subdee

How do you write a story about a negative space? I mean a story about someone who *never* thinks about a certain subject, and why they do not.

If the point was obsessive avoidance, I would -- IN THEORY -- know how to proceed. That is, I'd use the b_hallward method of paradoxically bringing the subject up over and over -- presense emphasizes absence! Strange, but true.

But in this case what I am talking about is NOT avoidance -- not the kind of mental tortuousness behind (for example) politicians who base their careers around busting prostitution rings while at the same time spending upwards of $80,000 on hookers. NO. I'm thinking about someone who has naturally moved on from what they never think about. Who doesn't care about what they never think about. And who is never confronted with what they never think about, because it is literally another world away, where babies do not grow on trees and transforming unicorns do not fly through the skies.

...Yes, I'm talking about Twelve Kingdoms. ^^; In a way, Youko's discardal of her past is the most obvious and basic story that can be written for this series. But I was naval-gazing today (actually, carrying last week's naval-gazing over into today) on the intersection between mood and memory, OR IN OTHER LESS PRETTY WORDS, about how totally weird I was four years ago. You know the feeling that something in your past didn't happen to *you*, but happened to someone else? That you were a totally different person back then? And then it dawns on you that your thought patterns a year or two ago were *so different", so completely alien to the way you think now, that you actually can't recall them?

Or take it a step further: you can't remember what it felt like to *be* that person; you can barely remember what *happened* to that person. The memories are there, but without any emotional context, without the context you'd need to understand them. (...like they happened to another person! Quick, where's my "skilled at saying the same thing over and over" prize.)

I'm still not stepping out of the domain of the totally obvious, am I. *SIGH* Basically the idea is to write the story that makes it 100% CLEAR BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that Youko's transformation is a universal metaphor. But without being, you know, obvious about it.

Series: Mushishi
Wordcount: 784
Written for ai_ling's request "Ginko and mushishi" at drabble_trade (exchange # 7).

( Adaption )

I've had the idea for this story for the longest time. And by "this story," I don't mean the village ^^;;; I mean the letter exchange. Actually, when I was watching Mushishi as it was airing, there was a point -- before any other mushishi had shown up in episodes -- when I thought every mushishi was like Ginko, a magnet for mushi. Ergo, no two mushishi could spend too much time together, because if they were together, the mushi-attracting effect would be magnified, and before long they'd be fending off mushi with sticks.

The original form of this story was: Ginko and another mushishi, who have never met face-to-face, communicate via letters buried near a certain roadside shrine. Ginko often sleeps outdoors because large towns aren't safe -- another mushishi he isn't aware of might also be staying the night. This time he decides to sleep near this shrine. He finds a comfortable spot on the lee side of a large rock.

The next morning, Ginko wakes up, and only then notices that on the other side the rock, there's another person. This person is, of course, a mushishi -- the same mushishi with whom he'd been exchanging letters. The two of them stare at each other a moment, and then they notice that they're both covered in small, glowing, firefly-like mushi. They only have time to introduce themselves before they're forced to take off running in opposite directions.

I thought about writing this for tin's correspondence challenge, but by that point another mushishi had shown up in canon. ^^;;

1. Now that various other fandom challenges have or will soon be wrapping up, does anyone want to claim the next line at chain_of_fics?

2. Speaking of drabble_trade, I wrote one! I leave it up to you to guess which one.

3. Only a few days left to recommend fantasy-themed fics at fanthology! On a related note, there are no themes for February yet, is anyone willing to sponsor this month?

4. Way behind the crowd, five-indulgent-fic-ideas meme:

Name five totally self-indulgent story ideas. (The fanfic you would write if you didn't care if you had an audience and also had no shame.)

These are all stories I will ACTUALLY NEVER WRITE because they are really, truly, unsalvageably awful. XD; I have plenty of moderately embarrassing ideas, which would sound dumb if I described them but that I harbor hopes of maybe being able to pull off someday. These...are not those ideas.

( I warned you! )

( Year in Fic Meme )

Total = 31909. I didn't write much this year. XD; Actually that's not true, I wrote a lot of book reports and school essays. Anyway what you can see from this list is that I am most productive when I have a lot of free time, and write nothing (or hardly anything) when I am in Michigan concentrating on school or depressed. March was a relatively full month by way of being a release of pent-up creativity (aha), while the frustration of October and November drove me to write something, anything, in December. -_- Being a reason for why the December fics (and Type B Orchestra) aren't very good. My goal for this year is to increase my stamina (stop posting things I'm not happy with just because I am too lazy to work on them some more) and to finish a few original things.

High-level considerations typed in a comment to petronia:
It's admirable. I gave up thinking about my writing on that level months ago. ^^; It wasn't getting me anywhere. I'm still at the point where what I need to do to improve is WRITE MORE and quit posting half-finished things just because I am bored with them. At this point I have to approach every story on its own terms.

...Right now what I'm trying to do is make sure every story concludes in a way that ties together its emotional heart, not just the action, while also not being TOTALLY unsubtle and clumsy. It's what I've been trying to do all along but I think I've been missing the mark lately. At the same time I don't want to hide the strings too much; I think people like the fact that the strings are visible.

Currently working on the entry for holmesian (yes I know it's due today). Debating what to write afterward -- there's the MoSH fic and Chandelier to finish, Call Me Anytime, Soubi-and-Yuiko fic, Mushishi fic, Death Note where I try to actually write like a sociopath. Leaning toward this last one. Further down the line there's the multi-chapter Hunter x Hunter; I think I need to start this in a month when I'm not doing anything else, fandom-wise (February?).

Doesn't this sound like a yaoi manga? ( Cut )

From A Bigamist's Daughter by Alice McDermott. What's disturbing isn't the book as such but reviews on the back that say things like "McDermott's novels are like family albums, each scene hazy with the faded light of history, nostalgic as faded Polaroids." Is the reviewer READING THE SAME BOOK I AM READING? The one where the main character automatically dismisses ugly people, imagines everyone naked, is furious at her mother for changing her haircut? I picked up this book after reading Child of My Heart and wondering if no one else thought it was creepy that the main character in that book could accidentally let a child die and not feel remorse. All the reviews said things like it was a touching and poignant view of childhood. So I wondered, am I hallucinating the fact that the author is a well-adjusted sociopath? ( Read more... )

And while I am baring my soul to the world, here's a meme I've wanted to do for a long, long time, but didn't because I thought it would be arrogant:

Introduce Yourself! Tell me
1. Something about yourself,
2. Where you met me,
3. Why you friended me or vice versa,
4. What kind of entries you enjoy seeing here, and
5. What you wish I would post more of.

Posting this meme is like admitting that there are people on my friendlist I don't know personally. XD; it's true, but I didn't want to admit it because I wanted to live in a happy imaginary place where I am completely approachable and read everyone's journals and always reply promptly to comments. So please, just...fill out the meme. ^^; Unless you'd rather not.

Small linkblog: Livejournal Etiquette. Maybe we should write a guide to behavior. And then we could sell it for lots of money (built-in audience -- 2 million and counting!) and everyone could go back to doing exactly what they'd been doing before. XD. Anyway, this is hilarious though I obviously don't agree with the rule on introductions. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something worthy to say, and people who don't comment should be just as welcome to read a journal as people who do. It would also be hypocritical of me to ask for them -- I used to always introduce myself, but lately I haven't always bothered, particularly in cases where the person has a lot of other readers and I am unlikely to be friended back.

Eighteen days since my last post! A new record. I've been (mostly) keeping up in school and (sort of) looking into post-graduation stuff -- you know, the usual. And I've been going out. ^^; I saw the cast of Grey's Anatomy! At a bar past Main Street. They were so ordinary-looking I half-suspect the emcee was just messing with us.

I have fic ideas but no time. Completely unrelated to that, do we know anything about the ruler of En before Shoryuu? By we I mean the people who've read the 12K novels.

Linkblogging:

• Mashups. I like Numb Phone Core (Jay-Z vs Linkin Park vs Cake) and With or Without Glycerine (Bush vs U2).
  
• McMurder. The new socially-responsible site is nice, but the old one is hilarious. Consiracy theories FTW!
  
• Stranger than Fiction. A movie about Will Ferell discovering he is actually a character in Maggie Gyllenhaal's novel.
  
• Crack Death Note AMVs: One and Two. (These uh, are only funny if you know where the music is coming from.)

Backlog Meme
I've read a number of books and comics over the past few months that I've really been meaning to talk about, but somehow never got around to. That's where you come in! I'm going to list of everything I've read and watched in the last few months. If you see something you're curious about, please ask about it in a comment and I'll give my opinion. (In fact, please ask even if you aren't interested, because I should really talk about these before I forget them.)

( BOOKS/COMICS )
( MOVIES/TELEVISION )
( To read/to watch lists )