White Collar Fic - The Door is Always Open

Title: The Door is Always Open
Author: elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: PG
Characters: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey
Spoilers/Episode References: S1.14 – Out of the Box, S2.16 – Under the Radar through 3.04 – The Dentist of Detroit
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~ 5000
Summary: Peter wonders if he’s taken the wrong approach with Neal, Neal wonders if he’s going to make the biggest mistake of his life.
Beta credit: rabidchild67

(  It was nearly 11 o’clock at night and everyone was long gone. Peter sat in his office, the light from his monitor was the only break in the darkness. )

Thirty Days of Fanfic - Day Eight

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Oh, boy do I write OCs. I love writing them. Not that canon is deficient, but because sometimes there are stories that can’t be told without OCs. And frankly, when you’re writing fan fic for a weekly television show – writing OCs is like writing a new episode. Particularly if you’ve got case!fic on your mind.

The first major fanfic I wrote, Privileged, featured Peter’s rather unpleasant, but very smart twin sister. My beta reader, the incomparable gyzym commented that Isabelle was about as far from a Mary Sue as one could possibly get. Novice that I was, I had no idea about Mary Sues and Marty Stus. I had heard the expression in relation to romance novels (thank you, Beyond Heaving Bosoms), but since I knew next to nothing about fan fic tropes, I didn’t even realize that people did that. Ahhh, so damn naïve.

Most of the time, when I write OCs, I need them as foils for Peter, Neal, Elizabeth or any of the other White Collar characters that I’m focusing on – so I don’t think there is really any worry about them becoming Mary Sues/Marty Stus. The aforementioned Isabelle will probably be the closest I’ll ever get to a Mary Sue, in that we share a law degree and contempt for stupidity (but I’m not afraid of goats).

One of my more, um, creative OCs was Donatchz the Damned, a hulking beast of a man that was Neal’s leather-fetishist submissive in prison (A Dangerous Young God). Another character I’m particularly fond of is Sonia Millstein, the owner of La Serenissima from Retail Therapy II – Frilly Bits. She’s a Survivor and an old friend of Neal’s – and their acquaintance was based on Neal’s humanitarian efforts in restoring a painting stolen by the Nazis to her (how bitterly ironic, eh?).

The grand Urban Fantasy epic I’ve just finished has quite a few OCs – needed solely to move the plot along. I do confess that one of them has quite a bit of backstory – but every time I try to cut it, I end up having to replace it with exposition. The backstory provides a reason for that OC to be in a very specific place at a very specific time to help Our Heroes. But once he's finished helping - he disappears. Never to be heard from again. Or maybe not.

White Collar Post Ep Dish - 3.05 - Veiled Threat

My beloved flist and other White Collar fans...I am feeling like something to be scraped off of the bottom of Peter Burke's dancing shoes.

Not that this means that there won't be a Dish tonight, but I am going to keep the squeeing to a minimum.

Besides - given what we know about this ep, I think my brain is going to go 'splody, along with my ovaries, during the tango scene. Which is, by the way, my second Kripke of the season. You see, fourteen months ago, I wrote a five things about Peter Burke thing - and one of them, probably the most implausible of all, was that Peter was an experienced tango dancer.

HA!!!!!!

We're about three minutes and counting, my lovelies. See you on the other side.

( Ware Spoilers! )

Okay folks, you know the drill. Your thinky and not so thinky thoughts. And don't forget to play nice.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH, but I feel like crap and need to go to sleep.

White Collar Post Ep Dish - 3.05 - Veiled Threat

My beloved flist and other White Collar fans...I am feeling like something to be scraped off of the bottom of Peter Burke's dancing shoes.

Not that this means that there won't be a Dish tonight, but I am going to keep the squeeing to a minimum.

Besides - given what we know about this ep, I think my brain is going to go 'splody, along with my ovaries, during the tango scene. Which is, by the way, my second Kripke of the season. You see, fourteen months ago, I wrote a five things about Peter Burke thing - and one of them, probably the most implausible of all, was that Peter was an experienced tango dancer.

HA!!!!!!

We're about three minutes and counting, my lovelies. See you on the other side.

( Ware Spoilers! )

Okay folks, you know the drill. Your thinky and not so thinky thoughts. And don't forget to play nice.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH, but I feel like crap and need to go to sleep.