Fanfic vs. O-Fic

[wordinista]

Best analogy, ever:

You don't get your feelings hurt when someone tells you about a crooked picture, do you? No? Of course you don't. You just get your tools and go to work fixing it. That is how professional writers have to take criticism. If someone says something needs to be fixed, we should just get our tools and fix it.

From: http://markpettus.blogspot.com/

I love that.  It's what I've been telling myself for the past few days as I've been working on some particularly frustrating revisions.  I also tell myself I need to finish up OGAM ch 53 and send it off to beta.  I ALSO tell myself that I might want to consider finishing up a few other things.  Lately, however, I keep coming back to the origific.  It's strange, because I LIKE writing in the OGAM universe.  I love it, actually.  It's like a little part of my mind that's become my fictional happy-place.

But the o-fic is more of a challenge.  Everybody is mine.  (Okay, if you've read it I realize you can argue that statement somewhat. Let me amend: Everyone's personality has been crafted by me.)  It's harder in a lot of ways.  And in a lot of ways, I think my fanworks are better.  They're more comfortable, at any rate.  Like putting on an old sweater.  But the origific is something I have to do.  And I don't mean "I have to" like "I have to take the garbage out."  It's an urge deep inside of me -- I have to do this.  Like... I have to prove to myself that I can do this.  I can write original fiction, and it not suck.

So far the folks who've read it seem to like it -- they also have loads of concrit, which I value like gold -- but, overall, the opinion seems positive.  (Of course it's possible y'all are just being nice.  If that's the case, I implore you to stop.)  It's like what mephistophela said about people reading your original stuff (and I wholeheartedly agree with this summation):

"...it can be quite tedious reading other people's things, and a bit of a lose-lose situation. If you like it, you're being polite, if you don't, you risk exposure to a lot of hysterical authorly overreaction and are put in an embarassing position."

'Course, anyone who's beta'd for me knows I don't do the hysterical overreaction part, but sometimes I think it might be fun to try. ;)

*wanders off to make more PG Tips and to "straighten pictures"*

Comments

[hyanan.livejournal.com]

I applaud folks that attempt to do writing of any sort. For me, it usually feels like pulling my own teeth out while on a tilt-a-whirl, so I try not to do it. ;)

"My fanworks are better"

[hecallaghan.livejournal.com]

How peculiar. I was reading through a couple of my own the other day (having a bad day on the O-fiction front (Hey! I was making my O-face! Well, my O-writing face, to which adjectives like "listless", "frustrated" and "vaguely neurotic" seem to suit, which don't normally apply to my other O-face, at least as far as I'm aware or anyone has observed).

And I was reading Interior Night and Version 3.0 and thinking to myself, "My God, what stellar meta-comedy! What clever structuring! What impeccable timing! Look at how Goddamned funny I am! I'm a genius! I love me! I'm awesome! *Mmwhah!*"

So. Why is it that weeks of angst can't squeeze a single good one-liner out for any of the idle, dull and morose jerks in my original writing?

Krycek was never this much trouble, let me tell you...

Re: "My fanworks are better"

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. It's damned frustrating is what it is. The fanfiction muses are so much more active! They flit around in one's head, proposing all sort of wild, silly, hilarious scenarios -- or, conversely, they suggest angst-fests that are enough to harden the blacket, coldest heart.

I try and imagine such scenarios with my own characters and something always feels like it's missing. I think it's because I'm still building the UniTruths characters and I don't know them as well yet as the fanfiction characters. God, I hope that changes. I know Liam has great potential to be a snarky smartass. I can feel it in him. He's just not... delivering. Yet. Dammit.

Re: "My fanworks are better"

[hecallaghan.livejournal.com]

I had an idea in the car about this today.

I thought, maybe I'm trying too hard. I'm searching so hard for something that's clever and dry and witty as well as funny, and I'm quite demanding because the laughs in fanfic and letters and so forth seem to come so easily and work in their way,; so the laughs in my original fic should therefore beggar them on every level and be *twice* as funny and clever and dry and witty. And they just end up coming off as smug or arch.

And that, I think, is the problem. Things that are genuinely funny are not clever. They are stupid. Oh, I mean they can have clever delivery and spin, but they are stupid at heart. That's why they're funny.

So today in the car I tried to think of something stupid that would be funny for my characters could talk about, and try to build up from that. And I don't know what put it in my head, but for some reason I was thinking about bands that try to come out with more and more risque lyrics in order to court controversy and get publicity. And it seemed to me that it would just get to the point where anyone could sing anything and everyone would just be like, "Meh".

So I started imagining what this song would be like, and who would sing it. And I decided that it would be a teeny pop band of the future called something like The Squints singing "I Want To Stick It In Your Asshole" to tinny little guitars and a squeaky synth making atonal noises in the background. And it would be sang by some fruity little 29 year old passing himself off as 17 and his lovable, mop-topped, a-talented cronies.

And it occurred to me that this song would only be obscene in the chorus. The rest would be bland, poppy, I-want-to-love-you-up pap. The verses wouldn't matter, you see. But I was also quite sure that I wanted to have this twee little tune to it, so that when they sang "asshole" it had about five syllables and four notes.

And needless to say the video would be an absolute *treat*. So I had a little go at designing that (when I probably should have been concentrating on the road, but hey). I had the band members dressed as Ancient Greeks in it, I think.

And all the papers and Tri-D would be full of the cheek of having a song like this played on national radio all the time and thus distracting everybody from the real issues of the day, but what was funniest of all was imagining what a cabal of crims and ex-cons like my characters would make of this nonsense.

And before very long I was laughing out loud with my characters, who were full of dry observation and tart wit on the subject and doing far better than I could on my own.

I don't know that I'll use it - it was VERY stupid, I'll freely admit, and hopelessly inane and immature. But it was a start, I guess: a way in. And it did have me laughing so hard to myself that I nearly had to pull over.

Re: "My fanworks are better"

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

LMAO -- Nice, very nice.

Would the band be British? Or would you go with somewhere else that doesn't speak English at all? Because the idea of a band singing lyrics that mean positively jack-shit to them, while at the same time raising loads of controversy regarding the lyrics, cracks my shit up.

I watched the Firth/Ehle P&P last night, btw. It did me loads of good, I think, and reminded me of the chemistry I want Diantha and Liam to have. It's not "OH MY GOD, I HATE YOU SO MUCH" "I HATE YOU MORE!" as is so often oversimplified (imho) in adaptations. It's much subtler than that. (Best part of Firth's Darcy IS his subtlety. Watching his expressions in the Lady Catherine bit is awesome.)

It did make me wonder about some of the omitions and other changes I'm making. For instance, while there will be a Lydia, she won't be the one involved in The Great Scandal (tm). It's a fine line to balance -- forcing too many things to fit will pull the reader out of the story, like the piano part did. And, all things considered, it's rather hard to care very much about Lydia, who was as stupid as all get out. You cared because Lizzie cared. Lizzie's reputation was in jeopardy as well, and that's what mattered (to Darcy as well, as it happens). And since the motive (in my thingummy) is specifically to ruin a reputation, I think it packs more punch if I do it the way I'm thinking.

All this is to say nothing of my plans for the Collins/Charlotte/Mary triangle -- another huge alteration of the text. :D (I still have to "find" my Charlotte first, but I don't think that'll be too hard.)

I agree with you, re: stupid things are funny. That may be why I'm having a hard time finding much humor -- it's an environment of intellect. Perhaps it needs a hearty dose of the inane. ;)

Cheeky Girls Pt 1.

[hecallaghan.livejournal.com]

See, that's a brilliant idea, but I can't use it. Because not so long ago in the UK we had some reality show about looking for bands (I can't keep them all straight frankly, there's that many of them). And one of the groups placed was a couple called The Cheeky Girls. They were Romanian or Polish or from somewhere in Eastern Europe, and 16 year old blonde twins in hot pants. They were managed by their mother and both performers and management had a minimal grasp of English.

Their song (naturally heavily accented, and accompanied by much gimpy dancing) went along the lines of:

"We are the cheeky girls, the cheeky girls, the cheeky girls
We are the cheeky girls, the cheeky girls, the cheeky girls
Touch my bum
This is life."

Seriously.

Anyway, this was of course a huge hit as you might expect, despite the cultural inappropriateness of urging strangers to touch your bum (the US equivalent would be "touch my butt", as you probably already knew. Just screams tender romance, doesn't it? The Immortal Jane would be beside herself). So you see, if I used your idea people would think I was referencing them and it would date the book. Downer, but there you go.

As an alternative, I rather fancied the idea of these lovable moppets being quite self-righteous little prigs about it all, and imagining themselves setting forth a revolutionary manifesto of freedom for the arts with their tiresome little ditty in praise of sodomy which only they could do of course because just about every other band in the universe was a chickenshit coward compared to them. They, however, are not afraid to stick to The Man.

The sequel of course to this is to have the lead singer declaiming on this topic outside a record store promoting the new album in front of the press and to have a little old lady attack him with a handbag in affronted temper. And then for him to throw a fit of temper and possibly even cry. Afterwards he can issue statements to the effect that it was a very heavy handbag, which the press have downplayed in their coverage of the incident, and that he ended up needing stitches. Of course no-one will believe him. I'm sure Danny and his crew would make excellent capital out of it all to while away the tedious hours.

It's also becoming a plot point, because one of Danny's stoner friends is going to attempt to download this song, being an idiot, and Em is going to show him how to do it for free. And that will be the start of the slippery slope.

To be continued...

Cheeky Girls Pt 2

[hecallaghan.livejournal.com]

Firth is awesome in the adaptation, particularly with Lady Catherine. The way he rolls his eyes when she's not looking is just hilarious.

I'm not sure I agree about an environment of the intellect not being able to afford humour. If anything, it just makes stupidity stand out more and gives it an added brilliancy.

At one point at Cambridge there was a Chinese lad who was lovely and very clever in his subject but quite eccentric and had shitty English. Anyway, he ran for president of the student body at our college.

One night was set aside for those running to deliver speeches to the students in the common room. As the outgoing committee members, we had to sit and listen to the speeches on chairs facing the general audience.

It was one of those East meets West situations where he gave the speech in old fashioned Workers Revolution Communist style. "THLEE TIMES have I risen (pause) from humble beginnings (pause) in China. ONCE! (Holds up finger and points it skywards) when I left my humble village.."

And God help me, I started to giggle. The whole room is looking straight at me. Of course, they're giggling too, since it's infectious. And the thing is, this lad was lovely - a really nice, friendly guy though a bit strange, and he would have been absolutely humiliated if we'd started laughing at him on the podium. Tiernan (the outgoing President) gave me this look that would have soured milk. But I couldn't just sit still and stop sniggering. I clawed my own forearms, I bit my lip till blood flowed, nothing. And everyone's in the same boat.

So someone started to clap, (might have been me, actually, since I was in a bad way and pretty desperate, in the hopes he might take the hint and stop because all of the foreign ghosts seem to think he's reached the end).

But oh no. He merely paused, bowed deeply left right and centre, accepting this tribute, and then continued, much encouraged. "FINALLY, I will bling service and..."

So we keep clapping every so often. And he keeps stopping. And bowing. And starting again.

It was SO funny. After it was done a bathroom break was declared and I ran off somewhere and just *exploded*.

Dear God. For weeks afterwards, the phrases, "THREE TIMES have I risen from humble beginnings..." was guaranteed to start fits and hilarity lasting well over an hour at a time.

Re: Cheeky Girls Pt 2

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Firth: The Only Darcy Forever And Ever, Amen.

Really, no one should even bother trying. It's just embarrassing to watch them. (Though I've heard Bride and Prejudice is quite good and do intend to watch it, but I think if anyone's planning on making a straight period re-make, they should just hang it up now.)

The bit about intellect not affording humor was meant more in the way that if I'm not careful, it can come off sounding pretentious and not-funny. Although, as I'm finding with the rewritten James, "pretentious" can be quite funny.

*reads about Cambridge lad*

*dies laughing*

It reminds me of a story back when I was working at the GWU writing center. The uni had a positively ginormous population of international students, and many of them were regulars at the writing center. There was one graduate student who... I believe was an International Affairs major. I don't remember his name at the moment (will probably remember the second I post this thing), but he was Japanese and positively wonderful. We got on famously, and he started making appointments with me specifically. He was just sweet and adorable, and told me all about his wife, and... I just loved him to bits.

However, there is only one paper of his I remember specifically.

See, the way things worked in the writing center was this: a student made an appointment to work over their paper with a tutor. At the appointment, the student would read the paper out loud (on the theory that your ears catch things your eyes miss -- it works very well, actually).

This particular paper had a great deal to do with the electorial process. The word "election" came across a lot.

I will not say it "came up a lot," because that just makes me giggle all over again.

It was immature, yes, but I'd never had such a hard time reigning in my laughter. I did not laugh, as it happens, because I did like this fellow quite a bit, and we'd built up a rapport. But the moment he left, I excused myself and went into the Ladies and got it all out of my system.

Re: Cheeky Girls Pt 1.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

*fucking DIES @ the lyrics*

Oh god. My god, you can't make that shit up. That's a riot.

But I see what you mean.

My god. Cheeky girls. Lord. (I was actually thinking of that song "I'm a Barbie Girl" that came out a while back, as well as a few other bands/singers [Bjork comes to mind as well.] But I see what you mean.)

As an alternative, I rather fancied the idea of these lovable moppets being quite self-righteous little prigs about it all, and imagining themselves setting forth a revolutionary manifesto of freedom for the arts with their tiresome little ditty in praise of sodomy which only they could do of course because just about every other band in the universe was a chickenshit coward compared to them. They, however, are not afraid to stick to The Man.

*sniggers richly* No pun intended, of course. *giggles helplessly and can barely type* heeheeeheehee...

god, now i can't stop laughing.

"We aren't afraid to stick it to The Man!"
"...And just where do you intend to stick 'it'?"

*wipes tears*

Re: Cheeky Girls Pt 1.

[therhoda.livejournal.com]

ouch, that hurt you guys, warn a girl before you make her snort her drink.

also once they stick it to the man, what are they going to do then?