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osprey_archerI am so behind on the December meme, you guys. Apologies to people who asked my questions that I haven't answered yet. I'll get around to them!
December 9: Tell me about a story you've written that veered away from where you thought it would go, but one in which that veering proved to be a good thing. (for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asakiyume)
Cool story, bro, the fic series that has been eating my brain is basically this. It is this in spades. It was originally going to be one-shot metal arm porn, wherein the metal arm actually plays very little part because Bucky has taken it off, because of course the neighbors can't see it because that would totally blow his cover as a secret weapon and then he would clearly have to shoot them. Steve hears this explanation and is like "How do you even think like that, how does your brain work, I don't understand you."
And I had read a lot of stories about beautifully sad and often infantilized Bucky who is crushed under the guilt he feels for his amnesiac assassin past, and I wanted to do something different. So Bucky is this story is difficult, demanding, paranoid, and callous (he enjoys bragging about his past assassinations to Steve), and has complicated (and in the first story, mostly unexpressed) Bolshevik issues.
And Steve has been living with him for nearly a year at this point and is slowly beginning to crack up under the stress of dealing with someone who seems to relish being as difficult as possible and has no apparent intention of even trying to get better.
It turns out that this characterization (Bucky's, in particular; Steve's characterization is mostly a reaction to his) is a freaking gold mine of fic ideas. Most of the stories start out in my head as "How would Bucky react if...?" and the answer is usually BADLY, although only once so far has BADLY involved hitting someone, because he cottoned on fairly quickly that SHIELD doesn't approve of people beating up its own agents. (He would never actually say this, because SHIELD would probably take it as disloyal, but on his crankier days he recalls bitterly that Hydra let him hit pretty much whoever he wanted.)
So a lot of the fic is about Steve slowly starting to suss out the underlying logic to Bucky's behavior, and realizing that (for instance) part of the reason why Bucky isn't recovering is because Bucky doesn't believe they've actually reached the post part of his traumatic stress. As far as he's concerned, he's going to need his terrible coping mechanisms and he isn't fucking giving them up.
When I post the next story, the series is going to be 35,000 words, and I have like five more stories planned. I did not intend for this to eat my life.
December 9: Tell me about a story you've written that veered away from where you thought it would go, but one in which that veering proved to be a good thing. (for
asakiyume)Cool story, bro, the fic series that has been eating my brain is basically this. It is this in spades. It was originally going to be one-shot metal arm porn, wherein the metal arm actually plays very little part because Bucky has taken it off, because of course the neighbors can't see it because that would totally blow his cover as a secret weapon and then he would clearly have to shoot them. Steve hears this explanation and is like "How do you even think like that, how does your brain work, I don't understand you."
And I had read a lot of stories about beautifully sad and often infantilized Bucky who is crushed under the guilt he feels for his amnesiac assassin past, and I wanted to do something different. So Bucky is this story is difficult, demanding, paranoid, and callous (he enjoys bragging about his past assassinations to Steve), and has complicated (and in the first story, mostly unexpressed) Bolshevik issues.
And Steve has been living with him for nearly a year at this point and is slowly beginning to crack up under the stress of dealing with someone who seems to relish being as difficult as possible and has no apparent intention of even trying to get better.
It turns out that this characterization (Bucky's, in particular; Steve's characterization is mostly a reaction to his) is a freaking gold mine of fic ideas. Most of the stories start out in my head as "How would Bucky react if...?" and the answer is usually BADLY, although only once so far has BADLY involved hitting someone, because he cottoned on fairly quickly that SHIELD doesn't approve of people beating up its own agents. (He would never actually say this, because SHIELD would probably take it as disloyal, but on his crankier days he recalls bitterly that Hydra let him hit pretty much whoever he wanted.)
So a lot of the fic is about Steve slowly starting to suss out the underlying logic to Bucky's behavior, and realizing that (for instance) part of the reason why Bucky isn't recovering is because Bucky doesn't believe they've actually reached the post part of his traumatic stress. As far as he's concerned, he's going to need his terrible coping mechanisms and he isn't fucking giving them up.
When I post the next story, the series is going to be 35,000 words, and I have like five more stories planned. I did not intend for this to eat my life.
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Date: 2014-12-10 01:00 am (UTC)I haven't seen Winter Soldier, and I haven't read any of your earlier Bucky fics because--oh, mainly because I'm spending my essence on silly things, and then I have nothing left to give to other things? Or something. But I should try some, because I haven't read any Rosemary Sutcliff, either, and yet I've adored your fics in her Roman Britain.
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Date: 2014-12-10 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-10 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-10 08:46 pm (UTC)