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Meme For My Flist
What subjects do you wish were discussed more often on your personal friends list?
What subjects do you wish were discussed more often on your personal friends list?
icon love!
ships. of some kind.
actually, just make that "my tiny obscure fandoms" in general, because I miss the days when I used to get annoyed that ATLA was eating up my flist. And I'm, like, craving fic right now.
I would say things like "politics" and such but honestly I don't keep up with the real world and am wary of only getting rants as my news source.
I do like talking about religion, but I've gotten worse about that too. Maybe I could use more practice.
Re: icon love!
And I'm, like, craving fic right now.
I kind of am too, only I don't really have time to read it, so getting recs for things just stresses me out.
Re: icon love!
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5306755/1/Enslaved
I just... omg. It is my favorite ongoing WIP and it's already epic at 20+ chapters. It's a complete reversal of the slave cliche, a giant AU, and one of the top two or three most interesting explorations of a possible Water Tribe culture that I've seen in fanfic. It's like Dances With Wolves: Firebender Slave Babysitter Saga. At every point where I might be leery of the author making the wrong choice, it turns out that with a little patience from the reader, that right choice--that emotional payoff--is coming at the right time and place. I feel like I'm reading a decent novel. It has minor and plausible guest appearances from other characters as the story progresses. Oh, man, it's a season 1 fanfic written with season 3 analysis, foresight, and empathy. Anyway, totally read it.
Re: icon love!
I'm really loving the level of detail in the daily life of the water tribe, Zuko as a babysitter, and those epic UST-sparring matches. Less fun was the zillion chapters with no dialogue and the fact that I'm waiting on pins and needles for more conflict with Zuko regarding whether or not he's going to stay with Katara's tribe.
At every point where I might be leery of the author making the wrong choice, it turns out that with a little patience from the reader, that right choice--that emotional payoff--is coming at the right time and place.
Tell me more about this.
Re: icon love!
About the payoff--that statement is primarily related to Zuko's conflict of Stockholm Syndrome, how he feels attached to the tribe but resented for so long their imprisonment of him. I kept thinking the author would forget and make him too comfortable (as so many imprisonment fanfics do), but I liked when we had a few chapters of him emotionally shutting down and deliberately halting his own progress...I felt like we were pulled along with him in that ethical dilemma. Then when he was finally given his freedom, I liked that it didn't immediately change much in his life, except that now it was his choice. And she managed to frame that within what is to him an alien culture, almost to say that his basic understanding of his imprisonment was itself flawed--not that he wasn't a prisoner, but that his perception was from a radically different cultural outline so he was seeing it through his eyes, not theirs, which was interesting and for the most part successful.
The stuff with Jet was a nice and necessary plot push and I feel like things are going to head toward a conclusion soon afterward.
Enslaved
Agreed. Unnatural ease with language or worlds that all have the same language are NEVER something I complain about, simply because I dislike stories about learning languages so much (or learning basic human manners).
I kept thinking the author would forget and make him too comfortable (as so many imprisonment fanfics do), but I liked when we had a few chapters of him emotionally shutting down and deliberately halting his own progress...I felt like we were pulled along with him in that ethical dilemma.
Agreed. That was handled very well.
And she managed to frame that within what is to him an alien culture, almost to say that his basic understanding of his imprisonment was itself flawed--not that he wasn't a prisoner, but that his perception was from a radically different cultural outline so he was seeing it through his eyes, not theirs, which was interesting and for the most part successful.
Oh, I totally agree! From the very beginning I got the sense that his definition of 'slavery' was inadequate at encompassing the full context of being a slave in the Water Tribes (and that humorous line of Toph's 'They're treating you like her husband' only confirmed it for me).
The stuff with Jet was a nice and necessary plot push and I feel like things are going to head toward a conclusion soon afterward.
Agreed. Now that he's out of the Water Tribes, he's going to have to make a choice between finding his uncle and going back with Katara.
SHARKFLIP SPEAKS! pt I
HONEST NON-REVIEW IMPERSONAL DISCUSSION OF PLOT MECHANICS AND IMPACT THEREOF. SO. MUCH. LOVE. <3<3<3
Enslaved was originally a 1,500 word one-shot drabble. It of course only stayed that way for about 18 hours, but I realized right off that if it were expanded, the two forces driving the story would have to be 1. Zuko learns Water Tribe and 2. Zuko earns/is granted his freedom. Along the way, I've added in a third one, that is 3. Zuko resists assimilation.
I initially didn't even see any avenue for romance between Zuko and Katara given the slave setup, since Zuko would never submit to ownership and I don't think Katara would be interested in him as a person if he were also property. There were so many steps between point A (a war party returns with an exotic slave) and point B (ZUTARA!!!) that I couldn't even see it until I started breaking down those steps one by one.
I wrote out a 20-chapter outline in late August to give the framework for taking those steps, and that really helped me organize everything in the progression that's unfolding now. I also wrote the ending in October and the epilogue about three weeks ago, so I know exactly where it's going as I fill in the path to get there. Until... almost a year ago now, good heavens, I hadn't written fiction in ten years, and have been pleasantly surprised that all that technical writing experience makes storytelling way easier -- or at least better.
I've also been a little surprised at how much of this is being driven by personality analysis of the characters. This is almost embarrassing to admit, but that Avatar Meyers-Briggs Quiz (http://www.freewebs.com/anliya/avatarquiz/results.html) was actually really interesting and useful for me to get a grasp on how the characters would act. I don't agree with all of the assessments, but Zuko as ISPJ and Katara as ESFJ ring pretty true.
I'm INFJ and my father is classic ISTJ and my SO is ESTJ and my main collaborator in real life is ESTP, so I've got a fairly good sense of how the variables play out (according to my own interpretations, of course). I've assigned Zuko the inflexible, over-analyzing, painfully honest, but ultimately "scientific" (able to change opinion based on evidence) properties of ISTJ, while Katara gets the empathy and caring of ESFJ, with the inherent contradiction of Feeling and Judging (which I am pretty familiar with myself). Then they both get that interesting oblivion of Sensing rather than Perceiving where they get so hung up on what they think that they don't think of what others might think. If that makes sense.
So having analyzed them to that degree has become a significant driving force of the story as well, and certainly helps with setting up interactions so that they ring "true" (to me, at least, and apparently to a lot of other people ^^;) It's also shaped the less concrete driving tensions in the story. "Zuko learns Water Tribe" and "Zuko gains his freedom" have given way to "What is Zuko going to do now?" and, frankly, "What is Zuko going to brood about now?" Damn that IJ introspective anxiety.
This has also worked for bringing in all the other characters so far, just to sort of bounce them off Zuko and see what happens. One of the things I love about Avatar is indeed that every major character is a well-developed individual with a distinct personality that drives their sub-plot, so I've tried hard to maintain that in the story. Each interaction is really bringing something out, too; let's see, we've had Toph and Suki and Aang... and Jet now, and Song and Jin... It's been interesting to analyze the canon interaction and see what part of that is relevant to Enslaved.
SHARKFLIP SPEAKS! pt II
I actually originally had him as an out-and-out slaver who kidnaps Tahnra and other children and forces Katara and Zuko into enraged pursuit... Yeah. Not so much. I bounced a lot of ideas and permutations off
Oh gods the language barrier. Groan. It was so frustrating writing it out, especially in the later chapters, because I'd actually write out Katara or Sokka's entire dialog in order to "translate" it into what Zuko's hearing. Then I'd have A++ bromance / snarky!zutara, but no way to share it in the narrative. :( It's all preserved in comments in the word document I work from, and I'm toying with releasing Enslaved: The Annotated Edition after the story concludes.
I'm really glad I forced myself to keep the process I did, though, for a lot of reasons. It really gave the readers empathy for Zuko, being in effectively in the same boat with him, in a way that I hadn't realized would be so powerful. It became a really handy story-telling tool and forced me to figure out some of Zuko's backstory that I wouldn't have otherwise, and made me really develop the world more than I might have.
It's also helped me... stall. I'll admit that a lot of the story and the background and the world has been developed on the fly and it's easy to hide that by chalking it up to a language barrier. Interestingly, though, by stalling like that, I've had time to really let ideas simmer and percolate and then they sort of emerge fully formed in a way that fits really naturally into the established story. Let's see if I can think of a non-spoiler example...
Okay, not coming up with one right now. The threads in this story are really really long and really really interwoven so it's hard to separate any one of them to look at until everything's out in the open.
Oh, wait. Here's an example, sort of. In... chapter five, after Katara's nearly killed Zuko but then suddenly backed off, they're sort of warily watching each other that evening. Katara says something to Zuko, and Zuko responds by apologizing for killing her husband, knowing full well she can't understand him, either. At the time I wrote that, I really had no idea what Katara said.
See, this entire thing is really unfolding from Zuko's perspective for me almost as much as for readers. Whenever
Anyway. I had no idea what Katara said in that scene, just that her voice was soft and perhaps regretful and definitely quietly troubled, and I wrote Zuko sort of responding in kind. Since then, I've figured out exactly what Katara said, have written it in my annotations, and really fit it into how the story is progressing and what Katara is really thinking of all this.
OH GODS I THINK I HAVE EVEN MORE TO SAY BUT I THINK I'VE BEEN WRITING FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR AND I REALLY NEED TO GO IRL FOR A WHILE. *dies*
Lovely talking and discussing with you; let's do it some more, yes? <3
Red Responds
Until... almost a year ago now, good heavens, I hadn't written fiction in ten years, and have been pleasantly surprised that all that technical writing experience makes storytelling way easier -- or at least better.
Oh, so you're a technical writer? I may have to pick your brains about that. I just graduated with an English degree and tech writing is one of the things I've looked at doing.
It's also shaped the less concrete driving tensions in the story. "Zuko learns Water Tribe" and "Zuko gains his freedom" have given way to "What is Zuko going to do now?" and, frankly, "What is Zuko going to brood about now?" Damn that IJ introspective anxiety.
It's totally 'what is Zuko going to brood about now?' *sigh* That reminds me of how much I love and miss angry angry Zuko of season one.
One of the things I love about Avatar is indeed that every major character is a well-developed individual with a distinct personality that drives their sub-plot, so I've tried hard to maintain that in the story.
Me too! And of the younger cast, we get a very, very broad section of personality types, which really gives depth to the world and, as you said, facilitates their personalities bouncing off of each other nicely.
I actually originally had him as an out-and-out slaver who kidnaps Tahnra and other children and forces Katara and Zuko into enraged pursuit... Yeah.
What you decided on was definitely better. And if that had happened, the need to return the children to the village could have made Zuko's choice about what to do easier.
It was so frustrating writing it out, especially in the later chapters, because I'd actually write out Katara or Sokka's entire dialog in order to "translate" it into what Zuko's hearing. Then I'd have A++ bromance / snarky!zutara, but no way to share it in the narrative. :( It's all preserved in comments in the word document I work from, and I'm toying with releasing Enslaved: The Annotated Edition after the story concludes.
Ha! Frankly, I would love it if you released an annotated version. Now I'm picturing Zuko going 'Sorry for killing your husband' and Katara going 'your abs are lickable and i totally want to jump your bones.'
Whenever driesla draws something for Enslaved (<3!!!!!!!) it's a bit of a shock,
Speaking of that, lucky girl! Driesla is one of a handful of artists who I pray will one day be inspired by my fanfic and draw something for it.
Lovely talking and discussing with you; let's do it some more, yes? <3
Works for me!
Re: Red Responds
Technical writing is a large portion of my wishy-washy humanities-centric non-profit job(s). English 101 and Journalism 201 are the only "writing" classes I've ever taken, but I had a lot of writing-intensive humanities classes that really taught me how to write. I fell into doing the technical writing by accident, by following internships and thesis work into opportunities to write, and sort of stumbled into it. I don't really know if I have any tips so much as just saying "WRITE" whenever however whatever. I actually got my technical writing doing LJ Support -- small world, really.
Anyway. YAY AVATAR, so much fertile ground to work with. My only hope is that one day I have an "original" idea half as good as one of my fanfic ideas. Sigh.
Re: Red Responds
Yeah, there is really nothing like taking a story apart and seeing how it ticks.
I actually got my technical writing doing LJ Support -- small world, really.
Ha! It really is!
Anyway. YAY AVATAR, so much fertile ground to work with. My only hope is that one day I have an "original" idea half as good as one of my fanfic ideas. Sigh.
My advice? Read a lot of novels and original story stories, and just practice daydreaming and coming up with characters and ideas and adventures.
Re: icon love!
Better to save "subversion" or "typical gender reversal" of the typical fanfic slave cliche.