Thinking Writerly Thoughts

[firstlight]

...also the thought of Hakkai being obsessed with details of anatomy - thinking of movements in terms of the way bones and muscles shift, looking at facial structure as a product of the underlying bones, stuff like that - is playing around in my mind again. Possibly I used it in a story long ago, but I'd have to go back and re-read my old Saiyuki stuff to find out and I'm not sure I have the nerve. But basically, one day there should probably be a story about Hakkai titled The Skull Beneath The Skin or something equally predictable. In it he can really, really obsess over death, as a process. The technical side of things, if you will. I have various other ideas. If you're lucky I will never get around to writing them. Yes, of course I have read the PD James book of the same name. Erm.

Anyway, it's horribly self-inserty, given my profession and area of specialisation and the way it alters my view of the world. Though, I think that's okay if it's also IC for the character in question. Fanfiction is inherently self-indulgent anyway, I suppose, to some degree or other.

A lot of things I write in fandom have various bits of myself in them and I don't think that's a bad thing. Is it?

Curiosity makes me ask: how much of yourself do you think comes through in your stories? What sorts of things? Do you like or dislike adapting things that have happened to you or quirks possessed by you or people around you to fit characters? How much is too much?

And why is the a cat sitting on top of the (computer) mouse?

Some of life's greatest mysteries... (Oh, wait. The answer to that last one is because I refused to feed her so she's pointedly sulking at me. Even though she has eaten, having stolen a quantity of lasagne in the early hours of the morning.)

Comments

[scribblemoose]

Stolen food doesn't count, of course. No calories in stolen food....

Loads of stuff about me comes through my fics. It doesn't help that I'm attracted to characters that share some of my character flaws traits, so it's easy to get carried away. As for applying your own knowledge and specialisms to your character... I have a lot of Watari doing SPSS fic somewhere, and of course it's very easy to see some of my management struggles in Squall's leadership angst, or Hakkai's nagging. I have to check all the time whether my characters are analysing situations themselves or whether it's scribbles-the-sociologist at work. In my original fic I have to watch out for scribbles-the-campaigner and then there's politics... argh.

Then again, one of the reasons I write it so share my outlook and views on the world, in which case, why be so shy of it?

It's a worry when it comes to characterisation, but at some level I think every writer has to accept that not only will they inevitably appear in their own fics, whether they like it or not, but actually this is where your unique voice and style comes from, and if you supress it too much your writing can get very stale and formulaeic. Draw from the richness that's around you, and so long as your characters are still themselves and your story is coherent and consistent, what the fuck, eh?

(Also, Hakkai would most definitely be fascinated by anatomy. That's something you share, I think, not something that's imposed by your world view. Exploit it, is my advice! ^_^)