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Nov. 14th, 2005 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cpolkI don't have a metric right now, but I have a spare moment and I'm stealing it to do a quick post.
I've always scorned NaNoWriMo. I've loudly proclaimed that I wasn't going to do it, oh for the last four years now.
This November had seen me at a period where I hadn't written anything for months. months, I swear. I'd tried to pick up on the novel i'd been sulking at for years - and I got some words in that I hated and so I quit and went back to not-writing.
so me and the sekrit cabal ended up observing NaNoDruWriNi on the last friday of october (because they were going to WFC), and I pounded out a few words on a "useless" fanfiction project.
It was fun. and so I drunkenly declared NaNoSlashMo, decided to go for a lesser word count goal, and got hit with a plot bunny that's gotten me nearly completed my 25,000 words by the middle of November.
And it is fun. and I'm learning so much from combining the highly scorned literary practices of writing fanfiction and writing porn.
Smut writing is an exercise in character, I've discovered. Character is revealed more by actions than anything the writer produces in exposition or explanations, and sex scenes are about action. It's amazingly strenuous, coming to conclusions about someone's boudoir behavior - because I spend time thinking about a character's attitudes and previous actions and then translate that into what they do, what they don't do, what they hate, and what they secretly wish for when the clothes are off.
Now repeat the process for every person involved. Now sit back and run the vizualization of exactly how these characters cooperate and conflict, and you'll have the telling details of not just their sexual behaviour, but also how they come to mutual satisfaction (or don't.)
What you end up writing is a character driven story, no matter how much (hot manlove) action there is on thesheetslines. It didn't take me long to realize that it's just the same as when the characters are dressed striving to achieve whatever it is that they want to achieve - how they go about doing it is going to be driven by who they are.
And that's enough whoo! knowledge to continue supporting fanfic for me.
in discussion with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala I had said that fanfiction was a lot like grown women playing barbies. she later pointed out that some works are slashed/shipped/ficced with more popularity than others, and speculated that the urge to slash/ship/fic within a particular fandom happened because the story of that fandom is at once both compelling and flawed. I understood that immediately. Harry/Draco is simply not a possibility within the actual books, but in my case my Harry/Draco talks to the frustration i feel at their pigheaded refusal to look past their own noses. I bet any Harry/Snape I indulged in would be prompted by the same thing - because canon Harry needs and deserves a good smack when it comes to all matters Snape. (Who needs love. and cuddles.)
As long as fanfiction keeps unpacking this sort of stuff for me, then yay!
I've always scorned NaNoWriMo. I've loudly proclaimed that I wasn't going to do it, oh for the last four years now.
This November had seen me at a period where I hadn't written anything for months. months, I swear. I'd tried to pick up on the novel i'd been sulking at for years - and I got some words in that I hated and so I quit and went back to not-writing.
so me and the sekrit cabal ended up observing NaNoDruWriNi on the last friday of october (because they were going to WFC), and I pounded out a few words on a "useless" fanfiction project.
It was fun. and so I drunkenly declared NaNoSlashMo, decided to go for a lesser word count goal, and got hit with a plot bunny that's gotten me nearly completed my 25,000 words by the middle of November.
And it is fun. and I'm learning so much from combining the highly scorned literary practices of writing fanfiction and writing porn.
Smut writing is an exercise in character, I've discovered. Character is revealed more by actions than anything the writer produces in exposition or explanations, and sex scenes are about action. It's amazingly strenuous, coming to conclusions about someone's boudoir behavior - because I spend time thinking about a character's attitudes and previous actions and then translate that into what they do, what they don't do, what they hate, and what they secretly wish for when the clothes are off.
Now repeat the process for every person involved. Now sit back and run the vizualization of exactly how these characters cooperate and conflict, and you'll have the telling details of not just their sexual behaviour, but also how they come to mutual satisfaction (or don't.)
What you end up writing is a character driven story, no matter how much (hot manlove) action there is on the
And that's enough whoo! knowledge to continue supporting fanfic for me.
in discussion with
matociquala I had said that fanfiction was a lot like grown women playing barbies. she later pointed out that some works are slashed/shipped/ficced with more popularity than others, and speculated that the urge to slash/ship/fic within a particular fandom happened because the story of that fandom is at once both compelling and flawed. I understood that immediately. Harry/Draco is simply not a possibility within the actual books, but in my case my Harry/Draco talks to the frustration i feel at their pigheaded refusal to look past their own noses. I bet any Harry/Snape I indulged in would be prompted by the same thing - because canon Harry needs and deserves a good smack when it comes to all matters Snape. (Who needs love. and cuddles.)As long as fanfiction keeps unpacking this sort of stuff for me, then yay!
