jebbypal

 Yay! I finished all 30 of the meme!! 

29 – What is your current project or projects?

You mean beyond going back to figure out how to finish my languishing WIPs? I have fic prompts a few people have given me that I need to get back to based on teen wolf, supernatural, and Killjoys. Which probably means I need to watch a few episodes of each since I only read Teen Wolf fanfic because Jeff Davis got too crazy and ruined the show by and large in recent seasons, IMO. (haven’t watched since nogitsune season). And Supernatural I quit around the Eve season … which makes me sad since I really thought it was a show I’d watch in its entirety. But yeah, no. And Killjoys I haven’t done multiple rewatches on so really need to refresh myself on it if I’m going to write anything with dialog.

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link.

Just 1 fic? Wow, that's kind of cruel. So since it's my responses to the meme, I'm going to go ahead and say favorite per fandom ;) LOL.

But if I had to choose 1 overall favorite, I think it would be the Grandparent Series for Supernatural. This basically explores the What If surrounding how Dean and Sam might have grown up since it's unlikely that anyone, even John Winchester, would leave a 4 yo and an infant in a hotel room alone, and I doubt Bobby or Pastor Jim would have been up to having the kids dumped on them, even if John knew them then. Obviously, a lot of this got Jossed in later seasons, but it's still my head canon because the Men of Letters story line is like the worst kind of retcon I've ever heard of. Heaven forbid anyone in the Winchester family be a simple normal person.  This was also by and large the first time I actually wrote "kids" so it was a stretch for me. This was also around the time I started hating AO3 kudos with a fiery passion but that's a rant for a different post

A few other favorites
I still haven't managed a proper lengthy story for Burn Notice, which is one of my regrets. But I did multiple one shot short fics when trying to keep the burn notice prompt community I started going. Messy Relations was one that employed the conceits of Burn Notice -- voice over quotes, and an awkward situation for Michael, while giving us a peak at his history.

Firefly gets really hard to pick just one thanks to the fact that it was my one prolific fandom. Still, for one of the Sweet Charity Auctions I wrote Blind Trust in response to a prompt. (which I just fixed the formatting in which might account for it's incredibly low read rate). Basically, I think in a writing technique sense, this is one of the best fics I've written. My beta really pushed me to do a good job. 

 

 23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

It depends on the era…..Nowadays, my rule of thumb is WIP are posted to my fanfic journal. Completed fics get posted to AO3. And as much as I love the Blue Sun Room and Cortex for having started off there, it’s too much of a pain in the ass to code for all the other sites.

24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

At least 1…I’m usually too impatient for more than that. (I wanna post when I finish for instant gratification). All of my betas have been absolutely lovely. Me being a beta? Whoo boy, I have a few there. Pro tip: if you actually get a beta, this does not mean they will turn your stream of consciousness writing into grammatically correct, legible prose. Please at least use period punctuation, or run it through grammar check first if you are that grammar illiterate. Otherwise baby fic bunnies die….

19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

Again, this depends on when you met me. When I first started, I’d sit down and start writing right away….but that resulted in a lot of lost sleep and procrastination. *ahh, grad school. When I could do what I wanted, when I wanted, and still get paid…that was about the only thing good about that 7 years of depression and misery*

Now, I’ll try to sketch down what the idea is and any key lines or anything that is occurring to me. Basically, I decided that if an idea was truly good, it would stick around. If it wasn’t, well, I can’t go chasing after every single bunny if I want to pay my real life bills.

20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

Yes, sometimes. And sometimes, I’ll tell someone a bit about a bunny, and then they’ll produce art to egg me on. *looks at cassiee*

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

Anything consent related should be warned for definitely. Being older now, issues such as suicide and grief should also warned of so people can judge adequately if they are in the place to handle it.

The strangest thing I’ve warned for in a fic? Given that I’ve spent over 20 years reading fanfic, yeah, I don’t even think anything I’ve ever written or warned for could even be judged as weird.....Errr...Okay, warnings of extreme meta and crack from when when we did the round robin of Flight of the Poisontaster with <user name=poisontaster>

16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

See now, is this in general, or just the writing of them? Because honestly, it’s cheesy to say it, but your summary is the most important part of a fic when you post it. Granted, I know some archives have word/character limits on them, but I swear, a baby plot bunny dies every time someone writes a summary saying “X and Y are in love by X doesn’t know about Y’s history with Z. When Y disappears, will X learn the truth in time?” *bangs head*

If you can’t come up with a good summary to describe the overall plot, then just pick 1-2 good lines from your fic and post them. Something funny, or provocative. Something that if it was a gif or a quick scene from a commercial would have you wanting to see that episode. But please, not a bad 2 sentence description that would appear in a TV guide synopsis of a Big Valley episode.

How do I come up with them? Fortunately I didn’t stick around posting in any archives that had that level of character limits, and already knew I hated that type of summary by the time I started writing. So either my summary is in essence whatever popped into my head as the plot bunny, or it really is the catchiest bit of the chapter I just wrote. It’s not like we are advertising our fics to the unconverted and need to convince them to come into the fandom. We’re writing to fans who have probably seen at least 50% of the show we are writing about before looking for fanfic, and so they don’t need to be sold hard to. 

 <b>11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?</b>

Well, if you’ve read much, then you know yes, there are certain genres I prefer with 2 standouts.

 

1. Crossover. *grabbie hands* I think finding crossovers was one of the things that completely sold fanfiction to me when I first found it online at 16. As long as the hook for it is vaguely plausible, I’m in for reading them. For writing, I’ve found I really need a good backstory or way to interweave the universes, but my muse has gotten better and better about that as evidenced by the Burn Notice/Firefly bunny I have languishing in WIP purgatory.
2. Drama/action. It’s my bread and butter. And if I look too hard, I’d say I write the “X goes missing, everyone else has to save them” trope waaaay too often. But hey, I enjoy telling myself the story enough to write it down and I usually get at least a few comments. 

 <b>10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?</b>

So again, in my MIA rewrite of the Serenity pilot that I did for a gift exchange, not only did I have to write Jayne, but it was also Jayne/Kaylee. So yes, I wrote a pairing I wasn’t crazy about, and found I could. Well, at least the head space….not sure I’m any good at writing it.

7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?
Oh, definitely. Especially since the way this question is worded it doesn’t even need to be a fic I’ve written. So yes – other writers have definitely changed my opinion on certain characters. In fact I’d say it was some of those fics that probably influence my opinions on Jayne. At the same time, I like to push myself to reexamine the characters in a different light too as an exercise. Which is where the WIP Camouflage came from. I may have pushed a little too hard there, but still

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
Yes, I write OCs. Depending on the universe, you almost need to at some point. Not every fic can be a “episode in a bottle” and for some of our short lived gems, it’s not like we have a huge universe of characters to borrow from.

And Mary Sues…yeah, that’s a fraught question right? I mean, I imagine every teen gets it beaten into their head that Mary Sues are bad. And then we get into fandom discourse and realize that, really, what story ever written didn’t likely have a Mary Sue in it? (And if so, which character in King Lear was Shakespeare? Ha! If you are going down the rabbit hole, go all the way down, I say).
So tru fax time? In my head, like most of us, I’ve done self insert stories since I was probably 6. I always had rules on how much older I could make myself etc, but that was what I would do to put myself to sleep, pass road trips, and for when school was extra boring. And I still do it.

Now for a fanfic, what differentiates a Mary Sue from a full fledged OC? Simple – have you built out the OC character into a full character rather than just importing your OWN background onto it. I told someone once that the way I knew if it was too much a Mary Sue is that at some point the Mary Sue is in every single scene and the scenes don’t work without them. Because really, when we do self insert fic we want ourselves to be involved in the plot and we want to interact with all the important characters and the bad guys will know who we are.

But at the same time, I’ve take a lot of what were self insert scenarios and built from them decent (IMO) stories that are now OCs. (and wow, now that I go looking, I realize there’s a lot of fics from the Blue Sun Room I didn’t import over to AO3). One of my first stories, and a relatively decent one that I wrote started this way – various scenes in Preacher’s Prayer came from a “Mary Sue” start, but gradually I feel I fleshed things out into more of an OC.

So yeah, if you want to write a Mary Sue, IMO, go ahead. If you write well enough, and do your world building right, no one will care in the end. It’s the quality of the writing and story telling we all want to see.

4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse

Well, it was River and/or YoSaffBridge at first. They would just show up with a scene of dialogue, drop it in my lap, and then exit stage right. It was rather maddening. Especially because YoSaffBridge wouldn’t always come back to finish the gorram story.

But really, it’s a little embarrassing because at first I hated to write him. I mean I could do it, but it was always just to move the story along you know? But then after I rewrote Serenity from the POV of Jayne (and how is this not in my fic listings? I have to go and dig it up), he just kept showing up more and more. To the point of dragging crossovers to him. And future fic starring him. I mean, it may not seem like it, but the number of WIP I have with that stupid man ape on my hard drive is ridiculous.

I blame mrsdrjackson.livejournal.com for this.

Comment to this post with RENNER'S GUNS, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

And unlike her, I will provide an upfront pic of ( renner's guns that does require participation to access )

( her prompt was Avengers, books, ocean, airports, home, travel, music )

Was that random enough?

Courtesy of fleshly cherry (prompt 1 of 2):

( Malcolm Reynolds (7) and Fiona Glenanne (12) are fighting over fast food choices. Who wants to go where? )

Meme location to leave prompts at

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