Writing Meme of Undeniable Coolness (stolen mercilessly from ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dukesfreers)
Sep. 10th, 2007 07:04 pmeponymous_roseName a character that you know I write or have written, and I’ll tell you:
a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her
b. One of his/her best traits
c. One of his/her worst traits
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future
I'm hoping this'll help kick-start me on some of my projects that've been neglected as I did the whole back-to-school thing. And it looks like fun! :D
(Feel free to mention characters I've only drabbled about/written in the distant past!)
a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her
b. One of his/her best traits
c. One of his/her worst traits
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future
I'm hoping this'll help kick-start me on some of my projects that've been neglected as I did the whole back-to-school thing. And it looks like fun! :D
(Feel free to mention characters I've only drabbled about/written in the distant past!)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 02:03 am (UTC)The fact that, for the most part, canon only gives the barest bones of a character to work with, with glimpses of something more (sort of like Eight in the TVM, really!). I've always been a sucker for the whole unreliable-narrator idea, and I love the idea of willfully misinterpreting a lot of Watson's claims/observations in canon to fit my nefarious purposes. And the whole idea of Holmesian scholarship is so notoriously well-established that I've taken it as a challenge to go somewhere new with the character!
b. One of his best traits
One of his best traits for me as a writer is the whole self-deception motif. You've got this "perfect reasoning machine" who still makes mistakes and judgements, this self-professed loner who winds up in one of the most famous friendships of literary history, this hard-nosed scientist who scoffs at the tender passions and yet plays the violin and remarks on the beauty of flowers. He's a study in contrasts.
c. One of his worst traits
Again, I'll answer this from a writerly point of view. It's terrible to have to come up with some of those incredible deductions! The problem is - it's so much fun to do the big reveal that I never want to have to explain it afterwards. "Oho! I see that you're a carpenter with a passion for billiards and women's clothing! ...let's leave it at that, shall we?" I've scrapped too many projects because of this. Heehee!
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
Well, see (c). That bit is tricky. And when I first started writing Holmes!fic, I was spending about three hours on etymological dictionaries for every hour of writing I accomplished. It was a crash course in Victorian English, and I'm sure I still slip up from time to time! (Though there was a memorable moment when I actually managed to come up with an excuse for Holmes to use the word "segue" in its modern context.) In terms of voice, I tend to do all right, as long as I've immersed myself in the Merrison/Williams radio plays beforehand!
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
Ah, Holmes is pretty elusive. I think it's pretty telling that all my Holmes!fic is from someone else's point of view. Best glimpse of young!Holmes would probably be in A Wilderness of Mirrors (http://eponymous-rose.livejournal.com/23191.html), in the section called "Sudden in a Shaft of Sunlight". Though it's probably considered crack!fic, my Chasm (http://eponymous-rose.livejournal.com/46996.html#cutid2) DW/SH crossover does all right for a drabble!
My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future
That Chasm drabble? Extending it into a full-length story, because I'm highly suggestible and think it would be most amusing. :D
no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 02:43 am (UTC)And if you haven't, how about Eight? Or, if you're feeling particularly daring, both!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-11 04:34 am (UTC)Well, what first caught my attention was that I'd inadvertantly incorporated her name into my brand-new LJ account before ever having heard of her. It's fate, I say! :D This is actually a surprisingly tricky question to answer! I remember being startled in "Rose" by how real she seemed - she's charming and sometimes childish and the Bad Wolf and all that, but there's that very real ennui and the tragedy of day-to-day life that just shines through. And I love that she and the Doctor just pick up on each other's little mannerisms.
One of her best traits
It's a double-edged sword for characterisation, but as a writer it's lovely to have: the fact that she's basically erased every last vestige of this Rose Tyler, the shopgirl+Mickey+Mum+chips. I think I've mentioned before about how the Doctor is totally defined by his companions - and Rose gradually becomes defined in terms of her relationship with the Doctor. But that's not the most unique bit: the interesting thing is that she loves that fact. Much like Martha's story is about learning to be the Doctor, Rose's story is about loving to be with the Doctor.
One of her worst traits
She latches on to a single figure - be it the Doctor or her Dad - to the absolute exclusion of everyone else (e.g. Mickey, her Mum). This is apparent when she's with Nine in particular, and together they just ignore the world and look down at everyone else when she comes home. One of the biggest things she's picked up from the Doctor is that alien arrogance - because, again, she's defining herself as someone who travels with the Doctor, someone who's different and amazing and fantastic. And that is, of course, what makes "Father's Day" so poignant - she turns the tables on the Doctor and chooses her father over him, just for a moment, and the consequences are (nearly) catastrophic. It makes the Doctor/Rose dynamic a lot more toxic than many people give it credit for - and in terms of plot ideas, that's absolutely amazing! :D
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
Unbelievably hard. I have no idea why. Well, that's a lie - I become convinced I'm either writing her lines too "generically" or too "idiosyncratically" and wind up psyching myself out and cutting some thirty pages from a certain ficathon piece-that-shall-not-be-named. *grumbles*
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
Far and away, the whole scene in the Wanderer Fantasy with Rose and Matt playing board games in the TARDIS while the Doctor's - wait. Um, it just occurred to me that it's in the fourth chapter (I've been working on it so long it feels like I must have posted it by now *wince*), so it's time for SURPRISE RAW/UNBETAED SNEAK PREVIEW TWO CHAPTERS EARLY
that may or may not make it into the final cut!Rose stared at him. “Of course not! I went with the Doctor to escape that sort of monotony. This is where all the excitement is, the unpredictability of it all!” It took her a moment to notice how much she sounded like the Doctor, and she felt an unexpected swell of happiness at the thought.
Matt was still staring at her like she’d grown another head. “How can anyone live like that?” he said, softly. “You’ve got to have roots. You’ve got to have somewhere you’ve been and somewhere you’re going. Otherwise nothing you ever do matters!”
“Of course it does,” Rose said, with a hint of pity in her voice. “I used to think like that. But these people the Doctor and I saved – we’ve made a difference for them. They’ll remember us. And all these places I’ve seen-“
Matt crossed his arms on the table. “But you can’t just go around living your life for other people! You’ll completely lose who you are, become everything they want you to be.”
etc. etc. until I miss the point and have to totally rewrite the scene.
My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future
Heehee - the first time I read this, I thought: "That's an oddly specific question - how many fandoms enable you to write something taking place in the near future?" Wanderer Fantasy's the big project!
Because I'm always feeling particularly <s>dashing</s> daring!
Date: 2007-09-11 04:39 am (UTC)And you will hear back about that fic shortly! :D
Nine!
Date: 2007-09-15 10:57 pm (UTC)For one thing, he was my first taste of the Doctor - and he really came across to me as a sort of reluctant hero. I knew next to nothing about the Doctor going into this thing, so the whole "His one constant companion - death" schtick really had an impact! I knew from the word "Go" (or rather, "Run!") that I wanted to write about him.
b. One of his/her best traits
It's something that never ceases to boggle me - that despite everything he's seen and done and lost, he still wants to go out and see everything and mess around with the universe just to get things back on track. It feels like sometimes he's got this terrible impression that he'd do it all again, just because that's what he does. He saves worlds as before, but now there's this regret - if he could save this one, why not any of the others?
c. One of his/her worst traits
That alien arrogance/weight of the world on his shoulders thing. He's extremely good at masking emotions, at shutting people out and feeling guilty, and when he should be mourning... well, it's not particularly healthy. But it makes for excellent fic fodder! That moment in "Parting of the Ways" when he's prepared to let the Daleks kill him and rule the earth, rather than be personally responsible for the destruction of another planet, sums it up perfectly.
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
Not terrible if I've been watching first season Who directly beforehand. Otherwise, pretty dang difficult. I tend to slip into "safe ground" - i.e. lines directly from, or approximating, ones spoken in the series - and I never like having to do that. Need practice! *grins*
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
That first draft of the "Anywhere but Cardiff" ficathon entry. Y'know, the 4,000 words that I actually finished and then decided to discard and haven't really started again since. *grumbles about implausible plotlines* The, um, Eight/Nine conversation worked out pretty well - this is the bit of the fic I had to cut out, since it just messed around with everything a bit too much even for Doctor Who-level continuity. Plus, it was just a little side-plot in what was actually a pretty short fic! I didn't have time to do it justice - or to rationalise it properly, come to think of it! The idea is that Eight, amnesiac, regenerating, and yet ignorant of both of those facts because he's in shock, has just lost Gallifrey. He gets a wee bit reckless and decides to start messing with personal timelines - and for reasons I hadn't quite worked out yet when I scrapped the idea, the Ninth Doctor pokes his head in to interfere, and they have a bit of a chat.
The younger Doctor is staring, the little smile half-frozen on his lips. His hands, now out of his pockets, now back in, are shaking. “Tell me,” he says, and he’s suddenly intense and very still. “In my future, where you are-“ He swallows, then speaks quickly, almost in embarrassment. “Am I alone?”
For a moment, the Doctor can do nothing but gape at the vulnerability in those words, but eventually he feels himself shudder out of his surprise and leans back against the TARDIS. “You know what? I think that’s what I’m meant to tell you. That the Web of Time isn’t gone, isn’t obsolete. Don’t muck about with it just because you’re-“ He pauses, wonders how much to say to the wide-eyed figure before him. He’s fairly sure his younger self has to work through this alone, has to remember for himself to start grieving properly. “You have to maintain the timeline,” he continues lamely. “You have to guard it, guide these stumbling aliens through the right steps. See justice done. Someone has to do that.”
Really silly idea, but it was fun to write! :D
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future
Look for Nine in the Anywhere but Cardiff ficathon entry, coming soon(ish) to an e-mail inbox near you! Currently, my notes have him foiling a blackmailing plot via time-travel, but who knows how that'll turn out?
Tune in next time!
*cue applause*
*announcer wanders offstage, grumbling about jelly beans*
Eight!
Date: 2007-09-15 11:29 pm (UTC)Well, unlike most people, my first impression of Eight was from the audios and not the TVM! This in itself did a lot to endear him to me. ;)
Really, I adore the idea of infinite plotlines stretching out from this one traumatised-and-slightly-nutty timelord and leading eventually to Nine. The possibilities are limitless - he's the Doctor who's been almost completely defined outside of canon. He's insanely fun to write!
b. One of his/her best traits
Insert-first-chapter-of-"Vampire Science"-here, really. Eight's having a small-talky conversation with someone named Carolyn:
She nodded. 'Yeah. A tiny change in a person's genes, and they get cancer. Or blue eyes.'
'It's stunning, it's something I could never come up with in a million years.' He grinned suddenly.
'Why not get enthusiastic about it?'
'I dunno,' she said. 'You just don't get overjoyed about things like lipids.'
'A pharmacist on Lacaille 8760 once gave me a half-hour lecture about lipids. Did you know
that if you suddenly lost all of your lipids, your cell membranes would disintegrate, and your
whole body would melt into a puddle? Think about that – isn't it just bizarre?'
'Guess so,' she said, feeling the beginning of a smile. She hadn't thought about things like that
for a long time.
In large doses, it's... well, it's really a bit obnoxious. But little glimmers like that? Awesome. It's the ability to see the world with new eyes - and the way you can twist that and see darkness even in beauty. Knowledge comes at a cost - seeing something differently works both ways.
c. One of his/her worst traits
It's a real sort of Doctorly attribute in general, but it seems a lot more startling coming from Eight than any of the others - the absolute inability to comprehend the way he affects everyone else's lives. Audio!Eight gets royally pissed at Charley for putting herself in danger by sticking with him when he expressly told her to stay out of his way. Book!Eight develops several very intense relationships, but still can't understand why they'd do horrible things to save him (see poor Karl in "The Year of Intelligent Tigers" - which is probably the closest thing to canonical Doctor-slash since Captain Jack!). He's unforgiving when it comes to people putting his welfare above their own.
He's also a bit of a jerk when he does things like in "Vampire Science", after pulling Carolyn into a big adventure:
Maybe, when she was ready to remember it, she'd remember the magic. Maybe she might
even get a little overjoyed about it.
'Wait,' she called. 'Maybe I can see you tomorrow?'
He grinned hugely. 'I've no idea. We don't even know if we'll be around tomorrow.'
And they weren't.
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
Actually, not too bad in terms of dialogue! But that would be, of course, because I'm so used to just hearing his voice. I draw a lot more on audio!Eight than on book!Eight when I write him. Physical mannerisms get a bit tricky, though, because there's only the TVM to work with and all the really obvious ones from the movie have been done to death in the books.
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
Probably still more cut scenes from the Anywhere but Cardiff ficathon. Way too angsty, most of 'em, but some make me happy and then disappointed that I won't get to cram 'em into the final product.
*waits impatiently for special edition DVD*
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future
Yup, he's still in that ficathon piece! My notes have him... looking for a young boy's lost pet Wallatick, whatever that may be. How suspenseful. Ahem.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-15 01:55 pm (UTC)