thoughtful writerly rambling

[schmerica]

I think, possibly, the thing I find most interesting, most engaging, as a writer is that sense of the sweetness of imperfection. I like it when things are flawed, and when things are hopeful, and I like it best when they are both of those things at the same time.

Sometimes that theme is a conscious one -- the Wilby Wonderful story yesterday; god knows the kidfic, too. Sometimes it's not conscious on my part, and it's only when I go back and look over my stories that I see it, shining out in the way I love Ray's assholeness, Fraser's prissiness and difficulty, the way they bicker and misunderstand and move around each other.

It's part of what explains one of the differences I've always had with estrella30 and brooklinegirl, I think. They tell me sometimes about how they're afraid to look too closely at Fraser/Kowalski as a ship, because look at it too long and you see how the ways they don't fit, and the whole thing falls apart. I never understood that, quite. Because when I look close and see all the ways they don't fit, all the prickly edges that aren't worn down, all the things that shouldn't work -- that's when I see the happy ending.

Comments

[gloss]

when things are flawed, and when things are hopeful, and I like it best when they are both of those things at the same time
Oh, that's lovely. Absolutely lovely and it expresses so very well what I've been longing for - both to read and to write.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

It's -- really, I think it's something that's been in my head for a long time, and I'm glad it's arrived in a form like this for me to think about today, because yes. That's what I want from my fanfiction; that's what I want from my characters, in an ideal world.