Writing meme

[osprey_archer]

Stolen from sineala:

Ask me a question about one of my fics or series. It can be absolutely anything in any project and I will tell you the honest-to-goodness answer (even on the progress/plans for next chapters of current series).

Don’t hold back. Whatever you ask, I’ll answer as truthfully and as completely as possible. You can also ask about my writing as a whole, if you like.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What projects are most absorbing for you right now?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodness. It's kind of embarrassing how thoroughly the Reciprocity project continues to eat my brain. I'm like, I had so many origfic plans! ...But damn, there's just so much to write about here.

I've also been poking about at my old novel about Sage and her friends - this is the one I was writing in Minnesota - and feeling an odd mixture of pride and despair, because there's so much good stuff here (I really love the dynamic between Sage and her friends, and Sage and her family), and yet it's such a mess. I got so close to finishing it only for it to fizzle.

If I had just run out of energy that would be one thing, but there's a structural problem with the novel - too many subplots and no main plot to speak of; it's building a world rather than telling a story - and I have no idea how to fix it, and it honestly pains me that no one will ever meet these girls if I can't.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It could be that you'll end up cannibalizing (horrible term) the characters from the Sage story and use them in something else--only if you want to, of course. You've got so much worldbuilding done--a (new) plot may wander in at some point.

And hey, you may have as many eager readers for your fanfic as origfic--you're definitely satisfying an itch. Fanfic is every bit as real; the only difference is that you're not allowed to make money off it. So go for it if that's where the fires are burning brightest right now!

(I am an irresponsible adviser. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to be able to use some of the Sage stuff that I've already written - I may send you an email about this at some point; maybe it would help me disentangle things to write it down. I think the biggest change I'm contemplating making is moving the story from their senior year to their junior year: the fact that it is currently in their senior year means that a lot of their problems could be solved by just waiting till fall, when they'll all be scattering for college, which gives sorting out their friendship struggles a certain lack of urgency?

The college stuff is fairly intertwined with the story (I was writing this while I was applying to grad school and I think there was a therapeutic element to giving Sage all my concerns about WHAT IF I DON'T GET IN ANYWHERE), but I think a lot of that could be transmuted into concern for when they do apply next year.

I'm also wondering if part of the problem is that I have this image in my head of what a plot *should* look like, and the fact that my story doesn't look like that is worrying me even though things are actually fine. So I'm not sure.

And yes, people do seem to be really responding to my Winter Soldier story, so really my only reservation is the fact that money is so very, very nice. But I agree with you, it's always best to work on the projects that burn most brightly: those are the projects that will come out best and also help you grow most as a writer.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

Do you think you would ever write Steve/Bucky in a dynamic different from the one in Reciprocity, or is this the only way you can see it going? Would you write them outside of Reciprocity? Would you ever write anyone else in Marvel?

I have no ulterior motives and I have no idea what you're talking about.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Reciprocity has eaten my brain so thoroughly that I have no current plans to write them in a different dynamic, although we'll see how I feel when the story's done. I do have some ideas that I'm not currently sure where they'd fit in Reciprocity - like the one we were talking about, where Steve stumbles upon Bucky getting a blow job in a back alley and has ~conflicted feelings~ (worried about Bucky! Also awkwardly turned on!).

I waffle back and forth about whether getting back alley blow jobs is something that Reciprocity!Bucky would do. I think he would find the anonymity and lack of emotional connection appealing (...oh, Bucky), but it is putting himself in a rather vulnerable position.

I have some nebulous ideas about maybe writing some Natasha fic, or writing fic about some of the girls on AoS - Simmons/Skye! Simmons/Bobbi! Simmons/Natasha! (Simmons is my fandom bicycle.) Hell, Simmons/time-traveling Peggy. ZOMG THAT WOULD BE SO HOT, Simmons would be all blushy and adoring (her admiration for Peggy is CANON!) and Peggy would be firm and no-nonsense but also really sweet - basically the best domme ever.

Natasha/Pepper also has potential. I'm sure Tony wouldn't mind if he got to hear even a little bit about it afterward.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

How do you handle plotting and structure for your longer fiction? Do you use outlines, or just wing it, or both (or neither)? Do you use a different process for fanfic and original fiction? Or does it depend on the individual work regardless?

Sorry, that's more like a million questions. You can just pick one if you want!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I never write down detailed outline. Sometimes I do chapter lists - like, Chapter 1: argument!; chapter 2: snorkeling! - but even then, it's not hard and fast. Often I just keep the outline in my head.

However, I do keep the ending in mind as I write. I don't usually know exactly how the ending will happen, but I need to know in broad strokes where I'm going. Like, "they're going to end up together," or "they're going to break up," or "they will affirm that their friendship will continue forever despite the fact that they're on opposite sides of a political divide," or whatever.

Otherwise I'm apt to write myself in a corner and watch the project crumble into dust at my feet, which is irritating when it's something no one's seen and mortifying when I've been posting it as a work in progress.

The process is fairly similar for original work and fanfic. Honestly, the biggest difference I've found between them is that it takes a little while longer to feel my way into an original story than a fic. I don't already know the characters, I'm making them up as I go along - this is true even if they've already lived in my head a while; writing them into a story seems to pin them down, in a way - so I usually end up coming back and cleaning up the first couple of chapters significantly once I know everyone better.

[hyperion-swan.livejournal.com]

Was there any particular thought-process going into your characterization of Bucky in Reciprocity? /o/

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I actually have a couple of posts about this already: here's one about general Winter Soldier characterization (http://osprey-archer.livejournal.com/406508.html), and another about Bucky Barnes the Bolshevik (http://osprey-archer.livejournal.com/440607.html).

The characterization is also in part inspired by Torey Hayden's books about her work with emotionally disturbed children, many of whom ended up in her classes because in reaction to their traumatic lives they acted out horrifically. Actually, Bucky's bad behavior is mild compared to some of Hayden's students: one six-year-old girl landed in Hayden's class because she tied a three-year-old boy to a tree and set him on fire, for instance.

Bucky's not quite that bad because his pre-Winter Soldier memories give him a baseline understanding that other people (and animals) exist and shouldn't be harmed for no reason. But the lack of empathy beyond that basic understanding, the bad temper that sometimes quite suddenly erupts into violence, the kneejerk offense-is-the-best-defense defensiveness, and the fact that he doesn't know how to cope with or even express most of his feelings - I drew a lot of inspiration for that from Hayden.

[hyperion-swan.livejournal.com]

(Misc. Note: I feel like mentioning here that I'm also TheColorBlue on AO3; oh, and I will take this opportunity to friend you here since I've been perusing your LJ anyway ;3)

This is also the perfect opportunity for me to say that I've been meaning to comment on your fic about how something that really struck me while reading Reciprocity is how much Bucky's characterization rang true to me--in the sense that I feel like I've seen his type of behavior before. Which isn't to say that I've interacted extensively with emotionally disturbed children, but I've done a lot of tutoring with kids, and I ended up thinking a lot about the "problem kids" I've encountered while reading your fic. So that was something I really appreciated from your writing of Bucky.

[littlerhymes]

Three Christmases with the Halladays - and ok fine it was my yuletide gift so I feel a bit greedy asking this but ahahaha I will anyway - what do you see happening for them in the future? I loved your voices for both of them so much, and I would read all the Frances and Sophie stories forever... :)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

This fic happens before the movie, so I guess the immediate future is...the movie, basically.

However, I have always liked to think that after the movie, they meet up for a long and possibly weepy weekend where they get all their feelings sorted out, and if Frances is right when she says that Sophie doesn't really like Patch, then Sophie breaks up with him, and maybe they go on a trip to France together to celebrate and Frances sees the country properly this time.

And then they are friends forever and ever and ever. I am not quite seeing them getting together, but I think the intensity of their relationship probably makes Sophie's future husband a little uncomfortable. Frances would have the good sense to marry someone who was cool with it, though.

[littlerhymes]

Ahaha thanks for parsing my ambiguously phrased comment correctly! yes, I did mean, not in the immediate future, but in the future after the movie, if this had actually happened in their past... I'm like weirdly happy that you see them going to France again. I'm seriously invested in the idea of Frances enjoying Paris properly.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Her first trip to Paris was such a trainwreck, she deserves a second chance! And who better to take along than her best friend, to renew their fragile friendship? In fact, maybe they should have their long and possibly weepy weekend reconciliation in Paris. The first time Frances went to Paris, her life was falling apart; the second time she went, she was putting her life back together.