I have a long ongoing story called, “Out of Retirement it was getting away from me, and needed a re-write so that it flowed better given I started it a few years ago and have been working on it sporadically. I finished my edit of the first chapter the other night, and got part way through the second. I’m tackling a bit more of that now while the munchkin is napping and my husband is out having some chill time. There are something like sixteen chapters on the story right now, so it’s going to be a while, but I’m hoping that if I smooth things out I will be able to pick right up and then actually finish the arc/idea and then move on to some other things.

So far I think the Doctor Who piece is the only one that I started and finished within a fairly decent time.

This first bit was posted on April 20th 2007, but written a while before. It was intended to go into “Forsaken” a story I have on the go about genetic engineering.

“You can come through the back door. Leave the car,” Neural disappears off screen, and I take the car down closer to street level. I don’t understand why we haven’t seen any Seekers. Something has to be going on.

I find myself glancing in the rear view mirror expecting to see the light’s glinting off the smooth metal surface.

Michael doesn’t say anything until I land the car and tell him to get out. Instead of doing so he turns to me and asks, “Why don’t you trust the professor?”

“Because he’s obviously brainwashed you, who knows what he could have programmed you to do.”

He reaches into his jacket even before my brain really processes his movement and with two fingers on the end of the gun’s grip throws it down into my lap, “So you know I’m not going to kill anyone,” he says.

I don’t point out to him he could probably easier kill someone without the gun.

This next piece is fan-fiction. Harry Potter inspired. Some friends and I like to work in “Marauder era” which for those not entirely familiar with the series is what the era when Harry’s parents were in school is often referred to. It’s from the perspective of Remus Lupin. Perhaps eventually the piece will extend itself enough I can put something up on fanfiction.net but I don’t seem to be able to pin much down lately. It was posted on the other site on 25th April 2007:

“I don’t think he does anything besides read…” the taller one remarks glancing over at the other one with glass and scraggly hair.

I sit cross legged in the arm chair, having re-read the paragraph four times because my attention keeps being drug away by the fact that they’re talking about me.

“Can’t be healthy,” the first one continues.

“I’m pretty sure he snores,” the one with glasses remarks, “so that means he MUST sleep.”

Fifth time. I close the book, gather my things and head for the door.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the first says somewhat sarcastically as I move around my chair, “Were we bothering you?”

“Just need something from the library,” I answer, and go down the stairs and through the portrait hole.

“We’ll have to try harder,” one of them says.

I was going to post a third one which had some cursing in it, but it’s by far the longest snippet, probably three times as long as the other two combined, so I will save transferring it and put it in an entry by itself.

Now, to transfer the poetry and short stories.

When I first heard about fanfiction I thought it was a travesty and that I would never do something like that, but then I realized growing up most of what I wrote was fanfiction and bad Mary-Sue fanfiction at that. I was eleven and had written a story about me being the long lost half-sister of Brain from ‘Thunderbirds’ and falling madly in love with Virgil, the second eldest brother. What was that if not fanfiction? I’m glad that story has been lost in the transatlantic move and will never see the light of day again because it was, I’m sure, absolutely horrendous.

Several years later I wrote a story about someone who turned out to be Clark Kent’s sister. My idea on the origin of ‘Supergirl’ given I hadn’t read or seen much about it, and I was watching ‘Lois and Clark’ obsessively. I wrote something else around the same time about the Red Dwarf crew finding another hologram on an abandoned ship and she and Rimmer falling in love.

More bad Mary-Sue-ing.

Yet, when I was in college and someone told me about Fanfiction.net I freaked, and spat and hissed and thought it was the most horrible thing ever created. Now I have an account there and semi-regularly update it with random things. I’m not overly popular but I have a few ‘hardcore’ fans there. I think the problem is that the one thing I generally steer away from is romance in my stories, and romantic stories are by far the most popular there. I think I’m afraid I will have a Mary-Sue relapse, and no one wants that.

I’ve come to realize though that writing fanfiction is a good exercise. At least for me. It helps me to come up with things that I can use for ‘plot bunnies’ in other things I write. It helps me to just write random fun things that I won’t necessarily put into anything so I can get them out of my system and move on to better fictitious pieces, and sometimes you just get these whacky ideas when you’re watching a show. I treat writing fanfiction like the writing exercises I used to do in primary school. The sort where the teacher would write a paragraph up on the blackboard and have you finish it in a two page story.

The major thing it’s helping me with is ending things. I have such a hard time with ending stories, and they shouldn’t drag on forever that’s the worst thing possible. All the stories I have are beginnings and middles without ends. Hopefully now that I’ve seen even if I make things several chapters, with regards to a fanfic I can in fact end it, this will help me to find the ends to my own works, and the important step after that: finding a publisher.

I also have some things published on fanlib.com and the specialty site PGSM Fanfiction. Thus are the way your outlook changes. I have written anything fiction or non-fiction for a few weeks now. Since before we moved I’ve had a problem where things are sticking in my head and refusing to come out even if I have the idea and it seems good.