in which I talk an awful lot about my own stories

[rose_griffes]

Because I think it's interesting (even if no one else does), here's a list of the stories I purposely included in Golden Key:

The title is from The Golden Key, a story that totally fits the theme of telling tales.

Little Red Riding Hood, of course. It was fun to see how far I could get in the fairy tale without making my story completely creepy. (Hopefully it caused some worry for Hera without making people click the backbutton.)

Snow White: Leoben Hermes as the Huntsman, Hera as Snow White (with her berry-red mouth), mentions of mirrors being like magic.

Sleeping Beauty, via Athena Agathon. Hera mentions that her mom has a spindle that's sharper than hers, and that she's not allowed to touch it.

Rumpelstiltskin, with a brief reference to spinning straw and the story Two tells mentioning spinning wheels and protecting babies.

In quick succession and with fleeting mentions, Jack and the Beanstalk, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Violet, who turned into a blueberry) and The Seven Ravens (the sister who saved her brothers from an evil spell).

The Alvin Maker stories get a tiny nod with Hera stating that her plow isn't magic. (Card was probably referring to a Nordic myth about a golden plow. And as a random side note to the search, I didn't realize before now that Joan D. Vinge's Snow Queen and Summer Queen stories had some Norse myths as well. Cool!)

Sleeping Beauty again, when Hera thinks that a nap would be lovely. Then back to Little Red Riding Hood several times at the end.

I did try and avoid mentioning princesses, even though I was using some princess fairy tales. Hera's life wouldn't be like that of a fairy-tale princess at all, so I didn't want to mention them.

If sabaceanbabe hadn't been available so quickly for beta-reading, I probably would tried to stuff a few more references in there. Heh. Over the past several days (since I had a first draft finished on Friday), I've been plotting how to put in more more more fairy tales/myths/well-known modern stories.

That whole idea of reusing stories has been on my mind lately. chaila43 started it by mentioning that she liked to rewatch her own fanvids, and then taragel asked how fanfic writers feel about their stories after posting.

It made me start thinking about why I like to reread my own stories. I definitely do--as I mentioned to Tara, I reread my own stories far more often than I reread anyone else's. So I came up with some explanations that work as my own reasons.

1) The story uses retold/repurposed stories (or other sources). Fairy tales and mythology are my favorite for this, and I've been using them in my own fanfiction almost since I first started posting three and a half years ago. Those four mythology ficlets are the first explicit examples of that. Battlestar Galactica is a great fandom for using mythology, because it's in the source material. It's not just myths and tales, though. Songs I like get woven in as well: Distant Ships on the Horizon uses lots of lines from Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."

Here's the thing with repurposed material. Storytellers steal stuff all the time, but I know the full extent of my own thievery. So it makes me happy to reread "Distant Ships," because I'm aware of all the lines from the song that I was able to bend to fit the story. (Even mangled quotes from JRR Tolkien and obscure French films.)

2) The story was hard work, but I was pleased by the final result. Nemesis is the perfect example for this category. (It fits in the first category as well! Whee!) I worked on it for weeks. It was hard, because dialogue has never been easy for me and Leoben kept talking and talking to Jean, and Jean's taciturn, which is also hard to describe... See? Hard work! But when I was finally done, it felt fantastic, and I loved the result.

3) Other people like the story. Yeah, I'll admit it: if a story gets more comments, I tend to like it more. That's not always the case, but frequently comments do make a difference later on for how much I appreciate my own stories.

4) It just works for me. I like my own ideas. If I didn't like them, I'd never follow through and actually write them. I'm my first, best audience. (Please don't take this as a reason not to comment if you like a story of mine. I LOVE COMMENTS. See #3.) Sometimes I like writing as a process; other times it frustrates me, annoys me or makes me feel like committing acts of violence against my computer or notepad. The final result, though, is satisfying. My idea, the idea I liked well enough to poke at it and write stuff down, finally in a complete form and not just in my head.

That's why I started writing fanfic in the first place. My first idea came one morning without any warning/precedence and forced me to write until I had a story done. That was Prophecy. It still fascinates me, the concept that the Colonial Fleet could find our Earth, but the languages wouldn't be the same and there are sleeper cylons. I was so interested in it that I then wrote Second Winter in the same universe. "Prophecy" makes me cringe a bit with some of the awkward phrasing here and there, but I love that story idea and all its implications. (I haven't gone back to fix it, other than a few formatting issues, just because it's interesting to see the starting point--and by comparison, see what practice and a helpful beta-reader can do.)

Yay, stories!

I can tell you one reason that's usually not part of why I like my own stories: my prose. Every once in a while I'll hit a phrase that pleases me and makes me giddy when I reread, but that's rare.

If my Mozilla Firefox 'most visited sites' toolbar is to be believed, the stories I've reread the most are "Nemesis," Jealous Gods and Never Get Back Home.

Wow, that was a lot of typing about me me me. So for you fellow creators of fannish output, what pleases you the most about your own work? Do you reread/rewatch?

Time to go find some dinner and watch last night's episode of Lost now. Hurrah!

Comments

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

I entirely agree with all your habits and reasons for rereading your own work (also rewatching vids, though to a lesser extent). For lack of a better term, my work just hits all my kinks. Obviously, since I wrote it. ;-) I write because no one is telling the exact stories I want to read...and I'm happy enough with my writing that once I've done a story, I'm satisfied with its being told. So of course I'll read it again, because in a sense it is perfect.

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly this! And I'm glad to have the story done, in part because it's fun to share, but also because it means I can go back and read what was pretty much tailor-made for me.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

oh yes, I re-read as well, for all those reasons. My number 1 instead of retold stories would probably be my personal equivalent, which is catching all the references/foreshadowings/etc I put in there, esp in long stuff. Yes, I am gleeful about my own cleverness g*, and I figure other people don't catch them, so I'm the only one who can.

Although comments only get so far -- the story I've gotten the most comments on ever, is a story that I appreciate, but I don't love it, probably because it WAS very difficult to write.

On the other hand, when I look at the P-C vidlet I made, I can't stand it because all I see are the mistakes. That doesn't happen with fic. No matter how mediocre it might be, I still LIKE it, at least.

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

My number 1 instead of retold stories would probably be my personal equivalent, which is catching all the references/foreshadowings/etc I put in there, esp in long stuff. Yes, I am gleeful about my own cleverness g*, and I figure other people don't catch them, so I'm the only one who can.

Hee! Yup, appreciating my own cleverness is totally what #1 is all about, so I can see why your version of it works for you.

No matter how mediocre it [fic] might be, I still LIKE it, at least.
Yeah. And even the stories that I may label mediocre at some point, I often re-find a certain enjoyment in later on.

[chaila43.livejournal.com]

What I'm finding interesting about discussions about this topic is that I seem to be somewhat unusual in that I don't reread my fic, for whatever values of fic that it is that I write. I mean, that's not true, I've written two or three actual fics, and several ficlets, and one of them I have reread a few times, but I almost actively avoid reading the others. And I would ALWAYS prefer to read a well-done fic about the same characters written by somebody else. And, I think, reading your reasons, that I would actually apply none of them to my own fic (I don't think I work as hard on them as I could, but I don't have the patience for writing that I have for vidding, I don't write popular things, etc.), except the fourth. But even then, it's mostly like...I think this needed to be said, I wrote it, and now it's done. It's almost like a short statement about a character that I just wanted to put out there, like meta. Whereas with vids, I do feel like there's often secret things or connections or meanings in them, that I get because I made it, that aren't apparent to others. And it's fun to just be like...I made that! And with fic, I even care less that others read it. I don't take any particular steps to make it easy to find for passers-by, like specific tagging, sticky posts, etc., I would never archive it, though I do do all of that for vids. I just can't quite put my finger on why I feel so differently about the two mediums! *makes more thinky noises*

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

But even then, it's mostly like...I think this needed to be said, I wrote it, and now it's done. It's almost like a short statement about a character that I just wanted to put out there, like meta.

Hm. Whereas I view my fic as being my meta and that's part of why I like it. I'm terrible at writing show meta other than things like, "Yay, that was fun!" or "I'm so confused right now..." With fic my brain finally admits to what it actually thinks/feels about a show/a character/a turn of events. Or at least what could be going on with any of those things if I placed them in certain situations.

Whereas with vids, I do feel like there's often secret things or connections or meanings in them, that I get because I made it, that aren't apparent to others.

Hee, that does seem to be a theme in the reasons to appreciate one's own fannish creations.