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

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't arguing that the happy-ending stories aren't real too -- I read them over and over (and sometimes confuse them for canon in my head). I'm a big fan of "Love Conquers All" ... or maybe "Love Fights All To A Draw And Then Negotiates A Re-match" is a better way of putting it. Because what I don't like, most of the time, is the stories that imply that now that Our Boys have found each other, it's all cherry blossoms and ice cream from here on out.

Which is I think what you were trying to say up yonder, so, word.