RP, Dreams, My Dark Fic Past

[said_scarlett]

Applications for landels_redux close tonight at midnight! Just a friendly reminder for those of you who've been thinking about applying this month but haven't gotten around to it. Apps will be open again next month, if you don't make it this time. :D You can check here to see what characters have been apped for already. And don't let the numbers intimidate you! The more the merrier!

This morning was hell for me. I woke up around three in the morning in excruciating pain. I'm happily doped up on medication for it now, which I'd like to think added to my dreams about me, Pyro, Magneto and Superman going on a crime spree to find three sacred gems. Superman was being mind-controlled by me, else he wouldn't have gone on a crime spree. Or let all those whales loose in the streets of Boston after he flooded it. Sawyer from Lost was in there somewhere, at a sleazy little hotel. But I probably would have had strange dreams anyway.

So, I was talking with ranchangrnl about fandom experiences and starting out in fan fiction. The first fics I wrote are long gone, swallowed by the great cavernous void of cyberspace. My Highlander Mary Sue series. My Babylon 5 Zack/Lyta schmoop. That's all gone. I have a printed out copy of one Babylon 5 fic, and a horrible Due South epic I once wrote. Why I saved these things, I'm never sure. Except that it's fun to go back and see how far I've come. And while those are gone, others still remain.

I come before you now to share with you the stories of my old fan fiction. The fan fiction full of cliches, purple prose and mary sues. Because I wrote it. I wrote it in the grand tradition of fanwit fiction. Back when I honestly believed characters that were half demon/half cat with wings and super powers were actually a good idea. Back when I saw nothing wrong with having an entire cast fall head over heels for my chaos demon reincarnated as a powerful sorceress - even though she was shagging the villain. I did it all. Super powers, amazing beauty, canon-warping, reincarnation-resulting-in-split-personalities (both of which were awe-inspiring and amazing, of course), animal bonding powers, the ability to save the soul of the twisted, power hungry villain...

There are two fandoms for which fics of this nature remain. The Halfblood Chronicles, and the Aladdin TV show. Yes, you heard me correctly. And if you're truly curious, I am willing to post these old fics here, so we can all look back and laugh. Because I'm not embarrassed of these god awful pieces of fantasy. They were a starting point, and I've come so very far in writing that it's nice to look back and remember where I started.

So come on folks! Share your stories of your embarrassing fiction! Share your tales of Mary-Sues, canon rape, ideas-that-seemed-good-at-the-time and everything else. Look back with me and laugh, and be thankful for those first stories that set you on the path.

Comments

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I think we do. And I, personally, think it's kind of fun to back and revisit them. :D

I wrote so much. Lots of it is in notebooks, but some is still online. Under different pen names, but still! Ah, Pokemon! Now there's a classic first-fic-fandom. Massive extra points for having James in love with her, because James is so clearly gay.

Ha! I have Sam/Frodo fics! Not NC-17, but I wrote a couple! And those are still on one of my ff.net accounts. I like to think they didn't suck, though. And oh god, yes. Early yaoi with no concept of things like lube. I was there. And it was awful.

Mary Sues can be fun. And they can be a real catharsis. I kind of want to write one, just for the hell of it. Because seriously... sometimes it's fun to let loose the imagination and go hog wild. And that does sound classic. You get tons of points for all of those! Isn't it fun to look back, and look at your stuff now and realize how amazingly improved your writing is?

[momoiro-usagi.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, yes it is! ^___^ Even the stuff I wrote last year was pretty bad compared to what I'm writing now...it was so different, and the style was only mediocre. But it was a different fandom (Fruits Basket), as well, so that accounts for at least some of the difference! ;)

The biggest change I've seen in myself that I like to count as literary maturity is my shift away from fangirlism (especially yaoi fangirlism!)...I used to write stories because I thought they were hot, now I write them because I think they're interesting! ^^ So self-insertion is becoming more and more obsolete, thankfully! O.O

Mary Sues can be really funny, though. Sometimes I have these ideas for characters....like an alchemist who turns all the liquids in the body to ice! (No, not Iceman! XD) But then I realize I've created a Mary Sue and I think "wow, good thing no one can read my thoughts!" Ha ha ha! It's silly and embarrassing, but totally amusing too.

Ha ha ha, I know, so clearly gay! XD But I've had a fetish for gay men from a very young age! XD Somehow I think anyone who's written in the Pokemon fandom scores major points! Sadly I never tried YuGiOh, though my best friend _acerbitas_ wrote a 16 chapter SetoxJoey when we were sophomores in high school, and I thought it was the end all of great fiction at the time! LOL! She's since deleted it from her ff.net account.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I think the stuff I wrote last year isn't too bad, but it's not as good as my stuff now. That was when I was still writing in HP fandom. I never did write an Fruits Basket fan fiction. That I can remember, anyway.

Yeah, I think that's a very important step in the fiction writing process. Writing for character interest rather than 'ZOMG! HOT!'. The first stuff I wrote in Harry Potter was pure, horrible PWP. I mean... classic bad yaoi written by a naieve fangirl.

I do too! They're just idle thoughts, and I never do anything with them, but they're there. And some of my original Mary Sues have evolved and developed into characters I write in my original works. I have two that have stuck with me for years.

Ah, James. We love him so. I never wrote in Pokemon, I just watched and played it on my Game Boy. Didn't do YuGiOh either, but I started out before anime was big.

[momoiro-usagi.livejournal.com]

I'm really strange with fandoms....sometimes I can absolutely love a series but I still can't manage to write in the fandom. That's how Harry Potter has always been for me, right along with YuGiOh, Gravitation, and Kingdom Hearts (though I might give that one a try at some point!)...sometimes I love something, but still can't feel any inspiration to write about it. I think some of it is the number of characters...there has to be a lot, because I like variety. But YuGiOh and Harry Potter have tons of characters, I just never could write them when I was younger!

...Which might be a good thing, because I've been spared from a history of bad Mary Sue duelists who are the reincarnation of Yami Yugi's many wives! >.< Have you ever noticed that some fandoms may produce bad Mary Sues, but other fandoms produce really bad Mary Sues?? The FMA ones aren't nearly as bad as the Fruits Basket ones, and nothing can top the Fushigi Yuugi ones...or those from any other shojo harem anime! >.< Oh my God!

Just out of curiosity, how long have you been writing? I seem like the least experienced writer here! I'm so glad I started writing at an older age....not enough time for naieve yaoi with no lube! ;)