Your Stargate Atlantis fiction remains one of my favorite set of stories by any author ever. I would love to know 2, 6, 11 and 15. of The Sweater Verse!
Ooh, blast from the past! Okay, here goes:
2. What scene did you first put down?
The first story in this series is pretty much only one scene, so that was the one: where John walks into Rodney’s quarters one day and sees Rodney wearing The Sweater. I said that line out loud, and then sat down and wrote that first story in about fifteen minutes after watching the Murder, She Wrote ep in which The Sweater appears. Initially, in my head, it was just that one tableau: John, in the doorway, flummoxed; Rodney, sitting on his bed with his laptop, wearing The Sweater, indignant and blushing to the roots of his hair.
(I should note that the second scene I put down, after I decided it was going to be more than the brief one-off, was 100% John seeing “Aunt Jess” for the first time, turning around, dragging Rodney aside and demanding to know how the hell Rodney never told him he was related to J.B. Fucking Fletcher.)
6. What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?
So, the weird thing about this ‘verse is how un-frustrating it was for me to write, how little I had to think about things. Like, of course Rodney is related to Jessica Fletcher. I was genuinely surprised by how well Rodney and Jessica counterbalanced each other, at least in my head, and that made it easy, too: they have very different personalities, and value different things, but their minds work in similar ways, and a lot of this ‘verse is about Rodney balancing who he wants to be against all he’s been, with Jessica being sort of symbolic of a big part of that past identity, and that was what made everything else just sort of… fall into place. All the characters co-operated! I guess the most different thing about this series is how easy I found it to write? Usually I’ll write in big bursts with long periods of frustrating inactivity in between, but that didn’t really happen with Sweater Verse. It was more bursts of activity punctuating a steady flow.
11. What do you like best about this fic?
I’ve done quite a few getting-together stories, and usually at least part of the getting-together involves some heightened emotional action: a fight, or a misunderstanding, or some other like, aggravating factor. In this one, that doesn’t happen. John and Rodney’s transition to Something More is decidedly undramatic - as Rodney describes it, a lateral move. Not better, not worse, just… different. But not that different. It’s a very comfortable transition, and I really liked the way that came out.
Also John fanboying J.B. Fletcher. That will make me smile forever.
15. What did you learn from writing this fic?
So my big thing, the thing I like the most about writing, is backstory and world building, and typically I get at least mildly frustrated when describing the physicality of characters; like, who’s where, what everyone’s doing with their hands, how characters’ blocking affects one another. Like, I can do it, but it’s probably my weakest thing (if you don’t count Actually Finishing An Entire Plot, Ugh). After writing Sweater Verse, especially Casting On, which involved a lot of awkward negotiation of physical space, I guess I felt more comfortable with it? So that was cool. :)
…and damn it, now I’m remembering all the bits of this ‘Verse I never got around to writing.
