Progress report
Sep. 6th, 2010 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieOn the whole, I found Be My Thrill (The Weepies' new record) disappointing. The melodies and arrangements of some of the tracks are nice, but their previous releases seemed to have a lot more substance in the lyrics. These are extremely shallow in comparison. I'm usually pretty good at ignoring bad lyrics, though, so I think this will grow on me at least a bit. I mean, hell, my favorite track is probably "Be My Honeypie," and that one's just as twee as the title suggests. (Actually, part of the reason I like it is that I consistently mishear a line of the chorus as "If you don't love me, I won't tell," which suggests a much more interesting scenario than the real lyric: "If you don't love me, I will die.") Musically, they seem to have injected a bit of 1950s/1960s pop into the usual modern indie folk/pop mix. Usually it works well, and I love the bouncy swinginess of songs like "Honeypie," "When You Go Away," and "Hummingbird," though I do miss the more melancholy earlier sound. ("When You Go Away" is basically "Gotta Have You" rewritten to be more cheerful, and while the earlier version is not exactly sublime, there's just no contest.)
In other news, I am still making beaucoup progress on my Delenn/Susan AU. I hit 5,000 words today, after only four days of writing, which not only shatters any previous records, it pounds the pieces into dust. This is particularly astonishing given that I did something to my lower back on Friday (similar, but not as bad, as whatever I did to it two Christmases ago) and thus have had to limit my time in front of the computer.
However, I am approaching the end of season three/beginning of season four, and what I'll need to change in canon is beginning to grow insistent. I have no intention of rewriting everything that goes on with Sheridan (it would KILL ME), so I'm basically trying to suggest that events sort of...work themselves out so that the Army of Light wins the war, and that what needed to be changed got changed, while I lazily concentrate on the shippy bits. Although now is my chance to get rid of Lorien, and I think I might just have to take it. I'm not sure yet if that means Sheridan dies at Z'ha'dum or if he just doesn't go and they find out the background of the Shadow/Vorlon enmity some other way.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rivendellrose, your earlier floating of the possibility that Susan gets approached by Shadow agents after she learns of Delenn's role in the Earth/Minbar War is starting to look awfully tempting, although OMG THE ANGST. But it would kind of screw with my current timeline. Hmmm. Maybe not. But still...
In other news, I am still making beaucoup progress on my Delenn/Susan AU. I hit 5,000 words today, after only four days of writing, which not only shatters any previous records, it pounds the pieces into dust. This is particularly astonishing given that I did something to my lower back on Friday (similar, but not as bad, as whatever I did to it two Christmases ago) and thus have had to limit my time in front of the computer.
However, I am approaching the end of season three/beginning of season four, and what I'll need to change in canon is beginning to grow insistent. I have no intention of rewriting everything that goes on with Sheridan (it would KILL ME), so I'm basically trying to suggest that events sort of...work themselves out so that the Army of Light wins the war, and that what needed to be changed got changed, while I lazily concentrate on the shippy bits. Although now is my chance to get rid of Lorien, and I think I might just have to take it. I'm not sure yet if that means Sheridan dies at Z'ha'dum or if he just doesn't go and they find out the background of the Shadow/Vorlon enmity some other way.
rivendellrose, your earlier floating of the possibility that Susan gets approached by Shadow agents after she learns of Delenn's role in the Earth/Minbar War is starting to look awfully tempting, although OMG THE ANGST. But it would kind of screw with my current timeline. Hmmm. Maybe not. But still...
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Date: 2010-09-07 12:23 am (UTC)Susan gets approached by Shadow agents after she learns of Delenn's role in the Earth/Minbar War is starting to look awfully tempting, although OMG THE ANGST.
Bwahahah. You know you want to. I mean, here's the thing - it can be precisely as angsty as you want it to be. It could be that the Shadows totally twine her up in their ideas through that horrible revelation and her reaction to it (obvs. SRS ANGST), or it could be as simple as Susan being briefly tempted, and then the same thing we'd talked about with the near-death happens and she's jerked out of it and realizes "wait a minute, these fuckers were totally screwing with me, Delenn is worth the risk, and OMG I've got to go save her" or whatever.
But I'm seriously going to love love love this fic no matter what you direction you take it in. I know you'll do good things, I'm just excited to see what. ♥
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Date: 2010-09-07 01:01 am (UTC)Bwahahah. You know you want to.
I...kind of do. This is disturbing to me. I used to be all about the fluff until I got into this fandom. Susan's pessimism is contagious!
or it could be as simple as Susan being briefly tempted, and then the same thing we'd talked about with the near-death happens and she's jerked out of it and realizes "wait a minute, these fuckers were totally screwing with me, Delenn is worth the risk, and OMG I've got to go save her" or whatever.
Yeeeeessss, I think I may have to do that. And this is entirely from Delenn's POV, so it can all occur offstage while she's in her near-death coma and Susan can just tell her after the fact. (Or rather not tell her, just say that she understands the Shadow/Vorlon philosophy now, and Delenn figures out exactly how she came to understand it, 'cause she's smart like that.)
I also like the idea of Susan saving Delenn! Currently, in the scene I haven't finished writing, I have Delenn in a bar in Downbelow waiting to meet one of Marcus's informants when she gets set upon by Humans with a grudge about her looks. I was going to just have her start a fight in order to get out of there and have it not go well, but I could perhaps work it into a longer abduction that requires Susan to charge in with the cavalry. Though I kind of feel like I've neglected Delenn's awesome so far in favor of concentrating on Susan's as she takes up the mantle of Co-Savior of the Universe (Delenn is very proud of her protege/soul mate), and maybe I should try to tip the balance back to Delenn for a while by having her win the fight, but get near-fatally injured in the process.
Decisions, decisions.
But I'm seriously going to love love love this fic no matter what you direction you take it in. I know you'll do good things, I'm just excited to see what. ♥
\o/! Thank you. :)
BTW, another snippet, 'cause a comment you made totally inspired this scene (this is not the whole scene, but the rest of it isn't ready to be seen by anyone else yet before some serious revision):
It took her several days to fully recover from her ordeal with Sebastian. Just when she thought the effects had passed, a muscle would twinge or a nerve would misfire.
Susan, too, was affected for a while after it was over. She never showed it to a casual glance, but Delenn could tell from the set of her jaw or the slight crease in her forehead that she was, at times, in pain.
On the other hand, when he left the station, Sebastian's cane was no longer an affectation.
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Date: 2010-09-07 01:13 am (UTC)Excuse me. I have to go flail with glee for a few minutes. ♥ Oh, Susan - you totally make Sheridan look like the biggest wimp in the universe.
The decisions like whether to have Delenn require rescuing or just injured are always soooo hard in writing stuff like this. I've been plotting (...in a very vague sort of way...) to write a sort-of-AU-thing for NaNoWriMo this year, and... dear god, sometimes I get my head twisted the wrong way 'round over the stupidest little questions. For what it's worth, I think this fic will work well either way - you can always find another moment to show Delenn's strength, if you like, or you can always just go for Susan saving the day because, hell, she's good at it. Or the saving-Delenn angle in that moment can be more subtextual than outright-plot. It's a good story, it'll do well.
And yeah, B5 brings out the angst-whore in us all, I think. It's just natural for the series - it's hard to make anything totally fluffy seem right in their universe, much as we all may wish it to be.
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Date: 2010-09-07 02:09 am (UTC)Hehehehe!
Oh, Susan - you totally make Sheridan look like the biggest wimp in the universe.
She so, so does.
The decisions like whether to have Delenn require rescuing or just injured are always soooo hard in writing stuff like this.
Yep. I tend to write a lot of kickass characters interacting together, but usually it's a het couple, so if I ever get to a point where plot enters into the picture, I usually have the girl save the guy or otherwise be the proactive one just to do my part at redressing centuries of gender imbalance in fiction. (Speaking of unexpected problems in writing femslash: pronouns! I'm so used to writing het that I've gotten into a habit of using lots of pronouns rather than names or epithets, but I can't always do that here without causing confusion about who's doing what! It's totally screwing with my rhythm, and I'm going to have to go over this with a fine-toothed comb to catch all the confusing instances once I finish it.)
you can always just go for Susan saving the day because, hell, she's good at it
Bwahahaha. That she is. If I do go with Susan saving the day, in the interests of expediency, I think I'll just have Delenn sort of swimming in and out of consciousness, so what she sees of the rescue is very short and confused. *g*
And yeah, B5 brings out the angst-whore in us all, I think. It's just natural for the series - it's hard to make anything totally fluffy seem right in their universe, much as we all may wish it to be.
Alas, I think you are right. Although it doesn't stop me from trying for most of my fics. *snerk*
no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 06:03 pm (UTC)Your fic sounds intriguing. I'd say go AU and make the fic as shippy as you want: it's *your* fanfic. That means you can handwave whatever you want to. And getting rid of Lorien wouldn't be the worst thing in the world :-P
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Date: 2010-09-07 07:07 pm (UTC)Thanks. At least it's not a complete disappointment.
Your fic sounds intriguing. I'd say go AU and make the fic as shippy as you want: it's *your* fanfic. That means you can handwave whatever you want to.
Ordinarily I'd agree with you; however, for this to work, I need readers to bring some canon background to it. For example, there's a scene, not to mention an important line in another scene, that hinges on people remembering Delenn gets kicked off the Grey Council in mid-S2, but I never explicitly reference that kicking off. So as much as I would like to, I can't just completely disregard canon without indicating as such and then making some kind of logical leap to the next part of canon I am keeping.
But
no subject
Date: 2010-09-09 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 04:25 am (UTC)For what it's worth, "I Was Made for Sunny Days" is the best track. "Hummingbird," "Hard to Please," and "When You Go Away" (possibly also "Please Speak Well of Me") are all decent, and I kind of have a thing for the music of "Add My effort" and "Be My Honeypie," even if the lyrics suck suck suck.
Things did get better as I learned to ignore the lyrics, anyway.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:30 am (UTC)