Author interview - sarcasticchick
sarcasticchick (writing journal
sarcasticbabble) is a writer from Lincoln, Nebraska. She is the author of the Shades of Ianto series, which with a grand total of just under 220,000 words, I can only recommend you all take the weekend off to go read. Asking the questions is
hellenebright
(who has had a horrendous wrestling match with the code and LJs two editors, which are not speaking to each other, so please excuse her if the fancy spoiler hiding doesn't work in your journal style)(ETA - the last third of this got cut off in the code disaster, so if you read it before, please read it again)
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Okay, and I'm just warning you right now, my fic is over 200k words, I cannot say anything simply or briefly. My apologies if my answers border on the lengthy ;) I’m currently enjoying being unemployed (seriously, it's like retirement, without the Social Security or pension but with plenty of time to spend w/ the two cats - Merlin and Rowan :).
I also have a secret talent. And just because I've done it yet again, I'm going to mention it. I am telepathically linked to the DW episode of the game station w/ Captain Jack. I'm not kidding. Every single time it's on, I am drawn to it. And it'll be completely random. I'll be watching another program, and think to myself 'I should check out what's on Sci-Fi' and there it is! Game Station epis. Watching the news...kinda bored with that, let's check out BBCA because I haven't in ages, whoa! Whaddya know. Game Station epis. Those were the first epis of DW I watched, and the only ones I watched for a while because those were the only ones I ever saw because those were the only ones I ever caught airing. Even now, after I've watched more epis and BBCA/SciFi have multiple seasons, I -always- coincidentally catch any airing of the game station epis on those stations. Every time (and my friends know cause every time it happens I message/text them ;) ). It's a sickness. It's a complex. I'm losing.my.mind. But, at least it's Captain Jack.
You’ve had your writing journal since 2003. What other fandoms have you written for?
Oh wow. That long? Let's see - I really cut my teeth on LotR, and a lot of that was RPS RPG - I really had few skills for writing ala Tolkien, but I could glom on to those pretty actors. Got involved in some fun AU/Science Fiction RPGs (one of which involved Tolkien's world coming to life in the actor's world - that was a lot of fun, despite my inability to write Elrond), and while RPGs may be mocked by some (and we won't even get into the views of RPS), they really gave me a lot of practice writing - writing every day, writing complex storylines, writing with partners, and getting into the heads of 'your' character - building backstories to explain actions/thoughts, etc... I've 'dabbled' in a little Pirates of the Caribbean RPS, Stargate: Atlantis McShep and HP Drarry, but actually finished very little (and posted even less). But there's tidbits in my writing journal which kind of reflect all that I think.
What first got you into Torchwood?
I have to admit - I was dragged into TW fandom kicking and screaming. Seriously! I had friends point out the "kiss of life" snog, Ianto, Jack, and I was all 'oh, that's nice.' But never really bit into the series. Finally, in a deal with fivealive (struck somewhat reluctantly), I would watch Torchwood with her if she watched 13 epis of SGA with me. Hung out with her a few weekends, had some pizza, watched all the TW episodes and I have not looked back since.
There’s probably no need to ask who your favourite character is, but what was it about the Ianto portrayed in series one of Torchwood that so caught your eye?
*g* You make it sound like I'm predictable!? I have to admit - I love me a genius character (Daniel Jackson, Rodney McKay, Willow, Wesley, Jarod (the Pretender), Dr. Reid (Criminal Minds), Blair Sandberg (The Sentinel), Bones, River & Kaylee (Firefly) all perfect examples). Or at least fairly intelligent. There are so many hints throughout s1 of Ianto's intellect that I instantly latched on to him. It's instinctual, I think. The first few episodes, I watched mostly for Jack, because let's face it, he's a pretty man and we really didn't know much about Ianto at that point. But after Cyberwoman, it was instant Ianto-fangirl-love, and no matter how much other characters shine briefly and capture my attention (Tosh in particular), I'm a Ianto-girl at heart. He stood up to Jack, challenged him, pointed out faults, argued logically against Jack's rationale with valid points, and never backed down from his loyalties to Lisa/Torchwood One. He was the quiet, overlooked, disrespected, ball of angry grief that connected with my inner-woobie. And smarts! Haven't forgotten about the smarts! He snuck a cyberwoman into the Hub! There's more I could say, but it'd turn into a SoI-sized answer if I branched out of CW. ;)
Plus, he looks good in a suit and he's seen, on multiple occasions, snogging his boss.
What gave you the inspiration for Shades of Ianto?
Honestly, the single line "I'm more than just a tea-boy" did it. Upon rewatching TW S1 half a dozen times and hitting that line again, I wanted to know -why-. Why was he more than a tea-boy? From there, I started spinning background (what if his mom ran TW? He's really the big boss' son!), and toyed with the Jack quote, "the 21st century is when it all changes, and you've got to be ready." I wanted to create a story that explained those lines, explained Ianto's background (given he's such a mystery on the show), and filled in the unexplained from the series. I'm a huge King Arthur buff and a dragon-geek, so I wanted to spin those ideas in there as well. I'd already had the idea of Avalon for a novel, but it was really undeveloped, so figured why not throw that into the mix as well, for intrigue and for developing it into a viable novel idea ;) . But most of all, I just wanted to make Ianto a realistic hero, far larger than his tea-boy or disrespected status within TW, with a realistic relationship w/ Jack which developed into a realistic love.
Did you expect it to turn into the epic it finally became?
Hrm...epic? No. I knew it was going to be a large series, size-wise. I knew I wanted to do a prologue, to follow along s1, and to go beyond, but I just never realized just ... how -beyond- it would go. As I continued to toy with the plot, things kept growing, twisting, details blooming and subplots taking root, I realized it was a wee bit bigger than I had initially figured. And by the time I hit series 2, it'd taken on a veritable life of its own and exploded (no puns intended).
For those who haven’t read it yet, I don’t think it’s giving anything away to say the first part roughly follows the plot of series one, while the second part moves completely away from it. To what extent did you have the second part plotted out when you started the project?
Oh, I had the ending plotted before I knew how I was going to get there, and when I started writing, I had Chapter 24 pictured in clear detail in my head already. Highlight for SoI Spoilers: (don't highlight if you haven't read it yet) I had always known I was going to kill Ianto, to make him go 'splodey. In fact, I didn't have any idea of how I was going to save him when I initially decided to write SoI. I considered everything, from the Doctor/TARDIS/BadWolf to alien tech on Earth to Jack-kiss-of-life to even more direct King Arthur allusions, but most of all, I didn't want it to be easy. I didn't want something that would be guessed immediately. And I didn't want something that had been done in the DW or TW series. So, I worked within those limits, knowing that I was going to bring him back, because as determined as I was to kill Ianto, I didn't want him to be permanently dead. ;) .
How do you handle plot development? Do you have a written summary, scenes in your head, what techniques do you use to keep track of the plot?
Plot development is really a funny thing with me. As both lilithilien and fivealive
could attest to, I plot babble. And so long as I have a sounding board, I can plot ramble for a long, long time. Hours. And hours. ;) But eventually, I get basic ideas fleshed out. I had a general outline in mind as far as what would happen with the prologue/S1/S2 - the set up, the interplay of canon s1, destruction of Avalon, the battles, Jacks, etc... and some various subplots. And then, I started picturing in my head how conversations would go. I'm really a film director in my imagination, visualizing how people would interact, how Ianto would react, what the setting and things would look like, replaying it and tweaking it until it's 'perfect.' I can't tell you how much sleep I lost by lying in bed, wide awake, letting SoI play out in my head. There were a few key plot points (destruction of Avalon, rescuing other!Jack/the kids, the battles, Chapter 24) that were in my head so brilliantly from day 1, that instead of clarifying as the other chapters did, they grew. Larger and bigger than what I had expected. Once I had the 'director's cut' visualized for each chapter, I'd start to write. And write. And write.
I toyed with different writing techniques during this journey - sketching outlines for the chapter in the document, writing down dialog then back-filling details, outlines with people in mind instead of subjects I wanted to cover, etc... but mostly, I wrote off the cuff because it was easier for me. I had everything pretty well established in my head how it was going to happen, the outlines tended to distract me (except for the list of people, that I used to keep track of where I was in Chapter 23, I believe).
As far as keeping track of the plot - I really had no other method than in my head. I didn't even have written character sketches/notes. If there were details (like alien names) I couldn't remember, I'd just look them up from the final drafts. I am the worst example for writing because I tend not to do anything by the book. ;) But, I think that having the ultimate end in mind - exactly what and where I wanted the fic to go - it was easy to remember plot points, etc... because I was working towards that goal, instead of having a beginning and advancing it along until I figure out how/where the ending would be.
Was it a challenge writing in instalments? Were there any points where you wished you could go back and revise something because it caused you terrible problems two chapters further on?
Yes and no. It was a challenge because it was a finite deadline every week. And sometimes, it was -hard- meeting that deadline. Towards the end, when the chapters got gi-normous and I knew the final points of the story were all wrapping up/coming together/climaxing, I gave up trying to keep the deadline because sometimes, that worked so contrary in my head, actually discouraging progress. But, I also generally work best under pressure and with deadlines, so that was a bonus.
Another thing about the installments was that it influenced me to write in basically self-contained chapters. While each chapter all played into the final chapter, almost all of them (with a few exceptions) had a beginning and an end to the action/plot of that chapter. Like each was an individual story. And while I enjoyed that from a 'completion' standpoint, at the same time, sometimes there was a lot of action or interactions that needed to happen within that chapter (and that writing deadline). Thus ... some of the crazy-sized chapters towards the end. :)
I didn't really get to a point where I wished I could go back, but I think that might have borne in part because of my writing practice in RPGs. You always wrote forwards, playing with what was written. If you wanted to do something with plot, you dealt with the old and what others had written - and worked it into your new plots. There are a few tiny details in there that I realized I contradicted myself later, and I mean, tiny (like, no stapler on Jack's desk, stapler on his desk...doh), which I may go back and tweak, but for the most part, if I had written something and posted it, I just worked with it going forward. There were a few times when writing that I was approaching a cemented major plot point, and realized I had plotholes or very loose explanations why/why not. And I found that the most challenging (like working myself into a situation where I didn't want Ianto to go given the character as I understood him and given canon - I needed an out, but I couldn't think of an out - Ianto's snog of Gwen was seriously my snog to the char for the relief in figuring it out. *g*)
I know you came to a full halt for a while, and had to wait for the muse to take up again. Do you feel that was because, as Tolkien described his block point, ‘foresight had failed’, or was it more that you knew what the end would be, but you couldn’t get the energy to flesh it out and actually write it? Or something else entirely? What helped you get over that point.
Well, initially, it was RSI symptoms that halted my writing. I just couldn't because it -hurt- to type. But when the pain went away, it was so hard to get back into writing. Not that I didn't want to get back into it - but that impulse, that creative drive to explore the world that words and imagination build, it just had vanished. About this time,
lilithilien kicked my ass into gear, she had started a rather epic HP fic of her own and we started writing 20 minute rounds, then showing the other what we had written. And that really got me going, being held accountable for my time and my production. Plus, a little competition cause I hated getting outwritten for that 20 minute segment. *G*
Having invested so much in Shades of Ianto, was it difficult to finish, to say “this is the last word”. How did you know when you had reached the end?
Not difficult at all to write the last word *g* Almost relief - because I knew exactly how/where it was going to end. I should say, tho, I wrote the end a bit backwards, and so technically the last word of the fic wasn't actually the last word I wrote, the last word I wrote was - Highlight for SoI Spoilers: "We all are just beautiful shades of Ianto."
I knew that was how the title was going to tie into the piece - that the final chapter would be in Jack's voice, and he would actually state the title of the series. And while the individual chapter titles dealt with colors, and you got an idea that they were all a development of Ianto's character, I wanted the 'twist' at the end to be that the title actually referred to every single person that Ianto touched, rather than Ianto himself. However, I found it incredibly hard to write in Jack's voice when I'd spent all the time in Ianto's head. So I wrote the epilogue first, knowing that I'd get a chance to get back into Ianto's head, then briefly into Broderick's before having to go back and write the final chapter in Jack's POV. And at that point of the final line, all I could think was 'where's the alcohol? I'm celebrating this moment!'
What advice would you have for a writer who felt they wanted to write “a really long story”?
Hrm...I would say, plot it out - find someone that you can bounce ideas off of, someone who can tell you 'that's a really, insanely stupid idea' or 'that's not so bad! Keep going. What next? Why?' Set deadlines for yourself so you know you're accomplishing goals/meeting your own progress expectations, and get solid key plot points established as to when and how they'll happen. Know your characters and the POV (I used third person limited omniscient) - know why your char is acting the way they are, even if it never makes it into the story. Early on, I knew the motivations for Ianto, even if I didn't spell them out initially. All of that played into Chapter 1, even if they didn't really get written till Chapter 25 and that helps maintain character stability throughout. And find yourself a good beta. Don't self-edit on "really long stories." Not only might you miss plot holes or confusing aspects that you're too close to the story to see, but in 200k words, you're more than likely to form your froms and two your toos. ;)
Finally, know why you're writing and where you're writing. Know where you're going for the ending, especially with a WIP, but for longer fics in general. I know that goes contrary to how some people might currently write - get an idea and go with it, not knowing where it was going to end up (or just that it'll end up with a "happy ending"). And that works with one-shots, PWP, etc... or smaller fics. But I really would have been lost and wandering if I hadn't had the end so firmly planted in my head. And that helped me build and develop the plot, laying the 'smoking guns' in the earlier chapters, making everything connect from beginning to end and making every moment/section important - I wouldn't have been able to to do that had I not known how it was going to end.
Shades of Ianto: Prologue 1/7
Shades of Ianto: Prologue 2/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 3/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 4/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 4.2/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 5/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 6/7 Shades of Ianto: Series1 1/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 2/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 3/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 4/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 5/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 6/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 7/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 8/8S2: Chap 1, SoI 16
S2: Chap 2, SoI 17
S2: Chap 3, SoI 18
S2: Chap 4, SoI 19
S2: Chap 5, SoI 20 (Two Parts)
S2: Chap 6, SoI 21
S2: Chap 7, SoI 22 (Three Parts)
S2: Chap 8, SoI 23 (Three Parts)
Epilogue - Day of Black (S2: Epilogue, SoI 25, Part 2)
Shades of Ianto (S2: Chap 9, SoI 24)
sarcasticbabble) is a writer from Lincoln, Nebraska. She is the author of the Shades of Ianto series, which with a grand total of just under 220,000 words, I can only recommend you all take the weekend off to go read. Asking the questions is
hellenebright
(who has had a horrendous wrestling match with the code and LJs two editors, which are not speaking to each other, so please excuse her if the fancy spoiler hiding doesn't work in your journal style)(ETA - the last third of this got cut off in the code disaster, so if you read it before, please read it again)
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Okay, and I'm just warning you right now, my fic is over 200k words, I cannot say anything simply or briefly. My apologies if my answers border on the lengthy ;) I’m currently enjoying being unemployed (seriously, it's like retirement, without the Social Security or pension but with plenty of time to spend w/ the two cats - Merlin and Rowan :).
I also have a secret talent. And just because I've done it yet again, I'm going to mention it. I am telepathically linked to the DW episode of the game station w/ Captain Jack. I'm not kidding. Every single time it's on, I am drawn to it. And it'll be completely random. I'll be watching another program, and think to myself 'I should check out what's on Sci-Fi' and there it is! Game Station epis. Watching the news...kinda bored with that, let's check out BBCA because I haven't in ages, whoa! Whaddya know. Game Station epis. Those were the first epis of DW I watched, and the only ones I watched for a while because those were the only ones I ever saw because those were the only ones I ever caught airing. Even now, after I've watched more epis and BBCA/SciFi have multiple seasons, I -always- coincidentally catch any airing of the game station epis on those stations. Every time (and my friends know cause every time it happens I message/text them ;) ). It's a sickness. It's a complex. I'm losing.my.mind. But, at least it's Captain Jack.
You’ve had your writing journal since 2003. What other fandoms have you written for?
Oh wow. That long? Let's see - I really cut my teeth on LotR, and a lot of that was RPS RPG - I really had few skills for writing ala Tolkien, but I could glom on to those pretty actors. Got involved in some fun AU/Science Fiction RPGs (one of which involved Tolkien's world coming to life in the actor's world - that was a lot of fun, despite my inability to write Elrond), and while RPGs may be mocked by some (and we won't even get into the views of RPS), they really gave me a lot of practice writing - writing every day, writing complex storylines, writing with partners, and getting into the heads of 'your' character - building backstories to explain actions/thoughts, etc... I've 'dabbled' in a little Pirates of the Caribbean RPS, Stargate: Atlantis McShep and HP Drarry, but actually finished very little (and posted even less). But there's tidbits in my writing journal which kind of reflect all that I think.
What first got you into Torchwood?
I have to admit - I was dragged into TW fandom kicking and screaming. Seriously! I had friends point out the "kiss of life" snog, Ianto, Jack, and I was all 'oh, that's nice.' But never really bit into the series. Finally, in a deal with fivealive (struck somewhat reluctantly), I would watch Torchwood with her if she watched 13 epis of SGA with me. Hung out with her a few weekends, had some pizza, watched all the TW episodes and I have not looked back since.
There’s probably no need to ask who your favourite character is, but what was it about the Ianto portrayed in series one of Torchwood that so caught your eye?
*g* You make it sound like I'm predictable!? I have to admit - I love me a genius character (Daniel Jackson, Rodney McKay, Willow, Wesley, Jarod (the Pretender), Dr. Reid (Criminal Minds), Blair Sandberg (The Sentinel), Bones, River & Kaylee (Firefly) all perfect examples). Or at least fairly intelligent. There are so many hints throughout s1 of Ianto's intellect that I instantly latched on to him. It's instinctual, I think. The first few episodes, I watched mostly for Jack, because let's face it, he's a pretty man and we really didn't know much about Ianto at that point. But after Cyberwoman, it was instant Ianto-fangirl-love, and no matter how much other characters shine briefly and capture my attention (Tosh in particular), I'm a Ianto-girl at heart. He stood up to Jack, challenged him, pointed out faults, argued logically against Jack's rationale with valid points, and never backed down from his loyalties to Lisa/Torchwood One. He was the quiet, overlooked, disrespected, ball of angry grief that connected with my inner-woobie. And smarts! Haven't forgotten about the smarts! He snuck a cyberwoman into the Hub! There's more I could say, but it'd turn into a SoI-sized answer if I branched out of CW. ;)
Plus, he looks good in a suit and he's seen, on multiple occasions, snogging his boss.
What gave you the inspiration for Shades of Ianto?
Honestly, the single line "I'm more than just a tea-boy" did it. Upon rewatching TW S1 half a dozen times and hitting that line again, I wanted to know -why-. Why was he more than a tea-boy? From there, I started spinning background (what if his mom ran TW? He's really the big boss' son!), and toyed with the Jack quote, "the 21st century is when it all changes, and you've got to be ready." I wanted to create a story that explained those lines, explained Ianto's background (given he's such a mystery on the show), and filled in the unexplained from the series. I'm a huge King Arthur buff and a dragon-geek, so I wanted to spin those ideas in there as well. I'd already had the idea of Avalon for a novel, but it was really undeveloped, so figured why not throw that into the mix as well, for intrigue and for developing it into a viable novel idea ;) . But most of all, I just wanted to make Ianto a realistic hero, far larger than his tea-boy or disrespected status within TW, with a realistic relationship w/ Jack which developed into a realistic love.
Did you expect it to turn into the epic it finally became?
Hrm...epic? No. I knew it was going to be a large series, size-wise. I knew I wanted to do a prologue, to follow along s1, and to go beyond, but I just never realized just ... how -beyond- it would go. As I continued to toy with the plot, things kept growing, twisting, details blooming and subplots taking root, I realized it was a wee bit bigger than I had initially figured. And by the time I hit series 2, it'd taken on a veritable life of its own and exploded (no puns intended).
For those who haven’t read it yet, I don’t think it’s giving anything away to say the first part roughly follows the plot of series one, while the second part moves completely away from it. To what extent did you have the second part plotted out when you started the project?
Oh, I had the ending plotted before I knew how I was going to get there, and when I started writing, I had Chapter 24 pictured in clear detail in my head already. Highlight for SoI Spoilers: (don't highlight if you haven't read it yet) I had always known I was going to kill Ianto, to make him go 'splodey. In fact, I didn't have any idea of how I was going to save him when I initially decided to write SoI. I considered everything, from the Doctor/TARDIS/BadWolf to alien tech on Earth to Jack-kiss-of-life to even more direct King Arthur allusions, but most of all, I didn't want it to be easy. I didn't want something that would be guessed immediately. And I didn't want something that had been done in the DW or TW series. So, I worked within those limits, knowing that I was going to bring him back, because as determined as I was to kill Ianto, I didn't want him to be permanently dead. ;) .
How do you handle plot development? Do you have a written summary, scenes in your head, what techniques do you use to keep track of the plot?
Plot development is really a funny thing with me. As both lilithilien and fivealive
could attest to, I plot babble. And so long as I have a sounding board, I can plot ramble for a long, long time. Hours. And hours. ;) But eventually, I get basic ideas fleshed out. I had a general outline in mind as far as what would happen with the prologue/S1/S2 - the set up, the interplay of canon s1, destruction of Avalon, the battles, Jacks, etc... and some various subplots. And then, I started picturing in my head how conversations would go. I'm really a film director in my imagination, visualizing how people would interact, how Ianto would react, what the setting and things would look like, replaying it and tweaking it until it's 'perfect.' I can't tell you how much sleep I lost by lying in bed, wide awake, letting SoI play out in my head. There were a few key plot points (destruction of Avalon, rescuing other!Jack/the kids, the battles, Chapter 24) that were in my head so brilliantly from day 1, that instead of clarifying as the other chapters did, they grew. Larger and bigger than what I had expected. Once I had the 'director's cut' visualized for each chapter, I'd start to write. And write. And write.
I toyed with different writing techniques during this journey - sketching outlines for the chapter in the document, writing down dialog then back-filling details, outlines with people in mind instead of subjects I wanted to cover, etc... but mostly, I wrote off the cuff because it was easier for me. I had everything pretty well established in my head how it was going to happen, the outlines tended to distract me (except for the list of people, that I used to keep track of where I was in Chapter 23, I believe).
As far as keeping track of the plot - I really had no other method than in my head. I didn't even have written character sketches/notes. If there were details (like alien names) I couldn't remember, I'd just look them up from the final drafts. I am the worst example for writing because I tend not to do anything by the book. ;) But, I think that having the ultimate end in mind - exactly what and where I wanted the fic to go - it was easy to remember plot points, etc... because I was working towards that goal, instead of having a beginning and advancing it along until I figure out how/where the ending would be.
Was it a challenge writing in instalments? Were there any points where you wished you could go back and revise something because it caused you terrible problems two chapters further on?
Yes and no. It was a challenge because it was a finite deadline every week. And sometimes, it was -hard- meeting that deadline. Towards the end, when the chapters got gi-normous and I knew the final points of the story were all wrapping up/coming together/climaxing, I gave up trying to keep the deadline because sometimes, that worked so contrary in my head, actually discouraging progress. But, I also generally work best under pressure and with deadlines, so that was a bonus.
Another thing about the installments was that it influenced me to write in basically self-contained chapters. While each chapter all played into the final chapter, almost all of them (with a few exceptions) had a beginning and an end to the action/plot of that chapter. Like each was an individual story. And while I enjoyed that from a 'completion' standpoint, at the same time, sometimes there was a lot of action or interactions that needed to happen within that chapter (and that writing deadline). Thus ... some of the crazy-sized chapters towards the end. :)
I didn't really get to a point where I wished I could go back, but I think that might have borne in part because of my writing practice in RPGs. You always wrote forwards, playing with what was written. If you wanted to do something with plot, you dealt with the old and what others had written - and worked it into your new plots. There are a few tiny details in there that I realized I contradicted myself later, and I mean, tiny (like, no stapler on Jack's desk, stapler on his desk...doh), which I may go back and tweak, but for the most part, if I had written something and posted it, I just worked with it going forward. There were a few times when writing that I was approaching a cemented major plot point, and realized I had plotholes or very loose explanations why/why not. And I found that the most challenging (like working myself into a situation where I didn't want Ianto to go given the character as I understood him and given canon - I needed an out, but I couldn't think of an out - Ianto's snog of Gwen was seriously my snog to the char for the relief in figuring it out. *g*)
I know you came to a full halt for a while, and had to wait for the muse to take up again. Do you feel that was because, as Tolkien described his block point, ‘foresight had failed’, or was it more that you knew what the end would be, but you couldn’t get the energy to flesh it out and actually write it? Or something else entirely? What helped you get over that point.
Well, initially, it was RSI symptoms that halted my writing. I just couldn't because it -hurt- to type. But when the pain went away, it was so hard to get back into writing. Not that I didn't want to get back into it - but that impulse, that creative drive to explore the world that words and imagination build, it just had vanished. About this time,
lilithilien kicked my ass into gear, she had started a rather epic HP fic of her own and we started writing 20 minute rounds, then showing the other what we had written. And that really got me going, being held accountable for my time and my production. Plus, a little competition cause I hated getting outwritten for that 20 minute segment. *G*
Having invested so much in Shades of Ianto, was it difficult to finish, to say “this is the last word”. How did you know when you had reached the end?
Not difficult at all to write the last word *g* Almost relief - because I knew exactly how/where it was going to end. I should say, tho, I wrote the end a bit backwards, and so technically the last word of the fic wasn't actually the last word I wrote, the last word I wrote was - Highlight for SoI Spoilers: "We all are just beautiful shades of Ianto."
I knew that was how the title was going to tie into the piece - that the final chapter would be in Jack's voice, and he would actually state the title of the series. And while the individual chapter titles dealt with colors, and you got an idea that they were all a development of Ianto's character, I wanted the 'twist' at the end to be that the title actually referred to every single person that Ianto touched, rather than Ianto himself. However, I found it incredibly hard to write in Jack's voice when I'd spent all the time in Ianto's head. So I wrote the epilogue first, knowing that I'd get a chance to get back into Ianto's head, then briefly into Broderick's before having to go back and write the final chapter in Jack's POV. And at that point of the final line, all I could think was 'where's the alcohol? I'm celebrating this moment!'
What advice would you have for a writer who felt they wanted to write “a really long story”?
Hrm...I would say, plot it out - find someone that you can bounce ideas off of, someone who can tell you 'that's a really, insanely stupid idea' or 'that's not so bad! Keep going. What next? Why?' Set deadlines for yourself so you know you're accomplishing goals/meeting your own progress expectations, and get solid key plot points established as to when and how they'll happen. Know your characters and the POV (I used third person limited omniscient) - know why your char is acting the way they are, even if it never makes it into the story. Early on, I knew the motivations for Ianto, even if I didn't spell them out initially. All of that played into Chapter 1, even if they didn't really get written till Chapter 25 and that helps maintain character stability throughout. And find yourself a good beta. Don't self-edit on "really long stories." Not only might you miss plot holes or confusing aspects that you're too close to the story to see, but in 200k words, you're more than likely to form your froms and two your toos. ;)
Finally, know why you're writing and where you're writing. Know where you're going for the ending, especially with a WIP, but for longer fics in general. I know that goes contrary to how some people might currently write - get an idea and go with it, not knowing where it was going to end up (or just that it'll end up with a "happy ending"). And that works with one-shots, PWP, etc... or smaller fics. But I really would have been lost and wandering if I hadn't had the end so firmly planted in my head. And that helped me build and develop the plot, laying the 'smoking guns' in the earlier chapters, making everything connect from beginning to end and making every moment/section important - I wouldn't have been able to to do that had I not known how it was going to end.
Shades of Ianto: Prologue 1/7
Shades of Ianto: Prologue 2/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 3/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 4/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 4.2/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 5/7
Shades of Ianto - Prologue 6/7 Shades of Ianto: Series1 1/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 2/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 3/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 4/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 5/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 6/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 7/8
Shades of Ianto: Series1 8/8S2: Chap 1, SoI 16
S2: Chap 2, SoI 17
S2: Chap 3, SoI 18
S2: Chap 4, SoI 19
S2: Chap 5, SoI 20 (Two Parts)
S2: Chap 6, SoI 21
S2: Chap 7, SoI 22 (Three Parts)
S2: Chap 8, SoI 23 (Three Parts)
Epilogue - Day of Black (S2: Epilogue, SoI 25, Part 2)
Shades of Ianto (S2: Chap 9, SoI 24)