Pen's Nest

Remix. I know it's self-indulgent, and probably more than ten years overdue, but I noticed a post about Remix meta very recently, and it set me thinking about my own Remix experiences. And Remix in general. And stuff. I don't know whether anyone is interested in talking about the way Remix worked—I don't know if the challenge still happens, I haven't participated for several years—but I'd be interested to hear of outstanding examples of different kinds of story, and of ways of remixing which aren't covered here. I certainly don't claim that I've done every possible type of remix story. In fact, looking at them now, I never managed a really cool re-imagining of any of my remix stories—I see, from this list, that in most cases I've said that I basically rewrote the story with X changed. No grand inspirations, alas!
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I have a lowering feeling that other people are much more thoughtful about what they write and why, and set out with the intention of saying something interesting about the source material. However, I've never managed an approach like that—I mostly find that anything I might Say in one of my stories has arrived there without my conscious input. A few exceptions. Likewise, insights into the original story that may have occurred in one of my remix stories were achieved by luck. I suspect that's true of a lot of participants—we look for a story we can work with, and throw ideas at it until something sticks! But there are thoughtful people out there who aim higher....

A lot of writers don't like Remix and don't participate, and that's fair enough. It's always seemed to me more of a shame that people choose not to read Remix stories, and that, I don't really understand. After all, a fresh story is a fresh story, and unless you remember strongly disliking the original, to me it seems like an opportunity to read two stories. And, ideally, compare and contrast them and see what works and what doesn't, though I admit I might be expecting a lot from people who do this for fun, not for the sake of studying the writing. But in my remixing years, it was always rather sad how little acknowledgment the effort of producing a remix story would get. Even in the days when popslash garnered plenty of feedback. I mean, why is that?


PS I haven't generally included links to the stories, though if anyone is interested enough to investigate all or any, I will happily provide them.

A meme about writing, because I ought undoubtedly to be doing something else. Like coaxing Sable through the cat flap. Meh. I meme.

Rules: list the first lines of your last 10 published stories. See if there are any patterns yourself, or have other people say what they notice.


First lines. (okay, the last one is a bit long, but otherwise it'd be a bit short)

"Going dragon-hunting this weekend, Bass?"
Dragon Country, RPF, fantasy AU, popslash/Adam Lambert


"Good mor—good grief!" Joey said as Chris walked through the door to Fatone's Bakery at just before nine on Sunday morning.
Perceptions of Reality, sequel to Dragon Country


Brian was on a mission.
in porco, veritas RPF, Backstreet/Nsync


The morning after the concert, the first thing Nick did was shave his mustache.
Hair RPF, Backstreet Boys, based on the video for I Just Want You To Know


“Did we eat all the popcorn?” Chris’s fingers found only unpopped kernels in the bottom of the bowl.
Thriller RPF AU


“I’m sorry, Brian. I have to make the call, and in the circumstances, there’s only one call I can make. You’re out.”
Fallen Down I'm Still Alive RPF AU


Lance was suddenly wide awake.
Mirror, Mirror RPF, Nsync and Alternate Universe Nsync


It was a fine, sunny day, and Lance was enjoying himself.
Jamie RPF, AU


The train rattled its way from Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour.
No Man's Fort RPF, AU


Chris wasn't a planner. He liked to play things by ear, take it as it came, do what felt right at the time… but when you were faced with a con programme with approximately nine zillion items in it, Chris thought, you had to do a bit of planning.
Con-Stir-Nation RPF, real life AU based at Nine Worlds convention, or something very similar


I obviously like an opening statement of some kind... two of these are sorta description, which strikes me as unusual for me. I do quite often open a story with dialogue, or at least, a spoken something. Hmm.

*

Someone did the last lines instead, and actually, I think they show much more similarity than the first lines do. Here they are in the same order as above.

With his heart's mate at his side, he would always be able to return to dragon country.

"That's dragons for you," said Lance. He'd take it, he thought.

Joey's pig-on-a-stick was the best roast pork he'd ever eaten.

They listened to the new albums in bed. They were awesome.

He pulled himself together. “This is the best birthday party ever!”

Brian was quite surprised to find out how much of him didn’t hurt.

Maybe he should try a goatee?
Nah. He was the good one.

The Christmas after that, two dogs woke them up.

They weren't going to work together, their professional goals were too different, but after their experience on No Man's Fort, he was confident they could learn to share a kitchen every day. As long as it came in a nice little house with a sea view.

Sometimes, you had to do a bit of planning.


I do like a mild little flourish to bring the story neatly to a close, and sometimes I struggle to finish until I figure out what it is.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Well, I suppose I should have prepared in advance some kind of awesome display post to start a frivolous February, but I didn't, I went to the gym and went for lunch with an old schoolmate (and actually enjoyed it) and bought a little yarn (which I needed, truly, truly I did) and walked home and watched some more Agents of SHIELD with Beast and then knitted and watched a Lewis episode and then knitted and watched SYttD Ireland and stroked the cat.

But I came upon this fandom meme, and though I am sure anyone who's been reading my journal for any length of time knows all they care to know about my fic output (also mostly available on AO3), I thought, what the heck, why not, so here it is.

Comment below with up to 3 of the following (and a fic, if the question requires it) and I will answer.

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?
B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?
C: What member do you identify with most from [insert fic[?
D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?
E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?
F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
H: How would you describe your style?
I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?
J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].
K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?
L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?
N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?
O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?
P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)
Q: How do you feel about collaborations?
R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?
S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?
T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?
U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?
X: A character you enjoy making suffer.
Y: A character you want to protect.
Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate?

I did yesterday's challenge - make contact with people you don't know - as I've been commenting here and there on Yuletide and other fics, but didn't bother to say so.

Todays challenge is: In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity?

I can't help but feel I've talked about my fannish origins before—so I think I'm going to put a slight spin on the idea by talking about getting into fanfic.
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Oh, my name? I'm pensnest everywhere (although on my website (how old school is that?) I put "stories by Pen"). I've been pensnest on the internet ever since Compuserve let me have a name instead of a number, and as far as I can tell, I'm the *only* pensnest on the internet. Quite right too. I do, inexplicably, have a different name on Ravelry, but that's a minor thing.

There. More than you ever needed to know about me!

*twitches*

I hate that time between writing a story and posting it. I've just completed my cockbertbigbang story, and I can't post it until… well, I'm not sure when I'll get to post it, but not until after Camp Sparkle. *twitches* It seems to mean I can't get onto the next story—not that I have a 'next story' necessarily lined up in my head, but still. It probably explains my ability to hit deadlines but not to get things done early—get it done early and I just have to wait longer...

Anybody else find that? Do you want the story posted and read by other people, or don't you mind that much?

I have a question for those of you who've read (and kept reading) my Chronicles of Lancyn and Ser Chrisfer.

I've signed up for the AU Big Bang challenge, and want to do at least one more Chronicles story to meet that challenge, but I'm finding inspiration a bit slow to come by at the moment. So, can you point to any things you particularly like, any questions you may have that you're hoping to see answered, anything at all about the Chronicles so far that you think I should bear in mind as I write the next chapter?

I'm not saying that the next story will necessarily cover all points, but it's good to have ideas swirling in my mind as I write, and I'd be grateful for the kick start.

Now that the MTYG authors are revealed, I have to say I'm a fan of Ullman, who wrote *three* stories including my own gift, Juncture, which I like very much indeed. Her other Trickyfish offering is 'Sparkly Souls Slow Dancing', otherwise known as the one in which Lance glows in the dark, which is my other favourite of this year's Lance/Chris fics.

My own story was for this world to be unbroken, a post-apocalyptic vampire AU AJ/Kevin story, which I imagine nobody would have expected of me! I confess to being utterly boggled by the request for quite some time, as post-apocalyptic anything is So Not Me, and I don't really Do Vampires. (The AJ/Kevin, fortunately, seemed quite doable, I'd sort of had a dress rehearsal for that last year as it was letterboys's alternative pairing.) Also, this time the recipient was someone I don't know, really, and there wasn't a lot to be gleaned by stalking her LJ—it was a quite different experience from last year, but it's all part of the SeSa fun, I spose.

Luckily I had nopseud and ephemera to offer insanely cracked ideas advise me. I think at one stage I was planning to write four different endings, a pick-your-own conclusion adventure, but happily the story that eventually emerged had other ideas. Our Backstreet Concert weekend did indeed see the birth of a SeSa story, and I mourn the loss of the original title, The Town of Tiny Vampires. This was not the story I wrote, but I was charmed to see its metamorphosis into a sprawling JuNi epic. Hee.

Well. A huge Thank You to nopseud for being my Story Doctor again, and figuring out the major logical flaw in time for me to put it right. Many thanks also to joeysdramaqueen and llamabitchyo for the betas and smoking out of non-American language. In the end, I found I rather liked the story. It's quite fun figuring out what day-to-day life is like in a post-apocalyptic world where there are roving vampires! And it's always good to have a go at something you've not done before.


In other news, I also participated in I Saw 3 Ships, and am pleased to be able to announce that you can now read a Nick/Lance/Chris threesome story written for me here. Sadly it is the only popslash story there—whoever it was who lured me into signing up, you've presumably figured out that I didn't write for you! I had, perforce, to write something *else*, in a fandom I haven't written in before, which was an interesting struggle. Incidentally, there is a marvellous Top Gear story in the list, unlikely as that sounds. I ended up watching a couple of Top Gear programmes over the Christmas period, and, well. Yes.