SNOWFLAKE CHALLENGE #2: WRITING WOES

[queenslayerbee]

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I decided to talk a little about my writing goals for this year. They are two-fold: on the one hand, there's my original writing. On the other, the fics I want to write for the fandoms that have me in their clutches.

For my original writing, the goals are largely tied to my author's newsletter. I want to maintain it; to use it to discuse writing, as a craft, with fellow authors and enthusiasts; and to push myself to share complete short stories with an audience, as I build on larger ones.

As of now, I'm focusing in one of my smaller passion projects: a story I called "Underground Elysium" that's meant to reach only novelette/novella length. It's political/speculative adult fantasy, told in third person omniscient, that takes a harebrained idea (about a vampire running a protection racket during a zombie outbreak) that arose in a discussion of tumblr and I chose to take seriously to its last consequences. The zombies are really just the backdrop for the story of Lucretia, a visionary and tyrannical vampire that built an underground society in which vampiresses reigned, and humans had to choose between staying on the surface and facing its dangers, or resigning themselves to a life of safety and servitude under them. 

Later this month I intend to post a "chapter", telling the backstory of the two most important characters: the Imperatrix Lucretia, of course, and Dana. The later is younger vampiress who once violated the most crucial rule of the new realm, and was punished for it; long years later, she has raised in the ranks, and intends to come against Lucretia in the next election. The story I plan to share will tell what it was that Dana did, that Lucretia did in retaliation, and thus the seeds she planted for their later confrontation.

As for my fanfiction WIPs, I only just posted a list on tumblr yesterday (where I more than welcome questions about them!). I'll try to be both be briefer and more comprehensive here.

First, the vast majority (all but two, really) are focused on DC, especially the comics. The exceptions are a fun Desperate Housewives/Supernatural case-fic crossover I've written on and off for a while (all based on a dream I had where Tom Scavo was brutally killed by some monster and the late-seasons spn team came to infiltrate the suburbs and investigate LOL), and a eerier TVD fic telling the quieter horror that I think Elena and Damon's marriage would inevitably be (especially in an universe where Damon put his money where his mouth was re: alienating others, and he killed Jeremy instead of Tyler).

The others, as I said, are all about detective comics comics 😔 (and more likely than not, about Jason Todd. He's featured in all of these, at the very least).

• THE GIGANTIC PROJECTS.
  
  • Young Justice: FÉNIX. In which I do what I've wanted to for years and write THEE yj!Jason-centric fic that's been so clear in my head. Featuring a lot of Jason & Damian, Jason & Bats reuniting, and tons of secret identity shenanigans.
  • Jason Survives ADITF. Also came up with this one before the fauximile, and it doesn't follow that. It'll focus on Jason's recovery and asks questions about what his survival would have changed in Batman comics as a whole, going forward.
  • Journalist!Dick. Prompted by a tumblr post discusing how he could've gotten inspired to be an investigative journalist (thanks to Clark & Lois!). It takes things from Nightwing & Batman comics, and from the UTRH animated film, twisting some things around (for example, in this world Batman never took another sidekick after Jason's death, so Cass, Steph, and Tim's stories go differently).

• "MID-LENGTH", whatever that ends up meaning.
  
  • Convergence & Incorporated. Takes the end of the new earth timeline and puts Jason & Bruce on a difference direction, taking inspiration from Convergence: Batman and Robin, the basic premise of Batman Incorporated, and explores how Bruce killing Darkseid could've affected things.
  • Amnesiac Jason. Circa new-earth, before Damian entered the picture. Jason faced something that broke his psyche and, while it was getting fixed, Bruce took creative licenses. Now Jason lives a "normal" life, starting college, working... but something is clearly WRONG. I swear I came up with this story before Gotham War xD, but there were some eerie parallels that jumpted at me as I read lol.
  • Batwoman / Robin: 20. AU of Batwoman's third season. Upon the realisation that a lot of what instantly appealed to me about batwoman!Ryan is similar to what appeals to me about robin!Jason, I decided to sit down and write about it. And I took advantage of it to tackle some changes I really didn't like in s3.
  • Outlaws vs. Justice League. If you haven't read the "Red Hood: Outlaws" webtoon, the premise is that Jason, Artemis, and Bizarro are made the new JL for a provation period... and then it's revealed they'd been put in a simulation without their consent (a simulation where they showed more compassion to some of the "criminals" they meant to hunt than the JL did). Then the webtoon did nothing with that, which really disappointed me. So I ran with it instead.
  • Gotham War: everything gets worse. Exactly that xD. I took what happened to Jason in GW seriously and poured more angst over it. What if he got hurt in some incurable way that meant he'd need to change his life going forward? What if he couldn't bring himself to save the child in Catwoman #57? What if the Joker did something much worse to "cure" him? And so on and so forth.
  • Jason's Journals. AU of War Games. Steph survives and is recovering in the Manor. There, she finds some old journals, written by the mysterious second Robin... and she, Tim, and Cass start to unravel the stories they'd been told about Jason vs. what he wrote himself. Just in time for the Red Hood to come into town.
  • One thousand and one nights. Thanks to Batman: The Cult, Jason must know how to deprogram someone. In The Man Who Stopped Laughing, he discovers that Joker goes around brainwashing people into Joker-lites. Do the math.
  • DC vs. Vampires, re-imagined. I read the first volume of that story and I was... disappointed. I decided to do my own spin on it: more character focused, less about the JL/saving the world~~ shenanigans. And obviously, Jason lives xD (well. Technically).
  • Time Travel: Robin Jason. You know all those AUs where robin!Jason suddenly appears on the present, and everyone has to deal with all the angst that brings? I want to do my own take on that. Lots of Jason & Jason bonding.
  • Prison Break: Robins. Jason is facing the death penalty (for something he 100% did, lbr). Dick can't take it and puts himself in the same prison.
  • Cass & Jason: street kids. Cass makes it to Gotham a bit earlier, wandering the city, homeless. Just around the time a catatonic Jason is around, sharing his food with other homeless people. And just in time for her to intervene when people try to take Jason away.

• ONE-SHOTS!!!!!!1 (likely not *truly* short ones smh).
  
  • Immortal Jason. It's basically canon that new earth!Jason came back from things that should have killed him with no explanation. So what if he can resurrect, over and over? This is about each of the Bats finding out about it.
  • Gotham: Bruce plots a murder. Future fic set on the Fox show. How that Bruce would react to Valeska killing Jason. The title sounds tongue-in-cheek but this is very angsty I swear.
  • Rogue Green Lantern Jason. Someone on reddit joked about how, if Jason "overcame great fear" during Gotham War, he could get a ring. I don't think he'd join the Corps, but he would also not renounce to such power coming at a time of such vulnerability either.
  • Jason's rules. Jason takes a victim's death really hard and reevaluates. Set on some amalgam of the main continuity, post-Alfred's death.
  • Jason + Joker's Last Laugh. Jason finds out about what happened in that arc (Dick beating the Joker to death, Bruce resucitating him). It only makes things worse.
  • Jason & Eddie: Orpheus and Eurydice. Jason finds out that Kid/Red Devil, his only peer from back in the day, got his soul sent to Hell.
  • Kidnapping WIP. Also inspired by a weird dream. Bruce manages to snatch Jason at the end of UTRH, takes him to the Manor to heal, and decides to try a little Stockholm syndrome. I also came up with this one before Gotham War xD
  • 5 times Dick and Zatanna fooled around on his birthday, and one time they didn't. What it says. I consider it part of the same continuity as my longer Young Justice WIP.
  • Caretaker Red Hood. I read that at least in some comics it's been said that Jason (and Bruce, but that's less relevant) is 0-. I engineered a situation where the (still masked) Red Hood had to give a blood transfusion on the field to Bruce, and to take care of his injuries.

I've definitely talked your ear off enough, so I'll leave it there ^-^

Comments

[majorr]

I do love a good dark fic or tragedy, so who knows? That whole thought process is so interesting to think about. I think the idea that she would stick by him after killing Jeremy is darker/more tragic than her walking away and the relationship ending. I don't know. The grief at play, the guilt. I feel like psychologically, there would be some decay there. It's such a (fun is the wrong word? twisty?) engaging road to go down. Thanks for the What If scenario. I love wondering about how different things would be if this or that were different. It's going to be brewing in my mind for a while now.

[queenslayerbee]

It's something that's been in my mind for a long time because tbh, I thought Tyler's death showed a lack of... commitment? Bravery? No one in the audience would believe, for a single moment, that killing death would cost Damon anything. Killing Jeremy would've had weight, iykwim. They were also doing a lot of callbacks to the earlier seasons then and I think that one would've been more impactful.

So I got to think about that, and about how Elena would've react... but most importantly, about what their marriage would look like, years in, with everything going stagnant (which I do think it's inevitable, Jeremy or no Jeremy, because again: cynic xD) and Elena feeling trapped but not admitting it even to herself, with only the appearance of normalicy.

[majorr]

I had similar thoughts while doing my recent rewatch. Tyler felt like a big death while also being a safe death. You're right that it would have been a game changer had Damon gone for someone else. I think killing Matt would have been a bigger blow too. I love Tyler, but I felt like there was a tier difference. When he died, I had to think back to whether he was actually friends with Stefan or Bonnie. Alaric called him family, and I couldn't remember if they'd ever had a conversation. haha And oof, the parallel of Damon killing Jeremy early in the series but not really with killing him at the end and it being irreversible would've been one of those full circle story moments that came with a huge punch. There would've been a hundred fanvids with side-by-sides.

Even as someone who loves Delena, I struggle to see Damon living a happy and fulfilling human life long-term. That's without the idea of Elena coping with him killing Jeremy in an AU. There's so much potential for angst. I think my love of the ship would war with my love of angst when deciding whether to read a fic that fully explores the possibility that, hey, maybe their Happily Ever After came with a side of big downers. haha Sorry if I've talked your ear off about this! It's been a while since I talked TVD with someone, and your idea really sparked my interest.

[queenslayerbee]

Agreed. Tyler was one of my favourite characters, so *I* cared about his death, but I didn't really expect anyone else to truly burn bridges over it, for one reason or another. In cases like Stefan, I straight up think he couldn't stand Tyler, for example xD. He wasn't high on anyone's list of priorities; Caroline was still fond of him, of course, but she had other things higher in hers. And Matt cared, but lbr: what could Matt do?

With Jeremy... I don't actually think that other than Bonnie (who'd still be fond of him in the same as Caroline of Tyler, but who got to be far closer with Damon) cared OH SO MUCH MORE for Jeremy but... everyone would assume (even if they might say different out loud to soothe Damon) this would be the last straw for Elena. And that being rejected by Elena for good would drive Damon off the deep end, *again*. Then Elena does return to him and everyone would be like... wtf??? but cautiously relieved about Damon, maybe.

Oh, I think Damon couldn't handle a human life lol. He was one of the characters that looooved being a vampire. He loved the power it gave him over others, he loved the thrill, he loved the freedom to do whatever the fuck he felt like and squirt consequences. In a completely mid, mundane life, he'd go crazy. If he had Elena, he'd cling onto her harder than ever, because Getting Elena was SUCH a big deal, and if this was the prize, so be it. If he felt he was losing him, though...

ETA: I love getting to talk about TVD with someone! I did a rewatch last year so it's in my mind more than ever -and even if I hadn't, it's one of my favourite shows for a reasons, and I often fall back on it sooner or later.

Also, I really like your icon! Caroline looks adorbs there.

ETA 2 (sorry xD): at the same time, while he'd struggle with the downgrade on power, I think Damon is a far more... simple/conventional/unambitious person than a lot of people think he is. He'd have an easier time navigating that same mundanality than I think Elena would actually. That girl needs to be socially stimulated so badly xD

[majorr]

Oh good. I worried I was getting a little too off-topic from the original post about goals. Lol High five to another Tyler fan and agreed on all points. I was in the Jyler corner of fandom back in the day, so while Matt and I were crushed (lol) it was hard to buy that his death was going to be Damon’s forever undoing. And ultimately, it wasn’t.

The tension would have been glorious with the other characters watching to see how Damon behaves if the threat of losing Elena forever was on the table. I do wonder, though, what going off the deep end (assuming he did) would have looked like for him as a human. He would have been forced to have more restraint without compulsion at his fingertips to clean up his, uh, fits. And lol, yeah, that’s how I felt about Damon too. That dude thrived as a vampire. That gap between the end of the series and him finding peace is a giant question mark for me. Whatever that episode was where Elena and Stefan tried to show him what life taking the cure would look like for him, it had some good and uncomfortable points. As a shipper, I’m happy with the HEA. As a curious storyteller and story consumer, I have my doubts about his ability to adjust. He wouldn’t just need to adjust to human life but to life without his brother. That’s a lot of pressure on Elena and their relationship even before layering on the darker take. Agreed that he wasn’t exactly a supervillain vampire trying for world domination, but when I try to think, okay, well what did he DO after the show, like what was his day to day job… I got nothing. I’ve never read anything where he brooded into deep regret about where he ended up. Another reason your alternate post-canon take hooked me so much. I already had questions. Now I’m firmly back to wondering about all the different ways things could have gone when we weren’t looking.

Thank you! It was made by efficio. As much as I love all this angst discussion, I also love to see these guys being happy. lol