Long and Overdue

So this has been sitting as a pinned tab on my laptop for a while now so I thought I should do it and clear out some of the stuff on Chrome.  This is a writing meme that I'm stealing from lark :)

If you had to delete all but five of your stories, which five would you keep and why? (Or ten if you're more prolific.)

1. the line (Beyblade) because it's the most recent Max and Mariam one shot that I've written and I actually quite like it.  I enjoy the style that I wrote it in and the flow and the characterizations, mostly because it's such an improvement to what I've written for them in the past.
2. Your Love is the Highest (Pokemon) because I really liked what I did with this story.  I think it's the first one I wrote in present tense and I wrote it for last year's Poke Prompts Fic Exchange and the recipient was really pleased with it, which makes me quite happy.  It's actually the only story on my FF that doesn't have a review, but I don't mind.  I liked this fic a lot.
3. The Maybes of Yesteryear (School of Rock) because I liked my formatting for this story and the way I made comparisons between Summer, Freddy and Zach.  I like the way it sort of fell into place and displayed their relationship.
4. Float Like a Cadillac (Maximum Ride) because I had a lot of fun thinking of the cars that the Flock would be and then relating them to their personalities.  I think it was a bit of an odd story and I'm not even sure where the idea for it came from, but I think the writing I did in it was pretty good.
5. If The Skin Fits (Pokemon) because the prompt for this story was so good and I really like what I did with it.  I think there's lots to improve on, but I still quite like the story and the relationship I portrayed between Barry and Dawn.

What disappointed you the most about your last story?

Technically speaking, the last story I wrote was actually my NaNoWriMo novel.  I'm disappointed with the fact that it's not done yet and also because about halfway through, people started asking to read it and I was like, "I don't know because it's me complaining about my life and people in it and I don't know if you'll be offended."

Besides that, the last story I wrote was the line.  I think the part that disappointed me the most was the scene where Mariam was battling people in the alley.  It was sort of a transitional part of the story and I'm not extremely happy with it.  I think it wasn't as smooth as I had wanted it to be, with Mariam asking questions about lines and stuff.  Looking at it now, it's a little weird.

Pick a passage you're especially proud of. Ideally it'd be one of the best passages you think you've ever written.

Okay.  I had to think about it and I don't know if it's the best one I've ever written, but I am proud of this passage from Your Love is the Highest:

Barry is as free a bird as she is, and to clip his wings, confine him to that lonely room in the heavens, burns her from the inside out.

But it's burning her anyway.

They eat in silence for a moment, the sounds of the kitchen far behind them, as if through a wall of water. She thinks she's going to explode, so she throws it out in the open, gets it off her chest.

"Do you want to be the champion?"

He keeps eating like he hasn't heard her, but she knows he has by the way his eyes darken.

"Not anymore," he replies. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to be the champion either," she says, noting the somewhat hysterical tone in her own voice.

He is quiet for a moment, weighing his answer carefully before he replies. "I don't want that life, Dawn, for the same reason that you don't want it."

"I can't lose to just anyone. The whole of Sinnoh knows you're a skilled trainer, Barry. If I lose to you, they'll accept it."

He stands so abruptly that his chair falls over and people stare. "And what about me after?" he asks, anger flashing red hot in his eyes. "What about my reputation? As soon as I become champion, I'll just want to throw it away again. The world will see me as a joke, someone who just got lucky."

She feels the shame burn in the pit of her stomach, knows that drawing this card could hurt their friendship and rip them like the seam of a pant, stitch by stitch.

"If you really cared, Barry, you'd do it anyway," she answers softly.

Now tear it apart.

I wish I had been able to add more descriptions into this part, like maybe more about Barry's facial expressions and how Dawn can see him hurting because she's forcing this upon him because her love/lust for Volkner is more important to her than the love/friendship between her and Barry.  I also don't like the wording I used when describing them falling apart.  It would have sounded better if I had just written, "... rip them apart at the seam, stitch by stitch."

What's a favorite story by someone else? How would you describe the style, narrative technique, etc (whatever you want to say about it)?

Oh God.  I can only pick one?

Well, I think if I had to pick, my all time favourite fic of any fandom that I have ever read is Molasses bypaperclipbitch.  It's a tear-inducing one shot for The X-Factor UK 2010 fandom with all my favourite pairings and just, ugh.  I mean, I don't even ship Maiden (Matt Cardle and Aiden Grimshaw) very hard, but this story is just so precious.  Let me break it down a bit:

• any story that's written in present tense is gold in my opinion.  I'm not sure why I prefer it so much over present tense, but I take every opportunity to use it now, mostly because I read all of paperclip's stories and they're all so flawlessly written this way
• it has a bit of foreshadowing in it.  I mean, literally, but also, it doesn't really explain about the power that some of the characters hold until a little later in the story, which makes the first part a little confusing, but also very intriguing as well
• the sort of blunt way she describes Louis the first time he appears is kind of beautiful.  It tells none of the standard things about his appearance but it just has these little details, like the things you'd only notice about a best friend because you see them so often and would notice those kinds of things
• on the note of details, paperclip wrote, "...Louis says, pulling at a loose thread in his scarf. The whole thing will unravel in three and a half weeks."  I mean, who thinks of writing that?  Just, you know, casually, this scarf is going to unravel in three and a half weeks.  

I would go on about more things I like, but it's a lot of just all the stuff I mentioned above and this subtle characterization that is wonderful and ugh.  Lovely.  Just so, so, lovely.  The dialogue is also quite banter-ish (is that a word?  Now it is) and I could read this story over and over again and never get tired of it.

If you could choose to emulate one fic writer, who would it be and why?

I think it would depend on certain fandoms.  I'd emulate redwheeler for the Beyblade fandom just because her characterization is so spot on all the time and the conversations she writes between Max and Mariam are so realistic they might as well be canon.  And paperclipbitch, finkpishnets, misprinting and sparkbysparkfor The X-Factor UK 2010 fandom because the 1D's they write are just so precious I'd almost rather have them then the real people.  Andlark and ibuberuand chrysafor Pokemon.  There's no real overall person even.  It would just be an awesome combination of everyone I just mentioned.

How do you feel when or after reading something really good? Be honest.

This sounds really embarrassing, actually, but that feeling you get right before you get on stage for something or you have to present in front of people; the one where all the butterflies are flying in your stomach and your heart is pounding somewhere between your throat and where it should actually be beating?  Yeah, that's the feeling I get.  Really good fics make me so happy and content (or appropriately depressed if that's the kind of story it is) that I just get ... I get the weirdest feeling.  A good feeling, but weird nonetheless.

Pick an introduction to one of your stories and rewrite it as if it were not fanfiction but just plain fiction, ie. don't presume that the reader knows anything about the characters.

I actually had a really hard time finding an introduction to rewrite.  I picked a story I wrote a really long time ago when I was on a Sonny With a Chance kick.  I don't like this story very much, so I decided now was my opportunity to rewrite the beginning.  So yeah.  This is a new beginning for Reading:

"If Chad had been paying attention to where he was going, he wouldn't be in this mess right now.

The kitchen table in his Los Angeles home was littered in photographs, each one signed with a swooping autograph and lots of little x's and o's in the corner.  They were being ignored in favour of the crook of Chad's arm where his head was currently buried.  Across from the movie star sat his sister, a young lady of eighteen with chocolate brown hair and steely grey eyes.  She spooned a third scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream into her mouth and said, “So tell me what happened," Maggie said between bites of ice cream. "I didn't answer your emergency call just so I could get fat over your frozen treats."”

I think this was a bit easy to write because half of the intro was about an original character that I made up for the purpose of the story.

What are five of your favorite words?

Any form of narcissism.  I love the origin and the the meaning and it’s just … it’s a great word.  I love using it.
Thick.  My friend Kolby pointed out to me that it’s one of the only words that sounds like it looks.  Just say it.  THICK.  Ah.  Just sounds great.
Magic.  This might be my inner Harry Potter geek calling, but magic is just such an awesome word.  It’s like being set free because with magic, it’s like you can do anything.  Like there are no limitations.
Zeal.  I just looked this one up, but I like words that start with odd letters because there aren’t too many of them.  And zeal is such an awesome synonym for intensity.
I apologize already for the vulgarity, but seriously shit is one of my favourite words, mostly because it’s so versatile.  I mean, you can use it for almost anything.  Noun, verb, adjective.  It can do it all.

Bonus: refrain from using any of those words in the next story you write.

I think I can manage that, except it might be hard to keep thick and shit out.  Depends on how much swearing I want to put in my Secret Santa fics.