Any of my stories? Wow, that’s a tough one. I’d like to say that I write character-driven short stories, providing insight into a moment in time of that character’s life. I’m not sure if that’s true or not but that’s what I’d like to say.
My first story in this universe was “Waiting for Sunrise: Second Star to the Right”. I’m very happy with that story; it maintained the feel I wanted from the beginning through the conclusion and never ‘broke character’ for me.
It kinda started last year (2003) with my friend Leni sending me quotes from fiction she liked. All different fandoms, though she concentrated on sending me X-Men quotes - and even more specifically, a lot of W/R stories. I started asking for more stories and Leni obliged. So, when I came up with the idea of Logan and Rogue traveling the country together, I wrote it up and gave it to Leni as a Christmas prezzie. She liked it, despite the fact that I made her cry on Christmas (sorry, Leni!) and that started my writing a whole new genre of fanfic. Much to my beta’s chagrin.
My stories usually come to me in two different ways – either I “hear” a character’s voice telling me something about a story or I get a flash image of a scene. It’s then up to me to figure out where that scene is or that conversation takes place in the story. I get involved in challenge fic, too; where someone gives me a “trigger” (say, a character, a line and an emotion or possibly an opening sentence or a title) and I write something based on that challenge. “Tantalus”, “Un-Stability” and “Hush Puppy” were all triggered by drabble challenges. It’s not my fault that the challenges were for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction.
It depends on what I have available! I prefer typing directly into the computer but I will write long hand. I’ve never had access to using a tape recorder/cassette but I’d imagine they’d be very handy for ideas that come up while I’m traveling. As for the rest of the “S. J. Smith Writing Kit”, there’s usually a glass of iced or cup of hot tea and music playing somewhere in the background (if I’m lucky, it even corresponds with what I’m writing).
It really depends on the story. If it’s something short, I can turn it out in a day. If it’s something with chapters, it might take a month or longer. As for revisions, it depends on what my beta reader’s doing – if she’s busy with Real Life, I might read through the story myself and catch things or just set it aside for a while. Usually, if I set something aside, even if it’s just for a couple of days, I can find things that need to be corrected or might sound better worded a different way. I then try to let someone read it over to tell me whether the story works and revise from the comments I get back on that reading.
I generally have some idea of where I want to go in the story before I start typing or put pen to paper but it’s really bare bones – if you read question 4, you’ll see how I get my ideas. And usually the idea I get actually takes place towards the middle or the end of the story – so my writing is an exercise in getting to Point B or Point C – without really knowing where Point A is. Or sometimes, I’ll have started working on a story and a new idea has popped up in regards to that story – a plot twist or something cool for a character to do or say – so I have to figure out how to include that in the story. That’s what makes writing fun, though.
I usually title a story before I actually start writing it. It’s kind of an anchor for me and reminds me in what direction I want to take the story, even if it may not be quite as obvious to my reader. Depending on the way the story goes, the title might get changed before I post it but I really don’t have working titles for my stories.
Well, I did use Scott in “Shooters”…actually, at this point, until I feel comfortable enough to write something long and involved, I’d rather stick to two people rather than writing an ensemble.
Same thing I used to give to my clients: TALK TO EACH OTHER. That goes for you, too.
Most of the time they are beta’ed. D.M.E., who’s my usual reader, is still ticked off at me for getting involved in another fandom when I’m supposed to be working on a novel with her but now she’s started writing W/R fic, too, so I feel like I’m corrupting her all over again.
See question four! Really! “Sunlight” was a challenge fic; I had an opening line and wrote something around it. As soon as I saw that line, I immediately got a flash of Logan, in the sunlight, sleeping. (And wiped drool for the next few minutes, because, well, you know why.) As for where the words come from, once the picture is ‘fixed’ in my head, I just write what I ‘see’. My writing ‘mentors’ if you will are Tanith Lee, Peter Beagle and Sylvia Plath. Reading how they write descriptions has molded the way that I write descriptions. And one of my main goals when I write is to describe things so the reader sees or feels or can hear or smell or taste what I do. You-the-reader may get a different image based on your experiences but if the lines or images are sticking to you, you’re getting what I mean.
I try to stick to the limit but I admit I’ll fudge if I can get away with it. Those sorts of things are more of a guideline, right?
Drabbles aren’t my particular choice to write, really, because writing in one hundred words is difficult. Sometimes you need that extra word or two or five to make the story you’re telling work. I’d say they’re good for exercise work though and I don’t mind doing exercises, as long as I never have to write a sonnet again to save my life.
Oh, I wish I could say ‘yes’ to that because that sounds like such a cool answer to the “Why Do You Write?” question. Instead, I get flashes. Voices. An image. Some sort of trigger. And then I have to write around it. Or to it. Or include it. I do have some personal challenges I’m not finished writing yet but those challenges came from one of those inspirational flashes, again.
Not singing Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” while I was working on it. Coming up with thirty reasons wasn’t all that hard, I just had to make sure I didn’t repeat anything. Once I had those, deciding who was going to be in the story was the difficult part. Originally, Scott was going to find Logan’s list but I thought it would be funnier to have a little double-cross going on and for that, I needed someone not in a relationship. Enter Jubilee! From there, the story pretty much wrote itself.
I’ve written second person POV before in another fandom so it wasn’t too difficult to do for “Burning Bright”. The fun stuff was trying to see Logan’s POV and convey that to the reader. Since the reader only gets to see Rogue’s POV in Jengrrrl’s story, I had to take that to the conclusion of what Logan saw about their relationship and ultimately, Rogue’s rejection of it and, in Logan’s eyes, him. And, hey, I had a reason to read “Into the Fire” about ten or fifteen times while I was writing my story, which wasn’t that bad of a thing.
I try to write stuff that the readers can imagine as they read. When I’m trying to really get into a character’s head and take the reader there with me, I’ll use either first or second person POV. I know a lot of people don’t like second person POV but I love it because it seems to be right there, right now, like the character is talking to you in his or her head. It’s an immediate, almost visceral sort of thing to me. Even first person POV seems to have a little bit of a filter between the reader and the character and then third person is farther away still.
First of all, hands fascinate me; they’re quite literally one of the first things I notice about a person, whether I’m meeting someone personally or watching someone on TV or on the big screen. I love watching how people move their hands, how they use them to talk or what they do with them while they’re driving or how they touch the things around them. One of the most poignant images from the X-Men movies to me is the train scene in X1, when Rogue’s watching the woman stroking her son’s cheek. I thought it was a great way to point out this is something Rogue doesn’t get to experience, that casual touch.
Then my friend Kristi wrote a series of drabbles on hands for another fandom and I was enthralled. Which led to the thought of touching and that in turn led me back to Rogue. I figured if anyone had a fascination with hands, it would be the girl who couldn’t touch anyone without some sort of barrier between their skins. And since hands make up so much of what a person is in the X-Men universe – Jean throws up her hand to stop the water from Alkali Dam, St. John juggles fire, Bobby directs ice flows from his fingertips, Magneto gestures and metal springs (no pun intended) to do his bidding, Logan, well, he beats up people and then we’ve got that whole claw thing going on.
When I was writing the story, I thought specifically about how the characters were portrayed by their hands. Then I tried to get into Rogue’s head for her perceptions about those hands and what they meant to her. The next thing I knew, the story was written.
I dunno, I think the last line of “Tantalus” says a lot about Rogue in that story.
As for her own appeal, why I like writing Rogue, she’s a great challenge. She’s standing on a knife-edge for so many reasons – if she loses control for a minute, she could kill everyone she cares about. And yet, she’s a sweet character, as portrayed by Anna Paquin in the movies. I liked that innocence about her, the juxtaposition of how deadly she could be and what a ‘good kid’ she is. Then there’s the Rogue I remember from the ‘90’s X-Men cartoons, whom I adored. She seems a lot more comfortable in her skin than the movie incarnation. So, how would one get from Movie-Rogue to Cartoon-Rogue? What might bring about those changes, that growth?
Beyond that, hey, lookit the absolute tragic heroine thing. And I’m a huge sucker for that.
This story was actually inspired by a triptych I saw at an art show. All right, the art itself was innocuous, a series of black and white photographs of an Adirondack chair at different times during the day. The way the shadows changed fascinated me – the play of light and dark is always cool. Later, I started thinking about people and emotions and played around with the idea of dreams and how they related to a triptych. Once I set up dreams, nightmares and fantasies, I knew what I wanted to do. I guess what I really enjoyed the most about it is the comparison and contrast of those three things and how they relate to Rogue.
I’ve yet to be inspired to do so but you never know when something might pop out.
Since my favorite poetry is blank verse, it’d really be the length of the story. Okay, no, really, a poem is a tiny little capsule of a moment. A story, on the other hand, encompasses more breadth. That isn’t to say that a story is worth more than a poem because that’s not true. There are some poems that I love that are only twenty lines long and they still mean more to me than some novels I’ve read.
Similarities, on the other hand – well, generally my stories deal with some sort of an emotional pull. And most of my poetry does the same. It’s just the level of the punch at that last line.
“Waiting for Sunrise: Second Star to the Right.” I hate to say it because it sounds like I’m tooting my own horn but I just love the way that story worked out.
My writing strengths are that I’ve got a great background of stuff to draw from; real life, stories and poetry I’ve read, and things that have happened to or with my friends and family. I also usually can turn out a sentence that means exactly what I want it to, without having to rewrite it. The one thing I’d change about my writing is it’d be nice to be able to do it more often. I’m terrible at writing in spurts rather than writing on a schedule.
Oh, I so need to get back to working on that novel before my co-author shoots me. Of course, she’s writing fanfic almost as much as I am, so I might be safe for another month or so. I like a lot of things; live music, art shows, dog shows, horse shows, car shows, Renaissance fairs and action movies are some of the things I’ll spend my time doing. I’m pretty much a pack rat; my house is full of things I collect, mostly model horses and books but there’s a sizeable collection of swords and knives and I want to get back into learning how to use them. I have an old 35mm camera and I lug it around and take photos with it. I used to draw and paint but it’s been years since I pursued it; now I string beads. I love roller coasters and carousels and will happily visit theme parks just to go on those things. And speaking of which, I’m still disappointed, as many times as I’ve gone to Universal Islands of Adventure, I’ve yet to see any superheroes. I mean, having your picture taken with Bullwinkle and Rocky is okay but I’d really love to have my picture taken with a Marvel representative or two.
Sure do – the site is WWW.GeekGirlz-R.Us. GeekGirlz houses the writing, challenges and art of D.M. Evans, Chris GD and myself. Feel free to drop in anytime, we’re always open though most of the stories there are based in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel universe. We are expanding some, Chris also writes Preacher fanfic and D.M. Evans is starting to write W/R. My LJ name (handle? Title?) is evil_little_dog.
Thanks for all the questions, this has been a blast!