Fic: Yuletide: and hate the bright stillness of the noon

[psocoptera]

Not quite done with Yuletide recs, but in the meantime, here's what I wrote:

Title: and hate the bright stillness of the noon
Author: psocoptera
Recipient: yahtzee63
Fandom: Huge
Characters/Pairings: Amber/George, Dorothy/Wayne, minor Amber/Ian and Dorothy/Jonathan
Rating: teen
Wordcount: 12500
Warnings: underage (Amber is a camper, George is a counselor)

As Camp Victory faces a heat wave, Amber, George, and Dr. Rand struggle to make it through the last few weeks of camp.

and hate the bright stillness of the noon

This was really neat to write in three ways: one is that, after rounds of ruthless chopping to get already-brief stories down under 1000 words for that Last Author Standing thing, it was liberating to tell a more complicated story on as big a canvas as I wanted. Second, Amber/George wasn't a pairing I was particularly into coming into it, which I think ultimately made this a much stronger story; I can be pretty lazy in how I write shippy stuff, not bothering to put the grounds of my enthusiasm for a pairing into the story itself, and here I had to actually think about the 'ship and try to sell it, so it is for once more like a proper romance and not gen with a pairing tacked on. And lastly, carpenter and irilyth gave it a thorough beta going-over, which was an interesting and satisfying process. I don't usually bother with beta-reading - if I'm writing something in the first place, I'm probably already spending time on it that I don't really have, and the last thing I need to do is suck someone else in too - but for Yuletide I could justify it, and they made it immensely better. All of the structural problems and dubious word choices that aren't here any more are thanks to them. (Remaining ones are my own fault.)

Comments

Love this!

[(Anonymous)]

This seriously is such a good story. Well-written, in character, and realistic. I wish the show hadn't been cancelled. What am I gonna watch this summer now??? Pretty Little Liars?!?! (Heh, I actually do like it, but it's the kind of show that's a guilty pleasure, not a willing-to-admit-it pleasure like Huge was).

*ahemgetsonknees* Would you write something for me?? Please??? I know you're busy and all...but I will be forever grateful. I have this idea that revolves around Rand and Shay, and how they used to be BFF when they were younger but then one of them changed, so they grew apart, and that's why they're so awkward with each other. Kinda like Becca and Chloe.

That seriously would make me so happy, I would squeeze a million little LJ hugs into the computer. *shamelessplugendshere*

~Emily.

Re: Love this!

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

As far as Rand and Shay - *you* should totally write this. I'm not even sure I have a sympathetic Shay in me - but I would love to read one, and it sounds like you have an interesting angle here. I would totally beta-read! And brainstorm with you! Was Shay a camper, in this story? Is the whole story set in the past, or is it flashbacks from the present?

Re: Love this!

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't be asking you if I hadn't already tried, believe me. I just kinda ran out of inspiration, wrote the first part of it and got stuck. I'm just not much of a fan-fic writer. I do a little journalism, but all my fanfics are crappy.

The reason I sort of have a "sympathetic Shay" angle is because I personally know the actress, and even though all the characters she plays are tough and bitchy, she's the exact opposite. :)

And as for them both being at CV...I never really got to that part and it was sort of told through flashbacks.

~Emily

Re: Love this!

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I'm so curious to read what you have. ::grin:: Maybe I could help you get unstuck? I mean, obviously if you wouldn't have fun writing more of it you shouldn't, but if you *would* have fun, then I say "phooey" to the critic's voice telling you it's "crappy". We're a tiny fandom here in _Huge_ - I could host a meeting of everyone making fanworks in my living room (or at least everyone posting them), and we'd all have somewhere to sit. From my perspective, another voice is waaaay more interesting than, uh, listening to myself talk more. ::grin::

If you feel shy about sharing incomplete stuff, I'm going to throw some advice out there blindly and see if I hit: why not skip anything you find boring to write and just write the "good parts version", whatever that is to you? (Dialogue? Description?) Plenty of good stories take place entirely before the nominal main events of the plot, or entirely after, or in a tiny slice of the middle or something. Or in some other format entirely - an interview? A lifestyle section news article? Lately it seems like when something I'm writing isn't working it's always because I'm in the wrong character's POV, although that could just be me...