thoughts on remixes
Apr. 30th, 2007 02:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneFirst of all, I've finally updated my website, and well as the list of my fics on LJ. My site's current fic count is sixty (!), pretty much all over 500 words. My LJ list's current count is 135 (!!!), ranging from 100 word drabbles to chaptered fics, including some older stuff that I didn't want to put on my site.
All in the Waiting
I was pretty happy with my assignment,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
winter_baby, though sorta apprehensive. Though she's written in a bunch of fandoms, the only ones I knew well enough to write in were Harry Potter, Supernatural (both of which she only had one fic in), or The X-Files. I chose X-Files, obviously, but I felt a bit guilty about it; at the top of the list of her fics, she said she wasn't happy with her XF stories, and I didn't want to disappoint her by writing in a fandom she was done with, using a fic she didn't like anymore. I got over the guilt, of course--as musesfool has mentioned, this isn't a gift exchange, and we're not trying to write to someone else's specifications. I treated her fic with respect, which I at least am content with. And besides, I looked up her application in the original sign-up post, and X-Files was her only qualifying fandom, so she had to know that her remixer was someone who wanted to write in that fandom.
Chosing a fic wasn't as difficult as I was expecting; she and I have very different writing styles, very different characterizations, and very different typical subject matter. Of her Mulder/Scully fic, which is what I knew I wanted to write, the relationship was depicted as being more painful than what I like reading. And while I could certainly understand where she was coming from in that depiction, I prefer to put a lighter spin on things. "The Longest Shadow" was the fic that I felt gave me the most room to write Mulder and Scully the way I wanted to, so that's what I chose to remix.
I scrapped my original idea, which was more of a sequel than a remix, and decided to just go for that tried and true method of remixing, the POV swap. I liked that better anyway; the original fic is from Scully's POV, but for some reason, I usually tend to be more comfortable writing the guy's perspective. I'm sure I could have written Scully well enough, but I was just more comfortable with Mulder.
It wasn't a straight POV swap, though. My remix ended up about three times the length of the original fic, since I had to set the scene. In the original story, Scully's in the cemetery after Mulder's abduction and "hears" him talking to her. I wasn't sure if Mulder's dialogue was meant to be real, or just what she thought he would say; I chose to make it real, something which was thankfully plausible given Mulder's history, and other bits of canon. Still, that plausibility did worry me a bit, until my betas told me it was fine. I also had some other concerns about plausibility, but my betas also helped me iron those out. Thank God for betas.
There were a few things that I really liked having done. I've only had a few reviews, so I don't know if anyone caught them, which is sorta disappointing, but I guess it does stop me from patting myself on the back too much. :p But I had four sections, and each subsequent section built directly on something in the previous one. In the first section, I set up Mulder's telepathic abilities; in the second one, I expanded on those abilities, and introduce the idea of people being his "safe place"; in the third, I established Samantha as being a safe place, despite her disappearance and death, giving him a reason to mentally be in that cemetery; and then I brought it all together in the fourth section with Mulder's POV of the original fic. I just really liked the way I wrote that. Another thing--the original fic implied that Samantha, and therefore Mulder, was Jewish (which is a common fanon thing, even if one I have no opinion on), so I did a bit of research on Jewish funeral customs, and gave more details on that than what the original fic had. I was sorta proud of myself for that.
But even this fic had the discrepancy between howwinter_baby saw the characters, and how I did. Mulder in canon can be quite thoughtless, and occasionally carelessly cruel, but I was uncomfortable with much of the dialogue in the original, because I really don't think he'd say those things to Scully without reason. I had to find a reason, and I think I did well enough. At least I found a way to keep the gist of the dialogue the same, yet adapt it to my view of Mulder. I also gave the Mulder/Scully romantic relationship a more positive spin than what I inferred from reading the fic--I guess I'll always be a romantic at heart, and those two deserve to have a relationship that isn't going to hurt them more than it heals them.
I think that's enough on that for now. :p
My Candle Burns at Both Ends
This was my pinch hit, so I didn't have as much time to revise and agonize. I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning, since like I mentioned when I posted the fic here, it has been over a year since I wrote any Remus/Sirius. Any HP at all, really. And there's a reason for that--I didn't have much inspiration, especially since HBP came out.
Thankfully that wasn't a problem, once I readkanella's fic, and especially "Burn It", the fic I remixed. She didn't have many stories, and the ones she did have weren't very long, but that didn't matter, since I could definitely see expanding the first paragraph into a longer story. kanella just told the bare bones of the memory, and it actually ended up being very easy to expand that memory into about four or five times the length of the original paragraph. That's what I did, and I think it turned out well enough. And I was glad to write more Remus/Sirius again.
...All right, so I didn't have as much to say about that as about my assignmnt. :p But there are things I want to say about both.
For all that they're different fandoms, I think my fics have a few similarities, some I didn't even notice until they were both done. But both original fics were much shorter than my remixes, and, funnily, both were written in second person POV. That's rare enough as it is--I find it somewhat amusing that both of my original stories were in that POV. Also, not something I thought about, but both of my remixes ended up being third limited present tense. The third limited isn't unusual, but I don't often do present tense, especially in something longer than a drabble or a ficlet. Both fics also ended up being sad and angsty--"All in the Waiting" had some measure of hope at the end, but "My Candle Burns at Both Ends", like the First War era that fic was set in, was just sad.
I also used lines from poetry as titles in both fics. :p It's so much easier than coming up with something myself (ahaha watch me be lazy), and dude, I love T.S. Eliot and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Two of my absolute favorite poets. :D
...You know, there's more things I could talk about, but I'll have to do it later. Right now I'm getting tired and I want to go to bed.
All in the Waiting
I was pretty happy with my assignment,
winter_baby, though sorta apprehensive. Though she's written in a bunch of fandoms, the only ones I knew well enough to write in were Harry Potter, Supernatural (both of which she only had one fic in), or The X-Files. I chose X-Files, obviously, but I felt a bit guilty about it; at the top of the list of her fics, she said she wasn't happy with her XF stories, and I didn't want to disappoint her by writing in a fandom she was done with, using a fic she didn't like anymore. I got over the guilt, of course--as musesfool has mentioned, this isn't a gift exchange, and we're not trying to write to someone else's specifications. I treated her fic with respect, which I at least am content with. And besides, I looked up her application in the original sign-up post, and X-Files was her only qualifying fandom, so she had to know that her remixer was someone who wanted to write in that fandom.Chosing a fic wasn't as difficult as I was expecting; she and I have very different writing styles, very different characterizations, and very different typical subject matter. Of her Mulder/Scully fic, which is what I knew I wanted to write, the relationship was depicted as being more painful than what I like reading. And while I could certainly understand where she was coming from in that depiction, I prefer to put a lighter spin on things. "The Longest Shadow" was the fic that I felt gave me the most room to write Mulder and Scully the way I wanted to, so that's what I chose to remix.
I scrapped my original idea, which was more of a sequel than a remix, and decided to just go for that tried and true method of remixing, the POV swap. I liked that better anyway; the original fic is from Scully's POV, but for some reason, I usually tend to be more comfortable writing the guy's perspective. I'm sure I could have written Scully well enough, but I was just more comfortable with Mulder.
It wasn't a straight POV swap, though. My remix ended up about three times the length of the original fic, since I had to set the scene. In the original story, Scully's in the cemetery after Mulder's abduction and "hears" him talking to her. I wasn't sure if Mulder's dialogue was meant to be real, or just what she thought he would say; I chose to make it real, something which was thankfully plausible given Mulder's history, and other bits of canon. Still, that plausibility did worry me a bit, until my betas told me it was fine. I also had some other concerns about plausibility, but my betas also helped me iron those out. Thank God for betas.
There were a few things that I really liked having done. I've only had a few reviews, so I don't know if anyone caught them, which is sorta disappointing, but I guess it does stop me from patting myself on the back too much. :p But I had four sections, and each subsequent section built directly on something in the previous one. In the first section, I set up Mulder's telepathic abilities; in the second one, I expanded on those abilities, and introduce the idea of people being his "safe place"; in the third, I established Samantha as being a safe place, despite her disappearance and death, giving him a reason to mentally be in that cemetery; and then I brought it all together in the fourth section with Mulder's POV of the original fic. I just really liked the way I wrote that. Another thing--the original fic implied that Samantha, and therefore Mulder, was Jewish (which is a common fanon thing, even if one I have no opinion on), so I did a bit of research on Jewish funeral customs, and gave more details on that than what the original fic had. I was sorta proud of myself for that.
But even this fic had the discrepancy between how
winter_baby saw the characters, and how I did. Mulder in canon can be quite thoughtless, and occasionally carelessly cruel, but I was uncomfortable with much of the dialogue in the original, because I really don't think he'd say those things to Scully without reason. I had to find a reason, and I think I did well enough. At least I found a way to keep the gist of the dialogue the same, yet adapt it to my view of Mulder. I also gave the Mulder/Scully romantic relationship a more positive spin than what I inferred from reading the fic--I guess I'll always be a romantic at heart, and those two deserve to have a relationship that isn't going to hurt them more than it heals them.I think that's enough on that for now. :p
My Candle Burns at Both Ends
This was my pinch hit, so I didn't have as much time to revise and agonize. I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning, since like I mentioned when I posted the fic here, it has been over a year since I wrote any Remus/Sirius. Any HP at all, really. And there's a reason for that--I didn't have much inspiration, especially since HBP came out.
Thankfully that wasn't a problem, once I read
kanella's fic, and especially "Burn It", the fic I remixed. She didn't have many stories, and the ones she did have weren't very long, but that didn't matter, since I could definitely see expanding the first paragraph into a longer story. kanella just told the bare bones of the memory, and it actually ended up being very easy to expand that memory into about four or five times the length of the original paragraph. That's what I did, and I think it turned out well enough. And I was glad to write more Remus/Sirius again....All right, so I didn't have as much to say about that as about my assignmnt. :p But there are things I want to say about both.
For all that they're different fandoms, I think my fics have a few similarities, some I didn't even notice until they were both done. But both original fics were much shorter than my remixes, and, funnily, both were written in second person POV. That's rare enough as it is--I find it somewhat amusing that both of my original stories were in that POV. Also, not something I thought about, but both of my remixes ended up being third limited present tense. The third limited isn't unusual, but I don't often do present tense, especially in something longer than a drabble or a ficlet. Both fics also ended up being sad and angsty--"All in the Waiting" had some measure of hope at the end, but "My Candle Burns at Both Ends", like the First War era that fic was set in, was just sad.
I also used lines from poetry as titles in both fics. :p It's so much easier than coming up with something myself (ahaha watch me be lazy), and dude, I love T.S. Eliot and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Two of my absolute favorite poets. :D
...You know, there's more things I could talk about, but I'll have to do it later. Right now I'm getting tired and I want to go to bed.
