Yuletide fic commentary
Jan. 1st, 2007 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
springgreenI ended up writing two stories for Yuletide, one was my assigned one, and the other I picked up on the 20th from the pinch-hit list.
Chicken Run is a movie from the same guys who did Wallace and Gromit. It's claymation. There are a bunch of chickens trying to escape from the chicken farm, led by the plucky Ginger. The chickens have teeth and are rather goofy. The entire thing references WWII movies like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape. I love it beyond words and have rewatched it endlessly; if you haven't seen it, do! It never fails to cheer me up ("So we sneak in, all quiet-like..." "Like a fish!").
There are really no spoilers for Chicken Run or my story (Harems and Hens) below.
The prompt from my recipient was:
Ginger is my favorite character, with Mac a close second. You know, you gotta wonder about how the romantic relationships work in a society where there's two males and a couple hundred females -- is it polygyny,or are there lots of lesbian chickens? Who does Fowler fool aroundwith? (That said, gen is fine!)
I got the Yuletide assignment and immediately started to squee, because Chicken Run! It is one of my favorite movies ever and I have watched about sixty times! I have the DVD! It's about chickens with teeth!
And then I started to freak out, because the movie has a very specific voice and sense of humor that I wasn't sure I could imitate at all. Alas, I ended up ruling out a Ginger-and-Mac bonding type story because I couldn't figure out how to write Mac's dialogue, and ended up trying to figure out how in the world the island paradise at the end worked, with regard to chicken procreation. Except the thought of the chickens having sex completely blew my mind, and I sat there, stuck for a story for ages.
I browsed through my recipient's LJ and blog and found out that she was a knitter, and for a very brief period of time, I wanted to do something about Babs and knitting, but I couldn't think of what.
Eventually, I remembered the rats, Nick and Fetcher, and thought they would be great fic characters, since they would probably be wondering the exact same thing about the chicks. I rewatched the movie, panicked, tried to start a fic which continued the rats' conversation about the chicken or the egg, hated it, panicked, tried to rewrite, and panicked. Then I panicked some more. Then I just let it sit for a while, since I wasn't making any sort of progress. All I had were snatches of dialogue and no plot at all at 400 words, and I had no idea what the plot would be.
I ended up just sitting down one day and trying to write anything, at which point Ginger suddenly popped in to confront the rats. Yes! I thought. It wasn't much of a plot, but at least it was a little conflict, and once I had her in there, the bit about the rooster eggs was easy.
After getting the story back from my betas, I eventually sat myself down and rewatched the movie again, this time paying special attention to the rats. I ended up trying to put more Chicken-Run-esque dialogue in and trying to put a little more of Nick's character in. I hope that I somewhat caught the tone and the humor of the movie, which I adore. I figured that either everyone would guess it was me, since it was a Chicken Run story starring rats (I am so predictable), or that no one would even read the thing, as Chicken Run is probably not the most popular fandom ever. But it seemed like the people who read it enjoyed it, and more importantly, I hope my recipient liked it!
1999nen 7 no Tsuki Shanghai is a four-volume shounen-ai manga about gangsters in Shanghai. Dawu and Xiaoxue are members of rival gangs who end up falling in love. There is a lot of angst, but also a lot of restraint; the people in this manga don't talk about their feelings, and more amazingly, none of them believe that love will conquer all. Dawu and Xiaoxue in particular seem to know how doomed their situation is; they're looking more to snatch a few moments from the jaws of fate rather than even daring to hope to conquer fate and society. The other thing I love about the manga is how fleshed out the side characters are.
Giant spoilers below for the series, probably spoilers for my story (Holidays Past and Future).
As I said, I saw this come up on the pinch-hit list the day after Yuletide stories were due, and instead of hesitating and bookmarking the email for "Maybe I'll think about it if I get a good idea," I got immensely excited even at the thought of 1999nen fic. After i read more of the pinch-hit details, I realized it was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
untrue_accounts's request. I freaked out a little, since I've written stories for Mely before and didn't want to repeat myself, since she would guess who wrote it right away (four people volunteered to write that fandom for Yuletide this year), and since my story idea wasn't very original and didn't really stretch my writing muscles.
But after having such a hard time with the Chicken Run story, I just said screw it and took it. I knew immediately that I wanted a story that captured the atmosphere from the manga; I thought of quiet afternoons and the grey rain outside, of no one saying anything of note even while bleeding their hearts out. I may have stayed up till 4 in the morning hoping for confirmation for the pinch hit and trying out different ideas in my head.
I briefly contemplated writing for Nana or Her Majesty's Dog, but I'd already written a Nana story for Mely, and Mely herself had written a HMD fic that I adored. And 1999nen had its claws in me. I reread the manga in a flash and tried to toss ideas around. I wanted rain and wet and damp. I wanted tremendous angst, but I didn't think I could write it, especially since the series is already so angsty. I thought about writing something in which Yichun tells Xiaoxue the story of Qi Xi. And I thought about Shanghai, how carefully it was drawn out in the series, how I recognized some of the buildings, how much I had loved it when I visited. So the story ended up being about holidays and the city, with the addition of Hong Kong, because I also love the city of Hong Kong.
I was sure everyone would guess it was me, seeing as how a) I only knew two people who'd read the series, one of them being me and the other being Mely, b) I put in all sorts of personal memories about Shanghai and Hong Kong and Chinese holidays and street food, and c) like almost every other story I've written, it's a series of short pieces that draw heavily from China and Chinese culture in which nothing happens and people eat.
Part of me wishes I had stretched more, but I really do like this story, and I think I managed to convey the feel of Shanghai and Hong Kong, of how much I loved them and why.
Also, I had a ton of fun playing with references to Qi Xi and the Dragon Boat Festival.
I should probably stop writing stories set in China or Chinese analogues since I've already done so many, but... then I can reference things that I actually know about!
Chicken Run is a movie from the same guys who did Wallace and Gromit. It's claymation. There are a bunch of chickens trying to escape from the chicken farm, led by the plucky Ginger. The chickens have teeth and are rather goofy. The entire thing references WWII movies like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape. I love it beyond words and have rewatched it endlessly; if you haven't seen it, do! It never fails to cheer me up ("So we sneak in, all quiet-like..." "Like a fish!").
There are really no spoilers for Chicken Run or my story (Harems and Hens) below.
The prompt from my recipient was:
Ginger is my favorite character, with Mac a close second. You know, you gotta wonder about how the romantic relationships work in a society where there's two males and a couple hundred females -- is it polygyny,or are there lots of lesbian chickens? Who does Fowler fool aroundwith? (That said, gen is fine!)
I got the Yuletide assignment and immediately started to squee, because Chicken Run! It is one of my favorite movies ever and I have watched about sixty times! I have the DVD! It's about chickens with teeth!
And then I started to freak out, because the movie has a very specific voice and sense of humor that I wasn't sure I could imitate at all. Alas, I ended up ruling out a Ginger-and-Mac bonding type story because I couldn't figure out how to write Mac's dialogue, and ended up trying to figure out how in the world the island paradise at the end worked, with regard to chicken procreation. Except the thought of the chickens having sex completely blew my mind, and I sat there, stuck for a story for ages.
I browsed through my recipient's LJ and blog and found out that she was a knitter, and for a very brief period of time, I wanted to do something about Babs and knitting, but I couldn't think of what.
Eventually, I remembered the rats, Nick and Fetcher, and thought they would be great fic characters, since they would probably be wondering the exact same thing about the chicks. I rewatched the movie, panicked, tried to start a fic which continued the rats' conversation about the chicken or the egg, hated it, panicked, tried to rewrite, and panicked. Then I panicked some more. Then I just let it sit for a while, since I wasn't making any sort of progress. All I had were snatches of dialogue and no plot at all at 400 words, and I had no idea what the plot would be.
I ended up just sitting down one day and trying to write anything, at which point Ginger suddenly popped in to confront the rats. Yes! I thought. It wasn't much of a plot, but at least it was a little conflict, and once I had her in there, the bit about the rooster eggs was easy.
After getting the story back from my betas, I eventually sat myself down and rewatched the movie again, this time paying special attention to the rats. I ended up trying to put more Chicken-Run-esque dialogue in and trying to put a little more of Nick's character in. I hope that I somewhat caught the tone and the humor of the movie, which I adore. I figured that either everyone would guess it was me, since it was a Chicken Run story starring rats (I am so predictable), or that no one would even read the thing, as Chicken Run is probably not the most popular fandom ever. But it seemed like the people who read it enjoyed it, and more importantly, I hope my recipient liked it!
1999nen 7 no Tsuki Shanghai is a four-volume shounen-ai manga about gangsters in Shanghai. Dawu and Xiaoxue are members of rival gangs who end up falling in love. There is a lot of angst, but also a lot of restraint; the people in this manga don't talk about their feelings, and more amazingly, none of them believe that love will conquer all. Dawu and Xiaoxue in particular seem to know how doomed their situation is; they're looking more to snatch a few moments from the jaws of fate rather than even daring to hope to conquer fate and society. The other thing I love about the manga is how fleshed out the side characters are.
Giant spoilers below for the series, probably spoilers for my story (Holidays Past and Future).
As I said, I saw this come up on the pinch-hit list the day after Yuletide stories were due, and instead of hesitating and bookmarking the email for "Maybe I'll think about it if I get a good idea," I got immensely excited even at the thought of 1999nen fic. After i read more of the pinch-hit details, I realized it was
untrue_accounts's request. I freaked out a little, since I've written stories for Mely before and didn't want to repeat myself, since she would guess who wrote it right away (four people volunteered to write that fandom for Yuletide this year), and since my story idea wasn't very original and didn't really stretch my writing muscles. But after having such a hard time with the Chicken Run story, I just said screw it and took it. I knew immediately that I wanted a story that captured the atmosphere from the manga; I thought of quiet afternoons and the grey rain outside, of no one saying anything of note even while bleeding their hearts out. I may have stayed up till 4 in the morning hoping for confirmation for the pinch hit and trying out different ideas in my head.
I briefly contemplated writing for Nana or Her Majesty's Dog, but I'd already written a Nana story for Mely, and Mely herself had written a HMD fic that I adored. And 1999nen had its claws in me. I reread the manga in a flash and tried to toss ideas around. I wanted rain and wet and damp. I wanted tremendous angst, but I didn't think I could write it, especially since the series is already so angsty. I thought about writing something in which Yichun tells Xiaoxue the story of Qi Xi. And I thought about Shanghai, how carefully it was drawn out in the series, how I recognized some of the buildings, how much I had loved it when I visited. So the story ended up being about holidays and the city, with the addition of Hong Kong, because I also love the city of Hong Kong.
I was sure everyone would guess it was me, seeing as how a) I only knew two people who'd read the series, one of them being me and the other being Mely, b) I put in all sorts of personal memories about Shanghai and Hong Kong and Chinese holidays and street food, and c) like almost every other story I've written, it's a series of short pieces that draw heavily from China and Chinese culture in which nothing happens and people eat.
Part of me wishes I had stretched more, but I really do like this story, and I think I managed to convey the feel of Shanghai and Hong Kong, of how much I loved them and why.
Also, I had a ton of fun playing with references to Qi Xi and the Dragon Boat Festival.
I should probably stop writing stories set in China or Chinese analogues since I've already done so many, but... then I can reference things that I actually know about!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 04:48 am (UTC)I've started getting very neurotic about repeating myself and not "stretching," as you can tell. Yay? But I'm probably going to end up sticking in Chinese culture into things no matter what, particularly since I seem to be drawn toward fandoms in which I can do that (I need to write a Crouching Tiger story some day...).