Week Nine - Progress Report

[eponymous_rose]

Nine weeks into my crazy writing New Year's Resolution - to post a fic or a chapter or a drabble for every day of 2008! You can browse the archives here, and watch my brain explode.

Postings: 63
Words Posted This Week: 5471
Cumulative Word Count for 2008: 72,016 (!)

Comments: Moral of the story: writing about Four and Romana is a good way to get lots of comments. Yes? Yes. Much as I prefer the Fourth Doctor playing it (sort of) straight, writing sheer silliness is much more fun - you can probably expect more of the same at some point. Romana's fun to write! (Slightly more epic action/adventure silliness may ensue.)

Now that I'm getting into a real routine for this project, I've started assigning myself time to write just before midnight. If I've only got half an hour, it's probably gonna be a drabble. One hour means one of the 500-1000 word shorts (or a part of Higher Education). One and a half hours means a Deepsky Atlas chapter (though it takes a bit longer now that there's some past continuity to worry about). Two hours or more means something new and longer and a bit more ambitious. I work on ficathon pieces and Wanderer Fantasy throughout the day, if I've got time.

Exceptions: "The Good, the Bad, and the Hovercrafts" popped out of a half-hour writing slot. I still don't know how that happened.

Leela is really, really hard to write - I wanted to give it a shot (my brain went fizzle and it seemed perfectly natural to put her in a bowling alley), but it's hard. I've been listening to lots of assorted interviews with Louise Jameson lately, and she's got some fantastic insights into Leela's character, but she's right - almost nobody wrote her character successfully on the show (the fact that she got a script originally written for Sarah Jane hurts my brain a bit) - I think she cited "The Face of Evil", "The Sunmakers", and, of course, "Talons" as her favourites in terms of characterisation. It's tricky, because Leela's so smart that it's hard to give her any of the naivety that's so integral to her character.

Blah blah blah wittercakes. I've nearly finished (well, about 30%, but it's planned) my Ian/Barbara ficathon piece and am a bit too pleased with it for my own good, and after that it'll be Big Bang liek woah. I'll get as much done as possible - we'll see what I can manage. Time management's on my side at the moment, as I've been wandering around with a toilet plunger and a whisk chanting: "DE-LE-GATE! DE-LE-GATE!" It works!

(Best way to recruit a volunteer treasurer: "Hey, do you like money?")

And! Thanks as always for the comments! They never fail to make my day. :D

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

If you can get a hold of the Past Doctor Adventures Eye of Heaven and/or Psi-Ence Fiction, they both have some invaluable stuff from Leela's POV--you see how she really thinks about/relates to the world, and some good Sevateem backstory stuff. (Which script was for Sarah Jane?)

"I think she cited 'The Face of Evil,' 'The Sunmakers' and, of course, 'Talons' as her favourites in terms of characterisation."

"Face of Evil" was great. And for some reason, one of my favorite Leela moments is in "Talons" when the audience is launching into "Daisy, Daisy" and she turns to Four and asks, with this apprehensive look on her face, "Are we also expected to sing?" I'd have had exactly the same reaction, LOL.

[eponymous-rose.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the novel recs! I skimmed Psi-ence Fiction during a road trip in August, but it's completely slipped my mind to go back and read it properly. Still hunting for Eye of Heaven. I love Leela - and Leela/Romana fic for the Gallifrey audios has been beckoning for a while, now. Getting her character down will help considerably with that!

I'd have had exactly the same reaction

Oh, geez, me too. In school, I was known as the One Who Did Not Sing Along, Thanks Anyway.

The script originally written for Sarah Jane is something I've been puzzling over - I think Jameson mentions it in that PBS "Who's Who" documentary, but she very helpfully doesn't specify the script in question. I'm gonna guess "The Robots of Death", because the timing's about right (only her second serial), and I vaguely remember a few lines that just jarred. (Yes, when her knife didn't damage a robot, she said something along the lines of "Now you're just showing off." That seemed a bit weird for Leela.)

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I'm not crazy about Psi-Ence Fiction--Four and Leela are just fine, but I hated all the other characters--but again, great stuff from her POV. Eye of Heaven is one of my favorites of the tie-ins, you get a first-person POV from Leela, a well-done OC and the Doctor himself.

[hms-surrender.livejournal.com]

(Best way to recruit a volunteer treasurer: "Hey, do you like money?")

=O I shall have to try that one day!

[eers.livejournal.com]

You have been wandering around with a toilet plunger, chanting "DE-LE-GATE! DE-LE-GATE!"? Hee.

Also, your accumulative word count nearly made me faint. Bravo for keeping up with this! :D