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Oct. 29th, 2006 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sensiblecatI said a while back that writing fiction is like climbing a sharp edge on a mountain; it's fine if you just take it a step at a time, and focus on what's right in front of you, but the minute you look down and see what you're doing, you get vertigo and can't go on.
I think I gravitate to skits and parodies because you can hide behind them and say you weren't really trying to do anything original, just paying homage to the source. It gives you a get out.
I don't know whether borrowing characters in fan fiction increases this feeling of vertigo, or whether it's even worse if you invent your own. There's probably nothing truly original to write about anyway, at least as far as people are concerned. We're all using the leftovers from something.
I spent so much of today wrestling with my latest work and then I watched Torchwood and it all seemed to blow right out of the window - not that I've ever written TW as such but I've touched on it at times - and I just thought, how could I possibly ever have the audacity to do this?
Last week I watched because I was intrigued, I wanted to see where Jack had ended up and what sort of shape he was in, and whether he'd mention the Tardis, yada, yada. This week I watched for its own sake. It all looked a bit too stylish and sexy last week. I wasn't convinced there'd be room for any character development beneath the posing. But it's settling down now, probably because tonight's episode wasn't RTD and therefore wasn't quite so set up to shock and provoke. It was really very well made and powerful, and left me feeling I couldn't wait another week to see where these people were going to end up. Eve Myles is awsome, I can't say more without spoiling it for the people who haven't watched yet.
There is a lot of DW reference but not quite in the way I expected - it isn't just thrown in, but clearly part of the show's mission is to explore some of the darker DW themes in more depth. What would it do to us if we could see the future? That kind of thing. Next week is some kind of Cyberpeople plot. Going back and looking at it in depth, in an everyday setting, is just so compelling, and a part of me doesn't want to add to the myth, but just to enter that process and see where it takes me. Whereas with DW there is always more to be said than you see on screen, and a certain amount of comedy mileage to exploit as well.
I think I gravitate to skits and parodies because you can hide behind them and say you weren't really trying to do anything original, just paying homage to the source. It gives you a get out.
I don't know whether borrowing characters in fan fiction increases this feeling of vertigo, or whether it's even worse if you invent your own. There's probably nothing truly original to write about anyway, at least as far as people are concerned. We're all using the leftovers from something.
I spent so much of today wrestling with my latest work and then I watched Torchwood and it all seemed to blow right out of the window - not that I've ever written TW as such but I've touched on it at times - and I just thought, how could I possibly ever have the audacity to do this?
Last week I watched because I was intrigued, I wanted to see where Jack had ended up and what sort of shape he was in, and whether he'd mention the Tardis, yada, yada. This week I watched for its own sake. It all looked a bit too stylish and sexy last week. I wasn't convinced there'd be room for any character development beneath the posing. But it's settling down now, probably because tonight's episode wasn't RTD and therefore wasn't quite so set up to shock and provoke. It was really very well made and powerful, and left me feeling I couldn't wait another week to see where these people were going to end up. Eve Myles is awsome, I can't say more without spoiling it for the people who haven't watched yet.
There is a lot of DW reference but not quite in the way I expected - it isn't just thrown in, but clearly part of the show's mission is to explore some of the darker DW themes in more depth. What would it do to us if we could see the future? That kind of thing. Next week is some kind of Cyberpeople plot. Going back and looking at it in depth, in an everyday setting, is just so compelling, and a part of me doesn't want to add to the myth, but just to enter that process and see where it takes me. Whereas with DW there is always more to be said than you see on screen, and a certain amount of comedy mileage to exploit as well.
