Author's Notes for "Moving Forward"
Sep. 27th, 2009 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starwatcher_fic.
This was my longest story to date, which surprised the heck out of me. It was conceived as a two-page epilogue to "Letter to Jim" -- basically the final scene of this story would have been the final 'cut to later' scene of that story. But Arianna told me, "Oh, no, the idea is too important for that; you have to give it its own story."
Even so, I conceived it as 15 or 20 pages, tops. But as I was writing the part where Blair reads Jim's letter, he got angry. I had not planned that at all; Blair would read the letter, think, "I can finally go home," and email or call Jim, who would be anxious to come pick him up. (The hug on the porch was non-negotiable; I envisioned it from the middle of "Letter to Jim".) But the ideas were flowing, fingers were typing, and I wasn't aware of the direction the story was taking until I saw the words on the screen. I almost deleted it, but then decided to let Blair have his say, and see how it played out. It worked well but, because Blair had to deal with his anger, the story grew, and grew, and grew... I think the sheer size started to scare me; I bogged down in the middle and didn't add anything to it for weeks (sometimes months) at a time. Elapsed time of writing was 15 months, although actual time in front of the keyboard was probably closer to 4 months. On the other hand, those 15 months gave me exposure to new ideas. It was an international effort; I absorbed ideas from TS fans around the world, via mailing lists and Live Journal, and used some of them in the construction of this story.
I had more direct help, too. Arianna (Canadian), Jess Riley (Australian) and AndeinCascade (American) provided moral support, helpful suggestions and beta eyes. Jess also provided Megan Connor's Aussie idioms, and Fluterbev (British) gave a rundown of the types of foods that would be served in a traditional Irish pub. My thanks to each for her input, but I didn't always follow the advice, so any remaining errors are mine.
.
This was my longest story to date, which surprised the heck out of me. It was conceived as a two-page epilogue to "Letter to Jim" -- basically the final scene of this story would have been the final 'cut to later' scene of that story. But Arianna told me, "Oh, no, the idea is too important for that; you have to give it its own story."
Even so, I conceived it as 15 or 20 pages, tops. But as I was writing the part where Blair reads Jim's letter, he got angry. I had not planned that at all; Blair would read the letter, think, "I can finally go home," and email or call Jim, who would be anxious to come pick him up. (The hug on the porch was non-negotiable; I envisioned it from the middle of "Letter to Jim".) But the ideas were flowing, fingers were typing, and I wasn't aware of the direction the story was taking until I saw the words on the screen. I almost deleted it, but then decided to let Blair have his say, and see how it played out. It worked well but, because Blair had to deal with his anger, the story grew, and grew, and grew... I think the sheer size started to scare me; I bogged down in the middle and didn't add anything to it for weeks (sometimes months) at a time. Elapsed time of writing was 15 months, although actual time in front of the keyboard was probably closer to 4 months. On the other hand, those 15 months gave me exposure to new ideas. It was an international effort; I absorbed ideas from TS fans around the world, via mailing lists and Live Journal, and used some of them in the construction of this story.
I had more direct help, too. Arianna (Canadian), Jess Riley (Australian) and AndeinCascade (American) provided moral support, helpful suggestions and beta eyes. Jess also provided Megan Connor's Aussie idioms, and Fluterbev (British) gave a rundown of the types of foods that would be served in a traditional Irish pub. My thanks to each for her input, but I didn't always follow the advice, so any remaining errors are mine.
.