starlady | Entries tagged with writing

Well, I'm back. California is beautiful, for the record, and despite some baggage folderol secondary to SEA being one of the most inefficient airports I have ever encountered (and that's saying something), my travel was pretty good. I even saved the $50 baggage fee Alaska was supposed to charge me, which I suppose is a virtue of experience. And learned paranoia.

So Parallels 2011! I wrote Turning and Turning, a Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo fic for

person. 2800 words, Makoto/Chiaki/Kousuke.

And on that note…

Toki wo Kakeru Shôjo | The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Dir. Hosoda Mamoru, 2006.

In a strange, tangential way, this movie reminds me a lot of Utena--no, not for the plot, but for certain plot elements and the way that damn piano music accentuates absolutely everything, because if I learned one thing from Utena--well, I learned a lot of things from Utena, but one of them was that genteel piano music is totally appropriate for totally creepy things, and this movie is, for most of the way through, a horror story.

To back up, this is Hosoda Mamoru's first movie, adopted from a 1967 novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. Hosoda's Summer Wars remains one of the best anime movies I've seen in the past few years, and Toki wo Kakeru Shôjo is also quite good. I'm not sure which is the stronger movie; I like Summer Wars better in all honesty, but that's entirely subjective.

( Mild spoilers )

It says a lot that, living in Japan, I look at that damn bag of peaches Makoto carries around and think, "Damn, that's like ¥3000 or ¥4000 worth of fruit!"

I think my contention that the movie has horror elements is borne out by the AMVs that have been made from it. In particular, Maniaki's award-winning Paranoia Drift is very subtly creepy (and also excellent). DL and streaming at the link.

Current Location: Berkeley

Title: Synthesis (Scenes from an AU)
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
Wordcount: 15,000
Rating: Mature
Characters: Erik, Charles, most of the movie casts
Pairing(s): Erik/Charles
Synthesis is a dynamic process. Or, scenes from the AU where Charles and Erik have sex, get married, become best friends, and run the school together.

Warnings for the Holocaust, implicit references to torture and child abuse, institutional misogyny, and potential dub-con situations, depending on how you interpret Erik/Charles. This is not "fix-it" fic; this is another possible road. Also contains various other pairings in the background.

Thanks so much to

oliviacirce for the awesome beta-reading, hand-holding, and general comics canon pointers.

Synthesis on the AO3

Wow, I'm finished and it's posted! I feel like I could go on for pages about this fic, but I should probably just say that it mixes comic, movie, and cartoon canon with abandon, and let the story speak for itself. All 15K words of it, holy crap.

Current Location: Kyoto

This was originally

three_weeks_for_dw content, and now it's up on the AO3 as well.

From the Collected Works of Solwing: 'England' [DW]
The Chronicles of Narnia | General | No warnings | 700 words
Although the Owls of Narnia have been noted more for their contributions as philosophers and, occasionally, historians, the eldest chick of the court historian Glimfeather, Solwing, was something of a renegade from the start…

Full notes & credits on the original entry and at the AO3 page. Thanks to

epershand for beta comments!

Current Location: Kyoto

winkingstar has awesomely recorded a podfic of my Old Kingdom fic Gravedust! The podfic is here in

amplificathon, and the original story is here on the AO3.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, all! I had a lovely day of gardens, cheesecake, manga, laundry, and napping (I went running Sunday instead). Photos and such are forthcoming. ♥

Current Location: Kyoto

I was saying to

oliviacirce and

epershand that I wanted to read epic Narnia fan poetry, and hadn't really found any…but then I took a stab at writing it myself, though in length at least it falls far short of the epic. So! This is 3W4DW content for the time being, but also a poem for National Poetry Month, written by yours truly. As some readers may realize immediately, it was inspired by and ties in with

bedlamsbard's Warsverse timeline, and as such it relies on BB's seasonal associations and popular titles for the Pevensies.

From The Collected Works of Solwing, ed. Calpurnia Bright, published at Cair Paravel in the first year of the reign of King Tirian, first of that name.

Editor's Introduction

Although the Owls of Narnia have been noted more for their contributions as philosophers and, occasionally, historians, the eldest chick of the court historian Glimfeather, Solwing, was something of a renegade from the start, ( choosing poetry over philosophy… )

I'm

starlady; I'm not sure if the hit counts say anything about my writing so much as they do about the popularity of various fandoms, but here goes nothing anyway.

1. Recompense, Sherlock Holmes 2009
Actually, it is interesting to me that this is the most popular, but it's also my oldest Holmes fic, and at least a few people have rec'd it.

2. The Flying Empire, Sherlock Holmes 2009 steampunk AU
Written for a Big Bang.

3.The Momiji File, Legal Drug | Gouhou Drug
Written for Yuletide 2009 and rec'd on at least one recs roundup site.

4. Infernal Machines, Sherlock Holmes 2009
Half as popular as #3, to give a sense of the scale we're talking about.

5. Second Face, Sherlock Holmes 2009
Sequel to #1.

6. Concerning Galadriel, Celeborn, and the History of Ennorath, Tolkien's legendarium
This is actually probably my biggest surprise of all--it's a history of Galadriel ending pre-War of the Ring that has never been mentioned anywhere but this journal, and then only like once or twice. But I like it a lot.

7. Brush Talk, Heian Jidai RPF
Yuletide 2010 treat. I'm pretty sure the AO3 staff haven't yet forced through the static page hit counts to the dynamic pages, or this would be higher up.

8. Empty-Handed, The Old Kingdom
Tag-fic for The Abhorsen, Yuletide 2009 treat.

9. Sanctuary, Clover
Tag-fic, I suppose, for volume 2 of Clover. Yuletide 2010 treat.

10. Symbolic Logic, Inception
Short, Ariadne-centric, immediately post-movie.

via_ostiense has recorded a podfic of my story "Bangai (Apocrypha)"!

She also recorded my other Yuletide Heian jidai story, "Brush Talk", last month for

chromatic_podfic.

*runs off to listen*

Current Mood: thrilled
Current Music: High Places, "The Longest Shadows"

via_ostiense has recorded a podfic of my story Brush Talk for

chromatic_podfic!

Current Mood: giddy

Seen around and around: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

the derailment, aka The Problem of Susan, mine (Narnia, the same story in two files, wtf)
The Winter King (Narnia, Edmund meets Father Christmas)
In Black Ink, Bright (Sherlock Holmes, sequel to Second Face)
T'Mir in San Fran (Star Trek TOS books, sequel to On Alien Seas, and Shores)
A Scandal in Admiralty House (Sherlock Holmes steampunk AU, #2)
Honi soit qui mal y pense (Sherlock Holmes steampunk AU, #3)
Nothing on Earth of Interest (Sherlock Holmes steampunk AU, #4)
Teahouse (Gmail teahouse theme)
The Skysong Limited (Tortall future fic)

There are some others in there, but none of them are going anywhere. Ask questions, if you have them; you shall be answered.

First things first, recognition and further applause for my wonderful writers!

In Threadless T-Shirts,

hectorrashbaum wrote You're Ready And You're Willin'. In Disney Princess Superheroes,

beatrice_otter wrote A League Of Their Own;

ankaret wrote Just Another Day In The Secret Base;

nextian wrote you're gonna leave them all behind;

pervyficgirl wrote The Trial of Snow White,

lovelyzelda wrote The League of Extraordinary Princesses: B for Beauty, and last in terms of word count, but certainly not least in terms of awesome,

wickedtrue wrote Disney Princesses, ASSEMBLE!. They are all so awesome, you should go read them all right now, yes, even you. I can't pick between them, all of them are wonderful. Thank you, writers! I am amazed and humbled to have received such a bounty of great fic. ♥

So I wrote two stories of Heian Period RPF for Yuletide, Bangai (Apocrypha) for

elegantpi and Brush Talk for

daegaer; I also wrote the Clover fic Sanctuary for

toxictattoo. Let me thank again my wonderful beta reader

lnhammer, without whom "Bangai (Apocrypha)" would have been much weaker. Really, I have to say that I thought these three stories, and particularly the first two, were screamingly characteristic of my writing and interests. XD

( Bangai (Apocrypha) )

( Brush Talk )

( Sanctuary )

All that being said, it's time for (drumroll, please!):

The End of Year Fanworks Meme!

Fic I Wrote:
1 of the Good Guys, The Archandroid/Fake News RPF feat. R2-D2
Symbolic Logic, Inception
Gravedust, The Old Kingdom Chronicles, for New Year's Resolutions 2010
Infernal Machines, Sherlock Holmes 2009
Recompense, Sherlock Holmes 2009
Second Face, Sherlock Holmes 2009
The Flying Empire, Sherlock Holmes 2009 steampunk AU for

holmes_bigbang
Known Associates, Sherlock Holmes 2009 steampunk AU
Bangai (Apocrypha), Heian period RPF for Yuletide Treasure 2010
Brush Talk, Heian period RPF for Yuletide Treasure 2010
Sanctuary, Clover, for Yuletide Treasure 2010

Total word count: About 65,000 words. Throwing in original fiction, unfinished fic, and papers, I'm at nearly 105,000 words for the year. I think my original goal was 150,000; I'm sure that if I threw in all the translations I've done, it'd get within shouting distance of that. In any event, I'm satisfied.

AMV I Made:
Quantum of Darkness - Darker Than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini

( 2010 in fanworks )

Title: Symbolic Logic
Fandom: Inception
Wordcount: 1160
Rating: all ages
Characters: Ariadne, Yusuf, Arthur, Eames
Warning(s): None
Notes: Set immediately after the end of the movie. Inspired by

kuwdora's awesome vid PASIV Face.
Summary: Immediately after landing in LAX, Ariadne has a destabilizing realization.

Here on the AO3.

I'm trying to clear the decks before the end of the year, can you tell? There was more of this planned, but what I have here works on its own. Really I just wanted to write from Ariadne's viewpoint for a while.

Title: 1 of the Good Guys
Fandoms: The Archandroid, Fake News RPF
Wordcount: 920
Rating: all ages
Characters: R2-D2, Stephen Colbert, Cindi Mayweather, Jon Stewart, Janelle Monáe
Warning(s): None
Summary: R2-D2 isn't in the mood for Stephen Colbert's anti-droid diatribes.

Here on the AO3.

…Yeah.

Great afternoon and evening hanging out in the southerly part of the bay, good feelings slightly soured by opening my email account when I got home & reading school stuff therein. Strongly suspect this is a "this too shall pass" moment, or at least a "the world does not revolve around you" moment; in any case, I don't want to talk about it now.

Instead, a meme! somewhat in honor of Yuletide.

I think it would be fun to talk about stories, but the usual memes are like, "What happens next?" "Tell me about Character A?" Which isn't so much talking about stories as it is writing more of a story. But you know how sometimes you read something and you're like, "I got ___ out of this story, I wonder if I have that right?" or "What on earth was ____ supposed to be?" and it's too awkward to ask the author? Now you could totally ask!

I've heard people say that writing is hard because you have to make decisions, but we never really talk about the decisions we make with stories or why we make them. We talk about plot bunnies, but not about how we actually turn them into a story.

And it seems like a lot more fun to do that than to do working.

So, if you wanted, ask me questions! (Or use this to ask your flist to ask you questions).

What were you trying to do [here]? Why did you decide to ____? This is what I thought about xyz, is that what you were going for? What made you write ____? Why did you decide to do this? And so on.

The master list (it's short) of my fic is here on DW; everything is also at

starlady on the AO3. I feel like I've made…unusual choices in my writing; if you think the same, please do ask. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

Current Mood: a tad bitter

Went looking for a snippet of fic that I know I wrote down somewhere; evidently "somewhere" was neither my computer nor my moleskine. *sigh*

But! I found this, and thought I'd slap it up on the AO3. I did post it on DW in May (under lock initially? I can't remember), but I know some people who may be interested weren't reading this journal then.

Title: Known Associates
Wordcount: 1122
Rating: Teen
Pairing(s): Holmes/Watson/Morstan
Disclaimer: Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain in the United States; no disclaimer is intended, implied, or necessary.
Notes: Set two years after the action of The Flying Empire (during the events of the 2009 movie, as you'll see) and contains one (or two, depending how you count it) extremely minor spoilers for the events between that story and this, all in the AO3 tags.
Summary: Captain Mary Watson has an entirely expected encounter while keeping vigil at John's beside.

Current Music: The Decemberists, "Culling of the Fold"

Also known as the Holmes steampunk AU, aka the

holmes_big_bang fic.

Title: The Flying Empire
Wordcount: 35K
Rating: Teen
Pairing(s): Holmes/Watson
Warning(s): Some violence (guns).
Disclaimer: Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain in the United States; no disclaimer is intended, implied, or necessary.
Notes: I owe a mountain of thanks to

darthneko, who produced the amazing accompanying art despite computer troubles galore at the eleventh hour--please do take the time to leave a comment on DA if you like it as much as I do! Many thanks as well to

naraht for the incisive beta, and the Baedeker's. More info about the background for this fic can be found at this post, which has major spoilers. (The title comes from an early story treatment for Laputa: Castle in the Sky.)

Summary: Holmes takes a case that leads him into contact with Countess Ada Lovelace as well as direct conflict with a controversial but well-placed officer of His Majesty's Aery, to Scotland and back to London via the skies above.

The Flying Empire on the AO3.

( View the art directly under the cut! )

Created using the Fanfiction Header Builder

Current Mood: artistic

Holmes Big Bang steampunk AU meta and background post, ahoy!

This post contains major spoilers for the entire story, which I unreservedly recommend that you read first.

( Meta, with extreme spoilers )

*reads summary of own fic*

Me: Oh shit, I forgot that the King was dying! Well, whatever!

Except that I sort of remembered it while I was writing the scene in which HM the King makes an appearance last night. Which I am totally going to revise for plausibility right now. (Plausibility, and Sarah Bernhardt.)

Poll #3371 Another important question

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

View Respondents

Who should get to shoot the villain?

View Answers

Mary. Put the gun in the woman's hands, remember!
6 (100.0%)

Watson, because he's good at it.
0 (0.0%)

Don't kill the villain! Gaol works just as well!
0 (0.0%)

Thanks for the birthday wishes, all!! You are awesome.

For Follow Friday, I have to rec

monstrous_regiment, a community for military history, fandom, and culture from a female perspective.

If anyone is interested, I have two extra tickets to see The Arcade Fire + Spoon at the Mann Center in Philadelphia on August 2, 2010 that I need to find a good home for. After fees the face value is $41 each or $82 for the pair, which is all I'm asking.

And now I'm going to go pick up my reg packet for my 8K tomorrow morning, and then make a quiche, and then, damn it, I am going to finish my Holmes Big Bang story. I think it's only another eight thousand words or so. I hope.

So via

cofax7 today I found out a) that Polyamorous Recommendations exists and b) that "The Momiji File" made it onto yesterday's updated rec list, which is intensely flattering. *is flattered*

There are more thinky-thoughts about WisCon forthcoming as I digest them, I think, particularly the discussion about affirmational and transformational fandom that's going on over at

damned_colonial's. New people I met and added at WisCon, I am so glad to have met and added you, this conversation that is ongoing is clearly amazing. And I think I need to register for FOGCon.

On a similar note, welcome new people! I am going to add all of you whom I met at WisCon to my Wiscon filter, but please let me know if you'd like to be on my writing filter. I never used to talk about writing, and still quite honestly when I hear people talk about writing as a communal experience I more or less boggle, because that is not my experience of writing at all, but I am trying to put a little more community into my process via the filter. It seems to be working well so far!

I wrote the following in May 2003 for a one-act play contest at my high school; it won, and was produced at the same, which was pretty awesome. I am posting it here because it falls squarely into the AO3's "grey area" between original and fanfiction, and I wanted to explore that tension; on the one hand you could argue that it is entirely original, or on the other that it is a strange mixture of meta-drama and Author RPF. Also, I still enjoy it very much, despite the fact that I would write it differently were I writing it today--but then, I don't know whether I could write it today. In any event, I hope you enjoy it.

Title: Love's Labour Found
Fandoms: Shakespeare, Author RPF
Characters: Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, Rosalind, Ophelia, William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, the Playwright (female)
Rating: Gen
Additional tags: meta, feminism

( The play's the thing )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28

It's a magical world

The days are just packed

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (2006)

Fic: Synthesis (X-Men First Class, Erik/Charles)

Fic: "From the Collected Works of Solwing: 'England'" (Chronicles of Narnia)

Podfic of "Gravedust"!

NPM/3W4DW - Narnia poem-fic, "From the Collected Works of Solwing: 'England'"

AO3 hit counts: iiinteresting

"Bangai (Apocrypha)" Podfic!

Podfic!!

my WIP folder

Yuletide 2010 reveal, and 2010 in fanworks

Symbolic Logic (Inception, gen)

1 of the Good Guys (The Archandroid/Fake News RPF, gen)

Ask me about writing (icon unrelated, but awesome)

The case of the missing fanfic (Known Associates, Sherlock Holmes, OT3)

Fic: The Flying Empire (Sherlock Holmes, Holmes/Watson)

a little bit of world-building (Holmes steampunk AU)

Just a little fixated. Just a little.

Birthday grab bag

Slowly returning to our regularly scheduled programming

[3weeks4DW] Love's Labour Found: A Fan-Play (or, writing in the grey area)

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