Writing About Writing Fanfiction
Sep. 9th, 2021 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorI've been working on both the next chapter of Cut Strings and the next chapter of Heart of Shadow. I have and have had so many ideas for these two stories, even when I haven't been able to write them. It's interesting thinking about both how different and similar these two stories are. On the one hand, they take place in two completely different continuities. On the other hand, I absolutely do reuse certain of my headcanons between them. And Palpatine, who is a major character in both stories, plays a very different role between them, though both versions of the character reflect my interpretation of him. Which obviously has a different...direction in both stories, but nevertheless have many of the same personality traits. He's still the same character, after all--it's only the, ah, trajectory that's different.
Heart of Shadow also has a kind of different feel to it emotionally than Cut Strings. Part of that is because Heart of Shadow is my take on a redemption story, and Cut Strings is more of a villain-to-antihero deal (which is a trait it shares with Ascent, despite the different fandoms). By this I mean that I take a character who is presented as a villain in the canon and rewrite them as an antihero in my AU. Though by antihero I don't necessarily mean amoral or doing the right thing for the wrong reasons as seems to often be meant in typical parlance, but rather simply that the protagonist has a more...unconventional sense of morality. Which is something I enjoy exploring. This shouldn't be taken to mean that the end goal of Heart of Shadow is for the characters to then adopt conventional morals, because I would honestly find that extremely unsatisfying. It's simply that in Heart of Shadow, there's a lot more emphasis on the active change in moral standards of the characters.
Another way in which Heart of Shadow is different than Cut Strings is in the use of, ah, more off the wall humor, though both stories have their share of anguish as well. It seems I have to put some mental anguish in my stories for my own carthartic needs.
There's also the rarepairs exchange coming up, which I am trying to decide if I have the energy to participate in. I greatly enjoyed doing all the short stories I've written, which were both for this kind of exchange. Nevertheless, I can also find that kind of activity very draining. We'll see, I suppose.
Heart of Shadow also has a kind of different feel to it emotionally than Cut Strings. Part of that is because Heart of Shadow is my take on a redemption story, and Cut Strings is more of a villain-to-antihero deal (which is a trait it shares with Ascent, despite the different fandoms). By this I mean that I take a character who is presented as a villain in the canon and rewrite them as an antihero in my AU. Though by antihero I don't necessarily mean amoral or doing the right thing for the wrong reasons as seems to often be meant in typical parlance, but rather simply that the protagonist has a more...unconventional sense of morality. Which is something I enjoy exploring. This shouldn't be taken to mean that the end goal of Heart of Shadow is for the characters to then adopt conventional morals, because I would honestly find that extremely unsatisfying. It's simply that in Heart of Shadow, there's a lot more emphasis on the active change in moral standards of the characters.
Another way in which Heart of Shadow is different than Cut Strings is in the use of, ah, more off the wall humor, though both stories have their share of anguish as well. It seems I have to put some mental anguish in my stories for my own carthartic needs.
There's also the rarepairs exchange coming up, which I am trying to decide if I have the energy to participate in. I greatly enjoyed doing all the short stories I've written, which were both for this kind of exchange. Nevertheless, I can also find that kind of activity very draining. We'll see, I suppose.