Remix insanity
May. 8th, 2011 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelSo apparently remix authorship has been revealed, which means yay I get to babble about my writing process!
Well, actually, first I would like to thank![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
paranoidangel and caitn for their remixings of my work (Feels Like Home (The Green Planet Remix) and Bring the Hammer Down (the Valhalla Epilogue), respectively; the first is SGA and the second is SPN and they are both very much awesome.)
...as for the fics I wrote, if you don't care about the babble and just want to read the stories, it's the top eight listed on my list of works (or, if you're reading this after I've posted more stuff to AO3, it's the ones posted end of April and beginning of May). Star Trek Reboot, Lion King, Narnia, SPN, and White Collar.
#
So. My original assignment washelens78, which made me go "wheeee" and then "ack she's too awesome a writer I will never do her fics justice" and then "wheee" again, because, really, how could I /not/.
As per my usual remix methodology, I ... well, first I narrowed down the fandoms, because while I do like to read, say, due South fic or BSG fic, there's no way in hell I could write it. And so I more or less settled on Star Trek Reboot, though there were backup fandoms I could have chosen if necessary. So then I did my usual remix methodology--
(kind of amusing since I've only done, er, two? remixes before this; the others were fandom-specific though, so I didn't have the narrow-down-fandoms step. But still, two does not "usual methodology" make)
--of reading through the fics until something went ping.
And something did go ping; within three hours of reading Improved Diplomatic Relations, I had half of the remix written. It amused the hell out of me that my brain wanted to rewrite a tentacle porn fic, particularly from the POV of the tentacles (well, the tentacle-bearer; whatever), but my muse was happy doing it.
Except then it kind of stalled and stuttered, and some of the Kirk/Sulu stuff was nudging my brain and going "wriiiiite meeeeee", and so I started that, and, well, I sort of had a problem: two half-written remixes, ones that couldn't really be merged into a single fic, and I couldn't decide which to do.
So I wrote the mods of the challenge, asking what one did if one happened to have two remix fics in one's brain. Because I could pick one to be the official remix fic and then post the other as a non-challenge-related remix (or, as it turned out, part of remix madness), but I kind of wanted both to have equal status, if that made any sort of sense. And they basically said "we don't /encourage/ it, but go ahead and post both".
So I did.
Freefall (the reclaiming lives remix) (1453 words) by
isabeau
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Hikaru Sulu
Summary:
This one was finished first, and therefore posted first (under the theory that getting a fic in is a good thing and if I didn't manage to get the tentacle porn one done on time I could still post it anyway). It's officially a remix of "This Brings Victory", and unofficially brings in themes from "Even If You Fall", so the first part of the title is a nod to the latter, and the second part of the title is ... well. TBV was adapted from the Jem'Hadar motto (DS9); a little digging got me more Jem'Hadar quoteage, namely "As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives."; and it felt appropriate.
Explorations (the botany remix) (1087 words) byisabeau
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hikaru Sulu/James Kirk/OFC, OFC/OFC
Summary:
The title of this one has less meaning behind it, but I kind of love the fic; getting to play with alien sex, when the humans are the alien ones, is fun, and outside POVs of canon characters is fun; and, honestly, writing tentacle fic without ever using the word 'tentacle' is kind of hilarious.
And I have no clue where Neara came from, but I'm glad she poked her head up.
#
As with Yuletide, I hung out on the pinch hit list. And as with Yuletide, the ones I could write were generally snapped up immediately, and the ones that lingered were for fandoms I didn't know, but then one came in (forraven) that had multiple fandoms I could do. I responded under the assumption that it was taken, but apparently I was the first responder.
...as with Yuletide, there was the immediate reaction of "yay I got a pinch hit! ...oh shit I have a pinch hit I am insane /flail/." *snicker*
And again with the reading of fics to see what went ping. I had about four or five that I was deciding between, some HP (Marauders-era) and some Star Trek Reboot, and I was reading them and rereading them and letting my muse play in my subconscious.
I was not entirely surprised that it ended up being a Reboot fic, since my first two fics were Reboot and I had wheedled my roommates into Netflixing the movie so it was fresh in my head. I was a little surprised that it didn't end up being Gaila-centric, because Gaila is awesome. And while I was not surprised that it had Uhura in it (since she is awesome too), I was a lot surprised to find myself writing from Amanda Grayson's POV.
Not that she isn't awesome, just ... I never expected to write her.
And honestly, for all that Pomegranate kept pinging me, I thought I would end up playing either with the Achernari (windchimes!) or with Gaila, but apparently my muse is full of endless surprises.
Part of it, I think, was that pomegranates make me think of Persephone, and Hades, and a very loose connection to Orpheus and the don't-look-back theme; and there kept being a lot of not looking back in the original story, what with Uhura not having gone back home and with Gaila referring to Uhura's mother's house and not Uhura's home; and the most telling look-back in the movie, when Amanda so totally knows she's not going to get transported up in time but there isn't anything she can do about it...
And so I started writing, and some of it was about the contrast between Vulcan and Earth, and some of it was about what constitutes home, and some of it was about tea, and a lot of it was about Amanda's love for her son and curiosity about someone that, while he never actually said anything about love, had clearly reached some resonance with a half-Vulcan trying to be more Vulcan than full-blooded Vulcans, and she was as used to reading between the lines with Spock as she was with Sarek, and--
(obviously my brain is not quite done with Amanda yet. ♥)
Home (the don't look back remix) (1227 words) byisabeau
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Amanda Grayson, Nyota Uhura
Summary:
(and the titles should be obvious from the babble about the writing process)
#
And then there was Remix Madness.
There were enough authors available, and enough stories available, and a short enough time limit, that this was really all about listening for a muse-ping and then writing.
I limited myself to browsing a) Reboot fics (what? I was obviously in that frame of mind :D) and b) people I knew.
The first fic, unsurprisingly, ended up being a Reboot fic. (Who here is shocked? I'm not.) It was a pairing I don't often write (Kirk/Spock, which I can totally see in TOS but don't generally write anyway, and which I can see in sort of antagonistic levels in Reboot but not in a OTP sense), but something about it made me go 'huh' and want to see the other side of it.
(Failure to) Understand (the crime and punishment remix) (1600 words) byisabeau
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Summary:
And that ... was the only madness fic I did for someone I didn't know. But hey, Reboot ftw.
Next up wasmjules, and I found myself writing fandoms I hadn't ever written before.
One was a Yuletide fic, and remixes of yuletide stories just make me go all warm and fuzzy. And I also like stories that look at the ones left behind; and my muse decided to play with the ones left behind from the original fic.
Plus, there is something nice about strong women, even when the women are really lions.
A light in dark places (the lost hope remix) (464 words) byisabeau
Fandom: Lion King (1994)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nala, Sarabi, Sarafina
Summary:
And then I read another fic, and my muse did the little ping of what-if, and I did a little bit of agonizing about whether or not it counted as a remix if the original story was "X doesn't do Y" and the remix is "X does Y (and then regrets it)", but I figured there wouldn't be much complaining.
...I did have a brainfart moment where both Peter and Susan were reacting to Lucy's decision, when I know better, but thankfully that got caught before the story went live :x
Embellishment (the giving in to temptation remix) (487 words) byisabeau
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Caspian/Lucy Pevensie
Characters: Lucy Pevensie, Caspian (Narnia), Reepicheep, Aslan
Summary:
Next up,alexseanchai, who writes very awesome women-centric SPN fic, and for a while I was a bit flaily because there were so many fics but so many of them were short without a hook for me to grab on to.
But then there was Cassie, and Cassie is completely made of awesome and should be in more fics, and I also love fics along the lines of "normal people touched by the Winchesters stop ignoring the supernatural and learn how to kick ass", and I couldn't resist.
in the hour of death (the easy prey remix) (229 words) byisabeau
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cassie Robinson
Summary:
(oh, and the first bit of the title, aside from being a play on exactly whose ass is being kicked here, comes from the Saint Benedict Medal, which contains, among other things, Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux (Let not the dragon be my guide) and Ejus in obitu nostro presentia muniamur (May his presence protect us in the hour of death).)
And at the last minute I decided I wanted to write a remix for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emmademarais, which was daunting as hell because a) she has TONS of fic, and b) she's a better writer than I am. But I got the ping moment with one of the fics she wrote for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
whitecollar100, and the end result is ... well, kind of a mediocre fic, but that's partly because I got distracted by fic structure. There are five sections, and the first is 40 words, the second 80 words, the third 120 words, the fourth 160 words, and the fifth 200 words, for a total of 600 words exactly.
And yes, distraction by fic structure means less attention paid to fic content, so this isn't my finest work ever, to the point where I was half tempted to orphan it before the reveal, but eh, I wrote it. And besides, I like the fifth part.
Four times Neal Caffrey buried a wine bottle, and one time he didn't (the ship in a bottle remix) (600 words) byisabeau
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Relationships: Neal Caffrey/Kate Moreau
Characters: Neal Caffrey, Kate Moreau, Peter Burke
Summary:
#
So there you have it. Eight fics, 7k words, all written within the space of ... er, however long it was. A month, maybe? And given that the eight fics before that were a) two drabbles, b) yuletide fics, b) two not-quite-drabbles, and c) getting into fic written in *August* for kink_bingo... given that in the year before remix I wrote 14 fics, less than twice what I wrote for remix... yeah. I'm pretty damn pleased with myself :D
Well, actually, first I would like to thank
...as for the fics I wrote, if you don't care about the babble and just want to read the stories, it's the top eight listed on my list of works (or, if you're reading this after I've posted more stuff to AO3, it's the ones posted end of April and beginning of May). Star Trek Reboot, Lion King, Narnia, SPN, and White Collar.
#
So. My original assignment was
helens78, which made me go "wheeee" and then "ack she's too awesome a writer I will never do her fics justice" and then "wheee" again, because, really, how could I /not/.As per my usual remix methodology, I ... well, first I narrowed down the fandoms, because while I do like to read, say, due South fic or BSG fic, there's no way in hell I could write it. And so I more or less settled on Star Trek Reboot, though there were backup fandoms I could have chosen if necessary. So then I did my usual remix methodology--
(kind of amusing since I've only done, er, two? remixes before this; the others were fandom-specific though, so I didn't have the narrow-down-fandoms step. But still, two does not "usual methodology" make)
--of reading through the fics until something went ping.
And something did go ping; within three hours of reading Improved Diplomatic Relations, I had half of the remix written. It amused the hell out of me that my brain wanted to rewrite a tentacle porn fic, particularly from the POV of the tentacles (well, the tentacle-bearer; whatever), but my muse was happy doing it.
Except then it kind of stalled and stuttered, and some of the Kirk/Sulu stuff was nudging my brain and going "wriiiiite meeeeee", and so I started that, and, well, I sort of had a problem: two half-written remixes, ones that couldn't really be merged into a single fic, and I couldn't decide which to do.
So I wrote the mods of the challenge, asking what one did if one happened to have two remix fics in one's brain. Because I could pick one to be the official remix fic and then post the other as a non-challenge-related remix (or, as it turned out, part of remix madness), but I kind of wanted both to have equal status, if that made any sort of sense. And they basically said "we don't /encourage/ it, but go ahead and post both".
So I did.
Freefall (the reclaiming lives remix) (1453 words) by
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Hikaru Sulu
Summary:
It's a little like flying, this thing they have: Sulu taking control, guiding, responsive to the needs of his craft as well as his own needs. He is, all things considered, a good pilot, even when distracted.
This one was finished first, and therefore posted first (under the theory that getting a fic in is a good thing and if I didn't manage to get the tentacle porn one done on time I could still post it anyway). It's officially a remix of "This Brings Victory", and unofficially brings in themes from "Even If You Fall", so the first part of the title is a nod to the latter, and the second part of the title is ... well. TBV was adapted from the Jem'Hadar motto (DS9); a little digging got me more Jem'Hadar quoteage, namely "As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives."; and it felt appropriate.
Explorations (the botany remix) (1087 words) by
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hikaru Sulu/James Kirk/OFC, OFC/OFC
Summary:
It starts with a dare, end ends with sex, and really, humans may be lacking in some ways but they more than make up for it in others.
The title of this one has less meaning behind it, but I kind of love the fic; getting to play with alien sex, when the humans are the alien ones, is fun, and outside POVs of canon characters is fun; and, honestly, writing tentacle fic without ever using the word 'tentacle' is kind of hilarious.
And I have no clue where Neara came from, but I'm glad she poked her head up.
#
As with Yuletide, I hung out on the pinch hit list. And as with Yuletide, the ones I could write were generally snapped up immediately, and the ones that lingered were for fandoms I didn't know, but then one came in (for
raven) that had multiple fandoms I could do. I responded under the assumption that it was taken, but apparently I was the first responder....as with Yuletide, there was the immediate reaction of "yay I got a pinch hit! ...oh shit I have a pinch hit I am insane /flail/." *snicker*
And again with the reading of fics to see what went ping. I had about four or five that I was deciding between, some HP (Marauders-era) and some Star Trek Reboot, and I was reading them and rereading them and letting my muse play in my subconscious.
I was not entirely surprised that it ended up being a Reboot fic, since my first two fics were Reboot and I had wheedled my roommates into Netflixing the movie so it was fresh in my head. I was a little surprised that it didn't end up being Gaila-centric, because Gaila is awesome. And while I was not surprised that it had Uhura in it (since she is awesome too), I was a lot surprised to find myself writing from Amanda Grayson's POV.
Not that she isn't awesome, just ... I never expected to write her.
And honestly, for all that Pomegranate kept pinging me, I thought I would end up playing either with the Achernari (windchimes!) or with Gaila, but apparently my muse is full of endless surprises.
Part of it, I think, was that pomegranates make me think of Persephone, and Hades, and a very loose connection to Orpheus and the don't-look-back theme; and there kept being a lot of not looking back in the original story, what with Uhura not having gone back home and with Gaila referring to Uhura's mother's house and not Uhura's home; and the most telling look-back in the movie, when Amanda so totally knows she's not going to get transported up in time but there isn't anything she can do about it...
And so I started writing, and some of it was about the contrast between Vulcan and Earth, and some of it was about what constitutes home, and some of it was about tea, and a lot of it was about Amanda's love for her son and curiosity about someone that, while he never actually said anything about love, had clearly reached some resonance with a half-Vulcan trying to be more Vulcan than full-blooded Vulcans, and she was as used to reading between the lines with Spock as she was with Sarek, and--
(obviously my brain is not quite done with Amanda yet. ♥)
Home (the don't look back remix) (1227 words) by
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Amanda Grayson, Nyota Uhura
Summary:
Amanda pays a visit to someone her son finds fascinating, and they talk of tea and home.
(and the titles should be obvious from the babble about the writing process)
#
And then there was Remix Madness.
There were enough authors available, and enough stories available, and a short enough time limit, that this was really all about listening for a muse-ping and then writing.
I limited myself to browsing a) Reboot fics (what? I was obviously in that frame of mind :D) and b) people I knew.
The first fic, unsurprisingly, ended up being a Reboot fic. (Who here is shocked? I'm not.) It was a pairing I don't often write (Kirk/Spock, which I can totally see in TOS but don't generally write anyway, and which I can see in sort of antagonistic levels in Reboot but not in a OTP sense), but something about it made me go 'huh' and want to see the other side of it.
(Failure to) Understand (the crime and punishment remix) (1600 words) by
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Summary:
Kirk needs something that only Spock can give him
And that ... was the only madness fic I did for someone I didn't know. But hey, Reboot ftw.
Next up was
mjules, and I found myself writing fandoms I hadn't ever written before.One was a Yuletide fic, and remixes of yuletide stories just make me go all warm and fuzzy. And I also like stories that look at the ones left behind; and my muse decided to play with the ones left behind from the original fic.
Plus, there is something nice about strong women, even when the women are really lions.
A light in dark places (the lost hope remix) (464 words) by
Fandom: Lion King (1994)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nala, Sarabi, Sarafina
Summary:
The lions have lost much, but not everything
And then I read another fic, and my muse did the little ping of what-if, and I did a little bit of agonizing about whether or not it counted as a remix if the original story was "X doesn't do Y" and the remix is "X does Y (and then regrets it)", but I figured there wouldn't be much complaining.
...I did have a brainfart moment where both Peter and Susan were reacting to Lucy's decision, when I know better, but thankfully that got caught before the story went live :x
Embellishment (the giving in to temptation remix) (487 words) by
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Caspian/Lucy Pevensie
Characters: Lucy Pevensie, Caspian (Narnia), Reepicheep, Aslan
Summary:
Surely it wouldn’t hurt -- she hadn’t been told she could *only* speak the spell she’d come looking for, after all.
Next up,
alexseanchai, who writes very awesome women-centric SPN fic, and for a while I was a bit flaily because there were so many fics but so many of them were short without a hook for me to grab on to.But then there was Cassie, and Cassie is completely made of awesome and should be in more fics, and I also love fics along the lines of "normal people touched by the Winchesters stop ignoring the supernatural and learn how to kick ass", and I couldn't resist.
in the hour of death (the easy prey remix) (229 words) by
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cassie Robinson
Summary:
All demons know that the best way to get at a hunter is through friends. Family. People that the hunters care about.
(oh, and the first bit of the title, aside from being a play on exactly whose ass is being kicked here, comes from the Saint Benedict Medal, which contains, among other things, Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux (Let not the dragon be my guide) and Ejus in obitu nostro presentia muniamur (May his presence protect us in the hour of death).)
And at the last minute I decided I wanted to write a remix for
emmademarais, which was daunting as hell because a) she has TONS of fic, and b) she's a better writer than I am. But I got the ping moment with one of the fics she wrote for whitecollar100, and the end result is ... well, kind of a mediocre fic, but that's partly because I got distracted by fic structure. There are five sections, and the first is 40 words, the second 80 words, the third 120 words, the fourth 160 words, and the fifth 200 words, for a total of 600 words exactly.And yes, distraction by fic structure means less attention paid to fic content, so this isn't my finest work ever, to the point where I was half tempted to orphan it before the reveal, but eh, I wrote it. And besides, I like the fifth part.
Four times Neal Caffrey buried a wine bottle, and one time he didn't (the ship in a bottle remix) (600 words) by
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Relationships: Neal Caffrey/Kate Moreau
Characters: Neal Caffrey, Kate Moreau, Peter Burke
Summary:
Sometimes a bottle is just a bottle, but for Neal and Kate it means so much more.
#
So there you have it. Eight fics, 7k words, all written within the space of ... er, however long it was. A month, maybe? And given that the eight fics before that were a) two drabbles, b) yuletide fics, b) two not-quite-drabbles, and c) getting into fic written in *August* for kink_bingo... given that in the year before remix I wrote 14 fics, less than twice what I wrote for remix... yeah. I'm pretty damn pleased with myself :D