Back and forth
Sep. 4th, 2014 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverI've been gone a few days, due to traveling to NYC for my husband's cousin's wedding. It was a great trip, a first to NYC and the Atlantic Ocean for me: walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, got lost in Central Park. We didn't have much time in the museum, but if we had, that probably would have been the highlight of the visit, but otherwise, I think my favorite part was just walking around the streets of lower Manhattan. Just like when I visited Victoria earlier this year (oh wait, I've never talked about that in this journal, have I? I need to rectify that - it's a great story), just experiencing the city for what it is, watching the people go about whatever they're doing, is just fascinating.
What with all the stuff we had to do with the relatives and the long travel times to go sightseeing, I didn't get much writing done, only working on that little thing I did for Literary Fan Fiction. I did start reading A Writer's Tale, which is brilliant and inspiring. More on that later, maybe. Starting the middle of next week, I'll be more or less absent from LJ until the end of September. Just thought I'd warn you.
One of the problems I've been having with writing is that one idea has just stuck in my head and I can't not think about it, and yet I can't write about it either. I have a number of half-finished (or maybe half-started) fics waving their stubby little arms at me, trying to get my attention. I even had a dream a few nights ago that was complete and coherent and would make a great story, and I've even fleshed out part of it (it was great - talking with my husband about it, I described it and said that the companion should be Peri, and he said, "When you first described the idea to me, Peri was the companion that flashed into my mind."). And yet, it's that other idea that consumes my waking thoughts.
The problem with it is that it is so incredibly self-indulgent, and by that, I mean that it involves David Tennant yet again. It is partly inspired by thoughts of what might have happened to David if I hadn't ended The Actor the way I did, but also partly inspired by what K. Sinclair is doing with David in her Don't Call Me Doctor on ffnet. If you haven't read it, her David, while traveling with the Eleventh Doctor, begins having seizures, and the Doctor figures out that David is slowly transforming into a Time Lord. The reason for this is some hand-wavy thing about David, who comes from an alternate universe, being an anomaly in the Doctor's universe, so the universe is trying to change him into something it understands.
While I am enjoying the fic, I find the reason to be rather ludicrous, and I came up with a better (at least in my mind) reason to have David become a Time Lord, and of course, as I've mulled over it, it's evolved into what's basically a rather sinister plot born from a very charitable wish. It could actually be a rather nice story. (Well, maybe. I've found that I really have no idea whether or not an idea makes a good story. I can only write it and hope it comes out good.)
Problem is, first, I have no idea how I'd make the beginning interesting (David hopping universes and encountering the Doctor and dealing with all of his childhood fantasies coming true while losing the rest of his life) since I've already done it already in The Actor, and second, I really don't want to become "that fanfic writer who only writes about chameleon arches, doppleganger crossovers, and David Tennant." Well, those and multi-Doctor encounters. I love me some multi-Doctor encounters.
To be fair to myself, those are the types of stories I love: where the characters cross over from one "reality" to another, whether it's a Time Lord who has to deal with becoming human via a chameleon arch, or a character dealing with psychic intrusions or possessions (one of my favorite episodes is 42 simply because the Doctor battles the solar entity psychically and loses; well, that and his admission that he's scared, not because he's about to die, but because he's going to kill everyone), or, in the case of The Actor, a human finding out that he's not who he thinks he is. I'm just really afraid that that's all I can think of.
I've tried to modify the story so that at least uses a different set of Doctors (perhaps Peter Davison meeting the Seventh Doctor), but that doesn't work: a key point in the plot revolves around the character looking like the Tenth Doctor and it can't be changed, forcing the active Doctor to be Eleven (since I don't understand Twelve yet, and don't have a timeline I could drop this story into). A doppleganger crossover might work (Alec Hardy, Peter Carlisle, heck, even Peter Vincent - now there's a fun character to play with, and his reluctant hero vibe actually meshes well with the story), but would just be corny (I think?). Then I thought, how about an OC that happens to look like the Tenth Doctor? Then there's no "get used to the universe" subplot and I'd just have to do the "introduce the companion" thing, but would that hold water? Does it make any sense for the Doctor to meet a human who looks so much like his previous incarnation? Perhaps I should make it a future human, from one of the thousands of planets humans eventually colonize, rather than a modern human.
Oh, one last point: I don't know how this story ends. It could go one of two ways, one of which is mostly sad, and the other of which is both sad and happy.
Anyway, so I find myself constantly envisioning scenes in this story that I can't convince myself to write. I have no idea what to do about it. I certainly seem to be not writing anything else while this one has its steel grip on my brain. Sigh. What to do, what to do?
What with all the stuff we had to do with the relatives and the long travel times to go sightseeing, I didn't get much writing done, only working on that little thing I did for Literary Fan Fiction. I did start reading A Writer's Tale, which is brilliant and inspiring. More on that later, maybe. Starting the middle of next week, I'll be more or less absent from LJ until the end of September. Just thought I'd warn you.
One of the problems I've been having with writing is that one idea has just stuck in my head and I can't not think about it, and yet I can't write about it either. I have a number of half-finished (or maybe half-started) fics waving their stubby little arms at me, trying to get my attention. I even had a dream a few nights ago that was complete and coherent and would make a great story, and I've even fleshed out part of it (it was great - talking with my husband about it, I described it and said that the companion should be Peri, and he said, "When you first described the idea to me, Peri was the companion that flashed into my mind."). And yet, it's that other idea that consumes my waking thoughts.
The problem with it is that it is so incredibly self-indulgent, and by that, I mean that it involves David Tennant yet again. It is partly inspired by thoughts of what might have happened to David if I hadn't ended The Actor the way I did, but also partly inspired by what K. Sinclair is doing with David in her Don't Call Me Doctor on ffnet. If you haven't read it, her David, while traveling with the Eleventh Doctor, begins having seizures, and the Doctor figures out that David is slowly transforming into a Time Lord. The reason for this is some hand-wavy thing about David, who comes from an alternate universe, being an anomaly in the Doctor's universe, so the universe is trying to change him into something it understands.
While I am enjoying the fic, I find the reason to be rather ludicrous, and I came up with a better (at least in my mind) reason to have David become a Time Lord, and of course, as I've mulled over it, it's evolved into what's basically a rather sinister plot born from a very charitable wish. It could actually be a rather nice story. (Well, maybe. I've found that I really have no idea whether or not an idea makes a good story. I can only write it and hope it comes out good.)
Problem is, first, I have no idea how I'd make the beginning interesting (David hopping universes and encountering the Doctor and dealing with all of his childhood fantasies coming true while losing the rest of his life) since I've already done it already in The Actor, and second, I really don't want to become "that fanfic writer who only writes about chameleon arches, doppleganger crossovers, and David Tennant." Well, those and multi-Doctor encounters. I love me some multi-Doctor encounters.
To be fair to myself, those are the types of stories I love: where the characters cross over from one "reality" to another, whether it's a Time Lord who has to deal with becoming human via a chameleon arch, or a character dealing with psychic intrusions or possessions (one of my favorite episodes is 42 simply because the Doctor battles the solar entity psychically and loses; well, that and his admission that he's scared, not because he's about to die, but because he's going to kill everyone), or, in the case of The Actor, a human finding out that he's not who he thinks he is. I'm just really afraid that that's all I can think of.
I've tried to modify the story so that at least uses a different set of Doctors (perhaps Peter Davison meeting the Seventh Doctor), but that doesn't work: a key point in the plot revolves around the character looking like the Tenth Doctor and it can't be changed, forcing the active Doctor to be Eleven (since I don't understand Twelve yet, and don't have a timeline I could drop this story into). A doppleganger crossover might work (Alec Hardy, Peter Carlisle, heck, even Peter Vincent - now there's a fun character to play with, and his reluctant hero vibe actually meshes well with the story), but would just be corny (I think?). Then I thought, how about an OC that happens to look like the Tenth Doctor? Then there's no "get used to the universe" subplot and I'd just have to do the "introduce the companion" thing, but would that hold water? Does it make any sense for the Doctor to meet a human who looks so much like his previous incarnation? Perhaps I should make it a future human, from one of the thousands of planets humans eventually colonize, rather than a modern human.
Oh, one last point: I don't know how this story ends. It could go one of two ways, one of which is mostly sad, and the other of which is both sad and happy.
Anyway, so I find myself constantly envisioning scenes in this story that I can't convince myself to write. I have no idea what to do about it. I certainly seem to be not writing anything else while this one has its steel grip on my brain. Sigh. What to do, what to do?
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no subject
Date: 2014-09-04 06:05 pm (UTC)That sounds like a very difficult dilemma about the fic, though. That idea visibly won't leave you alone—and I get your reservations about it, though I think it could still be very interesting to see for readers… and it's not like you don't also write quite different stuff. Still, I understand why you wouldn't be quite happy with starting a new big project that seems so much like The Actor to you… Hard to say :/
Honestly, keeping David seems best, because the other ideas, while certainly creative, are a little bit far-fetched and none of them seems to really convince you. The idea seems pretty interesting to me, and like it has potential… Up to you what you choose to do with it, though!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-05 12:42 am (UTC)I've come up with a few more ideas that are moving me towards a non-David OC. In specific, I came up with a good explanation for why the character looks like the Tenth Doctor: spatial genetic multiplicity (the reason why Gwen Cooper looks like Gwyneth). Which means I have to set the story on a rift, which actually helps other parts of the story quite a bit. And moving the character away from David Tennant gives me more flexibility on his personality - I really don't want to write a David that's mean or obnoxious or cowardly or debauched in some way. So it's working out a bit better.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-05 06:18 am (UTC)Ah, that sounds interesting, indeed! There's extra potential in that :)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-05 01:11 am (UTC)*HUGS*
Glad you had a good trip, honey. But truly, there is no place like home, yes?
no subject
Date: 2014-09-05 02:20 am (UTC)It is SO NICE to be home. If only because this is MY BED and has MY BUTT DENT in it. :D