Stories, and stories

[petronia]

Want to finish that story about Lily Potter. It's tempting, I think, because it's very nearly original fiction - closer than The Berchtesgaden Debriefing even. Magic doesn't come into much play in it, so it could be the story of two schoolgirls nearly anywhere, in any number of periods. I drift in that direction naturally, and it carries its proper set of headaches, mostly relating to a profusion of choice. I find fanfiction restrictive, like writing poetry to metrical form, but the restrictions help me write in the sense that they dictate what word/sentence/scene should follow upon the last: someone else's setting and characterisation, someone else's (i.e. the fandom's) expectations even, take the weight of a large chunk of those decisions off my shoulders. When there's nothing else to tell me what should happen next I have to rely on my own gut instinct, and my gut is incapable of judging an option unless it's physically laid out and there. So I write a paragraph, then cross it out and write another, and then yet another... You can tell when this happens, because I get mired down and complain loudly. Too far off the beaten track, a WK or FF7 or SSAE universe that resembles no one else's (especially when that's because no one else is writing the series oh wow oh joy), who's going to tell me what should happen if they do this and this and this? Not Motoni Modoru, that's for sure...

Of course there's the upside, which I usually notice when I'm writing original fiction proper. No need to analyse whether [insert action/thought] would be appropriate for X's character; whatever I write becomes X's character, period. Is a great lot of abusable power. ^_^;


She's a lovely person, is Ms. Anggun. Very vibrant and funny but with a great deal of poise as well. Doesn't say everything she thinks by far, but expresses everything she feels on her face, which is charming. One wants to buy her album after having met her, which for some reason comes out a bit crass but is really one of the best compliments I can think of for someone in the entertainment industry, or for creators in general. Writers, graphic artists, the same. I've met a number of fairly famous people in informal social situations, and there's always a complete disconnect. Within five minutes they stop being "celebrities" and start being "acquaintances who happen to make music or movies or books", on a par with... well, most of you reading this, and thenceforth I begin to look at their album covers and gossip column entries with a raised eyebrow of benign wonder, because they're Real People and I don't think of celebrities as being Real People. I know there's a real person behind every celeb, of course, but in the same way as I know there was a historical person named Jesus. I don't even feel much compunction about not considering them real, because... they aren't. If there's one commonality between the famous people I've met, it's that the impression the media gives of their doings is completely wrong. The celebrity one sees is a construct, a character that exists (as far as I can tell) to give the real person room to breathe, and more importantly to create. In that sense I approve of the fiction.

Comments

meeting anggun

[pere-chan.livejournal.com]

Wow. Anggun. I bought her album ages ago. In addition to having a voice like Annie Lennox, she has the slashiest lyrics I've ever read. I wrote quite a few fanfics around her songs. I don't have her French album or Chrysalis, though, just Snow On The Sahara. I think you'll like it a lot.