Meme: DVD Commentary

[elrhiarhodan]

Ganked from lionessvalenti

Ask me a question about one of my fanfics or fanfic series. It can be absolutely anything in any fic and I will tell you the honest-to-goddess answer (even on the progress/plans for next chapters of current series).

Don’t hold back. Whatever you ask, I'll answer truthfully and as completely as possible. You can also ask about my writing as a whole, if you like.

Bring it on and repost on your journal so I can ask you, too!

Comments

[doctor-fangeek.livejournal.com]

Am I really first? Cool. So...Rocker!El 'verse...how did it go from a Promptfest fill to a 'verse, will we see more of it, and if so what (or if not, what would it be if we did)?

I actually looked back at the comments for the 3rd part and saw that you had two sequels in the works at the time - any chance they'll see the light of day? I'd love to see the one about how Peter & Neal got together.

[elrhiarhodan]

Yes, you are the first!

Rocker!El started as a single fill - I remember being inspired by RC67's continuing series with Angel Neal and wanted to try something similar, and the story I wrote where El gets flowers from Peter seemed like a good place to start.

However, it sort of changed horses mid-ride, when it became obvious (to me) that Peter and Neal were partners, and bring El into their relationship seemed very off-key.

There are two sequels - the first is about what happens with Elizabeth right after she and Neal part company. The second, about Peter and Neal, was their burgeoning relationship told through love letters.

I got stalled and distracted - first by the Don't Ask, Don't Tell fic and then by the Mozzie reunion fic, and then by Selkie, and then by ... oh just name the fics I've written since Sept.

The good news is that I've just found and re-read the 2600 words I wrote on the El fic - it's pretty damn good and I know where it's going to go, now. The love letters fic felt sort of redundant to the story already told - but it's got a solid premise.

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

Orchestration is one of the very interesting historical fics you wrote, as there are some next parts of the others what about this one, will it be finished? How did it grew from a prompt into a still unfinished fic?

The Blood of Helios is one of my favorites (you write so much and so fantastically I have troubles to find my top, top favorite, but this one is next just to Palladin Verse) - any hope there will be more stories? How did you came up with the idea?

[elrhiarhodan]

Orchestration is a definite WIP - and will probably form the basis of a much longer AU - probably for a big bang. The ideas are still rolling around in my head.

Blood of Helios - ah, my baby. My lost child. I want to push everything aside and finish this. And when I start the process, something always tears me away. But I do have a direction for it and I've actually outlined the next chapter.

The problem was - I didn't finish it before the second season ended - and I was left with a storyline that no longer made much sense.

I started writing this as a cracky exercise after the end of S1, when the plane exploded - I was in a dark headspace and wanted to write some Id!Fic - and then it became something good. And then someone really bashed it and I lost the mojo.

But like I said, I know where it's going - and how the finish it. I have just go to DO IT!

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

Fabulous!

Additional question how do you usually write? Does it start with a scene or just an overall idea that has to grow before you write it down, or maybe something else?

[elrhiarhodan]

Ideas come to me in all sorts of ways. I could read an article in the newspaper about something that reminds me of White Collar and that gets a ball rolling. I can hear a line of dialog in my brain, and that sends me down another path.

Sometimes I'll read a fic and get inspired to do my own take or explore a different direction.

Sometimes it's a word or a feeling - someone gives me a prompt and I get hit in the face with it. For example, a friend asked me to write her a ficlet in celebration of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and it started out small, but as I was writing and researching, it just kept growing and growing into a serious piece of storytelling with a RL commentary.

Inspiration is hard to quantify!

[nyxelestia.livejournal.com]

Any word on your "Vampires, Blood of Helios" series? :)

[elrhiarhodan]

I do have the next few chapters outlined, and I know where the story goes and ends...I just have to gather my will and write it!

I wish I was still inspired...I can't seem to get the mojo to go in that direction. It pisses me off. Which makes it worse.

Maybe if I go read it from start to finish - post it on AO3, I'll get the mojo back.

[nyxelestia.livejournal.com]

Any idea on what you'll do if you never do get your mojo back to write that story?

[leonie-alastair.livejournal.com]

Do you have any plans to continue the SPQR sub-plot in the Paladin series? (that was an unintentional pun but now I can't think of any other way to phrase it). And if you are continuing - where is it going? I sort of desperately want to see Peter and Neal undercover.

[elrhiarhodan]

Yes, actually, I do. Was rereading it not so long ago and realized that it's still a very viable storyline.

Can't promise a timeline, but it's in the cards.

[dizzydrea.livejournal.com]

This is such a great idea! I may have to steal it one day, since I'm fascinated by the details of how a story came together. It sure beats leaving an enormous Author's Note!

My question is this: when you're creating a new world, do you map out all the little details before hand, or do you just create as you write? I'm thinking of things like the Helios 'verse, where June's laughter brings flowers to bloom. Was that just a spur of the moment thing, or did you plan to include that all along? Do you keep a file, or are the details all in your head? (Bearing in mind, I may steal some of your ideas/methods if I like them!)

[elrhiarhodan]

Please do steal it! DVD commentary is my personal favorite meme.

I am, what my pro-writer friends call a "pantser" - that is, I write by the seat of my pants. My outlining, if there is any, comes in the form of google-chats with writing and crit partners. Sometimes I distill those notes, most times I don't. But the worldbuilding pretty much happens as I write.

The Helios world comes from my love of mythology - classical Greco-Roman and Celtic. BUT ... the little details are spur of the moment things. When I identified June as The Summer Queen, it seemed completely natural that her laugh would make the flowers bloom. It was like an equation - it felt like the natural order of things.

And other details - like "Prince Mozziel" being able to pick up information out of the ether - that was taken right from one of the scenes cut out of Pilot (There's a scene where Neal takes Peter to meet Moz in a key shop. Moz "hears" things and it's pretty clear that he's borderline delusional. Far more crazy than he was portrayed elsewhere).

Ideas come from all sorts of places - I decided to write a wingfic story because a friend was writing a story where one of the characters had a beanie. Do beanies = wings. Absolutely not, but it just sort of worked (at least for me).

I keep a moleskine notebook by my desk and sometimes I will write down ideas. But most of the time, they are in my head.

[dizzydrea.livejournal.com]

I'm always amazed at people who can just sit down and create like that. Impressive, to say the least.

May I ask another, unrelated question? Well, I'm going to ask it anyway, but I thought I'd at least make the effort to ask. ;)

I'm curious as to which fandoms you have or still do write for, and what attracted you to those particular shows as a writer. I've seen writers that write for only one fandom, and then there are those, like me, that write for multiple fandoms across multiple genres. I can identify what attracts me to those shows, but I'm always curious as to how other writers get into their chosen fandoms.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

I am truly a two year old when it comes to any fannish activity. My start in fandom came through an odd confluence of circumstances.

For many years, I'd been part of on-line communities - from tech to the jewelry arts to music. I can't remember a time when I wasn't "on-line" be it through dial up BBS systems, GENIE, AOL, the early Usenet newsgroups, etc. Shortly before I "found" fandom, I had "left" my latest on-line community - I wasn't looking for a replacement, and TBH, I may have gone back to it if I hadn't found LJ and White Collar.

In mid-January 2010, one of the author blogs I followed had a link to the whitecollarfic community. I followed it and well, that as they say, was that. I spent most of my waking time looking for and reading all of the fic I could find. It took about a month before I posted on my LJ (which I had for several years but did nothing with), and three weeks after that, I wrote my first story.

The WC fandom was warm and welcoming and I quickly made lots of friends who were far more talented that I was/am - but they encouraged me and helped me and made LJ/DW a very happy place.

I've tried writing for other fandoms. There are a few little fics for other shows - one or two each for The West Wing, Farscape and a few others. I've tried writing XMFC, I've tried writing Grimm, but I never get the same buzz as I do for WC.

I am not normally quite so single minded - and I always read other fandoms. Particularly those stories by my friends. I love H50 fic, but I can't watch the show, it drives me nuts. I suspect that I may eventually write BBC Sherlock when I see S2.

Why White Collar? It's a combination of things. It's a New York show, and I can write New York authoritatively. It's a procedural, and that's appealing. It has just enough law and order that I can build stories and casefic without too much effort. And it has Tim DeKay, my god in a badly fitting suit.

And Matt Bomer, too.

And Satchmo.

[ebeneezerdark.livejournal.com]

Is there a suggested reading order for the Paladin 'Verse stories?

I started reading awhile ago, and quickly realized that the order on the Master List post wasn't chronological in plot-line-sequence... there were things near the top of the list which filled in later parts of the story, IIRC... then I got distracted by your other fic, and then other stuff, and sorta lost track.

So I think it's time to Start Over From The Beginning...

[elrhiarhodan]

This is the order of the Paladin 'Verse, start to finish:

Neck Deep In a Game of Cat and Mouse
Self-Control
Minutes and Hours
How We Fit Together
Truth and Nightmares
True Love's First Kiss
How Long Did You Think You Could Keep This Up (Before I Found Out)?
Neal Caffrey, (Wage) Slave
Days of Work, Days of Pleasure, Days of Grace
Wash the Sins Away
Privilege
Pardon the Interruption, My Dear
Profiled - A White Collar/Criminal Minds Crossover
Fear of Flying
In Joy and In Celebration
Summer Nocturne
Yom Tov
Questions of Position and the Use of Authority
A Dangerous Young God
Intermezzo
Love Will Not Break Your Heart (it will dismiss your fears)
Taking Half a Sick Day (Is Better Than Needing a Whole One)
Hello, My Heart Leave Your Fears Behind
Fortune Presents Gifts (not according to the book)
At the Borders of Our Lives
A Brief History of Time



The Preamble Redux - Eight Clauses That Define Their Relationship - A Series of Fics That Take Place in the Paladin 'Verse

There are multiple overlaps in many of these stories, some are direct sequels, others expand on specific events referred to in another fic, and others simply reference an idea or event that was mentioned elsewhere. The tales in this series are not chronological and do not need to be read in any particular order.
I. We The People
II. In Order To Form A More Perfect Union
III. Establish Justice
IV. Insure Domestic Tranquility
V. Provide for the Common Defense
VI. Promote The General Welfare
VII. Secure the Blessings of Liberty for Ourselves and Our Posterity
VIII. Do Ordain and Establish This Constitution

[rabidchild67.livejournal.com]

Ooo! So like, is this the order they ought to be read in, the order your wrote them, or both?

[elrhiarhodan]

This is the reading order, earliest to latest. If you look on the masterlist, you'll see this in the reverse, latest to earliest, and each entry has a number in parentheses - which is the order in which they were written. The first five are:

1 - How Long Did You Think You Could Keep This Up (Before I Found Out)?
2- Neal Caffrey, (Wage) Slave
3 - Minutes and Hours
4 - The Whole and the Sum of the Parts of Peter Burke (which is observational PWP and thus is in the Porn section of my masterlist)
5 - Privilege (which I just republished).

[ebeneezerdark.livejournal.com]

Well, have gotten 6 stories in, going by the (series chronological) reading order given above...

I think my confusion was due to the story notes for some of the stories; I'd open one in the order you list here, but its notes say that it comes after one MUCH further down the list which I haven't read yet. I guess you wrote some of the intervening episodes later, and "filled in" missing scenes. There's also a note on your Master List saying that "Privilege" takes place "between 'Profiled' and 'Bolero'", which is confusing 'cause HERE you show it several places BEFORE "Profiled" and well AFTER "True Love's First Kiss" (which quotes a segment of it as prologue ::head-scratch::)... and I can't even FIND "Bolero" in the Master List for the Paladin'verse... But I will IGNORE all those quibbles and forge on ahead according to THIS list, and finally finish reading the series! YAY!

So far, loving it! (But you knew I was a sucker for angst and emotionally-whumped Neal...)

[rabidchild67.livejournal.com]

OK I might have to do this now.

And my question: When will we see more in the Danger verse, and do you know where it's going?

[elrhiarhodan]

In my head, I am striving for the direction for D'verse. When last we left our intrepid heroes, they were on a train and Neal was going to do a job for Peter's old bosses.

I need a hook or a little plot bomb to set me off. Can you help?

[damietta.livejournal.com]

Do you often have the ending first and write back from that?

[elrhiarhodan]

That's a good question!

There are definitely stories that start out with a definite ending in mind. For example, in "Love is As Rich As The Sea" I knew I wanted the story to close with Peter, El and Neal back at Neal's apartment, because El wanted to go there - nothing bad ever happened to her there. In "Between the Darkness and the Dawn" I knew that the climatic scene was going to be Peter and Neal's reunion on the Rialto bridge - and I built a whole story around that.

And there are definitely other stories that didn't start with an ending in mind - sometimes they form organically (I'm thinking about "Wash the Sins Away" when Peter thinks that if Neal has to go back to prison, he'd either send him to Brazil or kill him) and sometimes they are a struggle that can take months to achieve - "We Shall Come Home" languished because I couldn't see that I had already written the ending.

My preference would be to have the ending in my head before starting, but it doesn't always work that way.

[damietta.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm sure each story is a different journey to publication, but I was curious as yours are really well plotted.

[traintracks777.livejournal.com]

Which fic(s) have you written that turned you on unexpectedly?

[elrhiarhodan]

Oh, yeah.

I think anytime I've written bite!kink, I've got to go have a moment to myself.

But yes, there is one fic that I'll go back to over and over if I want to "sweat". It's "Take a Seat, Mr. Caffrey." I think the scenario where Peter's got Neal under the desk, and Neal's working Peter's cock through his pants while Peter's talking to Hughes is still the hottest thing I've written (from my own perspective). It's the secret public sex thing.

[traintracks777.livejournal.com]

Good to know about the biting! ;-)

And yes, Neal under Peter's desk while he's talking to someone -- how could things really get hotter than that?

I'm glad I asked!

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

I can't get enough of this meme :) (ask me too?? ;))

This time about titles, I noticed you have them from poems or songs, how do you find them and do you think about the title first or last when you write a fic?

[elrhiarhodan]

Good question!

I almost never use titles and lyrics to songs I don't know, which is why you'll find a lot of Annie Lennox, Eurythmics, Ani DiFranco, Oysterband, and Mumford references.

Poetry is a little different - I have a long, abiding love for the poetry of D.E. Lawrence (of Lady Chatterly's Lover fame), as well as Baudelaire. They are good and reliable sources for titles.

Sometimes I have a title almost as soon as I start writing - sometimes I switch titles midstream, and sometimes I've finished and am still at a loss (and then I go to lyrics dot com for help!).