Stories

[brigdh]

I went off to work in my coffeeshop this afternoon, fully intending to actually work and to finish the research I needed to write the paper due later this week. But once I got there I realized that I had somehow managed to forget to bring my computer's plug. Given the current state of my laptop's battery, this meant I had about ten minutes to attempt research before I ran out of power.

Since I was annoyed at having gone all the way there- and was nowhere close to finishing the coffee I'd bought- I scrounged around in my bag to see if there wasn't something useful I could do. I usually have multiple novels and notebooks and articles and so on with me, so this was actually fairly likely. I could have outlined my argument for the paper, for example. Or started writing my yuletide story. Instead I wrote out a scene from an original story I've had in the back of my head ever since I outlined it for a Nanowrimo... two years ago? Maybe three years? I don't remember. I've never written any of it, obviously, but clearly it was the most effective way of procrastinating on both my paper and yuletide. Also, possibly I take some sort of subconscious pleasure out of writing about people in a desert while it's really cold here.*

Looking at it again now- wow, it's really obvious why Swordspoint appeals to me. I can just read about a pair of amoral anti-heroes, one of whom is a runaway, unstable noble and the other is reserved and protective, instead of having to write it myself. Except my characters are lesbians instead of boys, and they've swtiched off on who is very, very good at being violent and who is self-destructive. And also there's magic and monsters and riots that turn into widespread revolution and attempts to overthrow the government. Still, there's enough coincidences to make me wonder that I never noticed before.

I'll probably never write my story: I don't think I have the patience to do a novel, particularly when I don't even really have a plot. But I keep stealing pieces of it for other things. Sanzo and Gojyo's looks and backstories in my reincarnation story, What Power, were just this story's rewritten to make it fit a cyberpunk world. And when I was taking that fiction writing class last year, I simply plopped the main character into our world, since I didn't want to be the only one writing fantasy, and wrote what was essentially an AU of her.

Does anyone else do this? Have extremely complex daydreams that you mine for details that will be useful in other pieces which you'll actually write? C'mon, don't leave me feeling like a weirdo. Tell me some of the stories you tell yourself.

*Note: not actually all that cold here. But I'm fucking well going to complain about it anyway, because Blah. Cold. Hate. And it was really cold yesterday, to the point where I had to pile three heavy blankets, a cover, and a quilt on my bed before I could manage to keep enough warmth in to fall asleep.

Comments

[conch-fritter.livejournal.com]

Aw, you're not the only one. Though usually mine are so long and complicated and with so many pieces mising that little of it ends up in actual prose. But bits of it do get incorporated in alot of other ideas.

In any case, your writing is always wonderful to read and if you ever write any of it out, please let us know!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Good to hear!

And aw, thank you.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Most of the writers I know do this, with variations. Some of them write down what they've got of the daydream and throw logic at it until it's a viable story. Some of the daydreams are very fannish in nature, and the author might twist it around until the serial numbers are eradicated (*koff* ;-). Or the daydream might be the author's personal ultimate kinkfic for a given fandom, and again she writes down what she's got and throws canon at it. So yeah, not alone. *G*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I definetely have the fannish version of this as well. That's just far more likely to eventually show up as a story.

Now I'm totally curious about how many novels out there are fanfics with the serial numbers rubbed off. Wouldn't it be funny if you happened to read one and recognized the original source?

[weirdquark]

I suppose it depends on how much the stories are "inspired by" and how much co-opted....

I have this film noir YnM dectective story which I am not writing which I think would be almost totally unrecognizable as fanfic since it doesn't take place in the same universe and the names won't be Japanese. If I say, hey, this is a Yami AU, people would be able to go through and say, okay, that's Tsuzuki, that's Hisoka, that's Muraki, etc., but I think by the time I tweaked the style to be film noir, you wouldn't be able to tell I yanked basic personality traits and relationship structures.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

That sounds very interesting- I wish you would write it!

I've just remembered, though- A Factory of Cunning (http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Cunning-Philippa-Stockley/dp/0156030675/sr=8-1/qid=1165868314/ref=sr_1_1/104-7193536-9343929?ie=UTF8&s=books), which came out either last year or the year before, is totally supposed to be a sequel to 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses'. It was clear enough that I recognized it, and I've never even read LLD. Which made me wonder why the author didn't simply admit it, as surely the copyright on LLD has expired by now, and she might have gotten more publicity that way.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I've read a number and been able to tell the original source, and exactly how the author's central character warped it and the canon characters.

The good novels that tend to result from such things are usually too well-disguised to be so easily recognized. It's part and parcel of the author's skill. *G*

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, yes. I do this all the time. There's a society, Librarians At Large, that has been hanging around in my head for *years*. It's got several interesting characters, some yuri, some androgyny, some slashy goodness and Max! the Argentinian Polo Pony. The librarians travel worlds to save books. It's sort of like all my story kinks rolled into a big, id-based ball. I tried writing some of it for a NaNo years ago. I hope to turn it into a manga...someday. But, honestly, I never am any good at creating dialog and plot for it. Just characters and certain bits of scenery. Frinstance, there's a scene where two of the librarians are riding their World Ponies across a desert. They've got Random Evil Dudes on their tail, and the two of them aren't very good partners (it's a temporary partnership, right) and then one of 'em spies a corpse lying half-in a dune, and grabs it by the neck and hauls it onto his World Pony. And that's how the caramel and white androgynous character with no name enters the story. I've come to the conclusion that I am better at drawing this series than I am at writing it; maybe I'll find some way to either incorporate more elements into my own stories or convince someone to write it while I draw it. Who knows. But if it's been hanging out in my inner brain for three-four, maybe five? more?, years, it's probably here to stay.

Er. Anyway! Random fact note which you may very well already know. Swordspoint was originally a short story starring two female characters; obviously much less complex plot. I read the early version in a Year's Best Fantasy eons ago (back when Terri Windling was editing it). I want to say 1987, but I'm not positive. I could probably find it, though, if you're interested.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Dude. That's a pretty neat story. I like how you think of it as a manga instead of a book, because I do things like that too; think of something in terms of the images it would be in comics, or its music soundtrack if it was a movie, instead of the words of a book.

I did not know that! Thank you so much; now I'm going to have to go stalk the library see if I can't find a copy.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad I'm not alone in imagining certain stories as manga, or music soundtracks.

I googled around a bit for the story. I think my brain remembered the year Swordspoint was published (1987) instead of the year of the short story, but my brain works in mysterious ways, go figure. I'm pretty sure it's this one: "The Swordsman whose Name was not Death." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1991. Reprinted, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifth Annual Collection. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. (Winner of the 1992 World Fantasy Award). To find it near you, you can search www.worldcat.org.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Nope. It's neat how some stories just seem to lend themselves better to different modes of telling.

Oh, yes! I've read that one; it's included in the back of the new edition of Swordspoint. Thank you, though!

[redshoeson.livejournal.com]

Just perusing the comments and hey, I'd totally read that. ^^

[weirdquark]

I think I missed it when you posted your reincarnation story -- but it seems to take place in a similar universe to the cyberpunk version of Robin Hood I've been developing after I watched the Erol Flynn version. Cyberpunk swashbuckling! (I don't get it either.)

But anyway, I tend to get story ideas what float around in my head not doing anything, and they occassionally join up with other ideas and make more sense. Usually this means they go in different directions than the ones I expected.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, it was for an anonymous ficathon, so I had to pretend not to claim it for a while, and once I could finally post it, it came and went pretty quickly, since I had nothing much left to say about a story I'd written months earlier.

But! I think cyberpunk swashbuckling is an excellent idea. Hackers are just the new pirates, after all.

That happens to me sometimes too. It's pretty neat, how you can end up with something entirely new.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*grins* I'm sort of afraid to look too closely at my stories, for fear of what themes I'd see running through them. Since I suspect it would be less cool stuff like food and sweaters and more self-destruction and miscommunication. Uh. Even though I am totally sane, I promise, I just like crazy characters!

Werewolf novel? You must tell me more. And though the scene I wrote out yesterday is totally not of the showing-to-other-people type, talking about characters and stories is always fun.

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

There is the assassins story which I will likely never write.

Three assassins belong to a mysterious, evil organization! One's a sociopath, one is insane, and the last is just cold as ice! The two female assassins are in love! There's an evil doctor!

I really should write it. I enjoy thinking about it so much. Evil people in love is a huge kink of mine, as is mental instability.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, assassins. You should write it if just because I'd want to read it.

Actually, your description sort of reminds me of this story I wrote when I was 12 or 13, but it was three spies instead of assassins.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Except my characters are lesbians instead of boys, and they've swtiched off on who is very, very good at being violent and who is self-destructive. And also there's magic and monsters and riots that turn into widespread revolution and attempts to overthrow the government. Still, there's enough coincidences to make me wonder that I never noticed before.

If you ever wrote this, I'd so want to read it. Because guh, violence and self-destruction and trading off, and revolutions.

Does anyone else do this? Have extremely complex daydreams that you mine for details that will be useful in other pieces which you'll actually write? C'mon, don't leave me feeling like a weirdo. Tell me some of the stories you tell yourself.

Constantly. They're so cracktastic that I'd give manga a run for its money. Although I think even the manga is more coherent than some of my daydreams. Sometimes I write pieces of my daydreams, but I don't think I have the patience to fully flesh things out either. There's this one driving story that's in WIP hell, but the outline and archetypes keep on showing up in other orig!fic I write. I think I'm under a curse where the story will haunt me until I manage to complete one version. Incidentally, it's a horror story.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

If you ever wrote this, I'd so want to read it.

*laughs* I doubt I'll ever get around to it, but if I do, I will be sure to post to livejournal.

It's good to hear that other people do this too! It makes me think I'm less insane. But, yes, I know just exactly what you mean about the archetypes showing up in other writings. But I love horror stories, and so now I am very curious as to what your story's about.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda embarrassed to say, because it's really close to my id, and sometimes it freaks me out that I could come up with the stuff.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

No worries, then. I appreciate how that is; sometimes the stories I like the best are the ones I don't want anyone else to seem, but they seem to be so much more about me than anything else.