Answering the Meme

[amberfocus]

jer832 sort of combined questions 2 and 3 about favorite tense and favorite point of view. Her actual question was, "Have you found that one specific tense fits a specific pov or theme best or better than others in your short stories?" (e.g., Rose ->UST->present tense)

I prefer writing past tense and 2nd person point of view with an omniscient author. I want to be able to get into anyone's head in the story and not be limited by one person's thoughts and motivations. I rarely write 1st person. I did with Repercussions, but that fic was an experiement, sort of a serial, where I'd release a new bit twice a day, back when you could post whenever you wanted on Teaspoon and there was no moderation. That style of writing wouldn't work today over there because you can't set your own time table of when posts appear. But it worked then. It was also my first AU fic and the only one with an alternate Tenth Doctor and an alternate Rose. (Remember Zeppelins is an alternate Rose and a fob watched Ten2) Actually, I think when I posted it to LJ, I might have actually changed the tense to past and then corrected in on Teaspoon. I can't honestly remember. It was a long time ago.

I do think the extremely action heavy stories benefit from being in present tense. It puts you in the center of the story in a way that past tense doesn't quite provide. More bang for you buck, I suppose. But they shouldn't be epics.

She also asked, "Are there stories that, looking back on now, you would have done quite differently?"

Oh, yes. If I'd realized that A Sky Without Zeppelins was going to turn into the behemoth that it was I never would have wrote it in present tense. Don't get me wrong, I love the story as written, but it is quite difficult to stay in present tense so long and then I was tied down to writing any sequels in the same tense. And I didn't want to. If I ever get back to writing A Sky Without Stars, I will probably go back and change the tense. Also, I think that Zeppelins should have been written in two parts. There is quite an obvious place to me where the first story could have ended and the second began, but at the time I wrote it, it wasn't so obvious.

When it comes to that, I would have split To Call Our Own and You Reap What You Sow up differently and it would have likely been 3, maybe 4 stories instead. I have to say I was really learning things on the Time Eternal series.

I've also had a couple stories that I went back and rewrote. Stories from my first year of writing fanfic. I had skimmed some of the characterizations then and I wanted to go back and expand that. I also became a better story-teller in the intervening years, learned more about pacing and anticipation and added those elements into the fics. I had lived with the characters longer and knew them much better by then.

Most stuff stands as written originally, though. Stories I'd never change, except to correct the occasional spelling error or something.

Comments

[jer832.livejournal.com]

First, Happy Birthday. I hope you're having decent weather and will be able to celebrate.

Thank you. You do have a knack for getting into their heads to find the characters from DW, then you let them think for themselves in the situations you give them. I always know I'm reading Rose, for example, and I can see her maturation from the 19 year old. Your Nine in 'Moments in Darkness' is layered and complex. "Change" is one of my favourite stories. In addition to having one of the hottest scenes I've ever read or watched, you have this: Something inside him snaps, a band that has been constricting his heart, as relief rushes through him. He chooses to believe her. He chooses to move forward and she shudders in relief. It's true to the character and it gives us so much.

'Staking His Claim' is my favourite Ten story. You brought out the darkness and possessiveness that isn't gone from the Doctor, just hidden in Ten's puppy dog cuteness (much the way Four hid it in a bag of jelly babies and a yoyo).

Again, thanks for these memes.