creativity causing you to write even more and create even more, like the mechanical act of writing prompts more ideas for how it's going to go next--it's like when you're walking a long distance and at a certain point you stop thinking about walking and how far you've gone and how far there is to go because your legs and hips and brain just fall into a rhythm and an hour later you've reached your destination and you don't even notice the time passing or the effort it took to get there. So then eventually I've got a BBB and it's the last night and I'm scouring it desperately making sure I don't have any "stuff happens in a forest" placeholders. :)
Because I pretty much suck at plot, so everything I've ever done with a cohesive plot sort of happened by momentum and accident combined. I stumble into a bit of plot by chance and just don't stop writing until I've figured out how it ends.
no subject
Come to think of it, those kinds of writing sessions have been very productive for me in the past, and they've definitely taken fics I've been working on in directions I probably would never have gone if I'd sat down and tried to think it out first. And honestly I think I've written some of my best stuff under those circumstances so please don't think I'm dissing on your writing habits - if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, this is so FASCINATING to me.
no subject
OOPS.
no subject
Was there a That One Thing scene for The Big Picture?
no subject
no subject
There's one bit in "Lying Is the Most Fun a Mormon Boy Can Have Without Freaking the Hell Out," (a slantverse story) where Brendon has to pretend to his parents that he's a dom, not a sub, and that he has a female sub already, and he begs one of the girls to pretend to be his sub. But all the girls are either doms or uncommitted. I wrote the whole fic around this.
Victoria looks at Keltie. Keltie looks at Victoria. Brendon hyperventilates as his parents come up the driveway. Victoria looks at Keltie. Keltie looks at Victoria. Brendon's dad rings the doorbell. “Oh for fuck's sake," snaps Lyn-Z, and she tosses a sofa pillow to the floor and hits her knees just as the door opens.
I'm writing on the sequel to my (as yet unposted) BBB, which was sparked by a scene with Pete and his therapist. I wrote an original trilogy a while back, based on a scene I had in a dream. But mostly, I get the skeleton of a plot, and spend the rest of my time filling it out.
no subject
To End and Begin Again (http://doctor-jasley.dreamwidth.org/76252.html) was interesting because of the musical inspiration. It just rolled out of my head in 12 hours. But that first BIG moment of click was the opening scene where Spencer's talking to Brendon and everything is broken down (being rebuilt) around them and nothing is as it seems. I HAD TO FIGURE OUT WHY.
This is alone the reason I didn't start with the apocalypse happening at the beginning(and instead it's already happened). It felt more emotionally grounded in your mix that way. Then that's when I was punched in the gut with the reveal scene and it made me cry so I knew I had something there.
The Killing Trade (http://doctor-jasley.dreamwidth.org/78387.html) started as an au idea for The Professional(but I don't write straight-up aus, I have to completely reconstruct the story, so that meant I had A LOT to figure out). When I first started writing, I got to ten k and stopped but I had these 3SCENES!!! I NEEDED....it would be 40k-50k before I got to any of those scenes, which I didn't know at the time.
I Just Wanted when Brendon Tells Frank about his Past(which originally was at a different point in the story and under different circumstances). It's an instance of changing radically from the original thought to finished product. Then there was the Pete confrontation and the BIG action scene(though that became more of an emotional series of scenes and less ACTIONY)
My wave three bbbs this year are both examples of a vague IDEA concept that morphed into scouting for scenes. What Defines Us (http://doctor-jasley.dreamwidth.org/79934.html) (which is the only one posted so far. Was supposed to be an Abduction(that teen action movie with that Taylor kid) au but 3k in my brain took a series of turns and it became supernatural/scifi-ish and that CHANGED EVERYTHING.
I don't know about the whole impact those scenes have on people. But maybe that's because, I can and do see SEVERAL if not MANY scenes. So when people comment it's kinda blanket pinpointing. I'm just happy/ecstatic when people comment at all.
(long comment is long)
no subject
For The Dark Ocean Bottom (http://archiveofourown.org/works/311870) it was Ryan playing the piano. Both the image of it, those gorgeous long hands on the keys,but also Brendon's reaction to it, and Ryan's choice of song. That was the scene I wrote first and the rest of the fic was written around it.
Sometimes it's just a line that hits me. For example, the opening line of the fic I'm working on next:
"Trouble walking into my office in a gray suit and too many tattoos"
no subject
For A Crack in the Sky one of my big ones was the scene right after Gerard walks into the pool at the Paramour--when I wrote the first draft of that I didn't know how the whole Paramour section was going to play out, let alone the rest of the fic, but I already knew that was going to be the "oh shit, this is BAD" moment where things started ramping up to the climax of that section.
With Getaway Mile, I knew the basic idea was going to be the continuing adventures of Frank and Gerard from Shook-Up World, but then I was like "shit, I need a PLOT...maybe Frank gets in trouble with the mob?", and I ended up with the final confrontation with Vince and Leo, and then I pretty much had to see the fic through to get to that scene. Oh, and there was also the fit of self-indulgence where I was like "maybe teenage runaway Gerard awkwardly seduces Grant in a hotel room!" and then that became a major part of the story.
For A World So Small, there are a couple--Frank fainting and Gerard carrying him downstairs, their first meeting, and the scene where Frank takes Gerard out on the moor. Basically, all the most gothic-novel-cliche scenes.
As for future stuff, I'm still trying to make something out of the Labyrinth AU that sprang entirely from the thought of Gerard meeting Frank the Goblin King, and the Elizabethan genderswap story, for which the key scene is currently "Gee gets hurt and that's how Grant finds out she's a girl and then Mikey brings Frank to help her out". Well, I say "trying" when I mostly mean "vaguely poking at now and then". /o\