#tvd 3

[twitterrpacks]

Like/reblog, © on twitter @goghbatch

[pasiphile]

Sorry if I'm bothering you but... is it likely for Jim to make an appearance in TVD3? Aside from flashbacks? Or will his return be hinted at in TVD2? or at all? sorry,, its ok if u dont want to answer this xDDD

ARGH.

I really kinda wanna reply to this one except I sort of make a point out of keeping plot things close to my chest until I actually fucking post, but on the other hand I’m basically exploding with all the things I’m doing in this story and I can’t talk about so I’m, er.

Yes. That’s your answer. yes.

[wolf-flash-blog]

{3x22}

[pasiphile]

my writing process for tvd 2: long detailed planning, many many editing rounds, summaries, schematics, notes, structured writing periods, long considerations about story and tension arcs, detailed plotting

my writing process for tvd 3: *thinks up random sad idea* “Ah yeah this makes me cry” *scribbles it down alongside twenty other sad ideas in no particular order*

[pasiphile]

i just wanted to say that I really love how you post your progress on tvd sequel cause it's just reassuring to know that one of your favorite fics is still being updated :') and i just wanted to ask how do you plan on posting the sequel? is it gonna be an all at once type thing or a chapter a week? I feel like you've answered this question b4 so sorry if you have! and thanks for all your smaller fics cause they keep me sane while waiting for the sequel which is undoubtably going to destroy me D:

<3 Thank you! It’s odd, because I usually have a no-bullshit post-it-or-shut-up-about-it policy about fics I’m writing, but this one is such a doozy that I just can’t keep quiet about it. I’m really happy to see people actually like reading about the progress things!

I’m gonna post it the way I posted the other two novel length fics I’ve written, i.e. one chapter a week. Um. In theory.

See, in theory I start posting when my final draft is finished, and I only do one final readthrough of every chapter before I post it, just to check for typos or inconsistencies. What actually happens is that while I am rereading my supposedly “finished” chapter, I notice about half a dozen things that still need to be fixed or stuff that needs adding. And obviously I want that in order before I post, so what is supposed to be a schedule of once-a-week actually becomes once-every-two-weeks or occasionally three weeks, depending on how stubborn the chapter is being.

One thing, though: once I start posting, I don’t stop. I mean, at this point there still is a small chance (tiny! honestly!) that tvd2 stalls and I don’t get it finished and it remains a WIP. Once the first chapter is posted, there is no chance in hell that I won’t post the last chapter too. It might take a while, sure, but we’re talking weeks, not years. There is no way I’m ever putting up a fic that ends up in WIP hell.

(also: tvd 3 will be posted not that long after tvd2, I hope. I already have a very good idea what’s happening there, which I didn’t have after part 1, so with a bit of luck you won’t have to wait years for the concluding part.)

[pasiphile]

Okay I'm just gonna hope that TVD 3's gonna be some sort of slow burn retirement set up. No sads, only crooked old walking sticks, loud yelling and werther's original papers flying around on Seb's side of the bed

You believe that if you need to, darling <3

(although, er, as it happens you’re not entirely wrong)

[pasiphile]

Legit question tho: Will seb ever be happy again?

Er…

[pasiphile]

So, I'm sure you've answered this at some point or another, but why did you choose second person for TVD? It's beyond perfect, of course, but what was the motivation? It's so hard to find published fiction in second person that really works, let alone fanfic. Also: did you start writing the TVD sequel when you were still working on the first one? I've seen you mention working on the third already, did they all come as one idea you wanted to eventually complete?

Interestingly enough only a couple of days ago @loveinthemindpalace asked me the same question.

Anyway. Probably “choice” is the wrong word, because that implies a certain amount of conscious decision-making, which wasn’t really present. What you need to know is that TVD was the first thing I’d ever written (with the exception of a couple of adolescent scribblings, but, you know). So I didn’t know about the effects of different tenses, or the differences between depth of POV and narration, or anything at all, really. I just went with what felt right.

(part of that choice can be blamed on this fic (Torchwood, Jack/John) which I read at an impressionable age and had the exact bleak, unsentimental, harsh atmosphere that I wanted - so I assume I sort of created a association between “gritty story telling” and “second person pov”)

Anyway. As I was writing, I was also learning about writing, and at one point I grew a bit insecure about the 2nd person POV - I knew it was pretty rare - and thought I’d go look up some stuff, advice, whatever. Turns out it wasn’t just rare, it was practically non-existent, and every single piece of writing advice concerning 2nd POV just said don’t.

So I panicked for a bit, and tried to rewrite the entire first chapter to 3rd. And it just... didn’t work. I don’t know if at that point I’d simply grown accustomed to 2nd, or that it genuinely was a different writing style, but I couldn’t write it. Even apart from anything else, I couldn’t even decide whether I should use Moran or Sebastian. So, I stuck with it.

(Mind you, every couple of weeks I panicked again and went all NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO READ THIS IT’S TOO WEIRD and then my beta had to calm me down. Rinse, repeat. I owe my beta a lot.)

But I’m really really glad I didn’t, er, succumb under peer pressure, so to speak, and stuck to my weird unusual POV. Quite a few people have said something about the immersion of it all, which is directly connected to the POV choice. Personally, I think it’s got something to do with filtering language (like he feels, he thinks). In 3rd you can get away with a fair amount of those, but in 2nd every you jumps out at the reader, so I had to try to do everything I could to avoid writing a you. Which leads to very direct use of language. The whole story is basically a live feed into Moran’s thoughts, feelings, perceptions, with about as little narrative distance as is possible. It definitely wasn’t intended that way, but as it grew and developed I fell in love with that style (and I still aim for immersive, direct writing today, even in 3rd person writing).

So I suppose the moral of that story is: if you feel certain about a style choice, understand why people advise against it, but still feel like you have enough reason to stick with it, screw ‘em and do your thing.

As for your second question... As far as I can remember, I didn’t intend a sequel at all while I was writing TVD. Jim was dead, and that was it, and I was aware that some people might want a fix-it fic where he wasn’t dead after all, but I thought I would be strong enough to resist that.

Then I actually finished the damn thing. I think it took me about three days before I started planning a sequel.

I do think part 2 and 3 were always a package deal, though - which will make sense once you actually get to read part 2 (especially the ending - if I actually ended the whole thing after tvd 2 it would be a level of depressing even I’m not okay with). The idea for the sequel changed a lot, went into stasis for a bit after S3 aired and most of the central issues were jossed, then got revived again simply because I wanted to write it (and because S3 disappointed me - for a while I’d thought S3 would give me exactly what I had in mind for my own sequel, but then they went into a completely different direction). But the essence of it, the main story and the things that happen in 2 versus 3, those were pretty solid from the start.

So yeah. Part 1 was supposed to be a standalone, but now I think it actually works better as a trilogy. Part 3 ends Sebastian’s character arc that started all the way in part 1, addresses a lot of things about Jim and Seb’s relationship that need to be said, and eventually ties everything up in a book-end that feels really satisfying to me.

(which also means: no part 4. Pretty damn sure about that one.)

As for the actual writing: I’m trying to focus on Part 2 right now, because I want to have it finished, but before that I spent about equal time on 2 and 3. Then again, I often jump between different projects, so that’s kinda my default writing style. Plus, writing part 3 taps into a whole different set of writing skills and emotional background than 2 does, so it was nice to balance those two out.

So. Er... thanks anon, for giving me the opportunity to ramble! I hope there was at least some interesting bits hiding in the wall of text above ;)